Harkenwold, Zealots and the Emerald Dawn Continued

Welcome back to Harkenwold!

The Baron's son has been recovered, but danger still plagues the land. When Elves, travelers and Goblins alike, were showing up dead throughout Harkenwold, blame for the deaths and the kidnapping of the Baron's son fell upon a group of cultists who were residing in the Witchlight Fens. The cultist's swampy den was raided by the Baron's second son and his companions - they slayed all of the cultists but did not find the Baron's kidnapped son and returned to Harkenwold empty handed.

Further North of Harkenwold, an abandoned tower in the Moon Hills region had been occupied by some pesky Daggerburg goblins. The goblins seemed to be raiding caravans further North than usual, for an unknown reason. The tower was attacked by an unlikely trio from Fallcrest, who stumbled upon the Baron of Harkenwold's son. Though Harkenwold suspected the cultists in the swamp had kidnapped the Baron's son, it turned out to be the Goblins who were the true culprits. He was hidden on the top floor of the tower. The Fallcrest adventurers quickly realized that it was the Baron's son and returned him to Harkenwold safely. The Baron's kidnapped son had been placed under a magical sleep spell, of which a cure is still being sought.

To the bewilderment of all in the Barony, fresh bodies were still being found dead and torn apart in strange ways throughout Harken Forest, even though the cult in the swamp had been killed. It was later discovered that the cultists in the swamp were not the only cult in the area. Two different cults, The Disciples of Zehir and the Emerald Dawn were warring between each other over territory. The bodies being found dead were ways for each cult to make a claim for territory (though both sides thought they deserved all territories in the land). The Disciples of Zehir were the cult in the swamp. When the Baron's second son raided and killed the Disciples in their den, the cult had been waiting for their leader, a Yuan-ti named Zarkan, to return for some time. Unknown by the Disciples, Zarkan had already been slain by the Emerald Dawn. Zarkan's body was found cut into small pieces and spread out across a glade near the Woodsinger Elve's settlement.

The slaughtered body of Zarkan that was found in the glade, was apparently a warning to the Woodsinger Clan. A Dragonborn emissary sent by the Emerald Dawn came to one of the Elven settlements in the middle of the night, with a message: All must bow before the Dawn. The message was shouted repeatedly in the darkened woods near midnight at the boarder of the settlement. The Elves searched for the crier and found him fleeing the locale, where he had left behind a Woodsinger Elf with his heart carved out. At dawn the next day, an attack was made by the cultists. The cultists have continued harassing the Woodsinger Clan ever since, which is bad timing with a yearly festival coming up, that is held between the Woodsingers and the Barony of Harkenwold.

Further, informants in Harkenwold have suspected that the sleep spell the goblins placed the Baron's son under, is the result of a potion that was given to the Daggerburg goblins by the Emerald Dawn. This has led to the assumption that the Dawn has a cure.