The last in a ten part series of articles outlining the lore of Westgate has been posted at the official forums. This time the focus of the article is on the Church of Lathander.

A Call to Arms - The Response of the Church of Lathander

Lathander is the most blessed god of the dawn. And I, Obid Teltas, govern this temple in his name. Together, Lathander and I shall smite the evil festering in the bowels of Westgate! Then the people shall chant my name! Er, and that of Lathander.

- Obid Teltas, Priest of Lathander

Throughout the two decades of the Night Masks' brutal reign of terror over Westgate, there have been few concerted efforts to stop them. And such should not come as a surprise, for anything that even hinted at breaking their stranglehold on the city would be swiftly and efficiently quashed; the Masks are nothing if not brutal. To be sure, there are several organizations within the city that might at first glance be good candidates to come to the defense of the city's beleaguered merchants. The church of Lathander is centered close to the grand arena in the magnificent cathedral known as the Morningstar Haven. The church of Ilmater also has a strong presence in the city, though in keeping with its clergy's mantra of suffering, it has no quarters as grand or plush as the Lathanderites. Sadly, even combined, for the two groups often act together in the same harmony as the two deities they represent, they have not the forces to counter the insidious threat posed by the followers of the Faceless.

Never was this futility more clear than the recent example made of "The Band of the Crimson Ten." The sad tale came to light - like so many before it - when the Harbor Loop dock workers awoke to find ten bodies floating in the harbor tied to the piers. When fished out, each had the tell-tale domino mask stuffed into their mouths. At almost the same time, the City Watch was called to the shop of one Rythad Hollander, the local butcher, to find both his body and that of his wife callously dumped on his shop's floor, domino masks in mouth. The Watch was loath to press the investigation, but the trail was not a hard one; indeed, the Masks wanted everyone to know what had happened. It seems that Hollander, a member of the Lathanderite congregation, had provided information and lodging for the members of the Crimson Ten, a band of Ilmatari monks who had been dispatched to Westgate by the mother church as an opening salvo against the Night Masks. Hollander had thought having ten well-trained monks with him would provide protection against the Masks. Hollander had thought wrong.

But it did not escape notice that the butcher was a loyal member of the church of Lathander and could not have been acting without its aid. The morning after, the Lady Tylanna of the Seventh Rose, the high priestess of the Morningstar Haven, opened the great cathedral to find the body of one of her subordinates, Allandra Fallow, grotesquely mocking the sunrise ritual, yet another domino mask bursting from her mouth. Later that day, a collector arrived, noting that the city had become ever more dangerous and that the Lathanderites would need to pay a greater sum for the Night Masks to continue "protecting" them. Humiliatingly, the church was forced to agree.

The Night Masks' most potent threats have come from other secret guilds as well armed and funded as they are and equally likely to sidestep the law when necessary. As has been noted on many occasions, the Masks came closest to extinction at the hands of a small group of adventurers led by the legendary Alias of the Magic Arm. Less well known is that Alias' band was closely allied with the Harpers, a highly-secretive group with inscrutable motives operating along the entire Sword Coast and well into the Heartlands. The Harpers are known to harbor a deep hatred for the Night Masks, and they certainly have the resources to pose a credible threat, but recent advances by their nemesis, the Zhentarim, have meant that their operations against the Guild of Westgate have had to be curtailed, much to the detriment of the city's more honorable citizens.

Recently, however, the Masks have had to face down a new kind of threat, one much less benign than those that came before. The Ebon Claws have willingly matched the Night Masks' brutality and penchant for grandiose displays designed to provoke terror and in some cases have even exceeded them. For many months, the two groups have openly warred against each other, and hundreds of operatives from both sides have been slaughtered and left in the streets and alleyways to be found by dazed merchants and workers. Even with the significant number of thieves, assassins, and other operatives the Masks have at their disposal, it is obvious that attrition is beginning to set in. Whereas collectors at one time could be counted on to arrive at a merchant's door promptly the first of every month, they are now often days late, and have even missed entire months on occasion. In some parts of the city, the Night Masks have been entirely uprooted and supplanted by their rivals, and the followers of the Faceless obviously do not possess the resources to retake the ground they have lost.

In such an environment, the thought is again arising that there is at last the real possibility of finishing off the Night Masks for good. The Lady Tylanna recently left the city for unknown reasons, but it is rumored that she seeks the commitment of additional resources from some of the larger Lathanderite churches along the Sword Coast. In her place, her second-in-command, Obid Teltas, in brazen defiance of the Night Masks, has put out a call for heroes to take the fight to them. Gold, glory, and items of immense power - not to mention the good will of the Morninglord himself - are all for the taking to any who can further erode the Night Masks' grip over Westgate.

For adventurers just sailing into port, it seems the time is ripe to gain wealth, fame, and answers to nagging questions, for in this increasingly desperate environment, there are many seeking the services of those with a proven aptitude with sword or spell.

Next Week: This will be the last of the weekly spotlights. However, next time, we will cover last week's Mysteries of Westgate press event from Ossian's perspective.

Can't wait to see what they thought of us! *grins*