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Jeremy Grenemyer
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USA
2717 Posts

Posted - 06 Apr 2015 :  18:45:03  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

I should clarify that I am making this all up as I go along, just as if I were DMing or doing some quick pre-adventure prep on the way home from work (something I did a lot of, back in the day).

Please bear with me if what follows appears to contradict earlier information.

quote:
Originally posted by Misereor

So when you use an ingot, do you take it with you to the other end of the portal, and can you then use it to get back from there?
An ingot used to redirect a portal is the most blunt force use for it that exists.

The ingots are like the planar tuning forks required as foci for spells like plane shift, but on megadose steroids that would kill a normal human and can only work on the Incredible Hulk. (I'm overstating here, but I trust you get my point.)

Using an ingot on a portal burns that portal out and severely damages all other portals linked to it (DM's choice as to what state these remaining portals are left in). The ingots remain undamaged, but must recharge themselves over a period of 1d10 x 20 years before they can be used again. On worlds with little or no magic, the process can take ten times as long. If the ingots reside in something like a Mythal or next to an artifact, they can recharge in one tenth the time, but will damage or drain the whatever power they (naturally, no activation required) draw upon.

Only a fully charged ingot exhibits the quality of become liquid-like and fluid to the touch.

Even then an ingot is still only a tool that can be used to direct one to the world or reality it is keyed too. How one gets back home after using an ingot is a task that particular ingot can't directly help with.

Note that ingots in the hands of accomplished Sarrukh spellcasters, or non-Sarrukh with at least 21 levels in their primary spellcasting class, can mitigate the effects of a portal shattering (DM's choice if this is automatic, or the function of a skill check).

Likewise the ingots can be used for other tasks (read on).

quote:
Originally posted by Misereor

In either case, why were they left behind? Backup transport? Scrying devices? Long term planning of an unspecified nature?
The ingots were not left behind. Most were made at the temple city from a store of material comprised of the firmament between worlds--literally the stuff that binds the realities of the multiverse together.

Though the Sarrukh mastered the art of mining reality itself eons ago, the store of such material was running low at the temple city. However, the onset of the Spellplague weakened the walls between realities, and the for the first time the lizard folk were able to renew their stores.

And one of your guesses is right, because the complex of rooms in which the Slayers discovered the ingots is part of a much larger extraplanar observatory manned and operated to this day by the lizard folk lorekeepers responsible for chronicling the activities and the legacy of the Okoth.

There are several rooms like the one with the glass tome where an ingot may be placed. This causes the room to fade from view--in fact it disappears from Faerun altogether--and exist between worlds for a time (though any structural loads dependent on the room remain unaffected, likewise no water from the swamp will flow in, etc.)

The occupants inside may then scry the world the ingot is keyed to perfectly. You can tell which world by the rune inscribed on each ingot, assuming you know the arcane languages used by the Sarrukh and something of the history behind the Okoth's efforts to create a perfect rune to represent each new reality they traveled too.

Nothing short of divine intervention can stop such viewings, though a Limited Wish or Wish can prevent the scrying for a short time (up to the DM for how long).

That whole rooms sometimes disappear from the complex is why accounts of the place vary so wildly.

Lastly, the ingots can be used to summon objects and creatures into spheres of indestructible glass for viewings, manipulations, experiments and storage, and to send such back to their home world. Such activity takes place deep in the earth below the temple city. (This is the source of the defenders I mentioned in my last set of responses to your questions.)

Summonings of this type require the object or creature to be marked--an activity the Okoth have engaged in for millennia as they traveled to other worlds. The marks on many living beings are passed on to their descendants (the Dragonmarked houses of Eberron are an example of Sarrukh manipulations). If Cormyr or Darkhold ever tried to capture the temple city (really ought to call it the observatory), they would face armies numbering in the tens of millions.

Hope this helps!

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).

Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 06 Apr 2015 19:36:04
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore

USA
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Posted - 06 Apr 2015 :  20:49:34  Show Profile  Visit xaeyruudh's Homepage Send xaeyruudh a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Hoping you don't mind if I copy/paste this for future reference in working on sarrukh strongholds.
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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2717 Posts

Posted - 06 Apr 2015 :  22:04:46  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
By all means, copy away.

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).
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Wooly Rupert
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Posted - 07 Apr 2015 :  00:34:43  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I've copied more than a bit of Jeremy's Cormyr lore, myself.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 08 Apr 2015 :  05:50:34  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Focusing on one adventuring party and giving it a couple posts worth of detail is a nice change of pace--not to mention it's easier on me since I can't yet post on a nightly basis.

So, anyone have any questions about another adventuring party from that list of forty names that I posted on page 6? Or a preference for one you'd like to see detailed, if the name is interesting to you?

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).
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Wooly Rupert
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Posted - 08 Apr 2015 :  05:58:29  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I find these names to be of particular interest, and would be happy to see what you can spin on them.

The Maidenseekers of Purdrim

Scions of the Talking Door

The Company of the Runewight

The Company of the Mirror Ghost

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xaeyruudh
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Posted - 08 Apr 2015 :  07:19:23  Show Profile  Visit xaeyruudh's Homepage Send xaeyruudh a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I second the The Maidenseekers of Purdrim, and add the Friends of the Arshryke. Curious about the nature of an arshryke.

And where is Purdrim? ...not that I'd want to go there, given that they clearly have no maidens.
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Misereor
Learned Scribe

164 Posts

Posted - 08 Apr 2015 :  16:05:25  Show Profile Send Misereor a Private Message  Reply with Quote

I'm mostly intrigued by the "Company of the Stolen Elf".
Fine, so it's not all that uncommon for Elves to be stolen, whether statues, carvings, or flesh and blood, but for an adventuring band to name themselves after one, there's got to be more of a backstory.


What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder, stronger, in a later edition.
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
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Posted - 08 Apr 2015 :  21:09:00  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Misereor


I'm mostly intrigued by the "Company of the Stolen Elf".
Fine, so it's not all that uncommon for Elves to be stolen, whether statues, carvings, or flesh and blood, but for an adventuring band to name themselves after one, there's got to be more of a backstory.





I was interested in that one, myself, but was trying not to choose too many.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 09 Apr 2015 :  07:56:32  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Scions of the Talking Door

At the Inn of the Dripping Dagger, Trades Ward, Waterdeep, one may encounter visitors who have no interest in staying for longer than a few drinks. They pass the time in silence, waiting for the entrance to the Inn to utter a cryptic phrase. If they don't keep buying, they are made to leave so others with coin can take their place.

When the Talking Door speaks, paying customers, agents of the city and the jacks and lasses employed to sit either side of the door day and night all strain to hear every word.

So it was that "five in a room, awake and alert, shall find great wealth where a dragon sits the throne" was uttered by the Door four hours past midnight. At the time there were nine souls in the main room: five customers who'd rented rooms (the place is closed to non-renters after the sun sets) and four employees.

