The Eldeen Report

Abernon,

You wanted an assessment of the current state of affairs in the Eldeen Reaches, so here it is: this place is about to become the most contested stinkpit this side of Shavarath.  As you probably already know most of what's happening, however, I'll attempt to keep this brief.

I made it up here about two months ago, right around the festivals celebrating the end of the Eldeen Cataclysm.  Local tales about that disaster last year remain fairly mixed.  Once you pick through the more outlandish stories, however, the eye witness accounts more or less corroborate the reports we received: Nahaz-Muraam, demon god of ruin and corruption, rose from the Demon Wastes and led a horde of monsters to march through the Reaches toward greater Khorvaire.  It took the combined might of the Five Nations to halt his advance, but our armies met his on the dusty plains of Dawnshroud Vale.  Noble knights battled foul beasts, holy magic clashed against demonic sorcery, mortal determination stood against immortal will, yadda yadda yadda.  In the end, however, the forces of good and light triumphed over darkness and evil and blew Muraam's fortress of Neth Naggaroth to tiny smithereens.  The Dawnshroud Vale was renamed Demonshroud and we all returned to our homes to live safer, more contented lives knowing that evil has been banished forever. The end.

I know, I know - leave the storytelling to the bards.

Anyway, you pretty much called the broad strokes.  In a purely mundane sense, Muraam's armies left behind an atrocious amount of damage as they raped and pillaged their way across the western end of Eldeen Reaches.  A third of the Great Forest has been razed down to the ground, and that ground is now so polluted by demonic essence that the druids think it might never recover.  This, of course, also makes it prime breeding territory for everything ranging from grotesque aberrations to undead monsters to the foulest living spells you've ever seen.  Worse, Neth Naggaroth was floating close to a mile off the ground when it exploded, and pieces of it landed all over the Eldeen Reaches.  Now the shadows here are a little darker, the nights a little more sinister, and where the pieces of the fortress actually fell there are...things...coming out of the earth.  Things I don't have names for.  Things out of your deepest nightmares.  There are wide swathes of the Reaches so infested with abominations that they're at least as dangerous as any place in the Demon Wastes or the Mournlands.

Still, it could've been a lot worse. The Five Nations stopped Muraam in the Demonshroud Vale, and as a result none of the contamination spread farther into Khorvaire. In fact, the parts of the Reaches bordering Aundair and Breland escaped Blackened Reach mostly unscathed, and the people there have made great strides rebuilding what they've lost. They move farther into the corrupted areas daily, driving back the darkness through sheer force of will and strength of arms. It's a sight to behold. Aundair has also offered a great deal of relief in the form of monetary aid, food, and medical supplies, but the Reachers seem inclined to give the gift horse a thorough cross examination. I'm sure that comes as a surprise to no one.

You may be aware that House Vadalis and their Handler's Guild has been a major source of funding for adventurers, sending them into the old Vadalis strongholds in the western Reaches over the past few months to retrieve family treasures or whatnot. Only the craziest - or the most competent - kept going back in after the first few groups didn't come back or came back less than whole, but all that effort has apparently paid off. About a month ago, a group led by Doranar the Loud went right up into the Endbringer's Scar and lived to tell about it. More than that, they brought back the biggest thing since...well, since we learned how to use dragonshards.

They've found some kind of new dragonshard, Abernon - something that's only forming in those areas where the pieces of Neth Naggaroth fell. They're not Khyber shards or even a variation thereof, as you might expect from a region so tainted. Near as anyone can tell they're something completely new, with vastly different properties from your standard shards. For one thing, it looks like they can substitute for any of the other three shard variants in almost any work of artifice. Think on that for a minute: ANY of the other shards. And initial experiments suggest that they could be used in all sorts of other exotic ways.

I know what you're thinking, and you're right. That would be the bad news. Doranar's known for his iron biceps and steely resolve, not for his ample brainpower or forward-thinking discretion, and he's called "The Loud" for a reason. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you see an article on the matter in next week's Korranberg Chronicle, and I'm sure every politician, dragonmarked lord, merchant king, and trader of any consequence has already managed to sneak a look at this new find.

In fact, you've probably got a piece or two already, don't you?

In any case, everyone's going to want a slice of this little pie. By this time next month the Reaches will be swarming with shard hunters, and those that don't get chewed to pieces will likely become very rich men indeed. I know for a fact that Houses Cannith and Tharashk have already made arrangements to fund two dozen expeditions next week alone into the ruins of Erlaskar. Two dozen! And they're not the only dragonmarked houses making moves - Ghallanda, Jorasco, Lyrandar, Orien, Deneith - they're all mobilizing to take advantage of these new winds in the economic and political climate.  This could be the exact boost the area needs to recover from the Eldeen Cataclysm.

As a result of all this momentum, though, it doesn't look like many people are taking the time to really stop and assess the situation before going in.  I'm sure the idea of a new magic with unknown properties going into the marketplace - a magic that is apparently only found in locations touched by the death of a demon god - troubles you as much as it does me. As much as I dislike some of the Cannith scions, I have to admit that I want them to get as many of these shards as possible.  We need competent artificers to research the flaming hells out of them before they start circulating en mass.

I'll say this as well: these new shards might well be the new dawn for the Eldeen Reaches, but it's going to be a bloody one.  Likely as not, all these factions are going to tear each other apart like rats in a sack, and that's not even to mention the meat grinder that all of these demon-infested ruins are going to become.

Send some people up here, Abernon. The best that you've got. For good or for ill we're looking at the start of something huge.

--B