UPDATE
THE NEWS
Here is all the information that is publicly known, or you are able to find out.
Kas and his 5 million strong have just marched into the Principality of Ulek, and are approaching the borders of the Orcish Empire of the Pomarj.
Turrosh Mak does NOT have anywhere close to the number of ships needed to ferry that army across the water, unless he devotes his entire navy to doing that - and only that - for an entire Turn.
The Dark Union does not have enough ships, unless they send their ENTIRE navy down to the Pomarj, and help, and then it will take a full Turn.
Even working together, Turrosh Mak's fleet and the fleet of the Dark Union would take a full Turn, really, to get the job done.
It would appear the threat of a Kas / Kevellond War has been adverted, although there is serious destruction in Keoland and the Principality of Ulek (where the dwarvish leader is hiding his people in the mountains.)
The Baklunish Confederation has set up a defensive line west of Ket.
They have dug HUGE trenchlines (think of World War One), and put stakes in the ground, and have amassed an army there.
The dwarves of the Yatils are helping them.
The Baklunish Confederation has set up a second, much stronger line of defense north of Tovag Baragu.
Backed by the protection of the great, enchanted forests and their sentient trees and forest spirits, the Baklunish have dug in massively to face the threat of Vecna.
The titans of Esmerin have already arrived to help them.
The forces of Orcreich are on the way, as are the halflings of Esmerin.
It is fair to say the fleet of Zeif is keeping a careful watch on the north. The Solistarim have not been forgotten.
The Baklunish Confederation and it's allies have now summoned thousands of Planars to their aid, and these are taking up defensive positions beside the baklunish.
The Kevellond League has fully mobilized. Planars are pouring in to aid them.
The Yeomanry, where Kas passed through, has every man and woman in the country under arms.
From the Stark Mounds and from Sterich troops are pouring.
The army of Keoland is fully mobilized, and all cities are barricaded and ready for a siege.
Furyondy, Veluna, and all the other places in the Kevellond League are under the process of full mobilization.
The visit of Jaran the mage to the Lortmil Technomancy turns up NOTHING suspicious.
EVERYTHING is normal. The dwarves are doing exactly what the Wanderer showed they are doing: they are making firearms, cannon, machine guns, explosives, and other weapons of war.
Their society is indeed alien, for it is that of late 19th century Europe, and it is beautiful and wealthy beyond the imagination of the medieval visitors.
The Olympic Games of Torture are on.
Who's joining in, please?
There is no shortage of people who join involuntarily, because a lot of looters and arsonists were caught during the panic that followed the Sending of the Wanderer.
The Cult of Loviatar gets started in spite of the Emperor's efforts to stop it, and quickly spreads to other lands.
And then, something awful happens ...
Along with Loviatar, some of the other religions of Toril start cropping up ... and one in particular ... a diety's name is mentioned, and she is said to be the very essence of magic, and all others are pretenders.
Her cult is growing, her new priestesses powerful, and they have a message and a mission.
Their dieity is Mystra.
No news is forthcoming from the Alliance of the Rising Sun, other than they are mobilizing and Planars are coming in by their summoning.
It is almost disturbing, the way there is no news from the west.
A lot of spies were sent west ... most of them, have disappeared, without a trace of what happened to them.
Anabstercorian has sent out messengers with a blunt message: NO TRESSPASSING.
And the Solistarim mean it. They make a few examples to show the rest to stay clear.
The Quaggoths suffer more than a few deaths before the fierce Snowmen get the message.
The aboleth messenger to the Deepwater League may or may not be killed on the spot - that is up to Kaboom.
Amazingly, divinations show that the Solistarim are not summoning any Planars.
Like they had to.
The Efreeti and Salamanders and many Fire Elementals make their HOME in the Godspires!
Everyone else is pulling in Planars by the thousands.
Divinations show Oerth being flooded by nascent armies of Planars of all alignments and every type.
There is no news from the League of Light and Shadow.
Perrenland is silent.
The Vesve is silent.
The Faerie of the Flanaess are silent.
The Elven Imperial Navy has not moved from it's dockage.
Vecna has emerged at Tovag Baragu.