None of the customers knew each other before that night, but they became fast friends before the sun tried in vain to warm Waterdeep's cold streets the following morning.

Confident that the door was describing them, and equally confident that it spoke of far off Cormyr, the five settled their accounts and left the Inn of the Dripping Dagger that afternoon for The Forest Kingdom.

The five settled on a party name their first night on the road and nearly met their doom that same evening at the hands of cutthroats sent to acquire whatever knowledge the Scions possessed of the Talking Door, then eliminate them.

When the Scions arrived in Cormyr, they had repelled six more attacks, in each case surviving with little more than their lives. They wear the looks of the constantly hunted, always wary warrior, who sees death in every corner.

The Scions are ignorant of Cormyr's customs and laws, are unchartered and have no clue where to find adventure and riches, but they are convinced the attacks will stop now that they have arrived.

They are wrong.

The Scions have chosen Arabel over Suzail as their home base, assuming it to be more like Waterdeep and perhaps more hospitable to their tastes.

They are:
Kleannsur Hortothul, Just Hand of Torm. Cleric 7
Jessalythe Sparrantar, independent adventurer-wizard. Wizard 7
Blacksunder the Rogue (and murderer for hire back in Waterdeep). Fighter 3, Thief 3
Awntrus "The Black Glove" Malaver, formerly an unguilded investigator. Fighter 1, Thief 5
Alathea Gryphonsar, Sorcerer 4, Thief 2

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).
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xaeyruudh
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Posted - 09 Apr 2015 :  14:57:15  Show Profile  Visit xaeyruudh's Homepage Send xaeyruudh a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Ha! Wow these guys are awesome. I want to be their DM.
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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2717 Posts

Posted - 09 Apr 2015 :  18:50:51  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by xaeyruudh

Ha! Wow these guys are awesome. I want to be their DM.

All Ed's creations (except for their levels, which I came up with). It's my pleasure to give them life beyond the pages of Dragon magazine.

For those interested in learning more about the Talking Door and the Inn of the Dripping Dagger, see the Eye on the Realms article "The Talking Door" in Dragon #410.

Some of the further utterances of the talking door may be found here.

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
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Posted - 09 Apr 2015 :  20:38:45  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer

quote:
Originally posted by xaeyruudh

Ha! Wow these guys are awesome. I want to be their DM.

All Ed's creations (except for their levels, which I came up with). It's my pleasure to give them life beyond the pages of Dragon magazine.

For those interested in learning more about the Talking Door and the Inn of the Dripping Dagger, see the Eye on the Realms article "The Talking Door" in Dragon #410.

Some of the further utterances of the talking door may be found here.



I had to go read that article this morn, after reading your group write-up.

I like your "Further Utterances," as well. I'd not be adverse to opening a thread here to allow for the collective creation of still more utterances.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 10 Apr 2015 :  00:55:35  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Sounds good to me!

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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2717 Posts

Posted - 18 Apr 2015 :  07:46:32  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
4/18/2015: Working on the background for the Mirror Ghost. Now I know why there is a dead magic zone in one part of Suzail.

4/21/2015: Copied the Scions of the Talking Door over to my scroll of adventuring companies.

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).

Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 22 Apr 2015 06:13:09
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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USA
2717 Posts

Posted - 22 Apr 2015 :  08:04:49  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Maidenseekers of Purdrim

In the year 389 DR, nighthaunts swarmed the battlements of the fortress called the Phelhelra and stole away with Satrap Radraud el Qarylyrskal's daughter Phelhele, after whom the fortress was named.

At irregular intervals in the centuries that followed, every settlement in the Marching Mountains was raided at least once by nighthaunts; each time the creatures abducted a maiden on the night of her twentieth birthday. The reach of the creatures extended from the high peak of Mount Abbalayat to Faeressar, and deep into the otherwise forgotten mines of Purdrim, Alakhim and Maeretelim, where rich traders, satraps and pashas chose to hide their wealth and the wives and daughters of their enemies, each kidnapped and held for ransom.

For eleven hundred years various mages, adventurers, priests and professional monster hunters have attempted to track the nighthaunts and divine their location. Most simply failed despite their best efforts, though they found much in the way of adventure thanks to the proximity of the Marching Mountains and Tethyr, the former a nigh endless source of roaming monsters and brigands, the later home to raiders and smugglers eager to find riches in the Marching Mountains. The handful of investigators that made any headway in their searches simply disappeared.

The legend of the nighthaunts and the fate of the maidens have been a source for much storytelling and conjecture in both Calimshan and Tethyr. Coupled with the writings of investigators and the ballads of bards, much attention has always been focused on the Marching Mountains by the curious and adventuresome.

In the year 1482 DR a company of adventurers formed in the shadow of the Phelhelra's battlements (at this time the fortress is in Tethyrian hands), intending to solve once and for all the mystery of the nighthaunts and the maidens. After narrowly escaping the onslaught of an inn-sized gibbering orb lurking in the Phelhelra's depths, the adventurers found a map to the lost mine of Purdrim.

There they discovered an account written by a Tethyrian Crown Investigator searching for clues to the whereabouts of Veherak el Paeredrhal, called “the Pasha of Purdrim," and onetime master of the Phelhelra. The account held that Paeredrhal was haunted by a force unseen in the Phelhelra and he believed the nighthaunts had sent something to keep watch over him. Rather than face what he believed would be his doom at the hands of the creature, the Pasha of Purdrim bought his freedom by being transformed into a wyvern and fleeing to a range of mountains far to the north.

His wealth was meant to follow, but Tethyrian agents seized much of it. For his part the Crown Investigator was discovered, imprisoned and tortured in Purdrim.

Now calling themselves the Maidenseekers of Purdrim, the adventurers have traveled to Cormyr, where they believe the Pasha of Purdrim lives to this day in Wyvern form somewhere in the Thunder Peaks. After a short stop in Suzail, the Maidenseekers intend to travel to the High Dale where they have heard of a place called the Wyvernfang, and of the family of wyverns that lair nearby.

What the Maidenseekers do not yet realize is that they will be in Suzail for a handful of days at the same time as the very missing maidens whose fate they hope to discover. The later will depart Suzail after finishing their business with the gem merchants who flock to Suzail whenever the Magnificent Maidens are in residence.[1]

The Maidenseekers are:[2]
Izal el-Hardem of Zazzespur. Wizard 12
Rikshel el-Hardem of Zazzespur. Wizard 6
Ertrym Rostrarl. Warlock 6, Fighter 4
Tonthyn of Tempus. Cleric 10
Aumbrae Hornshulder. Ranger 4, Sorcerer 4
Ollyn Marbruk. Thief 10
Flarm Lhesklar. Fighter 8

[1] See the entry for Kythorn (June) and the accompanying footnote in the Current Clack entry for 1485 DR (The Year of the Iron Dwarf's Vengeance).

