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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 1:44:02 GMT -5
The Dalelands
Capital: None Population: 602,640 (humans 80%, drow 6%, half-elves 5%, elves 4%, halflings 2%, gnomes 1%, dwarves 1%) Government: Varies by dale; Dales Council loosely unifies all dales Religions: Chauntea, Lathander, Mielikki, Silvanus, Tempus, the Triad (Ilmater, Torm, Tyr) Imports: Armor, books, glass, jewelry, metalwork, paper, textiles, weapons Exports: Ale, bread, cheese, fruit, grain, hides, timber, vegetables Alignments: CG, NG, N
The Dales are broad forest vales with rolling farmlands, linked by narrow trade roads running through beautiful woods. Blessed with fertile soil and a temperate climate (aside from the extremely harsh winters), the Dales are the breadbasket of the Heartlands. The Dales' independent spirit and age-old alliance with the elves of Cormanthor have made them the historic birthplace or favored home of many of Faerun's greatest heroes.
Eleven separate dales exist today, each with its own territory, government (or lack of it), militia, trading pacts, ambitions, and character. Archdendale and Harrowdale value trade over all else. Tasseldale values industry and craftsmanship. Daggerdale stands alone agaisnt a powerful enemy, while Scardale struggles to recover its independence after years of occupation. Meanwhile, the other dales respect the old Dales Compact and prefer to be left alone.
Key to the Dales
The Dales are tiny places compared to most of the realms detailed elsewhere. Two entries for the Dales have slightly different meanings than the same entries as applied to large kingdoms such as Sembia or Cormyr. Religions: This entry lists those faiths that actually have temples in the dale. Faiths that have only shrines in the dale appear in parentheses. Imports and Exports: Nearly all dales import and export the goods mentioned earlier in the Dalelands statistics block (up above) that opened this section, in addiction to any listed here.
Places: Archendale, Battledale, Cormanthor, Daggerdale, Deepingdale, Featherdale, Harrowdale, High Dale, Mistledale, Scardale, Shadowdale, Tasseldale
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 1:45:31 GMT -5
Although they share common traditions, cultural practices, and religious allegiances, the Dalelands are not a unified kingdom like Cormyr or Sembia. Instead, they are an enigma to the rest of Faerun. How can small and disorganized groups of stubborn, backwoods farmers and craftsfolk maintain control of the coveted lands surrounding the great elven forest?
In the past, the forest itself was a major reason for the Dales' continued existence, as the presence of the Elven Court deterred most foes. Now that the elves are a secondary power in Cormanthor, Dalesfolk rely upon the gifts they've always had: heroism, self-reliance, and a strong, almost clannish sense of community.
To an outsider, Dalesfolk seem close-mouthed, suspicious, and reserved. Until newcomers are identified as friends or foes, or vouched for by a trusted friend, Dalesfolk prefer civil silence to empty pleasantries. Once a person is accepted, Dalesfolk are generally open and giving, especially in the common defense. Once accepted by Dalesfolk as a friend, a stranger is expected to contribute to the defense of the community.
Most dales maintain at least an informal militia. The training levels and professionalism of such groups varies, but all are capable of providing some training with a melee weapon and a good Dales longbow. The archers of the Dales might be the finest human archers of Faerun, which gives would-be invaders pause.
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 1:46:33 GMT -5
The Dales were once deep woods hunted only lightly by the dragons, for these creatures preferred to make meals of ogres, deer, bears, and rothe available in the open Stonelands to the west. As the wyrms declined and elven might grew, the elven realm of Cormanthyr flourished.
HUmans hailing from lands known today as Chondath and Impiltur settled the edges' of that great forest. These migrations attracted folk from other regions of Faerun: exiles, fugitives from justice, and adventurers who saw a land of bright promise. Scattered human farmsteads and hamlets began to appear at the fringes of Cormanthor around -200 DR. Elven defenses hampered woodcutting, so human settlements were scattered and isolated instead of sprawling across wide-open farmland, as they did in the lands that would become Cormyr to the west and Sembia to the south.
Foreseeing the eventual doom of his people if they tried to fight off increasingly numerous human settlers, the elven coronal Eltargrim arranged the Dales Compact between the elves of the forest empire of Cormanthyr and the humans who would become known as Dalesfolk. Human and elven wizards together raised the Standing Stone in the center of Cormanthor as a symbol of unity between the two races. In return for promising not to cupt deeper into the Cormanthor forest, the ancestors of the current Dalesfolk were allowed to settle around the forest's edge or in places where the great trees did not grow.
While the early dales struggled to survive, the elves of Cormanthor grew strong and confident. In 220 DR, the elven coronal allowed humans to enter his kingdom. In 261 DR, he made the fateful decision to welcome them into its very heart, transforming the elven city then known as Cormanthor into the open city of Myth Drannor. All races were welcome in Myth Drannor, which enjoyed a golden age that lasted nearly five centuries. Myth Drannor reached heights of art, crafting, and culture unsurpassed since, and the city brought human, halfling, dwarven, and gnome trade, travel, and settlement to the Dragon Reach lands.
Myth Drannor's rise allowed the Dales to survive their troubled infancy. The city's fall in 714 DR gave the Dales the chance to flourish in ways that would have been impossible if elven might had remained intact. Few survivors of Myth Drannor's collapse escaped the demons, devils, and dragons that flocked to the ruins, but these survivors took the scraps of their wealth, magic, and learning to the nearby dales.
Although the Compact stands no more, most of the Dales still abide by its terms. Tradition has replaced elven might as the principal motivation for adhering to the Compact, but for now it is sufficient to preserve Cormanthor's borders as they stand.
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 1:48:10 GMT -5
The Lost Dales
Bards tell colorful tales of dales that are no more--overgrown ruins deep in the forest, their treasures waiting to be found. Much of this talk of dancing ghosts, stalking monsters, and lost riches is poetic fancy, but kernels of truth exist in every story. All Dalesfolk know the names of the dales lost most recently. Moondale, Sessrendale, and Teshendale. Dales have fallen before, and dales will fall again.
Moondale: Far from the great forest and too close to Sembia, Moondale abandoned the Dalelands and joined the young merchant kingdom hundreds of years ago. Ordulin, Sembia's capital, was built on the site of old Moondale. Dalesfolk take Moondale's transformation as a warning agaisnt growing too close to the power to the south. Tasseldarrans are the exception, sometimes viewing Moondale's history as a plan instead of a warning.
Sessrendale: Sessrendale, the "Dead Dale" was founded in 880 DR. It lay between the eastern face of the Thunder Peaks; and the westernmost verge of Semberholme, from Thunder Gap in the south to Tilver's Gap in the north. The southern half lay close to Archdendale, which also claimed Thunder Gap, and that sealed Sessrendale's doom.
A land of shepherds, mason's, traders, and miners, Sessrendale was ruled by a Dusk Lord who was accused by Archendale of fell sorceries. The Dusk Lord fell when Archendale's army invaded in 1232 DR. The Archenfolk slew or drove off Sessrendale's citizens and destroyed all its buildings, fields, and miners. Then the Archenfolk sowed Sessrendale's fields with salt to ensure that Sessrenfolk families that had fled to Battledale and Deepingdale would never resettle their lands. Only a few trappers and woodcutters venture into haunted Sessrendale now.
Teshendale: Teshendale occupied the lands along the Tesh, within the shadow of Zhentil Keep. As Zhentil Keep transformed from an independent trading city into a hive of evil, Teshendale's days became numbered. Daggerdale has survived its bouts with Zhentil Keep relatively intact, but Teshendale succumbed to orc hordes recruited by the Zhents in 1316 DR. Teshwave and Snowmantle, former Teshendale towns, still figure in the Zhents' plans for the Dales.
The Dales Council keeps a seat open for the elder who used to represent Teshendale, partially as a reminder of what happens to those who underestimate the Zhents, and partially as a reminder that the Dales do not always manage to support each other as quickly as they ought.
The Dales Council
Each year at Midwinter, every dale sends a delegate to a selected Dalelands town for the Dales council. Delegates debate issues affecting all the dales, such as maintenance of trade routes, defense pacts agaisnt Zhent or Sembian aggression, border squabbles between neighboring dales, and matters relating to the great forest of Cormanthor.
Two serious attempts have been made to unify the Dales. The first was under the legendary Aencar the Mantled King, who sought to forge the Dales into one rrealm but was slain in 1044 DR, his dream died with him. The second would-be unifier rose and fell in 1356 DR. Lord Lashan of Scardale overran Battledale, Featherdale, and Harrowdale, proclaiming his intention of conquering all the Dales. Lashan vanished after his defeat in the great battles in Mistledale and Shadowdale, but his legacy initiated a string of bad luck that has plagued Scardale to this day.
A Sea of Troubles
In the current year, 1372 DR, the Dales face a number of terrible threats. The enemy they know best broods to the north in Zhentil Keep. An unsuspected enemy has just arrived to create the Empire of Shadows in the wastes of Anauroch. And in their Retreat to Evermeet, the elves left the great forest of Cormanthor open to exploitation by another great foe, the drow.
The drow might not be the worst enemy the Dales face. The Dales Compact is fraying. For over thirteen centuries, this treaty has survived treachery (usually human), magical disease (usually elven), and pressure from would-be colonizers (Sembians) and conquerors (folk of the Moonsea). With the elves of Cormanthor now in Evermeet, what remains of the Dalelands' agreement to preserve the forest by cultivating only land that was already cleared by natural forces? The people of some dales, such as Archendale, have already welcomed the chance to log and exploit the elven woods. Residents of other dales, such as Deepingdale, did all they could to encourage elves to stay in the forest.
At the next Dale Council meeting in 1373 DR, the two most pressing topics are likely to be the drow occupation of Cormanthor and the fate of Scardale. The drow press hard upon the holdings of those dales nearest Cormanthor. Other dales have yet to be affected by the fight. One of these is Daggerdale, the site of next year's Council meeting (still half a year away). Daggerdale's worst enemies are the Zhents, who helped create Scardale's miserable situation. It remains to be seen if the dales can agree on actions agaisnt either of these enemies.
From the FRCS. pgs. 117-118
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 1:53:13 GMT -5
Archendale
Capital: Archenbridge Population: 92,300 (humans 92%, half-elves 3%, gnomes 2%, halflings 2%) Government: Autocratic ruled by the Swords Religions: Chauntea, Lathander, Tempus (Mielikki, Selune, Silvanus) Imports: Exotic metalwork, silks, spices Exports: Produce, ores, timber Alignments: NG, LN, N
Most of the dales are free-form republics or enlightened feudal states, but Archendale is ruled by three masked autocrats who call themselves the Swords. Over the past couple hundred years, the Swords have consistently played on Archenfolk’s militaristic instincts, insisting that the dale needs to be stronger than its neighbors.
The Swords’ devotion has paid off. Archendale’s defenders, then squadrons (each consisting of sixty mailed riders) are the largest and best-equipped military force fielded by any of the Dales. These Archenriders, as they are called, clatter up and down the excellent roads on either side of the River Arkhen, looking for spies from other dales or the south, cultists from Thay, or random passersby who look like they need a lesson in Archendale justice.
