Well, THAT didn't last long. You can read my actual play notes here.
My dice have led me down some unexpected journeys into the history of the Broken Vale, and some of the major forces at play. I've generated hooks for a lot of long-term campaign play. I've started to understand the larger forces at work here, and what they are all about.
And my character is still just level one! A summary of things I've discovered thanks to my dice:
1. There are two powerful demonic entities: a demon of undead and the spider queen. These are siblings (maybe sisters?). They really, really hate each other. The Vault of the D'Ro was engaged in civil war between factions of these two sisters.
2. There was a powerful amulet that would have given the spider queen the edge in their fight. A group of gnomes went on a mission to take the amulet into the deepest parts of the vault, where it would be devoured by the 'beast at the bottom of the shadow pit'. It's still there, as far as I know.
3. Groth, the lord of Gauntlet, worked out a deal with gnome insurgents 100 years ago. He'd help them hide the amulet (he gave them the intel and tools to get there), and they would intervene with fate to help him keep power for 111 winters. That time is almost up, and he's started researching how to use a powerful relic to bring eternal winter to the Vale, so that he can live forever on his throne. I have since decided, without the aid of dice, that Groth has been warned that one of his own children will succeed him on the throne. He JUST got this prophecy, and has since set about finding and killing all of his offspring. Because he really likes to use his power to use others, he happens to have a LOT of children running around. One of them is my character Brand. That's fun.
4. My little gnome is in possession of a powerful compass - it is useless except in the underworld, where it will lead the bearer out. That is quite the valuable little object.
I could just do this as an edit, but thought a comment would be more appropriate here... I started writing something of a novelization/narrative around these things so far, and started to think that eternal winter is a bit overdone as a trope, and eternal fall/autumn/harvest would be better. The idea that everything is in a state of perpetual decay and every day is Halloween strikes me as a bit more symbolically appropriate, and a little different. The prophecy of "111 harvests" works just as well, and maybe even sounds better.
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