EFU:R Gossip, Major Events, and Rumors (IC Knowledge)

[Howlando]

Chapter 1 - Escape from the Underdark

Chapter 2 - Escaped from the Underdark: Archipelago

Chapter 3 - Escape from Undeath: Mistlocke

Chapter 4 - Escape from Uncertainty: Revelations

Approximately one month has passed since the Darkening and the Apocalypse.

Released by distant and obscure ritual, a sinuous shape of blackness rose from the south, arced across the sky and approached the sun. The Night Serpent Dendar, grown strong on its diet of nightmares, engulfed the Sun in its terrible maw and so was this ultimate life-giving source of light and warmth extinguished.

With the Darkening, the civilizations of Faerun were plunged into chaos. The Night Serpent continued its celestial rampage, devouring many Gods and smashing their realms. Violence, famine, murder, plague, and environmental collapse decimated populations. Deprived even of hope for divine rescue, the apocalyptic catastrophe that took place resulted in near complete devastation of the surface world.

It was then that the Illithid Empire struck. Waiting with cold patience, they had first succeeded at enthralling many races of the Underdark and fashioning them, along with legions of enslaved surfacers and other monstrous creatures, into a cyclopean host of twisted thralls.

Illithid servants roam uncontested upon the barren wastes of the surface. Cities are being raised to the majesty of their masters. Grotesque intellects gaze at the stars, where their counterparts plot to consume other worlds and stranger races.

Yet deep within the depths a hidden settlement of free peoples are establishing Rescue Portals across the realms and offering sanctuary to those of free will who would defy the horrors that have come...

[wcsherry]

Alturiak 11th : Year 161 : 1383 DR

Throughout Toril and the realm below, the Underdark, a strange schism is felt amongst the faithful - the criers in spellbeggar`s lane seem unsettled - looking to one another as if chaos and disarray have settled in ... the Tymoran in particular looks uneasy...

A strange group arrives in Sanctuary espousing the rhetoric of a new divine entity. Could this be the work of an enterprising trickster, or a legitimate new patron? None are quite sure what to believe anymore, but few openly defy the newcomers.

[ShadowCharlatan]

Alturiak 16th : Year 161 : 1383 DR

In amidst the recent stream of new arrivals to the City of Sanctuary, there have come a strange few afflicted with a terrible curse. Said to hail from the surface island of Ymph, they are seen to exhibit a range of grotesque symptoms.

Vague rumours of several violent incidents involving the cursed folk have begun to circulate. Of particular note was a man who, upon entering the baths of the House of Heroes, rose with his rotten flesh washed from his bones, and assaulted citizens. The rest are less certain, but just as horrifying.

Serena Tower has recently begun to grant necessities such as food, drink, and lodgings freely to those Withered persons who offer themselves as assistants in the Spellguard's undertaken study of the situation, and also to be monitored until it is deemed safe and timely that they be resettled somewhere in Sanctuary.

While some of the few Withered folk gather south of the tower to be processed and taken care of, it's said others have quickly made way to hiding places throughout Dunwarren. Watchers can be seen knocking on hatches, asking questions to residents, and taking some of the few green folk aside.

There is a mood of tension, and swift but silent official action can be discerned - in the corner of the eye, or in passing. But with the green folk under close observation and for the most part no longer in sight wandering the main streets of Dunwarren, most breathe a little easier.

[LiAlH4]

Alturiak 20th : Year 161 : 1383 DR

Individuals who make their way through the farther-flung reaches of the Underdark begin to return with strange tidings. A clan of Duergar, numerous and possessed of fierce warriors and skilled marksdwarves have declared the reaches of the Dark Lake 'tributeground', with travelers forced to pay a toll to make their way through the area. They have been seen ranging as far out as the River Scamander and at times even into the Abandoned Mines near to Sanctuary, prompting concerns that the large number of travelers leaving the gates daily may actually be compromising Sanctuary's security.

Councillors of the Black Guild are reported to be in arms about this development, warning that if indeed these coal-skinned monsters gain access to the rings of foolish Sanctuarians wandering the region, all they have worked for could be threatened. Proposals limiting those who can depart from the city gates to those who have proven themselves capable of handling the darkness beyond have been put forward, obstinately opposed by those of the Red Guild who see the measure as an unnecessary chokehold on the flow of natural resources to the Workmill.