In Archendale’s defense, it’s usually acknowledged that the dale owes its wealth to ruthless mercantilism rather than military adventurism. Unlike other dales that farm first, hunt second, and trade third, Archendale is a merchant’s haven. Archenfolk in the capital, Archenbridge, cherish the life of the wealthy merchant. Archenbridge is a hug of trade for all the Dales, and it is the first stop for Sembian caravans wending their way north.
Life and Society
For all Archendale’s posturing, it is a dale. Archendale’s common folk and its merchants and soldiers (though not all of its nobility and warrior elite) respect fair play and decency. Given Archendale’s warlike attitude, it’s not surprising that the dale maintains a major temple to Tempus in the keep of Swordpoint. Other popular deities of the region include Chauntea (revered by the country folk who tend their small farms without undue interest in the wheeling and dealing of the city) and Lathander (whom the townsfolk of Archenbridge have chosen as their patron deity). Devotion to Chauntea in particular comforts those who wish to clear as much as possible of Arch Wood and other elven woods, as clearing land for Chauntea’s sacred croplands can be phrased as a noble aim.
Major Geographical Features
Archendale’s waterfalls, quick rivers, and forested northern slopes place it among the most picturesque landscapes in the Dales, next to the forests and hills of Deepingdale.
Arch Wood: Arch Wood stands on the northern flank of Archendale, south of Deepingdale and west of Tasseldale. The wood figures prominently in the economic, social, and political life of all three communities.
Though not technically part of Cormanthor, Arch Wood has largely escaped cutting because of its proximity to that great forest. In fact, Cormanthor and Arch Wood blend together around Highmoon’s tree-shaded lanes and in the forest gardens of Deepingdale.
The people of Archendale have always wanted to log the forest. After squabbling with the Dales Council in 1370 DR, they went ahead with plans to log the sections of the wood closest to its borders. A year later, Archendale’s logging of the Arch Wood stopped so quickly that folk in the next dale could hear the axes dropping. Archendale’s rulers did not reveal the reason for their decision. In truth, the logging uncovered ancient ruins that the Swords of Archendale determined were better left undisturbed.
Arkhen Falls: The largest and most beautiful waterfall of the Dales flows from a natural spring on Mount Thalagbror, then plunges hundreds of feet into the valley below. On sunny days, worshipers of Chauntea and Mielikki walk to the falls, hoping to see pegasi frolicking in the spray.
Arkhen Vale: The long valley created by the River Arkhen forms the land occupied by Archendale. The valley is enclosed on both sides by high banks that can be climbed on foot but not on horseback. Two paths to the outside world, one on either end of the valley, are accessible to a mounted warrior or a trader’s wagon. These are the road north from White Ford and the road south from Archenbridge.
Mount Thalagbror: Dalesfolk tend to rename geographic features originally named after evil beings, once those villains are safely dead. But Archenfolk still refer to this mountain using the name of an ogre mage who once terrorized the valley, until he was slain by heroes whose names were forgotten. Far up the slope, near the ogre mage’s cavern lair, a great spring forms the origin of the River Arkhen.
Important Sites
Archenbridge, the capital, is the only urban area of any size in Archendale. Most significant locations within this dale are in its capital.
Archenbridge (Small City, 8,179): Archendale’s capital is the largest city in the Dales and the only town with more than two thousand inhabitants in all of Archendale. Archenbridge’s proximity to the official border of Sembia explains how Sembian connections help fuel Archendale’s thriving markets, merchant houses, and investments. Simultaneously, fear of Sembia’s military fuels Archendale’s martial stance. The Swords have convinced Archenfolk that success in trade and military strength are inseparable pieces of their dale’s national character.
The result is a bustling but uneasy city that constantly sprawls out of its rebuilt walls. Its inner core is as loud and bustling as the markets of Waterdeep. Its nobility and rich merchants build high townhouses in the center of the city to catch all the action. Townhouses feature barred windows and hidden inner holds equipped with arrow slits and nastier defenses.
Bounty of the Goddess: Archenbridge’s temple to Chauntea is a richly painted tithing barn. Worshipers enter through an arched door between two pillars carved to look like giant stalks of wheat, past a beautiful fountain. The legend says that if a priest of Chauntea is slain in Archendale, the fountain’s water turns into blood capable of healing diseases, wounds, and even lycanthropy. The priests of Chauntea discourage the spread of this tale.
Swordpoint: From a rocky outcropping above Archenbridge, Swordpoint dominates Arkhen Vale to the north, the Dawnpost trading road from Ordulin, and the water route down the River Arkhen. The massive fortress bristles with ballistae, catapults, and other engines of war meant to destroy would-be besiegers. The walls themselves are old and crumbling in places, having improved little since the days they were built by a notorious robber baron named Sangalar the Crag, but they make up in thickness what they lack in quality.
Swordpoint is the capital building of Archendale, the home of the Swords, and the headquarters of their warriors, the Archenriders. Three sixty-member units of the Archenriders remain on duty or on local patrols here.
Despite what other Dalesfolk view as the nasty suspicion and arrogance of the Archendale military, morale inside Swordpoint is high. A shrine to Tempus within the walls assures the soldiers that their god is with them. The secret tunnels into and out of Swordpoint don’t concern them as long as their commanders remain aware of them, and any prisoners screaming in the dungeons no doubt deserve their fate.
White Ford: (Small Town, 1,052): The Archenfolk dumped boulders into the river to construct a trustworthy ford at a whitewater rapids in the fast-running River Arkhen, downstream from Arkhen Falls. The sleepy town of White Ford grew up around the ford, caring for passing merchants without working hard to attract their business or compete with Archenbridge to the south. Its inhabitants are woodcarvers, farmers, mushroom-pickers, or members of the Archenriders, who always have one or two sixty-member units defending a ditch-and-stone ring stronghold named Arch Hold. A larger wall called the Wolfwall encircles the entire community in a wide oval. Its gates are usually open, but they can be closed in times of trouble or in the winter to keep beasts from stealing into the village for food.
Regional History
Archendale’s history revolves around conflicts with Sembia over their shared but undefined border. Ironically, Archendale’s recent military improvements were financed by a wartime settlement in which every year Sembia paid the Swords an amount in gems worth hundreds of thousands of gold pieces. Over time, these payments became a form of protection money paid to Archendale so that it did not interfere with Sembian trade.
The new Sembian Overmaster, Kendrick Selkirk, has judged correctly that Archenbridge is now far too dependent on that same trade to interfere with Sembia’s merchants, so the payments have stopped. The border conflicts have not.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual))
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 1:54:19 GMT -5
Battledale
Capital: Essembra Population: 32,714 (humans 87%, half-elves 5%, halflings 4%, gnomes 2%, dwarves 1%) Government: Lordship Religions: Gond, Tempus (Chauntea, Corellon Larethian, Silvanus) Imports: Clothing, fine metalwork, oil, rope, spices Exports: Ale, cheese, fruit, grain, meat, livestock, wool Alignments: CG, NG, N
Battledale’s fierce name isn’t a reflection on its character or its foreign policy--it’s an indication of the dale’s geographic position in the middle of the best invasion routes through the Dalelands. Historically, the biggest local battles have been fought in Battledale’s rolling meadows.
Not all outlanders who arrive in Battledale come to fight. Over the centuries, Battledale has grown into its role as a meeting place and refuge for an odd mix of warriors, adventurers, and traders from all over Faerun.
Life and Society
For its size, Battledale is nearly as diverse as Waterdeep. Merchants of Turmish settle in the country, then raise children who move out into the Belt or join the local militia. Refugees from the wars in Tethyr come to Battledale to serve as hunters for a Sembian estate-lord and stay on after their Sembian employer passes away, sending messages to Tethyr to bring their other relatives.
On the other hand, Battledale’s children leave as adventurers, traders, or travelers, many of whom never return. The dale is large, but its population is relatively small. In some areas, overgrown ruins outnumber lived-in cottages. Battledale’s biggest town, Essembra, isn’t even in the dale. It rests about thirty miles north, inside the elven woods.
Essembra is the closest thing Battledale has to a capital, but Ilmeth, the lord of Essembra, has little authority over the rest of the dale. Nor does Battledale possess any formal system of laws. Neighbors usually enforce law and order themselves. Serious matters such as banditry, arson, or murder are taken to Ilmeth if they can’t be handled locally, but he is under no official obligation to deal with problems outside Essembra. In practice, since Ilmeth is a good and just lord, Battledarrans listen to his advice.
Major Geographical Features
To most outsiders, “Battledale” means the pleasant meadows and fields alongside Rauthauvyr’s Road. In fact, this dale has several disparate regions.
The Belt: This region of open rolling farmland by Rauthauvyr’s Road is pleasant country, consisting mainly of small walled orchards, fenced-in farms, and large expanses of sheep-grazing land. The country folk live in walled cottages or palisades, since banditry and dangerous beasts from Cormanthor are constant problems here.
Streams and ponds full of fish are sprinkled through the Belt, often alongside small shrines to Chauntea or Silvanus. Chauntea’s shrines are stone tables that travelers and Belt-dwellers heap with offerings of food meant to be consumed by hungry travelers. Silvanus’s shrines consist of small bells hung above pools or woodland springs.
Three Rivers Land: The lands where the Semberflow and the Glaemril join the River Ashaba northwest of the Pool of Yeven are fertile and beautiful but sparsely settled. Burnt-out ruins of now-dead adventurers’ keeps and manors testify to the viciousness of the owl bears, lycanthropes, and other magical beasts that occasionally plague Three Rivers.
Yevenwood: This ancient wood has plentiful game, no dangerous inhabitants, and a delicious edible mushroom, the relshar. It has held a dozen names over the centuries, including the Wood of Many Names. It was also called Battle wood (during the years when it was forcibly cleared of monsters), Satyr’s Run (after a famous satyr sorcerer who eventually disappeared into the Underdark), and Forester’s Freehold (after the years when the wood was occupied by emigrants from Aglarond who weren’t yet certain they wanted to be part of Battledale).
Important Sites
Unlike those dales that consist of one interesting town and an assortment of mundane cottages and orchards, Battledale is known for dangerous locations within a half-hour’s walk of places that are relatively safe.
Abbey of the Sword: Fourteen years ago, during the Time of Troubles, Tempus appeared on the battlefield of Swords Creek in Mistledale. An Amnian priest named Eldan Ambrose traced Tempus’s path to the battlefield and discovered that the god had arrived in Faerun in the shell of a shattered castle in Battledale. Ambrose established a temple, the Abbey of the Sword, in a rebuilt portion of the castle. About fifty to one hundred worshipers of Tempus took it upon themselves to guard the temple and the numerous portals in its sub cellars and in the local Underdark tunnels.
In 1371 DR, a strong force of Vhaeraunian drow, the vanguard of the Auzkovyn clan, attacked the Abbey. The drow came up through an unwatched portal in a nearby deep cavern and smashed past the Abbey’s defenders. Eldan Ambrose himself perished in the assault, devoured by a demon after he had destroyed the portal. His actions prevented the whole strength of the Auzkovyn from descending on an unguarded Battledale.
Unfortunately for the defenders of the Abbey, the drow vanguard slipped away into the forests despite fierce fighting. The Auzkovyn later managed to open another portal somewhere in the forests north of Battledale, bringing the rest of their people to Cormanthor. The defenders of the Abbey of the Sword no longer have enough warriors to guard all of the portals below, and even true resurrection spells cannot bring back Ambrose until the demon that devoured him is permanently slain.
