Loudwater

Loudwater, called the City of Grottos, was a city that sat on the confluence of the Delimbiyr and Grayflow rivers in the Delimbiyr Vale. It was a picturesque garden city home to a pleasant and thriving cosmopolitan community of humans, half-elves, elves, and many other races. It was also the home of Mielikki's chosen, the Green Regents and their Scions, and thanks to their efforts the city served as the very image of her faith.

Loudwater lay in the Gray Vale at the confluence of the Delimbiyr River and the Grayflow. In this stretch, the Delimbiyr was especially wide, giving the settlement enough room for a modest harbor.

The area was first settled by Netherese human refugees of Netheril, sometime after its fall in the Year of Sundered Webs, −339 DR. Their settlements were the progenitors of Loudwater and other cities of the North.

It was also once home to a community of elves, part of the nation of Eaerlann before its fall in 882 DR. As recorded in their own histories, two elven houses established themselves here as they built a school of philosophy, which they named the Velti'Enorethal. The great dwarf craftsman Iirikos Stoneshoulder and his team of dwarves from Ammarindar built an ornate bridge across the Delimbiyr River at this site for some elven friends in the Year of the Dwarf, 149 DR. Later referred to as Flying Fish Bridge, it was considered to be constructed by the dwarves to honor the elves. The dwarf artisan also built a manor house for a local elf lord, and the settlement of Loudwater developed around it. Thus, the elves built much of the later city.

Later, further settlement of the Loudwater and Llorkh region, as well as Longsaddle, Secomber, Triboar, and others, was undertaken by human pioneers from Waterdeep after the establishment of the Lords of Waterdeep there in 1032 DR. These pioneers were sponsored by noble and mercantile Waterdhavian families.

The last elf to rule Loudwater took her own life in Tragedy's Grotto in the late 10th century DR. Her reasons were lost with her, though it was before any human villas stood in the area. In the Year of the Bloodrose, 1100 DR, desiring to escape the growing human population, the elves of Loudwater and the lands around began leaving their homes for Evereska.

Fifty years later, in the Year of the Scourge, 1150 DR, a family from Calimshan called the Renshas, led by Ibun Rensha at the head of a mercenary army, conquered the Delimbiyr Vale and centered their power in Loudwater. According to local stories, heroes of Loudwater of the time first sighted the approaching Rensha forces from Tragedy's Grotto. This began a period known as the Rensha Rule.

Seeing Mielikki's Green Regents and their Scions as threats to their reign, the Renshas persecuted them mercilessly, forbidding the selection of new Scions and regents and hunting down any they found, causing them to vanish for more than a century. The second lord, Misbah Rensha, ruthlessly crushed the last resistance to the family's rule, with the help of the archdevil Baalzebul.

Misbah Rensha made a treaty with Thay. This included the establishment of the Ivy Enclave in Loudwater and his marriage to a Thayan woman, the Red Wizard Thola, who also served as his court sorceress. He later had her poisoned to end her plotting. Though they made the town more prosperous and expanded its connections with the outside world, they exploited the Vale's natural resources and despoiled much of the pristine beauty of the area. Under them, loggers cleared the forests away from the river and farmers claimed the land for agriculture, while miners strip-mined the mountains, all at a shocking pace, and the wealth flowed down the river and out of the vale. The amoral Renshas also soon descended into decadence and the pursuit of their dark magic, which would lead to their downfall.

Nevertheless, the Renshas ruled for 165 years before a Nimbrali mercenary working for them named Nanathlor Greysword rebelled against the rule of Pasuuk Rensha in the Year of Spilled Blood, 1315 DR. Nanathlor was a noble of Nimbral who'd desired to establish a realm of his own in the North, and found one that needed him. Pasuuk commanded a band of talented mercenary hunters, among them Nanathlor, to bring him the horn of a unicorn, apparently for some infernal rite. But Nanathlor stayed his hand and instead defended the unicorn, in fact an avatar of the goddess Mielikki. She made him the new Green Regent and the twelve hunters who stood with him his Scions, and tasked them with overthrowing the Renshas.

The two-year-long War of the Returned Regent freed the Vale from Rensha rule. Finally, in the Year of the Wandering Wyrm, 1317 DR, Nanathlor Greysword defeated Pasuuk and the Renshas' forces at the Battle of Tanglefork and became the ruler of Loudwater. However, some histories marked his reign as commencing four years earlier, circa 1313 DR. In either case, the start of Nanathlor's reign marked the official founding of the modern Loudwater. Nanathlor maintained relations with other lands but ended the rampant logging and strip-mining, thus restoring the ecology and fertility of the land, and in turn renewing prosperity in the Vale.

