realms
The Barony of Two Lakes Vale
The Barony of Two Lakes Vale
A frontier barony set in a valley between two mountain lakes in the Icereach domains, held by Baron Maltus Fharo (Fighter 19, Lawful), a Darokinian fighter who won an independent wooded valley in the Land Rush [Gander-Dom] [Neri-RBP] [Alm-Icereach]. It is the canon setting of CM2 *Death’s Ride*, where the barony falls under a sphere of unnatural darkness and the dead begin to walk [CM2].
- Ruler: Baron Maltus Fharo [Gander-Dom].
- Region: the Icereach domains, south toward the milder country below Lake Alinor [Alm-Icereach].
- Canon module: CM2 Death’s Ride (Companion tier); the Atlas holds a replica map of the vale [CM2] [Atlas].
Why it works as a home base
Two Lakes Vale is the isolated, embattled option. Where Alpha is a court and Oceansend a port, the Vale is a single hard-pressed dominion at the mountains’ edge, the kind of place a low-level party can call home and then watch slowly besieged. The DM can run the slow creep of CM2’s darkness as a campaign-long dread that the party is too weak to face head-on at first, turning a Companion module into the shadow over an entire 1-12 arc.
Honest sourcing note. CM2 is a Companion-tier module and the almanac gives the Vale only a line. Most of what a DM needs for a 1-12 game here is the DM’s own copy of CM2 plus original material. The community barony writeup on the Vaults of Pandius and the Atlas replica map are the starting points [Atlas].