Aencar’s Manor: Four miles south of Essembra, in plain view of Rauthauvyr’s Road, stands one of the most deceptively inviting ruins of Faerun. Unlike many haunted estates, Aencar’s Manor still looks like a splendid and stately home, albeit the home of a warlord, judging from the relief carvings of mounted knights covering the outside of the manor. Indeed, the outer gardens and environs of Aencar’s Manor are safe enough to serve as the site of the great Battledale Shieldmeet festivals.
The manor’s interior is another matter. It’s certain that the manse is haunted, but the wraiths do not disturb everyone who comes in. The Cult of the Dragon has a secret stronghold in one of the building’s cellars, which is accessible through tunnels from the Underdark.
Essembra (Large Town, 2,804): Battledale’s largest town does not demand respect like Archenbridge, or impress visitors with its beauty like Highmoon. Deep within the elven woods, Essembra is a long lane of well-spaced cottages on both sides of Rauthauvyr’s Road. The road is dotted with watchposts--small wooden archers’ towers outfitted with road-blocking equipment that are usually left unmanned. Only a few cross-streets lead between these cottages to other cottages in the woods--and those paths are more trails than alleys.
Toward the center of Essembra, the great walled courtyard of Battle Court leads to the only part of the town that city folk think of as a town, a grouping of fifty or so residences, taverns, shops, a temple to Gond, and one official building, Ilmeth’s Manor. The temple, known as the House of Gond, is quite impressive, but visitors accustomed to Gondar enthusiasm for new ways of doing things may be disappointed. Clerics who favor Gond’s aspect as a god of crafts folk, not inventiveness, staff Gond’s Battledale Temple.
Ghost Holds: For every estate owned by a Sembian nobleman, there are two or three more that went to ruin and were overgrown by the forest. With all the attention focused on confronting the drow of Cormanthor, Battledale’s roads and countryside are not as safe as they used to be. Bandits have taken to occupying these ruined estates for days at a time. Ilmeth is seeking companies of reputable adventurers to clean out the “ghost holds”, since the few soldiers under his command have been busy patrolling against drow raids.
Hap (Village, 467): This spot of twelve permanent buildings and many outlying farms has a blacksmith, a sawyer, a tavern, a shrine to Lathander, and a permanent guard of five to fifteen of Ilmeth’s Lord’s Men. The guards spend their time hunting, gambling, or practicing at arms, but they also keep an eye on the traffic along Rauthauvyr’s Road and another eye cocked warily up Haptooth Hill.
Haptooth Hill: An old wizard’s tower crowns this granite hull overlooking Hap. Not so long ago, it was occupied by a Red Wizard named Dracandros. Adventurers slew him and dealt with his drow allies, who had built up some hidden strength in the passages riddling the hill. Now that drow have returned to Cormanthor, the folk of Hap fear that some of these new invaders may seek to reoccupy their old stronghold beneath the wizard’s tower.
Ilmeth’s Manor: The present Lord of Battledale lives in a moated keep inside the greater enclosure of Battle Court, the walled east side of Essembra. Ilmeth (LN male human Ftr8/Chm3 of Helm) is a fair man, but grim and somewhat obsessed with his responsibilities. Chief among these is command of Battledale’s small army, a hundred-warrior squadron known as the Lord’s Men. If adventurers stay out of Ilmeth’s way (and most especially stay out of his manor!), he grudgingly tolerates them as useful scouts and extra swords that he does not have to feed, arm, or heal.
Regional History
Battledale began as pieces of older dales, stitched together when their governments proved untrustworthy and the people decided to settle their affairs themselves.
Essembra, Battledale’s most influential settlement, has a better-known story. The town is named after a red-haired adventurer, a woman who carved a name for herself with a sword and a fierce wit. Essembra the adventurer spurned an elf lord, strangled a dwarven king with her bare hands in a wrestling match, and finally revealed her true song dragon nature by marrying a silver dragon. Some say that descendants of Essembra’s part-dragon children still live near the town that bears her name. It’s certain that modern Essembra produces far more than its share of skilled sorcerers, humans and half-elves whose magical talents flow free instead of fitting into the harness of wizardry.
Slightly over three hundred years ago, Battledale gave the Dalelands the closest thing they had to a High King. Aencar became warlord of Battledale in the year 1030 DR. He took the title of the “Mantled King” and began a campaign to unify the Dales. After some early success, the man who would be High King accepted an invitation to a feast in Essembra that turned out to be a trap. Aencar was slain by a draconic summoned by one of his enemies. Shadowdale and the other dales owed Battledale itself nothing; their allegiance had been to Aencar, so the dream of a united Dales died with the Mantled King.
A descendant of Aencar’s chief sword captain still rules Essembra. Chancellor Ilmeth, Essembra’s current lord, is a brooding warrior who serves as Battledale’s delegate to the Dales Council.
Along with Deepingdale, Battledale is heavily committed to combating the drow now occupying parts of Cormanthor. Essembrans in particular have always been good friends of the elves of Cormanthor, and they feel strongly about the drow invaders since the attack at the Abbey of the Sword.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual))
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 1:55:29 GMT -5
Cormanthor
Capital: Myth Drannor Population: 154,223 (drow 47%, elves 30%, half-elves 10%, humans 10%, halflings 2%) Government: None Religions: Corellon Larethian, Eilistraee, Mielikki, Mystra, Silvanus, Vhaeraun Imports: None Exports: Furs, magic items looted from Myth Drannor, meat Alignments: All
Walking beneath Cormanthor’s giant maples, looking shadow tops, and towering oaks, humans son realize that they have entered a world that does not need them. The great forest is a living testament to a forgotten green age, a time in which humans were an after-thought instead of the dominant society.
During the Elven Retreat, more than 90% of the elves who called Cormanthor home left for Evermeet or moved west to Evereska. A few remained, particularly in the Semberholme area near Lake Sember and in the communities of Bristar and Moonrise Hill in Deepingdale. Others, who had human mates, human friends, or half-elf children, stayed on in other parts of the Dales.
As the elves left Cormanthor, they set traps and magic wards to discourage humans and others from moving into their ancestral lands. The defenses were particularly strong in the area surrounding the former Elven Court. Queen Amlaruil’s followers must have known that their efforts would not keep nonelves out forever. But it is doubtful that they guessed that their ancient enemies, the drow, would be the first to slip past the defenses and claim the forest.
Life and Society
The formal life of the Elven Court has given way to the hunting of the ranger and the steps of the druid. Though Cormanthor is still beautiful, and still very much a high forest worthy of bard’s songs and poets’ flights of fluttering adjectives, it now shudders at the felling of trees in its fringe and the sounds of stealthy battle in its heart.
War is brewing in Cormanthor as humans, elves, drow, and gnolls struggle to carve their settlements from the green fastness and establish strongholds and borders they can defend against their rivals. The old Elven Woods stretch for hundreds and hundreds of miles. They may prove expansive enough for all the competing powers and settlements. The drow, the elves, and the occasional human settlers can go days and even tendays within the forest without running into signs of each other’s existence. But even Cormanthor might not be large enough for all of these races to share.
Major Geographical Features
Cormanthor itself is the dominant feature of the entire region. Once the great forest extended all the way to the Dragon Reach, covering the lands than are now Sembia and Cormyr. Even after thousands of years of human encroachment, the great woods of the Elven Court are the mightiest of forestland in this part of Faerun.
Lake Sember: This beautiful lake in south Cormanthor is the heart of the elven community of Semberholme. Full humans are seldom welcome near the lake’s waters, which are regarded as the heart of elven life here.
Important Sites
The elves created most of the forest’s wonders, but humans and mad deities have left permanent scars.
Elven Court: The Court covered a wide area. Elves like living space, so they leave enough room to allow the creatures of the forest to pass naturally between elven tree-homes without feeling trapped in a city. The Court influenced the entire northwest quarter of Cormanthor, even if it was only to create a series of cunningly landscaped glades linked by beams of sunlight and miniature stepping-stone portals.
Even though the moon and sun elves of the Court dismantled their greatest structures during the Retreat, the shaped tree-homes of the former Elven Court still offer the most comfortable and defensible habitation in Cormanthor for surface drow, who have decades of practice dismantling elven defenses and overcoming green warders.
Of the drow, those of House Jaelre spend the largest part of their time establishing themselves in the area of the Court. Unlike previous plunderers, they avoid the elven barrows beneath the home trees, as the drow would rather not waste time fighting elven guardian spirits until they have a secure hold upon the forest.
Moander’s Road: Moander, a deity of corruption and rot, had been though dead since the days of Myth Drannor’s glory. In truth, Moander slept in the ruins of Yulash, north of the Dales. In 1357 DR, Alias of the Azure Bonds unintentionally woke the old deity, who arose and plowed a course of devastation toward the ruins of Myth Drannor, intending to absorb other magical energies still sleeping in that perilous site. Alias and her companions managed to stop Moander after he destroyed a wide swath of forest.
The damage to the forest has regrown poorly. The “road” now is afflicted with strange fungi, loathsome oozes, and plant monsters. This does not prevent Zhent agents from using the road as a quick (and, for them, safe) path to Myth Drannor, but they avoid the high hill that is the dead god’s corpse.
Myth Drannor: Myth Drannor is arguably the richest and most dangerous adventuring site in all of Faerun. It’s actually dozens of sites in roughly the same location, the ruined remains of the huge elven and human city that was once the greatest magical place in the world.
Myth Drannor was the seat of an incredibly powerful civilization, and gold, magic items, and other worthwhile debris still rest everywhere here along with their magical guardians and invading creatures. Human, nonhuman, and monstrous adventurers who enter the ruins frequently leave their possessions, their corpses, and even their souls behind, new pickings for the next vile cult, ambitious magician, or adventuring party that comes by.
In centuries past, a form of elven high magic known as a mythal protected the ruins of Myth Drannor. When the elves moved to Evermeet, the mythal weakened. The laws of magic vary inside Myth Drannor, but most of the space and time-distortion effects created by the mythal have faded out.
Semberholme: The oaks and maples fed by Lake Sember’s pure waters soar high above the rest of the forest, creating a cathedra-like retreat for elves who wanted to escape from the politics and whirl of the Elven Court. The limestone caves that formerly provided the elves with a perfect refuge now supply the surface drow with splendid hideouts. Given the proximity of Bristar and Moonrise, and the area’s historic importance as one of the three main elven communities of Cormanthor, Semberholme could be sorely contested in times to come.
Standing Stone: The huge plinth of glossy gray rock, erected to commemorate the Dales Compact between the Elven Court and the new Dalesfolk, still stands proudly in the forest. The stone magically repairs all damage to itself, so the elven runes winding around its base, outlining the particulars of the treaty, can be clearly read 1,372 years after the plinth’s creation. When Rauthauvyr of Sembia forced his road through the forest, threatening war if he was not allowed to build, the elves routed the road within sight of the Standing Stone. It pointed out that humans who were the elves’ friends did not need to resort to violence to achieve what they wanted.
Tangled Trees (Small Town, 1,168): After the Elven Court and Semberholme, the Tangled Trees was the third great community in Cormanthor. It was largely populated by youngsters, warriors, adventurers, half-elves, and rogues who did not join the Retreat.
