|
Document updated Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:45:05 EDT
|
Welcome to A Primer on Vastian Geography. This resource was created by me to assist authors in developing the Living City campaign. When I was asked to serve as "plot coordinator" for the outlying villages, I interpreted the invitation to serve as a facilitator for the authors. I didn't wish to direct authors and hand them scenario outlines to complete. I would rather let the authors continue their valiant work, serving them by helping to integrate their works with the rich backdrop of the Vast. I also hope to enable authors to coordinate the fruits of their labor, creating consistency between scenarios and ongoing plots. In short, I hope to coordinate, rather than direct.
Compiling the variety of material already developed on the outlying villages seemed like an ideal first step. While some of this material extends beyond the villages, I decided a more comprehensive and complete view of the Vast would be immensely more useful; however, please note that some areas this document describes fall under the responsibility of others (e.g. Procampur by Jay Fisher, the wilderness by Jean Rabe).
I strongly prefer that authors attempt to utilize existing settlements rather than inventing new ones merely to further a single scenario. One of the problems I see with many LC modules of the past is that lack continuity, and utilizing existing material from the campaign will go a long way to furthering a consistent world. You can build on the information presented here to suit your modules, and then allow me to incorporate whatever you add into this resource. Together - you, me, and other authors - can work to make this world richer and more vibrant.
If you need to set a module in a settlement within the Vast, just contact me and I'll give you suggestions for a good place to develop your module. If you don't think that will work, any settlement you wish to newly invent should meet these criteria:
New towns shouldn't pop up a stone's throw from an existing one. An elven town should be located within a forest rather than adjacent to a human metropolis.
New settlements aren't on previously published maps. PCs and NPCs in the past have had no obvious knowledge of these places. Why this is the case must be understandable. Perhaps the settlement is small. It's also probably located far away from Ravens Bluff, in an obscure area of the Vast. A city five miles east of Mossbridges would be hard to miss, so an author shouldn't invent such a settlement.
If this settlement's sole reason for existance is to further element's of one module's plot, less intrusive means need to be used to accomplish those goals. Settlements must be places that have a history and a future. Other modules should be able to return to the new settlement to further explore its past and develop its future.
Dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people don't just appear out of thin air. Creating a new settlement is a particularly invasive means of writing a module within a shared world like the Living City. It should be done only when absolutely necessary.
I am very interested in working with authors to meet their creative needs, add detail to existing villages, and still maintain a consistent world.
This resource will continue to expand as I find more suitable sources to incorporate. Please forward on references or scenarios with appropriate material. I appreciate receiving copies of modules, excerpts, summaries, or even just scenario names to hunt down. I am eager to review them for inclusion. I may choose, however, to overlook settlements created out of thin air merely for the convenience of one module's plot.
What comes next is largely dependent on the authors upon whom the evolution of the Living City depends. Authors should use this material to develop their ideas and ensure their writing is consistent with what has already been created. I hope to work with you to continue to improve this campaign.
However, before proceeding, please read the below disclaimer and ensure that you are able to adhere to it. Thanks.
Take care,
This resource cites various works copyrighted by TSR, Inc., used with permission. By utilizing this resource, you affirm that you own legitimate, original copies of all TSR-owned works quoted directly (see below). You agree to use this resource solely for the purpose of further developing the TSR-owned Living City campaign. You agree not to further distribute this resource in any form.
ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, DUNGEON MASTER, POLYHEDRON, RPGA, and FORGOTTEN REALMS are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. LIVING CITY, RAVENS BLUFF, and MONSTROUS MANUAL are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. All TSR characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc.
The TSR-owned works quoted directly in this resource are: City of Ravens Bluff; Polyhedron #88, #89, #91, #92, #93, #115, #116; LC2: Inside Ravens Bluff, The Living City; Forgotten Realms® Campaign Setting; Cormanthyr: Empire of Elves; The Fall of Myth Drannor; and, Forgotten Realms® Adventures.
|
This map depicts the geography of the Vast. It is based on a map contained within the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. A higher resolution image (1.3 MB) is available.
|
This map shows approximate travel distances, in miles, along the roads between the various settlements of the Vast.
|
The roads, trails, and passes throughout the Vast are:
The approximate travel times between the various settlements within the Vast are shown on the below diagram. The time is shown in days assuming fair weather and 10 hours per day devoted towards movement. The first number corresponds to mounted travel upon unencumbered medium horses (MR 18), while the second number shows travel on foot (MR 9).
|
Waterborne travel is frequently used within the Vast. The following table shows the approximate distance between the various ports in the Vast along with rough travel times. The travel times assume an average merchant coaster or cog sailing in calm winds for 24 hours a day. Faster ships and better winds can decrease these times.
| Ports | Distance | Travel Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ylraphon | Calaunt | 55 miles | 1 day |
| Calaunt | Tantras | 110 miles | 1 day, 12 hours |
| Tantras | Ravens Bluff | 40 miles | 12 hours |
| Ravens Bluff | Portsoy | 80 miles | 1 day |
| Portsoy | Procampur | 70 miles | 1 day |
| Procampur | Tsurlagol | 165 miles | 2 days, 12 hours |
|
From Ravens Bluff and Environs by Ed Greenwood (LC2: Inside Ravens Bluff, The Living City) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
Vastar: Orcs Rule the Vast In those days, men were not seen on the northern shores of the Inner Sea, save in occasional daring (or desperate) raids or exploring bands. Elves ruled the deep-forested western shore of the Dragon Reach from fabled Myth Drannor, dragons laired about the Moonsea and held sway over its lands and the broad gulf of the Reach itself, and orcs ruled the eastern shore of the Reach - a brawling rule of constant coups, counter-attacks, and strife with all other inhabitants of the mountains. Despite the chaos, the birthrate of the fecund orcs allowed them to recover from even the bloodiest civil strife or dragon raids (for young dragons were wont to dine on roast orc, plucked from hillsides and gatherings by the talonful). Orcs grew so numerous as to gather into raiding hordes every dozen summers or so. These great, undisciplined hosts of warriors would build or seize ships and sail away south to plunder and slay. Few ever returned, the survivors spreading out across the warmer, richer southern Realms, and so the overcrowding of Vastar was regularly relieved. To build their crude, ramshackle ships ("barges with sails," one disdainful elven observer called them) the orcs felled the timber of The Vast repeatedly, until little remained and they had to seize what they needed from the elven shores across the Reach. The orcs soon found that if they sailed across the storm-torn Reach without securing a landing-place first they were doomed to a swift death under elven arrows and magic ere they could land. So army after army crossed the River Lis (then known by its full elven name of "Nuathlis") at the northern end of the Reach in the years between hordes. Time after time these armies found the elves waiting for them. The hail of arrow-fire on orcs slogging slowly through the marshy banklands of the Lis brought great slaughter, earning the Lis the nickname "Blood River," still in use among orcs and half-orcs today. In such raids, in crude farming, fishing, and mountain-hunting to feed themselves, and in mining and the forging of weapons, the orcs of Vastar occupied their time. Proud and reckless, they often mounted raids to seize goods in short supply but never staged strategic attacks to weaken enemies gathering strength nearby nor worked any diplomacy or trade with the lands around. They formed no formal tribes but dwelt in groups following the most charismatic (or brutal and feared) orc heroes - large living groups known as glauraur. Human sages are correct in labeling glauraur as the forerunners of tribes but most erroneously believe they were large family groups, or clans formed of allied families. In truth, the orcs of Vastar were all interrelated, and once children were reared little attention was paid to the human idea of "family." They concerned themselves with power and hedonism, chiefly enjoying the torture and devouring of hunted-down prey and gossiping about the endless struggles among the orc chieftains to gain greater standing and so win "closer to the Overking." The orcs were a mighty people, who - so long as some prudence was practiced when dragons were a - wing or elves about-gave little thought to any foe ever rising to challenge "the teeth of Vastar." The Coming of the Dwarves And so, in the end, the proud orcs fell. Dwarves, mining in the mountains, came west and south underground, following veins of good ore, and met with the orcs in the lightless ways of the deeps. After the initial skirmishes, the dwarven war-councils determined that no orc who had seen a dwarf in the mines must be allowed to live, so that no word would get back to the orc chieftains of any organized foe. Lesser goblinkin (mainly goblins and kobolds) enslaved by the orcs to work the mines were ignored by the dwarves-so they never told their cruel orc masters of dwarven activities they saw or aided their orc overseers when the dwarves came slaying. The deaths of many orcs in the mountains were ascribed to the great struggle for the throne of Overking (created by a monstrous orc known only as Ologh and left vacant upon his death in the jaws of the great Wyrm of the Peaks, the black dragon Iyrauroth). Warring factions among the orcs fought each other up and down Vastar for eight blood-soaked summers and winters, until Grimmerfang defeated (and ceremonially spitted, cooked, and ate) the last of his rivals, renaming Ologh's court of the Hollow Mountain "Mount Grimmerfang." It was to be his tomb. The dwarves had worked in secret with a few men and elves to develop a steel whose bite was poison to orcs, and with its aid broke out of the mountain caverns to, in the words of the sage Fairin Icemantle, "run in waist-high riot across the land." Fairin had grave misgivings about the use of the "orcslayer" metal, fearing it would be only the first step in the making of many alloys harmful to other races, bringing ruin to all. His Treatise Against Blood-Metal survives in libraries in Sembia, Cormyr, and Waterdeep (and perhaps also in the ruins of Myth Drannor), giving us the only first-hand account of the dwarven victories. The secrets of making "orcslayer" blades, and even just which mountain is Mount Grimmerfang, have been lost over the years. The few dwarven elders who can still identify the Hollow Mountain do nor speak of it to humans or elves (Elminster says he's never investigated in person but believes it to be the first peak north and east of Mount Wolf). The victorious dwarves drove the orcs far to the north and south into the mountain heights. Claiming all the Vast as their own, the dwarves founded a surface kingdom in 610 DR. "The Realm of Glimmering Swords," dwarven songs call it, though it also had a less grand, everyday name: Roldilar. Dwarves built themselves stone towers and brought herds of sheep, goats, and shaggy-hair cattle up from the lands south across the Inner Sea to roam the rolling grasslands cleared by the orcs. The dwarves devoted themselves to drinking (concocting fiery, legendary potables to do so), mining, and the making of wondrous armor, finery, adornments, and weaponry. Little of this work would they part with in trade-just enough to buy more livestock or else honey (which many dwarves love, especially in mead) from halflings who dwelt in woodlands here and there along the shores of The Inner Sea. A few bold men came to dwell in the region at this time, notably the powerful mage known afterwards as Maskyr One-Eye (his