D&D 5E 5th Edition and Cormyr: Flexing My Idea Muscle and Thinking Out Loud

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Alturiak, fourth day of the third tenday.
A rift has formed within House Hawklin. Shalumbrelle Hawklin has become enraged with her father (Lord Emmerus Hawklin) for having failed to alert anyone to the disappearance of his second eldest son some four months ago. Her two younger sisters (Amaerelle and Athandriss) have made public their refusal to attend any sort of funeral for their deceased brother until after his killers have been found. Lady Shalumbrelle was last seen attending her sisters at the Bold Blazon, in Suzail, in the company of its ambitious owner, Daerendygho Vrabrant.

***

The sinking family reputation of House Downshield is likely what spurned Lord Lyonard Downshield to summon his closest followers to a gathering yestereve at the haughtiest and most exclusive of clubs in all of Suzail, the Rearing Meredragon, for a raucous feast in its finest room, the Room of the Wyvern Knight. Lord Downshield is said to have promised his devotion to the individual who hires adventurers that successfully capture and return to Suzail tentacled beasts and dragonlike creatures for the greater glory of Downshield. Other suggestions put forth by the attendees and vigorously agreed to by an increasingly inebriated Lyonard included the trouncing of pirates in the vicinity of Suzail and Marsember, and the recovery of lost treasures important to the Crown and, by extension, to the people of Cormyr.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Alturiak, fifth day of the third tenday.

In Suzail, Dragonhaven has reopened for business. By Crown decree the owner of Dragonhaven must now pay the cost for a funeral and a sizable recompense to the estate and/or family of any patron lost to the magic lurking among the tomes within its Sea and Sky collection.

***

A rumorfire war has erupted across Suzail. Two nights past, Erevor Tharmuskeld, Master of the Guild of Naturalists, was attacked in his Windmarket home and severely wounded. Broadcryers fanned out to all quarters of Suzail the following morning to announce that no less than six assassins attempted to skewer the recently installed guildmaster, and that “persons of power” are to blame for the attack. By that afternoon, other broadcryers claimed the attackers were not so numerous and the attack, such as it was, is the result of prior dishonest business dealings by Erevor. Yet more broadcryers announced that it is time for the Naturalist’s portfolio to pass into “wise, temperate hands”-- a phrase most folk of Suzail take to mean the hands of nobles. The Dragonfang Lord Investigator for Suzail, the war wizard Brannon Lucksar, has been appointed to look into the matter further.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Alturiak, sixth day of the third tenday.

A Saerloonian landlord is seeking “chartered adventurers of good repute” to plumb the heights (and the depths) of the “Dowagers.” Tavern talk says these are twenty five or so mansions--all of them abandoned--on the north side of Saerloon, in Sembia. The merchant is offering free passage to Saerloon from Suzail as soon as the dock ice is thin enough to break, 100 golden lions for each mansion explored and all dangers beyond mere rats and spiders slain. Word of the Sembian’s offer has reached the ears of Morligul and Mountarn, Map Makers (theirs an open-faced shop that resembles a barn and shares a common wall with Dragonhaven, itself a rooming house for sages), who’ve offered to sell maps the two claim show the layout of a handful of the Dowagers. Interested parties may find the landlord--one Arkrull Dree--aboard his ship, the Fatal Mistake, moored on Suzail’s docks.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Alturiak, seventh day of the third tenday.

A dockside spice peddler has died under circumstances most mysterious within sight of the Goose of Doom. By all accounts the peddler, known to most folk as Old Baerem, was both unaccompanied and unaccosted while pushing his wooden cart through the snow when flames erupted from a blanket he wore over his head and shoulders to fend off the cold. Regulars of the Doom were quick to try and douse Baerem with snowmelt buckets but the flames were faster, turning him and his cart into a blazing hot pyre that reduced both to smoldering bones and ash.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Another day, another round of current clack in Suzail and wider Cormyr.

Thus:

Alturiak, eighth day of the third tenday.

Court underscribes in the company of Purple Dragon escorts have fanned out to Suzail’s many festhalls, drinking houses, inns, and entertainment venues to announce the Crown’s desire for all accomplished minstrels and bards to assist in a “most urgent and pressing matter, come Springtime, in the King’s Forest.” Interested performers may inquire at the Royal Court.

***

The name of the unfortunate who disappeared from Dragonhaven has been divulged by Crown officials. Indur Montalar, an aging dockhand respected by all, was a retired Blue Dragon, a native of Suzail, and regular at the Goose of Doom. Attendance at the Doom is expected to grow every day over the next tenday, as elderly retirees join their younger brethren for a “storm of remembrance.” One may reasonably expect the size and frequency of Purple Dragon patrols to increase in the area over the coming days, and for those Dragons to have no patience for excuses, drunken brawls, and lawlessness. (Though small, the Doom boasts a sizable clientele, all of them former Blue Dragons and their closest allies.)

