Games, all sorts

The last 300 years of Phlan have been a continual retreat from the greatness that once was. Smaller rural towns were abandoned in the face of increasing evil in the north. The city fell back upon that which it did so well so long ago: trading. It began to serve again as the middleman between the new powerful Northern tribes and the established nations of the South. For a short time, about a hundred years ago, the awful tide of retreat seemed to be halted and the city was on its way to becoming a prosperous trading town once more.

Yet dark things continued to lurk on the borders of Phlan. Sorcerer's Island was said to be inhabited by Yarash, an evil mage who was said to be seeking Rimon's power, the Arch-Lich's magic, the Pool of Radiance, or all three. The greatly diminished dwarven nations of Dragonspine reported great hordes of orcs and ogres attacking their citadels, and their barge trade on the Stojanow came to a complete halt. Small towns and hamlets were raided and burned with increasing regularity, sending floods of refugees to Phlan seeking passage to safer lands.

Then, in 1306 DR, disaster struck. Orc and goblinoid raiders, aided by dragons, giants, and other dangerous creatures, poured down out of the northlands. The Quivering Forest was burned in a massive blaze that dominated the sky for an entire month. Monstrous hordes containing every fell creature imaginable marched towards the city with a horrifying precision unprecedented for their kinds. The Council debated, argued, and debated again while the hordes drew nearer, much as the last Valjevo Princes did in their long-ago folly. Finally, they chose to fight, but were hopelessly outmatched by the attacking hordes. The last remnants of the Council stood their ground, trying to evacuate as many citizens as possible. All land routes out of the city were cut off, but Ferran Martinez, the Last Priest of Tyr, lead the Sokal Keep garrison in a heroic action that kept the sea route open just long enough. As Phlan burned, Ferran Martinez and the defenders of Sokal Keep held out to the last. It is said that Martinez placed a terrible curse upon the Keep to prevent it from ever being taken.

In the end, even the waters of the Stojanow River turned poisonous and murky, and the river took its present name, the Barren. The rich farmlands of the Stojanow River Valley were laid waste and became known as the Scoured Lands.

That should have been the end of Phlan's story, but it is not so. Men remember the tales of Valjevo, who brought the first city of Phlan back from its ruins. Adventurers, smugglers, and small traders visited the region and brought back tales of Phlan under the control of its evil masters. Many of the buildings were burned, but many others were spared. The shell of the Temple of Tyr had been rebuilt, dedicated to a much darker god. Zhentarim spies and agents of Vaasan nobles met and planned in Phlan, and the riches of the ages still survived for those who sought to look.

In time, more modest men returned to Phlan to rebuild her. A stockaded community rose from among the rubble of past glories. These men intended to engage in the same profession as those before them, for Phlan still occupied a prime position for trading on the Moonsea. However, until the city was cleared, the Barren River made clean, and the competing city-states pacified, Phlan was likely to stay in impoverished ruins.