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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 01 Sep 2015 :  20:55:21  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well orva is from Volos guide as a single mention of ancient ruins and also in one of the old adventures (four from cormyr perhaps). The mentions didn't fit and I believe George came up with the version I use.

It goes something like elves originally settled the forest kingdom before iliphars arrival. They engaged in some unwise summonings and turned orva into a hellish lands. Iliphars went to the coronal of cormanthor and was given permission and help to cleanse the lands. He succeeded and became the next king as he tried to rebuild orva. Then the humans came along and we know what happens next.

I'll try and dig out the bit for orva I refer to.

As for the other dragon he is from a forging the realms article to do with the merendils and was either a rival, vassal, or other contemporary of thauglor that lived in the thunder peaks.

I intend to use the ideas from that article to explain the ghazneths

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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
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Posted - 01 Sep 2015 :  20:55:21  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Mayhaps there is something the Weave in this area that has attracted all these entities... We have Iliphar, Thauglor, the Sword Heralds, a dryad realm, Nalavara, even the ghazneths and the War Wizards. Even for the generally magic-rich nature of the Realms, there's an awful lot of magic that's been used in this relatively small corner of Toril.

Magic has been prevalent and used heavily in this area, dating back to when dragons rule -- and likely before. There are other areas of the Realms where magic has seen heavy usage, but most of those places have long since fallen and/or have long periods of disuse.

One really has to wonder why there has been so dang much magical activity, going on for so long, in this one spot.

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 01 Sep 2015 :  21:20:04  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
One does have to wonder. I still prefer it be mostly draconic in nature. If there was anything in this region from creator races time it would have been vapourised by the tearfall and or drowned in water, before finally being abandoned.

I don't think the dragons did it all by themselves, they probably found a few fragments of baet'ith stuff (this region was near batrachi and aearie and sarrukh empires) that the dragon overlord probably worked on and started whatever is in cormyr today.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 01 Sep 2015 :  21:20:36  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dazzlerdal

As for the other dragon he is from a forging the realms article to do with the merendils and was either a rival, vassal, or other contemporary of thauglor that lived in the thunder peaks.
Oh derp, you're talking about the dragon from the Merendil Gold article, aren't you? I should have recognized the name then.

Thank you for the info on Orva. I will happily read anything else you dig up and share.

Question: which Volo's Guide is Orva in? I can't find it in Volo's Guide to Cormyr.

I think it's best if the elves didn't know about the Thauglor's tinkering with the Weave.

I would imagine any if High Mages were present in Iliphar's court then they would have some idea, or at least suspect, there was Weave tinkering by the dragon, but being super intelligent High Mages they probably thought such information best kept from Iliphar unless it was absolutely necessary he know of it. Why burden a lesser mind?

For his part I think Iliphar was not as intelligent as a High Mage, but he was absolutely wiser than them, so for all practical purposes he was smarter. Iliphar seems like the type who can observe a place or happening and get a sense of both what's going on and what went previously.

This a trait I'd wager the best of Cormyr's Kings (and all of its Lady Regents) possessed.

I think Iliphar suspected Thauglor had done something to the Weave in the Wolf Woods, and he probably surprised a few elves by directing them to undertake tasks that only stood a chance of succeeding what Iliphar had surmised turned out to be true.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 01 Sep 2015 :  21:25:58  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

One really has to wonder why there has been so dang much magical activity, going on for so long, in this one spot.

I bet whatever it is, is centered on (or anchored by) the spot in the King's Forest Ed talked about in one of his "Ask Ed" answers, that the ghazneths avoided at all costs, in a manner similar to how a Mythal is anchored.

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Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 01 Sep 2015 21:26:41
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Gary Dallison
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United Kingdom
6350 Posts

Posted - 01 Sep 2015 :  21:34:21  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Here is what I have about Orva, unfortunately I can't remember where on here that I got it from, and I'm not entirely sure who wrote it.

quote:
The sources state that Cormyr is the first human kingdom north of the Lake of Dragons, with Marsember being the first permanent settlement in those parts being founded in -74 DR, a century before Cormyr is founded as a kingdom proper.
The scant information we have on Orva is found in the adventure "Four From Cormyr" (p.75). This information does not tell us whether Orva was a human kingdom or something else. For continuity's sake and given what we know of the far greater extent of forests in and around the present day Inner Sea lands, it is likely that Orva was an elven satellite kingdom, similar to the realm of Iliphar Nelnueve which was founded in -205 DR. The fact that the elven deity Labelas was worshipped there is likely proof enough of this but by far the best material to support this contention is the "The Cormyrean Marshes" booklet (p.32) from the "Elminster's Ecologies" boxed set. This talks extensively about ancient elven-looking ruins in the Vast Swamp.
The reference in "Four From Cormyr" talks about Orva having existed "two millennia ago" (i.e. c. -630 to -650 DR or so). This predates Iliphar's kingdom by several centuries. I note that the Vast Swamp borders the Hullack Forest. Within the Hullack Forest is Elfhold which is detailed in "Faiths & Pantheons". The Elfhold is linked with Iliphar and his house, Amaratharr.
My thoughts are that Orva existed from around the -600s DR for a couple of centuries. House Amaratharr was a part of that realm until the king (likely a "laranlor" in elvish which means a monarch of a realm not powerful enough to consider labelling himself a "coronal") exhibited the tyrannical traits and 'delusions of empire' that led to the realm's demise. They likely fled back to Cormanthyr and told the coronal at the time, Tannivh Irithyl, what was going on. Before the elves could react, Orva became a hell-blasted ruin. The High Mages sent to bring this vassal realm to heel undertook the clean up work to seal the gate/portal between the region and the Nine Hells and to do what they could to ward the surrounding lands from the evils that were created in the cataclysm.
As a reward for their loyalty, House Amaratharr and Iliphar were eventually granted the woodlands of Lythtlorn (the elven name for the Wolf Woods or what is now Cormyr - see Dragon#276, p.79).
Which brings us back to the Thunder Peaks. Before Cormyr, the whole region would have nominally been claimed by the elves of Cormanthyr and their satellite vassal kingdoms such as Orva and Arnothoi (see FRCS [2E]: A Grand Tour of the Realms, p.58 and a recent reference in Paul Kemp's short story in 'Realms of War'). In truth however the Thunder Peaks has always been dragon country. It's a running joke among a few of us FR fans and scholars that there are more dragons per square mile in the Thunder Peaks than anywhere else in the Realms.
By far the most formidable is the dracolich Aurgloaroasa "the Sibilant Shade" (see "Dragons of Faerûn" and the older 2E "Cult of the Dragon" sourcebooks) but there have been a host of others, mostly red. A possible reason they all clustered in the Thunder Peaks is that they were driven off or feared the mighty dragon Thauglor, suzerain of the lands of Cormyr and beyond until his defeat by Iliphar in -205 DR.
So in conclusion, the answer is Cormanthyr or one of its satellite, vassal elven realms depending on what historical period you refer to, but it would definitely be a situation of "claiming" rather than actually having a presence there and "ruling"

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 01 Sep 2015 :  21:39:32  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Merendil Gold details the other dragon, it is an article in Dragon magazine 409

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 01 Sep 2015 :  22:30:00  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Thank you for the information on Orva.

