The Winterfrost Campaign
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QUEENMAKER
The Story

Queenmaker continues the adventures of a group of traveling companions who have battled their way from anonymity to infamy, culminating with the defense of the Kingdom of Wendar. King Gylharen, the Wizard-King of Wendar, bestowed titles and land holdings upon the party in thanks for their assistance with the defense of his country. And their time on the battlefield in the company of Gylharen's daughter, Genivive and her protector, the mystic Jet Lee, bonded two more members to their already tight-knit group.

When the party received word that their services were required once again to prevent a horrible evil, banished decades before, from returning to this world, each put aside the burdens of office to venture forth again in defense of Wendar and all of Mystara. The Princess Genivive and her protector accompanied separate groups as they divided their efforts to accomplish three urgent tasks.

It was after Genivive had departed on her quest that King Gylharen died suddenly. Unable to locate the rightful heir to the throne, Gylharen's nephew Peligraine, commander in chief of Wendar's forces, stepped in as regent until the Princess' return. However, Peligraine's known anti-elven sentiments did not make him a popular ruler in a country with a large elven population. Tensions began to mount between the elves of Wendar's western woods and the largely human political body of the east.

Tragically, the body of the Princess was found in the woods near an elven settlement a few short weeks after Peligraine assumed leadership. The regent seized the opportunity to declare himself King before marching Wendar's forces on her own elven population for the assassination of the rightful Queen. The elves fought back fiercely, saying they had been wrongly accused and claiming that Peligraine had engineered the entire affair to eradicate the elven population.

But the chaos was not to end there. With Peligraine gone, his brother, Lamnun, whose political and financial influence far exceeded his brother's, took what he felt was his best chance to reclaim what was rightfully his. Lamnun, the elder brother, was born out of wedlock and was therefore not a part of the official lineage. Using his financial connections to cut of Peligraine's supply lines, Lamnun declared himself King and, using the last remaining garrisons of Wendar's armies, took control of Wendar's eastern provinces.

Peligraine was outraged, but his army was stranded in enemy territory, an enemy which was more tenacious and skilled than he had anticipated, and his supply lines had been cut. Fortifying in his home province of Kjellgren, Peligraine decreed the western provinces under his control were henceforth to be known as Peligrainia. Lamnun, likewise, announced the western holdings of Wendar would be known as the Kingdom of Lamnun.

A small retinue of loyalists to the Queen, operating on the knowledge that the rightful Queen was likely still alive, managed to hold a few provinces in south-central Wendar in Genivive's name. Upon her return, the Queen found the loyalists had retained only a precious few provinces around her home territory of Gellanor.

Despite the efforts of Lamnun and Peligraine to discredit her and attempt to convince the populace that Genivive was a doppleganger assuming the appearance of their murdered Queen, Genivive managed to regain some of her country's confidence with the help of the Elvenstar, a powerful magical device which was attuned only to Gylharen's bloodline. After a few spectacular demonstrations of its power, wherein she single-handedly repelled an attack from Peligraine's forces, word of the Queen's return began to spread.

By and large the Baronies held by the Heroes of Wendar went unmolested. Both Lamnun and Peligraine's military strength was better expended elsewhere, and they both favored diplomacy with the Heroes before attempting aggression. The Heroes refused to ally themselves with either self-declared ruler, but not all openly declared their allegiance to the Queen, playing a political balancing game.

Peligrainia was assaulted by multiple aggressors: Genivive, Lamnun, Brulefer, the blue dragon, in the north, as well as Warlord Neptumi, a previously unknown aggressor from the deserts of the northwest. This forced Peligraine's hand, and he marched the combined force of his armies on Genivive's home province of Gellanor. Challenging Peligraine to single-combat on the battlefield, Genivive defeated her cousin, then used the power of the Elvenstar to disperse his armies.

Peligraine's territories remain largely uncontrolled, though Genivive, the Elf-King Zel Davan, and Lord Stenias, one of Peligraine's appointed governors, are struggling to gain control.

Lamnun appeared to be unstoppable, but a chance discovery by the agents of Jet Lee determined that Lamnun had been supplying the armies of Denagoth, the age-old blood-enemy of Wendar, during their recent rebuilding. The confidence of even Lamnun's loyal provinces were severely shaken by this news, though the complete effect of this revelation is yet to be determined...

The final blow came from within the enclave of the Heroes itself. Rankin Pelamon, Baron of Talonbluff, personally executed Priestess Licinda of Tyvlevosk, his long-time trusted companion, at the behest of Prince Jaggar von Drachenfels of Glantri for crimes against the magocracy. The Baron had hoped to be made a member of the Glantrian nobility, his lifelong dream, and rested control of both provinces before seceding to Glantri.

However, Rankin was betrayed by Prince Jaggar, who sought only the body of the great dragon Luminac to resurrect the beast as a dracolich under his control. Rankin was forced to ally himself with his leery companions again, in order to defeat the dracolich and the Prince. His forces, however, were no match agains the armies of Glantri, who seized the provinces of Talonbluff and Tyvlevosk in the name of Prince Jaggar. Rankin retreated to Gellanor with the Queen and his companions to face his punishment...

And now, Shadowelves, summoned by the spirit of Luminac have overrun the tunnels beneath Wendar's surface, while the forces of Denagoth, under the control of King Gevren, have begun amassing along Wendar's northern border. Gurugok, a renegade half-orc with a clan of marauding, religiously zealous orcs, is plaguing Wendar's southern border, while Warlord Neptumi's incursions into Wendar's northwest are also increasing. Finally, he orcs of the Mengul mountains in the north are uniting under the banner of Brulefer the dragon to cause even more problems for the reunification of Wendar...

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