- Brawls between the Knights of Thrane and the Order of the Emerald Claw are common in the ward, but the civilian faithful of the Blood of Vol are spared this violence. Tonight, though, a Seeker of the Blood has been stabbed to death and dumped in the river. The residents of Grindstone blame the Knights of Thrane, who indignantly deny responsibility. If the real culprit cannot be found, even the Iron Watch might not be able to contain the trouble.
- A new play is making the rounds. Never performed, the script itself is causing a fuss. Titled Rough Weather, it is a bawdy comedy that makes most of its jokes at the expense of the Storm Lords. The lords are offering a considerable reward to anyone who can find and stop the printing of the script and bring the playwright into custody.
- The Livewood Theater is having problems with its halfling, gnome, and dwarf workers and audience members because a human was recently cast as Lothar in a production of Globach and Lothar. The problem is that Lothar is traditionally a halfling, and the theater plans to make the human actor look like one through magic. Shorter actors have walked out in protest. Zarzalia Shol d’Phiarlan is at her wit’s end and needs help to break the strike, one way or another.
Your senses are assaulted on all sides by the overwhelming presence of this part of the city.
Sight: Bright colors, pennants, entertainers dressed like colorblind magpies, swooping arches, green leaves, and colorful lanterns.
Smell: The tang of spices on the wind, the hint of incense and oils from the temples.
Sound: Temple adepts calling passersby to worship, hawkers drawing attention to their sweetmeats and savories, bards plucking at their instruments, actors calling out the merits of their plays, and, booming over all of it, the performance in the Livewood Theater.
Standing at the fork of the Koronoo River, the Temple ward is the heart of entertainment and worship in the city. Because of the abundant groundwater here, the ward is subject to more subsidence than other parts of the city, its stone buildings cracked and its cobbled streets uneven. Aside from the city walls and the stone banks of the Livewood Theater, few ancient structures remain. New buildings are crafted out of wood, many of them out of livewood. The ward’s architecture is marked by arches and domes, intermingled with trees festooned with paper lanterns. When House Phiarlan arrived in the city, the giants’ amphitheater—now the Livewood Theater—was a major attraction to them, so they established their enclave here. Nearby are various entertainment venues, accommodations for visitors, and many shrines.