10 Alturiak 1500 DR
Suzail - Word of the fate of the mercenary Sesteira and her adventuring companions, hight the Bloody Teeth, has reached
Suzail.
Rumored to have completed more than one murderous task for Cormyrean noble masters who wished to rid themselves of foes, friends, and unwanted bastard offspring, the Bloody Teeth departed
Suzail six seasons ago after it was made known their presence in
Cormyr would no longer be tolerated by the Crown.
Sometime in the last tenday, a hireling long in the employ of Sesteira arrived in Suzail.
Ghalador “Galad” Zunderzorm, once a factor to Sembian merchant houses who quickly joined with Sesteira after betraying one of his clients on her behalf (she’d made him a coin offer he simply couldn’t refuse), was seen entering the Society of Stalwart Adventurers, but not before a passerby recognized the Sembian.
“He was thin as a lance, barefoot, wearing ragged clothes and covered in dirt from head to foot, with a beard that reached past his neck,” according to the scrollmaker Ilbryn
Nalasso. Said Ilbryn further, “I would not have recognized him but for the crooked fingers of his left hand and the sound of his nasally voice. If Galad had coins on him I hesitate to think where he kept them hidden.”
(The unscrupulous factor had long been suspected of arranging employment for the Bloody Teeth to noble sponsors. He favored his right hand after the fingers of his left hand were broken as punishment for failing one of his former Sembian masters. Galad acted as a gobetween for the Bloody Teeth in matters of business, from purchasing weapons, equipment, spell components and other goods needed by adventurers to securing at least one property along Suzail’s East Wall as a “fallback’ for the adventurers to run to. Only the Crown, its spies, and a handful of agents working on behalf of certain nobles, know of the fallback house on the East Wall.)
What business Galad had at the Society is not known. No word has reached wider Suzail of his presence in the city and none have seen him. Most folk assume Galad resides yet in the Society’s live-in rooms, likely trading stories of the fate of Sesteira and the Bloody Teeth for room and board.
Once such tale, if it can be trusted, claims the adventurers met their end high up in the Deepwing Mountains at its southern end. Called the Spines of Surkh, this part of the Deepwings has attracted many an adventurer thanks to the endless rumors of countless shallow graves dotting its slopes. Adventurer lore claims one need only ascend the Spines until the view of Surkh (i.e. the City of Lizards) to the south and the Deepwash beyond is breathtaking, then look down, in order to find graves rich in treasure.
The picked-clean bones of Sesteira and her fellow adventurers are all that is left of the Bloody Teeth, says the tale, as the lizardfolk do not look kindly on anyone disturbing the graves and so impose a penalty of death by live devourment. The adventurers acquitted themselves well in battle, but all fell to the lizardfolk’s superior numbers.
Rumor among adventurers in Suzail says that the Bloody Teeth did not trust even Galad with helping them secure magic and treasure they themselves could not carry. If their corpses could be found, one might likely find several bags of holding filled to the brim with coins and gems received as pyament from the most unscrupulous members of
Cormyr’s nobility.
Return to Current Clack for 1500 DR