Rivervale and the Halflings

Behind the Great Wall

Rivervale lies in the hills beside the Misty Thicket, protected by the Great Wall of Serilis. Its halflings follow Bristlebane, the King of Thieves; the High Priest of Mischief, Beek Guinders, speaks for them, and the town has a Chapel of Mischief. Its mayor, Gubbin, is a former rogue who once travelled with Antonius Bayle III and came home with a fairy treasure hoard. That fortune made him mayor.

What halflings care about

Halflings are farmers and craftsmen who care little for the rest of the world. Their worries are “nasty goblins, visiting relatives, and ruined pot roasts.” Male halflings take great pride in grooming their foot hair. They love to travel, and they defend Rivervale and the Misty Thicket with all their might. A small farm on the edge of town, worked by a hearty middle-aged halfling named Will, grows most of the village’s food. Crime is not a problem inside the village, because halfling thieves rarely rob their own kind, but travellers should be polite, “for nobody holds a grudge as firmly” as a halfling. Now and then orc and goblin raiders come out of the Misty Thicket.

The first picnic

Soon after Rivervale, the first halfling city, was founded, the Priests of Mischief led the town out into the sunlit fields with games of chance, basketfuls of food and tankards of jumjum beer, to thank Bristlebane. But the food had been grown by Karana’s rains, and Karana’s storm broke over them. Thunder asked, “Do you think yourselves better fed by thieves?” For three cloudless days even Karana’s druids, who had joined the party, could not advise them.

Then some halflings, whose names were never recorded, left a bundle outside as a “Rainkeeper’s Gift.” Lightning from a clear sky blessed it, and ever since the picnic has been a symbol of humility. To this day only a picnic made exactly to the original recipe is said to carry Karana’s blessing.

The Rivervale Voice

Rivervale had its own newspaper. The Rivervale Voice carried the same stories as the other city papers, from “Firiona Vie Missing Again!” to reports of dark elf attacks on Freeport from camps in Nektulos and the Commonlands, plus one halfling’s account of a strange day while walking to Freeport to buy pickles for a batch of bat steaks.

Gemma’s run

EverQuest II remembers an invasion of orcs and goblins called the Horde of the Inferno, in the Age of War. Gemma Pathfinder sees orcs pouring through a breach in the wall and runs to warn the town. The Leatherfoot Brigade rushes out past her. She sends her mother and the children toward Freeport through Kithicor Forest, puts on the family’s ivy-etched leather jerkin, and locks her door for the first time in her life. Behind her the invaders set fire to the Misty Thicket.

In the game

Rivervale was the halfling starting city in 1999. Its newcomers learned the game in the Misty Thicket and on the road toward Kithicor Forest, which was a dangerous place after dark.