Green Regent
The Green Regent is a Dream
A dream made manifest. The Delimbiyr Vale is dear to the goddess Mielikki, who watches over the land, and protects it from those who would despoil its verdant beauty. Mielikki dreams of a harmony between civilization and nature, and seeks to make the lands around the River Shining a haven for her ideals and her worshippers. This dream is the rule of the Green Regent. Rule may be a misnomer. The Green Regent holds no real temporal power, but rather rules over the hearts and minds of the good people of Loudwater. Holding no castles, owning no land, and lacking the allegiance of any real army, the Green Regent’s rule is symbolic, but with some very real effects. Under the Green Regent, hunters are careful to maintain the animal population. Timbering is almost unknown, with most firewood coming from deadfall. When timber is needed, loggers selectively harvest the forest and replant saplings when it thins too much. The rangers and druids provide guidance as needed, and the clerics of Mielikki keep a watchful eye on the Delimbiyr Vale. The Green Regent traditionally guards the valley from incursions, invasions, and other threats to the Forest Maiden's harmony. This protector is served by scions: an oathsworn few who share the dream. Bards liken the lands around the River Shining to a lush garden—where natural beauty is carefully pruned to produce an almost supernatural paradise. Much of this is due to the tireless efforts of the Green Regents and their scions. If the Green Regent’s rule is this dream’s manifestation, Loudwater is its reflection. The City of Grottos’s gardens bloom with flowers amid lush grass. Ivy climbs over the buildings pulling the town deep into nature's embrace. Beyond the city’s wards and earthen ramparts, fields are exceptionally fertile and farmers raise outstanding vegetables. The meadows are bedecked with wild flowers throughout most of the year. The forests are the province of fey, centaurs, and unicorns.The Green Regent is a Chosen
The Green Regent is a Chosen of Mielikki. Much like the Magister is the champion of the gods of magic, the Green Regent works to put forward Mielikki's will in Faerûn. Its mantle has passed from person to person through the centuries as the needs of the Lady of the Forest dictate. Only those who embrace Mielikki's dream and are willing to dedicate themselves to her ascend as the Green Regent. In contrast to the Magister’s history, the mantle of the Green Regent passes in a peaceful ceremony each Shieldmeet. The title carries no life sentence; no person has ever carried the mantle for more than four years. The ceremony to choose the Green Regent starts simply. During the Shieldmeet celebration, all interested young men and women gather at the Risen Moon Market before the High Lord's Hall. There, in a mysterious ceremony under the supervision of the Circle of the Stag—a reclusive group of druid in the service Mielikki—the candidates drink a concoction called the greendraught from the Lady's Chalice. The exact nature of the greendraught is a closely guarded secret, but it doesn't radiate magic, though the Lady’s Chalice does. If Mielikki accepts the drinker as a Scion of the Green Regent, her symbol, glowing with an emerald illumination appears on the person's forehead. If Mielikki rejects the drinker, the scion hopeful is nauseated, unable to keep the greendraught down. After the ceremony, all the scions fast for a day, drinking nothing but water from a flowing stream. That night, each keeps a separate vigil in a different part of the High Forest, north of Loudwater. Tradition allows the scion to keep a small fire for warmth and light, as long as it does not endanger the forest. During the night, a magnificent unicorn appears to one of the scions. The scion follows the creature deep into the forest. Where the unicorn leads the scion, or what happens in that place is only known by Mielikki and the Green Regent, but it must be extraordinary for when the former scion returns, the individual carries the mantle of the Green Regent and the marks of the Chosen of Mielikki—intricate emerald symbols that entwine like ivy along the person’s entire body. When a Green Regent’s reign is over (though time passed, or by death) the markings remain, but turn black, resembling normal tattoos.The Green Regent is a Hero
Talos and Malar hate Mielikki's dream, and they set their followers against the Green Regent at every turn. Several times cults to the Destroyer have attempted to bring carnage and violence to the idyllic lands around the Delimbiyr River. The most notable attempt was 25 years ago when Kalathar Twohands, the current High Lord of Loudwater, served as the Green Regent. Talos worshippers summoned a tempest—a terrible storm elemental blight—deep in the Greypeaks south and east of the Delimbiyr Vale. The Talosians loosed the creature on Llorkh and Orlbar. Rain pummeled the countryside and the Tempest ripped at cottages with its fierce winds. The Greyflow flooded its banks and large portions of Llorkh were washed away. Under the domination of the cult to Talos, the Tempest seemed intent to devastate the entire Greyvale. Kalathar led a coterie of scions against the cult, and after a fierce fight in a raging thunderstorm on a mountaintop reversed the summoning spell that bound the tempest to Faerûn. With their leaders slain and their plot undone, the cult scattered. The depredations of the bestial followers of Malar were never as grand as those of Talos. Instead, they have sought to disrupt the harmony that is the dream of Mielikki through terrorizing small villages or isolated farmsteads. Malarites scorn what they see as the soft weakness of those under the Green Regent and thoroughly enjoy bringing fear to the Delimbiyr Vale. The Malarites, many of them lycanthropes, lurk deep in the High Forest in a place they call The Thicket. Three years ago, a blood red moon rose over the Delimbiyr Vale. The Malarites interpreted this as an omen from their dread god, and erupted from the High Forest in a frenzy of hunting and killing. For the next three nights, the lycanthropes hunted, breaking into houses and driving out the fear-stricken citizens of Loudwater and smaller homesteads around the city. The folk of the City of Grottos fought back, and a young Stedd Rein earned particular distinction in those pitch battles, but Malarite bloodlust pressed on. The Green Regent at the time, Galaer Grasswave, was slain by the followers of the Beastlord; his head impaled on a sharpened stick outside of the earth ramparts of Loudwater. After three nights, the moon returned to its normal shade and the Malarites disappeared back into the forest, their retreat as irrational as their assault.The Green Regent is a Legacy
The identity of the first Green Regent is lost to the passage of time, but it suspected that Mielikki did not first designate her champions until humans spread across the Savage Frontier from Illuskan. As Melikki's faith grew, she selected several Green Regents from the Kingdom of Athalantar before its fall. When the Tethyrians began to settle about the Delimbiyr River, the Lady of the Forest drew them into her vision, and the Green Regent was alive and well throughout the Tethyrian Kingdoms of Phalorm and Delimbiyrian. After the collapse of Delimbiyrian, civilization in the vale fragmented into small city-states, but the Green Regent continued to guard the forests, the people of the river valley, and Mielikki's dream. The reign of the Green Regent has been broken only a few times. Though the recent death of the last Green Regent has broken the rule for the past three years, by far the worse disruptions came when the Calishite Rensha family took over the vale in the Year of the Scourge. Mielikki's attention must have been elsewhere, as the Rensha banned the practice of selecting new scions at Shieldmeet and hunted the Green Regent down as a threat to their power. After several years of this persecution, the Green Regent disappeared for well over a century. The Rensha Rule brought with it the golden touch of wealth and regular contact to the world outside the vale. But with prosperity came a disregard for the harmony between civilization and nature. Woodcutters pushed the forests back from the river, and farmers planted new fields. Miners pulled ore from the mountains at a prodigious rate. The wealth of the land poured down the River Shining. With the passage of years, the Rensha lords fell into deeper and deeper decadence, and while doing so spiraled closer to their doom. Pasuuk, the last of their line, sealed his fate when he commanded a group of skilled mercenary hunters to bring him a horn of the unicorn. Why he needed this horn is unknown, but speculators whispered that he needed the horn for a foul magic rite that would bridge a gap between his hall and some infernal pit. Later revelations confirmed that Pasuuk Rensha dabbled in diabolism. After weeks of searching, the hunters tracked a unicorn and tricked it into using its teleport ability. The hunters cornered the creature at a treacherous bend of the Unicorn Run. The captain of the company ordered its newest member—the son of a displaced Nimbral noble—to strike the killing blow. The young man raised and blade and stepped forward to do his captain's bidding, but as he looked into the eyes the beautiful beast his heart broke. His sword still raised, he turned to the others and told them he would not kill such a magnificent beast and would defend it against all that would despoil it. In that instance of courage, Nanathlor Greysword became the first Green Regent since beginning of the Rensha Rule. Nanathlor and twelve of his fellow hunters overthrew their captain. Upon doing so, the glowing symbol of the Green Regent appeared on each of their foreheads, and the telltale marking the Green Regent slithered up Nanathlor’s body. The unicorn revealed itself as an avatar of Mielikki, and tasked the thirteen hunters to rid the vale of the horrible Rensha blight. Two winters of fierce battles raged between the ragtag forces of the Green Regent and Pasuuk's diabolical regime. The War of the Returned Regent ended in the Battle of Tanglefork where Nanathlor called upon the power of his goddess to turn the very trees against Pasuuk. Pasuuk unleashed a coven of devil upon the servants of Mielikki, but the awakened trees utterly destroyed Pasuuk and his fiendish allies, and scattered their remains like ordure. And that is why the soil of those woods is now as black as midnight. Nanathlor Greysword assumed rulership of Loudwater and brought a new era of prosperous rule to the Delimbiyr Vale. The heavy loggings and strip mines were abandoned, but the Delimbiyr maintained its contacts with the lands outside the Vale. Nanathlor brought health and growth back to the land that had soured under the rule of the Rensha. Since Nanathlor became the Green Regent Returned, more than a dozen have taken the mantle of the Green Regent, including the current High Lord of Loudwater, Kalathar Twohands. Past Green Regents have been a varied group of people. Mielikki does not always choose the most obvious candidate as her regent. In the past she has picked simple farmers over great rangers of renown, and even seemly heartless mercenaries over devout priests of her ethos. There is a saying among the folk of the vale that, “It is our fate to be bemused by her winding way, until we reach the destination.” All of her choices, to this point, have ended up being exactly the right person for the task ahead. That said, her current choice for Green Regent has even the staunchest worshiper questioning her wisdom.The Green Regent is a Mystery
Ever since the City of Shade appeared over the Dire Woods, orcs have been migrating out of the High Forest toward the Greypeak Mountains. These “Grey Migrations,” as the folks of the vale have dubbed them, are disruptive and sometimes frightening, but thus far not nearly as deadly as they could be. The orcs have tended to stay away from settlements while traveling east. There have been exceptions. One exception, even more shocking than the Fendrell Massacre, was this year’s Sheildmeet celebration. The Circle of the Stag was not the only group to come out of the High Forest for the ritual, with them came a band of High Forest orcs, lead by a young chieftain called Otar. Orcs entering the High Moon Market was shocking to the people of Loudwater, but not nearly as shocking as when Otar drank the greendraught and keep it down without a wince. Their shock turned to horror when the next day Otar came out of the High Forest with the marks of the Green Regent glowing upon his grey skin. The old elven noble families openly rejected the choice, accusing the Circle of the Stag of trickery and blasphemy. Halitan Phelaniityr, the patriarch of the city’s only sun elf house promised to personally rectify the situation before the vale became a “cesspool of bestial orcish scum.” Before violence broke out, the druid, along with Otar and his orcs retreated back to the High Forest, leaving some angry, some frightened for the future, and the new scions without a leader. Stedd Rein, the hero of the Night of the Blood Moon and the favored wager to take the Green Regent mantle, defiant of Mielikki’s choice tacked his manifesto upon the message pillar of the Red Boar Inn, but that story will have to wait until next time….Career
Qualifications
Selected by the goddess Mielikki.
Perception
History
In the case of some stories, it’s good to start at the end and let it wind its way to the beginning. This is especially true when retelling the lives of heroes and tyrants. That way we can learn valuable lessons on how the road sometimes shapes the traveler.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1372, the Year of Wild Magic
It’s untrue to say the good folk of the Delimbiyr Crescent have lost their faith in the Lady of the Forest and her chosen. But there is doubt. The Phelaniityr family has shown utter and outward contempt for the choice of the orc, Otar, but others are content to wait and see the reasoning of the goddess unfold. In the past, Mielikki has chosen milkmaids and those who seemed buffoons to enact her will, and when their reign was done, few question the goddess’s wisdom in choosing them. But no one in the Realms thinks the gods are infallible. And in the North there’s a saying, “while the wise may worship, only fools bow and wait.” In these trying times few Scions of the Green Regent are waiting. The lack of access to the Green Regent has created worry, but not lethargy. Many have gone forth to do good in the region as their predecessors have done for generations. Now they are not the only organization dedicated to the defense of Loudwater and the region. Another group was born from the wake of Otar’s coronation. A more militant and focused group with an active, present, and charismatic leader named Stedd Rein—a group called the Red Fellowship.