vale is today the site of the human village of Maskyr's Eye). In those days (645 DR), men were few north of the Sea of Fallen Stars, and they went quietly and well-armed. The beast-men (ogres) held Thar, goblinkin were furtive and few after the orcs' defeat, and the dwarves held the lands east of the Dragon Reach from where Mulmaster now stands to what is now eastern Impiltur. Maskyr was exploring, looking for a place far from the affairs of men to build himself a tower, when he found a certain wooded vale much to his liking. Shrouded in mountain-mists as he came upon it one morn, it lay quiet and beautiful, and he decided that he would make his home there - and there alone. King among the dwarves then was one Tuir, called "Stonebeard" for his grim stoicism and slow humor. Tuir set his throne deep under Mount Grimmerfang, where the dwarves had once slain the orc-king to seize control of the realm. Maskyr sought audience with Tuir in his halls one day and before all the Court asked the Deep King his price for the vale. At his words, silence fell like a cloak throughout the great hall. Maskyr had learned patience in long years of seeking out and experimenting with the Art, so he leaned upon his staff and held his peace, his eyes meeting the stony gaze of the Deep King. Tuir stroked his beard in thought for a time. He could see that this human must command the Art, and in some power, too-and yet he was loathe to give up any land to humans and trusted powerful mages nor at all. Finally, he said gruffly "The vale is yours, from rim to rim and beneath the grass as deep as four men stand upon each other's shoulders, upon one condition only. Pluck out thy right eye and give it to me, here and now, and the vale is thine." And to the astonishment of the Roldilarren Court, Maskyr did, without hesitation. Tuir, with new respect for this human (he'd never thought anyone would pay such a price), commanded that no dwarf disturb the archmage's studies nor intrude upon his borders. Maskyr the One-Eyed lived contentedly alone in his valley for several hundred years until he vanished (presumably slain) while on an interplanar journey. During that time, the power of the dwarves waned, orcs came again to the northern Vast, and humans came in numbers, to hurl back all other creatures and claim the Vast for their own. For all the songs and tales, the rule of the dwarves was short-lived, perhaps forty years in all. Orcs "breed like nothing else on or under Faerûn; they put even hares to shame," as Elminster so delicately put it; all too soon, they rose again, and the dwarven kingdom vanished like an elephant swarmed by a million ants. The dwarven defenses were broken by defeats at the fords of the Vesper and in the battle of Deepfires, a long and bloody fight that raged throughout the underground ways of the mountain for nearly twenty days. This infamous struggle (649 DR) is still remembered in dwarven laments and sayings, such as "I feel as if my axe was broken in the midst of Deepfires," often uttered by dwarves who are sick, depressed, in pain, or simply overwhelmed by a multitude of woes. In the aftermath of this disaster, the weakened dwarves retreated east and overseas southwards. Tuir was the last Deep King to claim the surface lands or even to be known of there If an organized dwarven kingdom still exists in the area, it must be deep and quiet indeed. The Vast in Human Hands Into the power vacuum left by the collapse of the dwarven kingdom came humans, mainly by ship from the crowded southern lands across the Sea of Fallen Stars, and began to settle south of the Fire River. The humans spread rapidly across the Vast, clashing often with orcs and the wild menaces of the mountains (notably leucrotta and trolls) who had grown numerous preying upon wounded and dead dwarves and orcs all across the war-torn land. Men cleared land for farms, collected fieldstone into low walls, and built good roads. Adventuring bands built themselves small keeps and collected "shield taxes" from nearby farmers in return for a promise to protect them against attack. Such defense (usually against orcs, trolls, and brigands) typically came by means of mounted warriors, bolstered by a minor battle-mage and a cleric of Tempus or Helm-and usually came too late. Still, humans, as one elven writer of the time put it, "breed almost as recklessly as the burners" (i.e. orcs), and their swelling numbers, aided by immigration as much as by birthrate, soon absorbed the former inhabitants and pushed the predators of the Vast back into the mountains and wilder foothills. There seemed a higher number of those who cheerfully seek out adventure among humans than among the other races, too. Bards of the Vast sometimes call this "The Time of Glorious Fools," after the many adventurers who took on hopeless odds and undertook foolhardy attacks- and, astonishingly, won almost as often as they perished. When good roads linked Mulmaster on the Moonsea and Procampur and Tsurlagol on the Inner Sea to the rest of the Vast, and several years of bountiful harvests followed, human rule of the area was assured. The ports of Calaunt, Tantras, and the old dwarven city of Sarbreen (later to become Ravens Bluff) quickly found use by trading vessels from Sembia, Impiltur, Aglarond, and the city-state of Westgate seeking farm produce and selling fine cloth, ironwork, locks, and weapons. The harbors became trade-stops, in addition to their established uses as pirate rest-and-repair stops and immigrant-ship landing-places. Human settlers explored the nearer and more accessible mines of the area and prospered further. Many of the larger farmers grew wealthy, bought up surrounding farmers, and began calling themselves "lords." These country gentry were often retired adventurers, while others lost their lands to adventurers looking for a place to retire, who thus replaced them as the local lords. Even today, many of these petty lords are folk of considerable ability and dangerous to cross. Among the most wealthy gentry today in the Fire River uplands near Ravens Bluff are Lord Thalmir of Mossbridges (CN hm W12), Lord Malaph Serpentshield of Dark Hollow (NE hm F14), and Lady Estele Greymantle of Highbank Forest (CG hf 11th-level Priestess of Eldath, dedicated to nurturing and rebuilding woodlands within her holding). Although orcs and various monsters continue to infest the mountains, raiding down into the Vast now and then (especially during harsh winter weather), barring some great disaster human rule of the Vast seems assured for now and years to come. The Vast Today The three largest settlements in the Vast are the cities of Ravens Bluff, Tantras, and Calaunt. Exploring the rivals of Ravens Bluff in detail is beyond the scope of this work, but it is worth noting that most rural folk in the Vast view Tantras as a "god-ridden" place of "suspicious, unfriendly folk," (thanks to the many worshipers of Torm who reside there) and consider Calaunt as an openly evil, sinister place: a den of thieves, dominated by arrogant idiots. Anyone acting in an arrogant, dangerously silly or foolish manner may be called a "Calaunt-head," or told "oh, go back to Calaunt." Many of these same rural folk view Ravens Bluff as a colorful, dangerous place of chaotic intrigue. Some of them even call it "the Mad City." These views are hardly surprising, given the judgment of the prominent sage Elminster of Shadowdale, who recently commented that the cities of the Vast "aren't exactly stable and easy-going places to dwell, now, are they?" When asked for advice folk should heed when traveling in the Vast, Elminster added: "Beware-there are beasts and secrets sleeping in those mountains that had best be awakened only by someone with a ready blade and fast spells, if they would live to boast of it . . . . Another watchword of the Realms springs to mind as fitting, too. Remember: bandits and orcs are always with us. Slay one and three stand up in the same place. Kill one at thy gate, and expect to find another waiting under thy bed. Conduct thyself accordingly, and live longer." The Countryside The countryside in general consists of rolling farmland, the fields being used for all manner of crops suitable to the climate and for grazing. Low stone rubble walls divide the fields; where a farm fronts on roads, these have often been encouraged to grow into wild hedges. Woodlots have been left here and there among the farms, although these are small in both area and tree-height; they have grown from the scrub left behind by orc treecutters centuries ago. Small brooks and streams are plentiful, but these seldom join up into the large, named rivers; instead, they tend to drain into pools and thence by underground ways seep down towards the sea. Some spring up again later and repeat the process. This crazy jigsaw of a water table is due to the broken, tilted layers of rock that underlie the deep soil of the Vast; dwarves say that it looks like a vast cauldron of ice chunks was stirred and then allowed to freeze with the ice sticking up at odd angles. Sinkholes, caves, and rifts are plentiful but very small; local farm children can often hide from visitors in an "empty field" by using small stone nooks and tiny sinkhole pockets that only someone intimately familiar with the ground would find. Many farmers hide their wealth in such holes, while others build privies over them. Where the farms end, the forest proper begins, broken by occasional stone outcrops as the foothills rise up into the mountains. Like the woods and copses dividing the farmlands below, these trees are largely regrowth sprung up from saplings left behind by orc treecutters long ago. The local druids (see page 27) carefully tend this second-growth forest and have encouraged some sylvan creatures to relocate there from older, more distant forests. Hunting Boar, deer, and black-masked bear roam the forests of the Vast and can be found, well roasted, on local inn tables. The Vast is known around the Inner Sea for its succulent roast stag, the meat being of the highest quality and size. Traditionally, this dish is served on large platters, the first bearing the full rack of antlers to the tables, surrounded by sweetmeats and choice curs. Hunters say that game has remained surprisingly plentiful over the years. Most sages specializing in such things believe that the High Country has acted as a sort of protected breeding-ground over the years, and only the rich food offered by farm plantings tempts the choice game down into the farmlands, where the woodlots and wilderland groves offer shelter between feasts. Most hunting is done in the scattered woods, either by a few archers on foot or by four or more stout men armed with spears, daggers, and clubs, hunting with the aid of trained dogs. The first method requires more skill and delivers game in better condition. Hunting in the foothills and on the wooded mountain flanks has always been a more dangerous game, undertaken only by large, well-armed bands, as wolves, orcs, brigands, and monstrous creatures have frequently attacked overbold hunters in the hills. More worrisome still, strange and dangerous creatures have begun to appear neat the fey, mist-cloaked marshes of the Flooded Forest on the northern edge of the Vast. Giant owlbears, stirges, and other, rarer creatures that local hunters have never seen before and for which they have no names have increasingly been encountered by the unlucky. Hunting near Ylraphon is now done in large, well-armed bands, who never camp overnight in the woods if they can help it but return by torchlight with ready swords. Folk in the Vast tend to keep to themselves and see themselves as one with the land they inhabit, loyal only to their local village or community. The countryside is beautiful but dangerous, and from their earliest days humans in the rural Vast go armed. Even the youngest child allowed out of its mother's reach will have a sling and a belt-knife. Most folk in the Vast are contented with their homes and their lot in life but are always eager to hear news of the wider Realms "outside." Such news gives them much entertainment, and they also enjoy ballads-even ballads they've heard a hundred times before. Local bards of distinction are few, but many bards who wander Cormyr, Sembia, the Dales, and the Vast prefer the eastern side of the Reach above all else. "They treat you as a friend, as an honored guest, and as someone deserving good coin and the best food," said one. "Whenever I come into an inn, even if there be five or six harpers already gathered, smiles light up the faces of folk there, and they call out to me as if I were an old friend. Soon, I am. I'll keep walking those roads until I'm too old to walk anywhere." Wandering minstrels often to be met in the Vast include the sharp-tongued and keen-witted Nalabar of Selgaunt, the jovial and well-loved "Happy" Mamblat of Hillsfar, and the beautiful half-elf lady Sshansalue Wonderharp. Several unique local festivals are celebrated throughout the Vast. These tend to be more energetically celebrated in the country and paid less attention in the cities.
