1402

## **Stonehearth-Tethyr relations deepen**

### **Since 1385, the gravity of Stonehearth had grown stronger…**

When the Spellplague ripped through Faerûn, turning magic unpredictable and driving weave-casters mad, the powerful House of Stonehearth was already elbows deep in casting from raw magic. Baldur’s Gate knew something was up as none of the Stonehearth casters were affected – and soon after, the word had spread that Stonehearth was “above the Spellplague.”

That sparked rumors all around Toril, much less Faerûn, and for most, it translated to *pure power*. For scholarly mages, there was fear of how this was done – as many simply didn’t know. Some suspected they were drawing on raw magic, and they were right, but the only ways they knew how to tap that deep made the cure worse than the disease.

Stonehearth methods weren’t nearly what others feared, but the reputation was useful…

Still, for those who had a reliance or dependence on arcane magic, they were willing to contract services with SMC wizards for any number of jobs – and the clients were willing to pay. What Stonehearth did, they did very, very well. Likewise, when Stonehearth reached out, they were powerful allies…

### **Stonehearth Natural Philosophy knew no bounds…**

For 17 years since the Spellplague, Stonehearth had been maintaining technical liaison with the College of the Eclipse, based in Riatavin, Tethyr. The academy of psions taught psionics, which was powerful casting – *but wasn’t actually magic*.

Therein, during **1402**, was the opportunity for a major teaching moment.

Stonehearth’s raw magic tap was objectively more flexible and demonstrably more powerful, but psionics itself had proven to show the big picture was missing a major piece. That was critical to the Stonehearth models.

This led to strong cooperation between Stonehearth and the College of the Eclipse. Strong enough, in fact, that the College would seem to fade away from Riatavin after the late 1300s DR – but it never left.

Stonehearth’s strong raw magic was able to provide a control of sorts to the psionic scholars, a mirror to better see what they were doing “under the hood” so to speak. This led to a deep development of the College’s psionic capacity – and a mirror of that capacity within Stonehearth.

One of the elements Stonehearth was able to assist with was the science of psionic devices. This was non-magical, but deeply powerful, casting devices and apparatus.

One of the most prominent devices was the “perception filter” – a psionic device that prevented observation and/or memory retention of certain areas or events. This allowed the college to “fade away” and yet, have no tell-tale trace of magic doing so.

From the Stonehearth angle, much of the desire to master psionics was to counter spies of Waterdeep’s Hall of Mental Splendor. The raw magic counter-espionage measures worked against psions as well, but as long as Stonehearth was evolving, they assumed their competition was evolving as well – and wanted to be able to counter the psions in their own arts. With the help of the College of the Eclipse, Stonehearth was able to do just that.

As for the psionic spies run out Waterdeep’s basement, Stonehearth largely proved to be a frustrating black hole.

### **The Quiet Liaison**

As owners of the barony of Impresk, House Stonehearth was already a military ally of the Kingdom of Tethyr. The barony encompassed the Snowflake Mountains, and was the inland, northeast corner of the Kingdom. Interestingly, that also put House Stonehearth on the inland, eastern edge of Amn as well.

The Stonehearth-Tethyr relationship was already close enough that the House had been licensed to build a fortified Manor within the Crown Lands, right at the edge of the city Darromar (capital of Tethyr), just off the River Ith. Likewise, the Stonehearth ambassador was a regular courtier in Tethyr royal court, and often a trusted advisor.

To that effect, Stonehearth put the Tethyr Crown in contact with the College of the Eclipse. Tethyr was already comfortable with magic, but the Crown officially had no clue who the psions were or what they could actually do. When the differences were shown, including the ability to effect change without traces of magic, the College suddenly became a strategic resource.

Just as Stonehearth was pulling back how regular their connection was to the College (after building their own capacity), the House made certain that the Tethyr Crown more than filled in that support. The complementary powers of magic and psionics brought a new comfort and security to Crown – and a deeply existential level of trust with Stonehearth.