This farm and quarrying town stands at the meeting of Helve's Trail (from High Haspur) and the North Road (that links Procampur with the northern Vast by way of Sevenecho and the Glorming Pass). Maerstar is known as a horsebreeding center; the large, sleek black horses bred here are highly prized throughout the Inner Sea lands. It's not known as a place of overmuch wealth but rather hardworking prosperity.

Its well-trampled paddocks have been used to hide treasure, however. During the Time of Troubles (when the gods walked the Realms), many merchants of Tsurlagol and Procampur fled to their country houses in Maerstar - only to find themselves beset by looting mobs of wandering, displaced men from the destruction in Tantras and the strife in Calaunt and Mulmaster. Many of the wealthy had hidden their riches by burying them under the dung and churned earth of the paddocks - but not all of the wealthy survived to dig up their riches again when the Troubles were over. Local rumor has it that at least two holdings - the moonstone and pearls collection of the merchant Uligker Oloskar of Procampur and a huge hoard of coins and trade-bars belonging to the locksmith and purveyor of trained dancers Shondarl Stonegiant - still lie beneath the earth somewhere in Maerstar.

This town is also the home of the Moonlit Tower. This strange apparition can only be seen when the moon is full and its rays fall upon a crag northwest of the town. At such times, a small, slender tower appears there. The tower glows blue-gray, as if fashioned of solid moonlight, and can be entered: its interior consists of seven rooms and a rooftop level, all joined by a spiral stair of floating stone treads (without rail or visible means of support). Witnesses report that spells have unusual effects when cast inside the Tower.

Sages believe the Moonlit Tower travels about several planes or other worlds. Those inside when it fades away are seldom seen in the Realms again; when it reappears, it may be empty or may hold rare and awesome monsters (some tales mention steel shadows; others talk of watchghosts, beholders, the many-mouthed creature known as the argos, and stranger creatures with no names). Sometimes these beasts guard treasure, but on other occasions they bring disease, plague, and eggs that hatch into other harmful monsters - or statuettes that revert to living, hostile monsters - when taken out of the Tower.