1460

## **Hilcross: the Baldurian Shift**

Now the better part of a year into the construction process of Hilcross Keep and the surface structures were really starting to take off. Just based on the activity, all of Baldur's Gate knew that the middle of the mountain had to be half-hollow by now, and the depth of resources was signature Stonehearth.

The towers of Hilcross drove home two things: the Baldurian marquis was the ultimate insider, connected to the city in ways that couldn't be broken, in a power structure that set them above the rest of the patriars. It also reinforced, with a keep outside the technical city gates, that Stonehearth was also the ultimate outsider.

### **Swirling the Stagnant Waters**

The bloc of patriars committed to the status quo grew more agitated as Stonehearth's presence asserted the difference between the rank-and-file patriar nobility and the position of the marquis. That distant protective polity in the march of North Point was now starting to seem like a future occupation force.

Even the "Grand Dukes" acknowledged the only reason that Stonehearth wasn't voted into that position as well was because it would've meant a stepping stone from marquis to duke to... *king*. Stonehearth was, more often than not, referred to as the "Shadow Duke."

### **"Forcing Contrarian Paths"**

From the dukes to the patriars, there was a knee-jerk reaction to do whatever the opposite of Stonehearth policy happened to be. What did this mean? For the Gate, it meant looking the other way for the operations of a thieves' guild. It meant dialing back the Flaming Fist from enforcing the law to simply keeping the peace.

When Marquis Adrienne Stonehearth pointed out that this meant fostering injustice, and that would foment rebellion among the commons, patriars instead accused Stonehearth of rebellion and pointed to the castle right outside the eastern gate. This kind of nonsensical passive-aggressive hysteria became the signature of the patriar obstructionism that was slowly turning the commons against them, no matter the entitled nobility tried their divide-and-conquer against popular opinion.

## **Stonehearth-Cormyr Relations**

The Cormyrean crown was proud to announce the birth of Raedra Obarskyr, daughter of Crown Prince Irvel Obarskyr of Cormyr and his wife Ospra Goldfeather. As firstborn of the Crown Prince, that made Raedra heir presumptive to the crown.

Attending from the Barony of Esparia, Stonehearth's primary holding in Cormyr, Baroness Adrienne Stonehearth was there to bring tribute to the likely future queen. As expected, this reinforced relations between the Cormyr Crown and the Marquisate, but it also drove another jealous wedge between the Cormyrean allies of Stonehearth and the oligarchy of the Cormyr baronage.

## **Stonehearth-Elturgard Relations**

The on-again/off-again relationship between Stonehearth and Elturgard was "on again" as a minor alliance refreshed the relationship. At stake was a defensive aid treaty against the demon-worshipping gnolls in the Reaching Woods.

The problem had really been discovered in 1459, but represented far too large a threat for Elturgard to address it directly and immediately. Instead, Elturgard turned a blind eye to the potential evils going on within the forest and did their best to barricade against the problem instead.

Given the rising tensions between Stonehearth and the Shadovar-Netherese, the Marquisate was hesitant to volunteer an offensive to clear the problem, but the mutual aid marked another red flag on the map that would eventually need to be dealt with, right there with two closer infestations of trolls, the lich Larloch, the Yuan-ti kingdom of Najara, the demon-magnet of the Dragonspear Castle ruins (and all the ruins that was built on)...