Temples & Clergy In common with the agricultural lands nearby (Sembia, Cormyr, and the Dales), the Vast is a place tolerant of many religions. All major human faiths can be found in the Vast, notably those of Eldath, Chauntea, and Torm. The latter came in person to his temple in Tantras during the Time of Troubles, and his avatar's fall devastated an area north of the city walls, leaving it an area of twisted and tortured rock where no magic works and spellcasters of all races feel sick or faint. Shrines honoring the "travelers' gods" - Tymora, Tempus, and the newly-restored Waukeen - may be found throughout the region. For example, King's Reach and High Haspur have shrines dedicated to Tymora, both administered from a small temple in Mulmaster, while Tsurlagol, Calaunt, Tantras, and Ravens Bluff all have temples of Tymora of their own. Waukeen's temples suffered gradual decline during her imprisonment but seem likely to make a quick recovery following her recent return, in addition, shrines and the occasional temple to other gods can be found across the Vast, most of the temples being within the major cities. One relic of the fallen dwarven realm still to be seen here and there along the North Road are boulders etched with the crossed battle-axes of Clangeddin, Father of Battles-and many local warriors pray to both Clangeddin and Tempus before they go to war in the mountains. Inns and Roads According to most travelers, the best inns in the area are not found in the cities or even in the Vast proper but in the wilder stretches of road linking the Vast with neighboring cities. Arguably the finest of these is The Wizard's Hand in Maskyr's Eye in the north; close behind come a pair of southern inns: The Worried Wyvern in Sevenecho and The Elf In Armor in High Haspur. The Hand, some eighty winters old, is named for the vanished wizard Maskyr One-Eye. The Wyvern is comparatively recent, not quite twenty years of age, and dominates the hamlet of Sevenecho (named for the family of the innkeeper), located where the main overland road from Procampur meets the Tsurlagol Road. The Elf in Armor is named after the elven warrior Beluar, who aided the dwarves of Tuir's fading kingdom in their battles against the orcs. Beluar and his small band of elven riders perished in an orc road-ambush in the mountain pass south of Ravens Bluff, known ever since as Elvenblood Pass. Beluar is buried in Sarbreenar, the hamlet just south of that pass. From his resting-place, the High Trail runs south to High Haspur, where it forks to run southwest to Procampur and southeast towards Tsurlagol and a junction with the main North Road. Farther north, Beluar's Hunt and the rival Rolling Heads Inn both commemorate Beluar's most famous victory over the orcs. Routing the humanoids at Viperstongue Ford (where the Cross Road from Kurth to Hlintar crosses the River Vesper), Beluar's forces pursued them north into a rugged line of hills southwest of Kurth, and thence north along the road as far as Maskyr's Eye, where Beluar himself slew the last of the orcs on the road outside the town smithy. The hills west of the road, between Kurth and Maskyr's Eye, are locally known as "Beluar's Hunt" and have given their name to one of Kurth's two inns; the rival Rolling Heads Inn at the other end of town takes its name from the most notable token the routed orcs left behind. Some travelers mark their progress not by the inns but by landmarks on the roads in between. South of Maskyr's Eye, the border of the Vast proper is marked by Mount Wolf, towering high above the North Road. Of old, many gray wolves laired near the peak, until local hunters saw them as far too efficient competition for the highly prized stags and greatly reduced their numbers. There are no known passes through the mountains from the Vast to eastern lands, although rumors persist of hidden ways through the peaks from the easternmost reaches of the High Country to Impiltur. This range of peaks that wall in the Vast on the east is sometimes called the Giantspike Mountains. To the south, the road runs through the market town of Kurth and into Three Trees Pass (named, it is said, by one merchant of Sembia talking to another long ago, when both had explored the dwarven lands in hopes of opening up a trade-route from the dwarven mines to the River Vesper). The mountains on either side of the pass are sometimes called the Troll Mountains, although few trolls are seen there today. They have been almost eradicated by the dwarves who live in mines high above the Pass - once-rich mines that now yield only a little iron and less copper. South of "the High Reach" (a nickname used to distinguish the town of King's Reach from "the Reach" or Dragon Reach, the great arm of the Inner Sea that divides the Vast from the Dales), the road leaves the mountains, crossing rolling hill-country. Its southerly route roughly divides the walled farms of the Vast from the High Country, a large expanse of grassy hills and rocky moorland inhabited mainly by shepherds and their flocks. Several small stop-over camps may be found along the North Road as it crosses this tolling open land, each by a pond or stream. At least two of these sites boast inns, The Nine Swords at Swords Pool and The Blue Stallion at Dead Tree Hollow. The High Country Local legends - even in the days when the orcs ruled - have always held that the High Country was home to an elusive, unseen people. Wanderers' reports of sightings have been few and contradictory, so the exact nature of the inhabitants is nor known: guesses include dryads, sprites, dopplegangers, treants, feral halflings, and some unknown fey race. There are areas - particularly small, hidden dells crowded with old, moss-covered trees, sparkling pools, and the occasional standing stone - that prudent shepherds always avoid. If weather or mischance brings an experienced shepherd into one of these areas, their custom is to leave as soon as possible, move quickly and quietly, light no fires and cut no trees, and leave behind one or two sheep tethered to a stake, with a loudly-spoken but humble apology for trespassing. The less prudent take their chances, but fewer return to bring back tales of the hidden dells. Sheep-trails crisscross much of the High Country, but the Hidden People tolerate few buildings. Most shepherds use simple, temporary turfhuts. A few lonely, widely separated stone towers standing in the easternmost reaches of the High Country are said to belong to powerful, reclusive mages, who are left alone by the Hidden People because they turn back most of the orc bands that wander down from the surrounding mountains. |
From Cormanthyr: Empire of the Elves by Steven E. Schend and Kevin Melka, and The Fall of Myth Drannor by Steven E. Schend:
|
From Last Stand at Dragon Falls by Tom Prusa, Before Its Time (1999) by Rick Brill, A Grand Tour of the Realms by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb, and info from Dan Donnelly:
Two years after the Time of Troubles, barbarian herdsmen and raiders to the east solidified into a huge united force under the leadership of Yamun Khahan. This "Tuigan Horde" stormed out of the Unapproachable East, conquering nearly all that stood in their way. Even the Red Wizards of Thay dealt carefully and deferentially to the Horde. The Horde passed through the High Country and made it as far as Dragon Falls. The combined forces of Tantras, Ravens Bluff, Hlintar, and Calaunt forced them to turn back. The Horde's ultimate defeat was by the allied armies of several western nations, lead by King Azoun IV of Cormyr.
Though over a decade has passed since Yamun Khahan was slain and the Horde disbanded, their mark is still felt. A flood of refugees and immigrants entered the Vast, some departing west via the Sea of Fallen Stars. Others chose to remain, bringing to the Vast new customs, heroes, and legends.
More information about the Tuigan Horde is available in The Horde boxed set.
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part One by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #88, October 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This wood is old and very thickly grown. The giant trunks of trees stand close together, rising like dark lances eighty feet or more. Duskwood and shadowtop are the predominant varieties, with some felsul and oak on the southern edges of the forest. The depths of Adhe Wood is a place of perpetual gloom, home to many spiders and ettercaps. Some ancient and evil magic works in the heart of the wood-perhaps a crazed mage given to experimentation or an artifact that warps the local wildlife-and the result is a wild variety of spiders. The sage Alither of Lyrabar believes the source of the numerous spider mutations is a diseased or magically altered deepspawn ("the Father of Spiders"). Another sage, Othla Multar of Spandeliyon, believes that drow are behind the arachnids, breeding and release them here to guard an entrance to the Underdark. According to this theory, drow emerge from time to time and steal southeast into the Tsurlar Forest, where they trade with pirate ships in hidden coves. No adventurers have investigated the true cause of the wild variety of spiders-at least none have returned to tell others what they found there. Arachnids encountered here may be of any size, and most have strange spell-like powers and body weaponry (such as hooked slasher-claws or sting-tails). They stalk each other and intruders in an endless bloodlust. Local lore in Tsurlagol whispers that the bloodless, web-shrouded husks of many fallen adventurers litter the forest, and that the ruins of an old temple they were trying to reach can be glimpsed from the North Road-a temple shrouded in spiderwebs and adorned with statues of rearing snakes whose eyes are gigantic emeralds. There is much argument among citizens of Tsurlagol as to just which god this temple is dedicated to, but everyone seems sure that it is a storehouse of a fabulous collection of gems. Strangely, the inhabitants of the nearby hamlet of Sevenecho profess to have never heard such stories - but they never go near "spider-haunted Adhe Wood" either. |
|
From Hero's Welcome by Bob Tomihiro (1996):
Arbonne is a very small fishing village, located south of Procampur. The village sustains itself upon the sea, but there are a few farms surrounding the settlement. The village's shipbuilder is Justin of Arbonne, a middle-aged man of slight build and bearing a bald head.
