The Companions The Cataclysm & The War of the Lance The current year for our homebrewed Dragonlance campaign is set during 383AC. Inspired By Trampas Whiteman

Hordus Blackforge was born and raised (for a time) in the dwarven nation of Thorbardin located in southwestern Ansalon beneath the Kharolis Mountains. On his first mining expedition with his father, the section of tunnel that he and his brother were in collapsed.

Covered by rocks, unable to move or see for what seemed like days, all the while listening to his brother dying somewhere nearby. "In reality it did not take a full day for miners to dig him free". He had never been confined in a space this small, unable to move, gasping for breath, with little to no visibility. By the time help arrived to rescue him, his brother was dead.

Afterwords, life had become a struggle with Hordus dealing with the incident and his brothers death. His sleep patterns became eratic, waking up at all hours of the night with recurring dreams of his friend dying and him being unable to do anything about it. He and his brother were very close and his death hit Hordus hard. It got to the point to where he needed a candle or oil lamp lit to be able to sleep. As time went on, it went from a single candle to more candles that one could count. Hordus stopped going into the mines after this accident, finding one excuse after another to keep himself clear of the mines.

Hordus eventually left home at an early age "unable to tolerate the concerned looks from his peers". He can usually be found in the northern region of Abanasinia. Preferring the outdoors, he tends to travel across the region lending aide when possible to those in need of it. Since he prefers to live an isolated life, he usually doesn't stay in one place for long, living mainly in the outdoor wilderness region of Abanasinia - most recently, he has temporarily settled himself in Ravenvale, after befriending several people from the village.

For the most part, Hordus is your typical every day Dwarf, grumbling, never satisfied with his work and loves working with his hands. He took up wood carving at a young age and it has stuck with him over the years. He enjoys relaxing outdoors smoking his pipe and whittling wood. He tends to enjoy the "drink" a little more than he should. He is still coming to terms with the death of his brother.

Hordus is easy to talk with and is very open minded .... and if asked, he swears he is getting better with not having constant lights on in order to sleep. True or not, Hordus prefers to remain above ground whenever possible but his phobia does not prevent him from traveling beneath the surface "it just takes a bit of convincing and persuasion". Most recently, Hordus has been traveling with friends escorting merchant wagons to and from Gateway and New Ports.

The story of Elora Dawn starts with her awakening in a ditch on the side of the road leading into the settlement of Ravenvale, in the region of Abanasinia. Something horrible had happened, only she does not know what it was. As she regained consciousness and looked around, she had no idea where she was. On the road next to where she lay was three smoldering wagons. Apparently the wagons had been attacked and she had somehow been knocked unconcious. She climbed from the muddy ditch to inspect the wagons only to find several people lying dead in various locations around the three wagons along with three dead goblins.

She did not recognize any of them, this was when she realized she had no memory of her past, but she did notice a name engraved on her money pouch "Elora Dawn" which she assume was her name. She gathered herself and began the walk down the road until she arrived at the settlement of Ravenvale and rented a room at the Ravenvale Inn where she stayed for a week under the care of Elrick "Rick" Sandoren whom she has grown quite fond of (in a fatherly type of way of course).

Upon getting settled into her room, she began rummaging through her various packs, looking through papers she had stored. Apparently she had started a journal only days before the attack on the wagons. As she read she found out a lot about herself the first few pages of her journal that explained her personality and mannerisms in great detail.

What she was able to gather from her documents is as follows . . .

Elora's most prominent features include her Prodigiousness and cleverness. She is levelheaded, book-smart, and always very logical. She is often very outspoken, not afraid to say what she feels yet unfailingly dutiful and loyal to her friends—a person who can always be counted on but she does however have occassions where she lets her "snippy" attitude out. Elora never strays off the path she always keeps her attention focused on the job that must be done.

She apparently had no regrets in life even though she doesn't remember any of her past life. She has other ambitions and felt the only way to accomplish those was to leave and set out on her own (it does not say where she left from though).

