You begin to prepare yourselves for the exodus from Dundraville… but you have a bit of a transportation problem. Dozens of books worth a small fortune and no viable means of transporting hundreds of pounds of the leather bound tomes. You have the ogre’s cart, but no horse to put before it.

Clay Paracook approaches you one day as you are ponder your conundrum.

“I have a proposition for you fine folk…

Dundraville ain’t exactly the city of Threshold… These people are simple country folk and aren’t likely to need fancy books, even assuming any of ’em could even read. Horses and ponies out here are more for pulling plowshares rather than transporting edel, or rather gentry, like yourselves.

But we may be able to help one another. Each year I travel to see family in Botkinburg in the North. But the roads aren’t the safest place for humble brewer so I usually have to wait til the summer caravans as passing through… safety in numbers, ya?. However, should you offer your protection as traveling companions, I may find some room on my cart for that overlarge chest full of books.

I shall get to my cousins early this year and be able to travel back before high summer. Not far out of the way is the library of Ferrantheim. It’s not a big city, but it does boast a monastery with a small guild of scribes as well a an hochschule… Sorry, I sometimes think in Ffolk when I don’t recall the Common word… a learning place.

The library might be the only place outside of Threshold where you’d get a reasonable sum for your paper weights…" he says with a guffaw. “So hows about it? I guide you to Ferrantheim and you accompany me to Botkinburg after…? My cousins have a tavern up there. It’s not big enough for hohe Männer inside… It was built for the Ffolk after all, but he does have a nice biergarten out front and the infamous hospitality of the Paracook volksstamme.”

It has been a couple weeks since you ran off the wizard and defeated his charmed minions, but it feels almost like it’s been a couple years. While the gratitude and hospitality of Dundraville appears to be nearly unending, the town’s actual entertainments are limited to the brewery and the inn. Beyond the occasional missing horse or sheep whose wandered off from the pasture, Dundraville is just a sleepy crossroads village offering little distraction and almost no excitement. You feel the itch of the open road calling.

The town insisted the live stock and much of the stolen coinage be returned to the town treasury and those farms that suffered most under the ogre’s extortions, but the party was still able to come away with enough treasure to keep you living large in the short run.

From the journals of both the father and son, you have discovered some disturbing information.

From the journal of Erasmus Lore:

Nearly 30 years ago, Erasmus Lore discovered the ancient Codex Ilyium, a magical tome containing the dark knowledge of the demonic planes. Using what little he could glean from the book, he enlisted the aid of a powerful demon, Frogroth, to help unlock its secrets. In exchange for knowledge and power, Erasmus would trade the Codex to the demon for its own infernal desires. Erasmus never intended to honor the bargain, desiring to unlock the power and use its secrets to control and banish the demon. He arranged to hide the Codex until the it was time to be rid of the demon. Erasmus used enchantments and charms to control the local Mayor and work his way into the good graces of the neighboring Lords and Barons. In one of the last journal entries, he mentions his desire to build his newborn son a kingdom to inherit. Shortly thereafter, Erasmus’ journal entries stop.

From the journal of Suto Lore:

The “Voice Below” came to him a few months prior and told him of his father’s legacy. There was a lair near Dundraville where Erasmus’ research lay unfinished and that his wish for wealth and power for the son could still be fulfilled. With the help of the charmed ogre, Suto could get the components to summon Frogroth’s aid once more. He would use the demon to find the Codex hidden by his father and rise to be a powerful force in the rebuilding Eastern kingdom. Once the summoning circle is complete, Suto would be ready to bind the demon using the scroll he purchased. He also purchased a magic oil for use on his weapon in the event the Voice attempted to betray him to the demon. Those were the last entries before the adventurers foiled his plans.

Bowen, the Elven Druidess (Chrissy), was summoned by her order to travel to Dundraville to relieve Sheryn-ella, the local druidess who tends the nearby grove (shrine) to Elhonna and Obad-Hai. Her companions (Thorn, Tiffin, Asclepious and Joan), having nothing better to do, accompanied her East to the small village.

The party arrived just as a local ogre, who had been harassing the town, kidnapped and ran off with Dayl, one of the Dundraville locals (Dundravites? Dundravilleins?). The party finds out that it is somewhat unusual for the ogre to be so belligerent and aggressive. The town and the ogre has previously reached detent – they provide him the occasional sheep and casks or ale or wine and he leaves them in peace and keeps other creatures from lairing nearby. Lately, however, the ogre’s demands had become odd and more threatening.

Upon investigation, the party learned that the ogre and his companion goblin were under the influence of a wizard, Suto Lore, who was kidnapping locals to help him construct a means of summoning Frogroth, a powerful demon who would raise him up to wealth and power. Guided by the “Voice Below”, Suto intended to summon Frogroth, bind him and seek the Codex Ilyium. The party slayed the ogre, rescued three citizens of Dundraville, and discovered the wizard’s hidden lab. On the verge of defeat, Suto barely escaped by means of wizardry.

In laying claim the the wizard’s treasures, the party discovered an abundance of tomes, both magical and mundane on wizardly arts.

You’ve grown up around the town of Waypoint, a small farming community and caravan stop along the East Way trading route. Not far to the West is the city of Threshold, gateway to the eastern province. A number of towns have grown up around Threshold as it is the primary point through which trade flows between the Easten and Western ends of the Grand Duchy. To the North and East of Threshold are the towns and villages on the edges of civilization.

Many of the towns in the east have only been settled (or re-settled) in the last hundred years or so. Generations ago, this part of what is now known as the Grand Duchy was conquered by a viscious warlord, known in tales as the “Horned One”. He sought to make much of the world his empire and succeeded in part. His kingdom ruled over the surrounding lands for several centuries. However, in the end, time conquers all and the empire of the Horned One passed, but not before the damage had been done.

Human, dwarf and elven communities had been crushed under his cruel hand and much of the land was over run with the goblinoid races. After the fall of the Horned One, his humanoid armies dissolved into the surrounding lands and most of the old human and elven settlements stood abandoned. For most of a century, the lands were left to grow wild, with only sparse settlements and tribal humanoids eeking out meager existences. Only in the last hundred years or so have larger settlements developed in the Northeastern parts of the Duchy. Tempted by untapped resources, fertile farmland and the propect for trade wealth, humans, halflings, elves and even some dwarves have come to resettle the lands.

Threshold was a boom-town now grown into a full city on the tails of this development. It sits on the Hrusen River on one of the few major crossings. Villages sprouted along the trading ways between Threshold and towns further east. Waypoint is one such town. It started as caravanserai as one of the first (or last) stops out of Threshold along the East Way. A small town grew up serving the needs of the caravans and becoming a trading post outside the city. Eventually farmers and other tradesmen settled and Waypoint has had a fair amount of economic growth in recent years.

But there’s more to life than just serving as a stop along a trade route. That is what has given you and your friends the wanderlust. You’ve grown up hearing tales about many towns to the distant east and west, but have barely traveled more than 10 miles outside of your village. Despite being relatively busy trading village, life in Waypoint has grown boring and constrictive. The last thing you want is to serve drunken mercenaries or dirty caravan guards for the rest of your life, only hearing the tales and never living them. You dream of carving your own fortune out in the larger world, and you have convinced your friend to come along, each of you yearning for meaning beyond the life of a simple merchant.