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part One by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #88, October 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This way-village is a place of horse-ranches and hedgerows, located where the trail known as the Long Reach crosses the large, well-traveled road known as the Hlintar Ride. Its pastoral beauty and easy access to trade-routes makes it popular with successful and not yet entirely retired merchants and adventurers looking to build manor houses. Wealth is everywhere in Bambryn, albeit guarded by hired armsmen, and tends to be invested in line horseflesh and luxury crops (such as flowers whose freshness is augmented by cantrips before shipping elsewhere, or truffles and other exotic fungi). Portable treasure that can be seized without a fight is less plentiful, but there are tales of a highwayman's lost loot. Iljack of the Black Blade was a daring brigand who swung a dull black broadsword with magical powers. He terrorized the central Vast in the early days of human habitation, stripping peddlers and dwarven metal-traders alike of their goods. On many occasions Iljack narrowly escaped death, using the magic of his blade to spirit himself out of traps and bloody ambushes - and he would return the favor by hunting down and assassinating anyone who led a strike against him, wherever they ended up (even if he had to travel to Procampur or a more distant city to do so). In the end, this thirst for revenge claimed his life. He hunted down a merchant who was riding to wed a sorceress - and she rose from their bridal bed to hurl Iljack out the window of her tower in Procampur. The highwayman made the flight out over the water in the heart of a swarm of fireballs, and only ashes and a blazing blade struck the water below. Iljack's booty, widely believed to be hidden somewhere in Bambryn (his base of operations), has never been found. A stone marked with a black sword was found buried under a tree felled by a storm-but under it was no treasure, only another stone bearing the words: "Moved it all. See me for your share." Under these words was the black sword symbol. From time to time, adventurers still come to Bambryn looking for the highwayman's treasure. Those who go looking around manor house grounds are usually welcomed in an unfriendly fashion by war-dogs - or worse. |
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part One by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #88, October 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This area of rolling hills is the site of the elven warrior Beluar's great victory over the orcs long ago. Today, it is a grassy wasteland where the occasional brigand band lurks and wild horses roam. Popular Vast folklore says that some of the drumlin hills of the Hunt hide barrow-tombs of great antiquity, as well as shallow and hasty warriors' graves from the early days of human rule in the Vast. Such tales are given support by the disaster that befell a Dragon Cult expedition some twenty winters ago. They dug away a hill around some stones that looked to be broken pieces of pillars, opening up a tomb that was home to a lich whose skull-head had antlers like a great stag. The stag-headed lich slaughtered them with its spells in a very short and terrible time, tearing their bodies apart with phantom claws. It then strode around the nearby countryside, slaying every living creature it met with, before retreating into its lair and using spells to bury itself again. The only surviving witnesses were scared mages in Tavilar and Kurth using scrying spells quite independently of each other, so their tales ring true. The lich still lurks somewhere under the grassy hills, presumably guarding some powerful magic. Veteran adventurers note: rumor has it that the Dragon Cult force found and carried off more than one tomb-treasure before unleashing the lich. Many of them speak longingly of searching the hills again one day. Then someone always speaks of the stag-headed lich-and silence falls. |
|
[Ed: Big Moe has been destroyed.]
From The Trumpeter: The Newsletter of Ravens Bluff (Volume 2, Issue 5, May 1998):
|
Tannari Attacks begin to Mount The attacks by the tannari do not seem to be over yet. Even with the supposed capture of Lord Vondryxx, forces of the lower planes have recently attacked the halfling village of Big Moe and the stronghold of Lady Analiana Blessing. Only one survivor was found leaving about 400 missing or dead. The one survivor, a small halfling lad was first thought dead as well. However, Willoughby Brimwhistle, the young lad was only injured and buried under the rubble of the barn. "...they just attacked everything. We tried to fight them but there were just too many. They kept yelling into our heads where is the artifact. I think someone finally gave them the location and they went down into the crypt. Those of us still alive prepared to prevent their escape but they attacked us again. It wasn't the evil relic of Bane that they were looking for. That is when the barn fell on me and I guess that is when the rest of the village was destroyed. We fought them, but they wanted the Heart of Bane." |
From Big Trouble by Bob and Lisa Tomihiro (1995):
Big Moe is a small village that lies far to the east of Ravens Bluff. [Ed: Big Moe's exact location is not clear at this time.] Its population is comprised almost equally of halflings and humans, who have nearly always lived in harmony. The halflings live within a network of burrows beneath a hill on the north part of town, while the humans live within the one or two dozen buildings scattered near the road that leads from the village.
Some of the residents of Big Moe are:
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part One by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #88, October 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This way stop village is the local market for scores of sheep and cattle farms - a place of stock-paddocks, manure piles for sale, and other exciting attractions. "Stinks like Blanaer" is a popular Vast expression. Lost or perilous treasure is not something most folk associate with this hard-working center of farming. Still, there are some tales of riches hastily buried under manure piles and in the heart of busy stockyards, guarded by the ever-present hooves, horns, and sheer bulk of the cattle. These treasure caches, the tales say, were buried by thieves on the run from treacherous comrades or vengeful victims, or by metal-traders from Kurth on the run from brigands. It is certain that bodies have been found hanging from roadside trees in Blanaer on more than one morning in the last decade and that in earlier, more lawless days brigands fought openly up and down the Cross Road in the vicinity. Coffers, rotting saddlebags, and even water-pails and nosebags full of coins have turned up in Blanaer's pastures and manure-piles from time to time, but only the gods know if there is more booty to be found here. |
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part One by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #88, October 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
The large forest of Brynwood rambles up and down many rocky outcrops and steep-sided ravines, covering a large area north of Maerstar and Sevenecho. This trackless, tumbled terrain is as difficult to travel through as the Stonelands north of Cormyr - and like that infamous region, the Brynwood hides many a monster. It was once home to many korred and satyrs, but these two races disputed territory with each other, and in the strife that followed both fell prey to monsters that grew steadily mote numerous, until the original inhabitants have almost disappeared. Human incursions have cleared much of the land between the mountains and the Tsurlagan coast, but the Brynwood remains a deadly heart of the woods that no human dare try to fell. Legends whisper that a clan of evil shapechanging creatures dwell here - spell-using beings who can appear as female humans to lure male adventurers into the forest depths and then change form into giant spiders, wolves, owlbears, or huge snakes to devour the hapless men. A rival legend holds that the women are human who rake animal form to discourage intruders of all kinds. A minstrel even composed a ballad about one of them, a white-haired, scornful mage he called "Snowhair the Sorceress." Whatever the truth, at least three notable adventuring bands - The Company of the Talking Shield, The Men of the Purple Sash, and The Skullsword Reavers - have vanished while exploring Brynwood in the last decade, and Harper rangers have been heard to mutter unhappily that "something evil lurks in that wood." One tavern-tale popular in Impiltur tells of an ancient, many-spired castle at the heart of the wood where the shapeshifting women dwell, devising powerful spells. According to this story, they use magical gates to travel to Westgate, Telflamm, Airspur, and even Waterdeep with a single step. There, the tale whispers, they gather magic by stealth and poison, slaying or drugging wizards and seizing what they can. One day these "Bryndar," as the tale dubs them, will emerge from their woody retreat to try and rule the Realms by their magic, if they aren't stopped in the meantime by brave (or foolish or lucky) adventurers. The truth of this surprisingly vivid and persistent tale remains unproven; Elminster believes that someone or something is spreading the tale or keeping it alive in order to lure adventurers into Brynwood for purposes unknown. |
|
From A Small Threat (1996) and A Small Problem (1998) by Cisco Lopez-Fresquet:
Lying at the juncture of the High Trail (connecting Ravens Bluff to Sarbreenar) and the trail connecting Ravens Bluff to Portsoy (locally referred to as Ravens Bluff Road), Burrowbluff is home to just over 500 inhabitants. The populace is comprised of mostly halflings and gnomes, sustaining themselves on an agrarian economy. The village exports some of the food it produces to Ravens Bluff. The coast of the Dragon Reach in this area is very rocky and rough; compounded by a pounding surf, this makes landing a boat or even swimming quite dangerous, which suits the village's populace just fine.
Burrowbluff is ruled by a council of elders, whose speaker is an old gnome by the name of Kiernan Goristantagonistiglianzo. The extremely ancient-looking Kiernan has held this position for over 20 years. In a few exceptional instances throughout the decades, the council has bestowed the notable title of Friend of Burrowbluff to heroes who have performed a great service to the village. A Friend of Burrowbluff is never forgotten by the village.
