Letters from Antono: Hullack Forest (1478, 4e) - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 colman Aug 15, 2008 16:55:45	Dearest cousin Arilos, It is with great joy that I received your recent letter imploring me to share with you some of the historical and current lore that you teased me for acquiring all through our youths. I'm sure that the rumours about you and the alluring but bookish young Lady Eltorchul have no bearing on your sudden enthusiasm. You should, however, consider yourself fortunate that I am not partial to blondes or I would lure her away from you with tantalising tales of ancient days and sensual stories of distant intrigues! Your father has very kindly arrange with our distant cousin XXX that I should spend some time working with her and her Purple Dragon detachment in Basalquadra, in the distant wilds of Cormyr. It will be good to escape Waterdeep and its intrigues for a while, maybe a long while, and to complete my training in the arcane way of the sword. In any case, since apparently your mother has no longer any need to worry about finding a suitable match for the future patron I fear that she will turn her mind to my matrimonial prospects and I intend to be far away when that happens. In preparation for my journey I have spent some time reviewing the diaries of your ancient namesake, who spent some time there in the late 1370s and some of the other sources in the family library that date from that time. The historical view is fascinating, speaking of a time before the Spellplague and the other horrors that have haunted the last hundred years. Basalquadra is located on the East Way, between Arabel and Thunder Gap, just beyond the Immerflow. It is a small, isolated caravan stop garrisoned by the Crown twenty years ago as part of an effort to resurrect the East Way as a trade route. The papers of our great-great-great-grandfather make it clear that a hundred years ago the East Way was a major trade route carrying goods between the cites of Cormyr and beyond through the Dales[1] and that Arabel was a growing, prosperous trade city. I understand that today it is greatly reduced in wealth and status. Any further efforts to make the Thunder Gap route more attractive will need to deal with two major impediments: the elves of Hullack Forest and the monsters and bandits of the Gap itself. The forest is claimed by the 'Eldreth Veluuthra', the charming elven terror group that aim to eradicate all humans from all lands. They consider us in much the same way that many in the North think of orcs and goblins. Their activities - combined with those of groups of goblins, and ogres lead by oni (some things never change) - force caravans to either pass through the forest under heavy Purple Dragon guard reinforced in strength by War Wizards or to hire powerful adventurers to protect them. The first is inflexible - the trips are strictly scheduled - and the second is extremely expensive. Further threats on the road include bandits, occasional attacks from green dragons who lair in the forest and troops of baboons who swarm travellers[2] Leaving the road is only to be attempted by the brave and heavily armed: the dark depths of the forest are said to be full of ancient ruins and terrifying monsters. Our mutual ancestor talks of many adventuring bands being hired by the King of the time to start clearing the forest of threats but blood-thirsty elves and the other threats that grew around the realm put an end to that and the forest has "recovered" since those days. The forest is named for an ancient druid - now dead 300 winters - who is reputed to be buried in an ancient circle of stones that was once sacred to Eldath, a now almost forgotten goddess of peace and clear waters who perished during the Spellplague. Arilos the somewhat older writes of rumours of darker practices, including worshippers of Malar hunting human sacrifices in ceremonies based at the circle[3]. He also mentions the discovery of the ruins of Tethgard[4] (more in a later letter when I make sense of his notes - I fear the old rogue had had rather a lot to drink the night he recorded what he heard) and a tale of centaurs and satyrs being enslaved by goblins on behalf of a fire giant who wanted them to mine copper for him that I shall need to find independent confirmation of before I give it any credence[5]. Surprisingly, his description of an encounter with a small, fluffy and extremely venomous "Farrowdale Mouse" is borne out by other sources, as his description of a similarly dangerous "Copper Opossum"[6]. Catoblepas farming, which depends on a type of fern that grows on the edge of the forest, was already under way in his time, and you'll be pleased to know that he was rather a connoisseur of the resulting varieties of death cheese. I'll leave a discussion of the ancient joys of the Thunder Peaks to a further missive, including his time spent studying elven sword-smithing techniques which is a story I hadn't heard but explains some elements of our family smithing style, especially the polishing of finer blades. I'd advise you to peruse the enclosed book before you return it to your lovely lady friend, from whom I borrowed it some months ago. I'm sure she can explain the hard bits to you if you can tear your attention away from her more obvious assets long enough to listen ... Antono Amcathra
#2 colman Aug 16, 2008 2:58:12	StarFyre2007 gives us this from the FRCG: Arabel - no mention, but it is on the map and is not ruins..so it appears to have survived in some capacity... So canon isn't going to contradict me here ...
#3 Mr_Miscellany Aug 16, 2008 17:45:40	Nice. More please!
#4 Harn_Winterfell Aug 16, 2008 19:41:44	Very good! Has a good Realms feel to it! Reminds me of some of the narratives from the past, much like in the old Moonsea acessory and others from that time.
#5 colman Aug 17, 2008 5:27:17	It contains all the recent lore on Hullack's forest I know, except for one about a raider before the area became part of Cormyr. Thanks for the kind words: my plan is to write up all the lore I'm collecting on the Peaks, the forest and areas around in this form.