The Manifesto
The common room of the Red Boar Tavern is supported by a large plain pillar, the remains of an ancient oak that stood on the site before the Rein family moved to Loudwater from Waterdeep almost sixty winters ago. That pillar is covered with decades of parchment and paper postings and bills. Almost since the tavern’s raising, the pillar has been the place where many humans post news and events. The elves and many half-elves of the community tend to avoid its use, since the felling of the great oak by the Reins is still considered a great tragedy. Almost a tenday after Shieldmeet, Stedd Rein, the youngest and almost the best known of Deldron Rein’s children, nailed a parchment on the pillar. It detailed what he saw as the problems of Loudwater and what he was going to do to solve them. In that action he created the Red Fellowship as an organization devoted to the betterment of the City of Grottos, and communicated the group’s manifesto. The following are the manifesto’s main points:- The Zhentarim forces in Llorkh are a plague to the region. The Oath of Orlbar will not contain them, as they have no desire to live in peace with the folk of Loudwater. The Red Fellowship is sworn to actively thwart the Zhentarim whenever possible, toward the end of their eventual retreat from Greyvale.
- The prosperity of Loudwater is dependent on its ability to trade with the larger cities of the Sword Coast. The Red Fellowship stands against those who would stop the flow of trade between the vale and the western cities.
- Evil powers ought not be tolerated. A concerted effort should be made to hunt down the savage enemies of Loudwater whenever possible. This includes the savage tribes of orcs that have recently attacked the homesteads up the vale.
- The whims of esoteric religious practice should be cast aside, or at the very least reduced to mere symbolism. The only true stability comes from a strong foundation, and governed by a sturdy architecture of law.
- After the retreat of the Zhentarim, the creation of strong trade routes, and the cleansing of savagery from the region, Loudwater should annex the lands of Orlbar and Llorkh and join the Lord’s Alliance as the Free Lands of the Vales. That state would be under the leadership of and elected High Lord, not from the best offerings of a secretive religious ceremony.
Strange Brew
Mielikki’s choice of Otar as her chosen was not the only shocking event surrounding the Shieldmeet celebration. Stedd, the popular favorite for the title of Green Regent was denied even the title of Scion during the drinking of the Green Draught. It is said that gasps of surprise were the only thing that could be heard after Stedd regurgitated the concoction onto the floor of High Moon Market. Few expected the goddess to reject the young man. While it was true that he revered the Red Knight, Mielikki has had no problem anointing the faithful of other powers (even neutral powers) as scions or even Green Regents. Even the nine chief elven families, who, in recent decades, have habitually acted contrary to anything involving the Rein family, were stunned at the denial of such a worthy candidate. The moon elf Beutaleen’dal family has even used it as an example of an indication that this year’s ceremony was tainted by some mysterious skullduggery. Not all the elven families have been so charitable. The Phelaniityr, while agreeing that the coronation of Otar is not Mielikki’s actual will (and some of the more outspoken members have even questioned the validity of existing scions—a proposition most in Loudwater find absurd), also believe that Stedd’s denial is just further proof that the family is intrinsically villainous, drudging up Deldron’s various questionable woodcutting ventures in the region and his the family’s history of treachery supporting this strange theory. The paradox of this argument seems to be lost on stubborn sun elves, as is the fact that Stedd’s actions show him to be no villain.Blood Moon on the Delimbiyr
On a warn autumn night in the Year of the Gauntlet, savagery struck the City of Grottos. Malar-worshiping werebeasts took the appearance of a blood moon as their call to ravage hated Loudwater. The timing could not be worse. The beloved High Lord Nanathlar Greysword was on his deathbed, the brave warrior finally giving in to old age. Both gauntlets were away from the city, and even Deldron Rein was away to Daggerford on business and to greet the return of his dear son from Amn. The Green Regent at the time was Galaer Grasswave, a kind, gentle, and studious elf wizard, kin to the Bentillail family. Galaer was no warrior-mage, but rather was a philosopher from Loudwater’s famous Velti’Enorethal, and more importantly a student (and some would say prodigy) of the powerful elven high magic wards and mythal. His short reign was spent pursuing repairs on the wards that nourish the cities flora, and protect the city from the ravages of disease and infection, as well as invasion. Scions of magical talent (especially those elves who studied at the Velti’Enorethal, of which there were many during Galaer’s reign) aided Galaer in the arcane repairs, while the others searched out rare components and lore to aid in the wards’ mending. Galaer and his scions were in the midst of important rituals at Standing Stone Hill when the lycanthropes attacked. Not able to pause the ritual, Galaer was forced to split the scions between defending the hill and protecting the people of Loudwater. The scions were decimated in the ensuing battle. After two night of fighting, fewer than a quarter of those defenders still drew breath. But they found death bravely. The ritual had not been interrupted, and many citizens had been defended against the Malarite ravages. Help came in the return of Gauntlets Kalahar Twohands and Harazos Thelbrimm, as well as half of the Red Boar Trading Coster’s guard lead by Stedd Rein. Stedd was returning home from Athkatla where he had spent the last eight years being educated at that city’s famous College of War. When his father received a magical message telling of the attack, he sent his son ahead his guard to Loudwater. The gauntlets regrouped the scions, charging them to defend Standing Stone Hill, while their men, Rein’s private army, and the elven houses split the city into quadrants of defense in preparations for more assaults by the children of the Thicket. Opening his father’s stores, Stedd supplied almost two score of his warriors with alchemical silver weapons. That night the lycanthropes attacked again in a more organized, but intensely savage, strike against the ritual on Standing Stone Hill. The hill stands in the elven quadrant of the city. While some of the elven house guards fought valiantly, others delayed, leaving their main forces to defend their own estates. When Stedd heard that the hill was in danger, he gathered his men. Stedd lead the warriors toward Standing Stone Hill rippling through the Malarite lycanthropes with silver and spell, in a mad rush to Galaer Grasswave and his scion’s aid. But in the long, valiant assault toward the edge of the city, the initiative was lost. Stedd’s group found only a handful of scion survivors, and poor brave Galaer’s head displayed on the earthen ramparts of the cities northeast edge. Still, Stedd’s valor and leadership saved the lives of many that night, including Ovendal, the new matriarch of the Beutaleen’dal family. Most of the ritual had been completed before the Green Regent’s fall. Exactly what parts the sages, priests, and wizards of Velti’Enorethal are still trying to definitely determine. When Deldron returned to the City of Grottos he was greeted by the pungent smell of the fallen defender’s funeral pyres, and words of praise for the Rein name on the lips of survivors. A sound Deldron no doubt welcomed, as almost everyone thought the name was irreparably damaged by the treachery of his daughter, but that story will have to wait until later… Next time we’ll explore some special backgrounds available for characters from Loudwater."Extermination" Plot Recap
Much that occurs in this land escapes the histories and records slumbering in dusty vaults and the dim halls of kings. And so it is with the working of Mielikki and her regents. Much of their story remains written only in the veins of leaves and the moving of winds and waters through the High Forest. Yet, I learned this tale elsewhere still: from the songs of a grig prince named Feythrin, who unwittingly stumbled upon a great adventure. Now that villain the Hark entrenched himself between Loudwater and Secomber. For decades the wererat bandit lord harassed caravans and wayfarers traveling the roads and rivers. The fearless and cunning hit-and-run raids were legendary but thankfully sporadic among those traveling the corridor. Trading coster owners typically referred to losses suffered during these raids as the "Hark's Tax," and they were resigned to consider it a cost of business in the area. Other folk where not so resigned. This tax was not paid in goods only, many paid with their lives. Lately the attacks were becoming more daring, more successful and frighteningly more common. Combined with the tension of orcs migrating eastward en masse from the High Forest, the Hark's renewed vigor bode ill for peace and stability in the region. Rumors of a young red hunting the northern faces of the Greypeak Mountains did nothing to quelling the mounting anxiety. Worry was everywhere, but few paid as dearly in misery as Blaz Merrymar of Shining Falls. Stolen merchandise was inconsequential compared to the lives of four sons and three nephews lost. Added to his woes were thoughts of leaving a widowed wife to fend for his two remaining daughters, for Blaz was captured along the road by Skar and his bugbear pet, Gvrag—and they were agents of the Hark. Groef Feythrin knew a great deal about these goblinoid raiders having played pranks on them a time or two, and their greedy voices scrapping through the evening air attracted his whimsy. "This half-man has looser skin than the other. We must be getting to the bottom of the barrel," barked Skar. "The boss will be well pleased," replied another. Much merrier my midnight mirth promises making them my momentary mischief, thought Feythrin, and off he sprung fiddle in hand. Shortly he came upon a gruesome scene. Blaz held aloft by Gvrag twisted and contorted away from a torch flame held by Skar. Sadly these sorry suckers mistook sickness as silliness so this sad sap suffers, lamented Feythrin. Yet, he was not the only witness to Blaz's distress. Nor was he alone in his desire to work mischief upon the bandits.Fools Finger
In the Greypeak Mountains, about a three day hike from Shining Falls, leans a great crumbling obelisk of unknown origin that locals call Fools Finger.
The rock of this obelisk radiates with a cool emanation and a rosy red color. Hendris Teinel, the patron of the Scarlet Shield, has promised any
adventurer bringing back a souvenir from this monument—a piece of the magical rock no smaller than his own big toe (which is rather large as far as
big toes go)—wins free dinners nightly. Hendris craves the magic stone into shield shapes, and sells them to merchants heading to Waterdeep, where
they are the rave of nobles and adventurers who use it to cool and illuminate their drinks. While the food is rather bland, a guaranteed meal ticket
has motivated a lot of adventurers to take the trek. Many even return.
"Grey Hunt" Plot Recap
"So you seek to hear stories of wondrous adventure? Then sit for a while and I will spin you a tale. Like my mother, I am a bard. You may have heard of my mother – she composed the Ballad of the Dream Weaver in Secomber many years ago. Perhaps you have heard of it? Regardless, the tale I have for you this evening is very different. For it is the tale of Loudwater and the Delimbiyr Vale. And this tale begins just a year ago."
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
This tale begins in the Year of Wild Magic when Harazos Thelbrimm, Gauntlet of the Wetern Marches, had a small problem. Orcs, who had recently migrated from the High Forest, were raiding across the River Loagrann into territory controlled by the Zhentarim in Llorkh. Normally Thelbrimm would find Zhent difficulties amusing and not his concern, but under the Oath of Orlbar, he was obligated to find the raiders and put a stop to them since they originated in the territory controlled by Loudwater. You may not be familiar with the Oath of Orlbar. It is a treaty between High Lord Kalahar Twohands of Loudwater and the Zhentarim in Llorkh. It is a truce. They stay in their valley, and we’ll stay in ours. Loudwater got everything to the west of the village of Orlbar, while the Zhentarim got Orlbar and everything east. Thelbrimm believed that the best way to handle the situation was to send a group of freeswords to investigate. He summoned a band of young and eager adventurers to the Western Tower, where he has his headquarters. There, he explained to them the situation. “Find out what’s going on at the border. If you can solve the problem, do so.” The freeswords began their search south of the Loagrann and the village of Orlbar. This area is wilderness and the band had to contend with the dangers of the wild, but eventually they found an orc trail that lead them to a ruined tower. The ruined tower was being used as a base by the Red Stag tribe of orcs from the High Forest. The orcs were responsible for the raids across the Loagrann, but they were not just mindlessly pillaging. The orcs were seeking members of their tribe who were kidnapped by “purple men and the foul moon orcs” and taken to an old cairn in the Grey Highlands across the river. This part of the tale pleases me greatly, for words won out over swords at the ruined tower. The freeswords parleyed with the Red Stag orcs and their leader Venvrook. They learned that the Red Stags were raiding to strike back at the Black Moon orcs and the purple men, who were the Zhents from Llorkh. Unfortunately, the Red Stags had lost most of their warriors and their chieftain to the evil Black Moons. The Red Stags and the adventurers from Loudwater stuck an alliance to defeat the purple men and rescue the kidnapped orcs. In return, the Red Stags promised to stop raiding across the river. Venvrook gave directions to the old cairn. Along the way, marauding Black Moon orcs attacked the freeswords. Strangely enough, the orcs were assisted by a half-elf ranger named Merkat Zrinn. He died in the resulting fight, so the adventurers were only able to learn that he was in the employ of the Zhentarim. After traveling deep into the Llorkh-controlled side of the Grey Highlands, the freeswords arrived at the old cairn. I have since learned that the cairn is named Jergal’s Cairn after a warrior who was buried here centuries ago. However, a high-ranking Zhentarim cleric named Hevegrath removed the old burial trappings and adapted it to his purposes. He made the cairn into a laboratory for the creation of banedead. Our freesword heroes were lucky that Hevegrath was not present when they arrived. He had returned to Llorkh and left his beautiful but rather psychopathic assistant Szetril to oversee the experiments. In a quick strike, the adventurers defeated Szetril and her half-made banedead experiment. They found five remaining Red Stag orcs in a deep pit inside the cairn, where they were being kept until their turn in the laboratory. The heroes released the orcs and led them out of the Grey Highlands and across the River Loagrann to their kin in the ruined tower. Surprisingly, Venvrook and the Red Stag orcs were true to their word. They ceased to raid across the river into Zhentarim territory. Gauntlet Harazos Thelbrimm was pleased to hear that the freeswords were able to put a stop to the raids quickly and quietly. He rewarded the adventurers and would remember them in the future.
