D&D 5E 5th Edition and Cormyr: Flexing My Idea Muscle and Thinking Out Loud

Eleasias - Highsun
Fourth day of the second tenday
1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed

Mages clash in Proskur. Greatgaunt next? Queen fights in slippers. Doomed adventurers depart Suzail.

GREATGAUNT - Reports of a running battle between mages in Proskur has made its way east across the Bridge of Fallen Men and arrived in Greatgaunt. A trio of caravan guards were overheard to warn Purple Dragons manning Greatgaunt’s gates to “beware men and women traveling alone, hiding their faces behind cowles and wearing long robes to conceal their hands. If they have hard accents or stink of magic, they are apprentices of the mage Anneth of Karamhond. They wield wands and seek to slay each other and anyone else they suspect of wielding Anneth’s magic.” The fight in Proskur ended swiftly as it began, but not before two wand-wielding mages were blasted to smoking ruin and a third lay on the ground, her body shot through with holes made by enormous bolts of magic. The caravan guards could not say precisely what happened to the bodies or the wands and other magic the mages carried, only that Proskur’s watch was swift to the scene and the mage’s remains carried off, “most likely to the watch building where the Red Wizards once kept an enclave, unless I miss my guess.”

SUZAIL - Court officials are hotly denying a rumor claiming zombies did manage to invade the Royal Palace nine days ago. They refuse to comment further on a separate tale that had Queen Raedra rushing to the defense of unarmed palace servants whilst wearing naught but a night robe and wielding a sword in each hand. So embroidered has this tale become that folk are cheering the queen for single-handedly beating the zombies back through a magical gateway located somewhere on the palace grounds and holding it until reinforcements arrived. Court officials would only say that the Queen “remains steadfast as ever in the defense and protection of Cormyr and all its people.”

Elsewhere in Suzail, the Hammerhands were seen to depart through the East Gate. “A rather pedestrian bunch of adventurers, wouldn’t you agree?” This question posed by Ansraeve Landaer whilst standing on the stoop fronting the main entrance to the first of his three shops on Suzail’s east wall. As ever, Ansraeve’s commentary strikes true: the Hammerhands could easily be mistaken for crofters come to market to sell their crops. Only one of their number carries a weapon and none wear armor. Ansraeve observed two Hammerhands sitting at the front of a rothé-drawn wagon, while the rest sat in the back, their meager possessions tied to the wagon’s rails. According to Goroth Marl, Ansraeve’s neighbor and provider of shop security next door at Hrungoun’s, “the Thawnfaers are sponsoring that lot. Can’t imagine what good it’ll do them, either. No one survives a Thawnfaer expedition.”

Ed Greenwood's 2013 Forging the Realms article THE STENCH CARTS inspired me to try my hand at creating a (5E) Background for the dung carter. I first posted this background to the EN Wiki, and later posted the background to Discord where I got some useful feedback.

I have revised it to the entry you’ll find below.

This entry is tailored to a character originating in Cormyr, though it can easily be modified to suit characters from any city in the Realms. I hope you find it useful, and perhaps a refreshing change of pace from the zillions of backgrounds out there.


DUNG AND BONE WAGONEER

Of all the jobs a Cormyrean may perform, yours was the dirtiest and the smelliest. By night you guided a mule-drawn cart loaded with empty chamber pots to the back alley exits of businesses and residences. You exchanged your wares for identical pots filled to the brim with dung, spoiled food, and refuse. What could be salvaged from the refuse you sold off to local merchants or traded for food and other necessities. The rest you hauled away and dumped on a family-owned plot of land a few miles downwind from the settlement where you made your living.

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Insight

Tool Proficiencies: Tinker’s tools, vehicles (land)

Equipment: A set of tinker’s tools, a mule and cart, a set of much-patched common clothes, and a pouch containing 5 gp

Feature: Exfiltrate While operating a cart or wagon filled with dung and refuse, you can smuggle creatures or objects out of a settlement of any size. You may hide up to two creatures of medium size in a cart, or up to five creatures of medium size in a wagon. Your DM will determine the maximum amount of objects you may hide.

Suggested Characteristics Dung-carters are a necessary feature of civilization throughout the Realms--even in settlements with sewer systems.They have cast iron stomachs and are unperturbed by the sight and smell of gore, bloated corpses, fly-covered dung, and spoiled food. Their ideals, bonds and personalities are shaped by years of living and working in the dark of night, and from seeing the pain and sadness of other beings encountered by night. Their inverted way of life often contributes to their flaws.


