Greystone Valley is home to many different holiday celebrations, but few capture the imagination as completely as Christmas does. It is said that the mysterious wizard who created the valley was friends with Saint Nicholas, and it is through the wizard’s magic that many Christmas miracles are performed.
Continue reading “Christmas in Greystone Valley”
The door creaked open. Sarah gave another groan. She was sure her mother had come into her room unbidden, determined to pull her off to a big breakfast and a busy day.
“It’s Sunday,” said Sarah from beneath the blankets. “I don’t even have school today. Let me sleep just a little longer, okay?”
“It’s already past noon.”
Sarah’s eyes opened wide then, and she poked her head from underneath the blankets. The voice didn’t belong to her mother. It was a boy’s voice, which meant there was an intruder in her bedroom. She looked in the stranger’s direction and felt a scream begin in her throat. She never got the yell out, though, because by then she had noticed something very strange indeed. She wasn’t in her bed. She wasn’t in her room. She didn’t even know if she was in her own world anymore.
Continue reading “Greystone Valley: Meeting Kay”
In a world where ghosts, goblins, and other monsters are real, most people in Greystone Valley don’t feel a need to celebrate Halloween. Still, October 31st is an important day for inhabitants of the valley, for it marks the Feynight.
Continue reading “Greystone Valley: Feynight”
“He and his army come and go as they please in the valley, but they never get too greedy. He sends his troops on missions, and they keep to their task. Even the more stubborn beast-men know that they can’t just kill and plunder as the wish. If they did, the folk of the valley would finally join together and raise an army of their own. Even the greatest warlord in the land can’t afford to fight everybody.”
“Why don’t they raise the army anyway?” Sarah stepped carefully through the streets, avoiding sharp rocks that could cut into her bare feet. “These people can’t enjoy having an entire army tromping through their village at the drop of a hat.”
“What land do you come from?”
“Me? Um…America.”
“And does everyone get along in this America of yours?”
“Of course!” Sarah immediately felt foolish for blurting out the poorly thought-out answer. “Well…not really. It’s complicated.”
“It’s complicated here, too. The valley hasn’t had a king in over fifty years. It’s mostly just tiny villages like this one. Each town has its own way of doing things, and none of them likes having someone else telling them what to do. When people can’t even agree on what side of bread to butter in the morning, how are they supposed to cooperate on something more important?”
Greystone Valley is no stranger to conflict, but it rarely has full-scale wars. Even the greediest of warlords tends to realize that the land is too small and isolated to make a true conquest worthwhile. That doesn’t mean that war never comes to Greystone Valley. History tells of the three great wars and the effects they have left upon the land.
Continue reading “When War Comes to Greystone Valley”
“Little Keeley, you weren’t there when Adlin cast me out. She said I couldn’t be trusted, that I had proven to be a threat to all other dragons. I would have shown her how much of a threat I really was if that big oaf Azal hadn’t been right there to protect her. They sent me above ground where the dragon hunters dwell. They took my treasures away and collapsed my lair.” Grimjaw’s voice raised to a roar that shook the caverns. “And the moment they did that, their words and their laws stopped meaning anything to me!”
Of all the dragons Sarah met on her original journey to Greystone Valley, Grimjaw was the only one who proved himself a traitor. The house-sized, crocodile-mouthed dragon betrayed the girl and her companions, making a deal with the treacherous warlord Baelan.
Continue reading “Greystone Valley: Grimjaw”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said. “I didn’t notice we were being ambushed until it was too late.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Kay responded. “Gremlins can be all but invisible when they want to be. You probably wouldn’t have seen him even if you’d been looking right at him.”
“It wasn’t . . . really an ambush,” Dax groaned sluggishly. “To them, this is all a game. A very cruel game where somebody will probably get killed. And people wonder why I don’t like to think about ‘fun’ in this valley.”
Known as troublemakers and baby-stealers, gremlins have a reputation for cruel tricks and cunning traps. Like fey, they enjoy pranks, but they are much crueler about them. A faerie might have a laugh by turning a person’s nose blue, but a gremlin would find it funnier to cut that person’s nose right off.
