Dhunne

**Dhunne** is a major, but remote town on the northwest corner of Nordain. Surrounded by the Umbradal Forest, it is only accessible by ship or by traveling along the Umbradal Passage. It is one of the last two jarldoms in Nordain, the other being Seaworth.

## Background

Dhunne used to be an underground dwarven outpost, connected to the Underways, which served as a source of salt and a means by which the dwarves could reach the sea-ways of the Aebarrow Ocean. As the dwarves were unwilling to come to the surface, they made an agreement with the local jarl to build a port and relied on the humans to ferry goods between the surface and the underground outpost. This made Dhunne a prosperous place and extraordinarily wealthy for a time. However, during the First Age, the fiends took control of the Underways, which forced the dwarves to abandon Dhunne. This led the surrounding barbarian tribes to take advantage of Dhunne's weakened state and sack its wealth.

During the Fourth Age, Nordain was plagued by werewolf attacks. The most potent of these happened in Dhunne, where one quarter of its population was killed. Ultimately, however, Nordishfolk managed to eliminate the threat.

During the Maudesian occupation of Nordain, under the reign of the Maudesian King Alain, Jarl Boric was Dhunne's jarl. However he was accused of giving the rebel army safe harbor. He and his entire family were executed, and Dhunne was afterwards ruled by one of Alain's cousins. At the height of the Nordish Rebellion, in **8A99**, Dhunne was captured by the rebel army led by Prince Baylor Kaulden becoming the first settlement to be liberated from Maudesian rule. After the rebel's disastrous attack on South Hill, they retreated to Dhunne, and the usurper laid siege to the town. Sometime later, Baylor returned to Dhunne through the Underways, creating the rumor that he had risen from the dead. Upon hearing about Baylor's return, the townspeople rose in open rebellion against the usurper. The combined strength of the townspeople, Baylor's forces, and a regiment of the Legion of the Dead, was enough to achieve a major defeat on the usurper's forces and liberate Dhunne once more, though, not before half of the town's population were slain and the town set ablaze.

In **9A11**, King Baylor appointed Ornand of Croftdale as the Jarl of Dhunne in order to elevate him to nobility. This gift came with some significant drawbacks: Dhunne had suffered under Maudesian rule for years and was in a state of serious disrepair; as no Maudesian governor had wanted to reside in Dhunne due to its remote location; the castle was nearly in ruins. Upon arriving in Dhunne for the first time since its liberation, Ornand took one look at his new home and gave it up for lost, choosing to live inside a tent pitched in the middle of the courtyard while seeing to the harbor's repairs.

After a month, the people of Dhunne sent a representative to speak with Ornand, wondering whether he was going to abandon the keep and the village as just their previous lords had. The representative they sent was Arria, who came from a long line of cabinet-makers and had little tolerance for those who neglected to care for their furniture. Her meeting with Ornand quickly turned into a shouting match; in the end, she reminded him that he wouldn't be Jarl of anything unless his freeholders swore fealty to him, which they wouldn't do if he left Castle Dhunne crumbling and empty. Ornand reluctantly followed her advice, appointing Arria to supervise the keep's repairs.

While Ornand spent much of his time with King Baylor in Dersoden, Arria used her incomparable skills as a foreman to rebuild Dhunne. She saw to the repair of the port, the maintenance of the roads, and the operation of the lumber mills, getting them back to working order for the first time in almost an age.