"Under High Lord's Hall" Plot Recap
Ah, you’re back. Yes, I have another tale for you. This one concerns a plot to murder our very own High Lord of Loudwater. There is a saying that if you cut off the head that the body will die. And so it was that foes of Loudwater set a trap to kill Kalahar Twohands. As the bait, they used nothing less than his love for his son.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
Shortly after the difficulties in my previous tale that I call Grey Hunt, Loudwater once again had need of heroic freeswords. Minions of the Hark had kidnapped Velvred Twohands, the five-year-old son of the High Lord of Loudwater. The Hark, a wererat bandit terrorizing the trade corridor between Loudwater and Secomber, has plagued our lands for some time, but he had never been this bold before. As I have since learned, the Hark was enticed to kidnap Velvred by a more sinister evil from the Underdark. These mysterious employers wished to kill Kalahar, but they had little chance of doing so while he remained in his palace. Instead, the Hark kidnapped Kalahar’s son and took him deep into the crypts under High Lord’s Hall. There, some of the Hark’s minions and a powerful force of Underdark monstrosities waited until the high lord came down to rescue him. Before we go further, you should know a few things about the tombs under High Lord’s Hall. The hall was originally constructed by the Rensha lords who used to rule Loudwater. The Rensha were a series of tyrants who hailed from Calimshan. They were not nice people. They were evil and twisted. When the Green Regent Galaer Skyflower slew them and became High Lord, the people of Loudwater considered it a liberation. Two of the many legacies left behind by the Rensha are High Lord’s Hall and the crypts beneath them. The crypts are dangerous and sealed by the High Lords. The Hark’s minions came in through an Underdark entrance at the bottom of the crypts and broke the seal from below. Naturally, since they wanted Kalahar to follow them, they left an obvious trail. Fortunately, High Lord Kalahar is not a rash man. Instead of strapping on a sword and charging into the unknown, he spoke to Prior Athosar, the high priest of the Houses of Morning. Athosar communed with Lathander and learned that if Kalahar entered the tomb he would almost certainly die. So instead, Kalahar drew upon the same freeswords who had so impressed Gauntlet Harazos Thelbrimm in stopping the orc raids the troubles in the Grey Highlands. Kalahar quickly summoned the adventures and asked that they rescue his son. They readily agreed and within minutes of arriving at High Lord’s Hall they were led down to the crypts beneath. The path left by the minions of the Hark went through Lord Misbah’s tomb, a young Rensha lord who died early due to a riding accident. Though the freeswords did not know it at the time, Lord Misbah was a diabolist. He consorted with fiends and even struck a bargain with a powerful devil – Baalzebul, an Archduke of Baator. His crypt was filled with traps and other dangers. Not long after they entered the crypt, the adventurers met the ghost of Lord Misbah, who was trapped there in an attempt to escape the deal he made with Baalzebul. Unfortunately, it left Misbah alone and confined to his crypt for a century. In his conversation with the adventurers, Misbah claimed that his spirit was trapped in the tombs by a well-meaning priest. He begged the PCs to disrupt the priest’s remains so that he could leave the dark halls and move on to the next world. Not knowing Misbah’s duplicity, the freeswords agreed. Approaching the priest’s resting place, the freeswords met an unexpected guardian – a lantern archon. The archon attacked the adventures without warning on the assumption that anything in the crypt was evil and a threat to the tomb he guarded. They were able to talk the overzealous celestial down and learned that it guarded the tomb of Nemal, a cleric of Lathander. Nemal helped Misbah foil Baalzebul’s plans to trap the Rensha lord’s soul in Baator. Nemal’s tomb acted as a ward that prevented Misbah's spirit from being drawn into the Pits of Baator and tortured forever. The adventurers must have agreed with me for they pushed their way through the archon and disturbed the remains. With the ward gone, spectral devils entered the crypt and grabbed Misbah’s ghost. They pulled him down into the ground and off to Baator. The adventures told me that Misbah had a look of gleeful rapture as he went. I guess an eternity of torture is more interesting than a century of confinement. Diabolists are just strange people. With Misbah’s ghost handled, the freeswords found a trap door that led even further down into the crypts under High Lord’s Hall. In this deeper level, they found the trap that the Hark had set for Kalahar. Horrible aberrations from the deepest places of Aber-Toril with squid-like heads waited for their chance to slay the High Lord. When he did not come they fled, probably assuming that a large force followed the heroes. Even with the aberration threat gone, the adventurers faced a stiff challenge from the minions of the Hark – Kassuz, a wererat and dark cleric, a gang of kobolds, dire rats, and a worg. Without their Underdark allies the wererat and her foul companions quickly fell to the freeswords, who then found Velvred tied on a rocky outcropping but otherwise unharmed. The freeswords returned to the surface victorious. High Lord Kalahar was ecstatic that his son was unharmed and granted all the adventurers membership in the Order of the Jade Blade, so named because of the special green-metal sword wielded by the high lords since Rensha times.
"Epidemic" Plot Recap
He was insane—absolutely insane. I can't imagine any other words to explain it. Why would any rational person unleash a plague on the innocent and unsuspecting? He was a rabid dog and had to be put down.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
The trouble began at the High Moon Market in Loudwater. I know, because I was there shopping for spiced oranges that had just arriver from Tethyr. The Order of the Jade Blade was there as well which was fortunate. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed three orcs arriving at the marketplace. A few years ago this would have started a panic, but not long ago High Lord Kalahar Twohands issued the Decree of Reception. The decree allowed orcs into town as a way to minimize the impact of the grey migrations of the orcs out of the High Forest. These orcs were shrouded in cloaks and smelled pungent and sticky. They started begging from the townsfolk saying that they needed help and a shaman. One of the orcs started gagging, and the cloak fell from his shoulders. He was covered in large, seeping pustules. The gagging turned into vomiting almost pure blood. Everyone backed away as the pustules swelled and then erupted spraying puss and foul smelling fluids onto those nearby. I thought I was going to be sick right there when the orc literally exploded, flinging steaming, yellow ooze everywhere. The remains of the orc melted into the ground, leaving a mass of decaying ooze, hair and blood. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. The Jade Blade immediately stepped in and calmed the panic. While they did that, I ran to get Prior Athosar of the Houses of Morning. Athosar discovered that the orcs suffered from a variant of the slimy doom disease. The disease was extremely contagious and, even worse, was something for which we had no herbal cure. While Athosar could say prayers to cure disease, too many people were exposed to catch all of them. An epidemic was imminent. The adventurers of the Jade Blade stepped forward and offered to track down where the orcs came from. They began following the back trail of the orcs. Many townsfolk remembered seeing them come in through the eastern gate. Beyond the gate, the tracks headed upriver. The group of orcs was once much larger, and the Jade Blade kept passing exploded corpses as they traveled further away from Loudwater. On the outskirts of the Grey Highlands, the adventurers encountered more evidence of the disease. A half-dozen diseased orcs ran at them in a savage attack, whereupon they promptly exploded from the disease. By this point, I strongly suspect that all the members of the Jade Blade had the slimy doom. While they were still scrapping the ooze off their clothing, one of the Jade Blade adventurers noticed that they were being watched by an orc crouching among the brush some distance away. They cautiously approached the orc to learn who she was and what was happening with the orcs. Their efforts were successful, as the orcish druid had no wish to fight. Her name was Kah'Liik, and she had managed to avoid the disease thus far. She had kept her distance from the other orcs and insisted that the Jade Blade stay away as well. Through a conversation shouted back and forth, the freeswords learned from Kah'Liik that the disease was being spread by insect bites from a swarm of locusts. She was away from camp when the locusts came and so survived. The locusts all since died, but not before infecting the other orcs. The locusts came from a cave some distance to the north and she gave our heroes directions. The cave turned out to be a twisted burrow of passages, probably created by umber hulks. They found the remains of thousands of dead locusts, whose shells coated the floor like a carpet that crunched under the adventurers’ feet. A hole in the ceiling led up to another set of caves, where the freeswords found Kranler Dhenta, held captive in a pit. Kranler was diseased and driven mad from torture. He raved that he was sent here to serve "the master," and that the master made him eat bugs. Our heroes pulled him from the pit and took him with them. The master awaited the Jade Blade in the next room. The master was Drahmin Stonesplinter, a druid insanely obsessed with diseases and vermin. He built a laboratory of sorts to refine his contagions, including the slimy doom that he had unleashed upon Loudwater. Our heroes slew him and destroyed his experiments, including the crate of writhing beetle larvae that were infected with the disease. In his laboratory notes, Drahmin detailed the process of how he created the virus and was infecting vermin and eventually the orcs. The Jade Blade returned with the notes and Kranler to Loudwater, where healers restored his sanity. He was a member of the Zhentarim who got caught stealing from his superior and had been sent to Drahmin as punishment. Drahmin used him as a test subject for the diseases that he was creating. Kranler had some interesting things to say about how the Zhentarim were funding Drahmin's research. Krenler is still with us in Loudwater and loyally serves High Lord Kalahar. Athrosar and the town's healers pored over Drahmin's notes and found that they could make a cure but it required violet lotus, a rare herb that only grows in marshes along the Dragon Reach. The very next day, a Sweetwater Trader merchant caravan arrived from Orlbar carrying a large quantity of the violet lotus. They were willing to sell but only a premium. So Highlord Kalahar emptied the town's treasury buying the herb. The healers worked quickly and the epidemic was averted. It was incredibly lucky that the herb just happened to be passing through town. Don't you think?
"Dark Exodus" Plot Recap
What would you do if the fate of another is in your hands, but you are being asked to do something foul? Do you give in to the demands of the villain or do you put the life of the hostage at risk? It is a question that I never had to answer, and if Mielikki is willing, I never will.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
Nuial Treestrider, one of the bards living here in Loudwater, was composing his latest ballad. Nuial is a half-elf Scion of the Green Regent and carries Mielikki's mark on her forehead. Although I love the dear boy, that's not the only way he's touched in the head. Nuial is a bit vapid and tends to lose himself in his music. So it was that the Jade Blade heard his song carried to them on a magical breeze. The High Forest was their home.
They flee, they fly, they roam.
The orcs, the orcs are everywhere
And soon they'll all be living here.
Away you go into the wood
To find out why, as if you could.
Do you know what you'll find there?
Pain, confusion, and despair. As I explained in my tale of the Grey Hunt, hundreds, maybe thousands, of orcs were fleeing the High Forest and no one knew why. Their migrations through the Delimbiyr Crescent were upsetting the delicate peace in the vale. The Zhentarim were pressing the orcs into slavery and using them in their schemes. High Lord Kalahar Twohands of Loudwater took the opposite approach and allowed them into the town to prevent aggression and friction. Shortly after hearing Nuial's song, a sun elf named Jymnal approached the Jade Blade and asked them to follow up on the mystery of the orc migrations. Jymnal did this on behalf of an organization with some influence in Loudwater, but as he did not reveal his loyalties to them at this point, I won't mention his affiliation just yet. The encouragement of Nuial and Jymnal had its desired effect, and the Jade Blade headed north into the High Forest to discover what was driving the orcs forth. The High Forest is a vast place. It is larger than the entire nation of Combyr and probably Sembia. Even though the freeswords were just exploring a small section of it, the search took days. The jade blade was beginning to make progress when they were ambushed by drow. The dark elves snuck close in the night and sprang upon the adventurers while they were bedded down. The fight was chaotic as the drow hid behind the trees and used the darkness and their sleep poison to their advantage. It was a close fight, but the Jade Blade defeated the drow attackers. The combat drew the attention of another resident of the forest. Thornbriar the Treant was hunting the same drow that attacked the adventurers. Through a protracted conversation, the treant revealed that he did not know why the orcs were leaving the High Forest but would help the Jade Blade in their investigations if they would help him. The drow that attacked them were a scouting party for a much larger group that had taken control of a grove sacred to the fey. Thornbriar asked our heroes to purge the drow from the grove. The Jade Blade followed Thornbriar's directions. Now the High Forest is filled with all sorts of danger. Wortlings attacked adventurers while they were crossing a stream. Wortlings are plant creatures that resemble orcs. They are mobile and exist to serve and feed the orcwort tree. The wortlings really should have chosen their prey more carefully, as the adventurers swiftly trimmed them down to size. Having dispatched the malignant vegetation, the Jade Blade discovered that the wortlings had a prisoner they were taking to their tree. The prisoner was a satyr named Ver'syth. He had managed to escape the drow, but was weakened by their poison when he ran afoul of the wortlings. He warned the freeswords that the drow had set up traps around the grove. He even gave them enchanted black berries that would protect them from the drow sleep poison. After leaving Ver'syth, the Jade Blade reached the sacred grove where they found that the drow had befouled the fey wood. A wall of webbing surrounded two sides of a mushroom ring which the drow had hacked to pieces. Suspended in the webs were scores of pixies. Unfortunately, the drow had seen the adventurers approach and were ready for them. They ordered our heroes to back off or they would set the webbing aflame, burning the trapped fey to a crisp. The Jade Blade had a choice to make and not much time to think about it. The drow were insistent that the adventurers leave immediately. Any delay would lead to the death of the pixies caught in the webbing. To this day, I don't know how they did it. They are either amazingly good or amazingly lucky. The Jade Blade took the battle to the drow and struck hard and fast. Their cleric summoned water to extinguish the flames. The drow were overwhelmed before they could carry through their threat. Some of the pixies were badly burned but none of them died. Thornbriar arrived at the grove shortly after the drow were slain. True to his word, he told our heroes all he knew about the orc migrations, but it was not all that much. Some powerful magic was shielding the cause from his sight. He gave them a magical acorn, which would notify them when he had more information. The Jade Blade took what information they had learned and reported back to Jymnal in Loudwater. He asked them to keep him appraised of anything else they learned when Thornbriar sent his signal. And Thornbriar did send his signal, but that is another tale.
