Background

Cauldron
A good-sized, fairly peaceful merchant town, but one with a violent history.
The town was founded by Surabar Spellmason, a man with a goddess-given agenda-to rid the area of the taint of demons. For reasons unknown, a temporary rift had opened to the Abyss allowing an army of demons to come onto this plane before, just as mysteriously, closing again, stranding them here. This army of demons was led by a powerful glebrazu named Nabthatoron. Surabar Spellmason led an army of men into the wilderness of the Amedio jungle and founded the city of Redgorge as his base of operations. From this base, he led a campaign to rid the area of the demon infestation. Finally, in a terrific battle that ended with Surabar battling the glebrazu Nabthatoron and defeating him, the back of the demon army was broken. No one is sure what happened to Nabthatoron after the battle. The demon's body was never recovered but most believe that he was slain and then carried off by the other demons so the forces of good would not know that their leader was truly fallen. The taint of the demons was never completely expunged from the area as they are still encountered in an area known as the Demonscar, a giant rift in the jungle north of Cauldron that is largely unexplored.
After the defeat of the demon army, Surabar decided to settle a new city. He believed that the crater of an ancient, dormant volcano would be the perfect place for a new city, and thus Cauldron was born. The town quickly grew into a large merchant city as the tradesmen and artisans from Redgorge moved into this new city. It is currently the largest city in the area. The hills around it are mined for silver and gems and there are many plantations in the jungles surrounding the mountain.
The current Lord Mayor, Lord Severen Navalant, is a competent ruler with a well-equipped city guard to keep order in the town. The local aristocracy are largely decent people, if a little arrogant of their status and power, as is most aristocracy. One item of note is that the Lord Mayor and the Council of Lords have fairly recently elevated a new member to lord status. Vhalantru is his name. The Lord Mayor and Council of Lords kept their questions of his past to a minimum, most believe, due to the large donations Vhalantru made to the repairs of the Town Hall and several other government buildings that were sadly in need of repair. Vhalantru, to his credit, has shown himself a kind and generous lord, funding several private adventuring parties to rid the town of some of its recurring problems that were a little big for the town guard to take care of. The most recent was a kobold infestation of the myriad of caverns that riddle the mountain below Cauldron. A local adventuring group called the Shining Blades, funded by Lord Vhalantru, took care of this nagging problem for the city and returned being hailed as heroes.
Lately, though, the town has been plagued with a growing problem; that is the disappearance of various individuals. People are vanishing in the night out of still locked homes without a trace or sign of a struggle. There seems to be no connection between any of the people. The rich and the poor have both been taken. Humans, halflings, elves, and gnomes have all disappeared in the night. The town guard and sheriff are completely baffled by these disappearances, the latest of which are four children from the Lantern Street Orphanage. The town is becoming increasingly concerned with this growing problem.