Personality Trait

1. The dirtier the job is the more eager I am to do it.
2. I never let allies throw things away without seeing what can be salvaged from them first.
3. I like to make friends with people who prefer not to get their hands dirty.
4. It’s not that I refuse to part with my money, it’s that I usually don’t have any to begin with.
5. I spend my free time making something of value out of someone else’s trash.
6. I prefer bartering one object for another to paying coins for what I want.

Ideal

1. Community. If I am waived down by the master of an inn or tavern, I will deliver a drunkard customer home safely and for no fee. (Lawful)
2. Silence. I ask no questions of customers who happen to “accidentally” include a severed hand or head, item of value, or any sort of unusual object among the refuse and dung I collect from them. (Neutral)
3. Hidden. I know half a dozen good hiding places and I won’t hesitate to help someone if they are afraid for their life. (Good)
4. Kindness. When local eateries and taverns throw out the good stuff--food scraps and half-consumed bottles of wine--I save the best for beggars and the hungry. (Good)
5. Side Coins: For a few coppers more I will deliver anything to someone else in town, be it poisons, body parts, illicit drugs, or banned substances. For a few silvers more I will conceal stolen goods and bring them to your chosen agent beyond the edge of town. For a few gold pieces more I will conceal entire corpses in my cart and ensure no watch Dragons discover them before I dump the evidence where no one will ever find it. (Evil)
6. Muckwork. If I must walk knee deep through an alley filled to the walls with dung in order to retrieve a corpse, I’ll do it without hesitation. (Chaotic)

Bond

1. The head of a Cormyrean noble house has always been kind to my family. I never charge a fee to covertly deliver messages from this person to recipients elsewhere in the settlement.
2. The love of my life is highborn. I yearn for the fame and renown necessary to secure their hand in marriage.
3. I have traveled miles beyond counting in my cart. It can never be replaced, only repaired.
4. There is no better place than the settlement I call home. Anyone who dares bring harm to it will suffer at my hands.
5. Family and friends are more important to me than gold and treasure.
6. I must sustain the relationships between my family and the settlement folk we do business with or my family won’t survive.

Flaw

1. I have no patience for anyone of high station that looks down on me and my allies. I will repay mockery with insults and respond to threats with drawn steel.
2. Social gatherings terrify me. I refuse to dance, make small talk or mingle.
3. If I think something is wedged into something else, stuck underneath something else or hidden inside something else, I won’t stop prying and carving until I find it.
4. If I see another dung-carter working my family’s territory, there’s sure to be a brawl.
5. I have betrayed the trust of a customer only one time. No one must ever learn why.
6. Someday I will rule over everyone I once served. That day cannot come soon enough.

Eleasias - Highsun
Fifth day of the second tenday
1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed

Hobgoblins on the Tun. Oozes erupt from chests. Adventures battle spiders.

THE BRIDGE OF FALLEN MEN - Hobgoblin corpses, bone white and encased in blocks of ice, are floating down the Tun River. Purple Dragons snared a handful of corpses and dragged them ashore for inspection. The ice was translucent and seemed unable to melt in the warmer water of the Tun. The hobgoblins appeared to wear armor, some held swords and axes, while others carried heavy crossbows on their backs or on their belts. A pair of dwarf merchants stopped near the river to keep count of ice blocks.

MARSEMBER - The investigator for hire “Ironeye” Houndfyre is warning all who care to listen to avoid “unattended chests or coffers of fine make.” These are lures, says the investigator, meant to draw in and slay the unwary. Ironeye claims to have seen two such chests placed near the homes of rich merchants, each chest “left partially open and on their side, as though they fell from a wagon. Unsuspecting folk from the house would happen upon the chest, turn it upright and open it, and discover all manner of coins inside. However, each time they reached in to take coins, something erupted out of the chest to devour the hands and face of the unsuspecting victim.” According to Ironeye, a sort of human-shaped ooze or slime would emerge from the body of its victim about half an hour later and give out a shrill burbling cry. Soon after, the same cloaked and cowled people who placed the chests would arrive, gather up the ooze, the chest, and the corpse, and flee into the night.