Local features include:
| Prices at the Happy Belly Inn | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Lodging: | Food & Drink: | ||
| blanket and a space in the loft | 1sp | house ale | 1sp |
| share a room with 3 others | 5sp | dwarven ale | 1gp |
| share a room with 1 other | 1gp | house wine | 2sp |
| private room, sleeps 2 | 3gp | elven wine | 1gp |
| private suite, sleeps 3 | 15gp | mulled wine | 2sp |
| common bath (per person) | 1gp | mutton soup | 2sp |
| private bath (per person) | 3gp | light dinner (3 courses) | 15gp |
| Stabling: | full dinner (5 courses) | 3gp | |
| per horse (hay included) | 1sp | ||
| oats | 1sp extra | ||
| warm mash | 2sp extra | ||
 |
Map of Burrowbluff |
|
From the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting: A Grand Tour of the Realms by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb:
|
Calaunt is a medium-sized city on the eastern side of the Dragon Reach, located where the River Vesper flows into the Dragon Reach in a wide delta. It is a squalid, depressing city of tumble-down buildings and rotting slums, with only a few upper-class merchants and adventurers with manors along the outer wall. The chief business of the city is tanning, and the smell of the largest tannery overwhelms all other scents in the hot summer months. Mariners can teach Calaunt on smell alone. Calaunt is ruled by Supreme Scepter Bellas Thanarar (NE hm F12). His regime is supported by the Merchant Dukes, six former adventuring companions known as "Bellas's Band," who became rich by following Bellas's orders, and richer still by helping him run Calaunt. Calaunt is a magical place, but in a fell, fey manner, lacking any of the grace and wonder of other cities with heavy magic in use. Its gate guards are six stone golems, huge hulking brutes intended to cow the population as much as provide protection. The Supreme Scepter and the Merchant Dukes are all assumed to possess a great many personal magical items and are always looking for more, but those items are for personal use, and are rarely wielded in the name of Calaunt. Calaunt has a standing army of 6,000 soldiers, led by 20 captains (5th-level warriors), each with a supporting battlemage (4th-level illusionists). In addition, the free city has a navy of six ships, used mainly to keep pirates at bay. Two large temples dominate Calauntan life. The House of the Scarlet Hooks is a temple of Loviatar headed by Shaleen "Talonkiss" Oomreen (LE hf P14), who is supported by 24 priests. For those of a more beneficent nature, Calaunt is also graced by the Moonsilver House, the temple of Selûne run by High Priestess Wyndra Syrylsrone (CG hf P19) and 22 of her followers. There are also shrines to Auril, Malar, Tabs, Tempus, and Lliira within the city walls. Calaunt has a large and active thieves' guild in the form of the Shadowcloaks, a mysterious gathering of low-level thieves under the command of the Night Hood (abilities and identity unrevealed here). The wide-ranging activities of the Shadowcloaks are indicative of some form of tight relationship between the guild and the Merchant Dukes. Calaunt is a large city (the third largest in the Vast, though behind Procampur in wealth) but a forgotten town, filled with twisting back streets and dark doings. It is a refuge for the lawless and the outcast, the forgotten and the forbidden. Local legends of great beasts occupying the sewers and slavers raiding in the middle of the night may be so much nightfog or they may be deadly and true in shadowed Calaunt. |
From the Forgotten Realms® Adventures by Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood:
|
Independent City Who Rules: Bellas Thanatar, Supreme Scepter of Calaunt (NE hm F12), known to collect and use many magical weapons and protective items. Who Really Rules: The Merchant Dukes, six former adventuring colleagues of Bellas (who were in "Bellas's Band" twenty-odd winters ago). Each duke has a vote on all major policy decisions (Bellas has two votes). The dukes are: Iritar "the Dark" (NE hm W15), a cold and sadistic man known for creative butchery of apprentices who have displeased him; Saleska Mintharl (CN hf P11), "Shield of Tempus"; Alascartha Vyperwood (CN hf F9); Pirithin Alagost (CN half-m T14); Halabankh Ormsarr (NG hm W(I) 14); Haldyn Stormkin (NG hm F10), possessed of a 9-foot stature and Str 18/76. Population: 86,012 (current tax rolls); real population rises to a summertime high of about 88,600. At least 6,200 half-elves are permanent residents of the city, and these carry on lively but generally friendly social and trade rivalries with the approximately 3,000 resident dwarves. Major Products: Preserved meats, wool, leather and vellum (from livestock brought from surrounding farmlands in the Vast). Armed Forces: Six stone golem gate guards (controlled by the dukes), a navy of six ships and their 73-man crews (captained by fighters of 6th or 7th level), and a standing army, "The Teeth of Calaunt." The teeth are ill-trained, brawling warriors, who are well equipped and given to occasional pirating in the Reach, or orc-hunting inland, in the Vast. They are 1st to 3rd level fighters, 6,000 strong, and are led by 20 warcaptains, fighters of 5th level. Each warcaptain has a supporting battle-mage (4th level illusionist, all apprentices of the Duke Halabankh), and reports to the two barons of the city. The barons are two dopplegangers who are under the magical control of Iritar. They serve as scouts and spies for the dukes within the city, and are equipped with magical items for their own defense. They appear as two hardened, plain warriors of middling level, Uthorn and Wenszrin. Calaunt always hires mercenaries when expecting orc attacks or going to war. Such units are known as "lances," and are commanded directly by the barons. They seem to bear the brunt of most actual fighting, leaving the teeth to raid, ambush, and charge in at the last moment in a battle to seize (and claim) the victory. Notable Mages: None known. No openly-practicing mages above 5th level reside in Calaunt other than Iritar. It is suspected that Iritar robs and destroys any wizards of power who overstay their welcome in the city, to maintain the secure rule of the dukes. Minsker Halbar (NG hm W5), who runs Halbar's Book-shop (see below), a quiet and elderly man, is the most accomplished mage among Calaunt's citizenry. Notable Churches:
Notable Rogues' and Thieves' Guilds: The Shadowcloaks, a mysterious and widespread organization of nondescript low-level thieves and spies who are controlled by The Night Hood (the Duke Iritar again, in one of his many disguises, although none, even among the dukes, are aware that Iritar and the Night Hood are the same person). Most citizens of Calaunt suspect that the dukes and the Shadowcloaks either work together or have come to some agreement, or the Shadowcloaks would have been ruthlessly exterminated long ago. Equipment Shops: Full (partial in winter). Adventurers' Quarters:
Many other establishments in the city offer accommodation, but adventurers will find their rules overly restrictive (forfeiture of weapons, heavy deposits against damage, restricted open-door hours) and the welcome cool at best. Important Characters:
Important Features in Town: Calaunt is dominated by the wide delta of the River Vesper, which flows through the center of the city to empty into the Dragonreach. In high summer, the stinking mud of this fertile delta is the playground of the city's children, and the treacherous working-ground of clam diggers and worm-catchers. The rest of the city is a nondescript cluster of gray stone buildings, jammed together without parks or trees to break their gloom. The city's cobbled streets are usually littered with refuse and the stink of the dockside tanneries and the harborwater they pollute hangs over the city. The buildings belonging to the rich and important lie to the north and east, along the city wall. The merchants and the successful live to the south, leaving the center and the west (the docks) as working and slum areas. This is probably the most squalid city of the Dragonreach. Visitors will look for landmarks in vain. Perhaps the most memorable structure is the double-spired temple of Loviatar, from which muffled screams can often be heard. The largest building in Calaunt is the Fortress of the Five Vultures, an old and massive baronial castle that preceded Calaunt's growth into a city, and bears its name as a relic of long-dead robber barons. It now serves as a barracks and jail, as well as holding the rooms of state used by the Supreme Scepter and the dukes. It is a purely local joke to refer to the place as "the Sevensroost." Each of the dukes has a palatial residence near the fortress, which is attached by a flying bridge of weathered stone to the Keep of the Scepter, where Bellas lives. Rivaling the fortress in size is the largest of Calaunt's tanneries, located where the northern run of the city wall reaches the water. It is another local joke that no guard tower is needed there, because "the smell of the tannery alone guards our backs." Local Lore: Formerly the village of Vespermouth, Calaunt is the third-largest city in the Vast, behind Tantras (*FRE2) and Ravens Bluff. To adventurers, Calaunt is both an interesting and forbidding place. Always awash in intrigue and rumors, it is frequently the scene of screams and the clash of steel in the streets after dark, and huddled bodies on the cobbles in the morning. Evil magic slumbers here, Dragonreach lore holds, hidden away but not all that deeply asleep. "Calaunt's a fey place; always has been," is a common opinion. It has been a free city from the first, but rather lawless - a refuge for the lawless. A persistent city legend is that someone in the city keeps a huge meat-eating lizard, bigger than two oxen, hidden away in a cellar or cesspool, and lets it loose on moonless nights to roam the streets, feasting on all it finds. Certainly Calaunt has few beggars for so squalid a city, but some say that slavers quietly operate in the city, dealing with the dukes. Those who vanish in the night, they say, end up in crammed slave ships wallowing across the Inner Sea to Westgate or the Vilhon Reach, not in the stomach of some fanciful monster. This is almost certainly true - and yet it doesn't entirely explain the huge teethmarks on odd, equine forelegs found lying in gutters on some gray mornings, or the strange, sharklike (bulette-like) fins sometimes seen moving through the muck of the Vespermouth delta. Yet another legend tells of rich dwarven treasures, from when all the Vast was a great dwarven kingdom. These lie hidden, the tale goes, somewhere in the city, their whereabouts forgotten.
|
From The City of Ravens Bluff by Ed Greenwood:
|
This medium-sized city perches at the mouth of the River Vesper, just as Ravens Bluff sirs at the mouth of the Fire River. One of Ravens Bluff's four sister-cities in the Vast (the others are Procampur, Tantras, and Tsurlagol), it is a squalid, depressing place, full of tumbledown buildings and rotting slums. Only a few upperclass merchants and successful adventurers can afford to live in the manor houses along the city wall. The city's chief business is tanning; mariners say you can find Calaunt in the densest fog by the stink alone. Calaunt is ruled by Supreme Scepter Bellas Thanatar (NE hm Fl 2), a former adventurer whose regime is supported by his six former adventuring companions, "Bellas's Band." These Merchant Dukes, as they are called, became rich by following Bellas's orders and richer still by helping him run Calaunt. The "free city" also has a standing army of six thousand soldiers led by twenty captains (5th-level warriors), each paired by his or her own battlemage (twenty 4th-level illusionists). A navy of six ships helps keep the pirates at bay-although rumor has it that the pirates find more welcome here than in most other ports on the Dragon Reach. The average citizen or adventurer from Ravens Bluff will find no welcome here, as Calauntans both hate and fear their rival to the south. There is much magic here, but of a heavy-handed nature, intended to support the rule of the Supreme Scepter and his Merchant Dukes. For example, six great stone golems stand beside the city gates, their purpose as much to cow the populace as to protect the city. Any magic brought here by outsiders tends to be confiscated by the rulers "for the benefit of the city" and then used for their personal aggrandizement. Daily life here is dominated by two large temples. The House of Scarlet Hooks is a grand temple devoted to Loviatar; its high priestess, Shaleen "Talonkiss" Oomreen (LE hf P14) is aided in her duties by twenty-four priests and priestess eager to spread "holy pain." Less daunting to the visitor is Moonsilver House, the temple of Selûne, led by high priestess Wyndra Syrylstone (CG hf P19) and twenty-two priestesses. Smaller shrines to Auril the Frostmaiden, Malar the Beastlord, Talos the Storm Lord, and Lliira the Joybringer all have their adherents as well. And behind the scenes, a large and active Thieves Guild, the Shadowcloaks (widely believed to work directly for the Merchant Dukes), prowl the twisting backstreets of this dark town. Tantran merchants who trade here have taken to hiring adventurers and mercenary hireswords to guard their warehouses, caravans, and goods being loaded and unloaded in Calaunt. Some of these hired heroes recently spent a frantic evening hacking gargoyles or similar winged, fanged things out of the air - creatures that seemed to teleport from place to place at will. Those who had fought gargoyles before said that these beasts were much more dangerous: huge, quick, and cunning. So far the plague of "Calaunt gargoyles" seems not to have spread beyond the city - but the surviving adventurers noted with concern that the gargoyles ignored Calauntan targets, suggesting that they are either under the control to this sinister city's leaders or that the Merchant Dukes have reached some mutually beneficial accord with the monsters. |
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part One by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #88, October 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This small village gets its name from the tree-cloaked valley where Feldar's Trail (from Fallentree to Mossbridges) crosses the Hlintar Ride. Dark Hollow has always had a fey, dangerous reputation across the Vast. Folk see it as a place where faerie dragons frolic, brownies and other woodland beings play pranks on intruders, and many crazy would-be wizards dwell in little ramshackle cabins in the woods and try to devise spells that will allow them to rule the Realms - spells whose experimentations often prove disastrous for anyone nearby. In such a place, monetary treasure is paltry: wizards never have enough coin for the very expensive business of working magic and are often reduced to selling potions in order to put bread (and a little cheese) on the table. Some merchants from Ravens Bluff and Hlintar do a brisk business in selling these hedge-wizards spell components and fragments of artifacts or broken magic items, buying up potions in return for their trouble. Adventurers often find this a lucrative trade but a dangerous one: thieves are always alert for such valuable loot-so much so that guarding a traveling "magic merchant" is a steady job for some adventurers in the Vast. More than one thieving band has found Dark Hollow's reputation to be a convenient cover for stashing loot, choosing a wizard's woodpile or compost heap to bury a pot or well-oiled sack of coins. There's just one problem: recovering it. That kitten playing on the woodpile may very well be a familiar who guards its master's property diligently (including the stash, once it's been put in the woodpile). A familiar might also report the "donation" to its master moments after the thief has left, so the wizard will have long since spent the coins before the thief returns for them. |
From Quatlebar by Gary Labrecque (1999) [ Much of the below information is liberally paraphrased and quoted.]:
Dark Hollow has an inn known as the Sunflower Inn and a single temple dedicated to Chauntea, Mielikki, and Silvanus. Narrow, overgrown trails lead from the village into the forest, but most residents rarely enter the woods. Only a few scattered farms are nearby.