Despite Elora's intelligence and outspoken attitude, she has quite a lot of vulnerability in her personality, as well as a sense of insecurity underneath, feeling, utterly inadequate... and to compensate, she strives to be the best at everything, projecting a confidence where in fact little exists.

Elora has a deep love for the outdoors and nature and hopes soon to be able to explore the world and educate herself on the lands and its people. Leaving her home was hard for her (wherever home was). Over that last few months she has grown to love the people in Gateway, especially the owner of the Ravenvale Inn, Elrick "Rick" Sandoren - including Elora" has become more of a father figure to Elora and she has grown to love him like a father. Stan has looked out for her since the first day she wandered into town, he took care of her and never asked for anything in return. Elora has not forgotten this.

Since coming to terms with her memory loss, she has sense left Ravenvale with her new companions and went south with hopes of finding answers to who she actually is. She has sense started following the teachings of the priestess Mishakal.

Zaytak Caladon was born in a village near the city of Palanthas. His mother was a wizard, his father a cleric, but they were murdered by a very powerful lich. As a child he remembered hiding under his bed & overhearing it torturing them, demanding they reveal secrets about the Gods of magic. He was terrified as he heard his mother casting powerful spells that the lich just laughed away, and his father shouting prayers for aid to his God, but they were apparently too weak to defend themselves... Zaytek heard them die horrible deaths at the hands of the lich.

To this day he remembers the lich's rasping voice demanding forbidden knowledge — he wasn't certain, as his fear at the time fogged his mind, but he got the impression, from the parts of the conversation that he could understand, that it wanted to somehow kill a God to steal its power, something about a Portal to the Abyss, and for some reason it was convinced his parents had either the knowledge, or a means, to allow it to do that. Also two names, that he did not recognize that his mother had screamed . . . "Ankholus" and "Andras".

After their death, Zaytak was taken in by his uncle, a wizard of High Sorcery from the Order of the White Robe, who was working for the noble ruling over the city Palanthas, sometimes only a short horseback ride from the Tower of High Sorcery of Wayreth, which had a tendency to move around, a sanctuary for wizards in Ansalon. When his uncle collected him from his parents house, all he had were the clothes on his back, an old spell book (emblazoned with the triple moon symbol of the Mages of High Sorcery, with the name "Fistandantilus" inscribed on the first page) which he found under his mothers bed and took as a secret keepsake (never showing it to anyone), and a white moon talisman (the holy symbol of Lunitari which he had taken from his fathers body) that he now wears around his neck.

To earn his keep his uncle had him work as his apprentice, teaching him magic whilst he did all his menial chores. As he learned about magic he began to see it as a way of getting revenge on the lich, seeking power through gaining knowledge of spellcraft.

He sometimes accompanied his uncle when he went to the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth, a journey that was sometime short & at others long, to visit his very close friend Par-Salian, the Head of the Order of Wizards and the White Robes. Even back then he was ambitious; he saw Par-Salian as a role-model, and he hoped to take the test at the Tower of High Sorcery as soon as he was allowed to. On his 21st birthday his uncle said that he needed to gain some real-world experience practicing the magics he had already learned, so he set off looking for adventure, with a magical staff his uncle had given him that produced light upon command.

His short term goal was to gain enough experience with magic to warrant an invite to take the test at the Tower of High Sorcery, but his long term goal was revenge; he reasoned the best place to start looking for the lich was by carrying out his own research into potential weaknesses in the Gods of Magic, as a common goal could draw them to meet... But in a dark part of his mind he imagined replacing one of the gods of magic, who had abandoned his parents, and himself using his newly divine power to torture the lich for its crimes.

Happenstance led him to the town of Gateway in Abanasinia, where he made some new friends who were hungry for adventure. They sought to make a name for their adventuring company, as well as make some coin to buy gear that would aid them in more challenging quests, by escorting Merchant Caravans between the towns of New Ports and Gateway.