Archive:Greenwood's Grotto/2023-02

Angelar
"Thank you for the swift answer, friend Ed! I've another question, from my recent perusal of the same source: Why was Angelar trying to become a wereshark, and can you tell us more about him?"

- Sheepy#8973

Angelar was a sorceror who came from a small, now-long-vanished coastal fishing village that suffered the loss of many of its small, open fishing boats thanks to sahuagin sinking them from beneath, and murdering the fisherfolk before they could drown. The victims included Angelar’s father Farendor and Angelar’s older brothers Berinduar and Kloast. Angelar vowed to avenge them, and years later, when powerful enough and having worked hard to gain colleagues he could trust (firm, deep friendships, born in part from going adventuring together), he managed to become a wereshark, and did just that. He hunted the sahuagin of that particular undersea village to extinction, ruthlessly and patiently. When the priest of that village sent his sharks against Angelar, he slew all of them, too, and then ate—and spat out—the priest. &mdash;Ed Greenwood

Border crossings
"I wanted to ask you about borders (and crossing them) in the Realms. It probably depends on the country, but is it easy to cross a border? For example, Battlerise in Cormyr seems pretty unarmed for a village near the border of Sembia. Can you help us with that?"

- Marco Volo#8884

This is another of those “it depends” answers. On: peacetime or wartime? WHICH border? (Some countries dislike each other, or have frequent border raid or smuggling problems.) Who’s crossing? Peddler with three mules roped together, or lots of armored and armed warriors on horseback? In general, all countries watch their borders (not just a checkpoint on every road, but concealed spies watching over good crossing areas AND all of those checkpoints, to run back and give advance warning). In some cases, border patrols also collected tolls or taxes. However, the overall answer to you is “pretty easy” (unless it’s a river border and you can’t swim). The modern real world has a more “hard border” view of things than the Realms. &mdash;Ed Greenwood