A Land Far Away

Rumors flare up in Baldur's Gate that there has been a large raid by ogres: One of the largest spring fair of horses and oxen in the area, this year held a couple day's travel to the south, had been ravaged. Dozens upon dozens of the vital animals had been slaughtered in the pens that were set up for them. The raiders could not even carry but a fraction of what they slaughtered.

The following day word spreads of another raid on a large horse farm to the east, this time by goblin worg raiders.

In response the prices of draft animals at the Baldur's Gate market, horses in particular, have soared in anticipation of the spring planting season. Still there are more buyers than sellers.

Farmers along the Coast Way south of the Gate, as well as some Merchant League mercenaries and Baldur's Gate city watchmen are talking that the small mercenary outfit Vigil Guard, particularly their leader Gate Warden Bevan Tark, have had the most success in defeating the ogre and goblin raiders that have plagued the farmlands. Considering that various militias and town watches do most of the guarding work, and the Flaming Fists is the outfit that responds when heavier hitting is needed, that small mercenary band has, to the vigilant observer, loomed conspicuously large in the local rumormill.