Green Dawn had never been a party of exceptional talents or grand ambitions. Their goal was simple: survive and provide a comfortable life for the people they cared about. That wasn’t to say their team was not capable or even extraordinary in their own manner. Each had pushed themselves hard and received training, mostly as children, from capable teachers until they had a solid foundation. All of them had spent years in the adventuring lifestyle, gaining large amounts of experience during their travels and work. Even before they decided to work together.

#

Sahar had started off in the adventurer lifestyle as a priestess for the Ascendant Solarus, a collection of light spirits that had become Lesser Transcendents. The spirits were known as guides for those who were lost. A light in the ever-present darkness for those in need of guidance to follow. The priests and priestesses for the Ascendent Solarus were expected to travel the world searching for lost souls that needed a guide. Their clergy was full of teachers, philosophers, and map makers all seeking to accomplish this goal in their own way.

Sahar herself would always say she was a rather poor priestess of the Ascendant Solarus. She had always been more selfish than her brothers and sisters, too interested in blazing her own trail in the world rather than helping others discover existing paths. Her mentor always said it was simply another aspect of the Guiding Lights. That by creating a new path, she gave those that had previously been without a route something to follow.

In her youth, while her fellows learned to read the flows of chance in order to deduce the future, Sahar instead looked to the present. She learned to see over great distances and bend light in such ways that nothing could escape her sight. Her fellows called in shortsighted. She called it not being blind to the now in favor of seeing things that might never come to pass.

While her classmates sought to improve others’ futures by spreading knowledge of the science of medicine and pathology, she learned healing magic so that she might improve their now. It was borderline sacrilege as the teachings of the Ascendant Solarus were that the only way to truly help an individual was to make it possible for them to help themselves. Rather than directly cure an illness, most of her fellows would guide the sick individual to the knowledge they needed to make their own cure.

Sahar called such an approach impractical and borderline cruel. They would argue back that it was not possible to properly know how to cure every single disease and impractical for every sick individual to rely on healing magic for relief. That by helping individuals discover a solution on their own they could create a cascade affect that helped countless others. Sahar in turn said that was the equivalent of forcing a path on another, a sin in its own right to the Guiding Lights.

When her teachers expounded upon the importance of free will, of letting others make their own mistakes and not interfering, Sahar argued that the lesson was not diminished just because the traveler was protected from the worst of the consequences. It was better to ensure they would have a second chance. An opportunity to approach their journey’s hardships from another angle rather than abandon the path. With a sad smile, her teachers would say that a blow with no pain was quickly forgotten and would simply encourage the traveler to make the same mistake again. It was cruel, but would benefit the traveler more in the long run.

Each of her teachers found her intriguing, unbearable, and delightful in turn. Almost all of them encouraged her to follow her own path, though it may not align with the more traditional ideals of the clergy. Most came to believe that the church would be better off with a few more brothers and sisters like Sahar.

#

Andre, before he joined Green Dawn, had been the champion of Coroma’marag, a village in the Living Vine Thicket. The Living Vine Thicket, a section of the Elderwood Forest deep within the Central passes of the mountain range, was named due to the fact that a large number of the trees were inhabited by nature spirits. The trees would wander the thicket, using their vines to capture prey for sustenance. As a champion, Andre’s job was to prevent these implacable predators from coming too close to the village.

Selected for the position due to his powerful plant magic, Andre was one of the few beings able to communicate with these ancient giants in some small way. And if the creatures did not listen, his magic was a potent weapon to turn their own bodies against them. He spent years performing his duty to protect Coroma’marag from the same guardians that prevented monsters from consuming the village. It was a job that helped him grow strong, knowledgeable in the use of his magic, and as resolute as the forest he called home.

Eventually, though, he grew beyond his position. The role of Champion was meant for those young, powerful, and arrogant in their own perceived strength. A position to help them learn their limits and grow into a more capable warrior. On his fifth year as a champion, he was given a trainee to teach. Someone to replace him in his current role. The student, a girl about the same age he had been when he first became a Champion, had proven herself every bit as capable as he had been. She quickly took his place and he moved on to the next stage in his life.

