Town of Betend, Principality of Fürstentum, Kingdom of Ras-Prythax
To His Lordship, the Viscount Wilfrick of Verbobonc,
To follow-up my previous letter, I had barely gotten a decent bath and the old lady was only halfway finished with the briars on my cloaks and britches before misfortune came our way.
And by misfortune, I mean the infernal references to Talanth Blackash.
The rest of the Order of Merit returned from their shopping trip in the marketplace with two pieces of news.
First, in the aftermath of the storm, every spellcaster in the town, be it divine gifts or arcane summoning, had lost their ability to perform the miracles they call spells. No healing, no detection, no fireballs streaking across the horizon.
The High Priest at the Temple of Akana was amazed that Alwin could still cast spells, although once cast, it did not appear that he could not bring forth more divine power than he had before arriving. The religious community is in a frenzy!
Second, eyewitnesses casually dropped reference to the elf Blackash and his friends helping people in the midst of the storm. They took no reward, but were quickly hired by a young girl for some sort of rescue mission (the drunken one was quite vocal about it before they all departed).
I convinced the others to stay a day or two, before heading west and perhaps intentionally follow the trail of the Blackash Brigade for once.
While the others enjoyed their recreation in a magic-less city (although weapons and magical paraphernalia still appear to be working.), I spent my time in the library researching where we were, because, to be honest, who would trust a local about anything four paid ales into the conversation?
The Principality of Fürstentum was once a direct imperial holding of Feraso. It's designation as a Principality was deemed so by one of the appointment of one of the latter ranked children in succession for the Emperor's throne. This was installed by Leif II as a "real world" training academy for the lesser children, just in case the direct heir would become problematic. Emperor Leif I was the founder of the Second Empire of Feraso, but any account I could find, his firstborn David was craven and tyrannical. It took years for the free-spirit Leif II to usurp power from his brother, and with it he took Fürstentum and ruled it directly, until a worthy second, third, or fourth heir was ready, and they would train them on how to rule a dominion.
This accommodation was never needed, but the practice was continued through the Second Empire, the Barbarian Incursion, and stayed as recent as 980, until the Barbarian Lord Theuderic I married into the "Ferasean Pretenders" claim to the throne. Those ancestors to our great and powerful Krugraf Mykul established the Principality as a separate claim independent of the Crown and installed Theuderic's second son, Prince Tamas, as it's ruler. It has remained hereditary since then with a line of succession based on blood and age. Prince Tamas' son, Emvar briefly ruled, until he was killed by brigands and mercenaries from Enstead. His sister, Princess Theofina, rules from the capital city of Hauptstadt and lets the various lords, ladies, barons, and baronesses under her rule the land.
Fürstentum is one of the 'bread baskets' that feed the Kingdom. Given it's proximity to Agenmoor and Ensted, it's no surprise that a small but annoyingly loud group of elves and their half-breeds can be found in most of the larger towns.
At least eight baronies dot the Principality, a mixture of descendants of previous latter offspring and worthy awardees.
As we prepared to leave this morning, word arrived in town that another town might be falling to a surprise attack of brazen Ensted brigands driving hard into the countryside, supported my a small army of bugbears, gnolls, and undead, all emblazoned with some unknown fire symbol.
The agents of the Temple of Galmar are still in hot pursuit, and I'm afraid we must turn course and head directly to a small village for more information on this incursion, and perhaps what's going on with the clerics.
The village's name is Schattenwurf
Your Faithful Servant
Elsderth Greyhawk
Sellsword and Actual Sage of the Order of Merit
DM Notes: We are continuing the adventures in the order they happened. With the new world map I installed back in 2001 CE, Ras-Prythax is fairly empty, so I'm taking this time to flesh out some details. I'll present the module after the next episode, but Fürstentum is a very shrunken version of Cormyr. Betend is Arabel. The Forgotten Realms magically appear right next to the The Temple of Elemental Evil. Makes as much sense to me now as it did back in 1990.
