Tal'Dorei Campaign Guide PDF

78 Chapter 2: Gazetteer of tal’Dorei

The Orroyen Tribes

Nomadic Tribes • Population: 11,850

(64% Elf, 12% Half-Elf, 10% Human, 14% Other)

Born from a wandering colony of shelterless elves fleeing the

Calamity, these wood elves have not just survived within

the deadly jungles of the Rifenmist for generations—they

have flourished. Learning the dangers of the surrounding

lands, refining their hunting techniques, and maintaining a

healthy mistrust of the civilized world, the Orroyen call the

jungle their domain and protect it furiously.

The Orroyen tribes have no central government, and

their membership shifts as different clans move through

the region and encounter other tribes, sometimes trading

members as they go. Elders are given the most oversight

and respect among a traveling tribe, the eldest given the

title of dura (tribal master) and tribes commonly maintain

between 100 and 1,000 members to a single unit. Tem-

porary lodging is constructed at each resting point, or

tomenda, and a tribe will generally remain based at that

tomenda for a year or two before moving on due to deple-

tion of resources, migration of game, or the jungle itself

aggressively reclaiming the tomenda.

To come into prominence within the tribe, or request

admittance into the tribes as an ally or member, a series

of ceremonial trials are placed upon the individual. These

trials change from dura to dura, but are designed to

test strength of body and mind. It is not uncommon for

those who attempt these trials to return maimed, or not

return at all, and many elders bear the marks and scars

of their trials long past. Few orfindes—outlanders from

the north—have been allowed into any of the dozens

of Orroyen tribes, and the elders have little intention of

changing this, for they have heard distant tales of the tyr-

anny of Drassig and the supernatural horrors the people of

northern Tal’Dorei invite upon themselves.

Rifenmist Jungle

Where the Verdant Expanse is a massive landscape of fey-

touched forest, the shadowed groves and glittering paths

belying the threatening nature of the wood, the Rifenmist

Jungle stands as an endless, tangled mass of unchecked

natural chaos. The vine-strangled floors of the jungle are

clustered with swollen trunks, spine-laden ferns, and car-

nivorous plant life that waits for the unknowing wanderer

to make an incorrect step.

The sweltering, sun-baked heat of the peninsula grows

even less inviting with the humid jungle air, while clusters

of venomous insects buzz through the mists alongside large

lizards and wild beasts in search of carrion, or prey. Sunken

valleys lead to pockets of marshland or quicksand pit traps,

while others are wrought with a dire, spreading fungus. Very

few who venture here from northern Tal’Dorei return, and

those that do warn others to never make the same mistake.

The farther south one travels into Rifenmist, the denser

the jungle grows, and no northern explorer has completed

even a rudimentary map of this humid land. Though some

elves and humans of northern Tal’Dorei have attempted to

colonize the jungles for their vast resources, they have been

quickly rebuffed by the Orroyen elves of the jungle. Their

message is clear: no cities are to be built south of the jungle’s

edge—and if the northern jungles are cleared or burned, the

trees’ vengeance will be swift and just. The few settlers who

have joined the free folk of the Mornset Countryside are

deeply superstitious about the southern jungles, and rarely

travel there, except to respectfully parley with the Orroyen.

Even the Iron Authority, who has been at war with the

trees of the jungle itself for decades, has not managed

to destroy their foe. The Orroyen fear the hobgoblin

slavers of Beynsfal Plateau and the massive armies their

authoritarian leaders supply them with, but these raids are

expensive and are growing rarer as more and more hob-

goblins fall to the terrors of the jungle.

rifenmist JunGle aDventures

the insati able sanctUary

For mid-level characters: Long have rumors stirred regard-

ing a vine-obscured temple from an epoch long past, but

reports have mapped it at many different locations, with

returning expeditions finding it missing. This temple has

seemed to reveal itself once more in the northern region

of the Rifenmist, its shadowed passages and secret boun-

ties ripe for the plucking. It isn’t until a venturing band

delves deeper into the structure that signs begin to reveal

the shrine itself a living entity, and the treasure a lure to

draw in prey.