Just a split second before he did, the Doomgrinder clicked that last click.
(The Doomgrinder is an evil windmill. But it's blades are made of steel, and do not turn. They click, like the minute hand of clocks.
It is said that when the blades are perfectly up and down, right and left, then Doom will fall on the world.
The blades have been one click away from standing perfectly vertical and horizontal.
They just made that final click, an instant before Vecna emerged from Tovag Baragu.
For anyone interested in tearing the infernal device down, it stands in the Cairn Hills, where Iuz holds power.)
Tenh, Delrune, and Calrune have built a system of massive fortifications between themselves and the Warlords to the west.
They have also fortified their northern border with Iuz.
They have armies deployed to stop any giant attacks from the Rakers.
Reports say that Gamboge Forest and Phostwood are being turned into gigantic traps for any army so foolish as to set foot inside them.
The same reports are coming from Celadan Forest.
They are confirmed in the Grandwood.
It would appear that the Grandwood is being MASSIVELY fortified, and that help, including Planar help, is being sent there (by whatever magic is available.)
Also, the people of the Gnarley Forest, always tough and loyal to their woodland, are digging in, bracing for an attack from the Shadow Throne.
And they are getting help from the Welkwood, and undoubtedly from others.
The Wild Coast is likewise bracing itself.
I don't need to say that the fiercely evil and fiercely independent monsters, hoards of monsters, in the Cairn Hills are ready and waiting for the Shadow Empire ... they WANT a fight. They want blood and battle and death.
The 3 Ulek Nations, the People of the Kron Hills, and the People of the Welkwood just formed into a new nation, called the Kingdom of Ulek.
It has allied with the Sky-Sea League.
To it's aid is coming a fleet of flying mountains - dwarven spelljammers, containing thousands of dwarves each (yes, the dwarves, and the dwarves alone, can do this ...)
Of course, I'm sure the Kingdom of Ulek does NOT appreciate Kas plundering the Principality of Ulek.
Kas was considering attacking Keoland, but he has changed his mind and marched into the Principality of Ulek on his way to the Pomarj.
Just what he will do when he gets there, nobody (including me) knows.
He DID send everyone a message, which said in no uncertain terms what would happen to any power that threatened him.
He also has revealed that VECNA is arrived in the Present, with his legions, which are TENS OF MILLIONS strong.
Seers and scryers find out very quickly, all too quickly, that Kas is telling the truth - and many of those scrying Vecna die, along with everyone in the same room, in sprays of blood (Vecna does not like being scried.)
Conversely, everyone who is sensitive to it feels Vecna scrying THEM. And they can't stop it - no magic seems to ward the scrying away (it's as bad as the Eye of Sauron, except taking the Ring off doesn't help.)
Wish spells don't stop Vecna's scrying ... although they do harm those attempting the Wish.
Kas sent some images of what Vecna is like. These images are all too true, and they are actually a severe understatement of the ghastly truth.
Vecna makes the Solistarim, Iuz, and Ivid look like clergy of Peace and Beauty, in comparison.
The Scro Armada is taking up positions over Oerth.
Over Oerth also are the Illithid and Neogi Armadas (along with the dwarven spelljamming mountains.)
These spelljamming forces are eyeing each other, waiting.
The United Commonwealth of Toril is allowing all ambassadors to enter their world.
Your ambassadors find a world of superscience and supermagic (think 11th level magic in use by every country.)
They find the world is filled with a strange race called the kender, who wish to come to Oerth and explore it.
They find a world where illithid, aboleth, beholder, phaerimm, elf, orc, troll, gnoll, dwarf, kobold, drow, svirfnebli, gnomes, halfling, human, scro, and just about everything else you can imagine, are all talking, walking, and working together like they were old friends.
And yes, they have the great cathedrals where the great orgies take place, and yes - they are exactly what the Wanderer said, and more.
They are an enlightened and noble people, the Torilians - but they are a little sad too.
They have been through it, so to speak, and the graveyards of the dead are enormous.
There are great monuments to battles and catastrophes all over the world, even though all the scars of battle have been erased.
