Anauroch - Part Six: Legends and Rumors
I shall end by imparting those tales I have heard that I cannot prove, or those I would not wish to try to prove. Take these bits of information for what they are. I have no idea how much truth they hold.
- There is an oasis in the Frozen Sea (an odd thing in and of itself) that is home to a herd of pegasi. These winged horses are aloof and leery of strangers, but extremely intelligent and honorable. If a human of good nature approaches them and gives an appropriate reason for needing their aid, they may allow themselves to be ridden.
- Some Bedine claim to have seen a creature that fits the description of a remorhaz, but burrowing its way through the hot sands of the Sword! It may be a mutant or a new adaptation, or perhaps the testing of a new magically-created breed of creature by the evil Zhentarim.
- A human wizard, a dark naga, and a band of questionably sane Bedine have taken it upon themselves to try to change the course of the River of Gems. Rather than allowing so much precious water to disappear into the Throat and be lost forever, they wish to force the river's flow out into the Sword, and water that dry realm. If this plan is truly what they are attempting, surely the forces of that dark, inhuman evil below will try to stop them.
- Goblins, brigands, and bugbears from the Stonelands have recently been attacking Bedine encampments in the southeast. Rumor has it that some foul evil drives these noisome creatures from their lairs and homes and forces them into the desert. Of course, the newcomers have no provisions and no sense of desert ways and dangers. Their only hope of survival is to raid among Bedine encampments.
- There is a location known as "The Secret Place in the Sands" somewhere in the southern part of the Sword. Difficult for anyone not born to the desert to find, it is said of this place that a creature of awesome might, known as a tarrasque, sleeps below. The creature supposedly can be awakened by some special ritual, but its power could destroy the entire region.
- Titans supposedly wander the Plain of Standing Stones, uncovering veins of special ores with which to forge items of incredible power. Humans helping them are said to receive wondrous gifts.
- Until now, the only surface access to the realm of the thaalud has been in the frigid, nearly unreachable barrens of the High Ice. Recently, however, some of these strange, faceless beings have been seen near the oasis of Ma'atar. Not only are they present in the hot desert, I have heard they have a great many base magical items with them. But their purposes and their methods are unknown.
- An ancient sorcerer, in the form of a lich, has recently been seen in or around the ancient ruins of the city of Oreme. This lich's goals are no less than to raise all of the city's dead inhabitants and re-establish the place as a major center of magical and political power.
- This last rumor was not even told to me in Anauroch, but it concerns the desert nevertheless. In a small tavern outside Neverwinter, a slender, elf-like man hailed me. By my robes, he said, he knew my homeland. He asked that I find his elder brother, who had traveled into the Sword years before, and bring him home. An ulugarr wandering the desert alone? I replied he would not have lasted two months - but the man insisted his brother was a learned mage. Of course, I refused the task - I want no part in hunting foolish magicians' bones. Still, the Neveren believed his brother lives. And he stands heir to a fortune.