Dark Dragon Hunt

A Dark Dragon Hunt was an annual (possibly more often) event organized by Endreth Molipher to give idle, rich Sembian merchants a memorable, heroic, monster-hunting experience for a hefty fee. Dark Dragon Hunts started in the 1360s DR and were still ongoing in the 1370s DR.

Description
The event took place on a large plot of land in northern Sembia that was styled as "the Dark Dragon Lands". It had terrain that varied from hilly to boggy, with plenty of thick, wild undergrowth and a lake. Molipher released various monsters into this preserve and had agents disseminate stories and rumors of the exotic and dangerous beasts in order to drum up business. The Dark Dragon was a ghost dragon—a myth concocted by Molipher to enhance the eerie atmosphere and heighten the sense of danger from a spirit that inhabited and guarded the area.

Molipher's target clientele were those willing to pay large amounts of gold to be escorted on a monster hunt and hopefully bring home a trophy and/or a good story to brag about back home. These individuals were usually not physically fit nor particularly brave, and the spiel they were fed was crafted to play on their self-image as risk-takers and instill enough fear to get them to hire more of the staff to accompany them for safety. Some accomplished hunters did participate, and the monsters were real. Over the years, the game released included about fifty wild boar, a dozen lions, a stinger, a beholder missing some eyes, a wyvern, two behir, several manticores, and a chimera. A water naga was known to inhabit Haunted Lake.

Location
The clients were housed in a run-down castle called Haunted Lake Lodge (not far from Haunted Lake), reportedly built by "Duke Baraudos" in the early days of Sembia. It was far from the luxurious accommodations that wealthy Sembites usually expected, but renovations were avoided in order not to anger the Dark Dragon.

Activities
Monster hunters were typically escorted into the Dark Dragon Lands and given the experience of traversing the untamed terrain on the trail of some beast. Actual dangerous encounters were rare for most of the clientele.

Outcome
Upon return to the castle, the huntsmen escorts were replaced with the arm-candy type and the clients were given plenty of drink and food. During their last night in the Lodge, one of Molipher's wizard partners invaded their dreams and crafted visions of a heroic battle with a foul beast and their triumphant fatal blow. In the morning, the staff praised their client and reinforced the dream-woven story with awe, accolades, and eye-witness accounts, presented them with a trophy of some sort (a claw, a mounted head, or something else that matched the dream vision), and sent on their way home.

History
Before he started trading in monsters, Endreth Molipher was a pirate that worked with slavers. In the, he was commissioned to capture the wizard Onsible Draung and deliver him into slavery in Westgate. Molipher managed to capture Onsible, but nearly died in the battle with the wizard and his many creatures. Molipher tortured Onsible and learned the doomed wizard had a captured deepspawn that produced creatures to feed the more powerful monsters he collected from far and wide. Molipher delivered a crippled Onsible to Westgate and then went to investigate the wizard's compound in Saerloon. When he arrived, it was already being plundered by rival lesser wizards and devolving into a free-for-all spell-battle. Molipher hired some of the less confident combatants to help him cage the deepspawn and then he shipped it to the isle of Storna in the Sea of Fallen Stars.

On Storna, he copied Onsible's idea and used the deepspawn to produce game for tougher monsters to hunt and eat. He partnered with three wizards to bring young monsters to Storna. When they reached sufficient size, he and his partners captured and shipped them to Yhaunn and then overland to populate the Dark Dragon Lands.

Rumors & Legends
In the 1370s, rumors were heard in Yhaunn and Ordulin that, for a price, one could have an enemy kidnapped, morphed into a monster, and released as prey during a Dark Dragon Hunt.