Hornmoot

Hornmoot was the traditional trading festival between the dwarves and humans of the Vast. It took place on the 14th of Kythorn each year, with lesser hornmoots on the 14th of each month until Eleint.

At the end of winter, when the dwarves emerged from their subterranean homes, they blew horns from the mountains to alert the humans in the lands below that they coming to trade. Those settlements that wished to trade responded with their own horns, and the dwarves would come to them. Hornmoots marked the first trading day of spring between the two races. Quality axes and swords were among the dwarven goods on offer.

Hornmoot was more common in the country communities than in the big cities. It was popular with travelling merchants too, and they came from as far away as Amn to buy dwarf-made weaponry.

History
Hornmoot began in the days of Roldilar, the Realm of Glimmering Swords, the great dwarven kingdom that dominated the surface lands of the Vast in the 7th century DR.

One year in the mid–13th century DR, Master Merchant Marakus Beindold of Hlintar invited the dwarves of the eastern hills to Hornmoot. He welcomed the leaders of these communities as guests, put on a feast for them, and had them brutally murdered in their beds, as he desired their lands and the wealth they would bring him. Afterwards, the dwarves despised Hlintar, did not visit there again, and boycotted all trade with the place.

As dwarven populations and fortunes dwindled, and fewer dwarves turned up each year, Hornmoot became a waning practice by 1370 DR.