The Black Network

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Cleasor
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The Black Network

Post by Cleasor »

Within a wooden container, in a chest, within Cornelius' room in the Adventurers Guild:

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Last edited by Cleasor on Fri Apr 23, 2021 11:22 am, edited 6 times in total.
"Having an adventure shows that someone is incompetent, that something has gone wrong. An adventure is interesting enough in retrospect, especially to the person who didn't have it; at the time it happens it usually constitutes an exceedingly disagreeable experience." Vilhjalmur Stefansson
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Cleasor
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Re: The Black Network

Post by Cleasor »

Updated.
"Having an adventure shows that someone is incompetent, that something has gone wrong. An adventure is interesting enough in retrospect, especially to the person who didn't have it; at the time it happens it usually constitutes an exceedingly disagreeable experience." Vilhjalmur Stefansson
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Cleasor
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Re: The Black Network

Post by Cleasor »

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Thirsty Thursday at the Unicorn.
"Having an adventure shows that someone is incompetent, that something has gone wrong. An adventure is interesting enough in retrospect, especially to the person who didn't have it; at the time it happens it usually constitutes an exceedingly disagreeable experience." Vilhjalmur Stefansson
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Cleasor
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Re: The Black Network

Post by Cleasor »

Located on the book shelf within Cornelius' room. ((Replicating here rather than in game quill and parchment))

Llorkh

Bills of lading signed between dwarven mining concerns and the House of Khond Caravan Co. reveal that Llorkh was a simple but busy silver and iron mining town with a population of around 2,400 until 1357.

At that time, it was taken over by subterfuge and assassination. The Zhentarim, a vast company out of the Moonsea that seems half mercantile and half zealously martial, has apparently established itself as the ruling force.

First, a little background on the the Zhentarim, from the many books, mercantile papers and last wills and testaments which reference them. It is known as the Black Network. Until recent years, it was ruled by Fzoul Chembryl, a Banite who styled himself Grand Tyrant, but he was slain in 1383 when the Shadovar razed Zhentil Keep and the Citadel of the Raven.

Rule of the Zhentarim seems to have fallen to Darkhold, a fortress near the Sunset Mountains of the Western Heartlands, and its leader, a champion of Cyric known only as the Pereghost.

The Pereghost seems to be human. In battle, he wears a distinctive skull helm and chalk-white full plate armor, and wields Determination, a bastard sword enchanted with powerfully evil enchantments. When leading Darkhold's army, he rides Sandusk, a heavy warhorse equipped with a magical winged harness.

This back and forth in the Zhentarim between Banites and Cyricists seems a common theme in the history of the Black Network. Any more recent reports of activity out of Darkhold have dried up during this decade, but caravans still arrive from Darkhold to Llork and such official silence is ominous, rather than promising.

It is likely that Darkhold now fills the command vaccuum in Llorkh that was left by the fall of Zhentil Keep.

As for Llorkh, its last lord, Phintarn Redblade, was found dead at the foot of the Lords Keep in 1356. Geildarr Ithym, a human mage, took over governance, and almost overnight 400 "Lord's Men" appeared. Clad in purple and black mail, these fighting men enforce Lord Geildarr's will, starting with a series of battles against the existing militiamen.

These militiamen had been branded troublemakers and were slain, to the man, by the new armed forces. Suspiciously, not too long after, Redblades brother was found dead...the night before his inn burned down.

About the same time, a leader of the dwarves, a cleric of Moradin named Thianos Ironskull, was declared outlaw. He vanished and his location and status is unknown. Although elderly at the time, that was only 40 years ago, which is not long by the measure of stoutfolk. The dwarven population of Llorkh has dwindled since then, dwarves slipping away.

In any case, by such means as the above did Geildarr initially establish his rule of Llorkh. Since then, Lord Geildarr has turned Llorkh into a Zhentish stronghold. His will is enforced by a seemingly uncountable number of Zhentilar soldiers as well as the Lord's Men.

