Adventures in Comalan: Valanholm

While most outside of Heron can name its three main ruling families; the Karns, Crowmonts, and Piers, only those who keep an eye on Heronite politics or have a knack for history will have much knowledge about the subdivisions within in each of these clans. While there is, indeed, a primary ruling line in each region, offshoots from each of these families serve as managers for lands too far to remain under the main estate's direct control. The patriarchs of these families are referred to as Counts, and their wives as Countesses. While the average Restan would know nothing of Count Alexander Crowmont or Countess Adele Piers, to the Heronite citizens who live under the rule of these lesser nobles, they carry a great deal of cultural significance. 

Valanholm, a small island estate off the northern coast of Piers Territory, was the stronghold of the Lowland Piers family for centuries before a mysterious event a few decades past forced the family to move to a new estate on the mainland, Nacre Hill. While only the late Count Roland Piers and his family knows the true extent of what happened to the ancient estate, its odd fate has been a source of rumor and intrigue to the people who live along the northern coast and in the Lowlands. Where the castle once stood strong and tall on the horizon, there now seems to be nothing but a mass of sunken ruins.

Ghostly lights, bloodcurdling screams, stones flying through the sky; this is just a sampling of what one might hear if one asks what was seen that night from the coast; the night the Lowland Piers family evacuated their home as most people slept. Many people dismiss these claims, saying they saw nothing; that it was simply there one minute and gone the next. The foundation must have finally crumbled, some say, while others attribute the sudden destruction to nefarious dark magics. What is known for certain is that the family left the island with only the clothing on their backs and what they could fit in their arms, meaning that the riches of the Lowland Piers family likely remains in the ruins.

Since the family evacuated, the waters have been routinely patrolled by the Piers Guard to prevent looters from venturing into the ruins, though this has not prevented some brave bandits from trying. It isn't unusual to find some braggart in a pub claiming that he was one of the few who made it in, who claims they fought off waves of sai'mul or glowing spectres, or braved winding, flooded catacombs, or who claims they found nothing at all, even, but none have produced any hard evidence of their having been inside the sunken estate. It remains a mystery to most, though its appeal to adventurers has not waned, and it has been rumored among Heronite Resistance circles that a more organized operation to try and claim the riches within is in the works.