Tag: picket-fort
Arvban Keep – Picket Keep of the Riverdans (ruins)
Posted on February 6, 2025 in Steel-Realms
Arvban Keep – Picket Keep of the Riverdans was a high foothills keep that was once used as a base of operations for patrolling the Mistveil Hills in the east of the Riverdan of Bondeu when the Orrish incursions were bad 800 years ago. It was sacked by the Orrish, re-taken, and sacked at least twice more. There is nearly nothing left of it now, and it is too isolated and the Riverdan of Bondeu too poor to maintain it.
Little is remembered about this specific fort – it had only military significance (like most of its kind), it was not large, and it was used for defense against the Orrish only. The entire upper story is gone. There are just broken ruins of the main floor from the last reports a hundred years ago. It is assumed that there is an underkeep, but no maps exist of it. There was a water source nearby (obviously), and a stream flowed below the crags it sat on. Rumors say it was named for Lady Celia Arvban, niece of one of the Burren family rulers of Bondeu – but there is no known significance to that.
It was once one of the Picket Keeps of the Heartlands, and nearly all in the Riverdans are in ruins and uninhabited.
The Approach Road
Its almost 6 miles long, switchback and crumbling in parts. On the final approach, there is a whole section washed out.
Upper Keep
The area has no doors and a few holes in full walls. In some places debris provides minor cover at best and slows movement. There are no light sources, artwork, engravings, etc.
Ravine
The sun rarely gets into the full depths of the ravine on the south side of the ruined keep. Coming out of the ground is a stream, that leads east and goes into the rocks again. There is an obvious drainage path of other run-off when it rains going into the ravine and merging with this flow – though it is but a trickle now.
Adventures Related To/In This Locale
Spakaya – The Dog Fort of the Riverdans (ruins)
Posted on February 6, 2025 in Steel-Realms
Spakaya was one of the Picket Keeps of the Heartlands, for monitoring Orrish incursions deep into the lands of light in the Riverdans of Grand Duchy of Dunstrand. It overlooks the Dovender Valley in the Hawktail Hills where the Riverdans of Tufflim and Pelmon meet. Its name comes from its association with a kennel of wolf-dogs that were said to be able to ferret out and track Orrish unerringly for leagues in every direction. Like many of its kind, it was abandoned hundreds of years ago.
Encounters Note: THIS DOES NOT SHARE THE COMMON ENCOUNTERS FOR Places on the Maithean Plateau.
Current State: The fort is long abandoned, filled with debris and overgrown.
The Keep at a Distance
The escarpment on which the ruins sit is obvious. It commands a view north of the entire Dovender Valley, and the plain below. To the east it can see for leagues as well, jutting just barely above hills running in the direction. It once had a tower, but only its torn and crumbled base can be seen.
Reaching the Courtyard: There is no longer much of a road, but its obvious there once was one.
The Old Approach Road
Although there is evidence there was once a secondary road that ran up to the ruins, there’s nothing to see now. Erosion and time have weathered it away. You are not sure of the route it would take (east side or west). It seems too much scouring has taken place…
The old road markers for the approach road that led up the east slope can be searched for. After being found, they would have to be excavated and cleaned to read whats on them. Its nothing important, other than the fort name.
Druidsign on a marker for the “safe” > [i] DC 15 Intelligence (divine phenom)
Upper Keep
The area has no doors and a few holes in full walls. In some places debris provides minor cover at best and slows movement. There are no light sources, artwork, engravings, etc.
Spakaya – The Dog Fort of the Riverdans
Chronicle of The Dog Fort
Knowledge is broken down by ease of discovery/availability; Any attempt to know more than what's Pervasive will require a reference, source, knowledge, check, or access to someone who can get or provide either of these.
Pervasive Knowledge / Very Easy Difficulty
Information Sources: Mundane Reference | Associated Phenomenology Only | Specific Lore
Spakaya was one of the Picket Keeps of the Heartlands, for monitoring Orrish incursions deep into the lands of light in the Riverdans of Grand Duchy of Dunstrand. It overlooks a valley in the Hawktail Hills where the Riverdans of Tufflim and Pelmon meet. Its name comes from its association with a kennel of wolf-dogs that were said to be able to ferret out and track Orrish unerringly for leagues in every direction. Like many of its kind, it was abandoned hundreds of years ago.
The Dog Fort Breaches: The “Dog Fort Breaches” were what originally caused the fort’s construction. After beating back the forces of dark dwellers and collapsing them several times, the fort was built to guard against further incursions. Dogs were trained to smell the Orrish, and the day patrols of the breach sites would be alerted as the Orrish were trying to tunnel up again by their foul smell before they breached at night.
Common Knowledge / Easy Difficulty
The Dog Fort Breaches:The fort was built to monitor and provider first response to the two main breaches that had repeatedly disgorged Orrish for raiding in all directions. In addition to the breach holes themselves, there were several smaller tunnels and camps used consistently by raiders. Both breaches were repeatedly collapsed and filled, but the Orrish just kept coming, waiting years in between raids, even decades as the wariness eroded the will to maintain the many picket forts because of their cost, despite their usefulness as an early warning system. The dogs bred to smell them even underground got better and better, and the losses suffered increased dramatically.
Uncommon Knowledge / Average Difficulty
The fort was on a small outcrop of a tiny valley basic about 500’ elevation, itself overlooking the Dovender Valley.
A History of Violence: Several times in CY 8040 – CY 8800 many attempts were made by Orrish to come through. In CY 8802 the raiders – led by a full company or Orks – finally brought a large enough force to battle and overwhelm the local druids and forces of The Dog Fort. The inhabitants were slaughtered to the last defender, taking down a troll before their last gasp. Thousands of Orrish took 2 days, but it was enough to get the word out. Massive clouds of flies burst from the maggots infesting the corpses of the slain defenders, sheltering the Orrish from the sun. At the same time, another large force was assaulting The Watch Vault of Kunlay near White Lake on The Maithen Plateau.
After butchering many settlements nearby on The Maithen Plateau, the remaining druids of the Hawktail Hills was able to disperse the flies to weaken the horde and a combined host of Riverdan soldiers, a platoon of the earl’s archers and mercenaries hired by the Earl of Bar-Innis and knights of County Faer swept through the entire Maithen Plateau area and butchered them, sparing none.
Scarce Knowledge / Hard Difficulty
The Assault of the Darkling Split-Eye: The few that survived were harried back to the breach point to warn their brethren. Their leader was still alive, and had taken refuge in the remains of the fort – although sacked, its thick stone walls and magics of the darkling made it difficult to crack. Rather than a siege or attack risking more lives or giving time for relief to come, the druids decided to drown and collapsed the fort and both breaches in CY 8803. They flooded them using the spring above the Dog Fort – causing it to pour forth a thousand fold its normal flow; it caused the Dog Fort to be covered with eroded soil and become useless – scouring everything out of it in a torrent of water, rocks and soil. It was too much work to rebuild, and in CY 8953 after decades of no Orrish digging, it was abandoned.
Rare Knowledge / Very Hard Difficulty
The Standard of the Severed Head: The forces in CY 8802 were led by a darkling whose name translates to “split eye”. Said to be an evil magus and devotee of the Unholy Trio, his attendants were a contingent of minor demons that bore aloft and protected his standard. His standard bore a blood soaked variation of the Broken Eye clan of Orrish. The standard had a head atop of it, impaled, which continued to scream and snarl in agony, never dying. From this, it is said he was able to conjure the shroud of flies from the bodies of the fallen.
Pieces of the standard, but not the head, were found after the battle.