Judging from accounts pieced together from various mercenary contracts, provisioning shipments and the oral history of terrified villagers recorded by Greenbriar in "Legends and Monsters of the Back Roads and Burghers; Their Origin and Etymology", he and his forces once fought a major battle against demonic forces from Hellgate Keep, driving them back from the shores of the Delymbir.

One of his chiefest advisors is a man by the name of Mythkar Leng, a cleric who has changed his allegiance from Bane to Cyric and perhaps back again...or worships these deities simultaneously. It is unclear. This back-and-forth between Bane and Cyric seems a common theme in the members of the Black Network, and in either case, an ecclesiastic of neither god is to be trusted.There are rumors that this Leng has the aid of a beholder that is never glimpsed in public. Supposedly, it lives under the temple of Cyric but emerged once to float over the city and eliminate a bugbear army that threatened the walls.

The most recent reference to any successful defiance of Geildarr that turns up in literature is a story in the Waterdeep Daily Trumpet, dated 1372, welcoming the family of Lamris Kholl, a Tymoran cleric. Kholl, along with a fellow Luckbringer went into Llorkh to rescue her family. Safely extracted, the Kholls may still reside in Waterdeep, although no mention was found in the latest census.

I must add that in the logs of the gate guards at the Troll Gate, I ran across a curious entry recording the arrival of a caravan from some unnamed desert keep, guarded by warriors in purple escorting a high ranking cleric clearly noted down as Banite.

The date is heavily redacted, but the caravan master was described by an enthusiastically wide-eyed gate warden as carrying a magical scimitar with a name, Shazzillim. According to the "Catalog of Intelligent or Extraordinary Bladed Weapons" kept by the Oghmanytes of Silverymoon's Halls of Inspiration, Shazzillim belonged to the head caravan master of Zhentil Keep, a man by the name of Meer. Whomever warranted the presence of Meer himself leading the caravan, they were apparently allowed through into the city only after Khelben Blackstaff himself sent written word of his own sponsorship. Nothing was ever heard of the purpose or eventual departure of such a staggeringly high ranked caravan of Zhentarim, perhaps because that wide-eyed gate warden was reassigned and also never heard from again. However, we are led to the inescapable and extraordinary conclusion that a high functionary of Zhentil Keep visited with the Blackstaff sometime before the fall of Zhentil Keep in 1383.

Llorkh stands at the western end of the Black Road over Anauroch, and thus was a major stop for caravans from Zhentil Keep. Since the fall of Zhentil Keep, Darkhold now fills the gap in caravan trade to Llorkh. Zhentarim-led caravans arrive in Llorkh from Darkhold in the same numbers as they once did from Zhentil Keep. These caravans need to take on staff, beasts, and supplies prior to the last leg of their journey: the trek to Loudwater, where barges would take their goods up-river. Through the 1390s DR until today, two caravans come from Darkhold each week except in the depths of winter, carrying trade goods, weaponry, and warriors.

The caravans bring much wealth to Llorkh, which desperately needs it as the mines fail. The people of Llorkh thus find prosperity servicing the Zhentarim caravans. In return, by dominating Llorkh, the Zhentarim had a monopoly on trade between the town and Loudwater and a point from which to further trade interests in northwest Faerûn.

-- Clarianna Gardner
High Seeker of Oghma
Font of Knowledge
Waterdeep
"Having an adventure shows that someone is incompetent, that something has gone wrong. An adventure is interesting enough in retrospect, especially to the person who didn't have it; at the time it happens it usually constitutes an exceedingly disagreeable experience." Vilhjalmur Stefansson
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Cleasor
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Re: The Black Network

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In one hand, Cornelius looked at the anomynous letter stating the Zhentarim were preparing another strike against him. In the other hand, a list of components needed to assemble a scrying device. A device which would collect the evidence he needed to expose the Zhentarim sponsor within the city. Cornelius then fingered the delicate mountain flower pinned to his armor, smiled, and said, "Man fand heute. Morgen nur noch zwei."
"Having an adventure shows that someone is incompetent, that something has gone wrong. An adventure is interesting enough in retrospect, especially to the person who didn't have it; at the time it happens it usually constitutes an exceedingly disagreeable experience." Vilhjalmur Stefansson
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