The Sunflower Inn
Dark Hollow boasts a single, two-story inn which sits at the crossing of the Mosstree Trail and Lion's Walk. Stables are available behind the establishment. A watering hole for locals and a stop-over for the infrequent traveler, the Sunflower Inn is owned and run by a pair of rotund halflings, Sidney and Muriel Goodfellow. The food is good and portions are large. Ale and mead are home-brewed, yet there is no wine on the menu.
The inn's main room is rectangular with eight round tables scattered throughout. Alicia, the adopted daughter of Sidney and Muriel, serves as a waitress. A long wooden bar with a dozen stools stands against the back wall and is tended by Sidney. To the left of the entrance, an open wooden stairwell leads to the rooms upstairs. Eight rooms are available for rent, each containing two twin beds and having a lock on the door. A local boy, Bill, works within the tables behind the inn.
Sidney Goodfellow, Proprietor of the Sunflower Inn, halfm F6: Int Average; AL NG; AC 6 (Dexterity); MV 6; HD 6; hp 36; THACO 15; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6 (short sword); SA none; SD none; MR nil; SZ S (3' tall); ML 12.
Sidney is a former adventurer who retired and married his childhood sweetheart. In time, they moved to Dark Hollow and opened the Sunflower Inn. He still feels camaraderie with adventurers although he realizes that not all of them are scrupulous. He is a good host, but an overly protective father.
Muriel Goodfellow, Hostess at the Sunflower Inn, Sidney's wife, halff F1: Int Average; AL NG; AC 6 (Dexterity); MV 6; HD 1; hp 4; THACO 20; #AT 1; Dmg 1d3 (butcher knife); SA none; SD none; MR nil; SZ S (2 1/2' tall); ML 10.
Muriel is a good hostess but she does not approve of adventurers or her husband's talk of his adventuring days. She is glad that he got some sense into him and gave up that life before he was killed. Muriel disapproves of Alicia's admiration of those types and keeps a careful eye on her at all times.
Alicia Goodfellow, Waitress at the Sunflower Inn, Sidney and Muriel’s adopted daughter, hef F0: Int Average; AL NG; AC 6 (Dexterity); MV 6; hp 3; THACO 20; #AT 1; Dmg unarmed attacks only; SA none; SD none; MR nil; SZ S (5' tall); ML 8.
Muriel and Sidney found Alicia as a baby on their doorstep. Unable to find her parents, they adopted her and raised her as their own daughter. Since the age of fourteen, she has worked as a waitress at the inn; she is now eighteen.
Alicia has grown up hearing her father's stories of his adventures. Although she has never met an adventurer, she is in awe of them. While she can be playfully flirtatious with very charismatic adventurers, her father keeps an ever-watchful eye on her.
Bill, the Stable Boy, hm F0: Int Average; AL NG; AC 10; MV 12; hp 2; THACO 20; #AT 1; Dmg unarmed attacks only; SA none; SD none; MR nil; SZ M (5' tall); ML 9.
Bill is rather shy, and only answers questions asked of him. He is a hard worker and never causes any troubles. He likes horses and feels more comfortable around them than he does people.
| Sunflower Inn Menu | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Roasts | Vegetables | ||
| Roast Rabbit | 5sp | Carrots | 6cp |
| Roast Boar | 8sp | Potatoes | 3cp |
| Roast Turkey | 5sp | Squash | 4cp |
| Roast Venison | 6sp | ||
| Soups | Stews | ||
| Rabbit Soup | 3cp | Rabbit Stew | 4sp |
| Boar Soup | 5cp | Boar Stew | 6sp |
| Turkey Soup | 4cp | Turkey Stew | 5sp |
| Venison Soup | 4cp | Venison Stew | 5sp |
| Mushroom Soup | 4cp | Potato Stew | 4sp |
| Potato Soup | 3cp | Vegetable Stew | 3sp |
| Vegetable Soup | 2cp | ||
| Misc. | Drinks | ||
| Bread | 5cp/loaf | Ale | 3cp/tankard; 2sp/pitcher |
| Room (meals not included) | 5sp/night; 3gp/week | Mead | 3cp/tankard; 2sp/pitcher |
| Stabling and grain of horses | 5sp/day | Tea | 5cp/pot |
The Village Shrine
The only temple within the village, this shrine is found just down the street from the Sunflower Inn. Ample gardens thrive behind this hexagonal, one-story structure. The interior of the wooden building is sparse. Within the main chamber, the side walls are painted with murals depicting scenes amongst nature. A few rows of simple wooden benches face the rear. The chamber has open arches leading to the exterior gardens from the rear. Before the three arches, a statue of the venerated deities is found:
The shrine is maintained by Clarence Evergreen, a druid of Chauntea. When encountering a priest of the one of the three venerated deities visiting Dark Hollow, he welcomes the priest to sleep within the gardens behind the temple.
Clarence Evergreen, hem D6 of Chauntea: Int Average; AL N; AC 6 (Dexterity); MV 12; HD 6; hp 32; THACO 19; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6/1d6 (staff); SA none; SD none; MR nil; SZ M (5' tall); ML 11.
Clarence is fairly new to his position as the sole priest at the shrine being there for about a year. He is eager to talk to anyone who comes in and readily welcomes other priests of related religions (Lathander, Eldath, Lurue, Shialla, etc.) in addition to the deities represented at the shrine.
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part One by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #88, October 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This onetime camping-place on the North Road is a small valley with its own ponds, marked for years by a huge, gnarled old oak whose trunk was as large around as many cottages. Only the rotting stump now remains: the druid who made his home in the hollow tree years ago was burned out of it by a hungry dragon (perhaps the dragon that laired in nearby Dragon Falls). Dead Tree Hollow is today a sleepy little wooded village, known for its fiddlehead (in season) and fem-frond soup, exotic mushrooms (much prized by gourmets around the Dragon Reach), and its excellent wagonworks. The Hollow also has its own treasure tale, more unlikely than most. An elven carriage is said to be buried somewhere in the Hollow (perhaps sunk in one of the ponds): a magical, flying conveyance from long ago, still packed with the gem-adorned silk gowns and jewelry of the haughty elven lady who died on it. Her bones-and those of her guards - may well lie with the fallen craft, too. They were slain by a furious elven mage (a scorned suitor) whose spells smashed them from the sky and then buried them alive. This happened a very long time ago, but elves in the lands around remember the incident because of the extreme wealth of the lady in question (she had outlived six husbands and taken all their wealth for her own). Adventurers still search, from time to time, for the final resting-place of Lady Alauthshaee - but be warned; the entire Hollow is a dead-magic zone, where no spells work. This effect is said to be the price of the reckless spells hurled by the angry elf-mage Ilthuryn long ago. |
|
From The City of Ravens Bluff by Ed Greenwood:
|
The largest settlement along the North Road between King's Reach and Tsurlagol is the village of Dragon Falls, named for a spring that cascades down a bluff beside the road and runs down to the Fire River. Of old, it was the lair of a fearsome red dragon named Halarglautha Firewings. Some say that the Fire River's name comes from the devastation this great wyrm wrought on orc, dwarven, and human encampments and settlements up and down the river, until a human adventuring band finally slew it. Rather than tart off its hoard of treasure, the survivors founded a stronghold on the sire; their headquarters eventually became the fortified Inn of the Dragon and the center of a growing village populated largely by their descendants. Dragon Falls stands where the North Road and the Hlintar Ride meet, just north of the Fire River. The village stands on a crag overlooking the only large cataract on the Fire River. The original dragon's lair and much of its treasure were destroyed by the adventurers who slew the wyrm with their spells, but a vast pile of coins remained to be divvied up by the dragon-slayers. Each share was then divided again and again among their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Some say the last coins were spent long ago, but persistent rumor would have it that a lot of the old hoard still lies buried in small caches under the cottages and gardens of the village (adventurers who show up with shovels won't be welcomed). There's also an old local belief that the dragon made its lair here (rather than on a taller, more easily defended peak in the nearby Troll Mountains) because it knew of dwarven storage-caverns full of gold under the crag and hoped to eventually trick, bribe, or bully smaller creatures to dig down to the riches and bring them up to it. |
From the Forgotten Realms® Campaign Set: A Grand Tour of the Realms by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb:
|
The largest settlement between King's Reach and Tsurlagol, this is a small village situated above the thundering falls of the Fire River. A ferry operates a thousand yards above the village for merchant caravans. It is pulled across the river by ropes. The village itself is dominated by a fortified inn, the Inn of the Dragon, made of fir wood and stone. The falls were originally said to be the home of powerful red dragon that terrorized the Vast south of the River Vesper. A band of human adventurers dispatched the dragon and built the inn. While the inn has passed into other hands since then, one of the original adventurers, a priest of Silvanus named Keldar of the Forest (N hm P13) makes his home there. Keldar is important mainly because he is the only permanent priest in town, and tends (well, ignores) a shrine at the head of the falls. |
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part Two by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #89, November 1993):
|
This village is built on a crag overlooking the only large waterfall on the Fire River. The site was once the lair of a powerful red dragon, Halarginutha "Firewings." The adventurers who slew Halarglautha destroyed the lair with their spells and dug up most of the dragon's large hoard of mixed riches. But there are persistent rumors that they missed much and that wealth still lies buried under the cottages and gardens of the village. (Adventurers who show up with shovels won't be welcomed.) There is also an old local belief that the dragon made its lair here rather than on a taller, more easily defended peak in the nearby Troll Mountains. It knew that dwarven storage-caverns full of gold were under the crag, and it hoped to trick, bribe, or otherwise persuade smaller creatures to dig down to the riches and bring them up. |
From Ravens Bluff and Environs by Ed Greenwood (LC2: Inside Ravens Bluff, The Living City):
|
The largest settlement along The North Road between King's Reach and Tsurlagol is the village of Dragon Falls, named for a spring-fed stream that cascades down a bluff beside the road, then runs down to the Fire River. Of old, it was the lair of a fearsome red dragon. Some say that the Fire River's name comes from the devastation this great wyrm wrought on orc, dwarf, and human settlements up and down the river through the years. A human adventuring band finally slew it. The band built a stronghold that became the fortified Inn of the Dragon, and the center of a growing village. The Hlintar Ride joins the North Road at Dragon Falls. |
From The Trumpeter: The Newsletter of Ravens Bluff (Special Edition, April 1997):
Dragon Falls was the site of a triumph for Ravens Bluff against the Horde during the war, in a battle known as "Revenge at Dragon Falls." The City's Red Lancers, supported by a number of other units, overwhelmed a superior enemy force. Only the great use of magic by the enemy prevented a complete route.
