29 Kythorn

Word has arrived from the north, or perhaps more accurately the powers that be decided to disseminate the news to the city only now. There are signs of war about to be declared, or perhaps more accurately that there will be an attack on Silverymoon in the north.

Someone managed to blanket the entire fucking sky of the region.

Details aren’t entirely clear, and it’s not exactly like I have great information circles or anything about it, but someone managed to blanket the sky such that the sunlight can no longer reach the region. Theories abound in the city on the purpose and perpetrators.

The most common theory is that it’s meant to help protect some cave dwelling or savage species that have eyesight specialized towards low light conditions, night time, and caves typically. That could range from orcs to drow to goblins and more exotic species I have little awareness of. It makes sense that such a spell would be quite demanding, and such groups are known to prowl around the northern region near Silverymoon.

Another theory, that I think holds far less water, is that it could be the work of the ice giants. Perhaps as a means of cooling down the area and killing off the crops and vegetation to weaken inhabitants. From what little I’ve learned of them from Orsik on the topic, which isn’t really much, is that they would be far more inclined to spells of a more cold and wintery nature. Simple darkness isn’t really within their typical inclination, though that hardly means there aren't exceptions among them.

Regardless of the perpetrators, Silverymoon and its region are important members of the Lord’s Alliance. That means Waterdeep is likely to start marshalling a force to march north to assist them. The first wave is likely to be whatever adventurers take interest in the job since they needn’t worry about their logistics train.

Larger forces are largely dependent on logistics, most don’t travel with a great deal of food and water and need either regular deliveries or to collect it while on the move. A lot of planning is needed for those forces, and depleting your standing army on a whim is a great way to invite increased chaos in your own lands. At least Waterdeep doesn’t draft its citizens into such efforts, purely voluntary with fairly good compensation.

17 Flamerule

Orsik has notified me of his intent to journey northward to Neverwinter. Apparently his secret personal project looking to find whatever dwarven thing it is has born a lead.

Admittedly I have been spending less actual time with him in the Font than I did in previous years, mostly because with the workshop actually built up and running it’s hard to justify the time. The Font is on the other side of the city, so I check out books and read them in the workshop instead. I still see him once or twice a week though.

It makes me realize that I don’t actually know that much about Orsik, beyond the love of knowledge, skill in magic, and goal in researching whatever he came to the city for. Whatever it was, he was willing to stop here to research it. Typically, at least from what I’ve heard of the priests and scholars that attend to the Font’s library, if you really need to research something obscure it’s best for you to journey even further south from here to somewhere called Candlekeep; Some massive library city-state that acts as both a great repository of knowledge and magical artifacts, as well as security and fortifications to protect it.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

So that raises the question of why Orsik decided to stay in Waterdeep. Whatever it is he doesn’t want to tell me about, has to have led him specifically to the city. I doubt it’s some evil artifact or some such, he’s a bit too carefree and jovial to be a secret cultist. Unless that’s supposed to be his cover, but I feel like that would be hard to maintain constantly while I’m around. What little I’ve gleaned from book covers I saw when I interrupted his personal research seemed more locally inclined as well, mostly books on the various noble families of the city.

The mystery goes unsolved for now though, with his imminent departure in the next few days. He said he might be back in a month, perhaps less, but it depends on how well the lead goes. Should he not intend to return for longer he promised to at least send a letter or message.

8 Eleasis

The workshop has been making what is a frankly absurd amount of money. Most of my insects that I grabbed at the start of the season have reached maturity, and have been harvested daily for a month now.

Silk production is still a bit lackluster compared to on Bet, but I don’t quite have the same size of facilities or equipment available to me to make that fair. The more annoying part though is the lower quality of silk. I don’t think I really appreciated Black Widows as much as I do now with their absence. The silk is still durable of course, but not nearly to the same degree. It’s still at least reasonably durable against being cut, but honestly, I think the greater benefit to both the lizards and I will be as an insulation layer. It gets really cold during the winters, and from what I could tell the lizardfolk seem pretty vulnerable to it.

The real money maker though has been in all the harvested venoms. Bees, wasps, spiders, those giant centipedes especially, all of them have been working hard to produce vials and vials of the stuff. Our alchemist contact has been a bit suspicious frankly. Apparently coming into the shop somewhat regularly with thousands of gold worth of poison from a variety of species is far from flying under the radar.

We need to start finding new buyers to split up the sales. Our first contact was a shady halfling tattooed all over what skin was visible who worked a few streets away from the workshop. He has politely told us that he doesn’t actually have that much money floating around to just keep buying good quality venom off of us, the sales aren’t actually that quick for it even if it’s shelf stable for a while. He kindly provided us a list of addresses for fellow guild members he thought would be interested in the product.

Not all of them want to deal with venoms, and while there is some usage for them in making beneficial potions, most tend to be for killing and harming. The civilian uses are more for things like pest extermination, or apparently for paralytics for bouncers to use on more belligerent customers. Naturally, though I’m fairly certain most is finding its way into the black market. Apparently, a lot of the actually good thugs don’t just mug you with a knife, but a poison-coated knife. Not sure how cost-effective that actually is, but if that’s the culture I suppose I’ll be supplying it.

The price of poison has actually also gone up recently, there’s a lot of activity and movement in the criminal underground. Lots of big events happening beneath the surface and abroad, which is probably where the venoms are actually being shipped to as a high-value smuggled good. Turns out that the city cares when you transport large quantities of lethal substances in and out of its borders.

Slaan has been doing well, he’s been going along with Durah and Laraek for the negotiations on selling the venom, and his common has improved a lot after the month and a half since I met him. He benefits a lot from having other people talking in it, and I think he understands the heavily “accented” version that the other lizardfolk are forced to use. Still, you have to start somewhere, and he’s getting better at understanding me as well I think. His writing is actually getting fairly decent, though he’s unused to using a quill. There are still some issues with connecting all the letters with his cursive though.

Gods I miss not writing in cursive.