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Today's clack involves a bit of news from Marsember and Saerloon, as follows:

Alturiak, ninth day of the third tenday.

Wintertime couriers newly arrived in Suzail from Marsember have paid broadcryers to announce a message from the mage Alashendal, as follows: All students of the Art who wish to learn the secrets of necromancy are encouraged to travel to Marsember to join the mage Alashendal as an apprentice.

-

Among the news carried into Suzail from those same couriers is the unexpected windfall enjoyed by the cobbler Farjack Lharalan of Saerloon, thanks to a flurry of scrip trading. Farjack has become sole owner of the entire cargo of footwear carried within the hold of the Coinchaser, a merchant cog that calls Saerloon its home port. Among the wares now in Farjack’s inventory are an unknown number of the always in demand high-fashion boots crafted for men by Evenndren Designs of Daerlun, one hundred pairs of stylized boots for women produced in Yhuann by Manytrails House, and ten score pair of sturdy footwear by Reland Cobblers of Milvarune. Scrip traders in Saerloon are said to be suspicious of Farjack’s success; he was not known to dabble in scrip trading before.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Alturiak. Tenth day of the third tenday.

The spellbook belonging to Hjan, Master of Familiars, has been stolen. This the latest news from a pair of couriers who arrived in Suzail yestermorn. Word of the theft has traveled swiftly through Suzail, and is in keeping with reports of at least four mages dwelling in the Forest Kingdom have suffered thefts of their own spellbooks the last three months running. Most Cormyreans expect the Council of Mages to become involved, though it remains to be seen if adventurers, and not Wizards of War, will be deployed to resolve the matter of the missing spellbooks (this, after a pair of war wizards deployed by the Council suffered gruesome--and quite public--deaths in Monksblade). There is no doubt Hjan will utilize adventurers, however; the wizard has publicly announced he has engaged the services of the Company of the Dead Sembian to return his most prized spellbook intact.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Ches. Second day of the first tenday.

Yet more rumors of events in Saerloon are circulating in Suzail. The latest clack involves a collection of stolen plays belonging to the famed performer Taumpras Irorlar of Saerloon. Among his collection were original copies of Hawksoun's Many Musings and A Belt of Stars: Plays for Players. A loss such as this might go unnoticed but for long swirling rumors that Taumpras kept copies of potent spells hidden among his books of plays, which he occasionally sold to fund his traveling troupe of players and laborers in Sembia.

-

Sentever Orlabar, owner of Sentever’s Outfitters (a “last stop” outfitter of wares and supplies for travelers exiting nearby Horngate) was struck speechless at the arrival of a lone pack mule carrying goods on its back. According to Sentever, the mule walked through the front door of the place and announced in a voice that all could understand that it was to be unloaded "as quick as possible."

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Ches. Third day of the first tenday.

Swirling rumors of the recovery of an original copy of The Way of Lost Power in Scornubel have given way to alarming reports of open battle and bloodshed on its streets. Feuding and disagreements-turned-violent are nothing new within the Divided City, but decades have passed since chaos reigned there. Yestereve, a courtier taking respite within the Three Ravens claimed that a loyal highknight delivered word to the Queen's ears of Anandur Bowhund, chief enforcer of the Lords of Scornubel, having been seriously wounded in the fighting. Folk in Suzail have begun to wonder if Scornubel’s Lords are capable of restoring order before the snow melts and trade resumes in the Heartlands.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Ches. Fourth day of the first tenday.

Yesterve, a mob of drunken mourners were confronted by a half-score Purple Dragons at the entrance to Dragonhaven. Numbering thrice as many, the mob of angry dockhands and retired Blue Dragons looked to breach the entrance to the rooming house for sages and burn every last book in the building. Onlookers claim the battle to save Dragonhaven was lost until Mountarn and his half-giant business partner Morligul joined the fray. The co-owners of the nearby map making shop heaved torch-wielding rabble over the heads of their companions and barred the way until a dozen more Dragons arrived on the scene. Severe injuries were suffered by both sides.

---

Rumors circulating in Marsember of a water-filled basement stocked with flesh eating fish within the abode of the mage Alashendal of Marsember have proven true. A trio of war wizards were invited to inspect the pool, which the mage uses to “strip corpses of flesh and innards” before the bones are retrieved.

---

Ralaskor Ridinghound has returned to Suzail. The nobleman appeared unaware that word of his failure to secure a builder in Marsember had preceded him. A doorjack claimed to overhear polite laughter when Ralaskor walked into the main parlor of the Gilded Feather, followed by a handful of jesting taunts and offers of assistance in acquiring “a builder I keep at my beck and call” from his fellow nobles in the club.