Dearest cousin Arilos,

It is with great joy that I received your recent letter imploring me to share with you some of the historical and current lore that you teased me for acquiring all through our youths. I'm sure that the rumours about you and the alluring but bookish young Lady Eltorchul have no bearing on your sudden enthusiasm. You should, however, consider yourself fortunate that I am not partial to blondes or I would lure her away from you with tantalising tales of ancient days and sensual stories of distant intrigues!

Your father has very kindly arrange with our distant cousin XXX that I should spend some time working with her and her Purple Dragon detachment in Basalquadra, in the distant wilds of Cormyr. It will be good to escape Waterdeep and its intrigues for a while, maybe a long while, and to complete my training in the arcane way of the sword. In any case, since apparently your mother has no longer any need to worry about finding a suitable match for the future patron I fear that she will turn her mind to my matrimonial prospects and I intend to be far away when that happens.
In preparation for my journey I have spent some time reviewing the diaries of your ancient namesake, who spent some time there in the late 1370s and some of the other sources in the family library that date from that time. The historical view is fascinating, speaking of a time before the Spellplague and the other horrors that have haunted the last hundred years.

Basalquadra is located on the East Way, between Arabel and Thunder Gap, just beyond the Immerflow. It is a small, isolated caravan stop garrisoned by the Crown twenty years ago as part of an effort to resurrect the East Way as a trade route. The papers of our great-great-great-grandfather make it clear that a hundred years ago the East Way was a major trade route carrying goods between the cites of Cormyr and beyond through the Dales[1] and that Arabel was a growing, prosperous trade city. I understand that today it is greatly reduced in wealth and status.

Any further efforts to make the Thunder Gap route more attractive will need to deal with two major impediments: the elves of Hullack Forest and the monsters and bandits of the Gap itself.

The forest is claimed by the 'Eldreth Veluuthra', the charming elven terror group that aim to eradicate all humans from all lands. They consider us in much the same way that many in the North think of orcs and goblins. Their activities - combined with those of groups of goblins, and ogres lead by oni (some things never change) - force caravans to either pass through the forest under heavy Purple Dragon guard reinforced in strength by War Wizards or to hire powerful adventurers to protect them. The first is inflexible - the trips are strictly scheduled - and the second is extremely expensive. Further threats on the road include bandits, occasional attacks from green dragons who lair in the forest and troops of baboons who swarm travellers[2] Leaving the road is only to be attempted by the brave and heavily armed: the dark depths of the forest are said to be full of ancient ruins and terrifying monsters. Our mutual ancestor talks of many adventuring bands being hired by the King of the time to start clearing the forest of threats but blood-thirsty elves and the other threats that grew around the realm put an end to that and the forest has "recovered" since those days.

The forest is named for an ancient druid - now dead 300 winters - who is reputed to be buried in an ancient circle of stones that was once sacred to Eldath, a now almost forgotten goddess of peace and clear waters who perished during the Spellplague. Arilos the somewhat older writes of rumours of darker practices, including worshippers of Malar hunting human sacrifices in ceremonies based at the circle[3]. He also mentions the discovery of the ruins of Tethgard[4] (more in a later letter when I make sense of his notes - I fear the old rogue had had rather a lot to drink the night he recorded what he heard) and a tale of centaurs and satyrs being enslaved by goblins on behalf of a fire giant who wanted them to mine copper for him that I shall need to find independent confirmation of before I give it any credence[5].

Surprisingly, his description of an encounter with a small, fluffy and extremely venomous "Farrowdale Mouse" is borne out by other sources, as his description of a similarly dangerous "Copper Opossum"[6]. Catoblepas farming, which depends on a type of fern that grows on the edge of the forest, was already under way in his time, and you'll be pleased to know that he was rather a connoisseur of the resulting varieties of death cheese.
I'll leave a discussion of the ancient joys of the Thunder Peaks to a further missive, including his time spent studying elven sword-smithing techniques which is a story I hadn't heard but explains some elements of our family smithing style, especially the polishing of finer blades.

I'd advise you to peruse the enclosed book before you return it to your lovely lady friend, from whom I borrowed it some months ago. I'm sure she can explain the hard bits to you if you can tear your attention away from her more obvious assets long enough to listen ...

Antono Amcathra