By way of thanks, I present some lore from Ed on dragons banding together to slay giants in the Stonelands. Not sure if I have shared this with you before: http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3684&whichpage=12&SearchTerms=himral

quote:
The Stonelands are scrub woodlands, clinging to often-bare rock, in a series of knife-edged ridges and breakneck (VERY steep-sided) ravines between between them, the ridges running roughly east-west (in someplaces, more northeast-southwest), and in modern geological terms we’d call them: layers of sedimentary rock tilted up on edge, with water (the freeze/thaw cycle and the endless precipitation of passing years) eating away the softer (limestone) layers to make ravines, and leaving the harder layers standing as ridges. Many caves have come into being through water seepage and movement through the limestone, and by boulders breaking off (again, ice-shove freeze-thaw being the main cause) and tumbling down into ravines to wedge together and over time (with the addition of washed-down earth) form ‘roofs’ over cavities below (more caves).
This extremely rugged topography is the reason the Stonelands is so hard to police and therefore govern: there’s no tillable land, precious little flat land at all, no roads and no place to put roads (unless you start a laborious ‘blast rock, pile up rubble, blast next rock’ process that’s unlikely ever to be adopted because there’s not really much place for roads to go TO). Outlaws, hardy prospectors, smugglers, and monsters are the main inhabitants of the region, which has stood as a very effective wall against the sands of Anauroch for centuries.
You’ve hit upon one reason so much loose rubble (and topsoil) exists at all in the Stonelands: a brief (less than a year long, start to finish) long-ago war involving the many dragons who laired here (some dragons lingered even after the verdant lowlands that became Cormyr had been surrendered to humans, though the Cult of the Dragon has been energetically hunting them down) and a small colony of giants who came south from northern Thar as the flind and gnolls became just too numerous to withstand any longer.
The giants found goblins in plenty dwelling in the clefts and gullies of the Stonelands, and slaughtered them until the survivors were driven to the southernmost edge of the broken lands. The increasingly alarmed dragons who laired on peaks in the region (in an uneasy truce with each other) banded together to exterminate these invading giants, but found themselves hampered in purely physical battle by the broken terrain (it gave giants assaulting a dragon’s lair too much cover).
The dragons turned to magic, and it’s thought that either a chain of combined dragon spells went awry by mischance or miscasting, or at least one wyrm tried to subvert the magic to ‘accidently’ backlash through the lair of a rival.
In any event, the result was a great ricocheting series of magical explosions that brought down all of the peaks (there were a dozen at most, all of them riddled with caverns used as lairs by dragons) in shattered ruin onto the ravines below. Most of the dragons and many of the giants perished, and the goblins swarmed over the dazed, wounded giants who were left, exterminating them.
So the Stonelands were broken, rugged ravine country before the great magic felled the mountain peaks, but yes, there WAS a struggle involving dragons, giants, and goblins in the past, and “mountains” (actually just a few slender spires of rock soaring above the ridges) were hurled down.
I’m not so sure about “yet leaving space enough for the surviving armies to pass through and overrun the forested paradise so long enjoyed exclusively by the Giants and their kin.” If by forested paradise you mean Cormyr, I don’t recall any time when goblins completely overran it (there were these elves, and these hungry dragons raiding from the skies, to prevent any such thing) or giants exclusively enjoyed it. There are ‘hanging valleys’ (soil-filled large ravines between ridges) in the Stonelands that could have been described as “forested paradises” until the Zhents started energetically exploring the area, but they’re awfully SMALL paradises (the largest is about six miles long, but only half a mile wide at best, and most are FAR smaller).
However, passing time and folktales can achieve wild distortions, and Mellomir of Arabel could well use such words and be entirely wrong about that but right about the dragon-giant battle.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 02 Sep 2015 :  05:44:25  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Ten Things That Walked Out Of Arabel After Nalavarauthatoryl’s Orcs And Goblins Sacked The Place, And Never Came Back:

1. The clay fired tankards and tallglasses found in the Dancing Dragon tavern. A mage cast a spell to make them hard as iron, so they could be used as improvised weapons by the holdouts that chose not to flee Arabel, but fight it out to the last against the forces of the Devil Dragon. By the time the spell wore off, the holdouts were dead, the orcs and goblins marched south, and in short order all the tankards and tallglasses broke under the rough handling of the goblinoids.

2. The food from the Hungry Man restaurant. Most of it was eaten and then shat out in Arabel by the goblinoids, but even orcs are smart enough to recognize and keep preserves for later consumption. Orc stomachs are hardy enough to digest most anything, but the Brackleberry Jam popular with Hungry Man patrons practically tore a hole in the gut of every orc that consumed it, killing a few orcs outright and sidelining the rest with the equivalent of dysentery.

3. The haunted skull from the Elfskull Inn. Whatever animates the skull found reason enough to freeze the hearts of orcs and goblins that came near the inn. A squad of goblins from the extradimensional realm of Grodd managed to trap the skull in a box whose edges and corners were made of a brass-like material that glowed blue at night, with a bottom, top, and four sides made of darkest slate.

4. Whatever lay inside the ancient knights tomb that stood in one corner of the Weary Knight rooming house.

5. All of Mulkaer Lomdath’s needles. His was a business centered on fine tailoring, and he was nowhere near Arabel when it was sacked. The orcs never caught up to Mulkaer (he was on a boat headed out of Marsember by then), but his needles were used as toothpicks by a pair of orcs, the former losing them to the later in a game of chance.

6. All the long wood planks owned by Bracerim Thabbold (bed builder). The orcs left Arabel in a hurry, and they suspected they’d need wood and tools and other implements to deal with muddy roads, and to rebuild bridges torn down in order to slow the army’s advance.

7. Stones from Arabel’s walls. Some of the Ghazneths made a sport out of flying high with stones in hand, to drop them on the unwary outside the city, hoping for a good splat.

8. The leather, hide and apparel from Vondor’s Shoes and Boots. The feet of orcs and goblins are tough enough, but they aren’t above wearing boots and shoes if they (mostly) fit, and the pieces of leather and hide served as makeshift armor for several warriors.

9. The sign from the Soldier’s Boots tavern. A few of the invading orcs could read common well enough, but when they entered the tavern expecting to find things to make armor out of, they instead found drinkables and not much food. So they sacked the place in anger and took the sign; the lead orc used it as a makeshift wooden shield.

10. The black granite sword held in the stony hand of King Dhalmass Obarskyr. The statue was rudely treated by the orcs, but though they hacked tugged at it, they failed to turn it over or do any damage to it. An impatient ghazneth ripped off the sword and tossed it to the orcs, which was enough for them to move on and join the siege in other parts of Arabel.


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Gary Dallison
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6350 Posts

Posted - 02 Sep 2015 :  10:43:47  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Thankyou for that post Jeremy, I had seen it long ago and have used it for the basis of Shadow Gap following Netheril's Fall, but I couldn't find it again.