Strangest of all these developments are the occasional report from the Dark Lake which suggests that these Duergar have somehow procured a functional zurkhwood raft and are sailing it around the region, bearing slaves to distant ports. Supposedly armed with a repeating ballista, rumors of massacre and murderbanditry abound, with few travelers considering themselves safe from this new menace.

[ShadowCharlatan]

Alturiak 23rd : Year 161 : 1383 DR

Upper Sanctuary celebrates another small victory against the Chosen, as a large emission of deadly gas is sent through the desolate district of Lower Sanctuary. Accompanied by several Watcher and Warder expeditions in the past few cycles, this has led to a widespread celebratory mood in Upper Sanctuary. Speculation on the dead rat count wavers between fifty and a hundred... fewer and fewer as the extermination campaign has worn on.

Almost unnoticed have been some stirrings in the city of further Withered arrivals, and some of them continuing to trickle away into Dunwarren. Some say Lower. Others, elsewhere. The camp and housing apartments south of Serena Tower have dwindled some, but the Watchers and Warders continue to generously protect and provide for those that choose to remain. Some rumours speak of some Withered folk being led in and out of the tower, seeming less cursed for each trip.

All seems well...

[9lives]

Alturiak 29th : Year 161 : 1383 DR

Shouts and declamations break the silence of Lower Sanctuary as a small group is said to have run amok within the Cave of Ibrandul - Assaulting its denizens and clergy, and desecrating the temple itself. Reactions from the largely abandoned district flit between disinterest and quiet resentment, that so old and enduring an institution might be assaulted.

[Howlando]

::[ Ches 5th : Year 161 : 1383 DR ]::

It is said that a large group of monstrous beast-men and other savage humanoids stumbled into the Illusion of the Sanctuary Ruins and began to set up a camp around the Workmill. After heated debate in the closed chambers of the Directorate, Director Gould announced that the beasts must be destroyed and none permitted to escape to spread the tale of a large population of surfacers living once more in Dunwarren.

Under the leadership of the Wayfinders, Watchers, the Society of the Ordered Mind, and the Spellguard Auxiliary a large group of forty or more adventurers established a blockade and then struck swiftly, removing their Sanctuary rings and appearing among the bewildered monsters in a flash. When the dust settled, Director Gould congratulated the adventurers for ensuring none survived and said that the successful operation was proof indeed that Sanctuary's citizens could be molded into a military force that might yet rule the 'dark....

[ShadowCharlatan]

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

The talk of Sanctuary is of a minor incident at the Forge underneath Spellguard Tower. Smoke billowed from the tower into Sanctuary proper, and it is said that Auxiliary and Animatrons all rushed inside to secure the area. No public statement has since been issued, but the quips and tales vary from a problem with an Animatron, to an assault by a thrall of the Sleeping Pyrimo...

Most are confident that the Warders have the issue in hand, whatever it was.

[ShadowCharlatan]

::[ Ches 13th : Year 161 : 1383 DR ]::

An announcement from the Directorate this dark has seen the passing of a new law. For reasons of security and stability, it was decreed that those persons afflicted with the Withering Curse were no longer to be welcome in Sanctuary. That by law, such folk are no longer capable of becoming citizens, but would face exile. Immediately following the announcement, the Watchers and Warders secured the camp south of Serena Tower, and a trickle of green folk are being packed up and sent (out of the sight of all but the most curious citizens) into the dark ruins below.

With them have ventured Spellguard Auxiliary and, far less often, Agents... traversing the distance to the empty streets of Lower Sanctuary. A few ask whether the "Lowersmen", the anachronistic rebels and outcasts of Sanctuary-that-was, might disrupt what the orderly relocation. Though whatever sparse strangers and madmen still dwell beyond the shield seem little concern to the Warders' operations, and are little known to most of the people of Upper Sanctuary. If they exist still, they have not lifted their heads or blades. And so the Withered are slowly settled, out of sight and mind...