Free from his duty to the town, Andre became a carpenter of considerable skill. His works were considered beautiful and ownership of one of his more complex pieces became a symbol of status in the Coroma’marag. On his twenty seventh birthday he presented a kitchen table to his bride to be, a baker in the village. It was a betrothal gift, meant to show his ability to provide for her and help her improve her own craft. A tradition in the Living Vine Thicket.

In addition to the table, he had carved a pair of identical rings from the heartwood of the last living tree he had defeated as a Champion. Beautiful pieces of twining wood that appeared almost like live vines due to the jewelry’s detailed carvings. Within the wrapped vines, small precious gems had been imbedded and metal engravings spelled out their names.

The marriage ceremony was one of the most impressive feasts in Coroma’marag’s history. A party that lasted three days and nights before culminating in the exchange of their vows. By the end of it, every adult in the village had been allowed to drink their fill at least once and everyone had been allowed a day minimum to enjoy the festivities.

Within a year, their daughter was born. Andre’s protégé and replacement in the Champions was named the girl’s godmother. She was named Ivette in hopes that she might live as long and healthily as the yews. The girl became Andre’s world and he left his village on an expedition some years later in hope that he might bring back comforts and knowledge for her from the wider world.

While the expeditions started off as simple trade runs, he began to see potential as a member of the Adventurer Guild. A way to make a little bit of extra money while out selling his wooden creations. Along with a way to strengthen the village and its champions so that they might be safe from the living woods more permanently.

He would spend half of each year wandering the world, and the other half would be spent within his village. Doting upon his beloved child and ensuring she never forgot her father’s face.

#

Before leaving his comfortable home city, Xavier had been an accomplished architect in Amethyst Cliffs. While most in the metropolis made their living carving, producing potions with, or enchanting the beautiful purple stones found in the region, Xavier had always been more interested in enhancing the very environment for which the city was named. He wished to draw out and refine the beauty of the Violet Veins Cliffside. To build homes that could observe the radiance of the natural treasure in new and unique lights.

He spent years on each product and the buildings he designed became incredibly coveted in the city. Owners would say they could feel the stress of the day melt away simply by walking through their front door or looking out the window at the cliff. Many claimed the constructions almost seemed enchanted to promote a calm and healthy household within. Xavier himself simply sought to make each new construction more perfect than the last. He hoped that one day he would make the ideal space for himself, a place his future family could call home.

As his projects grew in scale and grandeur, he began to require rare and difficult to procure materials. Even worse than the base rarity, he needed each piece to be perfect. Knowing that buying second hand would never give him the variety and options he craved to complete each project as he had envisioned, be decided that the only option was to collect the materials himself.

He began learning geography, zoology, geology, and botany. He chased down leads to rare and strange materials. Learned how to find, identify, and extract them. Learned the proper ways to transport and maintain everything from the crystalline bones of a glass leothrane to ten-thousand-year hardwood of an ancestral mangrove treant. Leaning about these new materials became a passion that drove him and let him push his architecture even further.

Reality came crashing down the first time he went out to collect materials by himself. He had not planned an expedition anywhere particularly dangerous, a cave known as the shimmering depths. The plan was to collect one of the massive geode columns that formed within and carve it into a set of opaque skylights. Unfortunately, when he got there, he was chased off by an emerald bore beetle. The things mined and crushed crystal, repurposing the material to create an impressive armor layered overtop their natural chitin.

Recognizing that he needed to grow stronger if he wanted any chance of claiming these rare materials for himself, Xavier hired a retired adventurer to help him learn the basics of combat. Xavier had been old for a recruit at twenty-six, but still easily within what his teacher considered a good age to learn. He also, it turned out, had a knack for using his earth magic to disrupt enemies and reinforce his actions.

