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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy E Grenemyer" data-source="post: 9385090" data-attributes="member: 12388">7 Uktar - The RottingSeventh day of the first tenday1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets RevealedArchendale expels adventurers. Hluthvar freed of hobgoblins. Snow blankets East Reaches. Blue Diamond makes for Marsember. Knightshield rescued by goat herder. Mindflayer corpses missing.THE HIGH DALE - Members of Lightheart’s Bloody Hammers arrived in the High Dale today. The adventurers were forcibly exiled from Archendale a tenday ago after farmers observed them digging into the western slope of Arkhen Vale. Reportedly, the Lightheart’s insistence that they’d found a map detailing a secret back entrance that leads to the lost hoard of mighty Arkhenthus the White, as well their promise to share with the folk of Archendale any treasure they found, were not enough to keep them from being manacled by soldiers and forced into wagons sporting cages with heavy crossbows mounted at the corners. The Hammers were dumped unceremoniously on the border and told to return to Cormyr from whence they came–sans their map, which a Ride captain had confiscated. The dwarves and one human that comprise the Bloody Hammers are said to be furious over their treatment and the “theft” of their map, and are plotting to sneak back into Archendale.HLUTHVAR - A bloody battle was fought under roiling Uktar clouds in the vicinity of Hluthvar. A snarling horde of orcs charged the town as lightning and thunder rocked the sky overhead. So large was the orken army that its leading edge crashed through the first rank of hobgoblin shields before the last of the orcs cleared the hills to the east. The battle turned into a muddy melee on blood-soaked ground as rain drenched the combatants. The presence of a pair of red dragons did nothing to turn the orcs back. Indeed, they answered the dragons’ raking fire with magic born of battle shamans who cut the throats of one hundred captured hobgoblins to fuel a roiling blood magic that shot forth into the sky and flew down the throat of one dragon, causing it to explode in the air. Boiling hot dragon parts rained down, scorching the earth and melting through flesh and armor. The remaining dragon gave a defiant roar before fleeing north from whence it came. The hobgoblins remained disciplined and each rank fought to the last, their lines slowly crumbling under the endless orken onslaught. For the first time since the hobgoblins invaded the region, battle mages among their ranks brough spells to bear. They unleashed a torrent of flaming meteors and enormous bolts of lightning that felled orcs by the tens and hundreds. Where fire exploded, orcs and the ground they stood on were flung into the air and then crashed down to earth, slaying more of their kindred. The swords of fallen hobgoblins raised up to hack, stab and slay unwitting orcs, while shields born on magical hands bashed their heads and smashed their faces. The sky darkened as the sun descended, and for a time it appeared as though the titanic forms of a pair of gods were clashing among the wind-tossed clouds in the sky. Maglubiyet and Gruumsh seemed to trade mighty blows as black, swirling clouds crashed into each other and the wind howled and thunder roared each time a god struck a blow. The fall of night did nothing to slow the battle. Orken and hobgoblin eyes glowed red with rage, the surviving hobgoblins finally giving in to battle lust and fighting individually, the mightiest of their number earning great piles of orken corpses before the sheer weight of their foes overwhelmed them. Great howls erupted each time a hobgoblin champion was overcome, and the sky slowly calmed overhead. Sunrise saw no sign of the hobgoblin battle mages. The hungry orcs feasted on their foes while the battle shamans made offerings to Gruumsh. The orcs swept into Hluthvar proper, not raiding or pillaging, but hunting for hobgoblin survivors and hidden traps.JUNIRIL - A thin layer of snow has blanketed the lands east of the Thunder Way as far as the Vast Swamp. Merchants stopping in Juniril were seen to give thanks to the gods that the snowfall was minor and the roads remain open. By late afternoon the sun shone through the clouds and much of the fallen snow had melted.MARSEMBER - Work all across Marsember halted today so that folk could take in the sight of a flying ship that descended from the skies over the Dragonmere and landed gracefully in the waters just beyond the City of Spices. The Blue Diamond made port and began unloading goods from lands far, far to the south. Among the wares are rumored to be gemstones and exotic perfumes, and even minor magic items! Noteworthy was the presence of no less than six Wizards of War at the Diamond’s berth. Several interested merchants lined up to board the Diamond, whose captain and crew remained aboard ship, to inspect its wares and make deals. By sunset Marsember was awash in rumors about the mysterious ship and its crew. Some claim the Diamond is guarded by unseen magical creatures that instantly suck the life out of trespassers and turn their bodies to ash, while others say the ship’s captain and every third crewman is a wizard. One dockhand swore to have seen a cat-faced, fur-covered crewman walk the Diamond’s deck, “It climbed the mainmast without aid of a rope or ladder and gave me a long, hard stare too!”MINROE - A goat herder found a member of the Knightshields of Dhedluk half dead and wounded. The adventurer had apparently collapsed from his wounds while on a trail used by herders moving their flock from one slanted pasture to another. A disused fork off that same trail cuts up into the Stormhorns, where miners once delved into caves and carved gems out of the cave walls. Before falling unconscious, the adventurer begged help for his fellow Knightshields, “Aid! We need aid! They are still fighting it. It slays all who stand against it. More swords, please…” No one from Minroe has yet dared travel into the mountains. TYRLUK - Villagers were treated to a gruesome find made by novice adventurers: a trio of mindflayer heads, each freshly hacked away from their bodies. Calling themselves the Ten From Tyrluk, the adventurers made no claim to slaying the mindflayers, only finding the heads. According to one adventurer, “there were no bodies present, but there was plenty of blood.” Another adventurer described the walls of the cave where the heads were found: “Deep, narrow gashes layered in threes were in the walls and the ceiling. I fit my sword in one and found it to be half a sword length deep. The gods only know what made them.” The display of the heads was cut short by a Purple Dragon officer, who pointedly reminded the Ten that their exploits have not gone unnoticed by the Crown and a trip to High Horn could be made in one of two ways, either of their own accord to purchase an adventuring charter, or in a jailer’s wagon to answer charges of unlawful adventuring. A smiling Chancepriest of Tymora then offered to accompany the Ten to High Horn, provided they would allow him to join their adventuring band and pay a portion of the charter fee.</blockquote>

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