Tangled Trees would be the largest elven community in the forest, but many of its residents are elsewhere at any given time. The Elven Court and Semberholme consist mainly of widely spaced family dwellings and some common areas, but the Tangled Trees is known for its interlocked trails, webbing, platforms, and tree forts occupied by the community’s eclectic group of elves, half-elves, and occasional human friends or lovers. In winter, when the wanderers come home and the patrols decrease, the actual population of the Tangled Trees is double that listed above.
Vale of Lost Voices: The Vale of Lost Voices cuts across Rauthauvyr’s Road between the Standing Stone and Essembra. In truth, the Vale came first, and it was Rauthauvyr’s bad luck to forge his road across its ancient elven burial grounds. Travelers who stay on the road are safe enough. Humans who stray off the road into the forest in the Vale of Lost Voices risk encounters with elven ghosts and guardian spirits that take years off their lives or slay them outright. The area is sacred to elves, who occasionally visit it alone but never in groups. Elves do not build or settle in the area. The drow avoid the area even more assiduously than humans do.
Regional History
There was a time when deep, green forest stretched unbroken from the Sea of Fallen Stars north to the Tortured Land, west through the Thunder Peak passes, and around the Stonelands to the Storm Horns. Trees cloaked both shores of the Dragon Reach, broken only by occasional peaks, deadfall glades where huge trees plunged to earth, and the burned scars of lightning-strike fires.
Then came the elves, the first gardeners of the forest. They found haunting, sacred beauty around Lake Sember. They saw the works of their high gods farther north, near Elventree. They settled in the latter place, still known as the Elven Court today, and tended the woods as carefully as any royal gardener. The elves broke the “ever shade” beneath the trees by creating magical glades. Great and terrible beats were largely slain or driven off in eldritch hunts.
The kingdom of Cormanthyr in the great forest of Cormanthor was founded approximately four thousand years before the creation of the Dales and the start of Dalereckoning. For a time, the elves lived freely in their great forest, but the millennia of elven rule were over once humans entered Faerun. The elves watched with increasing anger as humans clawed at the borders of the once-endless wood, cutting it ever smaller, forcing roads and trails through undisturbed forest. Woodcutters, adventurers, and homesteaders who penetrated too boldly into the green vastness of the old elven forest often met their ends under elven arrows.
Yet humans came in waves, as numerous as gnats. Oak after oak fell to their axes, then the shadow top and dusk wood trees, and they brought swords and wizards of their own to contend with elven arrows. Farsighted elven leaders saw that the heart and strength of the elves would be worn away if they fought humans at every turn. Such battle would only leave them weak before orc hordes, drow forays from the realms below, and strokes from the divine powers, such as merciless “wolf winters” and flights of dragons.
So they welcomed humans as allies and even gave passage and settlement room to gnomes, dwarves, and halflings. These were the early years of the Dales Compact that created the dales. The elves sought to make peace with the humans rather than fighting against them, but remained wary of their neighbors. To guard themselves and a vestige of their original realm, the elves raised great areas of magic called mythals within the borders of Cormanthor.
Each mythal was the product of an elven high magic ritual that created a magical field governing various conditions within its confines. Some mythals protected the forest by inhibiting fires and explosive magic; others increased the power of spells drawing upon the elven deities or elven scrolls while suppressing nonelven magic.
As the centuries rolled on, the elves of Cormanthor layered the forest with portals, invisible hideawars, and wards. Thus, the elves made the woods alive with magic. Unfortunately, elven high magic has a steep price. Riddled with portals, the great forest was more open to portals created by others, threatening the realm with attacks from its enemies and dooming the mythals to eventual decay. Today, the once-bright city of Myth Drannor is a fiend-roamed, haunted ruin. The rest of Cormanthor is not nearly as dangerous as Myth Drannor, but centuries of magical wards, portals, and summonings have turned certain parts of the forest into areas that only the skilled, wood-wise, or magically gifted can expect to survive without harm.
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 1:59:25 GMT -5
The Cormanthor Drow
For many years, the fiends and decaying high magic of Myth Drannor were widely held to be the greatest peril of the Elven Wood, but now an even greater danger has appeared--the return of drow to the surface world. As the last few decades of the Elven Retreat left vast portions of the Elven Court and its surrounding forests virtually unoccupied, some drow factions in the Underdark--particularly those who owe their allegiance to Vhaeraun rather than Lolth--contemplated a return to the surface world. First as small scouting parties, then as larger warbands, and finally as conquerors with trains of slaves and belongings, the drow have established themselves in the deep places of Cormanthor.
The drow have not been present in Cormanthor for long, but they’ve made themselves known with raids against Archendale, Battledale, Deepingdale, and Mistledale. Incessant raiding and murders in the forest may not be the worst the drow have to offer Dalesfolk. The Great Druid of Cormanthor went missing near Myth Drannor shortly after the drow invaded. The story passed on to druids through the animals of the forest is that he perished in a great battle with a demon summoned by drow newly arrived in Myth Drannor. The only consolation for Dalesfolk is that the druids say that the Great Druid killed his demonic attacker as well.
Even more alarming than the prospect of a war in Cormanthor’s shadow is the drow interest in the abandoned realm’s ancient mythals: The drow seek to twist Cormanthor’s ancient mythals into shapes that please them. Elven high magic effects that please such beings, however, are likely to demoralize the enfeeble humans and elves. The drow could never create powerful mythals on their own, but with time and study, they may master the magic of the Elven Court and permanently darken the great forest. Those elves who have returned from Evermeet know this and work constantly to conceal old magic from the drow or defend sites too large to hide with the most powerful guardians they can find.
Although it is not widely known, the drow who have moved into Cormanthor are divided into several factions. Several groups of drow compete and even cooperate to turn Cormanthor into their new fortress home. The main factions are described here, with brief notes on other drow forces in Cormanthor.
Auzkovyn Clan (3,505 drow): For centuries the Auzkovyn drow (so called after the long-dead founder of their clan) wandered in the uppermost reaches of the Underdark and occasionally took up residence on the surface. About two hundred years ago, the Auzkovyn carved out a small fastness in the heart of the High Forest, determined to forge a surface homeland despite the wealth of enemies present in that location.
While the Auzkovyn wore away their strength in constant warfare, the wood elves of the High Forest--never proponents of the Elven Retreat--grew stronger and more vigorous, intent of reestablishing the ancient elven kingdom of Eaerlann. The surface drow of the High Forest recognized the growing strength of the wood elves and realized that they had little but incessant warfare to look forward to.
After long and secret effort, the High Forest drow created a portal that led into Cormanthor--specifically into the Underdark near the Abbey of the Sword. Although the Tempus-worshipers deflected the Auzkovyn assault by destroying this first portal, the rest of the High Forest drow quickly forged a second to join their vanguard in the forests north of Battledale.
Unlike House Jaelre, the Auzkovyn clan does not wish to settle into old elf havens such as the Elven Court. The Auzkovyn feel most comfortable as woodland nomads. At various times, they range in large or small groups over nearly the whole of Cormanthor, setting up temporary camps on the ground, in the treetops, and sometimes in cave entrances to the Underdark.
Most of the Auzkovyn drow offer sacrifices to Vhaeraun, even if not all worship him as their patron deity. Unlike the other surface drow who’ve invaded Cormanthor, the Auzkovyn are willing to accept elves, half-elves, and possibly even Vhaeraun-worshiping humans into their clan, which may work to their advantage in the long run.
As Vhaeraun worshipers who aren’t set on occupying specific territory, the Auzkovyn drow get along fairly well with House Jaelre. Of course, for evil drow factions, “getting along well” means they don’t slit each other’s throats after they’ve hit each other with sleep-inducing arrows.
House Jaelre (7,945 drow): Decades ago, a house of Vhaeraun worshipers lost a civil war in Menzoberranzan. Calling themselves House Jaelre, they wandered the deep Underdark, too weak to retake their home city. Around the same time as the Auzkovyn clan came through the portal beneath the Abbey of Swords, House Jaelre drow found portals in the ruined gnome city of Blingdenstone that led into sections of Cormanthor once inaccessible thanks to Myth Drannor’s powerful mythal.
Unlike the Auzkovyn clan, House Jaelre drow seek to occupy the elves’ original homes, particularly the area around the Elven Court. They’re motivated in part by the hope that they can take over the elves’ original mythals and wards, then use the elven magic to keep out both elves and their own drow enemies.
A crafty drow sorcerer-rogue named Jezz the Lame heads the forces of House Jaelre charged with creating distractions in the Dales. These events help to keep the Dalesfolk’s attention away from developments in the old Elven Court. At the moment, Jezz is having great success slashing into Mistledale.
Spider-kissers (1,168 drow): This term is a catchall for Lolth-worshiping drow who splintered off the other groups or came into Cormanthor through other Underdark ways. They have no intention of permanently settling the surface. Rather, they plot to retake their home cities using the traditional drow engine of social change: civil war. The Lolth worshipers (Ssinssriggorbb) prefer to cluster around entrances to the Underdark, even if that does make them vulnerable to raiders from the Underdark cities.
Underdark Raiders: The Blingdenstone portals that allowed the House Jaelre drow to enter Cormanthor have also enabled ambitious Menzoberranzan commanders to follow. Menzoberranzan raiders switch between raiding their former comrades and raiding Dalesfolk. (The latter action has the bonus of being blamed by victims on the drow settling Cormanthor.)
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual))
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 2:01:34 GMT -5
Daggerdale
Capital: Dagger Falls Population: 28,041 (88% humans, 5% dwarves, 3% half-orcs, 2% gnomes, 1% halflings) Government: Lordship Religions: Lathander (Mielikki, Silvanus, Tempus) Imports: Armor, books, glass, jewelry, metalwork, paper, textiles, weapons Exports: Furs, meats, ores Alignments: LG, NG, N
Daggerfolk are known to be hard, grim, and unforgiving, largely because Zhentil Keep has been trying to claim their land for decades, seeking to rule this dale as a client state or smash it as Teshendale was ruined. In fact, Zhent agents ruled the dale for nearly thirty years, driving Randal Morn--the dale’s rightful lord--into an outlaw’s life in his own land.
Three years ago, Randal Morn (NG male human Ftr6/Rog4) overthrew the Zhent occupiers in his homeland and reclaimed his ancestors’ seat. Barely holding his war-torn community together in the face of Zhent aggression, Randal Morn is in no shape to help other dales with their problems.
Of all the dales, Daggerdale is the most likely to offer contracts and support to adventuring parties willing to fight Zhents, clean out monster-infested mines, rescue hostages taken by bandits, kill those same bandits, or travel into the mountains after predatory vampires. If Daggerdale is to survive, Randal Morn’s followers and hired agents must pacify the dale’s wildlands and drive out local monsters.
Life and Society
The years of Zhentarim occupation forced Daggerfolk farmers to put aside their plows and become hunters or herders. Venison and goats could be hidden from Zhent tax agents; fields planted with winter wheat and hardy cabbages could not.
Most Daggerdale communities keep their gates locked, opening them only to trusted friends or people vouched for by someone inside. Some still behave as if they were at war with the Zhents. It’s possible that the roughness of current Daggerdale society will smooth out over time, but Daggerfolk might also make themselves as ruthless as the Zhents in order to survive.
