The Town Crier

**WIP**

This page is the source of local news and gossip the common folk know, and a brief history of recent events.

## **Penrith**

* The Culling
* The Collapse
* The Uprising
* The Heralds Attack

## **Cortea**

**An old woman with grey hair in a tidy fishtail braid sits at her private table at Nero's Cafe. She wears clothes that are expensive and well-made, worn but well-kept. Antoinette Deschênes is well known in Cortea for having the inside story on everything, though no one is really sure where or how she gets this information, though some may notice the symbol of Istus around her waist. If you buy her a coffee and share a story of your own, she will regale you with tales of past events - though be prepared for her chain-smoking.**

### The Titan War (July - October 2016)

"Three years ago, frost giants attacked the Malbec lands, suddenly and without provocation. They wiped out nearly the entire Malbec clan and their people, though after a few months, Sindle Malbec resurfaced, apparently the only survivor. As she mustered up an army to battle the frost giants, the frost giants fought back by awakening titans - impossibly large and terrifying primordial creatures. One destroyed the city of Titan's Crossing  (how ironic is that name now?) and went to attack the town of Hillcrest , but there were some people there that fought back and actually managed to kill it. They killed another one up north too. They got some armies together and the biggest war anyone's ever seen happened, they say the gods themselves intervened, but you know how people are when there's magic involved. Still, there *were* a lot of strange people, these blue elves, and some pure white ones too, they said, came out of the north, and armies from all over showed up to fight all day long. There were armies of dwarves with their amazing machines, humans, elves, all kinds of strange people, and some say there was magic like they'd never seen before going off everywhere, it was a frenzy of destruction and wonder. They finally put the titans down, somehow, and the frost giants were all killed or left. After this utterly impossible war, the good guys won. Also, it turns out a few of the Malbecs didn't die, they'd gone in to hiding somewhere, and now they're back. Got married too, Sindle did, to one of those blue elves that showed up in the war. They live in Penrith now, I hear. The people are moving back in to the Malbec Valley , they're taking in refugees too, and trying to recover the area. Someone just told me they're starting up the grape farm and the wine making again, which I'm looking forward to. Fantastic wine out of Malbec. Anyway, about 55,000 soldiers in total went to the war, 48,000 of them didn't make it back. Memorials popping up all over for them, we'll never really know everyone that died because of it, I think"

### The Plague AKA Serpent Decay (Late 2016 - Early 2017)

"After the war ended, people started getting sick. It was a weird disease, no one could figure it out, and the clerics couldn't heal them. Some cities closed themselves off and tried to quarantine the sick, some places just got overrun by the plague and almost no one made it out, some pla. It varies, across the continent, but I bet we'll be hearing stories of ghost towns being discovered all over in the years to come. It will take a long time before we really know the extent of the damage. Some druids, from a place called the Emerald Enclave, helped cure the disease"

### The Siege of Cortea (April 2017)

"Gnolls? Worst blasted nuisence the gods ever thought to create. Someone named Peren from Penrith  told us of the upcoming seige by those vicious creatures. I'm not sure why they chose Cortea of all places, but they did. I heard first they attacked the High Temple of Chauntea but a group of adventurers from around here stopped them. The whole city was afraid, people had no desire to leave the walls. We were all just...waiting. Finally, on a Saturday morning, they came, and there was a terrible fight. I was stuck back in the middle district, but I saw and heard all kinds of things - explosions, magic flying everywhere, the clashing of swords, and I swear to you I saw a brass dragon fly overhead. I thought the end of Cortea was in sight..but somehow at the end of the day, the adventurers, the guard, and Sir Kymil were able to fight them off. I heard there was even a drow fighting on the city's side. All kinds of people showed up and fought, druids and knights and clerics, every kind of person you could think of, if you aska round you might meet a few of them."