[2] Izal and Rikshel are in truth Izmurn Raelane and Althro Vaelhond, the former a master wizard believed by many to have been slain by the magic of The Spellhound, the later an apprentice of Althro's and one of several apprentices that The Spellhound eagerly hunts to this day. Information on The Spellhound can be found in the Eye On the Realms article "Thormil’s Secret" in Dungeon #194.

Ertrym Rostrarl was a warlock of some power, whose infernal pact was severed after an unfortunate encounter with The Sword of Spells. He has embraced the life of a warrior, and hopes to one day see the Sword destroyed forever. See the article "The Sword of Spells" in Dragon #417.

Tonthyn is a Battlepriest of Tempus and a native of Zazzespur. He was responsible for reviving Aumbrae, Ollyn and Flarm after these three were overcome by the same dread presence that haunted the Pasha of Purdrim centuries ago and flung themselves off the high battlements of the Phelhelra.

Aumbrae comes from Berdusk and is the victim of a deep-seated fear of the undead--something grown even worse after her encounter at the Phelhelra.

Ollyn hails from Tashluta. He is a veteran adventurer and exceptionally agile. He believes the trip to Cormyr is pointless, and argues almost daily that the Maidenseekers should return to the Phelhelra to destroy the unseen menace that nearly killed him.

Flarm is quiet and dependable, with much experience watching over valuable objects and important persons thanks to years spent as a guard in Elturel. Flarm's brush with death motivated him to acquire magic that allows him to see invisible object and creatures, and sense the presence of undead in close proximity.

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).

Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 22 Apr 2015 08:25:14
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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USA
2717 Posts

Posted - 27 May 2015 :  20:26:02  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Wooly, any chance we'll see you opening up a "Further Utterances" scroll?

(...he says, knowing that between the new baby and the new job he only has time to write on lunch breaks if there is a handy internet connection nearby.)

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
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Posted - 27 May 2015 :  21:16:15  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy Grenemyer

Wooly, any chance we'll see you opening up a "Further Utterances" scroll?

(...he says, knowing that between the new baby and the new job he only has time to write on lunch breaks if there is a handy internet connection nearby.)



I can do it, or you can. I was going to let you do it; both the (previously ) daily Cormyr lore and that Talking Door project were your babies.

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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 27 May 2015 21:16:43
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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2717 Posts

Posted - 27 May 2015 :  23:42:06  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I was hoping you would, as I don't have as much time to keep things going like I used to.

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Wooly Rupert
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Posted - 28 May 2015 :  03:54:03  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
To be clear, I was thinking of it as kind of an open thread, for anyone to contribute as much or as little as they want. I've too many irons in the fire for daily updates, myself, and I fear that I am simply not as creative as you or many others here -- my creativity is strongest when I take something that already exists, rotate it 180 degrees, and add another element or two onto it.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 30 Jul 2015 :  19:27:10  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Time to get back on the horse.


Courtly titles, or nicknames for same, and whatever else comes to mind:


First, a good map of Cormyr, because you, dear reader, can always use a good map of Cormyr.


1. NPC: The Lord of Ghosts
A nickname given to a palace courtier whose job it is to catalog the many ghosts and apparitions found in the Royal Palace of the Purple Dragon, with a focus on new entities. Does not cover the Royal Court, for which a different individual with a similar title does the same job. War Wizards bristle when a non-wizard of war is appointed to either of these posts, and court records show few priests have ever held the job. Whereas in Arabel this position cannot be held by anyone who is not a priest of a commonly recognized goodly deity, and the priest must be in good standing with the Local Lord of Arabel. This policy owing to tradition predating Arabel's inclusion in Cormyr.

2. Book: "How the Obarksyrs Hold On To Power"
A slender tome purporting to collect in one place all the rumors, half-truths and facts about how the Obarskyrs have held on to the throne of Cormyr for nearly fifteen hundred years. Among them: a grand council of undead kings and regents sits unmoving in a cavern below the deepest cellars beneath the Royal Palace. In times of great peril, living kings of Cormyr will consult their predecessors for advice that never fails to guide the kingdom to safety. The author notes that only one regent has ever left the council (in the author’s words, “escaped the council”) and struck out on her own: Alusair Obarskyr. The author goes on to say the rumors of Alusair's ghost inhabiting the Royal Palace are true.

3. Event: A Rain of Swords
Travelers are warned to spare one eye for the sky as they travel the long road from Valkur's Roar north and east to Suzail. Swords of all types are raining from the sky at random intervals. Likewise one may find areas littered with weapons, from the road all the way down to knee deep in the waters of the Dragonmere.

4. NPCs/Location: The Bone Collectors
In the hills bordered by the Stormhorns and the King’s Forest there stands a crumbling castle (that the Lady Bard Nararanralee better described as “a vaguely recognizable heap of stone). The irregular walls form the border of a great pit out of which more stone is being mined and carved into simple blocks, for use in building the walls of a maze that extends outward from the castle in all directions. The walls cover the hill on which the castle stands, and have begun to creep up the surrounding hills. A clan of dwarves is said to live beneath the castle. For a fee they will consult on the issue of hauntings, ghosts and apparitions troubling one’s abode—the consultation ending with a fee given by the dwarves for the cost of removing the undead entity. The dwarves then transport their captive to the maze beyond the castle, where they bind it to special glyph and rune-covered stones, thus adding to their defenses. Within the hill on which the castle stands, the dwarves are busy reinforcing it as they hollow it out, and are said to be creating a wondrous home of polished stone that catches and reflects the light shining through the opening in the hill that fills every corner with a warm radiance. The dwarves regularly consult adventurers and bards for news of hauntings and undead sightings, and take regular delivery of broadsheets from Suzail, Arabel and the surrounding lands. Additionally, the dwarves take deliveries of bones from all types of creatures. Nararanralee would not reveal the means by which those who visit the dwarves and make deliveries to them survive the maze of the dead, nor would she say to what use the dwarves put the bones they buy. She claimed the bones are dumped into a shining metal pit as wide and deep as a barn, in the heart of the hill, but would say no more.

5. Encounter: Transfixed By a Sword
Somewhere in Cormyr the PCs encounter one or more recently deceased persons, all of which were slain by longswords that appear to have struck from above. Each slain person’s head sports a guard and pommel like some odd piece of headgear, the blades sunk through head, neck and torso. Eagle-eyed PCs have a chance of spotting a ring of six swords slowly rotating in the air as the ring moves towards them.

6. Encounter: Overturned Wagon
The PCs come upon a wagon fallen onto its side, the bed of the wagon and its contents spilled out onto the ground in the direction the PCs are coming from. As the PCs approach, blood can be seen on the ground and on some of the wagon’s contents. The first PC to investigate the other side of the wagon sees that its underside is peppered with crossbow bolts. As he or she looks in the direction where the bolts came from, attackers with loaded crossbows aim at the PC. FIRE!

7. Encounter: The Crying Battlepriest
The PCs encounter a Battlepriest of Tempus, tears streaming down his or her dirt and blood covered face, while crude weapons and the butchered bodies of men, women and children lay on the ground. The PCs have a chance to learn the dead are the priest’s family and friends, who were transformed into orcs and made to attack the priest. The battlepriest swears vengeance on those who enacted the plot, and demands the PCs to join in a quest of vengeance. A ride of Purple Dragons approaches.