Major Geographical Features
Most of the land is rolling wooded hills broken by labyrinthine rocky valleys. It’s good grazing country for livestock, but large farms are confined to the region around Dagger Falls.
Border Forest: The Border Forest is the frontier connecting four different regions of Faerun: Daggerdale and the Dalelands to the south, the Moonsea and the Zhents’ Citadel of the Raven to the east, Anauroch to the west, and the Tortured Land to the north. The forest’s native inhabitants are fey, such as satyrs, pixies, grigs, and dryads. In part because of their constant fight with Zhent loggers working out of Snowmantle, Border Forest fey tend toward cruelty and violence instead of lighthearted capriciousness typical of fey farther south.
Dagger Hills: Some parts of the thick bracken of the Dagger Hills are not bandit country. Unfortunately, such areas are monster country--wolves, leucrottas, owl bears, lycanthropes, and even beholders hunt through the thick underbrush. In the years of Zhent occupation, cleared farmlands were reclaimed by nature--not by the forests to the south, but by the dense thickets and thorn fields of the northern hills. These plants are as resistance to fire as they are to human intrusion.
Desertsmouth Mountains: These rough mountains form the western border of the Dalelands and tower over the hills of Daggerdale. Now that the city of shade stands in the Shoals of Thirst, the Desertmouth Mountains shield the Dales from more than just the harsh winds of Anauroch.
The great dwarven kingdom of Tethyamar once occupied the Desertsmouths. Several hundred years ago, it fell to orcs, ogres, evil wizards, and fiends, and some of the last still lurk in the peaks. The last king of Tethyamar, Ghellin, died of old age in 1369 DR in Cormyr, still dreaming of retaking his lost realm.
Important Sites
The town of Dagger Falls is the cornerstone of Daggerdale. Most of the region’s important sites are in or near that town.
Constable’s Tower: Rebuilt many times over the past few centuries, this fortress near Dagger Falls is now so imposing that Randal Morn wishes to take it over as the new seat of his government. He is prevented by an ongoing magical cataclysm within the structure--a tempest of lightning bolt, fireball, disintegrate, and meteor storm spells occurring in alternating cycles with powerful magic that repairs the damage to the keep itself. Fools who step into the tower suffer from the damaging spells but are not helped by the repairing spells. Randal Morn would pay 5,000 gp and give land and a title to anyone who could make the keep livable.
Dagger Falls (Large Town, 2,804): They’re not pretty, but to the inhabitants of Daggerdale, the stone walls of Dagger Falls are the surest haven in a troubled land. The walled town sits just northwest of Dagger Ford, where the Tethyamar Trail crosses the River Tesh beneath the falls. The stone construction and steep slate roofs of the town’s buildings allow them to survive heavy winter snows.
Dagger Falls began as a strong site for dwarven metals being shipped down from the mountains to the southern lands. After all these years it’s still a frontier town, a place where everyone wears weapons and occasionally has cause to draw them in the public good (as well as in the pursuit of private quarrels).
Eagles’ Eyrie: Rising above Dagger Falls, this rocky knoll houses altars sacred to the Brightblade clan of dwarves, who sometimes return to make sacrifices. Any favors that can be done for the dwarves make Randal Morn happy, because his family’s prior relations with them amounted to a blood feud. He can’t afford this type of conflict if he wants to keep the town out of the hands of the Zhentarim.
Lathander’s Light: The temple to Lathander in Dagger Falls still smells of smoke from the fires that ruined it during the Zhent occupation. The Daggerfolk rebuilt the temple as a sign of their determination to heal the scars of the occupation. Lathander’s clergy are well-loved, not least because a sizable number of young priests from around the Dales come to Daggerdale to spread the Dawn Lord’s light where it’s most needed.
Regional History
Daggerdale began as the happy community of Merrydale. The community’s peace and prosperity ended bloodily during an infestation of vampires. People forced to stake their undead children found little merry about the dale from that point, and over a few years the appellation fell out of use. Daggerdale--a translation of the valley’s original name in the dwarven tongue--eventually supplanted the name of Merrydale.
Daggerdale prospered for a long time as a trading partner to the dwarven realm of Tethyamar. When that kingdom fell, Daggerdale came on hard times. Its bustling trade vanished, and Daggerdale became a rustic backwater, little troubled by events elsewhere in the Dalelands.
That changed in 1336 DR. Two decades after Teshendale fell to the Zhents, Daggerdale met the same fate. Randal Morn, the hereditary ruler of Daggerdale, was given into exile in the hills. For years, he fought a grim campaign against Zhent forces occupying the dale’s biggest town, Dagger Falls.
In 1353 DR, Randal Morn and his friends succeeded in killing Malyk, the puppet ruler the Zhents had installed to give the dale a show of autonomy. This only increased Zhentil Keep’s determination to keep the dale beneath its boot. The Zhents installed a series of constables and hired unsavory locals for the constabulary as an auxiliary to the Zhen garrison. The fight against Randal Morn’s guerillas in the hills appeared to go in the Zhent’s favor, so the constables made the most of their opportunities to lord it over their fellow Dalesfolk.
Morn’s personal war turned into an all-out battle in 1369 DR, when he succeeded in retaking the town of Dagger Falls, killing or driving off all the Zhents. The long battle left many scars--the war in Daggerdale was often a civil war, pitting Dalesfolk against Dalesfolk.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual))
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 2:05:01 GMT -5
Deepingdale
Capital: Highmoon Population: 50,239 (humans 70%, half-elves 20%, elves 9%) Government: Republic with elected lord Religions: Corellon Larethian, Oghma Imports: Cotton, fine manufactured items, silk, textiles, wool Exports: Fur, meat, timber Alignment: LG, NG, CG
Situated along the contested route between Cormyr and Sembia, Deepingdale could have gone down the road of the sword, the militaristic path chosen by Archendale and Scardale. But although its folk are battle-ready and its rulers are no strangers to combat, Deepingdale avoided Scardale’s obsession with conquest and Archendale’s preoccupation with power. Instead, Deepingdale remains true to its founding vision, the original Dalelands compact with the elves of Cormanthor, in which Dalesfolk were guests of the elves and join custodians of the mighty trees of the forest.
Other Dalesfolk and even some elves refer to Deepingdale as the Dale of the Trees. Unlike the farmers of other dales who thrive by clearing land, the folk of Deepingdale practice forestry in order to maintain the land’s original thick green blanket of vegetation. The woods of the human-occupied portions of Deepingdale are as well managed as the farms of Featherdale. Careful harvesting and cultivation of hedges, timberland, native game, and the land’s rich streams and rivers have turned the dale into a forest garden.
Life and Society
Of all Dalesfolk, the inhabitants of Deepingdale are probably the most tolerant and quietly welcoming. They tend to judge people by their actions rather than their words or looks, so adventurers who present themselves well can often make good friends in Deepingdale. On the other hand, adventurers who play games with the truth, or who persist in cutting trees or hunting where they should not, learn that the Deepingfolk can afford to be tolerant because they trust their ability to deal with people they view as threats. A large number of the Deepingfolk must for the local militia.
Major Geographical Features
More than any other dale, Deepingdale is woven into and around Cormanthor itself. The inhabitants of Deepingdale live in the shadow of the trees and in the lighter growth at the outskirts of the great forest.
The Blood Horn: Standing above the ruins of vanished Sessrendale like a great red tooth, this striking mountain is presently the home of a young adult red dragon named Thraxata. It is Deepingdale’s misfortune to be the closest dale to her lair. Thraxata usually hunts south and west toward Cormyr, but she has also looted and ravaged several caravans on the East Way. The dragon becomes ever more aggressive as her strength and power grow with the years.
Glaemril and Wineflow: Deepingdale is comprised of the lands around these streams and rivers. Both of them run swift and strong and have abundant salmon runs that nourish forest creatures as well as the people of the Highmoon. Any outsider who fishes for more than one salmon for his or her own meal is considered a bandit.
Lake Eredruie: This enchantingly beautiful pool is the headwaters of the Glaemril. Residents of Deepingdale, particularly the moon elves of Bristar who guard the waters from intruders, refer to this large-sized pond as a lake because its supernatural powers are far greater than its size. It is sacred to the elven deity Labelas Enoreth. Vials of the lake water function as cure light wounds spells (in potion form) for elves and half-elves only. The potency of the water lasts for up to a day after it is removed from the lake, although no one individual can benefit from more than three such draughts in a tenday--additional drinks have no effect.
Important Sites
Human settlements dot the busy road known as the East Way, from the Glaun Hills almost to the borders of old Sessrendale. The heart of this community, though, lies in the forests and glades of either side of the road.
Bristar (Village, 701): Just south of Lake Eredruie, the moon elf village of Bristar weathered the years of the Retreat by affirming its ties to Deepingdale instead of joining the nearby community of Semberholme in allegiance to the Elven Court. Now that the Retreat has ended, Bristar is one of the largest elven communities remaining in Cormanthor. Bristar contributes a company of archers to the Deepingdale militia while patrolling vigorously against drow scouts and raiders.
Darkwatch: North of the Glaemril, deep enough in the forest that only elves have good cause to stumble upon it, lies a long, dark rift in the forest floor marked by blackened and twisted trees. As far as the Elven Court and the magicians of the Dales can ascertain, at one time the rift was the prison of an enormously evil deity of decay and corruption. It is not known whether it was the now dead god Moander in one of its early forms or some other evil being. Neither is it known if the monster is still within its prison, for none have dared descend into the unnatural darkness between the rift’s steep sides.
What’s certain is that the rift is a nexus for evil spirits and dark gods. Madness infects forest creatures and magical beasts that stray into the area, sometimes driving them into a killing frenzy. Priests of Cyric, the Prince of Lies, relish the energies swirling around the rift. They visit the Darkwatch as a sort of unholy invigoration, though none stay for long. Even the Vhaeraunian drow shun the Darkwatch.
Highmoon (Large Town, 3,505): After Silverymoon in the far north, Highmoon is the most integrated human, elven, and half-elven town in Faerun. The city is only three hundred years old and growing fast. Before the advent of the Vhaeraunian drow, plans to expand the city’s walls bogged down because of a lack of support for military preparedness against hypothetical enemies. Now that the Auzkovyn drow of the High Forest haunt the southern reaches of Cormanthor, expansion and fortification of Highmoon’s walls is proceeding apace.
Leaves of Learning: Rising even higher than Lord Ulath’s Tower of the Rising Moon, this temple to Oghma in Highmoon contains one of the finest libraries of Faerun. The temple library eschews all books upon magic in favor of subjects unconnected to the Art. Consequently the temple’s collection has grown without suffering unduly from the attentions of overly inquisitive wizards.
Outsiders may examine books for 15 gp per volume--a stiff price, but a better bargain than it might appear because the library has an excellent index, the unique vision of its high priest, Danali the Indexer (LG male human Clr9 of Oghma). As a result, a researched can usually identify right away the book or books he needs, without having to pay to look at volumes that don’t have the information he wants. Clerics and initiates of Oghma pay only 1 gp per volume, a price that applies only to themselves and not to inquisitive friends.