It is linked to bits and pieces dotted across these boards and even another post on Ed's Thread.

In the other version it was the giants who cast the magic that went awry and annihilated both dragons and giants in the process. That's why I think Thauglor had a lot of vassals at one point (during Netheril's times) but most of them were killed during the incident that must have formed Shadow Gap (or at least made it wide enough and safe enough to pass through). Shadow Gap was of course named after Queen Shaddara the Fair of Anauria, and so it likely formed after or during her reign (when the Anaurians also renamed some hills and other features in her honour).

I think prior to this the pass was probably much smaller and filled with monsters (hence the need for Blister, which was supposedly surrounded on all sides by mountains, with walkways between them, and would be the point where the Desertsmouth, Stormhorns, and Thunderpeak mountains all met).

I prefer the cloud giants to be the cloud kingdom of Avaeraethar (or however it is spelled) that I think GK coined the name for which for me is made up of the remnants of various giant kingdoms in Netherese territory who also suffered greatly with the death of Mystryl and cobbled together a number of cloud castles as they migrated south (and maybe took a detour into Thar before being chased out by the rapidly forming Ogre Kingdom of Thar, and then couldn't stay in Cormanthor's territory because of Venom and Embrurshaille. So they start in the Channel Mountains (Teeth of Tagorlar), move to the Survivor States, get forced into Thar, then down through Cormanthor before finally moving through Shadow Gap and getting killed.

And that's a huge detour so i'll stop there. I'm so glad you posted that, it solves a few problems I had with my Netheril rewrite.

Still no closer to figuring out what is in Cormyr that makes it so magical, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 02 Sep 2015 :  21:22:26  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well you've convinced me to work on Cormyr next. After I have finished writing my own ruleset and sorted out Netheril I will begin cataloguing everything I have on Cormyr (which is an awful lot) into a single document and begin sifting through it for alternative ideas.

I think I'm mostly going to be working up to an alternative Death of Azoun and the Devil Dragon war so I will be along to pick your brains frequently in the next year.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 03 Sep 2015 :  00:45:16  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Glad to hear it!

I hope you will hit up Garen Thal / Brian Cortijo and Ed Greenwood on their Ask scrolls too. Might reveal some new Cormyr lore that way.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 03 Sep 2015 :  07:53:22  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Random:

1. Campaign Idea: someone or something manages to poison and kill off all but a handful of nobles housed in the prison castle of Irlingstar. PCs must figure out who did it, before all hell breaks loose in Cormyr.

2. As above, but the poison or sickness turns the nobles into zombies.

3. A noble’s estate with a hedgerow maze. One of the senior servants looks out on it from his room, by night. He or she can always tell which of the young scions of the House will grow up to be trouble, and which will grow up to be good, depending on whether as children the lordlings followed tradition and walked the maze only when Selûne waned, or walked it in full darkness.

4. A handful of golden lions (the name for gold pieces used in Cormyr, in case you didn’t know) that can transform into small objects made of gold, and back again.

5. Grodd should be a place falling apart, filled with earthquakes and extradimensional tornadoes that hurl extraplanar creatures into the city, that the goblins must confront and slay. (Grodd is detailed in the 3rd Edition adventure “Into the Dragon’s Lair,” which is set in Cormyr.)

6. The members of the Company of the Mirror Ghost have taken to referring to themselves as “ghostmen.”

7. The mirror ghost was always a thing viewers hoped to catch a glimpse of. If you sat a tall mirror outside in the fog and sat before it, you might see a fleeting form, white against the grey mist. It would be walking behind your reflection in the mirror. If you were lucky, it stopped and spoke to you while it grasped at things and moved them about, as though trying to show you something.

8. Whatever the mirror ghost said could not be heard, and whatever it touched remained unseen. The longer you watched her in the mirror, the colder you became. Most would count this enough and get up from the mirror.

9. For those who remained, they would see the mirror ghost finally give up trying to communicate by words and movements. The ghost would never depart angrily. Instead she would leave the viewer with a smile and a cold embrace that can readily be felt and is impossible to break away from, for it leaves the viewer chilled to the bone. The Lady’s words would then come to you in your dreams, though you could never hope to remember them while awake.

10. The Company of the Mirror Ghost draws its name from the legend of the lady in the mirror. They have never seen her, but they are not above telling tall tales about her and the spectral guardians said to guard her. These ghost men haunt the dreams of those who use magic to try to summon the lady, as well those who glimpse the lady doing things it wishes to be kept secret.

Like the title says, this one’s random.

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 03 Sep 2015 :  08:24:06  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I think I figured out what I'm going to do with Cormyr. It can be a giant mind control device, well a very subtle one at least. The creator races (probably batrachi) used an artefact to keep their slaves docile (that way they could move it around), but it was shattered by the Tearfall. The dragons that came after pieced it back together but it turned into a mythal like creation that was anchored to the land itself rather than an object.

They used it to subtly control their own slaves (hobgoblins and other goblinoids seem like a good one since the stonelands are crawling with them). They'd carry out any orders, while at the same time having their aggressive, cowardly, and backstabbing impulses reduced.

Following the fall of Netheril the mythal probably corrupted and it meant anyone could use its powers (rather than just dragons), and those powers were weakened so the slaves gained a measure of their own will (constant domination was more difficult, instead subtle control had to be used). That's why the Xraunrarr are so successful, their preferred powers are augmented and disguised.

I'm thinking that Thauglor used it to influence and control (subtly) anyone in his domain, the power of the mythal still functions enough that everyone in his domain is impelled to obey his every command (only those of strong will can resist), but he has to issue those commands in person (and during the dracorage of 1018 he was mad and unintelligible so could not use these powers to aid him). Thus the policies of Cormyr are actually the policies of Thauglor.

And i'll have some remnants of the original artefact that Thauglor owned, which made him so accomplished at using the mythal, and allowed him to alter its powers.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 04 Sep 2015 :  04:31:49  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dazzlerdal

I think I figured out what I'm going to do with Cormyr. It can be a giant mind control device, well a very subtle one at least. The creator races (probably batrachi) used an artefact to keep their slaves docile (that way they could move it around), but it was shattered by the Tearfall.
Would it fit with lore to place the device in or near what became the Farsea Swamp/Tunlands?

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Gary Dallison
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Posted - 04 Sep 2015 :  06:31:40  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Farsea Marsh is more central so I'd be tempted to place it there, of course there is no artefact anymore, it should have been destroyed (Thauglor only had a single piece that allowed him greater access to the mythal's powers) in the Tearfall and it's magic seeped into the ground, perhaps its lingering effects are concentrated in the Farsea Marsh and that's why its so evil.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 04 Sep 2015 :  06:34:01  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Could be. Maybe the artifact or some portion of its magic is what made all those glass cities or whatever that are in the marsh (or made it possible to produce the material)?

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Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 04 Sep 2015 06:36:47
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 04 Sep 2015 :  06:37:59  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

Mayhaps there is something the Weave in this area that has attracted all these entities...
That something may just be what attracted Mystra to Cormyr after she fell.