And, of course, there's Schattenwurf. Once I describe it in next week's letter (or you roughly translate it), it's pretty obvious. More fun and excitement to be had!
Next: #17 - Schattenwurf!
To His Lordship, the Viscount Wilfrick of Verbobonc,
To follow-up my previous letter, I had barely gotten a decent bath and the old lady was only halfway finished with the briars on my cloaks and britches before misfortune came our way.
And by misfortune, I mean the infernal references to Talanth Blackash.
The rest of the Order of Merit returned from their shopping trip in the marketplace with two pieces of news.
First, in the aftermath of the storm, every spellcaster in the town, be it divine gifts or arcane summoning, had lost their ability to perform the miracles they call spells. No healing, no detection, no fireballs streaking across the horizon.
The High Priest at the Temple of Akana was amazed that Alwin could still cast spells, although once cast, it did not appear that he could not bring forth more divine power than he had before arriving. The religious community is in a frenzy!
Second, eyewitnesses casually dropped reference to the elf Blackash and his friends helping people in the midst of the storm. They took no reward, but were quickly hired by a young girl for some sort of rescue mission (the drunken one was quite vocal about it before they all departed).
I convinced the others to stay a day or two, before heading west and perhaps intentionally follow the trail of the Blackash Brigade for once.
The Principality of Fürstentum was once a direct imperial holding of Feraso. It's designation as a Principality was deemed so by one of the appointment of one of the latter ranked children in succession for the Emperor's throne. This was installed by Leif II as a "real world" training academy for the lesser children, just in case the direct heir would become problematic. Emperor Leif I was the founder of the Second Empire of Feraso, but any account I could find, his firstborn David was craven and tyrannical. It took years for the free-spirit Leif II to usurp power from his brother, and with it he took Fürstentum and ruled it directly, until a worthy second, third, or fourth heir was ready, and they would train them on how to rule a dominion.
This accommodation was never needed, but the practice was continued through the Second Empire, the Barbarian Incursion, and stayed as recent as 980, until the Barbarian Lord Theuderic I married into the "Ferasean Pretenders" claim to the throne. Those ancestors to our great and powerful Krugraf Mykul established the Principality as a separate claim independent of the Crown and installed Theuderic's second son, Prince Tamas, as it's ruler. It has remained hereditary since then with a line of succession based on blood and age. Prince Tamas' son, Emvar briefly ruled, until he was killed by brigands and mercenaries from Enstead. His sister, Princess Theofina, rules from the capital city of Hauptstadt and lets the various lords, ladies, barons, and baronesses under her rule the land.
Fürstentum is one of the 'bread baskets' that feed the Kingdom. Given it's proximity to Agenmoor and Ensted, it's no surprise that a small but annoyingly loud group of elves and their half-breeds can be found in most of the larger towns.
At least eight baronies dot the Principality, a mixture of descendants of previous latter offspring and worthy awardees.
As we prepared to leave this morning, word arrived in town that another town might be falling to a surprise attack of brazen Ensted brigands driving hard into the countryside, supported my a small army of bugbears, gnolls, and undead, all emblazoned with some unknown fire symbol.
The agents of the Temple of Galmar are still in hot pursuit, and I'm afraid we must turn course and head directly to a small village for more information on this incursion, and perhaps what's going on with the clerics.
The village's name is Schattenwurf
Your Faithful Servant
Elsderth Greyhawk
Sellsword and Actual Sage of the Order of Merit
DM Notes: We are continuing the adventures in the order they happened. With the new world map I installed back in 2001 CE, Ras-Prythax is fairly empty, so I'm taking this time to flesh out some details. I'll present the module after the next episode, but Fürstentum is a very shrunken version of Cormyr. Betend is Arabel. The Forgotten Realms magically appear right next to the The Temple of Elemental Evil. Makes as much sense to me now as it did back in 1990.
And, of course, there's Schattenwurf. Once I describe it in next week's letter (or you roughly translate it), it's pretty obvious. More fun and excitement to be had!
Next: #17 - Schattenwurf!
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