Moonrise Hill (Village, 818): Like the folk of Bristar, the elves of this village that lies just a few miles northeast of Lake Eredruie serve in the Swords of Deepingdale, the Dale’s unofficial and seldom-gathered militia. The Moonrise Hill elves are more standoffish than the elves of Bristar. Adventurers are not welcome visitors to Moonrise Hill and should practice their arrow-dodging skills.
Rhauntides’s Tower: Until 1371 DR, this small hexagonal tower on the top of Spell Hill in Highmoon was the home of the sage of Deepingdale, the renowned wizard Rhauntides. He died of old age, leaving his possessions to Theremen Ulath (NG male moon half-elf Ftr7), the ruler of Highmoon. Ulath has moved them to strong rooms in the Tower of the Rising Moon. Shaunil Tharm, the apprentice of Rhauntides, took the wizard’s magic belt of stars and set off on a secret mission, and she has not been seen since.
To everyone’s surprise, Rhauntides bequeathed the tower itself to an energetic Waterdhavian monk he befriended when the latter was passing through Deepingdale as an adventurer. The monk, Teesha Than (LG female human Mnk11/Exp1), has started a small monastery in Rhauntides’s Tower. It is the first monastery of the Old Order in the Dalelands. The locals were wary at first, but they now realize that the monks training with Teesha are good neighbors.
Tower of the Rising Moon: Lord Theremen Ulath’s black-walled stronghold graces the high ground within Highmoon’s walls. As a fortress that has never had to fight off a serious attack, it is known more for the good humor of its lord, the marvels of its interior architecture, and the joys of its splendid feasts than for any martial strength.
This is just as Ulath wishes it. Lulled by tales of the tower’s wonders (hanging plants in an atrium open to the stars but somehow shielded from heavy rain, and a stunning map of the Dalelands carved into a huge wooden table in the central Starfall Chamber), attackers might underestimate the fortress’s capabilities. It was built in 1022 DR by the half-elf hero Aglauntaras and conceals unusual defenses and weaponry, most nonmagical.
Regional History
Deepingdale was founded by the half-elf sorcerer Imryll Eluarshee. Known as the Deeping Princess, Imryll forged a society in which humans, half-elves, and elves could join in a common vision centered on the elven ways and lore of living in the great forest without destroying it in human fashion.
Deepingdale’s relationship with the elves and the Elven Court has always been cordial and has gotten better over the centuries. Half-elf ancestry is a point of pride among the Deepingfolk. Even during the peak of the elven Retreat, Ulath and the other half-elves and humans of Deepingdale maintained excellent relations with the elven communities of Bristar and Moonrise Hill.
Unlike other Dalesfolk leaders who have mixed feelings about the end of the Retreat, Lord Ulath extends a warm welcome to elves who wish to settle in Deepingdale or fight against the Vhaeraunian drow for their ancestral homes in Cormanthor. Ulath even welcomes drow worshipers of Eilistraee, judging that they may have the best access to magic capable of turning back the followers of Vhaeraun and Lolth.
Access to potent magic is a special concern of Ulath’s since the passing of his trusted advisor, the wizard Rhauntides. Skillful and wise magicians can find employment with Ulath while he searches for Rhauntides’s successor.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 2:05:59 GMT -5
Featherdale
Capital: None Population: 14,020 (84% humans, 11% halflings, 2% half-elves, 2% gnomes) Government: Democracy Religions: Lathander (and Cyric) Imports: Armor, fine manufactured goods, weapons, oil Exports: Cheese, corn, grain, salted meat, vegetables Alignments: NG, N, CG
Featherdale survives as a relatively innocent pastoral farmland while more powerful dales around it crumble into anarchy or arm themselves for arm. Occupying the lowlands north of the Ashaba between Blackfeather Bridge in the west and Feather Falls in the east, Featherdale has muddled through all the eras of Dalelands history without possessing a ruler, capital, standing army, or sizable town.
The Featherdarrans’ chief virtues are resilience, common sense, brawn, and a natural aptitude for farming. Sembians, in particular, think that these qualities qualify Featherdarrans as ideal fellow citizens, but Sembia has failed to annex Featherdale there times and has turned its attention elsewhere.
Life and Society
Most Featherdarrans are farmers. The young folk of the dale seem content to settle alongside their parents without every going forth to see the world other than an occasional visit to Essembra, Shadowdale, or, for the daring, what’s left of Scardale.
The Featherdarrans’ only political gatherings are infrequent four- or five-day meeting called Dalemeets. These free-for-all debate sessions are held in Feather Falls to settle disputes or problems that affect Featherdale’s inhabitants. Anyone can participate in a Dalemeet.
Featherdarrans are known to hold grudges. Few in Featherdale suffer a Red Wizard to walk unmolested through their dale, because ten years ago two Red Wizards murdered Featherdale’s resident wizard. On the other hand, if Featherdarrans held a grudge against every group that had done them wrong, they’d be an extremely surly lot. For the most part, they don’t hold Sembia’s occasional attempted coups against individual Sembians, or pin responsibility for Lashan of Scardale’s invasion of Featherdale on Scardalefolk.
Featherdarrans settle personal disputes in time honored fashion, usually by talking in the presence of respected elder farmers. Around sixty years ago, blood feuds rippled across this valley as several families became embroiled in a bitter dispute over contested land. The families involved in the feuding exhausted themselves until the surviving members were run off toward the Moonsea by a local family of bards and sorcerers who’d had enough.
Major Geographical Features
Featherdale isn’t technically a dale, since it is lowland and not a valley like other Dalelands. Featherdale occupies rich farming lands within the sweep of the River Ashaba as it flows east toward the Sea of Fallen Stars. Unlike other Dalesfolk, Featherdarrans have little to do with the elven woods.
Feather Falls: This waterfall is the eastern border between Featherdale and Scardale. The water cascades in a series of drops from the Featherdale flood plain down into the Scar, the gorge that gives Scardale its name. Boats and barges can’t go up or down the falls, but the salmon that spawn far up the River Ashaba can reach the top of the falls after a day-long struggle through all the small drops and eddying pools that comprise its jumbled face.
River Ashaba: This great river flows out of the Storm Horns near Daggerdale, through Shadowdale, and onward toward the Sea of Fallen Stars through Cormanthor, Mistledale, Battledale, Featherdale, and finally the Scar and Scardale itself.
Featherdale’s social and economic life centers on the River Ashaba. Transportation and communication across the dale usually go by the river, in small keelboats manned by men and women who make their living poling up and down the Ashaba. In centuries past, the river’s spring floods overwhelmed the dale’s farmlands, but elaborate dikes and long-practiced magic now prevent these floods from doing much damage.
Important Sites
All of Featherdale’s citizens put together amount to a small town in Sembia or Cormyr. For the most part, Featherdale is a region that citizens of the Heartlands know only as a wide and pleasant stretch of road in between regions of greater significance.
Blackfeather Bridge (Village, 818): The rapidly growing settlement of Blackfeather Bridge surrounds a bridge of the same name across the River Ashaba. The bridge, like the growing town, has been updated considerably since its first incarnation as a ramshackle wooden span painted black to increase travelers’ confidence in its sturdiness. It’s now a stone bridge, guarded occasionally by self-appointed Featherdarran youths on the lookout for Red Wizards and Cyricists. Should any by spotted, the young folk are prepared to ride into the hills for help. Featherdarrans know that priests of Cyric view the bridge as a sacred site, but few know why. (It’s because here, the deity of murder killed Leira, the former goddess of illusion.) Cyric’s priests visit the bridge to pray and make auspicious sacrifices.
Cholandrothipe’s Tower: The wizard Cholandrothipe wielded powerful spells that allowed him to shrink entire boats and move them around Feather Falls without carrying their cargo over the portage. A few years ago, Red Wizards of Thay slew Cholandrothipe, possibly because he refused to share his spells or because they wanted any treasure he had accumulated in his tower.
The Thayans entered the slender tower near Feather Falls, but magical guardians and traps sent them feeling for their lives. Since then, adventurers entering the Tower have reported extensive underground passages and grisly laboratories that indicate that Cholandrothipe was less benevolent than the people of Feather Falls had believed.
Feather Falls (Village, 584): This town by the waterfall used to be the largest settlement in Featherdale, but that title is now held by Blackfeather Bridge. Feather Falls is the standard mooring point for the small keelboats that ply the Ashaba. Now that Cholandrothipe is dead, boatloads of cargo are carried up or down the portage beside the falls.
Temple Beneath the Falls: Depending on who you ask, the secret grottoes beneath the water and boulders of Feather Falls are either stories to entertain children and credulous adventurers, or actual lairs for traveling cultists, smugglers, and sorcerous outlaws. Some locals pronounce “Temple Beneath the Falls” in portentous tones as a joke, but others don’t find the idea funny.
Regional History
Like Mistledale, Featherdale has enjoyed a slightly charmed existence. Whereas Mistledale has entirely avoided occupation by hostile forces, Featherdale’s luck consists of surviving such episodes relatively unscathed. When Lashan of Scardale conquered Featherdale, the Featherdarrans laid low for months and counted on their carefully cultivated friendships with other Dalesfolk to save them in the end. As long as Featherdarrans remain generous to their neighbors and reliable members of the Dales Council, their numerous family ties with militarily stronger dales may be sufficient to keep them from being overtaken by a power such as Sembia.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 2:06:49 GMT -5
Harrowdale
Capital: Harrowdale Town Population: 42,061 (humans 90%, half-elves 5%, elves 4%) Government: Republic (plutocracy) Religions: Chauntea, Mystra, Oghma, Tymora (Malar, Mielikki, Silvanus) Imports: Glassware, lace, ore, paper, silk, spices, tools, weapons Exports: Ale, beef, cheese, fruit, furs, lumber, mutton, wool Alignments: LG, LN, NG
As the oldest surviving dale, Harrowdale has learned to tend to its own affairs, respect its neighbors, and care for its land--both the cleared lands of its farmers and the woodlands it considers borrowed from the elves. Until recently, Dalesfolk would have described citizens of Harrowdale as conservative country folk, much like the Featherdarrans to the south. Harrowdale Town’s growth into a large port has changed that image.
Life and Society
Scardale’s misfortunes have transformed neighboring Harrowdale in the space of only ten short years. Harrowdale Town can now claim to be the best, if not quite the largest, port into the Dales. The folk of Harrowdale Town are more worldly than their parents and more interested in entertaining visitors from the outside world. Unlike the opportunists of Archenbridge, the new entrepreneurs of Harrowdale Town have not fallen far from their dale’s core values, preferring a well-measured plan to risky speculation.
The country folk have changed little. Like the Deepingfolk, the Harrans of the countryside often live among the trees. Harrans are not as connected to the Elven Court as the Deepingfolk, but they are sympathetic to druids, rangers, and others who share the elves’ bond with the land.
Harrowdale’s rulers are the Council of Seven Burghers, the seven wealthiest folk of the dale. A Burgher holds his or her position for life, and upon a death in the Council, the Harrans appoint the wealthiest non-Burgher to fill the seat.
Major Geographical Features
Harrowdale’s borders can’t be missed: Cormanthor to the north, the Dragon Reach to the east, and the Cold Field to the southwest. The dale itself is mostly farmlands, which turn to orchards closer to the sea and to the Velarswood at its center.