In Tarsakh of the Year of Shadows, 1358 DR, on several occasions, residents of farm holdings on the outer edges of Loudwater's domain heard eerie howling and later discovered corpses near their lands. These were identified as various wicked beings, including two drow and some fish-like humanoid, and all carried bite marks. High Lord Greysword was notified and he formally reported the finds. A search of caves in the Delimbiyr Vale showed signs of recent occupation, but no connection to the underground. Later that year, in Eleasias, a mysterious healer of the High Wood called Radoc helped victims of an orc raid and escorted them to Loudwater. His odd appearance, taciturn nature, and purchasing of supplies with crystals made him the subject of much rumor before he departed. Later that year, a troop of Zhentarim and Zhentilar commanded by Vaalgamon invaded the main street of Loudwater to ambush the Heroes of Ascore, a band of adventurers carrying the magical statuettes of Ascore. With their manticores, they blocked the main street and patrolled side streets looking for them. For some reason, Lord Greysword dared not move openly against the Zhents. Meanwhile, a gnoll clan also hid from the Zhents and looted houses. Making use of Loudwater's winding roads and side streets, the adventurers thinned the Zhents' numbers and routed them, and the Loudwater Guard joined them for the final fight. However, Vaalgamon escaped and burned his headquarters as he left, causing much damage in the area and necessitating rebuilding. A few tendays later, in autumn, ghouls, wights, and wraiths emerged from the Mausoleum at nights and plagued the surrounding streets until the returning Heroes of Ascore eliminated them. Members of the Kraken Society, a coven of green hags, harpies, pirates, and priests of Bane were also operating in secret in the city at this time.

In the autumn of Year of the Gauntlet, 1369 DR, Malarite lycanthropes of the Thicket attacked the city after a blood-red moon appeared in the sky. For three bloody nights, they raided the city and homesteads, forced people out of their houses, and engaged in frenzied hunting and slaughter. Nanathlor himself was on his deathbed but Gauntlets Kalahar and Harazos eventually organized a defense and a young man named Stedd Rein was heralded as a hero. The then Green Regent, Galaer Grasswave, was killed while trying to repair the city's magical wards. High Lord Nanathlor passed away from old age not long after.

His successor, Kalahar Twohands, oversaw some of the most turbulent times in Loudwater's history since the war, including a mass migration of orcs from the High Forest, threats from a bandit army and their illithid allies, dragons, and several attacks from the Zhentarim. In the summer of the Year of Wild Magic, 1372 DR, High Forest orcs settled in and around the city and took work there; in response to racial tensions and a double-murder outside the Red Boar Tavern, Kalahar issued the Decree of Reception, granting the orcs rights similar to those of citizens. While the Decree of Reception was abided by, it was met with much confusion and loud opposition, and the murders of orcs continued.

Following the Spellplague in the Year of Blue Fire, 1385 DR and the ensuing decline in trade, Loudwater was much reduced in size and population, yet it survived where neighboring Llorkh and Zelbross did not. By 1479 DR, it had not yet fully recovered and stood as a frontier town that was a shadow of its former self, but still the biggest in the Gray Vale. At the time, Loudwater was ruled by Lady Moonfire. That same year, the town came under attack by goblins from the Barrow of the Ogre King, who were intent on retrieving a sacred dagger which had been stolen from their lair.

After 1485 DR, the wizard Telbor Zazrek was the High Lord of Loudwater. When the stone giants of the Graypeak Mountains, led by Thane Kayalithica rampaged through the Grayvale, destroying hamlets and devastating Llorkh and Orlbar in an effort to crush humanoid civilization, refugees streamed into Loudwater. These folk were forced to stay in warehouses by the river, as the inns were too expensive, if not full. More went on down the Delimbiyr Road. Only Loudwater still stood firm and unafraid as the last outpost of civilization in the land, even as the stone giants spied on its defenses from afar.

The town was ruled by the High Lord of Loudwater. By 1357 DR, High Lord Nanathlor Greysword had reigned for a half-century and was loved by the people as a careful administrator and just ruler. He was still in power by 1370 DR. He was succeeded by Kalahar Twohands, who reigned around 1372 DR. The High Lords resided in High Lord's Hall, the seat of power in the city, and ruled via decrees such as the Decree of Reception. They were aided by their chancellors, such as Rayler Drenn, who wore a silver circlet as sign of their position, and their heralds, like Lisyil Sweetwhisper, who summoned people to audiences.

The half-elf warlock Lady Moonfire, a member of one of the old elven houses, was the leader of the town around 1479 DR. Telbor Zazrek, a mage and retired adventurer, reigned as high lord in the late 1480s DR.