"Nurture Nature" Plot Recap
Some creatures seem to be inherently evil. Others seem to embrace an evil life. The Half-Elven Renegades of the High Forest would seem to be the second. Yet when they kidnap, kill and rob, should they face a different fate than the first? Or perhaps they are even more detestable, since they've chosen their life.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
My next tale begins when the Order of the Jade Blade investigated an attack on a caravan just west of Loudwater. The Half-Elven Renegades had attacked a set of Sweetwater Trader's wagons on the Delimbiyr Road. The Renegades stole choice items, including the strongbox, preserved food, and several casks of wine. Of much more concern, the Renegades kidnapped four gold-elf passengers. When our heroes heard that bandits struck a caravan, they immediately rode to the site to see what could be done. They talked to the caravan master and the passengers, as well as the militia investigating the scene. The Jade Blade quickly pieced together that the Half-Elven Renegades were responsible for the ambush and found a trail leading into the High Forest. They followed the Renegades' trail, but after many miles lost the scent. The bandits used magic to erase any sign of their passing. After several hours of fruitless effort to follow the Renegades, the Jade Blade had no choice but to turn back. Shortly after the adventurers returned to Loudwater, they were approached by a gold elf who introduced herself as Serindë. She heard they investigated the attack on the caravan and wished for news of her sister Amarië. When she learned of her sisters kidnap, she begged the heroes to find Amarië as she didn't have the coin to pay a ransom to the Renegades. The Jade Blade agreed to help Serindë and began their investigations. They spoke with a number of people in Loudwater who had knowledge of the Half-Elven Renegades, including Gauntlet Isyan Kiy'sisnos, Eldrin Whisperbark, and me. From these conversations, the adventurers pieced together the locations of one of the Renegade's hide-outs. Isyan mentioned that Eldrin was held prisoner by the Renegades last year, and he was held in a natural, underground cave. He remembered crystalline growths on the ceiling and a beautiful stone drapery. With this information, I was able to identify the stone as gypsum, and there is only one cave nearby that has both gypsum and a stone drapery – the Cave of Blooming Stone. The Cave of Blooming Stone is a natural cavern in the southern High Forest used by the Eaerlanni elves. The natural beauty of the caves was enhanced by the moon elf Daniros. He converted the caves to his home and built magical braziers that played with flame, color and light. The lanterns are still there, but Daniros had moved on, and the caves had since become a base for the Half-Elven Renegades. With directions to the cave, the Order of the Jade Blade arrived without difficulty. They found nearly a dozen Renegades there. I assume some attempt at stealth was made, but the effort failed and battle resulted. Although the bandits outnumbered the adventurers, they had terrible morale and no wish to die on a freesword's blade. After a short but fierce combat, the remainder fled through secret passages into the forest. In a deeper part of the cave, the adventures met the leaders of this band, a druid and a ranger. The two appeared to be lovers, and they fought well together even after their followers had fled. Both paid for their kidnapping and thievery and fell before the Jade Blade. Beyond the cave where the leaders of the Renegades made their home was a chasm above a rushing underground stream. A rope and wood-plank bridge stretched across the chasm, offering easy access to the far side. However, the adventurers found their way blocked by a troll and an elf-like creature with scarlet fur and a long, coiling tail. I have learned that the creature is one of the fey'ri – the descendents of a corrupt group of elves that consorted with demons. "The elves are mine. I arranged their capture. You cannot have them," the elf-like creature said and refused to allow the Jade Blade to cross. In the short conversation that followed, the Jade Blade learned that she was from House Dlardrageth and that she arranged for the capture of the elves because they were "a future." Tiring of the parley, the fey'ri ordered the troll to attack, and she supported it with a variety of spells and bardic inspiration. When it was obvious that she was going to be defeated, the fey'ri lept into the chasm and died when she hit the river far below. Strangely when the adventurers made their way down to the underground river, they found no sign of the body. I have heard the outsiders often boil away into mist when slain. With this last threat removed, the Jade Blade rescued the gold elves who were held in a cave on the far side of the chasm, including Serindë's sister. Amarië was relieved to be rescued even if the other gold elves were aloof and distant to the adventurers. When they returned to Loudwater, the freeswords received a note from Serindë that she had been called away on urgent business, but she left them a beautiful necklace as their reward. Amarië took a liking to our idyllic town along the Delimbiyr and settled down in a cottage not too far outside the town walls.
"Rat's Bastard" Plot Recap
The orc should have been executed. Mercy is a virtue, but Haargh slew one of Loudwater's finest, cutting the guard in half with his axe. I knew the guard since he was a boy. His name was Rendell. He hadn't even drawn his sword when Haargh killed him. The orc was given exile. It should have been death.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
Violence begat violence one night at the Red Boar Tavern. Two orcs were killed in the alley out back and passions were running high. An orc named Haargh led a group of his fellow orcs to the tavern. His brother had been one of those killed, and he wanted vengeance. As I mentioned in my previous tales, High Lord Kalahar Twohands had issued the Decree of Reception, which allowed the orcs into Loudwater. Not everyone in town agreed with this Decree, and orcs often get a cold reception when in town. The Red Fellowship and their leader Stedd Rein are particularly vocal in their disagreement with the Decree. Kalahar knew of the trouble at the Red Boar and posted two guards at the inn to keep the peace. So, when Haargh kicked the door to the inn down, one of the guards, Rendell, was there and tried to stop him saying, "The High Lord wants no trouble here." The orc snarled, "The High Lord can rot!" and killed Rendell with a single blow of his axe. Chaos erupted as the other orcs moved into the tavern to butcher everyone inside. A massacre was prevented by the quick action of the Order of the Jade Blade, who happened to be at the Red Boar that night. They interposed themselves between the orcs and the panicking patrons and calmed Haargh down enough to talk. They learned that he was upset about his brother's death, and how no one in town seemed to be doing anything about it. They learned that he blamed the humans at the Red Boar for the deaths, especially the Red Fellowship. The Jade Blade managed to get Haargh to back down by promising to look into the murders. Haargh gave them three days or he would torch the Red Boar Tavern to the ground. The Jade Blade began their investigation the next day. They spoke with Fist Keshel of the Loudwater Guard, who told them that there were eight murders in all and they were all within two blocks of the Red Boar Tavern. She had only lead she had – a drunk named Hookus who claimed that the murderers were a drow and a demon dog. About this time, a strange boy from the Ivy Enclave approached the Jade Blade. The Ivy Enclave is the local Thayan Enclave and has been here for decades. Misban Rensha signed the original treaty when he married Thola of Thay (The Jade Blade found her tomb under the High Lord's Hall). When Nanathlar Greysword overthrew Pasuuk Rensha, he allowed the Red Wizards to stay on the condition that no Red Wizard within Loudwater could own a slave. However, there is more to this tale than just that. The Red Wizards aided Nanathlar in his rebellion, and the continued existence of the enclave was the price. The boy beckoned the adventurers to follow him to the Ivy Enclave, where they met with Beyvan Keth, the leader of the Thayans. Keth revealed the true culprit of the orc murders – a half drow named Dusk who could be found in the Duelists' Grotto. He asked for no payment, but did request that the adventurers not reveal his role. How do I know what was said at this secret meeting? I was there when Keth aided Nanathlar, and there is a lot more to the tale than is commonly known. More than that, I will not say. The Jade Blade went in search for Dusk. Their inquiries attracted the attention of Sparrot the Jack. Sparrot provoked one of the adventures into a duel. When he was bested, Sparrot revealed that Dusk stayed at an old bath house called the Steam House, which was being used as the hideout for a gang affiliated with the Hark called the Rat Bastards. The Jade Blade approached and found that they were expected. It turns out that Sparrot was part of the gang and he had warned them of the adventurers' approach. A halfling member of the Rat Bastards posed as the receptionist and allowed the freeswords into the Steam House. He showed them into the steam room where Dusk waited for them. Sparrot and the halfling joined the battle, attacking the freeswords from behind. The battle was a difficult one and a few of the adventurers were bleeding on the ground before it was done, but they slew the Rat Bastards. In the subsequent search of the Steam House, they found a secret passage leading down into the Earth. Down there, they met the "Harkson". Lazurak Harkson turned out to be a barghest, which is a demon from the Abyss that takes a goblin form when on Toril. It had aligned itself with the Hark because that gave it plenty of opportunity to kill and spread chaos. It immediately attacked the Jade Blade, revealing its demonic nature when it turned into a demonic wolf. Again, the freeswords faced a tough foe but emerged victorious. Once the Harkson was slain, the Jade Blade discovered evidence that it was the one behind the murders. The Harkson liked to take trophies, and it had collected bits and pieces from each of its kills. The Jade Blade gathered up the trophies and carried them back to Kalahar to show him what was behind the murders. They even spoke at Haargh's trial, and their testimony was crucial for the decision that he be given exile instead of death. I can understand why they did this, but I cannot agree with it. Haargh killed Rendell in cold blood. Anger, no matter how justified, does not excuse murder.
"Dungeon of the Hark" Plot Recap
"Heroes of Loudwater, flock to my banner and let us do a good thing for the entire Delimbiyr. Too long has the Hark and his brood tormented the tradeways between Loudwater and the Sword Coast. Too long has it infected its plague to others. And now there is evidence that it wants to expand its territory into our very city. It is the duty to all good people to diminish this foe. I go. Who goes with me?"
Stedd Rein
13th of Eleint
1372, the Year of Wild Magic
With these words Stedd Rein, the leader of the Red Fellowship, sent a call for all those noble and brave to join him to attack the dreaded Hark in his own stronghold – the infamous Dungeon of the Hark. High Lord Kalahar Twohands did not directly support Stedd's assault on the Hark, but did not move to block it either. When the Order of the Jade Blade agreed to join Stedd and take the battle to the villain, Kalahar gave his tacit approval. For those of you who are not familiar with this scourge upon the Delimbiyr Vale, the Hark is a legendary wererat bandit lord who is said to lair in a series of caves and pits under the High Moor called the Dungeon of the Hark. He has haunted our lands for hundreds of years, disappearing for a while and returning to raid anew. To my knowledge lycanthropy does not give a person longevity, so I suspect that the Hark is either a series of separate individuals claiming to be the Hark, is undead, has dragon's blood, or is a fiend of some sort. There are many other possibilities as well. Currently, the Hark favours goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears as his minions, some of whom have been affected with lycanthropy. The Hark and his band pose a threat to Loudwater and removing him would make the Delimbiyr safer. Stedd gathered his forces at the old village of Moorsedge, which sits at the border of the High Moor where the land slopes away down into the Delimbiyr Vale. It is nothing but a ruin now, as the Hark's forces had decimated it when they claimed the dark places beneath to build the Dungeon of the Hark. Stedd sent the Jade Blade to the Worg Warrens, which would prevent the wolves from reinforcing the Hark, while Stedd and his Red Fellowship attacked him directly in the main part of the dungeon. The Jade Blade found the entrance to the warrens guarded by goblins and a large tree with ropes hanging from the branches. They engaged the goblins and quickly learned that the tree was alive or enchanted, because it attacked them and attempted to strangle them with the nooses. After the initial surprise, the adventurers cut the sentries down and descended into the warrens where they encountered a drunken bugbear and a rat swarm which were both quickly dispatched. Beyond that, they surprised a nasty little goblin named Snig the Axe who led a bugbear and a group of goblins. The next chamber contained something unexpected – a group of Zhentarim led by a Banite priest. Neither side wasted much time with diplomacy, and after a short and vicious battle, the Black Network operatives were dead. Among their possessions the Jade Blade found a note addressed to the Hark from Felishar Ivasin, the mayor of Orlbar and a member of the Zhentarim. Felishar was conspiring with the Hark against Loudwater, and the Zhentarim that our heroes slew were in the dungeon as ambassadors. The note hinted that there was a "young red dragon" in the Greycloak Mountains that would soon be within the Zhentarim's grasp. The note also made mention that the Hark was from a place called Fury's Heart, which is a different plane and the home of Malar among other evil gods. The Jade Blade pressed deeper into the dungeon and came across a wererat who was bowing before a large brazier. In the smoke of the brazier was the image of a dark-red-skinned goblin with glowing green eyes who was telling the bowing wererat to prepare the worgs and that he is going to trick Stedd Rein into a tunnel that leads to a mind flayer warren while he took a different path out through the Worg Warrens. The Hark was coming this way! The bowing wererat noticed the adventurers and fled into the next chamber to warn Uzetuk, a hobgoblin cleric of Malar and the Master of the Worg Riders. Uzetuk led a counter-strike against the adventurers that consisted of him, the wererat, a couple goblins, and some disturbing aberration that was humanoid in form but had a single enormous eye dominating its face. The Jade Blade managed to defeat Uzetuk and his minions, but it cost them dearly in their supplies and health. Attrition was starting to take its toll. In a nearby cave, our heroes discovered the worgs which the Hark was planning on using for his escape. They slew the beasts but triggered a trap that caused wolf skeletons to rise and attack them. The undead weren't difficult, but it was more time and energy spent, and the Jade Blade had little of either left. After this battle, the adventures met the final defenders of the Hark: a hobgoblin, more goblins, and a bugbear. The battle went poorly for the goblins, so one of them opened a door to let in a pack of abyssal maws which savagely attacked the adventurers. Maws are some sort of horrific creature from another plane, and they seem to be half teeth and half appetite. The things chewed into our heroes and nearly swung the battle back in favor of the Hark's defenders. The battle ended and the Jade Blade was victorious, but only barely. They were spent. Their healing powers were used, and their magic was drained. They were all wounded, and had nothing left to open the final door and possibly face the Hark himself. They decided that pressing on would lead to nothing but their death. The Jade Blade retreated from the dungeon without seeing the Hark. Do not think that they failed. Oh no. The Jade Blade destroyed a large part of the Hark's defenses and slowed his escape. Stedd Rein wisely avoided the tunnel that lead to the Underdark and the illithids. The raid was a success. The wererat's power was broken and his stronghold cleansed. The River Shining would flow past lands that did not fear the terror of the Hark.