ZUNDLE - A band of adventurers drove off a swarm of harp spiders rampaging on the Way of the Dragon within sight of the Zundle waystop. The Tankard Trolls, originally of Fendarl’s Gate but now enjoying the patronage of House Irlingstar, formed a line four shields wide, and deployed crossbows and spells to beat back the spiders. According to a Crown messenger who saw the spiders’ remains, at least two harp spiders were as large as a rothé calf. The messenger, hight Hendreth Lionwinter, was overheard to express concern over the presence of so many male harp spiders this late in the season: “By this time of year all the males have either died or traveled deep into the King’s Forest to find a place to hibernate.” For their part, the Tankard Trolls did not tarry. Upon the defeat of the spiders, the adventurers returned to their mounts and continued north in the company of Lord Irlingstar and his retinue.

Eleasias - Highsun
Sixth day of the second tenday
1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed

Inn opens in Bospir. Dragonflies renew the Moorland. Wyverns over Stag's-Skull.

BOSPIR - The Heart Forge Hearth Haven has opened its doors wide to guests. This ponderously named inn sits opposite the Drover’s Inn, and is a short walk from the Nightbleat Tavern. Bospirans have already taken to calling it “the Forge.” Locals have welcomed the inn’s construction, as Bospir’s rooming houses and sole other inn have for years filled to overflowing ever since the village began trading with dwarves that visit once a year via the three wells in the center of town. A dwarf, hight Odak Horn, runs the Forge, while its staff are drawn from the local population.

GRITSTONE MOORLAND - Rangers have encountered an unknown variety of dragonfly on the Moorland. These hand-sized dragonflies spread their wings wide as the sun rises to gather moisture. The wings are slowly lowered in sequence with the sun rising, causing the moisture to condense. By means of what surely must be magic, the water turns a marvelous golden hue when the full light of the sun strikes the wings of one of these dragonflies, the liquid falling in drops onto the wet ground of the mooreland. Swirling hues of golden light erupt from the wet ground and flowers, small plants, and lesser insects form instantly. Mooreland predators appear to ignore these dragonflies, which seem to be able to entrance attackers and cause them to move away.

STAG’S SKULL BRIDGE - Purple Dragons guarding this vital Thunderflow crossing sighted two flights of wyverns over the Hullack. The first flight of four wyverns circled high over the Hullack before descending into the wood. Not long after, a second flight of eight wyverns cut through the clouds over the western slopes of the Thunder Peaks. This flight too made for the Hullack and disappeared into the trees. No more wyverns were seen before the sun set on the bridge and nearby Thunderstone. The darkness did not deter certain locals from making for the Hullack, the better to witness a rare “wyvern moot.”

Eleasias - Highsun
Ninth day of the second tenday
1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed

Harp Spiders slain. Queen's Lord hires novices. Malarties upstage Luckbringers. Paranoid Amnian sells carvings.

WAYMOOT - The discovery of despoiled harp spider nests has caused the Queen’s Lord of Waymoot to enter into a contract with a band of novice adventurers to investigate the slaughter of female harp spiders and the theft of harp spider eggs in the King’s Forest. Waymootans are roundly displeased over the slayings, but remain unconvinced that a band of adventurers unworthy of being sponsored by the nobility are capable of apprehending the culprit(s) and delivering them to Crown justice.

SUZAIL - Several upperpriests of Malar formally presented themselves to Queen Raedra at court today. The followers of the Beastlord were then given a tour of the Royal Gardens and Palace (venturing through several storied chambers, including Battlebanners Passage, the Chamber of Wyrms Ascending, and Xantarth Hall), then assembled for a private dinner with the Queen beneath the glass roof of Quessarium Hall. The Royal Court is abuzz with gossip over the Queen’s choice to receive “the Beastlord’s children” (as a certain highly placed courtier was overheard to put it whilst reclining in a comfortable chair within the Old King’s Favorite) before the followers of Tymora. “Surely this will only antagonize the holynoses of Tymora, who to this day presume to be ‘first among the holy’ in Cormyr. The old ways are being set aside for this Queen’s way. And I must tell you, I quite like it.”

