Galenvale
From Stormravengaming
Galenvale is an ancient, ruined city near the headwaters of the Danloc River in the Whitefang Mountains. It was built by dwarves and men working together, and its legendary shipyards were the workplace of elves and men, collaborating to create some of the swiftest vessels ever to ply the high seas. All three races dwelt in harmony in Galenvale.
The city was built in an era when the Whitefangs were not as high as they are today, nor was the coast as far west. Today the city would be landlocked, but in its prime, Galenvale was a vibrant port city situated on the coastline. Due both to seaborne trade and its successful shipbuilding industry, Galenvale grew into a prosperous, wealthy city. Too much so, in fact, for it drew the covetous attention of a red dragon, who conquered the city and made its citizens into slaves.
How long Galenvale remained in the clutches of the dragon tyrant is unclear, but at some point it was overcome by a powerful wizard and slain or driven out. Its half-human progeny, raised to act in his father's name as a terrible lieutenant, was imprisoned in a powerful spell, trapped for ages in a bubble of frozen time.
Aervi's unstable and unpredictable geology was the city's ultimate undoing, for in a great cataclysmic series of earthquakes, the sea shelf rose, the mountains were pushed higher, and Galenvale was wrenched away from the seawaters. The disaster struck shortly after the dragon appeared and dominated the city, so that people said that Aervi loved the city and, in his wrath, shook with wrath when it fell.
Some hardy souls remained in Galenvale after the disastrous earthquakes and the dragon's defeat, hoping to revive the shattered city, and canals were dug to join the surviving shipyards with the course of the newly born Danloc River. But most of the survivors departed for the new coastline, to establish new shipyards and ports, and Galenvale never regained its prosperity. In time it was abandoned entirely, and subsequently it became a habitation for goblins and their kin.
In Battle at the Galenvale Dells
Galenvale was the focus of the heroes' quest and the location of a solid majority of their adventures. The ruins, inhabited by goblins and by giant vermin, were also occupied by subtle and deceptive doppelgangers seeking to release the imprisoned half-red-dragon and restore him to power. The heroes unravelled the plot, eventually facing the tyrant himself and defeating him in battle. They were able to rescue from the ruins a great value of treasure, including an intact Galenvale corsair, one of the ancient ships, preserved from decay by the same stasis bubble that had imprisoned the tyrant.
