Starshadow Vale

Starshadow Vale was an isolated valley in Delimbiyr Vale that was home to a series of old ruined settlements dating back to the foundation of the Barony of Dauntylgar. Over the centuries, Starshadow Vale gained a reputation for hauntings and danger, especially from the nearby High Forest orcs.
==Geography==
Starshadow Vale lay on the southwest verge of the High Forest. Its name was a poetic reference to the distant Star Mounts, as the Vale was "in the shadow of the Star Mounts."
==History==
===Erthaer's Founding===
Starshadow Vale and the woods nearby were long home to High Forest orcs, the ancestors of the Horned Lord and Tanglethorn tribes. The orcs built a great many burial mounds in the Vale and considered it a great holy site.
In the , Lord Erthaer Javilarhhsson of Delimbiyran discovered the Vale on his wanderings and decided that it was to be his home. He returned to Delimbiyran city and petitioned his nephew King Davyd Snowsword for the title to the land of Starshadow Vale. King Davyd agreed and granted Erthaer the rank of Baron of Dauntylgar and the promise that he would win the right to the land after he or his heir held it for twelve winters. Erthaer promptly gathered a host of soldiers and settlers and set off, seizing the land from the local orcs and monsters. He was joined by his right-hand man Swordcaptain Mhaelorin, an old companion and comrade.
Over the following years, Erthaer ruled his domain fairly and competently from Starshadow Tower, gradually growing it with care and forethought. This was interrupted by the assassination of King Davyd in the , shattering the kingdom into independent realms that fought to claim the empty throne. With the collapse of authority and the civil war, refugees from Delimbiyran sought shelter in the isolated barony and overcrowded it, upending the careful planning of Erthaer. Over the next few years the new settlers hunted the woodlands to depletion, logged the High Forest at an alarming rate, and finally began looting the burial mounds that lined the valley.
This came to a head in , the eleventh year of Erthaer's project. Enraged by the desecration of their holy sites, the nearby orc tribes of the forest formed the Horned Horde and swept through the Vale, killing Erthaer and his followers before going on to ravage the other realms of Delimbiyran. As Erthaer lay dying from an arrow wound, he swore to the gods that the Barony of Dauntylgar would be fulfilled. His ghost remained bound to the Vale, utterly devoted to completing his goal of holding the Vale through the last winter.
===Later Foundings===
In the , the Company of the Yellow Star camped in the ruins of Starshadow Tower while following an old dwarven trail that led through the High Forest to the Hall of Four Ghosts. Erthaer possessed their leader Heldack Ironclaw, and convinced his followers that their fortune lay in settling the Vale rather than by dungeon delving. Over the summer the Company recruited followers from taverns around the region and led them to the Vale. By autumn there were three dozen families settled there under the Ironclaw Banner, and the Tower was on the way to being restored. This promising start was ended by the demonic invasion of Ascalhorn, Eaerlann, and Ammarindar, with waves of refugees fleeing the abyssal horde. A company of warriors led by Nimoar the Reaver rampaged through Starshadow Vale as they sought new lands, pausing only briefly to sack the settlement on his way to Bloodhand Hold.
The tragedy repeated amid the chaos of the , when the dwarven lord Tordath Ironfist returned to the Forlorn Hills after visiting kin who mined in the High Forest. Sheltering from a passing green dragon in the Vale, Tordath was possessed and quickly returned home and recruited his kin. The dwarves rapidly rebuilt Starshadow Tower and delved a mine in a nearby ridge, finding rich deposits of rubies. Two months after settlement, the maddened red dragon Imvaernarhro suddenly attacked and slew all within the valley, set it aflame and dug into the ridge to find the rubies. After this disaster, the dwarves of the North avoided Starshadow Vale.
Once more in the , did the Vale rise and fall. The hunting party of the Waterdhavian Lord Ornigar Tchazzam camped amid the ruins in early Tarsakh, resulting in the young scion being possessed and gaining a newfound obsession with refounding the Vale. Lord Ornigar gathered the material and financial support of a number of Waterdeep's noble houses, and began his campaign in autumn with the company of a dozen noble scions and over a hundred dutiful retainers. They quickly rebuilt the Tower with magical aid, but repeated the mistake that doomed Erthaer's realm when some ill-advised plundering of the nearby burial mounds enraged the nearby orcs. The Horned Lord and Tanglethorn tribes gathered in the Blackhorn Horde and overran the Vale, ending it once more.
===Modern History===
Much later, in the , the Band of Falling Waters fell afoul of the Vale. Led by Daela Swiftarrow, they left Secomber on Kythorn 24, intent on exploring the Hall of Four Ghosts. They took shelter in the Vale ruins due to devastating lightning storms on Kythorn 27, allowing Erthaer to possess Daela. She changed their mission accordingly and came to Loudwater on Flamerule 12 to recruit settlers, though rumors of Starshadow Vale's haunted past scared off most potential followers. She returned to Secomber on Flamerule 29 to continue recruiting, and on Midsummer was spotted with an aura of white fire, causing widespread belief that Daela and her mission of founding a new realm was blessed by Lathander, winning her dozens of settlers.
The "Starshadow March" left Secomber on Eleasis 14, and on arrival three days later began rebuilding the ruins. By Eleint 29, Starshadow Tower was almost complete thanks to hard work and magical aid, the final supplies for the winter had arrived, and so Daela held a small celebration on Highharvestide. This was spoiled by three settlers going missing, and their remains were discovered the next day atop a burial mound seemingly torn open by huge claws. Daela's investigation found an extensive network of tunnels beneath the Vale, inhabited by large amounts of orc wights. On Marpenoth 12, five more settlers were found atop another torn-open mound, and over the next month the Vale was struck by escalating wight attacks, killing seven settlers. On Uktar 9, the Tower was attacked by a dracolich during an early blizzard, though none of the guards who witnessed it survived to tell of it. With rumors of a skeletal dragon flying over the Vale, the settlers met Daela on Uktar 21 and demanded a return to Secomber that she refused. Three days later a band of settlers attempted to leave on their own, but were turned back by roaming groups of orcish wights now surrounding the Vale. Days later, on the Feast of the Moon, the dracolich returned and attacked Starshadow Tower, partially destroying the structure while being driven off by Daela and her fighters. Finally, on Nightal 1, Daela and her remaining followers fought their way into the first opened barrow, destroyed the wights within, collapsed the tunnels to other mounds, and moved their remaining food supplies underground. Their fate from this point was uncertain.
==Appendix==
===References===
Category:Countries
Category:Former countries
Category:Monarchies
Category:Baronies
Category:Valleys
Category:Human locations
Category:Locations in the Delimbiyr Vale
Category:Locations in the High Forest
Category:Locations on the Sword Coast North
Category:Locations on the Sword Coast
Category:Locations in Northwest Faerûn
Category:Locations in Faerûn
Category:Locations on Toril
Category:Locations