Fort Wailing: History and Rumors
In 1398, word reached Fort Vehl of the extermination of a large werewolf pack that had reached Mistone from Caesin. Seeing an opportunity to finally return to the island and relieve it of its rich timber stores, a wealthy merchant by the name of Hurgrin Kiel convinced several others that the time was ripe for the venture.
Presenting a convincing argument, Hurgin produced a false document that purported to have come from a legitimate Aragenite source regarding the elimination of the predominant threat to people's safety on the island by the deaths of the werewolf male Brarg. Using this as part of his argument, a number of merchants agreed to form a consortium to finally begin successful logging on Caesin.
The merchant ships and laborers arrived at the only accessible beach on the northern edge of Caesin and began felling trees close to the shore. The process worked well initially and it took only a month to finish the docks, complete a number of dwellings, and almost finish a palisade around the main site of the workers' camp.
It was then that a number of mysterious events started to occur. Logging parties would suddenly find themselves in darkness and when it disappeared often their tools and implements would be gone too. Tree branches fell on workers unexpectedly and without warning, while other workers simply vanished.
The laborers began to rumble about the forest turning against them; trees were heard to be whispering and a sense of foreboding came over the camp. Then the creatures began to come. Several months in, a logging group was attacked by several large gray-skinned creatures with terrible claws that tore many of the workers to shreds while the rest fled. Then there were the sudden attacks in the forest as dark shapes could be heard thundering through the forest like horses and arrows would strike a laboring group suddenly.
Attempts to restore calm and maintain the mission failed. Back in Fort Vehl, Hurgrin's document was discovered to be a fake and the consortium faltered and finally shattered. The laborers returned to Fort Vehl, leaving only a handful of frontiersmen and women who decided to stay and maintain the fort. They believed they could exist by virtue of travelers to the area, research groups and also from farming the rich loamy soil, growing herbs, fungi and exotic plants which arcanists, chefs and herbalists sought eagerly. They are very careful, however, not to stray far from the settlement for fear of reprisal from the Fey Forest and its denizens.