[Howlando]

::[ Ches 13th : Year 161 : 1383 DR ]::

The tranquility of Sanctuary was disturbed by a large explosion in the exterior of the Workmill. Although the flames were swiftly put out by the adventuring populace, the charred bodies of two workers and a Watcher were revealed in the rubble and ash.

Judging from the notes left behind, it appears that the explosion was a deliberate assault from someone named Mad Marge in retaliation for the death of a brother in the Workmill.

It is known that Director Gould has placed a large bounty on her head.

[Nuclear Catastrophe]

::[ Ches 17th : Year 161 : 1383 DR ]::

Wormingers start speaking in hushed whispers about some sort of strange creature that keeps being sighted in the tunnels.

Opinions are mixed on what it actually is they see.  Some say it is some sort of aberrant thing, some claim it's a mutated rock worm, some claim it is just a maddened druid, trying to protect the worms.

Investigations so far have not been called, though some groups of adventurers have been below and found no trace.  So many claim it is just some sort of old wives tale made up to scare off the competition.

Worminging continues unabated, after all, there have been no injuries or deaths caused, and some people have to make a living.

[Nuclear Catastrophe]

::[ Ches 26th : Year 161 : 1383 DR ]::

Mad Marge continues her trail of havok, taking her blooody vengeance out on any and all 'ringscabs' she finds lurking outside of the safety of the illusion of Sanctuary.  Many more names appear on her list of bloodtax victims, the flyers proliferated throughout.  Hushed rumors suggest that the Spellguards latest gigantic 'poison bombing' of the areas near the entrance to the Bowels of the machine may actually have had something to do with her presence being sighted there.

Meanwhile in the Worm Tunnels many strange occurences are spoken of.  The worms, more vigorous and powerful than usual, cause a great deal more trouble for the brave 'farmers' who wander down there.  Many reptiles are sighted, attacking any and all, and wreaking havoc as is their nature where they can.   Also of note, the flayed corpse of a Worminger, found in the tunnels, is said to have been caused by that of a great beast that continues to be sighted.  The first victim of the beast?  Some argue it will not be the last.

[AKMatt]

::[ Ches 27th : Year 161 : 1383 DR ]::

Rumor spreads of the arrival of a large group of Surfacers, apparently brought to Sanctuary by the Spellguard.  The group proceeded to the Canal Ward via the old Gate Road, where they have established a temporary camp.

Meanwhile, in certain circles the disturbing word spreads that a group of adventurers was seen speaking briefly to a dragon in the illusion maintained by the Spellguard, and that these newly arrived, shaven-headed militants each dropped to one knee and bowed their heads in reverence while the creature spoke.

[Ladocicea]

::[Third of Tarsakh : Year 161 : 1383 DR]::

It's no secret that seismic activity has increased in the last week. At times, waves of tremors can be felt moving from one direction of a cavern to another, and only subside after heavily armed groups of adventurers venture out into the darkness.

Some have it that mass migrations of Umber Hulks are responsible for the quakes, although what has caused them to move in such numbers is unclear.

[Meldread]

::[Third of Tarsakh : Year 161 : 1383 DR]::

Rumor quickly spreads around Sanctuary of a grizzly event that took place in the House of Heroes.  Though the rumors are unclear of what exactly happened, many speak of a brutal murder of a child and another citizen, and of a horribly distraught mother.  The Watchers were attempting to keep people away from the crime scene in the House of Heroes, as it is said it's gruesome savageness was too much for most to view.

Many turned out for the trial, where three individuals stood charged, two foul-smelling humans and one mute halfling female.  The halfling was said to be the murderer.  It is widely known that Clerk Renee Greystarred was acting Prosecutor, and openly called for leniency for the child-murdering halfling.  She won her case and leniency was granted as she requested, and all three of them were cast out of Sanctuary and into Exile.  

Few seem happy with the verdict, especially the mother of Little Russ, the boy that was brutally murdered.  As the Prefect ruled in Clerk Renee Greystarred's favor the mother screamed and cried out for justice to be done - for the criminals to be stoned.  However, her wishes were not granted as she was led out of the court room by sympathetic citizens.  

Some now whisper angrily about Renee Greystarred's prosecution style, and speak of her sympathy for child-murderers.  Yet another potential scandal could be brewing for the embattled Civil Servant.