The Auxen Vale lays tucked between two peaks of the Gigantes, the centrally located mountains that divide the Wilderlands from the Wastes. Almost as soon as refugees spilled into the borderlands did stories spread out from this place about miraculous happenings. So many stories of people seeing angels, spontaneous healing, talking animals, burning trees, and the like, newcomers were quick to believe the Vale was favored by the High One.
Sainted Mikkel's Shrine stands just west of the Grayfall Woods, about halfway between the Lost Soul Inn and Auxen Village. Long ago, a good and holy man named Mikkel stood against a manticore while the man’s friends and family escaped to the west. The site marks the place where the survivors guessed the man died; no one was certain as the manticore strew the remains across a dozen yards. The survivors built a small shrine on a relatively flat bit of land atop a hill. The shrine consists of four large stones arranged to form a square with a carved stone
symbol of the High One in the center. Old flowers, candle wax, and offerings of food and wine lay before the symbol.
It is here that Father Montaine is hosting his war council. A tall, lean mean approaching his half century, Montaine welcomes you with a weary smile.
"I am glad you could make it, Preceptor Shoemaker. The Hammers of the High One wrote very promising things about you and your companions."
Montaine has gathered a few others to the war councill. There is Sir Reginald, an old veteran knight with thinning red hair, a big bushy red beard, and a short, portly stature. You vaguely recognize him--after a bit, you realize that he was present at the Traveler's Rest the night the necromancer Pyram Peek tried to hire you, though you never directly interacted with him. There's also a ranger named Praiden, a woman with a short, stocky body, ruddy features, and long brown hair worn in braids. A group of about thirty able-bodied citizens of the Valeround out the group. Once you are ready, Montaine lays out all of the pertinent information.
• Marauders have been running rampant throughout the western edges of the borderlands for months.
• Most strike places and people of import to the Church of the High One.
• Pilgrims and anchorites, priests and monastic types, all affiliated with the faith, have been found killed, bodies mutilated or crucified.
• The raiders plunder and burn both shrines and temples, and desecrate sites deemed sacred to the faith.
• The raiders have been drifting east steadily, and a few days ago, a herder spotted a large force of them entering the Vale, seemingly bound for the Crow Hills, a range of wooded foothills that border the higher peaks of the Gigantes.
"We expect the raiders to attack very soon, so there's little time to prepare. I personally have little battle experience, so I hope you and Sir Reginald can help us come with a plan of defense."
Father Montaine shows you a map of the Vale.
OOC:
The Vale's inhabitants include 5 soldiers, 10 archers, and 20 conscripts.