Hrmm....

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 04 Sep 2015 :  08:11:27  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Random:

1. Magic item crafted in Cormyr: Handrazzur’s Warming Cushion.
These cushions came in varieties ranging from thin and unnoticeable to fluffy and colorful. The cushions kept one’s backside warm and were guaranteed to prevent hemorrhoids (I am sure there’s a unique Realms word in the Common tongue for hemorrhoids, but I’m just not going to go there). Handrazzur was savvy enough to see the coin-making opportunity his cushions afforded him, so he made sure they only worked in custom, handmade chairs that he sold separately (and for a ruinous sum).

2. How the Xraunrarr store spells (well, some spells):
Beholders who challenged the Xraunrarr or who were members that misbehaved were slain, but not destroyed. Their bodies were hollowed out, the interior surface preserved by means known only to the beholder mages among the Xraun, the hollow shell split open vertically (if one looked at a beholder from overhead, with the central eye at 12 o’clock, then the cut would start at three and end at nine) and a pair of leathery hinges applied to one side. In a tall, hollow cavern (much like an enormous egg in shape), numerous of these beholder shells are fastened to the interior wall. All are closed, and depending on the rank of a beholder in the hierarchy of the Xraunrarr hive, it may ascend to a certain level of shells and use its telekinesis eye to open any shells on that level, and gaze upon the interior where spells unique to the Xraun are inscribed in their bizarre arcane language.

An order dedicated to Tyr some 400 years ago, it’s name forgotten in modern day Cormyr save for a few old priests and lay followers.
3. The location of order’s hold is lost to time. Within one could find several hanging shields. The shields were equal parts holy symbol and spell foci. Without them no cleric or paladin of the order could cast spells.

4. The shields are said to have all been lost in battle. Some were recovered and used by adventurers, others were dismissed as relics and left to sit in dusty attics, while some were bought up wholesale with battered suits of armor and weapons, the lot assembled into a suit of armor made to stand in entrance parlors, the arrangement never having actually been worn by the old noble or merchant who claims to have been a mighty warrior in his youth.

5. Magic item crafted in Cormyr: Handrazzur’s Water Skin.
Handrazzur was dismissed by his peers as a soft footed wizard that never saw the outside of a tower until his master kicked him out. True, Handrazzur enjoyed his comforts, and his reputation for comfortable living owed much to his success as a crafter and seller of magic items for the home. His Water Skin, however, is an exception to the rule: designed for use by travelers and aggressively hawked to adventurers, the Water Skin was a simple bag of leather. If water pored into the bag was poisoned or otherwise unfit to drink, it turned red. This was one of Handrazzur’s first creations for use by his adventuring companions.

6. Magic item crafted in Cormyr: Lornac’s Float Stone.
Lornac “the Magnificent” was a rival of Handrazzur. The later never understood why the former tried to outshine him, but try Lornac did. One of his more popular creations was a flat, rectangular stone with rounded edges that would float on command at about the height of a chair seat. Lornac spent far too much time trying to use slate and other stone that could be worked into thin sheets and would thus be lighter, but his magic only ever worked on the heavy gray stone found in lakes and streambeds.

7. Magic item crafted in Cormyr: Lornac’s Errant Gauntlet.
Lornac always preferred to be addressed by his full name, i.e. Lornac The Magnificent. He ability to take offense was practically a reflex; his capacity for self-preservation deigning to stand up and make itself heard only after he’d gotten himself into trouble. This voice pointedly advised the rest of Lornac’s brain that he ought to offer his services to the cousin of Palaghard II as recompense for having cursed the man’s lineage, without first pausing to wonder just who the armored oaf was that stumbled over Lornac’s sandaled feet, and for turning the man’s shiny gauntlet into a rusted hunk of metal. From on his knees Lornac promised to craft the Duke a new gauntlet that would unerringly guide its wearer to whatever item or person the wearer sought. Lornac worked day and night, and when finished he presented the Duke with a gauntlet that did not function as advertised. When the Duke lifted his gauntleted hand up, one finger pointing straight ahead, and recalled the image of King Palaghard in his mind, the gauntlet did not guide his hand to point in the direction where the Duke knew the King to be. Instead the gauntlet flew off his hand, balled itself into a fist and punched Lornac in the nose. The Duke forgave Lornac, but kept the gauntlet. It proved a useful surprise in battle, even saving the Duke’s life on one occasion. Could this be THE Errant Gauntlet? Time will tell.

8. Magic item crafted in Cormyr: the Chamber of Flourishing Plants.
The Chamber of Flourishing Plants was one of Handrazzur’s last creations. At twelve paces long and ten wide, the Chamber enjoyed sunlight and good air, thanks to a trio of windows and a wide arch that opened out to a balcony. All of this relied on the weather being good, something not guaranteed by the upland location of the mansion that the Chamber was a part of. Known as Tallspires, the mansion was an unimaginatively named place occupied by unimportant members of the Bleth noble family, as well as undesirable kin who were best left isolated and kept away from family business. The Chamber of Flourishing Plants, as you might guess, was filled with a variety of plants, flowers and growing things; anything that grew out of dirt could be brought to the chamber and made to thrive. Popular legend holds that one or more plants got out of hand and took over the mansion, swallowing it from top to bottom in a mass of tree limbs and vines, while questing roots tore holes in floor and ceiling, and collapsed the cellars. Whatever the case, Tallspires was not recorded as one of the properties to be reclaimed by the Crown when the Bleths were exiled, though records recovered from the Bleth family mansion in Suzail showed much in the way activity to a place the family claimed was lost soon after the Chamber was completed.

9. A treasure Thauglor The Black Doom hid in Cormyr:
Scales shed by mighty Thauglor were collected by the dragon and stored for later use. Over time Thauglor selected the best of the scales and destroyed the rest, with the intent of either turning them into a patch of sorts for parts of its body scarred in battle, or into a set of animated shields the dragon could carry on its body and release in flight, the better to protect it in battle. These plans never saw fruition, and the scales Lornac discovered several centuries after the fact appeared to him the perfect items to fashion dinner plates out of. His attempts at rounding off the edges, decorating them and otherwise creating a uniform set of plates ruined most of the scales, but he judged his efforts worthwhile after he discovered the plates floated on command and followed one about one’s home.

10. Magic item crafted in Cormyr: Handrazzur’s Comfortable Cradle.
One of the few items that Handrazzur priced to make affordable for those not blessed with coin or of noble blood, Handrazzur’s Comfortable Cradle was a simple wooden affair that stood low to the ground, its four legs fastened to two bowed pieces of wood so that one could rock a baby in the cradle while laying on one’s bed. The Craddle’s magic kept a constant temperature for the little one laying within it, and was capable of withstanding extreme heat and cold. These cradles can still be found throughout Cormyr, though no mage has managed to duplicate Handrazzur’s work (which is to say make this type of item at a low enough cost to price it within an affordable range for commoners).

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Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 06 Sep 2015 21:28:32
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 05 Sep 2015 :  06:15:25  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
This sword is always going through a breakup.