"Denial of Resource" Plot Recap
A dragon on the wing—I cannot think of a more terrifying sight. The silhouette against the sun. The shadow racing across the ground. The mind-numbing fear that overwhelms reason. The fire. The fury. The death.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
The red dragon was hunting along the northern face of the Greypeak Mountains, killing trappers and herders. Even worse, the Order of the Jade Blade brought back intelligence from their raid on the dungeon of the Hark that the Zhentarim were interested in taming the creature and bending it to their will. High Lord Kalahar Twohands would brook no threat to his town and decided to rid the countryside of the beast before the Zhentarim captured it. So he summoned the Order of the Jade Blade and sent them on a quest to slay the dragon.
"Humility" Plot Recap
Dark times had come to Loudwater. Three times in the past month, someone had been murdered in the night. As one victim after another was found with their heads emptied of brain matter, terror gripped the populace. What was the pattern? Who would be next?
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
Late one chilly autumn night, Lisyil Sweetwhisper awakened the members of the Jade Blade. Lisyil is a cousin of mine and serves High Lord Kalahar Twohands as his herald. Her voice is true to her name, and she has a beautiful fey-like face. Both shielded her from angry protests of the Jade Blade as she roused them and told them than High Lord Kalahar wished to see them immediately. Sensing the urgency in her voice, they set off. At High Lord's Hall, Lisyil presented the Jade Blade to Kalahar and his chancellor Rayler Drenn. Kalahar grimly confirmed the rumors of illithid activity within Loudwater. There have been three murders over the past month where the brain was removed from the victim. Two of the victims were officers of Loudwater while the third was a captured Zhentarim agent who was cooperating with authorities. Kalahar was concerned that the mind flayers were in league with the Zhentarim as the choice of victims benefited the Black Network and both groups had dealings with the Hark. {pic:Mind flayers lunch.} More immediately, Kalahar was concerned of the safety of Stedd Rein, the founder and leader of the Red Fellowship. Kalahar had just dreamed that Stedd was in danger. Mielikki would often send him dreams when he was the Green Regent and this was the first he had since his reign as her champion ended. That she would send him the dream underscored the danger. He sent our heroes out immediately to protect Stedd from harm. The Jade Blade hurried from High Lord's Hall to the Red Boar Tavern where Stedd Rein was known to stay, and it was fortunate for Stedd that they did so. Kalahar's premonition was accurate, and the adventurers arrived to find Stedd under attack by an illithid assassin behind the tavern. The hideous monster had already slain five Red Fellows, and now he held Stedd by the throat, preparing to extract his brain. The Jade Blade leapt to his defense and drove off the monster, who escaped into the darkness. With a shaken Stedd Rain in their care, the Jade Blade returned to Kalahar, who decided that Stedd would stay at High Lord’s Hall for his protection. Kalahar then asked the adventurers to undertake a new mission. He had lost contact with Vendross Thaddren, a spy who was keeping an eye on the Zhentarim. Kalahar was afraid that Vendross had been captured, and the High Lord asked the adventurers to go to the Fortress of the Eternal Despot, the temple of Bane in Orlbar, find out if Vendross was there and retrieve him if he was. Kalahar gave the adventurers a description as well as the sign and countersign to know him. On the way to Orlbar, the Jade Blade came across a merchant caravan under attack by a group of hell hounds. Our heroes aided the merchants and slew the beasts, which mysteriously vanished into smoke when they died. For those who are not aware, this is a taletell-tale sign that the beasts were summoned by magic. After the merchants departed, a group of Banites lead by a priest named Draeth approached our heroes. Tyrant Draeth (tyrant is a Banite title) was angry with the Jade Blade for some reason, and he verbally abused them throughout the conversation. Somehow a fight did not break out, but the two groups parted on poor terms. That night, the adventurers were attacked by fiendish dire wolves. When they were slain, the creatures also vanished into smoke like the hell hounds. I'm sure you've reached the same conclusion I have about these attacks. The Jade Blade arrived at Orlbar and snuck around the village searching for a way into the Fortress of the Eternal Despot, which sits on a hill overlooking the town. They eventually found a weakness—a culvert that lead into the sewers beneath the temple. As they crawled through the culvert, they were attacked by a pair of gricks. Once past these beasts, the adventures slew a carrion crawler that awaited them deeper inside. {pic:Heart of Bane.} After some time exploring the bowels of the temple, the Jade Blade reached the Heart of Bane, which is a cylindrical shaft that plunged nearly a hundred feet below them. The walls were pocked with tiny enclosures, each holding a black crystal. A walkway, seemingly composed of bone, stretched across the open shaft, linking the three doors into the Heart, forming a three-pronged star. About thirty feet below the first walkway was another similar walkway. As the adventurers entered, they were challenged by a DhanTe, a Monk of the Iron Gauntlet. He demanded to know why they had come, but was not particularly interested in their answer. He assumed that they had come for the spy and told the Jade Blade that they would die here. He clapped his hands and the walkway came to life, forming grasping skeletal hands that tore at our heroes. DhanTe was joined by three of barghests, and together they attacked the adventurers, determined to stop them from rescuing Vendross. After a difficult battle, the Jade Blade defeated DhanTe and found Vendross bound and gagged at the bottom of the Heart of Bane. He was eager to flee with the adventurers back to Loudwater. Upon their return, they found out that Chancellor Rayler Drenn was missing and presumed dead. That night, at a feast in honor of Vendross' rescue, Kalahar made him Chancellor of Loudwater, giving him the circlet of office. The day after the feast, Lisyil Sweetwhisper came to the Jade Blade with terrible news. Stedd Rein had been slain in the night. His skull had been gnawed through and his brain devoured.
"Tyranny" Plot Recap
"Bane's power knows no borders." Or so his servants claim. It is a frightening thought. The Lord of Tyrants seeks to extend his dominion over the Delimbiyr Vale and the caverns below; and, as we found out, over both the living and the dead.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
The call came again in the middle of the night. Lisyil Sweetwhisper awoke the members of the Jade Blade to inform them that High Lord Kalahar Twohands wished to see them immediately. Quickly dressing, the adventurers hurried to the High Lord's Hall to find out what was so pressing. Kalahar received another dream from Mielikki. The Jade Blade's earlier experience in the Heart of Bane, in the Fortress of the Eternal Despot, caused another premonition from the Lady of the Forests. A great evil was hidden in that place, but the details from the dream were flitting away from Kalahar. Chancellor Vendross Thaddren had uncovered information about the Heart of Bane. The fane housed phylacteries of those who died fighting against the Dark God. Each black crystal had a soul trapped within it. As if this was not bad enough, Vendross's research revealed that a chamber beneath the Heart of Bane housed an evil artifact called the Scepter of Eternal Dominion, which holds power over souls who died in opposition to Bane. Vendross cautioned that a watery death waited any who sought to recover the scepter. Kalahar wanted this tool of the Banites removed for the safety of both Loudwater and all that was good in the Delimbiyr Vale, so he asked the Jade Blade to return to Orlbar and retrieve the scepter. He also wanted our heroes to avoid a watery death, so he gave the adventurers potions of water breathing to help them on their quest. The Jade Blade journeyed back to Orlbar and the Fortress of the Eternal Despot. Once again, they opted to use the culvert to get inside the temple. But this time the Zhentarim had taken steps to prevent access, trapping it with a powerful spell. The adventurers were a trifle incautious and set off the trap, which summoned a pillar of flame down onto them, burning some of them badly. The rest of the crawl through the culvert was uneventful and they found themselves in the Heart of Bane shortly thereafter. No sooner had they stepped out onto the bone walkway when they were accosted by two priests of Bane—the Tyrants Venrik and Greaves. The bone walkways helped the priests by lifting them from one walkway to the next while ripping and tearing at the adventurers. The tyrants summoned fiendish monsters to aid them, then cloaked themselves in mist before joining the fight. The battle was confusing as the priests constantly moved about thanks to the walkways; but the Jade Blade eventually killed them. {pic:Sunken Temple of Bane.} With the deaths of the two tyrants, the Jade Blade could explore the Heart of Bane at their leisure. They found a secret door that opened to a spiral stairway leading down to a vast cavern dominated by a lake. On the narrow shore they found a marker with the clenched fist symbol of Bane and words written in the tongue of fiends. It read "Bane's dominion knows no border". The Jade Blade drank their potions and dove into the lake. The murky water made it difficult to see, but at the very bottom they found a hole in the lakebed. Next to it was another marker with the symbol of Bane. It was written with the words "Hatred is the path to power. Tyranny is the way to rule." Regrettably, the marker was trapped and touching it unleashed another blast of infernal power on our heroes. The hole led to the Sunken Temple of Bane. It was flooded, dark, and deserted. The adventurers explored the water-filled passages, which were decorated with murals depicting worshipers of Bane as well as strange human-fish crossbreeds emerging from a portal to greet the worshipers. While they swam through the halls, they were attacked by a water elemental and by restless, mad spirits of tyrants of Bane who had become allips. In addition, they were attacked by a school of the human-fish crossbreeds that I have recently learned are called scum. They fought off all these threats and delved deeper into the temple. {pic:Aboleth in the Hall of Devotion.} The Scepter of Eternal Dominion was hidden in the last and largest chamber of the Sunken Temple, called the Hall of Devotion. Floating in the water over the large stone altar that was obviously used for sacrifice was a primeval fish-like monster called an aboleth. The horrid thing reached out with its mind and seized control of two of the Jade Blade, forcing them to attack their companions. Our heroes reacted swiftly and countered the compulsion with a ward that protected the enslaved adventures from evil and prevented the aboleth from exerting control. With its most fearsome power neutralized, the aboleth did not last long against the vengeful blades of our heroes. With its last ounce of malice and strength, the aboleth knocked over the sole pillar that held the hall's roof up. Without the support, the Hall of Devotion started to collapse in on itself. As the pieces fell away, the adventurers noticed a hole in the roof that led up and out into the River Greyflow that flowed above them. The Jade Blade desperately searched for the scepter, which they found hidden beneath the altar. Their prize in hand, the Jade Blade swam out of the collapsing hall into the river and finally to the surface and fresh air. The Jade Blade made their way back to Loudwater where they turned the scepter over to High Lord Kalahar and Vendross Thaddren. Kalahar was quite pleased and instructed Vendross to secure the scepter so that it would not fall into Banite hands. The High Lord thanked the Jade Blade for their service and rewarded them handsomely.