8. Encounter: Naked On Horseback
Traveling through the fog in a remote part of Cormyr, the PCs hear sounds of men shouting somewhere up ahead. An opening in the fog reveals the outline of humanoid forms, several of which are bobbing up and down and appear to be headed towards the PCs while waving and shouting and swinging their arms. The fog clears and the forms are revealed to be naked men on horseback, all standing up in stirrups while reaching overhead for their clothes, their armor and weapons, which are floating overhead and slowly flying away from them (and towards the PCs).

9. The Clerk of Daggers Arcane
The name for a nigh-ancient position at court. This person was responsible for the safekeeping of daggers that free mages loyal to Cormyr swore upon before entering into a term of service to the Crown, the oath for which included a generous helping of their blood to coat a dagger and magic that caused the blood to be absorbed by the weapon. If one of these mages ever turned traitor or enacted disloyal plots against the Crown, the Mage Royal could work a simple spell to unleash that mage’s dagger in retribution. The dagger would unerringly hunt the mage down, flying and moving about as needed, and was capable of passing through whatever wards or defenses the mage had a hand in conjuring or that were produced by items worn by that mage. Whether this court position has anything to do with a certain life-sized statue found in the dungeons beneath the Royal Palace (that of a woman transfixed from head to toe by numerous daggers) is the subject of recurring-every-ten-years-or-so debate among minor courtiers and War Wizards.

10. The Scribe of Revels
A court position that fell in and out of use over Cormyr’s long history. The Scribe of Revels was responsible for an accounting of the attendees, activities and general activity that occurred at revels, gatherings and celebrations that took place in the Palace and Royal Court. This position sometimes included command over a handful of underscribes who reported their observations while trying to remain unobtrusive and unnoticed by the revelers they watched.


Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).

Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 07 Aug 2015 22:18:18
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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 30 Jul 2015 :  19:42:24  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Ooh I do like number 9, not quite how many imagine Cormyr to be, but the Obaskyrs were blood thirsty evil swines in their day. Reminds me a bit of an 80s horror film.

Might be fun to have one accidentally come after the PCs because of a rogue war wizard who used someone elses blood to be absorbed into the dagger (might have to be a bit creative there) who just so happened to be the PC's dad or uncle.

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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

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Posted - 30 Jul 2015 :  19:45:30  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
How is it possible I haven't noticed this thread before now?

Great stuff here! I've only gone through the 1st page so far - I have to play catch-up now.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone

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Gary Dallison
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6350 Posts

Posted - 30 Jul 2015 :  20:50:33  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
We had a lovely discussion about the Devil Dragon, Thauglor, and the Xraunrarr about halfway through if I remember correctly, gave me a few ideas for a future Alternate Dimensions project. I even included a nod to the Xraunrarr in my Netheril rewrite (the Anaurian hive has to come from somewhere).

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 31 Jul 2015 :  21:32:29  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Skeletons. Bits of bone.

1. A skull adorns the front door to a home in Arabel. It’s from a man and of three colors: yellow, brown and white. The jaw is attached by means of an old cord that rots regularly and is replaced regularly. The skull floats a finger width in front of the door, at the height of a man. It can readily be crushed, smashed or destroyed, but a child can hang from it if he or she gets a grip in the eye sockets (the jaw will not do, as the cords will likely break unless they are fresh). Once there were many such skulls adorning several doors in Arabel, but never more than one to particular building. Myth holds that to destroy a floating skull such as this is to earn a curse: the being whose head the skull once sat atop of will rise from the dead and seek to slay you and to deposit your severed head at the door where it’s skull once floated. If it succeeds, it will rest forever and be troubled no more, whereas your head will find its way to a new resting place, at about man height in front of the door. If the building’s owner is wise, he or she will remember to keep your jaw attached after time and rot cause it to fall away. Otherwise, you will be free to haunt the owner.

2. At a residence in Marsember, the doorjacks, maids and servants are all skeletons. The bones of a dwarf and an elf are to be found in the ranks. and the rest are human. No necromancer lives inside, nor any wizard; mages of all types are not welcome. The current owner (the housemaster) holds no ill will towards wizards and their ilk (though he avoids necromancers out of long habit).[1] It’s the servants who do, sometimes violently. The bonemen have served for over two centuries, and have silently instructed a succession of housemasters how to keep them shining white, and how—in rare instances—to replace them. Currently there are two openings waiting to be filled.

3. In far off Griffon Hill the sight of wagons from whose axels protrude spokes made of thick sets of leg bones ending in wide feet whose bones of which are fused together from heel to toe, has caused some merchants to speculate whether buying one or more such wagons is a worthwhile investment. Though the ride is more jarring than is typical for wagons riding on wheels, bone wheel wagons do not require an animal to pull them and are capable of fording tree limb strewn streams and traversing rock covered ground.

4. Along the Thunder Way between the mountain village of Highcastle and the fast-growing Cormyrean village of Thunderstone, travelers report the sight of skulls lingering above the ground. The skulls are usually arrayed in a ring, their jaws moving up and down and the heads bobbing from side to side. When approached, the skulls turn as one to view whomever is watching them. Depending on whom you ask, moving closer is said to cause the skulls to fly about madly, to fall to the earth and slowly turn to dust or to shoot up into the air and then come crashing down into you.

5. A brief skirmish between adventurers and a band of renegade hobgoblins west of Gnoll Pass in the Stonelands resulted in the recovery of several unique weapons and armors, some of which are believed to be magical. Most are edged weapons of odd shape and all are made of bone, including short swords and daggers made of breastbones whose edges are naturally serrated and are capable of cleaving through metal. The adventurers claim to have recovered from the hobgoblins the means by which the bone is made as hard as metal, and are taking bids to sell their find through a factor in Arabel.

6. Along the edge of the King’s forest somewhere north of Aunkspear stands a hovel belonging to an elderly priest of Eldath. The priest is noteworthy for her ability to make use of the remains of the dead, whether animal, monster or humanoid. She is not the first to reside in the hovel, but she is the latest to tend the grove that extends west into a small depression in the woods where no trees grow. Instead, a dizzying variety of plants mundane and magical fill the space. When not tending the grove, the priestess fashions sturdy, lightweight objects made from whatever is at hand, such as baskets made from ribcage. She accepts the bodies of the recently deceased if the dead individual kept Eldath as his or her patron. By long tradition and the command of Eldath, the priest welcomes servants of the Crown into her home without question, and holds for safekeeping any single object the Crown deems important. She defends such with her life. Many skeletons of the faithful roam the woods near the grove and the priestess may call on their aid simply by willing it.

