Ruba

Ruba was a village in Tethyr that supplied the city of Ithmong (later Darromar) with food.

Description
Ruba was a small hamlet of about 80 to 100 persons living in 12 to 15 simple homes. The village was surrounded by farmland. The villagers divided up the land into smaller fields with fences and tall bushes, where they cultivated cereal crops.

Geography
Ruba was located in the county of Monteshi, in the duchy of Ankaram in Tethyr. The village was located southwest of the city of Ithmong about from the River Ith.

History
During the Time of Troubles in 1358 DR, many of the crops in Ruba and the surrounding villages were destroyed in the chaos of that world-shattering event. A month after the Time of Troubles ended, however, things did not return to normal. Instead, the population of monsters in the region seemed to increase, and this led to a shortage of food in nearby Ithmong, which relied on Ruba and other nearby villages for food. The monsters made it impossible to prepare the fields for planting in the next spring, as it was too dangerous to do so. In particular, two villagers were turned to stone by metallic bulls that attacked the village. Between Ruba and nearby Abbor, ankhegs were appearing in the fields and terrorizing farmers.

These monsters were, in fact, summoned to the region by a series of Thayvian beacons as part of a plot by the Knights of the Shield and Inselm Hhune to prevent Ernest Gallowglass from rising to power over all of Tethyr&mdash;a position that Hhune himself wanted&mdash;during the time of anarchy known as the Tethyrian Interregnum.

The Company of Eight became involved and hired a group of adventurers to investigate the area and determine the cause of all the monster attacks.

Appearances

 * Dungeon #38, "A Blight On The Land"