While learning from his teacher, he befriended the man’s daughter. A woman he quickly came to care for. She loved to paint the Violet Veins. Hoping, like him, to capture their beauty in a new light and share it with the world. He began bringing her to his various constructions, getting her permission to paint the cliffside from the best view in each. Over time, the two began dating, to his teacher’s vocal approval.

Eventually, the city no longer had new materials for Xavier to explore. No new ways to help him achieve his vision of the perfect home. He decided he would go on journeys to explore the wider world and bring back what he discovered. To help fund these trips, he received additional training on how to perform guard duties in a caravan. A way to make some extra money and reduce the cost of his travels.

#

Veronika Annadottir had never wanted to leave the frozen north. She had wished to become a village hunter from as early in her childhood as she remembered. Dreaming of the day when she could go out onto the ice with her aunt and the others to kill Ice Wraiths, Mirage Whales, and Icebone Skeletons for the valuable materials the village needed. The corpses of any one of these dangerous creatures would produce enough goods to feed the village for half a year, even without supplement from the local fishers.

Her mother and father had other visions for her future. The two were the village’s main diplomats and traders. It was their job to get the best price possible for the rare ingredients, reagents, and other raw materials the hunters brought back. They ran the trade routes that delivered the items to the places where they would get the best returns or purchase the things the village needed. They discussed contracts and hunting rights with other settlements to ensure no fights broke out between the various fisheries and hunting villages in the north.

In their minds, their daughter wanted to pursue life in a needlessly dangerous career when she could do far more good for the village by taking their place when she grew up. They began taking her along in their travels to show her the importance of what they did, hoping to convince her to abandon her plan. Their compromise was to allow her to train with the hunter novices, learning to use her magic and the various weapons the hunters employed.

They never managed to fully convince her to settle down and give up her dreams of becoming a powerful warrior and hunter of beasts, but as she aged she came to love the benefits of being the village trader. Seeing new places, experiencing new cultures and culinary delights. Eventually she decided she could do both. She could hunt monsters. Creatures of far broader variety than just those present in the north. Her hunts could then be added income during trade missions outside the village.

Her parents didn’t approve of course. They claimed her “hobby” was far to dangerous. That she was still risking herself for no reason. Veronika agreed that she would join the adventurer guild and find a team if it would set her parents minds at ease. She would spend most of her time running extended trade journeys for the village. Push further out into the world than any of their routes had gone before. It was a compromise both sides could live with and one that would benefit the village greatly.

In the first half decade of her work, Veronika almost doubled the villages income by taking their goods to areas where the materials were truly rare. She organized a partnership between three other fishing villages and four hunting outposts. Recruited entire caravans for the villages and eliminated intermediary sales to increase profits and decrease costs. Like her parents had said, she did far more good for the village in her work as a trade master. She never gave up the joy of her hunts though.

#

It was easy for Balam to adjust to life with Green Dawn. He had been a wanderer long before joining them. Balam, like Andre, had once lived deep in the Elderwood. His people had originally called an area called the Shaderift Valley home. The valley, situated between a set of incredibly sheer cliffs, only got sunlight for two or three hours a day. Instead, it spent most hours deep in the shadow of the surrounding mountains.

While Shaderift Valley did not exist under the threat of hostile, mobile trees like Living Vine Thicket, it had unique threats of its own to contend with. A number of shadow and ethereal monster types called the valley home and swarmed the area in vast numbers, requiring capable spirit mages to keep Balam’s home safe. The magics of the soul that the village practiced would have been considered incredibly advanced by any of the regional powers.

Enchantments meant to ward against hostile magic and creatures without bodies. Gates and barriers formed from materials that repelled incorporeal monsters. Despite its hostile surroundings, the village had lived in the area for generations and was well defended against any threat from the Valley’s other inhabitants. And it would have survived for countless decades more if not for internal strife.

