The Valley of Darkness:The Main Plot
FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT: ONLY GMs should read this page
Essentially, the objective of this whole adventure is to rescue the valley from the constant darkness. So, there are several stages which will bring this about, and how you have the adventurers discover the clues, empower the items, and awaken the sleeping heroes, is up to you. What has to happen, when it all comes down to it, is that The Shadow Demon Lord who is responsible for the darkness must come to the valley, be confronted and destroyed.
Easily said, nearly impossible to accomplish. :)
The Truth Behind the Darkening:
To cut to the chase, the truth is that the valley is mostly in the Plane of Shadow (PoS). The Shadow Lord Hexablacorps (a silly name I gave him, that has no meaning) put certain events into action over the past millennium that ultimately resulted in a very significant portion of the valley being shunted so that it is mostly in the PoS.
Much to Hexablacorpse's shagrin, the great ritual event only brought the valley into his plane partially. His original intent was to bring the majority of the valley into his plane. By saying the valley is partially there, and that he wanted the majority it, is to make a very deep statement of magical theory. The movement of the valley to the PoS would not be a physical movement, as all great minds of magical theory understand, the valley, and all other geographical, as well as many very old or very magically powerful buildings and constructs, already have physical representations in the PoS, it is the spiritual and magical existence that important to Hexablacorpse. It was his desire to make a passage between the PoS and the valley much easier for he and his kind.
If his original plan had succeeded as Hexablacorpse had intended, then not only would he, and the denizens of his section of the PoS have direct access to the valley, there would also be easier movement from the PoS to the Prime Material Plane of Toril. However, as it worked out, only the weakest of his subjects have any access to both the sliver of the Prime Material Plane of Toril, in the form of the valley, but they have an even more limited access to Toril as a whole. Hexablacorpse has found this to be infuriating.
What Went Wrong:
Prophecy There was a prophecy back when time was first beginning in Toril. The races of the Elves and Dwarves were still young but somehow they knew it was prophetic and would impact their valley, somehow, someday. So they committed the prophecy to their history annals. As the millennia passed, most if not all forgot about the prophecy, nothing was done. But then there came into their valley a new race.
The Elves & Dwarves were friendly in the early days, not seeing their differences as reason for distance. When this new race came to their valley, their first impressions were that it was not more than another orc or goblinoid, that would be equally as warlike, and bicker amongst itself, and never rise to pose a threat to them in their incredible supremacy. But there were those, amongst each of these proud races who ventured down, and mingled with this new race they dubbed to be Humans.
From their limited exposure to the Elves and the Dwarves, the humans learned much, they quickly began to build more useful tools & dwellings. Their communities began to organize, and solidify more quickly. Then they began to carve out large areas of territory that they claimed for themselves, warring with the orcs and goblins...all this time, the Elves and Dwarves kept their distance as a whole, w/ only some rare adventurous types moving amongst the human communities.
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