1. A longsword of elven make—not that this means it’s terribly fancy or anything: the blade is straight and maintains its thickness for its full length, the cross-guard is one sturdy piece of metal, the grip is suitably grippable for repeated one-handed swinging and parrying, and the pommel is carved to resemble a howling wolf’s head without being gaudy or presenting the wielder with difficulty while fighting for his life.

2. The blade’s natural state is to be in lots of broken pieces scattered all over Cormyr. Heating the pieces up in a forge fire causes them to vibrate and then fly about, ricocheting madly off of walls, ceiling and whatever else they come into contact with, until the pieces cool down.

3. The wolf’s head design for the pommel was a style briefly en vogue among nobles and adventurers in Cormyr, from about 360 DR to 365 DR, the design being “rediscovered” every century or so and finding its way onto newly crafted blades (including short swords and daggers).

4. The wolf’s head design has always been claimed by the Church of Malar in Cormyr; any priest or lay follower will tell you readily enough that to see a snarling wolf’s head attached to the grip of a blade is a sure sign you’re looking upon a follower of the Beastlord.

5. The longsword of elvish make features a howling wolf design, the head of the wolf being one piece of the broken blade.

6. The remainder of the longsword can be found in chunks; the grip in two pieces, the cross-guard in three (the middle piece includes part of the blade), the blade in eight.

7. All sorts of rumors and legends surround the Broken Blade, including who’s owned it and for how long, under what conditions the blade can be reassembled, how to identify pieces, and the circumstances that shattered the blade without destroying it.

8. The last recorded instance of the Broken Blade being wielded was in the year 1268 DR. According to the sage Crimmorn (specialties include active adventuring bands, including their rosters and areas of operation, and adventurer lore dating back to about 1200 DR), a member of the Band of Bold Reavers wore a second longsword on his hip that had a wolf’s head pommel. This Reaver never drew the blade, but had a habit of kissing the wolf’s head and whispering to it. He proved impossible to sneak up on and slay; the blade would launch itself out of the scabbard and attack anyone seeking catch the Reaver unawares.

9. Not a few sages disagree with Crimmorn about the Broken Blade. Whereas Crimmorn believes one must possess the original scabbard, “feed” it pieces of the blade and then cap it with the parts comprising the hilt, most sages believe the Broken Blade need only be assembled as the pieces are found. These same persons frown upon Crimmorn’s intimation in his writings that he possesses the original scabbard.

10. The Broken Blade is said to be a sturdy and dependable weapon once assembled. Stories describing the Blade slicing through monstrous creatures, armored warriors and the undead are common enough and taken for the truth, however fanciful. When and why it flies apart is yet another topic repleet with contradictory rumor and “fact,” though all the tales agree that to be wielding the Broken Blade when it disassembles is an unpleasant experience.


Yep, there’s an EYE article here. I can smell it.

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Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 07 Sep 2015 06:54:20
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 05 Sep 2015 :  20:17:18  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Broken Blade leads to a broken family.


1. Stories of the Broken Blade describe the sword flying to pieces and then disappearing. If you get hit with a piece of the sword before it translocates to somewhere else in Cormyr, you get the privilege of coming along for the ride.

2. Or part of you, which is a painful experience according to a Halaunt family servant who lost a chunk of flesh to the Broken Blade when it flew apart unexpectedly after crossing the threshold of Oldspires—the ancestral home of the Halaunt noble family in Cormyr—peppering the assembled staff, furniture and decorations in the Great Entry Hall with pieces of sword.

3. Pieces of the blade don’t automatically teleport when they hit something; they’ll fly right through objects and people. The leader of the Bold Reavers learned this the hard way. The surviving Reavers knew the danger of the Broken Blade, but as one they regarded its dismantling as deliberate, and they took their revenge on the surviving Halaunt lords for causing the blade to slay their leader.

4. The Halaunt line might have ended then and there, but a Halaunt son and daughter were whisked away by pieces of the blade. These wounded scions arrived separately, each in the middle of nowhere.

5. The daughter had a difficult journey. Getting home hardened her into a capable survivor. She claimed the House as her own and took a husband from the crofters that worked the family lands. She resisted the inevitable suitors from other noble houses seeking to fold the Halaunt lands and riches into their own.

6. Her brother—older than she—made for Westgate via Marsember, and a life beyond Cormyr. The tip of the blade left a wicked scar on his body, and he kept blade tip with him as he grew up. His was the life of an explorer, his time as a crewman sailing the Sea of Fallen Stars filled with long stretches of boredom interrupted by harrowing attacks from pirates, sea monsters and treachery aboard ship.

7. He returned to Cormyr only once, the ship he’d served on now under his capable command. The Captain knew of the fall of Halaunt, and rejoiced at word of his sister’s return and her efforts to renew the House. He took a berth in Suzail and made for the temple of Mystra, where he turned over his piece of the Broken Blade along with a sizeable donation, saying only that the blade tip was property of the Halaunt family, and that an altar sworn priest must return it to its home.

8. The Captain’s sister grew old as her sons and grew up. Now “Lady Oldspires” quietly ruled a revitalized House, trusting more in the decisions of her children as the years went by, her beloved husband passed away.

9. A tired and wounded priestess of Mystra collapsed at the Front Entrance to Oldspires. She was taken in and looked after until her health returned. She refused to speak of her burden or purpose until she could stand again on her own.

10. Lady Oldspires met with the priestess in her Receiving Room, where she turned over the blade tip. The Lady was not surprised; for years pieces of the blade had found their way back to Oldspires. Now all the pieces were under one roof.

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Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 06 Sep 2015 21:27:30
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 06 Sep 2015 :  21:27:02  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The Blade is whole again. Or is it?


1. There are so many competing tales surrounding the fate of the Lady Lord of Oldspires. All agree she disappeared, but how? And why did the Crown seem unconcerned with her sudden absence, never mind the swiftness with which her five sons took over?

2. Could she have opened the sealed entrances to the gates that lurk in the cellars beneath Oldspires? These the very same gates that the Crown wisely sealed off when it was believed the family had been slaughtered by what remained of the Band of Bold Reavers? Some say yes. These persons go so far as to say the Crown left it to Lady Oldspires to decide whether or not the stone walls ought to be taken down, and access to the gates allowed.

3. Here the stories split apart. Some say the Lady took the Broken Blade and quietly passed through a gate, leaving he sons unaware of her actions, but believing them capable of taking on the responsibility of minding the gates.

4. If one believes sages who specialize in the lore of gates and portals, then Lady Oldspires surely was prevented from leaving through a gate as the magic surrounding them likely caused the Broken Blade to fly apart again, slaying the Lady in the process or whisking her away to some part of Cormyr, where she died from wounds caused by the blade shards.

5.Those who claimed to have know the Lady disagree with the sages. They claim she was wise beyond her years, and would never have subjected the sons she loved, and the people beyond Oldspires that she considered family, to such a danger as the gates presented. These people insist her sons were not as wise as their mother, or that they fell under the sway of interests outside their House. Surely the Lady must have died after piecing together the Blade and having it fly apart in her hands.