When Balam was only eight years old the matriarch of the village fell. Before the woman’s body was even cold, her daughters had begun fighting over who she would have wished to have succeed her. The people were deeply split on the topic. An older sister who wished to expand their territory and open up trade with outsiders against a younger sister who valued the tribe’s tradition of isolation and did not trust outsiders would be peaceful. Both were powerful warriors and capable mages with few equals in the village.

He was forced to flee during the annual harvest festival. In the ceremony, the village head was supposed to offer a sacrifice to the spirits and shades of the valley. A symbolic appeasement meant to create good omens for the village’s safety in the coming year. The elder sister decided to make a play for leadership and began the ceremony an hour earlier than normal. Supporters of the younger sister opposed her actions, calling her names and maligning her character for beginning the ceremony early.

When their words failed to stop her, a small portion of them turned violent. At the wrong time in the ceremony, a villager threw a rock at the elder sister and caused her to slip. She fell through the barrier and into the maws of the creatures waiting outside the barrier for her sacrifice.

The village descended into anarchy and civil war. Conflict which only ended when the wards and barriers that had protected the village for so long failed. The creatures of the valley flooded in and the village was decimated mere hours after the death of the elder sister. As far as Balam knew, he was the only survivor.

He left his village with a number of his parents most precious books. Writing that detailed their lives work in the field of spirit magic. They had been working on ways to more safely fuse the spirit of an animal onto a person’s soul, granting them unique magical benefits.

Over the following years, while slowly unraveling the secrets to his parents’ methodology and the inner workings of the ritual they had designed, Balam had discovered he enjoyed the open road. Finding new things around every corner and never having to look back. As he grew, he would confront and work through the trauma of his childhood, but it would forever stain the idea of a permanent home in his mind. He would always be much more comfortable with a pack on his back and the road beneath his feet. Having companions along for the ride just made it better.

#

Green Dawn had first met on a trade caravan headed to the city of Carasin in the Republic of Chrix. Balam, Xavier, and Andre had been hired by guards while Sahar was traveling to Carasin’s Temple of the Ascendent Solarus and Veronika was bringing a shipment of everfrost crystal to the city. Along the way, the five had grown close and realized they often traveled similar routes. Veronika, having promised her parents that she would join an adventurer party, suggested that they form one between each other. They all had things to offer one another, from rare materials to unique knowledge.

Seeing no reason to refuse, the others agreed and the Green Dawn party was born. They had originally planned for the grouping to be short term. Maybe doing a job here and there when it was convenient. Instead, they discovered a comradery each had only had rarely in their lives. Almost an extension of their families, caring for each other like siblings. In the end, they decided to work together on a more permanent basis. The group elected Sahar as the party leader and Andre as her second. A decision that proved wise in the years to come as the group grew.

Green Dawn’s most recent contract had been as guards on a shipping caravan, a caravan carrying a not insignificant amount of their own goods, headed from Saltherin in Chrix to Baramel City in the Zoramir Kingdom. They had planned for it to be a quick trip there and back. A chance to sell some of Veronika and Andre’s work and pick up a number of windows Xavier had custom ordered from the local glassblowers. Instead, complications arose when they had discovered that the city had placed a lockdown on outgoing trade and no caravan was scheduled to leave for another three to four months. Apparently, some unknown group had attempted to sneak military grade enchantments through the city and the local duke had demanded a search of every shipment passing through their gates.

It had been a disappointing turn of events, but Veronika had convinced them it was the perfect chance for a change of pace. She had heard that the local dungeon had some impressive monsters and unique materials. They could take this opportunity to challenge the place and add a little extra income to their journey.

Seeing no reason not to, and highly bored by the fourth day of sitting around with nothing to do, Sahar had agreed to Veronika’s plan. Andre had been ecstatic at the idea. A place of fire and cacti without a living tree in sight? It would be a wonderful story to tell his daughter. Xavier had been highly interested in the volcanic glass that was apparently very common in the dungeon. It was a material he had never been able to work with before, and one he looked forward to experimenting with. Balam, like Veronika, was just excited at the idea of killing the massive monsters that supposedly called the central lava lake of the dungeon home.