Cormyr has just entered the earliest days of the Goblin War. The players are appointed high knights of the Forest Kingdom and charged with stopping any threats to the kingdom east of Wheloon while the war wages in the north around Arabel.
I came up with hooks for several places in this part of the country, and they did their best to pick a route and figure it out along the way. Now for the recap proper.
Three loyal Cormytes were summoned to Wheloon and ordained High Knights in service to King Azoun Obarskyr IV himself, but with guidance from Oversword Wolfwinter. The Oversword would stay in Wheloon while the high knights travelled the Eastern Plains bringing peace and stability and fouling any malign plots against the crown or Forest Country while war rages in the north. These three were Hector Crestfallen, a giant raised scion once of the now disgraced House Cormaeril; Magnus Trumpettower, a renowned bard from Baldur’s Gate in service to the Huntcrowns; and Miirthin Hawklin, a young noble and war wizard.
In Wheloon, while distributing food to refugees. they encountered members of the Fire Knife gang, the Redeemer’s Guild. Put to the question, a gang member revealed the organization was up to something in Dawngleam. While they travelled there, they gathered troops to Battlerise to face the Cult of the Dragon and secure the border on the Dark Flow. In Dreamer’s Rock they fought an oytugh and recruited a local farmer to keep order. They encountered someone magically transformed and refused to give aid as the law bids. They also encountered a bard, heard claims of a rival of Master Trumpettower’s deception, and heard rumors of Sembian troop movements on the border. They punished a murderer in Monksblade, slew a hoos-snake and bought some magical items at a local store. In Gorthin, they met unlawful practices. A small fest hall was refusing to pay its employees, but worse, they were killing and serving cats! This blasphemy was met with the removal of the innkeeper. In Kirinwood they went into the Tower that Would not Fall and felled it, after looting it. This removed a hazard from the environs. In Wormtower they bought apple butter and slew leucrotta left by a mysterious fellow, who also left behind a letter. It was at this last stop that Lucky the triton Paladin of Sune joined the trio.
There once was a young man named Magnus
Who was has in a wood by the abraxus
And he liked it so good
That he stayed in the wood
Just as long as the abraxus stayed erectus.
- Yohn Ravenwood
At Dawngleam they found two gangs openly fighting, the Fire Knives and Night Masks. They tried to find the origins of the letter. Loyalties were hard to deduce as a Zhentarim agent was pulling strings and playing factions against each other. After the death of the mayor, a raid from sea, gnolls, a fireball in an old inn, a raid on a warehouse, kidnappings, executions, discharging justice, and much more, things climaxed. In an old elven fortress, the Soond Shar, things culminated in the founding of a Cormyr sword of state, Shiningbite, and the Zhentarim agent’s demise. Peace was restored to the port, the gangs driven out, and a new mayor elected after the death of the last, the high knight Magnus Trumpettower himself.
This is the summarized version. Hopefully you can tell that a great many things occurred. Overall, the players were happy. I was even told by the two I’ve run with the longest that it was the best they had ever played! The options and puzzle that they did not guess but were close to unraveling (and so it made sense when all was revealed) was satisfying. Note: don’t trust priests of Diancastra.
This was largely inspired by my reading of the Cormyr Trilogy. Though books like Murder in Cormyr and to a lesser degree many, many more, did inspire this. The party ran into the likes of Sharantyr, Kromlech, and even Florozt'a and co. We played act 1 in 5e. It had been a while since I had ran as Dungeon Master. With that under our belt, we returned to my preferred DnD version: Castles & Crusades. More on that in the act 2 recap!
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