6. Regardless, word of the gates beneath Oldspires spread to those in and out of Cormyr who concern themselves with such things. For a time the Sons of Oldspires made friends of wizards, and even hosted a pair of Crownsworn mages housed at either end of Oldspires, all for the sake of driving off trouble and assuring all that the gates were firmly under the control of the House.

7. Stories of the lady had been written down—fanciful things, all of them, that embroidered the tale of her life—and even a pair of plays commissioned (one by her youngest son, another by her admirers).

8. One of these plays may have been responsible for the rumorfire that swept Arabel for a tenday, when Arabellans high and low were convinced Lady Oldspires had traveled to the Caravan City, there to right one last wrong done to her family by causing the Broken Blade to fly apart, slaying both her and a rival noble who’d done much to hamper the Lady’s quest to renew her House.

8. Not long after, one could find street vendors and sellers of magical things in Arabel hawking pieces of a longsword that they claimed were the true remnants of the Broken Blade.

9. The legend of the Broken Blade and the story of Lady Oldspires fell out of the minds of Cormyreans as time went by, to be replaced by new stories and the tales of other legendary things awakening somewhere in Cormyr. House Halaunt prospered, suffering only as other Cormyreans suffered when the Time of Troubles came, the Devil Dragon raged and the Blue Fire burned.

10. Oldspires today is a shadow of its former glory, occupied by one grumpy old noble, the servants unaware of the human sacrifices taking place within, the gates glowing dangerously in the darkness below. You can read all about it in the novel Spellstorm, by Ed Greenwood (the book even comes with a map of the main floor of Oldspires, and a thorough map key with sixty-nine entries). As for the Lady Lord of Oldspires and her Broken Blade? Well, they might make an appearance in The Books That Kill (a work in progress).


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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 08 Sep 2015 :  06:28:17  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Headlines for the Arabellan broadsheet “The Handkeg Hears All”:


1. The Citadel Is Full Of Holes!
Two Escapes in as Many Nights

2. Three Cocks Eaten at the Lusty Lord

3. Horligul Proclaims Dominance in the Stonelands

4. Curious Creditors Question Ownership of Curios
Wake Held at Old Red Sword

5. Lady Oldspires Lives!

6. The Book Tyrant Is Buried
Killer Still at Large

7. Hiloar Elephant Takes a Bath
Goes for a Walk

8. Lady Dathra’s Duck Dumps Dahlmass!
Duck Purchased at Curios?

9. Book Tyrant Replaced by Council

10. Council Seeks Lost Treasures

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 09 Sep 2015 :  05:49:47  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Stonelands; Shieldbarons; Towers


Arrow Tower
1. To become a Shieldbaron, one must construct a fortress of sorts in the Stonelands, patrol the area around it and tame it, without succumbing to the environment and the predators both magical and mundane that live there. Arrow Tower is comprised of stone from no less than three consecutive attempts by would-be Shieldbarons to build a fortress along the southern edge of the Stonelands, in the shadow of a great peak that looms over the easternmost arm of the High Moors.

2. The land that would one day host Arrow tower is remarkably flat, comprising an elevated portion of rock and dirt two miles across at its widest point, that extends for a half mile north from the base of the mountain.

3. The northern face of the peak is as worn and ravaged by sand, wind and weather as all the other peaks of the Stormhorns. Portions of the mountain have fallen away over time, creating a north-facing V formation, whose arms are comprised of jagged mountain rock and slopes downward, the space between the arms devoid of debris.

4. The first Cormyrean to consider the location for his keep judged the rises of stone too unstable to build on, electing instead to construct a keep in the flat between them. Mining rock out of the rises was a tricky business, but the stone was suitable for building and in time a good-sized pile of stones had been quarried.

5. The Cormyrean had intended to front the rises with tall towers, the idea being to build a grand wall linking them, but the hardworking men and women the Cormyrean had convinced to follow him north never began work on the towers. A force of goblins and orcs slaughtered them all.

5. A century later, the second Cormyrean to set eyes on the location was pleased to see the foundations of a keep had already been laid down. The discovery of previously mined stone was seen as a boon. She was more prepared than her predecessor, having brought dwarves with her on the promise that her keep—once completed—would serve to defend the dwarves as they explored the mountain and searched for caves and the long-rumored-to-exist entrances built by dwarves in centuries past.

6. In return, the dwarves promised to split their time between exploring the mountain and mining and cutting stone to build the outer walls of a foursquare keep. Plans were made to construct a proper castle around the keep, with curtain walls, towers and a gatehouse—provided the promise of the dwarves to unearth lost riches and gold in the mountain was kept.

7. The disappearance of the dwarves into the mountain spelled doom for the would-be Baron and her followers. Work on the keep had progressed, but was now stalled at the insistence of the Cormyrean—she would not allow another stone to be set until the dwarves were found and made to return. She led half her force into the mountain.

8. Within a tenday the other half was set upon by goblins and orcs. They disobeyed their leader, choosing to rally around the partially completed keep instead of retreating into the mountain. Now the goblinoids of the Stonelands are remarkably circumspect creatures; they are more likely to sit, watch and plan than they are to give in to blood lust and attack en masse. With some effort they captured a hill giant, promising to free it if it would hurl stones at the ugly half-keep filled with humans.

9. The giant agreed, and after some careful instructions as to where to aim, a cheer rose up among the goblin ranks when the walls collapsed and crushed those inside. It took only five throws. (Not all the goblinoids were happy; many bets had been placed on how many throws it would take, and some lamented having to haul away rock to get at the meat inside.)

10. The third Cormyrean to scout the location had a good idea what had happened to his predecessors. He had no intention to explore inside the mountain—the lady, her men and the dwarves were never heard from again—and he assumed the goblins of the Stonelands would come calling as soon as they judged his force weak enough to defeat. Instead his men built a tower out of the ruins and small redoubt around it. Dubbed Arrow Tower, every man and woman within carries a longbow and two battle quivers (21 arrows per quiver).

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 10 Sep 2015 :  06:20:42  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
After the fall of Shade: the Exiled Legion returns to claim the Stonelands:

An adventure in the print version of Dungeon Magazine—its name eludes me—featured Shadar-Kai making the transition to the Prime…they were the ancestors of humans lost to Shadow a long time ago.

That idea served as inspiration for a much bigger one that I used in my 3rd Edition Realms campaign: a legion of warriors, generals, cavalry and troops, all lost in the Plane of Shadow. They served Thultanthar, but were sent on an impossible mission by the Most High after he determined his war leaders meant to depose him—they’d lost faith, and as one they wanted to return to Faerun and take the battle the Phaerim, to reclaim and renew the lands of Netheril, and see to the rise of a new nation led by persons other than Arcanists.

The Legion succeeded in their task to defeat a foe that all were convinced posed a fatal danger to Thultanthar, but in doing so they traveled so far into Deep Shadow that they couldn’t find their way back. Thultanthar had left them all.

