EFUM Gossip, Major Events, and Rumors (IC Knowledge)

[Howlando]

::[ Alturiak 7th : Year 161 : 1383 DR ]::

Greasy fires are seen rising some distance in the northern sections of Old Port, along with vague rumors of violence and riot.

It's said that many of Old Port's youths and even some visiting sailors are being press-ganged into the Armies of the Count, taken into Fortress Senuspur for training in preparation of the seemingly inevitable war with Amn.

Curiously, any with even the slightest touch of Withering - so far - are being passed over. It appears there is, for now, no room in the Armies of Senuspur for the corrupted and cursed.

[Howlando]

Chapter Three Final Narrative Shout:

All across the Island of Ymph, the ornate parchments speaking of the Seven Steps of Sanq begin to change.

A smudge covers the Seventh Step, and the Smudge spreads... spreading to obscure the entirety of each parchment in impenetrable inky blackness.

But for those on Old Port it begins with a a foul, warm wind blowing from the south; bespeaking the opening of an Ancient Door in a distant land.

As if in your darkest, most forgotten nightmares..... a thin tendril of blackness rises from the sweltering jungles of Chult. It sinuously sways, rising and rising.... reaching up impossibly tall.

The sun shines hot and heavy as the thin tendril of darkness rises up to meet it.

From some hidden alley in Old Port, a frightened youth's voice begins to chant in a low voice....

"Seven daughters,
Seven sons,
Seven seasons 'ere she comes
Seven steps and Seventh dread;
Seven blunders;
Sun is dead
Nightmares summoned
from our past,
Enter Maiden now at last"

The folk of Faerun watch in mute horror as cataclysmic battles of impossible dread and glory transpire in the furthest heights of the Prime.

They watch as the endless black coils of Dendar the Maiden of Night squeeze tight around the sun far above.

They watch as its maw extends in terrible size and so is the Sun devoured.

They watch as the Light goes out, and all becomes Darkened.

But for you, the Horror has just begun.

...

For some days after the light goes out Old Port is roiled with panic and wild rumor that reach even the isolated withered survivors of Ymph in the Quarantined Zone. It's said that Fortress Senuspur is sealed. It's said that with the Count gone, nobody knows who is ruling Old Port. It's said that the youths and soldiers of Old Port have been taken into the Fortress, but none have exited for days.

But one day, at last the gates of Fortress Senuspur swing open. And from within rushes a great mass of monstrous figures. Aberrant beasts twisted beyond imagining, accompanied with great legions of twitching drow warriors. Transparent bubbles float serenely above, occasionally diving down to imprison a screaming citizen and bear him off for some dark purpose.

In vast number, this new army of underworld horrors boils up from below into a new world of endless night. And in hours, Old Port is conquered.

At first, the hapless withered residents of the Quarantined Zone are... ignored.

It is almost as if their corrupted flesh and tainted minds is of no interest to the masters of this strange army from the underworld.

This Dread Army marches to the great armada of ships and barges docked in Old Port's harbor, its purpose revealed at last. The sailors, sick with dread, are born away.

The Dread Army is loaded into the great fleet of vessels, and the fleet slowly begins to sail away under a lightless sky.

Yet some few of the monsters remain, and turn their attention to the conquered city of Old Port. Fires are lit, and buildings are burned. Entire quarters are turned to ash. Sorcerous spells and burning brands are fired mercilessly upon the caged inhabitants of the Quaranted Zone, and as buildings crash all around the Withered are forced to scramble like rats into the sewers....

With the sun no longer rising, it has become difficult to mark the passage of time. Perhaps a month passes before the hopeless survivors of a calamity beyond all reckoning rise from the sewers to see what has become of the the world...

Old Port has become a burnt ruin. The great army from the underworld is mostly gone with the ships, sailing to distant lands, yet some scattered groups of monsters remain. The inhabitants of Old Port are now mostly either dead, gone, captured, or wandering mindless through the streets.

What possible hope remains to you?


And so ends, "Chapter 3 - Escape from Undeath: Mistlocke"