SUZAIL - A new shop has opened in eastern Suzail. The Exotic Wyvern may be found where the homes of Purple Dragon soldiers and officers give way to the grander homes of merchants and the well-off. Narondror Glythlont, an aging Amnian with bushy eyebrows and a thick accent, runs the shop. Narondror’s wares include delicate ivory carvings of wyverns, dragons, and other monstrous beasts, and exotic furniture crafted from wood harvested in the distant lands of Chult and Laerakond. Tavern talk claims Narondor left his native Athkatla under less than friendly circumstances and is utterly paranoid. He sleeps in a locked room accessible through a hallway that includes tripwires that either trigger deadly traps or shake bells attached to cords hanging over his bed (or both). The crafter is in the market for competent hireswords who can watch over both him and his shop home without being too obvious about it, and promises to pay top wages. Such persons must be adept at identifying Tethyrians.

Eleasias - Highsun
First day of the third tenday
1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed

Thousandslayer's opens warehouse. Doppelgangers rescue noble. Purple Dragons battle vomiting wyvern.

IMMERSEA - Thousandslayer’s Trading Priakos has opened a second warehouse. The brick-walled, slate-roofed building stands in one of the disused feedlots that once housed pigs and other livestock. Buyers looking for cured meats or a bottle of Alzael’s Best cherry brandy need only seek out the small cottage one feedlot over from the new warehouse.

JUNIRIL - Yestereve, a trio of old warriors came stumbling out of the bogs that border Juniril. One of the three was severely wounded, and was half-walked, half-carried by his battle companions to the doors of the High Helm. The stablemaster, Watchknight Gralthandor of Helm, received the wounded man within the High Helm’s stables to care for him. According to Gralthandor, after he had closed the worst of the warrior’s wounds by means of his magic, the other two warriors began “to melt and reform. Their faces shifted into the gray likenesses of doppelgangers, Helm strike me down if I’m wrong.” The doppelgangers did not attack the cleric. Instead they pointed as one to the wounded man and identified him as Lord Garlingar Haelbroke. “This one fought for us. This one saved us. He could not slay the one who imprisoned us, though he fought fiercely. Inform him we have repaid our debt.” Gralthandor claims the two doppelgangers resumed their original form–that of a pair of veteran lady warriors–and disappeared into the night.

STAG’S SKULL BRIDGE - A wyvern was driven back into the skies over the Hullack Forest by Purple Dragons. The hungry beast was chasing a pair of unfortunates who dared venture into the forest five days ago in an ill-advised attempt to observe a wyvern moot. Using alchemical compounds (the recipes for which are surely a war wizard secret) fastened to heavy bolts, the watch Dragons fired their crossbows at the wyvern as it made ready to pounce. The bolts struck the creature but did not pierce its skin. Instead, the bolts exploded into reeking clouds of orange and green smoke that caused the wyvern to sneeze uncontrollably and vomit all over the trees. The creature made for the sky immediately after. A pair of Dragons escorted the terrified explorers across the bridge and accompanied them to Thunderstone.

Eleasias - Highsun
Second day of the third tenday
1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed

Alashendal’s Shop of Mysterious Wonders opens in Marsember. Foxes eat wyvern tail in Monksblade.

MARSEMBER - The necromancer Alashendal has formally renamed her abode Alashendal’s Shop of Mysterious Wonders. The mage continues to teach apprentices and, after lengthy negotiations with representatives of Marsember’s local lord, now pays a premium for the corpses of folk whose families don’t wish to see them floated out on barges and burned (Marsember is too wet and marshy for graveyards, while the land immediately north is mostly rock covered in shallow soil). The front rooms of her shop are staffed by her most trusted apprentices whilst armed and armored skeletons stand along the corner of one wall, and features a dazzling (some will no doubt say terrifying) assortment of enchanted bones. There are skulls for sale whose empty eye sockets glow on command and emit light capable of filling a large room; skeletal hands that will crawl out from under one’s bed and patiently tap on your forehead each morning at a time you specify (seventh bell, eighth bell, one hour before sunrise, etc.); animated four-legged carts with enormous skeletal feet capable of firmly gripping the wet cobblestones and slick surfaces that are Marsember’s streets and bridges, and so on.

MONKSBLADE - Travelers departing Monksblade are singing the praises of the Old Oyster. Recently, the owners of this storied restaurant acquired no less than three full–length wyvern tails (stingers excluded) and have begun selling a house favorite: cooked wyvern tail on a bed of sliced (fried) potatoes bathed in mushroom sauce. Members of the Chase, a band of adventurers active in the borderlands of northeastern Cormyr, Semberholme, and the Dalelands, delivered the wyvern tails and were fortunate to be the first to sit down to a meal of cooked wyvern tail. One of the elves among the Chase saved some of her food to give to the foxes that are a frequent sight in the gardens bordering the Old Oyster, and was overheard to speak with them. The animals appeared to understand her words and departed soon after, for all the world as though they were messengers on an important errand.