The Most High exulted in his victory. The foe was never a threat until the Most High had it covertly attacked to draw it out. Then his generals had no choice but to defend their home.

Fast forward to now, and the army has found its way back. They’ve grown, formed their own society, established their own social mores and rules, their numbers filled with priests who worship the old pantheon. In my campaign they took over the Stonelands, filled it with Shadow and dared Shade to try and conquer them. They defended their borders with Shadow Dragons, loyal arcanists and warriors, and almost got Shade to fall. The PCs saved Shade, and in return they secured a promise that for one century Telamont, his Princes and all people of Shade would stay out of Cormyr, and not work overtly or covertly to destabilize or destroy it.

Good times, that campaign. It was fun to watch as my players positioned their miniatures on a kitchen table, then used a tape measure to figure the distance for their long-range spells, while others transformed into dragons or rode their flying mounts into battle somewhere over the coffee table.

Good times, that.

So, let’s say the Exiled Legion arrives after Shade falls. How do they go about it? What might happen in Cormyr?

1. The Exiled Legion have been able to operate under the radar for centuries. They took some lessons with them from the Deep Shadow—like how to avoid magical detection by those not native to the Plane of Shadow, and how to briefly extend the Plane of Shadow into the Prime. While Shade gazed through the veil between realities at the Prime, the Legion watched at Shade.

2. As Shade’s plans unfolded, agents of the Legion moved about the Prime. In the handful of instances where they were killed or discovered, the agents were mistaken for Netherese from the Land Under Shadow.

3. The Legion passed into the Prime through the Tilverton Scar. Their mightiest priests and arcanists fanned out into the Stonelands, trailing shadow in their wake, and met up with their allies: the Goblins of Grodd.

4. The city of had Grodd materialized in the Prime during the Spellplague. It occupies a massive cavern space in the Upperdark, and many tunnels and paths lead from it to caves that dot the eastern face of the massive plateau that borders the Stonelands. Its residents retained their power to move about through Shadow, as well as their affinity for the Plane of Shadow. They proved easy allies to make.

5. The assembled goblins and shadovar began a great magic, one fueled by faith, magic and artifacts recovered in Deep Shadow, and elven artifacts supplied by the goblins (that the elf Lorelei Alavara used centuries ago to begin her transformation into a dragon). For a few breaths they stole the power of the Stormhorns, drawing on the energy stored in each mountain, and folded Shadow into the Prime.

6. The result is a place where the sun is always dim. One can pass from the Prime to the Plane of Shadow very easily here. The new land has two principal cities: New Tilverton and Grodd. The Stonelands is still a treacherous place, filled with stones, rocks, ravines and gullies. But the obstacles are slowly disappearing.

7. The essence of Shadow is responsible for this effect. It lurks over the Stonelands, but it’s not immobile. In fact it is slowly moving northward, shunting the sands of Anourach into the Plane of Shadow. The power of the Stormhorns is fueling this process.

9. Agents of the Legion have fanned out, seeking survivors and those of Netherese blood, much as agents of Shade did. But they are not kidnapping people or forcing them to depart. Rather, they are advising them that a new, safe home exists for them. The one exception: arcanists of Shade. These are killed without mercy or delay.

10. Weather along the Cormyrean side of the Stormhorns is chaotic and unpredictable. It’s wreaking havoc on travelers and those who live in or near the mountains. The many dragons and other creatures that lair in the mountains have been forced to flee. The representatives of the new kingdom make no apologies, but offer no threat to Cormyr, provided Cormyr does not try to reclaim the Stonelands.


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Jeremy Grenemyer
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Posted - 11 Sep 2015 :  06:52:59  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
A wizard’s tower—the destination for a group of PCs, seeking magical aid or to have questions answered—is…

1. …on fire; the door blasted off; smoke erupting from windows absent any glass or shutters, and out of cracks and holes in the tower stone.

2. …falling over. The place literally falls on its side and crashes to the earth, as the PCs round the bend.

3. …gone. It was there last time, and filled with what you’d expect to find in a wizard’s tower (at least the parts of it the wizard, her apprentices and whatever else runs the place will let you see).

4. …small. Very, very, small—about as tall as a dwarf. The wizard walks out, casts a spell to amplify her voice, and proceeds to inform the PCs as to what happened.

5. …surrounded by merchant carts, laborers, factors, horses and the curious. The wizard is nowhere to be found, her servants and students are gone too, and the locals have decided to empty the place out.

6. …not where it used to be. That is, it’s no longer standing in a round clearing surrounded by low hills, just around the bend. Now it stands on one of the hills.

7. …now one of two identical looking towers standing just around the bend. As the PCs turn the corner, the wizard appears, waves her hands to signal the PCs to go back the way they came, and follows them. She says the second tower is a rare form of mimic—a tower mimic—and they must approach invisibly, because the creature is hungry.

8. …the way it’s always been. However, a different wizard answers the door and he has no idea who it is the PCs are asking after.

9. …no longer there. A sign posted where the tower stood informs the reader as follows, “We’ve moved! Find us south of Redspring, a half-mile as the raven flies.”

10. …not taking visitors, but is hiring guards. A mage moot is taking place inside, and trouble always follows.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
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USA
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Posted - 12 Sep 2015 :  05:30:46  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Birds of the King’s Forest: the Dwarfbeard Finch

1. Dwarfbeard Finches are so named for the thick, colorful feathers that adorn the face and breast of male finches.

2. Dwarfbeard males are of one solid color, usually black or deep blue. Females tend to colors ranging from rock-grey to dun-brown. From beak to tail, a typical male finch is about as long as a handkeg is tall. Females are about half again as large as males.

3. The “beards” of male finches appeat during mating season. Males inflate their cheeks and breast, causing the feathers over their faces to extend outward like mustachios and curl downward into the feathers of their breast, these beard feathers flowing downward past the finch's clawed toes. Beard feathers change color during mating season: vibrant reds, wholesome browns, straw-colored blonds and loamy blacks. A rare few are the color of snow.

4. Dwarfbeards have not been sighted anywhere else in Cormyr since the woodland north of Suzail was cleared away and separated into what would one day become the King’s Forest and the Hullack Forest.

5. Males build nests on sturdy branches, over the point where another strong branch grows out from the first. The nests are round and one side is built up into a sort of half-dome roof over the nest.

6. A female finch will land on one of the two branches that run out from the junction that the nest is built on. The male finch will come out from the nest and scamper, elaborately preen, dance and wiggle up and down the other branch, doing his best to coax the female towards his nest.

7. This process almost always fails if the male hasn’t placed a shiny object in the heart of the nest. if the object is suitable, the female will enter the nest, and then the male must sing for as long as it takes for the female to settle in. If she does then the birds will mate, and become a mated pair for life.

8. During the nesting season, male Dwarfbeards are notorious for landing in groups on forest travelers wearing items of clothing and jewelry that shine or flash in the sunlight. Likewise for those carrying gleaming magic items or richly adorned armor and weapons (a longsword with a ruby set in its pommel, for example). The birds will peck and poke with their long beaks, seeking to dislodge an item and to carry it off before another finch gets it. More than once this has given away the position of an adventurer ignorant of forest lore.

