The loose talk in Raushaw’s Tavern has been getting looser. More visitors have been arriving from Greyhawk and further parts south, brought by the tales from sailors that there’s more than gold to be mined in Fort Talmadge – there’s gold to be found, there’s magic even to be found.

While some argue about how to reach Roghan’s Keep, or even if it still exists, others peer across Zelligar’s Passage, where the cliff’s of Fishermen’s point glimmer above the horizon on clear days or strange lights flicker on clear nights.

Some of the strange lights from the western portion of Fishermen’s point may be from the Old Flan Cairns and Standing Stones that have stood there since before any date any sage has ever known. But the local wise woman Yffia contradicts those rumors – and further says that it’s bad luck or worse to venture there at night.

Other lights certainly come from the abandoned Abbey of Pholtus. And there’s a Priest of Pholtus in town, Arlynd who calls himself the Light of Law, that is offering gold to those who will accompany him to its abandoned buildings and catacombs to recover lost artifacts of his god.

But if the braggery of the bard Haruchanar has any truth, it’s not just old Pholtan monks beneath Fisherman’s Point, but something older and darker. Haruch’s boasting songs claim that 5 Towers of Suel Necromancers were once atop those white cliffs, and that the dead do not rest in its grounds.

Other songs sung by local bards tell of The Charming Thief that fled across Zelligar’s Passage to Fishermen’s point and down into the passages of the Haunted Abbey to flee the Duke’s men. It’s been said that some adventurers have recovered at least one piece of the Duke’s jewels, though they say it was recovered from a servitor of the “King of the Ghouls”.

A few of these so-called adventurers that came with Haruch or listen to his tales further claim that they’ve found several entrances in the ruins of the Haunted Abbey that lead to very dark passages. Some will even guide you there – for a fee.

Tales of necromancy do have a dark ring of truth to them, in that cultists have been arrested by Knight Commander Davenne. More worrying, a resident fisherfolk family also turned about to be worshipers of some dark god. Are any of the new arrivals cultists? Rumor has it that some of the passages beneath the Pholtan Abbey are theirs – though that relies upon the truth of the bard Haruch.

Beyond Fisherman’s Point along the coast the fisherfolk have discovered a cave entrance unknown to any before last spring. Esmerald, a sun-worn fisherwoman who seems to spend more time in Raushaw’s than in her boat, says that she has taken adventurers there several times. Sephira the Red, a sorceress in town, says that there are “magical moths” in those caves that she will pay gold for. Esmerald cautions that there are goblins, zombies, giant snakes and worse. Another new resident of Raushaw’s, one gnome with the Gnarley Forest name “Rutherford Toppleprop” claims to have a map of dwarven mine and rich treasures within. But who would trust someone with a name like that?