Fabled wandering city of the Grey Elves.
Tse Maigrindof (“Floodgate”)
Rumoured to be the first known (and only known) Grey Elf settlement, Floodgate was “discovered” only last year by a trapper, Gerald Maureu who had unknowingly wandered much further north than he had anticipated.
While climbing up through a valley pass, he glimpsed what appeared to be the top of a spire. After several more hours of climbing he finaly reached the summit of a small mountain and was stunned to find not only that the spire belonged to a beautiful temple-like structure, but that this structure belonged to what appeared to be a small fortified town. Although this claim to have discovered a Grey Elf settlement seems “fanciful”, the trapper’s detailed account led many people to believe him. His logbook included sketches and scribblings about what he had witnessed, and even conversations and interactions he had while in the region. Strangely, the trapper claims that his journey was cut short when he encountered a group of five human mercenaries who rendered him unconscious. When he awoke again he was no longer in or near the fortified town he claimed to have found. In fact, he was not even on the same part of the continent. He was in the Western Kingdom, in a private room at the Black Hawke Inn, a country waypoint to the north east of the town of Glimwood.
When the trapper inquired at the front desk as to who had paid for his room, he was informed by the amused barmaid, “You did, sir”.
This account is more interesting than many of the tales told over the years about Grey Elf cities and encounters because of the notes the trapper made. Unfortunately, the account is also highly suspect, specifically because of the notes. After all, if the trapper had been forcibly removed from the town in order to keep its presence a secret, why would his notes not have been taken and destroyed by his assailants. In response to this line of questioning, Gerald points out that there is no evidence to suggest that his assailants were at all motivated to keep the town a secret. They may have had completely different motives, especially considering the fact that they were human. Why should humans be so concerned with the secrecy of the town? But then, what were human mercenaries doing in Floodgate to begin with? These humans also used relatively kind means to incapacitate their victim and this seems to imply a lack of Grey Elf involvement. Grey Elf encounters are nearly all resolved using either no force whatsoever, or extreme force. A more believable account would have the Grey Elves simply asking the man to drink a forget-it-well, or killing him outright.
Finally, it seems rather contrived, and convenient that Gerald can’t find his way back to the fabled town. Most accounts of such encounters end with this same predictable claim, though in all fairness to Gerald, if this story is true, it stands to reason that this is precisely what they Grey Elves would want.