"Book Knowledge" Plot Recap
In Abeir-Toril knowledge is a resource precious and all too scarce. So when a tome surfaced that spoke of the origins of the Green Regent, many people took interest, and the Jade Blade were drawn into a plot that led to a showdown with a most unusual bookworm.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
Mikal the Sage is a sage obsessed with all things related to the Green Regent and had been working on a definitive history of the Mielikki’s Chosen for a year. So when he vanished without a trace, the Scions of the Green Regent agreed that it was important that Mikal be found. One member of the Order of the Jade Blade was a Scion of the Green Regent, who called upon her friends to help her investigate. When the Jade Blade arrived at Mikal’s house to find clues they were met by his wife Julana running from the house screaming in terror as a large tome slowly floated through the air out a window. The adventurers realized that the book was being controlled by magic and tracked the source down. They discovered three green elves, hiding under the cover of invisibility. From the remains, I have been able to identify that they belonged to a cult that worships a creature known as the Guev’Ressunvee or the Green King. Unfortunately, little else could be learned from these as the Jade Blade killed them in the resulting melee. {pic:Worshipers of Guev'Ressunvee.} The Scion picked up the floating book, which was titled The Legacy of the Green Regent. Leafing through it, she found out what had become of Mikal. One of the pages was inscribed with a powerful symbol, which activated when the Scion turned to that page. Loudwater blurred and disappeared, and the Jade Blade found themselves elsewhere. It was hard to tell where elsewhere was, for they were plunged into total darkness. The wizard called magical light into existence, and the adventurers saw that they were in a roughly circular cavern. In the center of the room was a small pedestal set with a black sphere. Spaced evenly around the room were statues of horribly misshapen humanoids with horns and clawed hands. Two of the statues were actually creatures known as liths, which are psionically awakened creatures of stone. They have amazing power over stone and had shaped the statues to look just like themselves. The ploy worked, and the liths surprised the adventurers, attempting to turn two of them to stone with their magic. Fortunately the magic failed, and our heroes counterattacked with a fury. The liths attempted to meld into the walls of the cavern, but the Jade Blade killed them before they could escape. With the liths removed, the Jade Blade turned their attention to the black sphere on the pedestal. Inside, they could see a tiny silver-colored dragon flying around in circles. It would stop on occasion and charge the surface of the sphere and claw at it. When this proved of no avail, it would return to circling. One of the adventurers drew an adamantine sword and hacked the crystal ball to pieces. The creature trapped inside burst forth and swelled to its full size, which was actually more than twelve feet long. I have identified the creature as a scalamagdrion, a dragon-like creature with significant anti-magic qualities. They are often used as stewards of magical books. This scalamagdrion was entrapped in the sphere and forced to use its power to draw the unsuspecting readers to the cavern. When the crystal was broken, the scalamagdrion rushed out of the cavern to escape the place of its bondage. The Jade Blade followed after it through a maze of passages. Eventually they came to another large cavern where dragonkin were roosting. The passage of the scalamagdrion had disrupted them, and the infuriated monsters dove onto the adventurers. Once they were dealt with, our heroes noticed that the exit from the cavern to the surface was far overhead. However, another tunnel led deeper into the darkness. Curiosity and the desire to find Mikal drove them to explore this new tunnel rather than make the climb out of the cavern. The Jade Blade ventured down this tunnel, fighting bat swarms as they went. After several dozen yards, a portion of the cave floor gave way beneath them and one of the adventurers fell through into a pit of acid. The pain was horrific, but his companions pulled him out before he died. {pic:Ss'thall'aa.} Beyond the pit trap, the tunnel ended in a wide cavern that was filled with a large pool of acid. Sitting on an island in the center of the pool was a hideous thing that looked like a dark purple-green snake with a large humanoid head, and a tail that ended in a stinger. This rare beast is called a banelar; this one in particular was named Ss’thall’aa. The creature had corrupted the scalamagdrion’s ability to teleport the reader and forced it to bring them here to his cavern. Ss’thall’aa wished to capture Otar, the orc who had become the Green Regent. Ss’thall’aa was confident that Otar would eventually find the book. In the meantime, the banelar turned those who fell into his clutches over to a band of Cyricists. How do I know this? From Mikal. The sage had activated the symbol just as several others had before him. He was in the cavern with the banelar, kept prisoner while awaiting the arrival of the Cyricists. He watched as the Jade Blade fought Ss’thall’aa and killed him. Our heroes rescued Mikal from the island in the center of the cavern and began the arduous process of climbing out the shaft where the dragonkin roosted to the surface. High Lord Kalahar Twohands took the book that started all of this for further study. His sages learned that the book detailed three Green Regents who were unknown before. It contained many more secrets, but unlocking them would require substantial time and study.
"In Cold Blood" Plot Recap
Winter is harsh and merciless in the North. All that is cruel and cold is embodied in Auril the Frostmaiden. She is devoid of compassion and her frozen heart knows nothing but cold hate. The wise fear her; while the foolish follow her.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
Late in the Year of Wild Magic, High Lord Kalahar Twohands decided that Otar, the orc of the High Forest who was the current Green Regent, needed to be brought before him. One attempt was already made to trap Otar, and Kalahar feared what might happen if the mysterious Green King succeeded in capturing the champion of Mielikki. Kalahar’s agents reported that Otar had gone to Waterdeep in search of a tome entitled Legacy of the Green Regent. This book was reported to hold the secret history of the Green Regents. The Jade Blade had just recovered it, but the tome was stolen before Kalahar’s sages could unravel its secrets. Kalahar asked the Jade Blade to find Otar. On the road to the Sword Coast, winter arrived from the north. Snow fell thick and heavy and was covering the City of Splendors when the Jade Blade arrived. They made their way to the Inn of the Dripping Dagger, an establishment made famous by the Company of Crazed Venturers. The Dripping Dagger lived up to its reputation as the birthplace of many adventures when the Jade Blade were approached by Felgan, the stablemaster of House Eltorchul. Lady Arus Eltorchul, the matron of the house, was in need of some adventurers and wanted to meet with them the next day. {pic:White dragon.} Having no leads for Otar yet, our heroes agreed and met with Arus at her villa. The Eltorchul House was troubled recently by a series of deaths. Over the course of the past three days, Chassie the Chambermaid, Silas the cook, and finally Cargull, captain of the Sea Lion, were found frozen to death. In Cargull’s hand was a small locket that Arus had given to her daughter, Errya. That locket was buried when Errya had gone missing two years ago; she had been presumed dead after she was not found for months. Although Arus tried to hide it, she was scared and wanted something done quickly. Arus suggested that the adventurers begin their investigation at the Eltorchul tomb in the City of the Dead, since that was where Errya’s effects had been entombed. She gave them a writ granting them permission to enter the tomb and a signet ring that would open the door. The Jade Blade made their way to the tomb, bypassing the City Watch. A shrine to Mystra and Azuth filled the center of the tomb while crypts lined the walls. Strangely, the inside of the tomb was covered in ice. Our heroes ventured deeper into the tomb, and a small white dragon emerged from one of the crypts. It flew about, breathing frost, while biting and clawing at the adventurers. Even after the dragon was slain, two questions hung over the Jade Blade: why was the tomb coated in ice, and how did a dragon get into a tomb in the City of the Dead in Waterdeep? The answer lay within Errya’s crypt. The sarcophagus bore the likeness of a beautiful, long-haired woman with a stern expression, but it was empty when the freeswords opened it. Through magical divinations, the Jade Blade realized that the interior was actually a portal. With some lucky experimentation, they discovered that the portal was activated by spells that used cold, but their experimentation triggered the portal and the adventurers were whisked away. Our heroes found themselves standing in heavy snow in the middle of a blizzard. The wind howled around them, but over the noise of the wind they could hear the bellowed cry “Trespassers!” and a giant charged them through the snow. The frost giant was not a simple brute; he had learned the secret of hexes. His study of curses did not save him, however, and the Jade Blade cut him down to size. Nearby was a cave coated in ebony ice that ran deep into a cliffside. The adventurers were ambushed by a pack of winter wolves. Having dealt with the wolves, the Jade Blade met Silas and Chassie who were now frozen vampiric spawn, driven to attack the adventurers by the command of whatever had created them, but they too fell before our heroes. {pic:Errya and displacer beast.} Winning their passage forward, a narrow path opened into a large cavern where a raven-haired woman stood whose likeness matched that on Errya’s sarcophagus. She was far too pale to be alive, and she radiated cold. “I should have expected Arus to send adventurers to deal with her dirty laundry,” she said, revealing pointed vampiric teeth. The Jade Blade charged into the cavern, and Errya summoned wolves and a displacer beast changed into a creature of ice to defend her. During the course of the fight, our heroes drew out of Errya why she was killing the members of the Eltorchul family. Arus had disapproved of Errya’s choice in lovers. With cold ruthlessness, Arus had Errya’s lover killed and her own daughter left for dead in the wilderness. Though she survived, Errya gave herself to Auril who granted her the gift of vampirism so that she could enact her revenge on her mother. The Jade Blade defeated Errya and her servants, but the vampire turned into mist and seeped away through a crack in the ice. Unable to follow, they returned through the portal to Waterdeep. Arus refused to speak of her family affairs when our heroes told her that she was being stalked by her vampiric daughter. Instead, Arus left for the warm lands of Sembia before the sun set. I suppose she is still there, haunted by the thought that somewhere her daughter is out there and her hatred will last as long as there is snow on the Spine of the World.
"Undermountain" Plot Recap
The most famous battlefield in which to earn a reputation as a veteran adventurer— and the best-known grave of heroes in Faerûn.
Elminster of Shadowdale
Throughout the winter, the Jade Blade continued their quest to find Otar, the orc of the High Forest who became the Green Regent of the Delimbiyr Vale and Mielikki's champion. They had followed him as far as Waterdeep, where they lost the trail. On one particularly frigid winter's night, our heroes were passing by the Yawning Portal when they heard a song that drew their attention. "Otar, tattooed and real, jumped down the well; Down, down he went, to face dangers fell." The Yawning Portal is a tavern built over a dry well that leads down to the halls of Undermountain, a vast dungeon complex below Waterdeep and said to be the most tempting target in all the North for adventurers seeking to prove themselves. The tavernkeep charges adventurers one gold piece to lower them from the tavern and another gold piece to lift them back up. The adventurers recognized the singer as Jekris the Mad, a crazy derelict from Loudwater. He is touched—touched my madness; touched by the gods. You can take your pick which, and popular opinion is evenly divided. He warned the adventurers that Otar had been captured and taken to the Cyricist's lair called the Hold of the Dark Sun in Undermountain. He seemed eerily lucid and was eager to lead them down into the dungeon. The Jade Blade were desperate for any lead to Otar and agreed to pay the gold piece and take their chances down the well. The warrens of Undermountain are vast, and exploring the seemingly endless halls would have taken months. Fortunately, Jekris guided the adventurers until they reached the first doomgate. The doomgates are one-way gates that riddle Undermountain. Jekris said that Otar was trapped beyond the doomgate and he could be found in the Cyricist's lair. The Jade Blade passed through the doomgate and found themselves in an enormous cavern, where they quickly discovered a clutch of basilisks and gargoyles. Once the monsters were defeated, the adventurers discovered another doomgate that led deeper into Undermountain. The second doomgate sent the Jade Blade to the lair of Nester, a faux-lich and former apprentice of Halaster, the creator of Undermountain. The first chamber of Nester's lair was guarded by fiendish orcs called tanarukks. Most of the tanarukks jumped to attack the invading heroes, while a few hung back to release a behir who had been tamed by Nester. The adventurers were triumphant even though the fiendish orcs were savage in their attacks and the behir breathed jets of lightning. In the next room, the Jade Blade were beset by a flesh golem, as it shouted "Protect the Master” repeatedly. They hacked the construct to bits and found Nester himself beyond the third chamber. Nester had attempted to turn himself into a lich. Unfortunately, something went terribly wrong. Although he was undead, he was not a lich. His body was slowly rotting away and his head had fallen off not too long before the adventurers encountered him. Both parts still functioned and he had propped his head on his desk while he researched how to limit the effects of the decay before he disintegrated completely. When our heroes entered the room, he told them to leave as they would find nothing here but death. Instead of leaving, the Jade Blade said that they were looking for Cyricists. Nester was willing to show them how reach the cultists if the adventurers made it worth his while. Many thousand gold pieces in magic items later, Nester attuned the doomgate to the Cyristists' hideout. The Jade Blade arrived at the Hold of the Dark Sun, where they were challenge by Vevol, a cleric of Cyric, who was accompanied by gravehounds. She asked our heroes if they had come to pledge themselves to the one true faith and dedicate themselves to the service of the Dark Sun. When the Jade Blade answered that they intended nothing of the sort, Vevol sounded the alarm and set the gravehounds on the adventurers while she called upon the might of Cyric to smite them. The adventurers slew her and her undead mastiffs and entered the Grand Hall of the Dark Sun which was through the doors behind Vevol. The skull and dark sun symbols of Cyric were everywhere. Otar, a large tattooed figure, was strapped to an altar on a balcony that overlooked the Grand Hall. Above him, a strange bone stand held a large green crystal that bathed Otar in a nauseating green light. The arrival of the Jade Blade alerted Otar's captors and the light from the green crystal shifted and fell on our heroes. A deep, hissing voice said "Interlopers, turn back. I am taking what is rightfully mine, given to me by her who betrays. Cross me, and be my enemy. To be my enemy means death." The light then returned to Otar. Foul magic rolled over the prone Green Regent as the light began to leach his life away. I suspect that the voice was that of the Guev'Ressunvee, and he was attempting to steal Otar's life through the ceremony. I do not know what would happen to the powers of the Green Regent if he succeeded. The Jade Blade rushed to Otar's aid. The followers of the Dark Sun were led by Hevlal'Tulic, the Green King's son, who was a half-dragon sorcerer. He was too powerful and had too many allies with him to be defeated. Instead, the adventurers fought a running battle across the Grand Hall, up the balcony, and rescued Otar from the green light of the gem. The journey back through the doomgates was quick and soon enough they were being pulled up the rope to the Yawning Portal. There, they were greeted by a woman in woodland garb who introduced herself as Jerythi Phalkon, a servant of Mielikki. She invited the Jade Blade to stay with her at her home while Otar healed. After their adventures in Undermountain, finding warm hospitality was a welcome change.
