Spellstorm
Authors: Ed Greenwood
FORGOTTEN REALMS
®
ED GREENWOOD
SAGE OF SHADOWDALE
Elminster: The Making of a Mage
Elminster in Myth Drannor
The Temptation of Elminster
Elminster in Hell
Elminster’s Daughter
Elminster Must Die
Bury Elminster Deep
Elminster Enraged
The Herald
(Book VI of The Sundering)
Spellstorm
THE KNIGHT OF MYTH DRANNOR
Swords of Eveningstar
Swords of Dragonfire
The Sword Never Sleeps
SHANDRIL’S SAGE
Spellfire
Crown of Fire
Hand of Fire
THE SHADOW OF THE AVATAR
Shadows of Doom
Cloak of Shadows
All Shadows Fled
THE HARPERS
Stormlight
THE CORMYR SAGE
Cormyr: A Novel (with Jeff Grubb)
Death of the Dragon
(with Troy Denning)
ALSO BY ED GREENWOOD
Silverfall: Stories of the Seven Sisters
The City of Splendors: A Waterdeep Novel (with Elaine Cunningham)
The Best of the Realms, Book II:
The Stories of Ed Greenwood
SPELLSTORM
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Cartography: Mike Schley
Cover: Aleksi Briclot
ISBN: 978-0-7869-6571-7
ISBN: 978-0-7869-6584-7 (ebook)
620B2369000001 EN
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v3.1
To Jenny
,
For everything and more
.
1. Front Entrance
2. Great Entry Hall
3. Red Receiving Room
4. Servery (accesses 3 through sliding panels; reached via cellar-level passage from
16)
5. Feast Dumbwaiter Antechamber (dumbwaiter elevator from cellar-level Underservery;
also goes to disused upper floor)
6. Library
7. Front Staircase (cellar/ground floor/upper floor)
8. Servants’ Stair (ground floor/cellars)
9. Summer Room (lounge)
10. Armor Court
11. “The Passage” (Hall of Ancestors)
12. Blue Chamber
13. Copper Receiving Room
14. Feast Hall
15. Kitchen
16. Butlery
17. Back Kitchen
18. Kitchen Stairs (servants’ use: cellars [cold cellar and wine cellar adjacent to
bottom of stair]/upper floor)
19. South Servery
20. Pantry
21. Larder
22. Green Audience Chamber
23. South Stairs (cellars/upper floor [upper floor: servants’ quarters and storage
attics, currently ruinous])
24. Withdrawing Room
25. Parlor
26. Fire Stair (spiral)
27. Guest Bedchamber (assigned to Elminster)
28. Nursery (used by servants)
29. Family Bedchamber (used by servants; assigned to Myrmeen)
30. Family Bedchamber (used by servants; assigned to Mirt)
31. Lord Halaunt’s Receiving Room
32. Lord’s Wine Antechamber
33. Lord Halaunt’s Bedchamber
34. Lord’s Wardrobe
35. Lord’s Retiring Room/Robing Room
36. Lord’s Lounge (assigned to Tabra as her bedchamber)
37. Lord’s Study
38. Guest Servants’ Bedchamber (vacant)
39. Guest Bedchamber (assigned to Malchor Harpell as his bedchamber)
40. Guest Bedchamber (assigned to Manshoon as his bedchamber)
41. Guest Bedchamber (assigned to Skouloun as his bedchamber)
42. Guest Bedchamber (assigned to Maraunth Torr as his bedchamber)
43. Guest Bedchamber (assigned to Calathlarra as her bedchamber)
44. Guest Servants’ Bedchamber (vacant)
45. Ladies’ Lounge (assigned to Shaaan the Serpent Queen as her bedchamber)
46. Chamber of the Founder (statue of first Lord Halaunt [used as guests’ lounge])
47. Grand Staircase (cellars [furniture repair workshop, bulk larder stores]/ground
floor/upper floor [ten vacant guest bedchambers])
48. Statue Chamber
49. Linens Closet
50. Bathing Chamber
51. Trophy Chamber
52. Garderobe
53. Documents Room
54. Messengers’ Bedchamber (vacant)
55. Messengers’ Lounge
56. Guest Wardrobe
57. Armory
58. Guest Bedchamber (assigned to Yusendre as her bedchamber)
59. Guest Bedchamber (assigned to Alastra Hathwinter as her bedchamber)
60. Guests’ Storage Room/Wardrobe/overflow Guest Servants’ Bedchamber (vacant)
61. Guest Servants’ Hall
62. Storeroom
63. Prayer Room
64. Writing Room
65. Dancers’ Robing Room
66. Garderobe
67. Garderobe
68. Dancing Hall
69. Plate and Cutlery (“secret stair” at end, cellars/ground floor/upper floor)
Seek no morrow, but make war ready; heed what I darkly warn
For you face blood, sorrow, fell treachery, and dread spellstorm
.
Bardraskur, Bard of Immersea
A Dark Day for Cormyr
Published circa the Year of the Helm
Sipping Choice Wines at the Dragon Rampant
S
PYING ON BEHALF OF THE
C
ROWN COULD GET FAR WORSE THAN THIS
.
Tarnmark Lionmantle let the rich, tart Brodolvan red sluice its delightful way around
his mouth until his tongue flirted with the edge of numbness, then swallowed. It burned
wonderfully, all the way down. Truly, the older Chessentan vintages were coming into
their own.
And wasn’t
that
the sort of arch and airy comment a noble would make. Hmmph.
He still didn’t feel like one, thanks to a dead father and an impoverished mother
who’d been a commoner for far more years than she’d been styled “Lady.” Not to mention
how, in his own ongoing service as a wizard of war, he was constantly being told what
to do by mages whose every uttered word reminded him, often defiantly, that they came
from far more humble families.
Tarn took a suitably dainty forkful of his plum-and-cheese tart, just the thing to
cleanse the palate between roast stag and the usual platter of darkwine-drenched eels—ugh—and
sat back in his chair. Across the table, his supper companion took this as a signal
that Tarn wanted to talk. And since “talk” meant, to Lord Lareth Hardcastle the Younger,
“gossip like a chambermaid,” that’s what Lareth did.
The fair-haired noble with the ridiculous new side-whiskers he was so proud of leaned
forward conspiratorially across the table. Breathing great gusts of onion-and-pineapple
flummery into Tarn’s face, he whispered,
“Old Halaunt’s come alone tonight. They’re saying he hasn’t even coin enough left
to hire a doxy for half an evening. Guess it’ll be a lonely night of looking through
the naughty etchings for him.”
Tarnmark carefully did not turn his head to regard Lord Halaunt, whom he’d been watching
sidelong for most of the evening. Of all the diners in the exclusive and expensive
Dragon Rampant on whom he was spying on this unusually warm night in late Tarsakh
of the Year of Dwarvenkind Reborn, Halaunt bore the nastiest reputation by far. Which
was a large part of the reason the man was dining alone.
Halaunt had few friends, and no one was likely to strike up an acquaintance with a
man so hunched and grim, who glared down at his plate as if he wanted to start a feud
with it.