The Lost Road (A Mini Campaign Seed)
Summary: A group of dwarves seeks a legendary path beneath the mountains. One whose discovery could have profound political ramifications.
For a long time, I have wanted to run some kind of D&D
campaign featuring a party made up entirely of dwarves. While working on characters
for the 31 Day Character Challenge (2025), I decided to devote one week to making
a party of AD&D dwarves. To help inspire me, and to give these characters a
bit of context, I thought it would be useful to imagine what sort of campaign I
might run for them.
The following is just the sketch of an idea. It’s perhaps a
bit verbose, but it sets the groundwork nicely. There are a lot of references
here, to locations mostly, which don’t actually exist in my campaign notes or
my imagination. The hard part of worldbuilding, for me at least, is coming up
with names. What I’ve done here is at least a good start. Were I to run it for real,
I’d start by mapping things out and giving some detail to the places and events
mentioned below.
Background
The history of the dwarves tells of an ancient road that once
ran beneath the Gray Mountains. Made by the dwarves of the antique kingdom of Dharavon,
who carved it from the living rock of the deep earth, this subterranean tunnel once
connected the lands on either side of the mountains, allowing trade and travel to
flourish between the otherwise divided nations of the east and west. The dwarves
called this path the Visirhelt, or the Path of Gold. It was a great feat of
dwarven engineering and an architectural wonder of the ancient world.
Rul Velgar
No living soul, dwarf or otherwise, knows what become of the
Visirhelt. Today, it is known as Rul Velgar which, in the dwarven language,
means the Lost Road. It is less the study of serious scholars than the focus of
treasure-hunters and adventurers. And there are many guesses and theories about
what became of the now lost road.
Some say Rul Velgar became overrun by goblins and other
creatures of the deep earth and had to be destroyed by the dwarves of Dharavon.
Others believe that a dragon built its lair there, demanding a heavy toll from
anyone who dared travel the road, and it eventually fell into disuse and
disrepair. Still others claim that a now forgotten dwarven king, overcome with
pride in the marvel of the road’s design, sealed it up so that none but he could
ever look upon it again.
Legends aside, a trade route beneath the Gray Mountains
would be of great economic and political worth to whoever controlled it.
The Silver Mount
Tradition holds that Rul Velgar’s eastern edge began somewhere
along Gray Mountains, at a place called the Silver Mount. No modern location
bears that name, however, and many believe that the Silver Mount, like much of the
legend, is simply a storyteller’s fabrication.
A few years ago, however, a dwarven scholar named Gamah
Belgard discovered a strange reference in an old family letter. This letter, a record
of accounts written by Gamah’s ancestor on her father’s side, made reference to
a “hall of records, much like the ancient archives at the Temple of the Gods in
Mennock, which was known to certain scholars as the Silver Mount.”
Mennock is the old name for a city that once stood in what
is now modern Gallenstone, a city on the eastern edge of the Gray Mountains.
Could a lost archives in Gallenstone somehow hold the key to the mystery of The
Lost Road?
The Adventuring Party
In the months after her discovery, Gamah Belgard began to
plan a journey to visit Gallenstone herself and see if it truly is the location
of Rul Velgar. She is accompanied by three others, two her cousins from Clan
Belgard, and one an old friend. Gamah is not sure if she’ll find anything at all
Gallenstone, but she is hopeful. If her hunch is correct, and she’s able to
somehow find evidence of the old road, then she’ll not only unravel one of the
great mysteries of the ancient world but also secure her own place in history.