7. Throughout Cormyr, one tale has briefly risen above the others to capture the imagination of listeners: grave robbers are turning out in numbers to disinter the remains of dead sages, leaving the corpses in whatever state is required to gain access to the hand the sage favored when writing about his or her area of expertise, and to abscond with the hand to parts unknown. Crown investigators remain silent on the matter, though careful listeners and those who claim to be attached to the investigation state the likely culprit is a priest or wizard seeking to animate the hands in order to produce an army of crawling claws with some skill at writing and copying.[2] Sightings of crawling claws are on the rise, if the stories are to be believed.

8. In the village of Wormtower, many hedgewizards and mages of middling talent have gathered. It’s assumed by non-mages that the enchanted bones of the dragon for whome the village is named are the reason for this particular meeting of wizards. The mages have yet to announce to all why they have gathered. Instead they are busying themselves with showing off their talents. Among them are a wizard skilled at animating the bones of small creatures such as rodents and winged fey. The wizards reenacts portions of scenes from popular plays, and creates swirling patterns in the air by combining the bones of all the creatures in his collection.

9. Along the western edge of the Infested Hills nigh Besert, adventurers encountered a ride of scorched and melted riders. The conflagration blackened the earth all around and melted away the clothes, flesh and innards of rider and mount alike, leaving a macabre scene of metal fused to gleaming white bone. Whatever slew the riders left the adventurers unmolested, though they kept a weary eye pointed at the sky as they rode north towards the Thunder Way for an urgent appointment in Highcastle. The adventurers did not linger to determine who the riders were.

10. A macabre, rising-in-popularity fad has swept through the moneyed and bored among Cormyr’s nobility: the re-creation of an event popular in family history, usually in the room where the event took place, but always on property owned by the nobles and always at great expense.[3] The work involves meticulous craftwork, the acquisition of period clothes, jewelry and accoutrements, furniture and decorations, and the aid of one or more skilled mages (not always the family’s House mage) capable of binding illusions and preservative spells to the skeletons of deceased members of the noble family (whose remains are quietly repurposed for the exercise, as it lends “a subtle air of truth to the effort” according to one noble).


[1] It is the opinion of the current housemaster that necromancers make fine additions to the ranks, as they are a recurring annoyance in the form of unannounced visits and prying spells that oft interferes with the housemaster’s busy schedule. The housemaster does not care to learn how the skeletons make more of their kind in the damp cellars below his home.

[2] Usually minor courtiers repeating thrice-told rumor, who are thirsty for free drink and food.

[3] The expense owing as much to a noble’s desire to spend large sums of coin in order to show off their wealth and to be able to brag about it after than any real need to spend coin to craft a given scene. This includes the consulting fees for sages, bards and (rarely) long-lived beings such as elves or dwarves who were present at the event being recreated.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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USA
2717 Posts

Posted - 02 Aug 2015 :  00:15:17  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Awhile back I picked up a copy of the Random House Word Menu book, by Stephen Glazier: 977 pages of words grouped by subject (AWESOME). I purchased a copy of Realms of the Arcane and I received a copy of Spellstorm for my birthday. Let’s see what inspiration I can draw from these books.

1. The trouble with Oldspires: anyone who spends time there invariably complains of nightmares involving huge eyes watching the dreamer through open doors. All the windows are open, but try as he or she might the dreamer cannot escape through them to freedom from the things that watch.

2. A young man walks the streets of Suzail, calling out to passersby that he has heard the voice of risen Mystra, Mother of All Magic. He swears with absolute conviction that Mystra bade him inform all that she surmounted a great barrier to gain control of magic once more. She believes that all beings are friends to magic, and that she will no longer take a direct role in the affairs of men. The self-proclaimed first prophet of Mystra reborn has fashioned a crude symbol of wood that all may know the goddess by: an ensiform shape, not unlike an enlarged spindle.

3. After a long journey east, a trade host arrived in Suzail from the realm of Dusklake in northern Amn. The charismatic head of House Summertyn led the host. He was eclipsed by his wife, who wore the legendary Tears of Aerindel around her neck while accompanying her husband to a meeting with the heads of several Cormyrean noble families.

4. Travelers on the Immer Trail have reported mysterious, lute-like sounds emanating from fog-shrouded edge of the Wyvernwater. Galleymen sailing the ever-busy route from Sunset Hill to Immersea tell tales of melodious sounds coming from the shoreline. Thus are merchants hiring additional guards while Purple Dragon patrols have increased along the northern coast of the Wyvernwater. Thus are war wizards and free mages steering clear of the area. No living Cormyrean has seen the evanescent harps that appear in the fog in the dawn hours along the coast of the Wyvernwater and disappear under the first rays of the morning sun, but most have heard the tale of the harps whose strings can only be played by the wind and whose sound draws mages like moths to a flame and drives them mad.

5. Fine eateries in Suzail are rothé milk drawn from herds kept in Hillmarch. The milk is of unusual taste—sweet and refreshing, with an air of mint or rosemary—that lends itself to popular dishes. The milk is shipped in hankdkegs and is kept from spoiling by means of small stones harvested from the Immerflow. The stones do not radiate magic, but have the curious property of preserving liquids to which they are added.

6. The apprentices of an outlander mage have fanned out into Arabel. Their task is the recovery of a lace cape that the outlander believes was repurposed by a furniture maker into an antimacassar for a common chair. Harpers have been following mage and cohort since they arrived in Berdusk. There the Harpers believe the mage found clues pointing him to Cormyr. The apprentices have been given strict orders not to steal or to offend. Rather, to befriend the servants and lesser sons and daughters of the merchants and nobles whom the outlander believes have possession of the cape, to gain entry into their homes. For her part the mage believes the cape affords a defense against the Sword of Spells.

7. Apotropaic rituals are being performed throughout Arabel in response to news of an eruption of hellspawn out of the Abandoned Keep north of the High Moors.

8. Adventurers have brought word to Arabel from the Stonelands that no demons have infested the region. A danger exists at the Abandoned Keep, however; one that has brought a rash of nympholepsy upon a would-be Shield Baron and his retinue after they unsealed the entrance to the crypts below the keep and freed the evil fey housed within.

9. Explorers searching for a safe trade route between Lundeth and Griffon hill have sighted megaliths in the northern face of the horseshoe-shaped escarpment west of the Stonelands. The stonework is new, owing to the efforts of hobgoblins that claim the escarpment, the Quarter of Emptiness and all of Moander’s Footstep for their own. The hobgoblins spared the explorers, but not before extracting a promise that they spread word of the return of the Goblin Marches to the people of Cormyr, the Dales and Sembia.

10. Deathbed portraits painted on wooden boards have become popular among Cormyreans bereft of relatives (or relatives who care). For a fee the depictions of the dead are blessed by priests of Kelemvor and kept within a newly constructed mausoleum located due west of Suzail. The portraits are organized by region and city, and are the focus of prayers by acolytes wandering the grounds of the temple.

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Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 02 Aug 2015 00:45:58
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 03 Aug 2015 :  05:59:28  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Borrowing from an entry in this scroll (February 14, 2015): Purple Dragons afflicted with minor magical powers.

