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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy E Grenemyer" data-source="post: 9221430" data-attributes="member: 12388">The holidays are upon us. My gift to you, Dear Reader, is an entry from an old DM's Guild product of mine, Cormyr in the Year of the Ageless One. The title of the entry is Wizards Run.Merry Christmas!Wizard's RunThe keep at the heart of Wizard’s Run is old; its true name, and the knowledge of who built it, has been lost to time. The keep is set partially into a hillside and faces south. From its battlements one can see the village of Nesmyth in the distance. The tower in the center of the keep stands taller than the hill; its topmost level allows for a splendid view of Cormyr’s rolling countryside to the north.Wizard’s Run takes its name from the story of the last moments of a rarely seen wizard who’d claimed the dilapidated keep for himself around the time Azoun IV ascended to the Dragon Throne. Gardgragath, as he came to be known, rebuilt the keep’s walls and erected a splendid tower in its center. Rumor held that Gardragath had discovered a formula for creating Helmed Horrors, and that his keep was filled with all manner of objects the wizard could inhabit with his will and cause to move about.Such claims were likely based on the horseless wagon that emerged from Gardragath’s keep once every tenday and trundled into Nesmyth. If the stories still told in Nesmyth hold any truth, then Gardragath could both see and hear through his wagon, and speak out of it. A strongbox occupied the space where a driver would otherwise have sat; it dispensed coins to merchants after they stacked their wares onto the wagon bed.Such stories oft turn to the night Wizard’s Run gained its name, and describe the great green fire erupted within the keep and enveloped the tower. Not long after, the keep’s iron-shod wooden doors burst open and a barefoot, bald and wild-bearded man came running out of them. Suits of field plate wielding battleaxes sailed high over the battlements and gave chase, the eye slits in the helms trailing green fire.The man turned and shouted a word of magic that shattered the pursuing armor, the report echoing through the night like a thunderclap as pieces of metal rained down. As if in reply, the mouth of the gatehouse spat a shower of emerald sparks that sought the broken armor. As one the shards of plate armor rose up in a whirling maelstrom to rend and tear at the wizard.Gardragath’s body was left in a bloody heap ere the wet, whirling remnants of battle plate spun away and returned to the keep, its doors closing shut as the fire in the courtyard died away.Two subsequent attempts by adventurers to enter the keep met with swift death, as anything within not made to be fixed and immovable worked to slay all who dared trespass. Most were skewered by animated longswords that attacked silently from above, others by flying wands that pierced eyes and ears with the speed of an arrow. On both ocassions something unseen dumped the corpses over the walls by night.The lone path to Gardgragath’s home was walled off with farmer’s carts, timber, and stone, and travelers were warned to keep a safe distance lest “some animated thing come flying out of Wizard’s Run to slay you before you can outrun it.”The magic-rending nature of the Spellplague cast doubt on magic of all kinds in Cormyr, and left some to wonder if lingering magical presences might be lessened in its wake. Those who dared find the answers to such questions usually met with injury or death, but not the novice adventurers comprising the Company of the Singing Harp.Eighty years after the appearance of Gardragath, the Company found the keep at the heart of Wizard’s Run to be empty of danger. They explored the tower, the undercellars, and even discovered warehouse-sized storage chambers in the hill backing the keep. In the years that followed, the Company of the Singing Harp rode forth from the keep to find adventure and fame in Cormyr, and infamy in Sembia. In the Year of the Silent Flute (1437 DR) all but one of their number was slain while protecting King Azoun V from assassins. The survivor, one Aurbrand “Firebrand” Ambrival, was granted a title of nobility by the King and given Wizard’s Run for his home.Aurbrand retired to Suzail late in life, and left his eldest son in charge of the keep. In time, both father and son died in Suzail under mysterious circumstances.Today, residents of Nesmyth whisper the fell magic that long ago slew Gardragath has renewed itself into a curse slowly killing off the surviving members of the Ambrival noble family, while farmers in the vicinity of Wizard’s Run claim to have seen pieces of armor and daggers wreathed in green light flying through their fields at night, and in one case a full suit of armor with green glowing eyes roaming about in the fields near the keep under the light of the moon.[ATTACH=full]340311[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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