From Last Stand at Dragon Falls by Tom Prusa, Before Its Time (1999) by Rick Brill, A Grand Tour of the Realms by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb, and info from Dan Donnelly:
Two years after the Time of Troubles, barbarian herdsmen and raiders to the east solidified into a huge united force under the leadership of Yamun Khahan. This "Tuigan Horde" stormed out of the Unapproachable East, conquering nearly all that stood in their way. Even the Red Wizards of Thay dealt carefully and deferentially to the Horde. The Horde passed through the High Country and made it as far as Dragon Falls. The combined forces of Tantras, Ravens Bluff, Hlintar, and Calaunt forced them to turn back. The Horde's ultimate defeat was by the allied armies of several western nations, lead by King Azoun IV of Cormyr.
Though over a decade has passed since Yamun Khahan was slain and the Horde disbanded, their mark is still felt. A flood of refugees and immigrants entered the Vast, some departing west via the Sea of Fallen Stars. Others chose to remain, bringing to the Vast new customs, heroes, and legends.
More information about the Tuigan Horde is available in The Horde boxed set.
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part Two by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #89, November 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This rugged mountain pass carries the High Trail through the mountains between Ravens Bluff and Sarbreenar. Its reputation has always been one of danger due to frequent rockfalls, hunting stirges, wyverns, and other mountain-dwelling predators, and brigands. More than a dozen narrow ravines, all thickly cloaked in trees, cross the trail. These are home to the bandits, many of the flightless monsters, and, rumor insists, much treasure fallen from the devoured bodies of victims or seized from those robbed on the road. Among the coins and trinkets buried or stuffed into rock crevices in the Pass, legend whispers, are at least two great treasures. One is the coffin of the long-dead human wizard Naer Tlarra, said to contain his spellbooks, wands, staff, and a twelve-pointed magical crown that allows the wearer to use the powers of all magical rings placed on its spires as if they were worn directly (overcoming the usual limit of two operative rings at one time). The tales say that a ring rests on each point - and at least two of them possess rare and unusual powers. No tale hints that Naer (who lived almost a thousand years ago, in what is now Chessenta) is undead. His ten-foot-long stone coffin is said to be guarded from thieves by several layers of spells and bound guardian creatures and is probably buried (or at least hidden in overgrown by now) as well. It would be far too heavy for wagons or carts capable of negotiating the Pass to carry. The other great treasure said to be hidden in or near the Pass is the royal treasury of Westgate, stolen from King Glaurauth 'the Great" in the days when that city-state was the northernmost human settlement in the western Inner Sea lands. The thieves were traced by Glaurauth's wizards and hotly pursued. They fled by ship to anchorage at what is now Procampur, and took their spoils hastily north into the mountains, as the spells of the Court Wizards of Westgate slew them one by one. Elite troops from Westgate followed the thieves and caught up with them somewhere in the Pass. The canny thieves set off avalanches and mounted ambushes, but their pursuers outnumbered them thirty to one, and the spells of the wizards made the outcome inevitable. The daring thieves perished or were captured - but the spellhurlings and clash of arms had not gone unnoticed. A thousand orcs streamed out of high caves and the ravines and fell upon the forces from Westgate. The Pass ran red with blood, and to this day travelers can see a grisly relic of one wizard's last stand: he sacrificed his life to power an everdance spell that whirled a dozen orcs forty feet up into the air and spun them in a circle. The orcs died and their bodies crumbled to bone fragments and powder long ago, but this debris still circles endlessly above a ledge overlooking the midpoint of the Pass. The forces of Westgate were doomed, but they held out long enough to hide the riches they were about to die for. The few surviving thieves joined forces with their pursuers to help conceal the treasure with all their skill. Unless someone has found the lost regalia since, it still lies somewhere in the Pass. According to the royal auditor's report, there were six large strongchests and almost twenty smaller coffers and hand-chests, containing many necklaces of gems, a collection of fanciful filigreed and jeweled masks, at least four gem-laden crowns, a ceremonial chalice, and a scepter said to have magical powers as well as displaying three rubies all as large as a man's fist. Oddly enough, a wizard found dead at a party thrown by a visiting Cormyrean noble in Ravens Bluff six winters ago was wearing a gem-adorned mask that sages agree is probably from the court of Westgate. But they all stress that it might not have been part of the stolen royal regalia, as many nobles of Westgate had their own impressive masks made - and with the changing themes and fashions of the festivals, craftsmen were forever tearing apart masks to make up new ones from the same materials. Still, it is possible that someone has discovered the lost treasury and may be removing its more valuable contents a piece at a time to avoid notice. |
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part Two by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #89, November 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This wayside village got its name just how you think it did. Located at the meeting of two trails (Blaern's Trail, linking Calaunt with the North Road at Dead Tree Hollow via Thindilar and Sendrin) and Feldar's Trail (which runs from Fallentree to Mossbridges, via Dark Hollow and Highbank Forest), Fallentree is a place of dark pines and horse farms. Of old, it was a haunt of brigands, who could hide in any of a dozen pine woods among the rolling hills and swoop down on travelers at full gallop - or fell a tall pine across a road, forcing a hurrying caravan to a halt in the grip of a brigand ambush. Many merchants took to avoiding the area altogether, forcing the brigands to ride farther and farther afield. Other traders banded together into large caravans, hiring small armies as guards. Fallentree was the field for several pitched battles, and many brigand cabals died without leaving anyone alive to know where their loot was hidden. Over the years since the more powerful brigands were all slain (small bands are always forming and dissolving in death or treachery to this day), many small treasure caches - usually a chest or a few rotting sacks crammed with a varied assortment of coins - have been found around Fallentree, usually buried at the base of old pine trees. One larger cache was an entire wagon of silver trade-bars, buried whole with its dead guards (transformed to undead skeletons over the years by their proximity to guardian spells on the treasure). Rumor has it that once a mid-level wizard and his two apprentices fell in battle with brigands and that their spellbooks, magic rings, and other items lie buried somewhere in or near Fallentree. Local legend also holds that an ancient temple to Garagos the War-God is located in a cavern under one of the cottages in the village-a temple adorned with magical weapons gathered by cultists from all over the Realms. Rumor also has it that the temple still sees worship of the fallen battle-god and that spells in the sanctuary can be called on at need by the devout to animate the collected weapons in a whirling defense of the holy place. |
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part Two by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #89, November 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This large, generally placid watercourse descends from the grassy plains of the High Country (where it may well feature in legends and treasure finds not covered here) cutting across the Vast to reach the Sea of Fallen Stars at Ravens Bluff. Many springs rise in the southern Vast to join it, and their sources are cloaked in thick stands of trees which have hidden many an outlaw, treasure, and reclusive mage over the years. It is said that more new and terrible spells have lashed down the Fire River valley than anywhere else in the Realms since the fall of Netheril. Some of these wizards' secrets have died with them-including where their magical items and spellbooks are hidden. The oldest and most powerful mages have extra-dimensional residences, with helmed horrors and other guardians, magical traps, and gates linking them to other places in the Realms and to other planes; most of the wizards have simpler hiding-places. There's also a smugglers' tale from the early days of Ravens Bluff. Barges of goods were often brought into the city by night from ships standing well out in the Reach. On one occasion there was treachery and open spell-battle on the docks. The barges hastily sculled away, up the river. In the darkness and confusion, at least one barge sank and presumably still lies somewhere in the mud of the river bottom with its cargo of thousands of crated, newly minted gold pieces. |
|
From the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set: A Grand Tour of the Realms by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb:
|
The Flooded Forest is an arm of old Cormanthor that crossed the River Lis, but has sunken in the past century into a low bowl, becoming a fetid swamp. The trees of the forest are centuries old but have been dead for more than a hundred years. Hanging mosses and mushrooms are everywhere within the corruption of the marsh. Deadfalls of maple and oak are often encountered in the flooded forest, such that travelers are threatened as much by falling trees as by wandering monsters. Wandering monsters are frequently encountered within the forest, including lizard men, black dragons, a number of fungi creatures, and carnivorous plants. Some of these creatures are not native to the area, giving rise to claims that someone or something is stocking the swamp to keep others away. |
|
From the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set: A Grand Tour of the Realms by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb:
|
The Glacier of the White Worm is a single, isolated river of ice located some 400 miles south of the Great Glacier itself, and weaving among the highest peaks of the Earthspur Mountains. It flows off a high cliff east of Mulmaster into the Moonsea on one side, and into Lake Icemelt on the other. This glacier is home to a wide variety of polar creatures, giving rise to the idea that it was once a part of the larger sheet of ice to the north. It survives farther south than even its altitude would justify, and some dweomercraft may be involved. The area takes its name from the pale albino remorhazes that are unique to the region. It is said that a king of their kind makes its lair in the very center of this domain. Humans live in the area of the Glacier, primarily mountain barbarian tribes. A group of noble barbarians known as the Tribe of the White Worm is recorded as serving in the army of Zhengyi, the Witch-King of Vaasa. These barbarians are noted as having acquitted themselves well, and to have turned against Zhengyi when the nature of his evil became clear to them. |
|
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part Two by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #89, November 1993) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This wild mountain pass into the southern Vast is less used than Elvenblood Pass further to the west. Named for a local orc chieftain - a hero to his kind - who fell fighting in the pass, it is still a dangerous place today. Still, it sees a good deal of traffic, as it carries the North Road through the broken land between Dragon Falls and Sevenecho. Glorming Pass is haunted by "The Phantom Knights" - ghostly horsemen in full plate armor who gallop spectral mounts the length of the pass, lances lowered. They sound solid and look real, turning their closed helms to face nearby living beings as they pass. They ride right through any that bar their way or simply fail to get out of the path in time but do no harm to those they pass through, except to confer a momentary chill and a longer (1 turn) period in which the touched being glows with a pale blue faerie fire radiance. No one knows who the Knights are or were, and they ignore all magic and attempts to influence or control undeath. Their touch causes all magical dweomers to glow a flickering ruby-red (revealing hidden or disguised magical items), and this has on occasion drawn attention to magic fallen by the roadside - usually on the corpse of someone orcs have slain. Orcs are numerous in the mountains around the pass; merchants are advised not to attempt passage without numbers sufficient to give battle if need be. Sites for ambushes and deliberate rockfalls may be far fewer than in Elvenblood Pass, but the orc patrols are heavy and monsters of all sorts are frequent. At least one authority (Riliyyn Scantshar of Sevenecho) believes some evil power, perhaps a wizard, lich, or even an alhoon (illithilich) dwells in the peaks near the pass and has placed a deepspawn in the area to generate monsters and discourage intruders. This hidden lair, if it exists, may have powerful magic among its treasures. Other sages believe the deepspawn guards a fortress built around a gate leading to the demiplane of Ravenloft or another world entirely. Whatever the truth about Glorming Pass, the orcs who swarm in the mountains around it have taken a considerable amount of treasure from unfortunate travelers over the years. Some at least must remain in the orc cavern-lairs in the vicinity. |
|
At the mouth of the Glorming Pass, south of Dragon Falls, a new town known as Hidden Hollow has been established. Hidden Hollow and the surrounding area is claimed as the Kingdom of Earthenmore, governed by Duchess Heather Dragonsnap (played by Larry Heydorn of FL). Founded 18 months ago, the town has quickly grown to a population of 500; this rapid growth is expected to continue. A large wall, enclosing 500 acres of land, has been constructed around Hidden Hollow.
