@TheEdVerse Any really kool intel or lore on the Moonstone Mask I can use for my game tomorrow evening? I have reservations for a party of four adventurers for the night! There's great info in the FR wiki, but I mean you're Ed Greenwood, so…
— wilyhobbit 🇺🇸🥧🏴🎙⚔️ (@wilyhobbit) August 3, 2021
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Heh. Yes, I’m still Ed Greenwood; it seems to be my fate. So…
If your game is set in the 1490s DR, the Moonstone Mask has been winched closer to earth on its chains to more easily allow workers to (by means of tall, rickety…2)
…scaffoldings) effect repairs and an expansion of its cellars, incorporating access chutes and doors (for bagged refuse out, helped by gravity, and crated food supplies in, by means of ropes, pulleys, and hooks located in… #Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2021
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…the Mask).
After several unfortunate incidents, Liset hired a veteran all-female (but not all-human; the ranks include a half-orc, a gnome, a tabaxi, a loxo, and a thri-kreen) band of far-traveled but aging adventurers, 4)
…Darra’s Debatables, to provide security for the Mask. The leader of the band, Darra One-Eye (she wears an eyepatch to conceal not a missing eye, but a grafted-on monster eye rumored to have some unusual powers, unleashed on…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2021
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…foes through visible beams of magic), now manages the Mask on a daily basis, but her Debatables keep a low profile, spending much of their time behind spyholes in the Masks’s extensive network of secret passages, bursting…6)
…forth only when needed.
So the typical visitor will find the Mask little changed, still dimly-lit but well-furnished, with many hangings, comfortable overstuffed leather furniture, fur rugs underfoot stretched taut to avoid…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2021
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…any tripping hazards, with soft spotlights situated to fall on handy decanters, goblets, and trays of bite-sized delights (“larr-bites” [that we would call sausage rolls] chief among them, but bacon-wrapped mushrooms filled… 8)
…with sharp eesor [El described it to me as “like mushroom-laced strong cheddar; made by dwarves in Mirabar, and deeper places”] cheese and shrimp delight crunches not far behind). Aside from the rooms patrons rent, there are…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2021
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…“quiet areas” for private converse, the playing of games, and for business conferences, and “joyous corners” for noisier social interactions (revelry). The revelry takes place on the lowest public floors of the Mask, the… 10)
…gambling on floors above, and the quiet chambers on floors above that. The rentable bedchambers, by the way, are largely soundproofed (to each other and public passages, not to the labyrinth of servants’ and secret passages…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2021
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…that separate the rental rooms).
The staff visitors will encounter is still all-female, and they still wear the glowing, moonstone-trimmed (and, yes, magical) masks and the sheer black gowns. They are accompanied by the… 12)
…ghosts of several staffers who died in the Mask, who spy on guests and will protect staffers menaced by anyone, but otherwise usually remain silent and invisible (though at least two of them, Mleeset and the half-elf…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2021
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…Truulem, have a habit of whispering disconcerting warnings in the ears of guests who are up to mischief, without showing themselves first).
What I’ve written here makes the Mask sound far more dangerous than it typically is; …14)
…for most, it’s either a place for flirtation or more, or a carefree party-moot—or just a haven to get a safe, quiet sleep or rest in the heart of Neverwinter without being disturbed by anyone, except as you arrange to be…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2021
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…disturbed (with, say, breakfast in bed) before retiring.
By the way, the latest popular dessert offered in the Mask is “warm-suth” (crème brûlée, just as we know it, introduced to Liset by Elminster, shortly after his foray… 16)
…into some local restaurants that followed a visit to my Toronto home).#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 4, 2021