1480

## **The Year of Deep Water Drifting**

As the Weave was restored and magic flowed consistently, the rest of Toril was energized... to tear itself apart. Beyond Stonehearth's island of sanity, Laerakond had just appeared in Toril (from Abeir), and was promptly trying to wake a primordial (and that worked really well for Neverwinter). In Waterdeep , two competing groups were trying to complete the ritual of the First Flensing to open a gate to Hell .

As Karsus had once attempted to control the Weave to fight the phaerimm, now Stonehearth was tapping the raw magic beneath. The aberrations of the Far Realm were the greatest threat, but there were much closer threats that were assaulting Toril and her people.

### **1480****DR: The Boneshard Fleet attacks… for the last time**

An undead pirate fleet that had been marauding the Sword Coast assaulted NPK. These legendary raiders had been a terror of the high seas since the days of Latharl’s Lantern.

When a two-frigate Stonehearth fleet sailed out, the Boneshard fleet waited until they were about 15 miles out – just at the edge of visibility from the harbor – to attack. The pirate ships faded in and engaged at point blank range.

The pirates had *not* heard about the Stonehearth cannons. Or maybe they had and underestimated the tales. The world would never know as the 6 ghost ships were blown apart and sunk within minutes.

As it were, the Stonehearth patrol… *continued their patrol*, only retelling the story when they came back to port.

North Point already knew. Those six ships were legendary, with the Commodore a supposed lich in his own right.

Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate heard within a week, as did Neverwinter, Orlumbor, Mintarn, Luskan, Lantan and beyond.

Were they gone forever? It was hard to say if the Commodore’s phylactery was destroyed, but the ships were utterly destroyed. It would take centuries to reconstitute if they ever did.

### **Stonehearth reaches out to Elturgard**

Stonehearth’s embassy with Elturgard had been established when the Western Heartlands nation itself was established in 1385 DR (after the Spellplague). Back then, it was an office for the SMC – which morphed into a diplomatic consulate when Stonehearth chartered as a marquisate.

Stonehearth had maintained contact with the Torm-based theocracy through the turbulence with Amn and Baldur’s Gate. In 1446, Elturgard was conflicted about the rise of the Church of the Light – but accepted it as holy (as they were performing miracles).

After the resurrection of Bhaal, Stonehearth refreshed relations in regard to oversight of the Boareskyr Bridge. 115 miles upstream of the Trollclaw Ford, by the remains of the previous Bhaal (who'd fallen into the Winding Water River and made the waters toxic for some length). That magical effect has gradually subsided: the water was non-toxic and non-cursed by the ford, but was still a hazard at the bridge.

Elturgard had assumed jurisdiction of the bridge with the construction of Fort Tamal. Stonehearth wanted to dredge the area, recover the remains of the original Bhaal – and destroy it. After the area was cleared of deity debris, they would convene a cross-church gathering to sanctify the bridge and the waters beneath.

This was *very* dangerous territory, especially after the rebirth of Bhaal in 1482 DR. Nobody knows what Bhaal’s take on the matter was, and testing the god of murder doesn’t seem like an exceptional idea to most. Stonehearth considered Bhaal’s opinions irrelevant – *itself a very telling policy*…

One thing Stonehearth would discover was that the supposed lawful-good paladins didn’t Najaran slave trade from crossing. This, too, was “troubling”…

Elturgard did establish a quiet cooperative Task Force with Stonehearth regarding investigating and responding to the incident at Fort Morninglord.

In 1476 DR the entire garrison of paladins disappeared overnight and every stone in the fort was blackened and fused. The High Overseer of Torm feared the fort was contaminated by some evil and ordered all entrances sealed and declared that anyone entering the fort would be outlawed.

Now four years later, arcane forensics experts from Mageweave Barony were secretly allowed entry to study remaining clues.

### **Early Abeir-Toril geomantic-portal tests revealed "a few things..."**

Testing started in 1479 to bring the Spellplague-lost lands back to Toril. This was big, *big* stuff. The audacity of the plan was often compared to Karsus (and not often favorably). By 1480 DR, the testing returned new – *and odd* – results. Unknown at the time, this was the precursor to Lord Ao's Second Sundering, his own return of lands to their original points.

The Sundering, the Spellplague, and this brewing "next action" was insanely complicated. Much of that had to do with Lord Ao's original split of one planet into planar-phased Abeir and Toril.

Also complicating the issue was the slow congeal of the Weave back into operation, though there were some lingering effects. This would later come to mark the official end of the Spellplague in an event known as Mystra's Return. How much this had to do with embodied God Mystra was unknown (different "Mystra" gods had died before without tearing the universe asunder), but that it was coming together now complicated recovery as the ultra-large-scale raw magic calculations were affected by the Weave overlay.

Major changes were afoot and Stonehearth was among the first of the mortal organizations to know.