Continue reading “Greystone Valley: Gremlins”
Greystone Valley is a world where the myths and legends of our world run wild. That means that magic is abundant in this world, with different people wielding different kinds of sorcery. Some people in the valley have even tried studying magic like it’s math or science, gathering together in schools to discuss theories on different spells. These studies tend to be frustrating because magic is an ever-changing art form. While there are many different ways for a person to learn this art in Greystone Valley, these are the three most common forms of magic.
Continue reading “Magic in Greystone Valley”
“Believe me, if there was a better way to approach without being seen, we would take it,” Dax responded. “I hate those tunnels—they’re so dank and dreary. The moisture and cold air will almost certainly make my rheumatism act up. But Castle Greystone is surrounded by trackless foothills and thick forests. The southern pass is our best hope of getting to the Great City. The caverns are dark and deep, but they’ll bring us right beneath the city, although I’m sure we’ll all perish before we’re through.”
“So, what will we be facing down there?” Sarah’s mom asked. “Dragons? Trolls?”
“Worse,” Dax said. “Dwarves.”
“Dwarves?” Sarah asked. “Like short people?”
“Short, hairless people that live in the deepest caverns and . . . ugh . . . sing sometimes.”
“They don’t sound that bad.”
Dax scanned the horizon and took the lead as they got going. “Sometimes,” he moaned, “it seems like everybody else is speaking in a foreign language.”
Not quite fey but not quite humans, the dwarves of Greystone Valley inhabit the darkest depths of the mountains. They are fierce protectors of the treasures that lie beneath the earth, and often fight dragons and trolls, whose greed drives the dwarves into a frenzy.
Continue reading “Greystone Valley: Dwarves”
“Why don’t they raise the army anyway?” Sarah stepped carefully through the streets, avoiding sharp rocks that could cut into her bare feet. “These people can’t enjoy having an entire army tromping through their village at the drop of a hat.”
“What land do you come from?”
“Me? Um…America.”
“And does everyone get along in this America of yours?”
“Of course!” Sarah immediately felt foolish for blurting out the poorly thought-out answer. “Well…not really. It’s complicated.”
“It’s complicated here, too. The valley hasn’t had a king in over fifty years. It’s mostly just tiny villages like this one. Each town has its own way of doing things, and none of them likes having someone else telling them what to do. When people can’t even agree on what side of bread to butter in the morning, how are they supposed to cooperate on something more important?”
Greystone Valley is currently a land without a ruler. The valley is made up mostly of villages and other small settlements, each which has their own way of doing things. That means that going from one town to the next has some peril involved, since the laws might change dramatically without notice. Very few towns post their laws openly. Most people assume that their way of doing things is just common sense, even if it doesn’t seem like common sense to a foreigner. It has been this way for over fifty years now, ever since the corrupt reign of King Borgus Rothgar, often referred to nowadays as Rothgar the Fat, Stupid, and Ugly.
Continue reading “Kings and Queens of Greystone Valley”
“Oh, these people love their tricks,” said Dax. The old man sat cross-legged, looking at the dirt rather than the small flying creatures around them. “They like to think they’re more clever than everyone else, just because they’re six inches tall and know how to fly.”
“What are they?”
“They’re fey, of course,” answered Kay. When Sarah looked at him with a blank expression, he began to rattle off other names for the creatures. “Fairies, nixies, pixies, sprites, grigs, brownies, elves, redcaps—”
“I get the idea. I just didn’t expect to see them here. I guess I should have, though.” Thinking over the other things that had happened to her today, she realized how foolish it was for her to dismiss anything as impossible right now.
“They’re special creatures—some of the only beings who know all the ways in and out of Greystone Valley,” explained Kay. “They find their way into just about every world, even if people don’t believe in them. When you see something move out of the corner of your eye and you’re not sure what it is, it’s usually them.”
“They like making mischief,” added Dax. “They’ll steal socks from you when you wash your clothes, or move things around when you’re looking for them. I suppose they get their laughs from my misery, just like everyone else does.”
Along with the dragons, the fey are the oldest beings of Greystone Valley. They are also some of the only creatures who know the way out of the ancient valley. For this reason, many suspect that the fey are not bound by the laws of the land at all, and drift between our world and Greystone Valley at will.
For any visitors to the valley, there are three important facts about the fey:
Continue reading “Greystone Valley: Fey”
Babbling Brooks 