The Cold Field: South of Harrowdale and north of Scardale, this treeless moor is haunted by the spirits of warriors who fell in dozens of battles here. In summertime, shepherds of Harrowdale and rural Scardale graze their sheep along the high grass, since the sheep care less than the shepherds about the spirits sleeping restlessly in the unmarked graves beneath the hills. In winter, only fools venture into the Cold Field’s confines.
Velarswood: Harrowdale’s woodcutters and loggers stay on the fringes of this ancient wood. Cloakers, trolls, stirges, bonebats, and more dangerous predators hunt the interior of the forest, and they are hunted in turn by worshipers of Eilistraee who have a hidden temple in the wood’s northern reaches. The drow who worship the Dark Maiden spend much of their time in Cormanthor now, fighting against the Vhaeraunian drow, but they don’t leave the temple unguarded.
Important Sites
The significant sites in Harrowdale are in Harrowdale Town on the coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars.
Halvan’s Keep: The former residence of Harrowdale Town’s hated tyrant, this burnt-out ruin on the outskirts of Harrowdale Town clings stubbornly to its secrets, including Halvan’s supposed treasure trove. It’s an open secret that the 50-gp fine assessed by the town watch to anyone coming out of the ruin does nothing but keep young Harrans from venturing into the old castle’s grounds for a lark. Secret organizations, dark brotherhoods, monkish sects, monster summoners, and adventurers are still drawn to the ruined keep like rats to darkness.
Harrowdale Town (Large Town, 4,206): It’s a testament to the Harrowdale way of doing business that the bustle of new activity in this port town’s harbor hasn’t been allowed to overshadow the village’s other charms. Some of Harrowdale’s noteworthy buildings are left over from the town’s previous era of prosperity, six to seven hundred years ago.
The Council of the Seven Burghers runs a tight ship. The constabulary is run by Ellarian Dawnhorn (LG female sun elf Ftr5/Wiz4). She has little love for adventurers and even less love for Sembian adventurers. Adventurers who can stay out of Ellarian’s way have more luck at the town’s temples and with the general populace. Harrans have nothing against adventurers, as long as the latter solve problems instead of create them.
House of Mystra: All three temples in Harrowdale Town frequently sponsor or aid adventurers. The clerics of the temple to Tymora enjoy gambling on adventurers’ luck, sponsoring numerous groups to find relics blessed by the goddess. The temple to Oghma helps adventuring groups for free. The House of Mystra wishes to attract the goodwill of adventuring companies. Sadly for the temple’s high priest, Llewan Aspen old (NG female human Clr11 of Mystra), Harrowdale has turned out to be a poor site for a temple to Mystra. The old Harrans do not trust wizards or other practitioners of the Art, and the younger generation lacks magical aptitude--few Harrans possess the basic talents required for successful study of the Art. The temple relies on the patronage of travelers, merchants, other outsiders, and customers of the Fall of Stars tavern.
Regional History
In the first centuries of the Dalelands, Harrowdale was named Velarsdale after its founder, whose name also graces the Velarswood. In those days, Velarsdale was ruled by chaotic lords and was every bit as disorganized as modern Featherdale. A tyrant named Halvan taught the Velarsfolk that disorganization could cost them their freedom. After Halvan’s mad (and fatal) quest to carve Halfaxe Trail into the heart of the Elven Court, the folk of the dale renamed themselves and instituted their current form of self-government, a ruling council comprised of the seven richest merchants of Harrowdale Town.
Within the last twenty years, Scardale’s careen through disaster after disaster has opened the way for Harrowdale to become a major Dalelands port. The resulting economic boom is tempered by several factors. Several of the Seven Burghers aren’t keen on encouraging other Harrans to become richer than they are. Nor are they keen on blatantly exploiting new economic opportunities for their own gain. Hence, Harrowdale’s economic policies emphasize sustainable and wise growth instead of quick profits. This suit’s the Harrans, who are happy to have more gold in their pockets but less keen on sharing their space with the Sembian opportunists, Moonsea con artists, and Archenfolk who sniff down the trail of bigger profits.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 2:08:26 GMT -5
High Dale
Capital: Highcastle Population: 8,179 (humans 86%, gnomes 10%, half-elves 3%) Government: Republic with elected High Constable *Religions: Gods of the Dancing Place Imports: Armor, books, metalwork, paper, textiles, weapons Exports: Copper Alignments: LG, LN, NG
Those who were born in High dale swear by its crisp air, its splendid views of the Thunder Peaks between Cormyr and Sembia, and its citizens’ self-sufficient, self-determined lifestyles as shepherds, small farmers, crafts folk, or stonecutters. Those not born in High Dale regard it as nothing more than a convenient or strategic mountain pass just barely below the tree line.
Life and Society
The people of High Dale have one huge advantage over their lowland cousins: Except for their land’s strategic importance as a pass between Cormyr and Sembia, they don’t have anything anyone else wants.
The Highdalefolk live relatively free of the political intrigues and mercantile competition that frequently intrude in the lowland Dales. Vigilance against monsters that don’t care about politics and economics is always necessary, but if simple lives are happy lives, the people of High Dale are happy.
High Dale’s peacefulness may be nearing an end, though. During the Time of Troubles, Zhent mercenaries occupied the dale. More recently, several powerful Sembian merchant-princes have taken note of Cormyr’s troubles and entertain ideas of invasion. If this should come to pass, High Dale is a perfect route by which a flanking army might penetrate Cormyr and trap any forces committed to defending the plains south of the Vast Swamp.
Major Geographical Features
Some maps fail to note High Dale’s existence, tucked as it is just below the main section of the Thunder Peaks and just north of the splinter of that range that runs alongside the Vast Swamp of Cormyr to the west. The main area of High Dale is a high plateau suitable for farming. The Highdalefolk supplement the land of the plateau by carving terraces into the mountains alongside.
High Dale’s pass has three hidden valleys branching off to its sides: Copper Gulp, the Dancing Place, and Hidden Vale. Casual travelers seldom see these lands, which are not much settled by Dalesfolk. The Dancing Place, though, has some powerful human and nonhuman inhabitants.
Copper Gulp: Copper delving riddle this small valley. Roughly half are still actively mined. If any of the copper mines intersect with the Underdark, the miners don’t know it yet.
Hidden Vale: Centuries ago, with the blessing of the Highdalefolk, gnomes settled in this difficult-to-find valley. Depending on the season, humans who pass through the valley are too taken by its innumerable alpine wildflowers (late summer and fall) or its swirling fogs (other seasons) to notice the gnomes’ homes, tucked back among the trees and boulders of the vale’s walls. The gnomes participate in the life of High Dale, but until the Time of Troubles they had little to do with the world beyond the dale. After Gond manifested as a gnome during the Time of Troubles in 1358 DR, several of the younger gnomes of the Vale left its comforts to seek adventure. Friends left behind often try to coax news of their friends from traveling adventurers.
Wyvernfang: North and east of the rest of the dale, this mighty spur of the Thunder Peaks is a notoriously dangerous wyvern roost. More than a dozen wyverns of varying ages lair upon the mountain. At least one of them possesses above average intelligence and organizational skills. The wyverns keep lookouts posted for aerial intruders. Even stranger, small herds of ill-kept sheep can be found hidden in pockets of the Thunder Peaks that are accessible only by air. Monster slayers speculate that they wyverns provide themselves with a renewable food source by allowing some of the animals they steal to breed in isolated mountaintop pens. They also speculate on the disposition of the treasure belonging to the hundreds of wyvern victims ambushed along the Thunder Way.
Important Sites
High Dale lays claim to one shining spot on the great map of Faerun; the Dancing Place, a valley sacred to the major gods who ask their worshipers to make the world a better place.
Arrowpoint: The Pegasus Archery Company, a mercenary band from outside the dale, built this earthen strongpoint just outside the town of Highcastle. As a condition of basing themselves in High Dale, the members of the company had to agree to be magically bound not to take up arms against the dale or attempt to rule it. Given the Company’s remote location, it pays low rates to those who wish to join, but its members can provide excellent training.
The Dancing Place: The third of the hidden valleys of High Dale, just a few miles north and west of Highcastle, is preserved as a sacred garden by clerics of Mielikki, Mystra, Oghma, Selune, and Silvanus. The site is sacred to humans and elves; more than a dozen human and elven deities manifested here in 720 DR to inspire the founding of the Harpers. Elves and Harpers come to the Dancing Place as pilgrims, though the agreements they made with their gods prevent them from staying here long. Other agreements related to the Dancing Place call upon Cormyr to defend High Dale if it is threatened.
Highcastle (Village, 818): Only a few of the shops and taverns in High Dale’s biggest settlement stay open all through the winter, since most travelers have enough sense to avoid Thunder Way in bad weather. Highcastle endured hard times during the brief Zhent occupation, losing the few riches its wealthier citizens had accumulated.
High Castle: This castle with the same name as the town it guards is partly ruined by rocks rolling down from the mountains above it. The castle’s ballistas and catapults still command excellent fields of fire down upon Thunder Way and the rest of the dale. The Zhent attack in 1358 DR bypassed the castle’s defenses by coming in through a magical portal.
Thunder Way: This wagon track cuts from Thunderstone in Cormyr up into High Dale, then down again to the small city of Saerb in Sembia. Few travel the Thunder Way, which is rougher and less direct than the preferred route through Daerlun to the south or Thunder Gap to the north, but it’s the closest thing High dale has to a major trade route.
Regional History
Compared to Archendale, Battledale, and Shadowdale, High Dale has had little to do with pivotal moments in the history of the Dalelands. High Dale is noteworthy for what has not taken place within its borders. Despite occasional posturing and skirmishes, Cormyr and Sembia have not fought a war over control of this dale’s high pass through the Thunder Peaks.
Historians outside High Dale judge only two events in its history as worthy of mention: the manifestation of over a dozen of Faerun’s mightiest deities at the Dancing Place, six centuries in the past, and the recent occupation of High Dale by the forces of Zhentil Keep during the Time of Troubles. Elminster and the Rangers Three eliminated the Zhents before they could do lasting harm, and Highdalefolk are happy to leave history’s stage and return to the quiet lives they love.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual
* “Gods of the Dancing Place” - I believe they mean Mielikki, Mystra, Oghma, Selune, Silvanus, and the Seldarine (or most of them). If anyone can refute this, please PM me so I can correct!