By the way, the UNDEAD walk the streets also, and some of them are rulers, movers and shakers, in the United Commonwealth.
The United Commonwealth is a democracy, an alien concept to Oerth, where all it's people meet in a vast place called the World Forum, and while someone called the Prime Minister oversees the proceedings, they VOTE on what is to be done.
Nobody gives commands, nobody orders anyone around. Everything is done in committee, and by vote.
And, most amazing of all, the common people of the UC get to VOTE for their representatives to this World Forum!!
And if they don't like their representatives, they can vote them out.
The representatives of the UC must actually do what the people want, or be expelled!!!
There are rumors that Iuz is looking for something, and has sent people out to search. Who, and what for, is not known.
Meanwhile, a great force of humanoids is moving towards Vesve Forest.
They obviously intend to attack the place.
There is confirmation that the Frost, Snow, and Ice Barbarians, and Ratik, have allied with the Sky-Sea League. Spies discover this, and report it back to their respective countries.
There are reports the Scarlet Brotherhood is up to something.
What, nobody knows.
The Scarlet Brotherhood has been especially good at keeping spies out (and the fate of those they catch, even I'm not going into.)
The Shadow Throne is mobilizing. There is no question of it.
And unlike everyone else, they have their full Planar Army already on Oerth. It is huge. In the hundreds of thousands, at the very least. More like, in the millions.
Those armies are beginning to move. What is going to get hit first, nobody knows.
News comes that a spy in the Dark Union has been tortured to death, then raised as an undead. Apparently for his failure to discover that the Lortmil Technomancy existed.
The Dark Union is mobilizing, and hoards of peasants, struck with blood lust and dark patriotism, are flocking to the God Emperor's banner.
Worse, a group of ancient elves, locked in ice for thousands of years, has awoken in the Adri Forest.
These elves are very powerful, and very evil.
They are mobilizing all the evil forest spirits, and gaining control of the trees, and are preparing to take the Adri Forest.
They have apparently allied with the Dark Union.
A lot of spies from the Dark Union are caught in other countries.
In the Lortmil Technomancy, those caught are summarily executed, on the spot (GnomeWorks made this very clear. Interesting, but no spies seem to be able to get into the Lortmil Technomancy and report anything important ... or, they don't report back at all.)
There is a rumor that the Quaggoths of the Burneal (the abominable snowmen) are about to launch a major assault, either on the Nomads, the Solistarim, or both.
There is feverish activity in the Burneal.
In the barbarian lands, in the evil forests, the quaggoths there are astir, and up to something.
The Orcish Empire of the Pomarj has been sending ambassadors out, to every nation, to ask about the Sending of the Wanderer, what it means, and whether it is true.
The Kevellond League has talked with them, and a few others, but most seem to have ignored Turrosh Mak.
There is a massive buildup of forces in the Hool Marshes, led by no other than the demipower Kalden, Prince of Swords. There are reports of Planars massing there.
There are reports of extreme cruelty and barbarism in the Pomarj, and these reports are verified. Slaves who do not work hard enough are killed, and turned into undead who will work hard.
There is, surprisingly, little or no information from the Alliance of the Northwest Crescent.
However, most of the spies sent there are never heard from again.
The Wind Dukes of Aaqa are famous for their power, and they do not brook spies.
The Unseelie have started showing up all over the Flanaess, which is spooking an already terrified populace further (and of course, when news of the arrival of Vecna hits, a SECOND wave of panic rips through the Flanaess, with even the soldiers panicking. Many people die as order is restored brutally and forcefully in evil countries. In good countries, it takes longer for the anarchy to subside. There are more fires and more looting, more people fleeing into the hills, forests, and even mountains looking for shelter. Towns and hamlets lie deserted, the streets of cities are emptied as everyone huddles indoors.)
The Kevellond League has dug a series of trenches, a fortified battle line, up and down the borders of the drow and giant holdings, and along the lines of the mountains.
The forces of the Kevellond League are on the move, westward.
It is confirmed that the demipower Heward is leading one of these forces. It is confirmed that the demipower Murlynd is leading another.
In the evil nation of Zindia, Seers report an attack is imminent. From what, or where, they do not know.