A squad of Purple Dragon soldiers. The ten of them all have magical abilities, some of which are quite unusual even for the Realms. How did they get them? That’s a story for another time (which means, you, and I do mean you—because right now I am talking in your head so who else could I be talking to?—have an opportunity right here and right now to write that story).

I am thinking the ten Dragons were part of a much larger group that took down a clockwork giant and suffered through a magical backlash as the thing was destroyed, piece by piece. The Dragon’s abilities and the potency of same fade away if the soldiers are ever separated from each other for more than a tenday.

Who are the Alarphons among the Purple Dragons, I wonder? Whoever they are, they keep a close eye on these soldiers (in addition to the standard retinue of Crown spies, courtiers, Wizards of War and all the enemies in and out of Cormyr who’ve ever heard of these guys and taken an interest in learning more about them).


1. Anything this Dragon can physically lift off the ground (or whatever a given object is resting on) becomes as light as a tankard full of ale. Objects already weighing less maintain their weight in his hands, while objects hoisted into the air that he touches afterward experience the weight-lessening effect for as long as he maintains contact. He has yet to catch boulders flung by a giant, but he plans to do just that when the opportunity presents itself.

2. Whatever this Dragon carries, disappears. His hand on a table won’t make the table disappear, but if he hefts a chair over his head then it will vanish from sight. Lifting up clothes to put them on likewise will cause the garments to become invisible, but once on his person they become visible again. Anything worn on his hands disappears automatically, as does anything he carries in his hands while wearing something over them. Assisting another person in lifting a heavy object? Yep. Works then, too.

3. Any food or drink this Dragon prepares will provide sustenance for a tenday to whomever consumes it. His was one of the last abilities to be discovered, and it was his fellow Dragons who determined their fellow’s power; they realized that when this Dragon’s turn came up to assist in the preparation of meals, everyone lost their apatite for a tenday after. None of the Dragons, nor their commanding officers, have found it necessary to inform the war wizards of this ability, even though they are under orders to report all changes in power or newly discovered powers among their group.

4. After the battle with the clockwork automaton, this Dragon went from being a he to being a she. The change was abrupt and permanent. It wasn’t until she kissed another human being that she reverted back to her original gender, while the one she kissed changed gender on the spot. This effect lasts for about a tenday, and anyone this Dragon kisses can’t pass on their changed form. As more than one Wizard of War under orders to receive a kiss from this Dragon and then be subject to a battery of magical tests afterward has learned, the gender swap effect simply has to run its course.

5. If this Dragon carries a magic item that has a fixed number of uses (such as a wand of magic missile) for at least a tenday, that item will regain a portion of its spent power. The amount returned varies from 10% to 100% of whatever portion had already been used up. If he is made to carry more than one such item for longer than a tenday, he becomes comatose for a period of ten days times the number of items beyond one that he was carrying. While under testing, this drawback sidelined the squad of Dragons for a full month in Arabel.

6. This Dragon regularly loses one of his senses. On purpose. It wasn’t this way at first, but time and daily practice have allowed him to hone his ability to leave one of his senses behind and then gather it back up. He must use his power daily, or his senses will start fleeing of their own accord. This involves concentrating on a fixed space and then willing one of his senses to that spot. Of late he’s learned how to move his senses to another person, and to refine just what is moved (example: instead of moving his sense of touch, he can sometimes limit the effect to the sense of feeling heat/cold).

7. Objects get lost inside this Purple Dragon. He wears sword, armor and tabard like any other Dragon, but when he wakes up he finds that one or more things worn or carried have vanished. The war wizards taught him to concentrate when this happens, then to literally reach into himself and pull out whatever was absorbed overnight. This act causes him no pain—he feels nothing as it happens beyond the weird fear that accompanies the sight of his hand going inside his torso or leg or whatever. He’s learned to activate this ability while awake, and has observed that he does not expel anything overnight that he’s placed inside himself while awake.

8. Undead hate the sight of this Dragon. That is, intelligent undead who meet the gaze of this soldier learn to hate it, because this always results in the undead becoming still and unmoving for as long as the Dragon keeps his eyes on them. Blinking doesn’t end the effect, though it will end if the Dragon keeps his eyes shut for longer than it takes to blink. Zombies, animated skeletons and undead lacking eyes are not immune to this power. There is no love lost between this Dragon and the wizards of war. He still has nightmares about the testing he underwent at their hands.

9. To see people as this Dragon sees them is to experience them as they were, as they are and as they will be. It requires no more than an act of will for him to see a person as they were when newly born, as a child, as a teen, an adult and so on up to their natural lifespan. He can’t predict when someone will die, nor what injuries or maladies might disfigure them, he can only know what they will look like as an old dodderer. After concentrating for a period of time (not less than an hour, and usually involving bleeding from eyes, ears and nose) he can see a place as it once was. For example, what the land used to look like before a new inn was built over it. He can even see a place as it will be in the future, but he can never hold the image for long in his mind because the pain is too much.

10. Whenever this Dragon wears headgear of any type for at least a tenday (regular daily use; not necessary to wear while sleeping), that item becomes imbued with magical power. The Dragon can’t use the powers endowed to the headgear, and he isn’t aware of what powers the item has. He knows only that after about a day of wearing something on his head that thing becomes itchy and uncomfortable, and ultimately impossible to wear. At that point there’s magic of some sort to be had out of the item. He’s under standing orders to wear a helm at all times, he hates wearing helms, and the flanks of his horse are decorated with no less than four helms either waiting to be worn or waiting to be turned over for study (also a standing order). Used helms are carefully tested by Wizards of War in Arabel to determine what power they possess, then the helm is shipped off to whomever in the ranks of the Dragons it is judged will be best served by the helm. Once an item’s power is activated, that power usually fades after a tenday, rendering the item mundane once more. One smith in Arabel will have work for as long as this Dragon serves the Crown, as he produces all the helms the Dragon has worn since his ability was discovered.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 04 Aug 2015 :  05:48:19  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Things troubling the Wizards of War

1. Magical things that lay dormant and forgotten about in the wake of the Spellplague have awakened with the rejuvenation of the Weave.

2. Reports of mindflayer activity in all three of Cormyr's largest cities, plus word of same from Eveningstar and Thunderstone.

3. A shortage of experienced mages in the ranks.

4. Quiet rumor circulating in the ranks has it that Vangerdahast is alive, and that he is plotting to unseat Ganrahast.

5. The need for competent wizards to both guard and assist in Crown business in the Royal Court has led to a shortage of mages to fill posts in wider Cormyr.

6. A nest of nagas have revealed themselves to Purple Dragons patrolling the Stormhorns. The creatures claim no ill will toward Cormyr, and seek protection from the depredations of adventurers in the form of armed soldiers and war wizards.

7. A cartload of magical weapons and baubles was sold off piece by piece in Arabel by adventures claiming to have plundered an unguarded dragon's hoard. The war wizards are busy tracking down every last item sold, for fear that a dragon purposely let the items be found and carted off, but not before lacing them with spells that allow the creature to spy through the items and even send spells through them. It's happened before.