"Tour of Duty" Plot Recap
The trouble began when the rangers from a distant outpost of Waterdeep found an unguarded treasure in a dragon's lair. "We'll just take a few things," they said. "It will never notice."
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
The Order of the Jade Blade was wintering in Waterdeep with Jerythi Phalkon after rescuing Otar from a band of crazed Cyricists in Undermountain. One wintry day the adventurers heard a voice whispering to them in their ears, asking them to meet with Captain Rulathon at the Troll Tower within the hour. Recognizing the spell as whispering wind, our heroes went to the Troll Tower as asked. Rulathon is a captain in the city guard of Waterdeep and a friend of mine. I had mentioned the Jade Blade and their noble deeds to him several times in the past. So when he needed assistance and learned they were in Waterdeep, he called upon them. Rulathon needed to send supplies to the northern outpost of Swordhold in the Sword Mountains. Unfortunately, a nasty bout of the flux had struck the guards, and he didn't have any veterans to send with the supplies. He couldn't send just anyone, because the Sword Mountains are very dangerous. The Jade Blade agreed to escort the two horses, named Apples and Oranges, and a sled containing a large amount of supplies, such as food, blankets, and other equipment. The first several days of the journey were uneventful, but one evening when they were closer to the Sword Mountains they were attacked by two large creatures made entirely out of ice. I have since discovered that the beasts are known as chraals and are dangerous elemental creatures infused with the spirit of the wicked and depraved. The adventurers defeated the creatures and followed their trail back to a cave, where they found a pool of water which acted as a gate to the Elemental Plane of Water. The adventurers were unable to destroy the gate but it did not seem to be active at the moment so they rested there for the night. The next morning they entered the foothills of the Sword Mountains. The heavy snow from the previous evening covered the hills with a thick powder, making it difficult to travel with any kind of speed. In addition, the hillsides were the home of a pair of remorhaz who had riddled the area with their tunnels. Not only did these tunnels allow the remorhaz to travel quickly beneath the earth but they created perilous traps for the adventurers as they waded through the snow. The worm-like monstrosities exploded from the under snow, surprising the Jade Blade. One of adventurers was swallowed by the things and found the red-hot belly of the beast. Fortunately, the Jade Blade slew the creatures before the adventurer inside was burned to a crisp. The following day, the path dropped down to a wide valley which was filled with a large frozen lake, bordered by sheer cliffs on each side. The path turned away from the lake and continued up a narrow ridge. However, the frozen lake provided a quicker route to Swordhold, which was on the far side. The ice on the lake was very solid and held the weight of the adventurers with ease. When the adventurers were about halfway across, they found a rope stretched across the lake about five feet above the ice. They were understandably cautious and ducked underneath the rope without touching it. Unfortunately, this set off a glyph of warding inscribed on the ice. The blast not only wounded our heroes, but severed the rope, which was attached to a primed catapult atop the western cliff. Without the tension of the rope, the catapult released, flinging huge stones down onto the icy lake. The ice shattered from the impact, and the Jade Blade watched in horror as the cracking ice spread toward them. While they could easily outrun the cracking ice, the horses and sled of supplies could not. The adventures used magic to haste themselves and Apples and Oranges. The boost was just enough to get the steeds and their cargo out of the reach of the shattering ice. On the cliffside near Swordhold, the Jade Blade found the frozen remains of a city guardsman from Waterdeep who had been pinned to the wall by a large icicle. Deep gouges in the ice over the head of the guardsman spelled the Draconic word for "thief." Concerned for the fate of the remaining rangers of Swordhold, the Jade Blade hurried the rest of the way. As they approached the keep, a white dragon with an armored rider landed before the gate to Swordhold. The white dragon was Borealis and the rider was Llianne Rimewind, a favored soul of Auril. A patrol of rangers from the outpost had stumbled upon Borealis' lair while he was out hunting, and they took a few items from the dragon's stash—one of which belonged to Llianne. The dragon and the Aurilite were enraged at the theft and had been hunting the rangers one by one and were determined to pull the tower down and kill everyone inside. The arrival of the Jade Blade forced the two to deal with them before they could slaughter those in the tower. Borealis made liberal use of his breath weapon while Llianne called upon the power of Auril to fill her as she strode into battle. Dragons are never an easy foe, and the Jade Blade was sorely challenged that day by the icy lake. It made their victory that much sweeter. The rangers at Swordhold were grateful for the supplies and the rescue from the dragon. They led the Jade Blade to the dragon's lair, where the adventures and city guardsmen plundered the hoard. Fortified by several days of rest and loaded down with treasure, they began to retrace their footsteps toward Waterdeep.
"Feast of the Moon" Plot Recap
I believe Mielikki had a hand in the events that Moonfest night. How else could a seemingly random choice made on a dark street in Waterdeep led to the recovery of the Coalescence of Scorn and the revelation of the true threat to Loudwater.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
The winter days stretched on as the Order of the Jade Blade stayed in Waterdeep. They had recovered Otar from the clutches of the Cyricists, but he was still deep in a coma. Only through the patient care of Jerythi Phalkon was he eating at all. With nothing to do but watch and wait, the Feast of the Moon provided an opportunity to cut loose and enjoy themselves for a change. The Feast of the Moon is the last great festival of the year, and in Waterdeep it is a wild night of drinking, revelry and wassailing. The Jade Blade spent several hours enjoying the vintages at the Fiery Flagon in the Sea Ward before they decided to head to the Jade Jug in the Castle Ward. The adventurers never did make it to the Jade Jug. As they were heading to the tavern, they came across a macabre sight – a corpse lying in the street with its mouth agape as if gasping for breath. A thin sheen of ice covered its skin and clothes. The adventurers quickly determined that person had drowned, but they couldn't figure out why as there was nothing big enough to drown in. Not too far beyond the first body, the Jade Blade found another, then another, as the corpses formed a grisly trail through the streets of Waterdeep. The festival was keeping the City Watch busy, so our heroes took it upon themselves to investigate the matter and see if they could put a stop to it. The gruesome trail ended in a grand house at the end of a small street. The lower floor of the house was made of entwined, living trees, while the second floor was made almost entirely out of glass. Through the glass, the adventurers could see an elaborate, semi-tropical garden. The front door was carved with the head of a unicorn encircled by a living wreath of holly. Music came from deeper within the house, and celebrants could be seen through the windows of the first floor. The front door was ajar and the body of an elderly woman dressed in white with a green vestment to Mielikki lay in the opening. She too was dead from drowning. The Jade Blade recognized her as Annadell Merrymoat, a druid of Mielikki who had visited Jerythi Phalkon and had tried to help Otar. The adventurers found wet footprints leading deeper into the house, and they caught up with their makers in the kitchen. The makers were two incredibly unpleasant and deadly type of undead called drowned that have the ability to fill the lungs of the living with water making them drown on dry land. The Jade Blade slew the drowned before the creatures stumbled into the ballroom and killed of all the revelers. The silent drowning of Annadell had gone unnoticed but the slashing of weapons and explosion of spells did not. The revelers were horrified to learn of Annadell's death and were thankful that the adventurers were able to destroy the undead. In addition, when the music stopped, our heroes heard a strange, pulsing hum coming from upstairs. None of the revelers knew what it was and several guests said that they had never heard if before. The Jade Blade climbed the stairs up to the garden to investigate the rhythmic humming. The second floor was stiflingly warm and was filled with plants from the jungle of Chult. Amongst the leafy fronds and hanging vines were two warbound impalers. These plant creatures protected the garden and were under the command of Annadell, who was not there to call them off, so they attacked our heroes, who were forced to destroy the things in self-defense. After investigating, the adventurers found that the humming was coming from under a stone bench. They tore up the loose bricks and found a secret passage that bored down through the center of one of the great trees supporting the house. The hole was small and cramped, and the Jade Blade had to squeeze as they went. It finally ended deep beneath the house in an octagonal room with three triangular pits spaced around the room. The two closest pits contained two zombie behirs, which the Jade Bade dispatched. In the third pit was a smooth, glassy stone filled by a whirling tempest of blue-green mist. The mist coalesced into the image of a screaming man with severe and noble features, before turning into an orc that looked like Otar. A bit shaken by the image but sure that the sphere was of importance, the Jade Blade took the stone with them. Upon their return to the garden, they were attacked by Kal'Darack – an ogre mage who was seeking the stone for his own purposes. He was accompanied by swarms of undead rats. The battle destroyed a good part of Annadell's famous garden, but the adventures slew the evil giant and dispersed the swarms. When the adventures returned to Jeryth's house to tell her of the death of their friend, they found that Otar had awakened from his coma. He said that the stone had called to him in his dreams and was why he came to Waterdeep. The Green Regent told them that the stone was called the coalescence of scorn and was the physical incarnation of an archmage's dying words. When the archmage fell from his flying city, the stone landed here in Waterdeep. Halaster had buried and warded it. Otar said that the coalescence of scorn was the hope and doom of Loudwater's gravest enemy. He must travel into the Dire Woods to a place called Karse, and there, attempt to twist the stone's destiny to the will of Loudwater. The Green Regent asked our heroes to accompany him, and they agreed.
"The Ruins of Karse" Plot Recap
At last, the true enemy of Loudwater was revealed to be the fallen first Green Regent. The corrupted champion of Mielikki sought to return to the Delimbiyr Vale. The key to his victory and defeat were the Heart and Mind of Karsus.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
The Order of the Jade Blade passed the rest of the winter in Waterdeep. While they waited for the thaws, Otar, the orcish Green Regent, explained to them the true nature of the threat that faced Loudwater. Centuries ago Mielikki chose a dragon by the name of Guev'Ressunvee to be the first Green Regent of the Delimbiyr Vale. Guev'Ressunvee twisted the powers given to him, becoming a cruel and arrogant tyrant. The Forest Lady stripped him of his mantle and cast him out of the world. Guev'Ressunvee plotted his return for centuries and found a way through the ruins of Karse. Karse was a floating city of Netheril that had fallen from the sky into the southern High Forest when that ancient empire collapsed. The Green King was using the strange, arcane energies of the ruins of Karse to destroy the bindings that kept him out of Faerûn. Otar said that Mielikki had come to him while he was comatose and explained how to foil Guev'Ressunvee. For the Green King to break his exile, the Coalescence of Scorn needed to be absorbed by the Heart of Karsus. However, if the Coalescence of Scorn were to be absorbed by the Mind of Karsus instead, the fragmented consciousness of Karsus, the archmage who caused the fall of Netheril, would realize the gravity of his sin and find a lasting peace. This would close the path that Guev'Ressunvee planned on using to enter the Realms. In the spring of the Year of Rogue Dragons, the Jade Blade returned to Loudwater and the Delimbiyr Vale. Otar believed that the Green King would be watching him in particular. So he gave the Coalescence of Scorn to the Jade Blade and asked them to enter the Mind of Karse. Otar would enter the Heart of Karse to block the Guev'Ressunvee from using his foothold there. Parting ways with Otar, the Jade Blade journeyed to a part of the southern High Forest called the Dire Woods. At the heart of this eldritch woodland was a butte that rose hundreds of feet into the air. After several hours of searching, the adventurers found a game trail that wound up to a strange rock formation on the butte face. At the base of the trail were three large, green crystals jutting out of the forest floor. Our heroes recognized them as the Eyes of Guev. They had seen the same crystals in Undermountain and knew that they allow the Green King to see the area around them and summon allies there, which Guev'Ressunvee promptly did. A bone devil stepped out of each of the crystals and immediately began to summon more of their kind. The Jade Blade realized that the gems held the devils here. They shattered the crystals, which pulled the devils back to whatever hell they came from. The adventurers climbed the path, which ended before a twenty-foot tall carving of an ugly face with its eyes and mouth closed and twisted in pain. When the Jade Blade approached, a rumbling voice demanded answers to a series of questions regarding the fate of Karsus. The adventurers knew that his most hated foe was Mystryl and that he loved power more than his own people, which answered two of the questions. They were then asked to name Karsus' final words, which happened to be contained within the Coalescence of Scorn. They placed the orb in the face's mouth and the carving slid aside, revealing a tunnel into the darkness. The Jade Blade retrieved the Coalescence from the carved face and entered the butte. Shortly afterward, they met a huge, disembodied eye that flew through the air. This was the Neversleeping Eye and was all that remained of Andoris Deranthar, an arcanist who administered justice and would hunt for spies in Karse. The Neversleeping Eye demanded that the adventurers identify what was the greatest thing one could serve. Our heroes deduced that the answer the Eye was looking for was truth. The Eye then demanded to know the adventurers' mission. When they answered truthfully, it allowed them to pass. The Jade Blade continued to explore the Mind of Karsus and encountered an apparition that told them that they were fools for intruding and that they would now have time to consider their folly alone. The adventurers were each teleported to separate rooms where they fought a variety of monsters. During the combat, they were continually teleported from room to room so that they each fought the different monsters. Once all the monsters were slain, they returned to the main chamber and were able to move on. Shortly afterward, the adventurers were ambushed by mindflayers serving Guev'Ressunvee. They slew the aberrations and entered a maze made of walls of force. Mist filled the rooms and provided perfect cover for the destrachans, who are sightless and tracked the adventurers with their uncanny hearing. After defeating the destrachans and finding their way through the maze, the Jade Blade came upon a large cavern. Zacharia, who was once the chief constable of Karse but was now a helmed horror, sat on a throne in the center of the cavern. She questioned the Jade Blade as to why she should grant them an audience with the greatest of all wizards. Our heroes showed her the Coalescence of Scorn, and she agreed to let them pass. Zacharia warned them that the Mind of Karsus was but a fragment of the last moments of the Karse enclave and was haunted by a beholder. Zacharia would not permit the coalescence to enter until the eye tyrant was killed. The Jade Blade passed through the arch and found themselves in a ghostly recreation of Karse. The city suddenly shook violently and started to fall. Wading through the panicking spectral citizens, the adventurers found the beholder and killed it. Zacharia appeared and showed them where to find the spectral Karsus. When they touched the Coalescence of Scorn to the specter, a look of shock and understanding filled his face, and the orb, Karsus, and the city disappeared. Karsus' mind was finally at rest, closing this portal to the Green King.
