1489

## **Stonehearth executes their *Duty to Act*…**

### **RUMINT 1489: the Stonehearth Marquisate is gearing for war**

The merchants through North Point Keep traveled the length of the Sword Coast and beyond. What they saw at NPK were the preparations of the Stonehearth Arms: logistical staging and amassing troops in a way that could only mean one thing: *war*.

The rumors were flying fast and furious. The Arms had already mopped up the Shadovar and "Sand Kings" alike. This was somebody – or something – else. From the gleam of the magic cannons to the armored, horseless carriages, to couriers secretive and urgent – this pointed to the end of the world for somebody...

### **Beer and Whispers:** *pub conversations in North Point*

The locals were fully versed, perhaps more than most, in recent and current events, especially regarding the Second Sundering, if only because the nature of the trade hub they’d become. This extended from the Shadovar action from Netheril and Cormyr to the east, to the friction with Baldur's Gate to the South, to a dozen other places that were on the Stonehearth Sh*or*t List.

Rumors flew about Stonehearth mandates – crusades of sorts – and their sworn *Duty to Act*. There were a dozen potential fronts. As insane as it was to plot and plan against the Stonehearth Coronet, it was happening. Part of that was driven by religious fervor: in areas away from the Church of the Light, prophets of deities were confused by these new, subtler signs. And in that confusion came sowing the seeds of hatred.

There were suddenly bloody divisions of sects between a single god. There was skirmishing between followers of different gods. And for those who bypassed the gods altogether, *a special form of scorn*.

There hadn't been a troll incursion in some time, perhaps it was that. *But this seemed bigger*. Luskan, in the north, was now a hazard. Calimshan in the south to Sembia in the east both practiced forms of slavery... and the cannons of Stonehearth could level all three without even slowing down.

All this was conjecture, of course: nobody on the street knew. But that was the kind of conjecture that merchants took with them to the next port, the next market, the next city... and the next royal court. Where Stonehearth artillery amassed, fear thundered ahead.

### **From One Action to the Next**

The low intensity conflict around Netheril had ensured Stonehearth was officially "at war" with the splintered shards of the Shadovar, but that was a practical afterthought for the Arms. This wasn't tracking down pockets in guerrilla warfare, this was preparing a large-scale assault.

*Were they tired of Cormyr's reticence?* No, but fear didn't help people think rationally.

In fact, the growth of Shadowbane had stabilized the area. That massive structure, stretching from the floor of the grasslands, past the plateau of the Plain of Standing Stones above, to the southwestern peak of the mountain range rising above that, was a prominence of more than 7,000 feet.

Between the holy water clouds that formed from the high golden light beacon, to the shimmering water down the mountain ridge, to the scintillating, golden walls of the Shadowbane Keep, the spectacle was visible for twenty miles on the average day. Construction was still going on parts, and now former Netherese-Bedine were flocking to the Low Citadel.

Stonehearth turned no one away: they were now asserting the rule of law over post-battlefield lands. For as confident as they were, though, there were still warnings: this city was an outpost against the Phaerimm and the damage they’d inflicted.

Bedine and Netherese refugees alike largely signed on. Most resumed their middle-class pursuits that they’d grown into over the last several generations, this time populating the Low Citadel of the Shadowbane. Many were recruited directly into the Stonehearth Arms, and took the portal back to North Point to undergo indoctrination, training and conditioning.

Some of the recent recruits were now amassing in this military staging.

### **Relations with Baldur’s Gate**

The Flaming Fist, still the official Baldurian law enforcement authority, was roughly a heavy battalion trying (and massively failing) to keep the peace in a city of 120,000. A city with a dozen competing factions, its own thieves guild, and the lingering aftermath of the resurrection of the God of Murder.

With the massive expansion, there had been three instances in the last 16 years that the city had bordered on civil war. None of them had involved Stonehearth, though the House has always been a strong undercurrent – the flow of legitimate money above dark designs to hijack the commerce.

Stonehearth’s patience was indeed at an end. Now the fourth time in a score of years that the city had been on the verge of civil war. This time, Stonehearth was the very eye of the storm.

The sovereignty's only marquis sat on the Parliament of Peers, leading the minority bloc of patriars with the endorsement of the Merchant's League. The Coronet of the North was ready to pass judgment on the Council of Four (in particular, the inaction of Duke Dillard Portyr).

Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard, commander of the Flaming Fists, stood between a rock and a hard place. The Fists were potent against traditional foes, but they were overwhelmed by the city itself – a city whose controlling bloc of patriars won’t allow greater tax to for more police and won’t authorize the Fist to use truth spells to uncover the source of crime.

Ravengard's back was against the wall in regard to crime in the city, but was honor bound to follow the rule of authority. It’s anyone’s guess how his moral compass will spin as Stonehearth applied pressure.

*But Baldur's Gate was not the focus of the Arms' future fury*...

## **The Resolution of the Duty to Act**

Stonehearth had become the dangerous Torch of Light within the Lords’ Alliance. That was part of the nature of leading the *Commonwealth of the Charter of Light*. For all the justifiable fronts, around this world and in Abeir alike, the next front was one they couldn't talk about.

*Because he was watching*...

Larloch’s insanity was no longer tolerable. The events of two years ago, the end of Shade and Myth Drannor alike, was a cataclysm. Larloch was reaching for godhood in the same fashion as Karsus. It not only damaged the Weave, but it set off a wave of events that unleashed a new wave of Phaerimm.

Even now, Larloch was reaching out to allies in Thay. *That was unacceptable*.

For all the power of the Coronet, they had no intention of putting themselves through the meat grinder of a frontal assault on Warlock's Crypt. Rather, *there was a plan*…

In the meantime, Stonehearth Arms were staging to execute that plan, and would begin with clearing the area around the crypt of trolls and the other various aberrations that the lich's lackeys had created.

When Larloch was no more, when the area was cleansed of the undead, the Coronet would step into the responsibilities of a Crown.

*And **that** would mark the beginning of the crusade*...

## Timeline Exploration

* Go back to the Primal Magic timeline...
* Check out 1489 in the Forgotten Realms original timeline...