Guys, here's a bit more info from the website concerning the campaign setting and the lay of the land surrounding the dungeon.
[sblock=Surrounding Environs]
In the middle of an area now known as the Fallen Duchy, the environs of Dragon's Delve include many overgrown (and sometimes forgotten) ruins. The Duchy of Chordille fell almost 100 years ago, and compared to those happier days, the region now lays as an almost uninhabited wilderness.
At the center of the Fallen Duchy lie the ruins of Chordille Keep (which itself provides entrance to Dragon's Delve). This ruin offers no intact structures--only vine-grasped piles of stones, overgrown outlines of foundations, and the furtive hint of walls and arches. The entrance to the dungeon itself is little more than a twenty-foot wide open pit with an exposed stone stair that descends into darkness. Various explorers and treasure seekers have left the entrance well-cleared. Likewise, the observant adventurer may notice the remnants of cooking fires and other signs that previous delvers have made camp near this pit.
Chordille Keep rests atop a long, gentle hill known as Bryson's Look. The area grows thick with silver maples, boxelders, and the occasional firethorn. Somewhere south of the keep lies a mysterious, abandoned structure some call Terregaunt's Tower. At the north end of Bryson's Look, near the mighty River Turant, lies Brindenford. This small town offers a few amenities to those looking to risk the dangers of Dragon's Delve thanks to its minor importance in trade. Brindenford rests at a major crossing of the Turant for the Queen's Road, upon which travel caravans laden with the spices and salt traveling to the west and those bearing wool and iron goods to the east. Likewise, loggers from the north use the Turant to send wood down to the mills to the south, and Brindenford offers a landing for this process as well.
Currently, the town remains independent, as no authority higher than its lord mayor claims the wilderness in which it carefully nestles. Technically, the entire region falls under the rule of High King Rudik in faraway Kelmanosh, but even his vaunted tax collectors do not venture this far west. With trade once again increasing, however, this may change in the near future.
Brindenford lies approximately two miles from the ruins of Chordille Keep. Most folk of the town know better than to go there, fearing the very real tales of orcs and goblins lurking there, and the more fanciful (but still possibly true) tales of evil spirits and curses that haunt that sad place. Still, one can't spend an evening in the taproom of the Lost Shepherd Inn, chat with the locals in the hiring hall, or sit with the fishermen on the dock as they complain about the loggers without hearing a rumor or legend about the mysteries that lie within Dragon's Delve.
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The town of Brindenford will be an important base of operations for the party to use for rests, shopping, etc. It might also have some secrets of its own that tie into the dungeon in interesting ways, but I'll say no more of such things right now. Anyway, we'll assume the party assembles in Brindenford at the local inn which caters to dungeon explorers, The Lost Shepherd.
I'd like your opinions as to how you want the IC thread to begin. Do you want to begin in the town, and role-play the formation of the party? Or, would you rather hand wave that stuff, and begin on the 'doorstep' of the dungeon? I'm fine either way, so majority rules.
Final comment: I've copied the 'surrounding environs' info above into the first post of the Rogues Gallery, for easy referencing later on. That section will grow over time with lots of stuff like maps, handouts, NPC descriptions, and more. So don't forget about it, please.
