This campaign got its name from a little town I made up, called Lorenvale.  Lorenvale is a large town of about 2,250 situated on the southern shores of the Nyr Dyv, roughly midway along the highway between Greyhawk and Dyvers and about 20 miles east of Maraven.  Officially, it is in the Domains of Greyhawk--barely--but the townsfolk show no particular loyalty to the "Gem of the Flanaess."  Indeed, most folk prefer Dyvers for its rugged and come-as-you-are approach (versus Greyhawk's more elitist, highbrow attitude).  Military from both Greyhawk and Dyvers regularly (and sometime heavily) patrol the highway and environs through Lorenvale, and this gives the town a flavor of both metropolises.  This double coverage also assures that Lorenvale is a peaceful place, free of much crime and roaming monsters, and is why no one has ever bothered to surround the town with walls.

Lorenvale was founded by the elder Cora O'Banion of Ratik as the final act of her adventuring career.  She named the little outpost after her truest love, Loren McBailey, who had pined for her love for a decade and patiently waited Cora's return to Ratik for marriage.  After establishing O'Banion's School for Warriors and Bards in 561 CY and watching the tiny hamlet blossom into a fledgling town, Cora returned home to Ratik to visit her son Bain and to marry Loren.  Twenty years later, Bain came to Lorenvale, met and married Katy Verdant, and lived a happy life, raising two children, Cora the Younger, and Richard.  On the strength of his name, and through shrewd business dealings, Bain became wealthy and now has the title of Lord of Lorenvale.

My wife’s first long-lived character was Cora the Younger, who graduated O'Banion's School and became the bard leader of an adventuring party known as The Company of the Dragon.  Their exploits are the stories of my first campaign, and since then, all future campaigns are in some way linked to this small and otherwise insignificant town.

The World Lorenvale Is In

Lorenvale is a large town (find a map of Lorenvale here) officially in the Domain of Greyhawk, a nation that currently seems to be expanding its borders.  (Find a map of Greyhawk here.)  But Lorenvale is more closely aligned geo-politically with the Free City of Dyvers (find a map of Dyvers here).  Neighboring nations include Furyondy to the north (find a map of Furyondy here), Veluna to the northwest (find a map of Veluna here), and the Fey Queendom of Celene to the south (find a map of Celene here).

These nations, and many more, are on a continent called the Flanaess.  It is roughly the size of Europe or the United States.  A map of the Flanaess is here.

The Flanaess is part of a larger landmass called Oerik, which is one of many larger continents on a spherical planet called Oerth.  (A map of the whole of Oerth can be found here.)  Oerth is orbited by two moons, the larger called Luna, which revolves around Oerth in exactly 28 days, and establishing the months of the calendar (a generic calendar with holidays and moon phases can be found here).  The lesser moon, Celene or "The Handmaiden," revolves around Oerth only once every three months, and establishes the Festival Weeks of the calendar.

Oerth with its moons is one of six known planets in a solar system that orbits one sun, all of which comprise the known Material Plane of "Greyspace."

And now a little about me...

I’ve been a D&D player since 1995, not a very long time actually, considering that several of my fellow gamers, like so many others, have 25 or more years of play under their belts.  I come from a wonderful Christian family that unfortunately believes D&D is a satanic device used in the practice of actual witchcraft, thinly disguised as a game to lure teenagers into the black arts.  This was a popular idea in the 1980s and trumpeted loudly by many well-respected clergy.  I also held this view until I met some devout Christians who still played.^[1]  After much discussion and watching them play, my theology of D&D changed.  I rolled up my first lowly fighter under 1^st-Edition rules in 1995, and haven’t stopped since.

I had my first shot at being the dungeon master (DM) in the summer of 1999 with the infamous mansion of Clive Wurstadt, the alchemist…infamous, that is, for how miserably bogged down I got in my pile of notes.  My lawful alignment at its worst, I must say.  I dabbled with a Scottish campaign in early 2000, sharing the DM’s screen with two others.  This attempt was short-lived, but it did create a few memorable characters, most notably the elder Cora O'Banion, who founded a school and named the hamlet that grew up around it after her husband, Loren McBailey.  With the advent of 3^rd-Edition in 2000, I began my first serious campaign in the fall of that year, and called it Lorenvale.

And now you know...the rest of the story.