Eleasias - Highsun
Seventh day of the third tenday
1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed

Bloodthirsty beasts burden Bospir. Hedgehog shriekers escorted across Stormhorns.

BOSPIR - The representatives of merchants who own homes on estates bordering the northern shores of the Wyvernwater are issuing warnings to locals to avoid going out at night and to attend their surroundings during the day. One such agent, hight Orndamar Windwise, told Bospirans assembled inside the Drover’s Inn that someone has been invading the merchants’ estates and releasing their most dangerous “pet” monsters to run loose. This admission came with the promise of a substantial coin reward to anyone who can provide information on the whereabouts of the culprit responsible. Bospirans have been left to wonder why Orndamar was prevented from speaking with the guests of the Heart Forge Hearth Haven by its owner, Odak Horn. “If he steps foot in me inn, I’ll be chopping that foot off!” was Odak’s only explanation.

MINROE - A cartload of hedgehog shriekers (a species of giant shrieker mushroom) have been purchased by Crown representatives. According to Harn Tentweaver, a local farmer of pixie cap mushrooms, his eldest daughter agreed to accompany the contingent of Crown agents across the Stormhorns to Skull Crag, where medusae are raiding without challenge. "And she’s an expert, she is. They’ll have warning of the medusae as soon as she plants the hedgehogs and gives them a proper stinking water garden to live in.” Claela Tentweaver has been breeding hedgehog shriekers since she was a little girl, according to Harn’s neighbor Brunelra Hathshield. What sum the Crown paid Harn for his excess shriekers remains unknown. Likewise the sum promised to Claela for her services.

(Readers may learn more about Orndamar Windwise here.)

Eleasias - Highsun
Ninth day of the third tenday
1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed

Stirges stab spelunker. Translocation interrupts dinner. Shadow wall disgorges amnesiacs.

ESPAR - Foresters are warning folk to avoid Plungepool, which has become overrun with stirges. “The winged bloodsuckers swarmed me. I had to crawl inside a cave and use an old shield to plug the entrance. I crawled through darkness for the gods only know how long before I found an exit into a ravine. Be warned: Plugepool is alive with stirges. I have never seen so many of them in one place.” This, according to Pipra Talgont, a forester and native of Espar.

IMMERSEA - Guests of Halaband’s Inn were startled out of their dining room seats by a surprise translocation of adventurers. Members of the Dragon Chasers appeared in the air over the floor, over tables, and atop one guest in their seat, and promptly fell to earth. Apologies were issued and minor injuries to guests were mended by the Chaser’s cleric, a novice adept of Chauntea. The Chasers were given rooms at a discounted rate, on the promise they would give an account of their most recent adventuring escapades to guests later in the evening.

TILVERTON SCAR - Adventurers have breached the wall of shadow surrounding the ruins of Tilverton, and returned to their camp (mostly) unharmed. This shadowy barrier has spent the last one hundred and twenty years greedily consuming anyone who dared cross its boundary. Although the adventurers returned with some treasure and rare books, every one of them left something behind; none can remember their names or their lives before entering the shadows.

Eleasias - Highsun
Tenth day of the third tenday
1500 DR - Year of the Sea's Secrets Revealed

Dragon Chasers depart Immersea

IMMERSEA - The Dragon Chasers departed on a boat destined for Hultail this morning, once the mists cleared from Immersea’s docks. Their passage was paid for by Lord Wyvernspur as a favor to the House of Buckfast, “that our two houses may continue to enjoy cordial relations.” Most folk in Immersea know by now that the Dragon Chasers were sponsored by Lady Buckfast, and that their unexpected arrival atop guests within Halaband’s Inn was, according to the ranger Esvele Varvrail, the result of “a trap that didn’t exist the last time we explored Imbral’s Tower.” Lord Wyversnpur gifted the adventurers with coins enough to purchase fresh mounts and supplies in Hultail for their trip east to Thunderstone. Gossip holds the adventurers were given correspondence to deliver to Lady Buckfast on behalf of Lord Wyvernspur.