1378 DR - The Year of the Cauldron
(RL: roughly 2017)
- Strange, alien, horrifying dreams begin to plague much of the populace of the area, beginning with people with connections to chaos - through their bloodlines, their faiths, or their planar travels - then eventually spreading to the rest of the population: commoner, noble, and adventurer alike. The source is eventually discovered to be an impending planar conjunction between the Far Realm and the Prime.
- Elven priests, under command from an Avatar of Sehanine, perform a dream-quest into the depths of the Demiplane of Dream, where the connection between the dreams and the approaching Far Realm is revealed, as is the survival of Regent Alusair and Mage-Royal Caladnei in that alien realm; it is their presence and will that is, at least in part, responsible for the Far’s return. This information is provided mostly by the shade of an otherworldly wizard-poet named Alhazred, whose spirit is trapped within Dream but can observe many waking worlds through divination, and the witch-queen Iggwilv of Oerth, who claims to be observing the planar goings-on and other strange phenomena that have been bubbling up from Toril over the past half-decade.
- Rivka Rosenfeld, a tiefling mage and failed War Wizard applicant, joins forces with the Lhaksharut Inevitable designation Dharmadas I to construct a force of “living constructs” warded against Far Realm madness to serve as a fighting unit against the impending invasion. These “Warforged” - made from taking mortal souls and placing them in construct bodies - are eventually discovered and peaceful cooperation arranged between them and the authorities, save a rogue member that has to be tracked down and imprisoned for his trouble.
- Several cerebrotic blots begin to appear as the Far draws closer, most of which are closed by adventurers who daringly enter within the warped terrain.
- After several months of conflict, a large-scale assault on Stonehaven results in the death, capture, and/or expelling of the Zhentarim occupation. Bass Felreaver is declared a traitor to Cormyr and excommunicated from the Church of Tempus when proof of Zhent collusion is found within the city temple, but is presumed to have escaped Cormyr before or during the occupation. The city is re-occupied and now owned and run by the Purple Dragons, and renamed to Swordhaven. The city's priestess of Tempus and commander of the temple, Kashira Reynolt, sacrificed herself in the process of the battle to secure the Lord of War's support for the Tempuran forces and adventurer troupes fighting against the Zhent incursion, and remains within the temple in Swordhaven, petrified as a statue in the center of the temple's grand hall.
- Velethuil loses Elder Caedor Maerdrym to an assassination by what is thus far considered an "isolated incident" of fiend-blooded elves who tried to divide Velethuil, exploiting the polarized climate of the given time. While some had seen the exposure of one of these, many investigating into the matter are claiming this was an isolated incident, and there is still much controversy surrounding the 'conspiracy theory' that these elves are part of a larger, organized group of elite sun elves who chose to mingle with demon blood.
- Former adventurer Nadril Nailow is selected as the replacement and newest Velethuil Elder. While was not as hardcore isolationist as Maerdrym, he is still sympathetic to letting Ssrenshen refugees keep in their insular community within Velethuil. Some of these refugees are trying to learn about folks who would typically be seen as enemies or untrustworthy, so not all of them are blood thirsty, but still have the baggage of what happened to their home.