@TheEdVerse Hi @TheEdVerse! Here my next question is about ROOM #20: THE GRIM STATUE
Here an immense statue releases a deadly lightening bolt into the room every few rounds. But in the past something of immense power removed the head and fingers of the statue. Who did this and why? O great sage of The Realms. Shall the origins and desecration of the Grime Statue remain shrouded in mystery for all time? Or shall you generously raise the lamp of enlightenment and burn away the webs of secrecy for us all?#realmsquestions

— DM Wyvern (@dm_wyvern) February 20, 2020

1)
The Grim Statue was magically transported into Undermountain by Halaster. He did this to see if a new spell of his devising could translocate, intact, such as large stone statue. He was successful, and then enspelled the 2)
…statue to be the anchor discharge point of a ‘Weave loop’ that generates endless magical lightning bolts, as one of the perils of the dungeon that it amused him to inflict on intruders.
The statue he’d ‘borrowed’ came from a…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 22, 2020

3)
…ruin half-buried in the sands of Raurin, and was of a long-dead (or vanished; the individual went on an expedition into other planes, and never returned) Imaskari wizard by the name of Voraum Nelnaer.
Adventurers exploring… 4)
…Undermountain much later happened upon the statue, and sought to stop its lightning bolts by magically destroying the statue’s fingers. When this didn’t work, they tried vaporizing the head with a second spell—which failed to…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 22, 2020

5)
…disrupt the Weave loop AND sent deadly stone shrapnel racing about the chamber, slaying or wounding all of them. The survivors fled. Much later, some of Halaster’s “cleanup crew” of constructs and magically-coerced monsters 6)
…removed both stone rubble and the bodies, leaving the still-serenely-hurling-lightning-bolts, but beheaded and fingerless, statue still stationed in its chamber.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 22, 2020

Follow up question to that, Sage: Is there a “God of mailman/mail” in the Realms/Toril? A god that most people who do delivery or any sort of job that requires carrying stuff across great distances pray to so that they (and their packages) arrive safely/without any harm?

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 10, 2020

1)
No, there’s no such divine portfolio.
Folk pray for safe delivery to the deity whose temple they entrusted their message/letter/package to, PLUS Umberlee (if they know sea travel will be involved in its deliverance), and/or 2)
…Shaundakul (land travel involved). If they fear bribery is likely (to misdirect, intercept, or see/substitute contents) they may also give offerings to Waukeen.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 10, 2020

So, Hermes is something like Travel domain deity? Hermes/Mercury in other pantheons is the god of messengers (not in the Realms). And thieves, interestingly.

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 11, 2020

1)
Hoo boy.
Well, several new wards of the city grew into being (including Field Ward, Downshadow, and Mistshore, which later got destroyed); there was a brief period wherein many impoverished noble houses sold their titles… 2)
…(see CITY OF THE DEAD by Rosemary Jones); the city got a new Blackstaff (Vajra, replacing Khelben); flying, magic-hurling skulls briefly terrorized citizens (see CIRCLE OF SKULLS by James P. Davis); the city got hit by the…#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 2, 2020

3)
…Spellplague like everywhere else, with many deaths and some building collapses; Dagult Neverember became its open Lord and later was pushed out and Laeral Silverhand was installed as Open Lord; then someone started murdering… 4)
…lots of Masked Lords (see my novel DEATH MASKS), and then the events of WATERDEEP: DRAGON HEIST and WATERDEEP: DUNGEON OF THE MASKED MAGE happened.#Realmslore

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) August 2, 2020