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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy E Grenemyer" data-source="post: 9373306" data-attributes="member: 12388">5 Uktar - The RottingFifth day of the first tenday1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets RevealedRetired Dragon encounters tower of light. HILLMARCH - Travelers walking the trail north from Masoner’s Bridge to Hillmarch have encountered a strange phenomena in the form of a column of flickering motes of light. The base of the column is about as wide as a barn and roughly circular in shape, and tapers upward to a point some 60 or more feet in the air. According to the retired Purple Dragon turned bodyguard Flastarl Harrowspike, a column of winking lights appeared all around his campsite “when I drew forth my service dagger(1) to conjure a light to see by.” Flastarl found the air within the column warmer than the Autumn air he’d been sleeping in, and heard the sound of faint voices “like as you can hear beyond a closed door” from somewhere above him, though he could see no one and not understand the words he heard. “My pack beasts didn’t mind the glimmers nor the warmth, and all the Watching Gods knew I was too terrified to move camp, so we stayed put.” The column was gone when Flastarl awoke the next morning.Tavern talk in Hillmarch claims this phenomena has been seen before, but further east on the banks of the Immerflow where it bends east to break away from the edge of the Hullack Forest to follow the East Way. “The Elf Tower is what it’s called. Only a ring of foundation stones are left. No, I don’t know where the rest of it went. What adventurers do is they camp inside the ring and cast a spell that makes little candle flames float up out of the stones that form a shape like a tower. Then nothing can harm them while they sleep, see?” This account, provided by the miner Ithgrim Torchstone, is based on adventurer lore and local legend regarding what folk believe are elf ruins that lay on both sides of the Immerflow, where ornately carved, albeit weathered, stone blocks and pieces of statue can still be found, the remnants becoming more numerous if one crosses the water and is willing to travel into the Hullack Forest. Local lore claims the broken remains of elf-built fortifications grown over with vines and half buried under fallen leaves and undergrowth can be found under the tree canopy. This lore also says forest-dwelling beasts and all manner of foul monsters lurk among the ruins, the creatures likely attracted by lingering magic or even spells laid down by the elves that once lived there.In Hillmarch, guests of the Shovel of Sparkling Stones Inn can examine (but are firmly reminded not to touch) a display of life-sized ivory and marble statues, reputed to have been carved by elves, that flanks the entrance. The statues are humanoid shaped and appear to resemble slender, armored individuals, but the faces are worn from age. Down the years assorted “elf wares” have been collected and displayed in newly-constructed wings of what has become a sprawling structure, the later built by a succession of owners who shared an aptitude for gullibility and a desire to acquire valuable odds and ends, to live among them and display them, and to bask in the wonderment of others observing them.(2)These wings incorporate “elf stones” in their walls collected by adventurers (and enterprising Hillmarchers with time on their hands and the ability to carve stone to resemble “what an elf would fancy”). The interiors are all flowing wood made to resemble the long branches of a tree whose “trunk” is the part of the inn the wings branch out from. The rooms are low-ceilinged, ornate but gaudy affairs, and not all of them have fireplaces, owing to one owner’s belief that elves abhor fire and so would never light so much as a campfire under the trees. The roof of one wing consists of tile inexpertly crafted to look like layered rows of leaves (the rooms below remain leaky and drafty). Another wing is built around an irregular line of felsul trees–one to a room–that have thrived in Hillmarch’s poor soil. The cost to maintain the Stones has consistently outpaced the Inn’s ability to draw paying customers. It remains a quiet place of unoccupied rooms most of the year. Wintertime sees the inn turn into a rooming house for the handful of folk unfortunate enough to find themselves stuck in Hillmarch until after the year turns and the snow melts.  1. Upon retirement, Purple Dragons are given a service dagger enspelled to produce light ranging in intensity from a simple candle to an oil lantern upon silent command.2. This is where the Hillmarch greeting “Who owns the Stones?” comes from. The traditional reply being “a fool from” followed by whichever city or land the current owner of the inn hails from.</blockquote>

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