The Old Road skirts the Ashen Plain, a lifeless area. The desolation is attributed to the long-ago rampage of a powerful Black Dragon. Few locals also know this fact.
Cattle herders don't graze their stock too far afield these days. They're frightened by stories of new monsters that maraud by night. From time to time, cattle and people who have gone out alone at night have been found dead the next day, bearing dozens of needle-like wounds. No one has seen the creatures that cause this mayhem, nor do they leave a discernible trail.
Sometimes the goblins offer a different apple at midwinter. This apple is corpse-white and poisonous, even to the touch. No samples of either apple are to be had.
Garon, the barkeep of the Ol' Boar Inn, remembers the last time anyone, aside from Talgen and his friends, asked questions about the Sunless Citadel. About six months ago, a cloaked figure "Think he was a Dragonborn. Little fella." inquired about the Citadel and the Goblins.