8. In Eveningstar, an unusual number of magically gifted children are growing up in households where neither parent has any magical ability. This has drawn the attention of mages seeking apprentices, not all of whom are scrupulous and well intentioned.

9. The war wizards have discovered that a lesser known noble family has kept a secret from the Crown for three generations: every member of the family is magically talented. Worse yet, other noble families have learned the secret and have begun plotting how to respond to this unwelcome weight upsetting the balance of power between Cormyr's nobles.

10. Outlander mages of all types are flooding into Cormyr, each chasing the news that numerous hidden portals and gates have awakened in the Forest Kingdom that lead to extradimensional reserves of untapped magical power kept safe from the ravages of the Spellplague. Most of these portals are said to be in the homes of noble families who were ennobled at least two centuries ago or more, which has caused some nobles to demand the assistance of Crown mages to defend against magical intrusions and spying, while other nobles are demanding the restrictions on house mages be lifted so that a proper retinue of magically adept defenders can be assembled by the nobles to defend their various properties.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 05 Aug 2015 :  06:15:01  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Magical furniture, decorations and architecture found in Cormyr, or at least rumored to exist in Cormyr.

1. A concave mirror set over a large hearth. While standing in front of it, the act of swiping one's hand in an arc from across one's body, over the head and to the other side allows that person to view events as they occurred from the mirror's point of view up to one hour ago. Repeating the same motion can be done twice more, allowing for up to three hours viewing of prior activity.

2. A chute that runs from ground level to a deep cellar. Normally used to send chopped wood and dry sundries below ground for later use. Objects that exit the chute land in a pile. For up to one hour afterward those objects retain an enchantment imparted by the chute that causes them to sort and stack themselves by type. One need only speak the word "sort" for this effect to occur. Does not work on anything already bearing a magical enchantment.

3. The mundane grey color of the arch stones that form the opening of one end of a rarely used castle hallway turn a dull green whenever a single person passes beneath them. If more than one person passes, they turn a deep crimson hue. The effect fades in about an hour.

4. A pair of obsidian statues carved to resemble drow warriors in precise detail flank a fireplace in a grand mansion in upcountry Cormyr. Whatever command word awakens the statues to life has been long forgotten, but thankfully the statues animate automatically whenever any person faces imminent death within the mansion. Newcomers are always shone the statues, as they will not protect anyone who has not been paraded before them.

5. A long wooden table suitable for twenty persons, of a soft brown color and all of one piece. Objects or creatures placed on the table never touch its wooden top; anything so placed sits two fingerwidths above the table's surface.

6. A fine black blanket made of short, soft black fur, of the kind suitable for throwing over a chair or for acting as the top sheet on a bed. Whenever anyone sits on or lays under the blanket, they and whatever furniture they are using are displaced, as the effect by the creature of the same name.

7. A set of embroidered pillows. If the pillows are placed one each to a different bed, words spoken by anyone laying on one pillow can be heard by anyone laying on the other pillow, and vice versa. The pillows do not transmit any sounds other than spoken words of the persons laying on them.

8. A high-backed chair of soft leather covering even softer padding, that has done equal time on a high balcony with a magnificent view of the Stormhorns and within a study crammed with books. The chair is a favorite of both the human occupants of the castle where the chair resides and the cats that hunt rats and other vermin within the castle walls, as the chair never fails to provide a warm place to relax and a restful night's slumber. None realize the chair is a thing of Netherese make, nor that it protects any living being that sits on it from magical and psionic effects that target the mind. An hour resting on the chair is the equivalent to a full night's rest.

9. A clockwork crib capable of turning into a squat, reinforced chest at the push of a button. Tugging a handle on the side of the chest causes the handle to swing out, revealing it to be a hand crank. Turning the crank silently raises the chest up on four squat but solid legs. One may then push the chest and it will "walk" in that direction, it's gears and counterweights propelling it along, until it strikes an obstacle. Carefully pushing the chest and/or tugging on the hand crank while the chest is moving allows for it to be guided around corners and even up or down stairs. Unlocking the chest requires a key and a word to be spoken while the key is turned. This word is usually the name of the child who sleeps in the crib.

10. A round mirror set into a thick ring of black iron. If a viewer places the tips of five fingers on the mirror and speaks the words "remember me" then the mirror will capture the viewer's reflection as it appears in the mirror. There appears to be no limit to the number of images that may be stored this way, though the mirror works only once for anyone desiring to have their likeness captured. To see stored images, one need only place all ten fingers on the iron border of the mirror and say "remember." Tapping a finger will cause the most recent image to be replaced by the next most recent, and so on all the way back to the face of the dark elf priestess that crafted it.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 07 Aug 2015 :  05:25:14  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Encounter locations, trading costers, businesses in Suzail, an NPC or two, adventuring companies and a newly awakened dragon.


Let's preface this entry with a link to a TOTALLY AWESOME MAP OF CORMYR, hey? This way you'll find the Lightening Steppes a little left of center, at the bottom of the map.


1. A trio of massive trees (tall, wide as a house at the base, and straight as an arrow up into the sky—like Redwood trees) form the edges of a small hollow that makes for an excellent place to set up camp, somewhere deep in the Hullack. The trees are really one tree, whose heartwood extends deep below ground in a round mass the size of an Arabellan warehouse, roots emanating outward from it in a sunburst pattern. Certain of those roots flow back up to the surface where they’ve grown into bushes and lesser trees not of the same kind as the trio. These are the first appendages of sorts for the main tree, alerting it when living things pass by. Humanoids that camp in the hollow are sometimes swallowed up whole, after the trees release a large amount of carbon dioxide to subdue the sleepers and to extinguish fires set therein. What the tree does with those it captures is a mystery, though adventurers are likely to awaken just after being swallowed up (or to have never quite been made to fall comatose in a cloud of C02), and so will have a chance to fight off the undulating innards of the heartwood and to explore the many hollow chambers where other individuals have been imprisoned below ground. The chambers and pathways are of a normal mix of atmosphere, though some parts are less breathable than others.

2. Dragonwing Trading Coster
A short-lived amalgamation of wagon builders, tarp and canvas makers, rothé and horse breeders and professional wagon drivers. Based out of Greatgaunt, the Dragonwing planned to establish a foothold to the north in Old Axe and south as far as Proskur. Their choice of name reflected the dreams of the founding members, but perhaps offended Tymora as well, for ill-luck struck in the form of not one, but three separate dragon attacks that reduced their overland fleet to one wagon full of unsold canvas coverings and no driver, that was faithfully towed by the rothé lashed to it across the Bridge of Fallen Men all the way back to Greatgaunt.[1] The surviving founders remain in Greatgaunt, while the Iriaebor-based cabals that caused the demise of Dragonwing have sent assassins to slay the surviving members. For their part the three dragons—young dragons, all of them—were unaware others of their kind were “put to good use” (as the humans put it), and each is certain one or the other dragon made off with things of value in the wagons they attacked, in addition to taking in a good meal of well bred rothé, horse and human. The dragons have moved the handful of agents they each control to Greatgaunt and Proskur, intending to protect the surviving members of the Dragonwing long enough to ferret out the truth of what the wagons held, and to hire adventurers to search out the temporary lairs of the other two dragons and explore them.

