CHECKING IN WITH SOME FACTIONS, CABALS, AND SECRET SOCIETIES (1499 DR) (Patreon)

CHECKING IN WITH SOME FACTIONS, CABALS, AND SECRET SOCIETIES

What’s Afoot Behind The Scenes In the Late 1490s DR

The Zhentarim: this widely-known organization began as a way to enrich its members by establishing the shortest trade route between the metals-rich mines of the Moonsea and the markets of the Sword Coast. Certain current members are seeking once again (this is a frequent Zhent goal) to create an even shorter “way” than the Anauroch crossing or the slightly longer Stonelands route by establishing a linked chain of magical gates (portals) between Zhent-controlled citadels in the Moonsea area and not far from Waterdeep.

The Moonsea end will most likely be the Citadel of the Raven, but some alternatives are being prepared in the Dagger Hills (by rebuilding Arvel’s Tusk, the ruined shell of an old “robber baron’s” keep) and in Whitehorn (where a new fortress and walled good yards would have to be built to the east of the existing settlement).

Candidate sites at the Waterdhavian end include Nightstone, Julkoun, and Secomber, all of which would require building new fortresses, stables, and goods yards. Red Larch has been dropped as a possible site because of the recent violence in the Sumber Hills (involving four cults devoted to the Elder Elemental Eye; see Princes of the Apocalypse).

Red Wizards of Thay: are magically powerful because of the Athora, a gigantic rock that floats in a cavern inside Thaymount, and radiates mighty magic. Because of it, Thay will always be a land where many individuals have the Gift, magic items and spells are more easily created, and wizards will swiftly rise to mastery and real power.

Recently, one of the renegade Red Wizards who fled Thay when Szass Tam tightened his hold on power in 1432 DR, a necromancer by the name of Angthlas Druindh, used a new necromantic spell of his devising to “ride the minds” of liches, hopping as a sentience from one Thayan lich to another, to reach the heart of Thaymount, where as a wraith-like drifting amorphous shadow, he embraced the Athora and drank of it to gain great power.

Which he used to remain hidden from Tam and the memories of at least...

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