Major powers in the area have not, to this point, objected to Earthenmore's claim to the land. The North Road and the Glorming Pass are of critical importance to Procampur and Mulmaster. Merchants from these cities remain optimistic that Earthenmore will improve safety along the route. However, obstacles to free passage or the institution of tolls might trigger a stern response from their home cities.
Hidden Hollow is being developed by Larry Heydorn. For more information about this town or the Kingdom of Earthenmore, visit his Web page at http://members.aol.com/hdragonsna/Earthenmore.html.
|
From Ravens Bluff and Environs by Ed Greenwood (LC2: Inside Ravens Bluff, The Living City):
|
Local legends - even in the days when orcs ruled - have always held that the High Country was home to sometimes invisible "little people" (sprites), and although a wanderer in the High Country will rarely meet these quiet folk, there are areas - particularly small, hidden dells crowded with old, moss-covered trees and sparkling pools - that prudent shepherds avoid. If weather or mischance brings an experienced shepherd into one of these areas, their custom is move quickly and quietly, light no fires, and cut no trees. They depart quickly and leave behind one or two sheep, tethered to a stake, with a loudly-spoken but humble apology for trespassing. The less prudent take their chances, but fewer return to bring back tales of the hidden dells. Sheep-trails crisscross much of the High Country, but the sprites tolerate few buildings. Most shepherds use simple, temporary turf huts. A few lonely, widely-separated stone towers standing in the easternmost reaches of the High Country are said to belong to powerful, reclusive mages, who the sprites leave unmolested because they turn back most of the orc bands that wander down from the surrounding mountains. |
From Last Stand at Dragon Falls by Tom Prusa, Before Its Time (1999) by Rick Brill, A Grand Tour of the Realms by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb, and info from Dan Donnelly:
Two years after the Time of Troubles, barbarian herdsmen and raiders to the east solidified into a huge united force under the leadership of Yamun Khahan. This "Tuigan Horde" stormed out of the Unapproachable East, conquering nearly all that stood in their way. Even the Red Wizards of Thay dealt carefully and deferentially to the Horde. The Horde passed through the High Country and made it as far as Dragon Falls. The combined forces of Tantras, Ravens Bluff, Hlintar, and Calaunt forced them to turn back. The Horde's ultimate defeat was by the allied armies of several western nations, lead by King Azoun IV of Cormyr.
Though over a decade has passed since Yamun Khahan was slain and the Horde disbanded, their mark is still felt. A flood of refugees and immigrants entered the Vast, some departing west via the Sea of Fallen Stars. Others chose to remain, bringing to the Vast new customs, heroes, and legends.
More information about the Tuigan Horde is available in The Horde boxed set.
From Lich Hunt by Dave Wolen (1998):
At the eastern edge of the High Country, near the Impiltur border, the small village of Burantine sits in almost complete obscurity. One hundred miles east of Dragon Falls, it is a ride of about eight days through hilly trails along the Fire River to reach the settlement. The village surrounds Burantine Keep, founded forty years ago by Sire Burantine. Sire Burantine and his comrades defeated the lich of Foulfog Tower hidden within the nearby Foulfog Swamp.
Sire Burantine had hopes that rich caravans from Ravens Bluff, Tantras, and Procampur would traverse through this area en route to Impiltur. However, the trek through the High Country made the path impractical. Furthermore, four years after the founding of his keep, major victories were won against pirates, making the aquatic trade route even more attractive.
The Burantine family persisted. The land around their Manor proved to be good for growing fruit trees, olives, and wine grapes. A small community developed. Sire Burantine managed the many farms about the area, supplemented by flocks of sheep and goat that thrive within the land. Sire Burantine turned over the running of the keep to his only son, Lord Vance Burantine ten years ago, as his old age began to catch up with him. The Keep is a largely empty place, housing only Lord Burantine, Sire Burantine, and the Sire's old manservant, Kleary.
Sire Burantine, Hm, F8: AL LG; AC 10 (none); MV 3; hp 16; THAC0 20; #AT Sire is too feeble now to wield a weapon; SA nil; SD nil; Str 3; Dex 6; Con 3; Int 14; Wis 15; Cha 15; MR nil; SZ M; ML 14.
Sire Burantine stands 6' 3" tall, with only thin wisps of gray hair, blue eyes and pale white skin spotted with age.
Lord Vance Burantine, Hm, F9: AL LG; AC -2; MV 6; hp 49; THAC0 9; #AT 2; Dmg 1d8+5; SA nil; SD nil; MR nil; SZ M; ML 17.
This tall cavalier fought for the defense of Ravens Bluff in the recently concluded war. Lord Burantine is a courageous and headstrong man.
Kleary, Hm, 0 level human: AL NG; AC 10 (none); MV 9; hp 6; THAC0 20 ; #AT 1; Dmg 1-4 (Brass Candlestick); SA nil; SD nil; Str 8; Dex 9; Con 11; Int 14; Wis 9; Cha 13; MR nil; SZ M; ML 14.
He is 5’8" and bald with quick green eyes. He is quick to protect his master, and has no time for small talk. He will do as Sire Burantine tells him without question. Kleary is an old mapmaker for Sire Burantine. He is no longer able to survey due to his age, so the Sire keeps him around as a valet.
 |
Map of the Vast and Burantine |
|
From the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting: A Grand Tour of the Realms by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb:
|
This alpine village is located in the heights of the mountains separating Ravens Bluff from Procampur. Most of the village is built on a series of low bluffs that overlook the trail, giving the towns folk an excellent chance to defend themselves against frequent orcish (and other goblinkind) raids. High Haspur has been ruled by the Morninglight family, a clan of gnomes, for generations. The Morninglights have proved to be expert negotiators with both the humans and the dwarves of the area, and maintain a peace between the two races. The head of the family is Fankolin Morninglight (NG gm I7/T10). High Haspur is the site of an excellent inn, the Elf in Armor, also run by the Morninglights. The inn is named after the elven hero Beluar, who perished just north of the village in a battle with orcs. The trail through the mountains is called Elvenblood Pass in his memory, and the hero is buried in the small hamlet of Sarbreenar, located between High Haspur and the pass. There are shrines to Tymora and Tyr in High Haspur, along with several others to various elven, dwarven, and gnomish deities, as well. |
From The Everwinking Eye: Treasures of the Vast, Part Three by Ed Greenwood (Polyhedron #91, January, 1994) as revised in The City of Ravens Bluff:
|
This mountain village stands south of Elvenblood Pass, where Helve's Trail (from Maerstar) meets the High Trail (from Ravens Bluff to Procampur). High Haspur is reputed to be a place of riches: the ruling Morninglight gnomes are said to be the only miners and gold-smelters currently operating in the Vast. This clan work underground, digging tunnels down from their gold-cellars and the caverns where they assemble and test their many inventions. Among the Morninglight innovations are multiple-bolt crossbows, various nasty traps, mobile corridor-blocking armored shields, and other devices that would enable a few gnomes to defend a subterranean area against more numerous human or orc raiders. A shaft leading down from a fireplace in The Elf in Armor, the excellent inn run by the Morninglights, is said to be the main way into the underground family holdings. Certain elderly dwarves who hold grudges against the gnome clan can be persuaded (by gold and drink) to tell something of the traps in the shaft and the locations of the various caverns and other entrances. There's a local dwarven legend about a natural cavern in the mountains somewhere northwest of High Haspur: a cave entirely lined with flashing and glittering beljurils. These seawater-green, fist-sized, and very hard gems periodically blaze with light, briefly giving off enough radiance to read by. Much prized all over Faerûn, they are worth 5,000 gold each - and the cavern, if it still exists, must bold many thousand beljurils. The legend is vague about how the cavern is reached (or guarded) but says darkly that all who try to find the cavern either disappear or are soon found dead, each with a single beljuril crammed into his or her mouth. |
From Alyssia's Travail by Andrew Rothstein (1998):
Albert and Suzanne Morandin run the High Haspur office of the family business, Transmountain Carters. They work and live within a white compound surrounded by a gate, just off of market square. The Morandin's are important merchants within High Haspur.
