Prelude: A year and a day…

16 Tarsakh 1373

A year has passed since the Marked Four handed over the phylactery to Morgana De’Fey. Despite being unable to leverage his uncle, Johntress remained a prominent figure in House De’May. Freed from any debt that was owed to Morgana, the group had decided it was time to part ways. Rumors circulated for some time about the members of the gang, later nick named the Marked Four, who had killed Jonny Undergallows and three prominent Senators. Keller and Nero stuck together, going underground for several months. Last anyone heard of them they had been captured by the guard after a failed attempt at robbing a prominent merchant in the Lastshoppe district. Despite their legacy of crimes, there was never any word of their deaths, and the Fogdown Herald speculated they lingered in a prison somewhere, because someone wanted them alive. Alec after, spent some time with Stern at the Rusty Nail and is said to have remained there as his assistant. Maxin completed his apprenticeship and was admitted into the College of the Last Requiem. He appears in taverns from time to time. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Since that day a year ago, the rule of the Divine Triad has stabilized and the workings of everyday life have mostly normalized around the immense repression. Ten months ago, House De’May lost several seats in the senate to House Ashenfey, causing a slight imbalance of power. When a part of the highly secretive and reclusive Gnome islands of Lantan were sacked by the Drow wizard-pirate Din’zry Blackstar, Fogdown, specifically House Ashenfey, played a quite but important role in reclaiming the island. When the ships returned, the once obtuse island began healthy trade relations with Fogdown. With the new trade alliance came more of little seen wonders of gnomish ingenuity. In the course of several months, a Mechanist faction formed in the senate of House Ashenfey and House Samreich. To help capitalize on the trade with Lantan, the Mechanist faction has begun to push various “innovations” to the city, This would require greater utilization of House Samreich’s growing industry of clockwork machines, it’s primary source of wealth, beside former mine property in the north, and light-smithing production.

Two months ago a Senate bill was passed ordering the replacement of all oil-street-lanterns with mechanex lanterns (the term used to describe clockwork-arcane hybrid creations). More popularly, the bill also ordered the creation of an immense clocktower in the Crescent Downs. Construction has been underway for over a month.

Questions have already begun to drift through the underworld about what this new Mechanist faction will mean in terms of power. Rumors have begun about the purchasing of land in the Crescent Downs for new industries, beyond what has already been bought for the clocktower. Beyond that, tales from merchant ships say that the god Bane has returned to Faerun, and the domains of his clergy have been restored, raising question as to the fate of the underground churches already established on Fogdown, and the guilds they tie to…