"A Difference of Opinion" Plot Recap
Monsters come in many guises. Sometimes they are easy to see, like the mindflayers. Sometimes they hide behind mundane faces, like the Hark and his wererats. Sometimes the monster is one of your own.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
No sooner did the Order of the Jade Blade return from the Ruins of Karse than they received an invitation for dinner at the Evening Star, courtesy of Ovendal Buetaleen'dal, the matriarch of the most prominent moon elf house in Loudwater. She wished to reward them for their recent victories and speak with them about a delicate matter. In the last week and a half, three elves had been murdered within Loudwater. Two of the elves had spoken out against Otar as Green Regent, and two of the victims were related to Halitan Phelaniityr, the patriarch of the gold elf house in Loudwater, who was currently away visiting Silverymoon. Ovendal was worried that the deaths might be the start of a purge against those opposed to Otar. Ovendal asked our heroes to solve the murders before they resulted in greater unrest and an open schism in the City of Grottos. She wanted the situation resolved before Halitan returned at the end of the week. The Jade Blade agreed and began their investigations the next day. The first victim was Aduniron Phelaniityr. His body was found by a young elven couple thirteen days ago outside his home on Goldenrod Street, near the Grotto of Serene Blossoms. He was known for being outspoken and argued against choosing Otar as the Green Regent. He also had a talent for music and wrote new compositions daily. When the Jade Blade spoke to the couple who had found his body, they said that there was no sign that Aduriron had put up a fight. He had been stabbed in the back repeatedly. The second victim was Aliril Phelaniityr. She was found by the town guard in the Grotto of Broken Hearts seven days ago, where she had been tortured to death. Dried blood stained the tree and pieces of rope were embedded into the trunk where her body was located. They found prints of an elven male or a human female nearby. They asked around town about Aliril and learned that she was a cold but strong woman with a vocal displeasure toward orcs. Some thought that she was targeted as a way to get at her father Halitan Phelaniityr. She was seen near the Bookworn Inn on the night she was murdered. A trip to the inn revealed that she was stopped by a human man who lead her into a nearby alley. In addition, our heroes learned that her sister Schirlyndra recently had tried to commit suicide after her engagement to Rendonil Beutaleen'dal broken off. The town guard had already cast speak with dead on the first two murder victims and were willing to share the results. Aduniron's spirit said that he suddenly found himself unable to move on his way home. He was then stabbed several times in the back but did not see his assailant. Aliril's spirit said she was meeting a human who claimed to have information about the murder of Aduniron. She met him and then also found herself unable to move. She was then tied up by the human and an elf who then took her to the grotto and proceeded to torture her with small blades until she died. She did not recognize the elf but his voice seemed familiar. The third victim was Bialis Beutaleen'dal, who was found dead in the library of Velti'Enorethal three days ago. He was Ovendal's nephew, a quiet scholar, and a member of the Harpers. Unlike the other two victims, he did not have any strong opinion on Otar and was a moon elf rather than a sun elf. He did have a controversial theory that the Greendraught could be deceived and a successful candidate faked. When the Jade Blade searched his room, they found a note in Bialis' diary that he had met Rendoril by chance and noticed that he was splattered with blood. Suspicion turned to Rendonil Beutaleen'dal, and the Jade Blade started investigating him. They learned that he had proposed to Schirlyndra, but her father Halitan had forbidden the wedding based upon the advice of his elder daughter Aliril. In addition, Rendonil was a known wizard and capable of casting hold person. During their investigation of Rendonil, they came across a heated exchange regarding the murders between a scion of the Green Regent and three orcs. The Jade Blade stepped in to intervene, only to be ambushed by the scion and the orcs at the same time. Our heroes defeated their assailants in short order. They questioned the scion closely and discovered that he was not a scion at all, and that he was under an enchantment to help his "friend" Rendonil take care of our heroes. Armed with this information, they went to moon elf's home to bring him to justice. Rendoril lived in a villa on the edge of town, where cockatrices were wandering the yard. This is not a common practice in Loudwater. The Jade Blade killed the beasts without alerting the guards and managed to disable the trap on the door to gain entry to the villa itself. Inside, the adventurers encountered elven guards in Rendoril's employ, which they quickly dispatched. On the second floor, they met Rendonil himself, who immediately attacked them. He ordered his shield guardian to block the doorway while he stood behind it in his bedroom and cast spells. The fight was a vicious one and the Jade Blade killed the sun elf mage in the process, so he was unavailable to answer questions. However, the adventurers found sufficient evidence in the villa to prove his guilt, including the surgeon's tools he used to torture Aliril, sheet music stolen from Aduniron, a note plotting the end of the line of the Regent that was signed by the initial "N", and a holy symbol of Talos the Destoryer. Ovendal was quite upset to learn that one of her family was responsible for the killings, though she was relieved that the killings had stopped and further strife had been averted. Since they had handled this situation so well, she had another problem that she needed help with. That story I will save for another night.
The Howling of a Mighty Storm
The Lady's Chalice and the Secret of the Greendraught were in danger. The druids of the Circle of the Stag were vanishing one after another until only one remained. In desperation, she turned to the Order of the Jade Blade and begged them to help her keep the Forest Maiden's secrets from a unseen menace that threatened the tradition of the Green Regent.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
Ah, you've returned. Good, I was hoping to continue my tale of the Order of the Jade Blade. Now where did I end last time? Oh, yes – the Jade Blade had just returned to Loudwater and were invited to dine with Ovendal Beutalenn’dal. The moon elf matriarch had a special request for the adventures and arrived at the Evening Star for dinner in the company of a druid of Mielikki.
As Seconds Slip Away
Can you trust the words of a traitor? Would you dare put your fate in the hands of someone who has turned their colors and switched sides? Would you risk the fate of a town and everyone in it on a change of heart? High Lord Kalahar Twohands decided that he could not.
Teseryne Truesilver
Daughter of Talanthe Truesilver
1373, the Year of Rogue Dragons
Shortly after the Jade Blade had rescued Baern Karneme, they were asked to meet with a secret benefactor at an elegant home in the High Town neighborhood of Loudwater. Curious at who this could be, they arrived and were shown to the library where they were met by High Lord Kalahar Twohands. He wanted to meet with them secretly in case the Zhentarim have spies in the High Hall. Kalahar wanted our heroes to follow up on the report made by Baern. As I mentioned in my previous tale "The Truth of Hearts," Baern was a spy for the Zhentarim who had had switched his allegiance to Loudwater, and the Jade Blade had rescued him from a Zhentarim assassination attempt. He warned the High Lord that the Zhentarim were planning an invasion of Loudwater in the immediate future. Kalahar wanted the Jade Blade to follow up on Baern's warning and confirm whether his tale was true. They were to travel to Llorkh, the anchor of the Zhentarim presence in the eastern Delimbiyr Vale, and determine if the Zhentarim were preparing an invasion and to find out as much information as possible. This reconnaissance was needed as quickly so the Jade Blade quickly gathered their weapons and equipment and headed out into the summer night. Leaving Loudwater unnoticed was easily accomplished with the help of the town guard. The Jade Blade traveled east along the edge of the South Wood for the next several days. They passed Orlbar in the night, without encountering opposition, and entered the Zhentarim-controlled open plains between Orlbar and Llorkh. Zhentarim patrols scoured the countryside, looking for scouts from Loudwater, but the Jade Blade moved stealthy past them and made their way to Llorkh. When they reached Llorkh, our heroes took several hours to examine its defenses. The town was surrounded by a deep ditch and a palisade. Small camps of soldiers were set up to the south and east of town, housing garrison appropriate for a town the size of Llorkh. The adventurers did notice activity in the hills, suggesting that some of the mines were in operation. After much observation and consideration, the Jade Blade snuck into Llorkh by climbing over the wall using magic and stealth. They escaped the notice of the sentries on the wall and blended with the local population once they were inside the town. To gather information, they visited several taverns that were popular with soldiers and caravan drivers, including Ten Bells, the Drover's Cup, and the Wet Wizard. Listening to the locals and asking the right questions, they learned that the mines near Llorkh were thought to have played out, but operations in several of them had started back up again. In addition, the number of caravans to town had greatly increased recently. Armed with this information, they bribed with drinks one of the teamsters who had come to town with a caravan the day before. His caravan had delivered a load of supplies to the newly opened mine, but thought that it was strange how the miners didn't seem to be doing anything and insisted on unloading everything themselves, instead of letting the teamsters do it. The Jade Blade's curiosity toward the mines grew, and they got directions from the teamster before he passed out. Instead of barging head-on into the reopened mines, our heroes snuck into an abandoned entrance nearby, hoping that it would interconnect with the active mines. Their hope was correct but a pair of ropers had made the abandoned mine their home. The adventures quickly dealt with these aberrations and found a passage that wound deeper underground and eventually connected with the reopened mines. It quickly became obvious to the Jade Blade that these mines were not in operation at all. Instead, they were housing hundreds Zhentarim warriors and dozens of devils. The "miners" were not digging for ore but carving out new chambers to hold even more troops! Our heroes knew it would be suicide to directly attack that many soldiers so they snuck about the mines, keeping to the shadows and picking off a handful of guards. Using this tactic they made their way to the officer's quarters at the heart of the mines. Inside, they surprised Grei Lorlarr, the Zhentarim commander of the mine, and Shierana, her erinyes aide-de-camp. The two leaders leapt to defend themselves against the Jade Blade. Grei had a special hatred for spellcasters and attacked the party's wizard with a savage fury. Shierana used her fiendish powers to demoralize the rest of the adventures before switching to her wicked bow. Fortunately, the Jade Blade managed to down Grei before she could sound the alarm, but Shierana teleported away to summon help. Quickly searching through Grei's correspondence, the Jade Blade found detailed information on the number of soldiers hidden in the mines and the supplies needed for them, maps of Loudwater with important buildings and defensive structures noted, and a timetable for the arrival of thousand more troops at the mines. The timetable stopped two months in the future without explanation. A dread realization settled over our heroes as they realized why there were no further entries. The troops would not be there. Avoiding the troops summoned by Shierana, the Jade Blade crept out of the mines and headed back to Loudwater. High Lord Kalahar was stoic as he heard the news confirming an attack on the City of Grottos. War was indeed coming, but at least now Loudwater knew when it was coming and what the Zhentarim had in store. The Jade Blade rose even higher in High Lord Kalahar's esteem, and he would call upon them again in the coming months.
Operations
Workplace
Delimbiyr Vale
Type
Agricultural / Fishing / Forestry
Famous in the Field
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