3. The Goldensail Trading Priakos
An arm of this Sword Coast-spanning group of trading companies has gained a foothold in Suzail and Elversult. The Goldensails seek to extend the rules, customs and agreements made between several Sword Cost cities and nations into the Heartlands and all along the coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars, as these agreements have paved the way for successful trade and the growth of many a merchant’s pile of coins. Establishing a base in Cormyr was done with relative ease, but they have met only with bloody ruin in Teziir. The ‘Masters’ that rule over the Goldensail see Westgate as the source of the impediment, and have begun hiring adventurers and mercenary wizards in Cormyr and Sembia to watch over Goldensail representatives and to root out agents of Westgate.

4. Ravenar Trading
The leaders of this band of traders are called “schorl,” after the alternate name for the glossy, black variety of tourmaline that this trading company takes its name from. Though they operate mainly on the roads that form a triangle around the Lightening Steppes, they are sometimes confused for Ravenar from the Citadel of the Raven or as merchants of far-off Raven’s Bluff. Cormyrean courtiers have pointedly told representatives of Ravenar Trading that it would be wise for them to change their name, but the schorl have no plans to alter it as they expand north into Cormyr and west to Berdusk. Their banner consists of six black squares, edges rounded off and arranged in a circle, on a field of sky blue trimed in white.

5. The House of Orsar
A newly established business located in the better part of Suzail. The House of Orsar consists of individuals native to Waterdeep, who’ve relocated to Cormyr and brought with them a host of experienced envoys and guards, all of them used to the traditions, infighting, duplicity and interlocking agreements and rivalries between and among Waterdeep’s decaying nobility and its rising Guilds and citizen groups. The Orsar are selling themselves to Cormyr’s lesser nobles and many guilds located in Suzail, leveraging above-average fees from those eager to employ the experienced, impossible-to-buy-off Orsar envoys, and to show off the no nonsense, heavily armed and very much smartly put together Orsar honor guardsmen. The House of Orsar is owned and operated by a quintet of women.

6. Oldsword Fields
The rolling lands between Hilp and Gladehap are host to a fast-growing community of farms, cottages and a handful of mansions, many of the buildings reclaimed from treasonous Cormyrean nobles (long since arrested or banished by the Crown) and repurposed for use by old swordsmen, adventurers and mercenaries seeking a peaceful place to spend their final years with like-minded individuals with similar life experiences. Oldswords is the brainchild of a youthful priestess of Tempus, who established a temple in a vacated noble’s mansion without Crown approval, and with the aid of spells gifted by Tempus sent dream visions to wounded, lame and otherwise down on their luck adventurers and mercenaries. She dispatched the handful of Tempuran acolytes faithful to her cause and bid them convince the unlucky sword swingers to return with them. Given a cause, three warm meals a day and a roof over their heads, the former wildblades turned their energies towards building homes for themselves and a community to rally around. The priestess has received tacit approval from the Crown to continue with her efforts, and in the two years since it was founded Oldswords has grown such that its westernmost steading is within easy view of Hilp.

7. Stonedelvers
A collection of dwarves from all over the Realms, no Stonedelver can point to another in the group and say that individual is of the same clan. The Stonedelvers own a tall building in Suzail, their shop occupies the ground floor while they rent out the upper levels, and for a ruinous fee they will craft small, simple tombs, dwellings, and guard shelters out of solid rock. Their work is spartan but precise, and often as not includes much arguing by the dwarves that a chosen location is really a bad place to set a tomb or a guard. Thus have more than one corpse and guard in Cormyr been preserved from the elements and from attackers, after the location for a guard post or tomb was chosen by a dwarf and not by a man. Stonedelvers not in Suzail or out working somewhere in Cormyr keep to a well-hidden underground abode, somewhere in the hills that give rise to the Stormhorns west of Suzail. This location is a jealously guarded secret, such that the Stonedelvers have ‘disappeared’ numerous agents sent by nobles and guild merchants to discover its location. As a result there are a handful of newly-built tombs in Cormyr (most of them north of Marsember) that have sub-vaults, where corpses are found that have no relation to those that rest in the tomb above.

8. A band of adventurer elves has departed Suzail for the Gritstone Moorland. The elves were tightlipped as to what they are seeking, but according to the bard Naranralee of Manyghosts, the elves were all of them on a “starstride” and thus called to travel until the desire left them.

9. Sprendle
A particular dwarf among the stout folk that comprise Stonedelvers. Sprendle is not her real name, but ask any Stonedelver and he or she will tell you the name fits like a keystone in an arch, for Sprendle is a lighthearted prankster and a ready diffuser of fights and brawls. Her calm advice has convinced a pair of hardheaded Stonedelvers from fracturing the group into squabbling factions, and her pranks shamed one truly stubborn dwarf into such embarrassment that the fire left whatever forge of disagreement burned inside him. When not doing her part to keep the Stonedelvers knitted together, Sprendle enjoys crafting things delicate and intricate, and recently opened her own shop above the main floor in the building that houses the Stonedelver offices in Suzail.

10. The Favored Five
A reckless and overconfident band of adventurers that have operated in Cormyr for three seasons, absent a charter. The Five attribute their good fortune to Tymora, but no Chancepriest rides with them and none of the Favored have ever tithed at one of her temples. Though they have discovered riches in the form of gems, magical daggers and a small arsenal of wands while exploring the hills and trails north of the High Road between Tyrluk and Eveningstar, many believe their luck cannot last forever. The whispered rumors of dark shadows trailing the Favored are mostly true; it is in fact one shadow that looms long and large over the Five, and belongs to the dragon in human shape that trailed the adventurers after being freed from the water-filled depths below a mass of rocks resting in the plunge pool below the Warm Waterfall where it was imprisoned, and out of which the Five inexplicably blasted their way free after they discovered and explored a warren of dwarf-halls that ran from a cave entrance in the south face of the Tempest Valley to parts north of the High Road. The dragon desires to recover whatever remains of the potent magic the Favored made use of, so as to gird itself against the dangers that are sure to occupy this strange new world it finds itself in. Though the humans that infest the area appear to pay homage to Thauglor the Old (after all, they gird themselves in paltry metal armor and dare call themselves 'Purple Dragons'), the newly awakened dragon is relieved to have learned that its arch foe and onetime master of the Wolf Woods perished long ago.


[1] Tradition over the bridge and on the road is that a moving wagon is left alone, even if untended, so long as it presents no clear danger to travelers and keeps to the path before it.

Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).

Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 07 Aug 2015 22:13:55
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