9. Forest goblins and hunters will sometimes lay out glimmering objects in the center of box traps, in the hopes of catching a small meal. If desperate for coin, these same individuals will climb trees and raid Dwarfbeard nests. A few have lost eyes or fallen to their deaths thanks to the sharp beaks of the males finches.

10. The lore of Dwarfbeards is unreliable as one travels further from the forest. Tales printed in chapbooks sold in Suzail claim Dwarfbeards have a knack for finding lost treasures; stories out of Arabel claim male finches continue to embroider their nests with jewels, necklaces, rings and coins. One tale told throughout Cormyr claims a stubborn finch made off with the sapphire-adorned crown of an early king of Cormyr, used it as a frame to build a nest around, and plucked away the largest gem to place in the center of its nest.

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

Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 12 Sep 2015 06:57:47
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Jeremy Grenemyer
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USA
2717 Posts

Posted - 13 Sep 2015 :  07:26:39  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Beholder names of the Xraunrarr

Format:
Full name. Nickname (if any), and in “ ”. Shortened name (easier on DM).

Note for the reader:
Realmslore names two beholder languages. They are Uibilaqthraxx, aka “the True Tongue,” and Quevquel—literally “speech.” (i.e. not used telepathically).

1. Thuulvaxooorlomphlas. Thuulvax.

2. Xarlohlth’loom. “Keeper of Drow”. Xarl.

3. Quarmvoxk’a’lork. Lork.

4. Klaaaaa’eerht. “Three Eyes”. Eert.

5. Ghul (literally means ‘ugly’ in Quevquel). Ghul.

6. Lurl’uk’lok’lahassarruin. “Little Kin.” Sarruin.
Note: The beholder called Sarruin is an enormous creature; easily four times the size of a typical beholder. Its nickname gives a hint to its origins, in that Sarruin was once a relatively small beholder, who by means of its own magic absorbed several beholderkin into itself, and become bigger as a result. It’s name literally means “little kin” in Quevquel. Beholders instinctively fear larger specimens of their kind, but no Xruan older than Sarruin fears it.

7. Tamkurl Azmuir. loom’Gurt. (‘slave human’ in Quevquel).
Tamkurl was the elder brother of the wizard of war Tamphara Azmuir. Tamkurl ascended to control over the Azmuir family tower and adjoining buildings that sit on a rise of land between Bospir and Sunset Hill, from which one can take in the view of the Wyvernwater (and which more than one noble family has coveted over the years). Many Azmuirs have grown up to become war wizards, and the few that survived to old age all retired to the Azmuir holdings known as Firefields. Once simply Firefield Tower. That tower stood alone on the rise for years. The founder of the Azmuir line in Cormyr held back a marching army of gnolls from the tower top by unleashing a nigh-endless stream of battle spells, leaving scorched fields north and west of the tower that gave rise to the tower’s name.

8. Xraunrarr are utterly paranoid creatures when it comes to keeping their existence a secret, but this is not enough to keep them from manipulating events in Cormyr. For example: the Xraun keep watch for mages in the Forest Kingdom that are researching Shapechange-type spells. The Xraun will covertly aid this research, going so far as to introduce magical clues in spellscrolls or spellbooks found by the mage or his/her assistants and hirelings (such as adventurers already subverted and under the control of the Xraun).

9. Their ultimate goal is to convince a mage to cast Shapechange and transform into a beholder, using Xraun-influenced magic. This allows the Xraun to enter the mind of the Shapechanged wizard and plant further suggestions, that lead the mage to create a duplicate of him/herself while the real mage becomes a beholder and joins the Xraun as a powerful beholder mage thrall.

10. Tamkurl was one such wizard obtained by the Xraun. His duplicate was masterfully constructed, and died on schedule one tenday after Tamkurl departed. Control of the Azmuir family has fallen to Tamphara, who is on leave while she attends to family business. the Xraun have withdrawn completely from the Azmuir family, removing their agents from Firefields and sending their adventurers to other parts of Cormyr. Tamkurl is the third head of the Azmuirs to be taken by the Xraunrarr in six generations, and Tamphara has become far too suspicious for the Xraun to try again anytime soon.


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

Edited by - Jeremy Grenemyer on 13 Sep 2015 07:34:16
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader

USA
2717 Posts

Posted - 17 Sep 2015 :  06:46:40  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Apologies for the lack of posts the last few days. Parenting duties make it tough to find a good hour to sit down and focus.

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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader

USA
2717 Posts

Posted - 20 Sep 2015 :  20:36:09  Show Profile Send Jeremy Grenemyer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Blurbs on the back cover of popular, anonymously written chapbooks circulating in Cormyr:


1. He was a lesser noble made a fool of by a lady thief, but it was he who stole her heart.

2. A Wizard of War, mighty in spells, his steps carrying like thunder through the halls of power, laid low by one glance at a serving maid of Eveningstar.

3. He was a stag riding Cormyr’s noble lasses, she an adventurer turning Cormyr’s noble lads into men; no forge can match the fire ignited when they meet, no covetous noble can hope to extinguish their love.

4. She wields the Kiss of Sune; sometimes for good, sometimes for vengeance. Will she yield to the lost Obarskyr prince immune to her power?

5. The lost Ladies Silver live on the coast of the Dragonmere, dancing before the gods, summoning storms, sinking ships and submitting to no one. Can the crew of the Stormchaser sail the waters into Moon Cove and breach the walls of Silver Tower? Will their Lady Captain overcome the Lord of the Tower?

6. The Purple Dragon with no name stands alone, his comrades lost in battle, no Swordcaptain brave enough to assign new men to hit unit. When he learns of the slaughter of good soldiers near Thunderstone, he departs to pay his respects and discovers one Dragon survived: she is tall, strong and independent, and she stands alone. Can they stand together when Sembian mercenaries attack in the night? Or will they fall, alone?

7. Within you will find the most popular dessert recipes served in noble dining rooms. Prepared rightly, these desserts deliver a magic no wizard can replicate.

8. Here you will find the untold history of Vangerdahast’s amorous conquests; how he bedded a dragon, his many encounters with Lady Lords, how the blood of the Mage Royal became second only to the blood Obarskyr in the veins of Cormyr’s nobility, and how the Dowager Dragon Queen stole his libido.

9. In—and under—the Royal Palace, layer after layer of rooms, halls, catacombs and caverns are filled with the secrets of the Obarskyrs and the families Silver. For the first time these secrets are revealed. Learn the truth of the fourth family Silver, their relics and possessions filling a tower that became a wall of the palace. Discover the name of the wizardess interred with Baerauble. Stand in awe of the five labors of Foril, son of Azoun the Fourth to bear that name, who safeguarded Cormyr in secret and lies at rest in a sarcophagus within a cavern deep below the Palace.

10. Pampered author finds himself alone in the King’s Forest. Will he survive its dangers long enough to make his patron’s deep woods estate? Or will the grim doom inside Snarlfang Manor consume him like so many before him?

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