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 2:09:56 GMT -5
MistledaleCapital: Ashabenford Population: 27,807 (humans 87%, dwarves 5%, gnomes 3%, halflings 2%, half-elves 2%) Government: Republic Religions: Chauntea, Moradin, Silvanus, Tyr Imports: Manufactured items, oil, ores, textiles Exports: Ale, beets, cheese, grain, hay, meat, potatoes, vegetables Alignments: LG, NG, CG Thousands of years ago, the heavens ensured Mistledale’s future prosperity when a falling star plowed a hundred-mile-long, thirty-mile-wide swath through the elven woods. The trees never regrew in the scar where the star had fallen, but the land proved amazingly fertile once Dalesfolk put it to the plow. Mistledale has always been the lucky dale--blessed with fertile land, protected from foes such as the Zhentil Keep and Sembia by intervening dales or the Elven Court, and occupying excellent trade routes between larger areas like Cormyr and the Moonsea. Life and SocietyLife is good in Mistledale, or at least it was until the present struggle against the drow of the forest. The dale has no lord; instead, six elected Councilors serve as its governing body. The Council of Six chooses a seventh Mistran who serves as the high councilor, bears a black rod as a sign of office and commands the Riders of Mistledale. The present high councilor is Haresk Malorn (LG male human Exp6/Ftr2), a quiet merchant known more for his wisdom and compassion than his martial skill. Haresk is doing an excellent job of keeping his people calm in the face of danger, but he worries that he might have to step down to make room for a true warrior. Mistledale is a widely spread dale. Its small settlements can see each other across the gently rolling hills, except in the mornings and evenings when mist from the river rises to fill the valley. For communication across the dale, each hamlet is equipped with special bells designed to penetrate the fog. Each bell carries different messages of alarm or inquiry. These sounds are understood by long-term residents of the dale but a mystery to outsiders. Major Geographical FeaturesMistledale occupies the clear valley along both sides of the Moonsea Ride, east of Peldan’s Helm and west of the spot where the forest closes in some three miles before the Standing Stone. The River Ashaba cuts across the center of the dale, crossed by the Moonsea Ride at the excellent natural ford at Ashabenford. Of all the Dales, Mistledale is closest to the ancient ruins of Myth Drannor. Forest trails, somewhat dangerous at times, lead to Shadowdale and to Essembra to the east. The Barrowfields: Located at the western end of the dale, the Barrowfields earn their name from the dead warriors buried in the long lines of low, grass-covered hills throughout the area. The ancient Netherese wizard-warrior corpses here have a disturbing tendency to manifest unusually deadly undead powers. Beast Country: The western end of Mistledale has always been dangerous, thanks to a seemingly indestructible population of bugbears, orcs, goblins, and other obnoxious creatures coming down out of the Thunder Peaks into the softer climate of the Dales. It’s a great spot for rangers and other skillful hunters, but less of an attraction to normal folk. The arrival of the House Jaelre drow has not improved the country’s reputation. Important SitesFiercely independent homesteaders and freeholders occupy most of Mistledale. Hundreds of small farmsteads dot the vale, but there are few real villages. Abbey of the Golden Sheaf: Like Goldenfields in the Sword Coast North, this temple to Chauntea doubles as a walled farm. The Abbey of the Golden Sheaf is not as large as Goldenfields, covering only three square miles, but its twelve segmented fields yield the greatest harvests per acre in all of human Faerun. It’s said that the Abbey has enough stored food to feed all the Dales for years. The clerics of Chauntea who oversee the Abbey wield great power and influence throughout Mistledale. Ashabenford (Small Town, 1,869): Ashabenford is the largest town in Mistledale, the market center for its widespread farmers, and as generally pleasant a place as anyone could hope to visit. The House Jaelre drow of Cormanthor have begun a campaign of fast raids and skirmishing to weaken the folk of Ashabenford and distract them from the new drow strongholds rising in the Elven Court. The cottages, homes, and businesses along the east bank of the River Ashaba weren’t built for defense--and defense is what Ashabenford needs most now. The map of Ashabenford on the following page illustrates a typical Dalelands village. Numbered Locations are described below. 1. White Hart Inn: Under the proprietorship of the retired adventurer Holfast Harpenshield (NG male human Ftr9), this inn serves all folk of good heart passing through Ashabenford. Holfast is especially fond of good adventurers and gladly shares information and advice with any who seek it. He’s also not above throwing a Sembian or Moonsea merchant out on the street if he decides he doesn’t like the visitor’s looks or manners. Lodgings cost 1 gp per night. 2.) Thorm’s Mill: Thorm Ubler (NE male human Exp3) is a miserly man who gladly lines his pockets as the owner of the only mill in Mistledale. Heldo and Parvus, his two good-for-nothing sons, are the town braggarts and bullies (both CE male human War5), although they have somehow avoided being caught at anything serious enough to get themselves run out of town or worse. 3.) Kaulvaeras Stables: At one of the better stables in the Dalelands, Kaulvaeras Greymantle (LN male moon half-elf Exp2/Ftr2) maintains a fine selection of riding horses and ponies. He also trains and breeds warhorses, although he only has 1d4-2 light warhorses and 1d4-3 heavy warhorses for sale in his stable in any given tenday. 4. Lhuin’s Fine Leathers: Lhando Lhuin (NG male human Exp2) is an outstanding worker of leather. His goods are unusually inexpensive but well made, averaging about 10% less than the listed cost in the Player’s Handbook. 5. The Velvet Veil: This small taproom and festhall is hardly worth the appellation when compared to the perfumed dens of such large cities as Waterdeep or Suzail. The entertainers and servants here pick up news from all corners of the Dalelands from whoever happens to be passing through. 6. Temple of Tyr: Raised only three years ago, this large and impressive temple marks Ashabenford as a more important community than the traveler might expect. The High Priest Nerval Watchwill (LG male human Clr7 of Tyr) distrusts adventurers, and he is currently spending his time and effort aiding the Riders in defending the town against the Cormanthor drow raids. 7. The Ashabenford Arms: Older and more ostentatious than the White Hart, the Arms charges 1 gold and 6 silvers per night, but provides luxurious service by Dalelands standards. 8. Shrine to Chauntea: Now somewhat dwarfed by the newer and larger temple of Tyr, this small shrine is maintained by a priest named Jhanira Barasstan (NG female human Clr6 of Chauntea). 9. Arhlo’s Fine Flasks: A brewery and distillery of some local note and exceptional quality, this business is run by a quiet, self-effacing man named Arhlo of Arabel (LG male human Exp4) 10. Multhimmer the Merchant: Multhimmer (CN male human Rog7) runs a general trading post, buying and selling almost anything. He occasionally deals in stolen goods, although he is careful not to traffic in goods stolen from locals. 11. Braunstar Wheelwright: The epitome of the stolid, thoughtful Dalesman with a tremendous store of common sense, Braun star (LN male human Ftr1/Exp6) makes and repairs all kinds of wagons and carts. 12. Jarwain’s Imports: Specializing in silks, spices, cottons, and lace imported from Cormyr, this small store is run by Jarwain (CE male moon half-elf Exp3) himself, a handsome fellow with fiery eyes and a soft-spoken manner. Jarwain’s goods have steadily climbed in price of late, due to the unrest and disruption of trade in war-torn Cormyr. 13. Horsewater Pool: An open well serving all passersby, the Horsewater Pool is a local gathering place for neighborly gossip. 14. Haresk’s Pool: Local legends hold that a bandit captain of old hid a great treasure at the bottom of this pool. Every so often someone tries to dredge it up and finds nothing more interesting than muck and weeds. 15. House of the High Councilor: High Councilor of Mistledale Haresk Malorn owns a general store in the town and considerable lands nearby. He is no warrior or great lord, but he’s an honest and wise merchant who is well liked by folk in the town. Haresk’s house is the largest in Ashabenford, so the dale’s Council of Six uses it as a seat of government. Plans to build a separate council building or hall have gathered dust for years, since no one really wants to pay for an expensive public building. 16. Black Eagle Coster: Iletian Blackeagle (LN male human Ftr3) buys local grain, cheese, ale, and barrels of salted meat for sale in Hillsfar and Harrowdale. 17. Almaes the Alchemist: Almaes (NG male gnome Wiz3/Exp3), more properly known as Almaestaddamir Auldcastle, produces and sells a variety of useful alchemical mixtures, including tanglefoot bags, sunrods, acid, antitoxin, and the occasional batch of smoke powder. He cheerfully proposed to build a machine for flinging kegs of smoke powder into battle as a surprise for the next band of drow troublemakers, but High Councilor Haresk politely declined. 18. Jhaer Brightsong’s House: A restless traveler, Jhaer Brightsong (CG female moon elf Brd6) is very rarely at home. She is known as the best minstrel in Mistledale, but she spends her time wandering all the Dales, and some of the nearby lands as well. She delights in stories of old magic and doom averted, and sometimes aids adventurers who share their tales with her. 19. Noristuor the Mage: Renowned for his habitual sour manner, sharp tongue, and frightening appearance, the wizard Noristuor (N male tiefling Wiz8) took up residence in Ashabenford to avoid stupid interruptions in his researches--which he explains loudly in profane terms to anyone causing said interruptions. The folk of Ashabenford don’t like Noristuor, but he keeps to himself and on rare occasions consents to work magic for the town’s benefit. 20. Barracks of the Riders: This walled compound is the headquarters of the Riders of Mistledale. The Riders train Ashabenford’s militia in the courtyard and use the small keep house as the town jail. Troublemakers are likely to be imprisoned here until the High Councilor decides what to do with them. 21. Arvien’s House: This is the home of Arvien Blackhair (LE female human Exp2/Rog4), a tin and pewtersmith with a reputation as the nosiest person in town. Arvien is actually a Zhent spy who carefully watches the activities of the council and the movements of the Riders. She is very good at her job, and the townsfolk, ignorant of her duplicitous mission, have suggested she might make a good Councilor. The Dark Road: This little-traveled forest path cuts through Cormanthor to Essembra. It would be traveled more often by nonelven if it didn’t come so close to the Vale of Lost Voices. For the Mistrans, the only consolation about the proximity of the Vale of Lost Voices is that the place is even harder on drow than on humans. Luring drow pursuers into the Vale wouldn’t be a bad tactic if the fleeing person cared more about hurting the drow than saving his or her own skin. Galath’s Roost: Some fifteen miles from Glen, a couple miles inside Cormanthor, this ruined bandit’s keep is rumored to hold great treasure. The tales are enough to draw occasional adventuring parties. None have found the great treasure said to lie somewhere in the flooded tunnels beneath the keep, but more than one has had to fight against villains and monsters searching for something themselves. Glen (Village, 701): This dwarven village of stone-and-thatch cottages has a secret. The “Deep Mine” on the outskirts of town isn’t a mine at all, but a tunnel into the Underdark. It allows the dwarves of Glen to trade with their fellows as far away as the Great Rift, via an amazing Underdark tunnel called the Long Road that runs south under the entire length of the Sea of Fallen Stars. The secret of Deep Mine has started to leak into general Mistledale community. Mistrans might be more concerned about the Underdark connection if they weren’t already fighting off the Auzkovyn and House Jaelre drow. At least Glen’s dwarves do a good job of policing their Underdark passageways, unlike some worshipers of Tempus in Battledale that the Mistrans could name. Peldan’s Helm (Hamlet, 210): This tiny village of stone-walled cottages is humanity’s foothold in the Beast Country at Mistledale’s western end. Hunters from Sembia, Cormyr, and elsewhere in Faerun come here to track magnificent prizes. Some hunters end up as prey themselves. Regional HistoryThough sometimes overlooked by those who keep an eye on the armed strength of the Dalelands, the Mistrans are anything but soft. As recently as 1356 DR, the Riders of Mistledale (with a little help) defeated Lashan of Scardale and his army. In war, as in peace, Mistledale has had a charmed career. In the current year, some say that Mistledale’s luck may have finally run out. Of all the Dales, Mistledale is suffering the most from pressure brought to bear by the Vhaeraunian drow in Cormanthor. It used to be that only the western side of Mistledale was subject to monstrous incursions, but now the entire dale is on edge, never knowing where the next fight with the drow may flare up. The Riders who turned back the Zhents’ seven-thousand-strong warrior army during the Time of Troubles have had less success against the drow. Unlike the Zhents, the drow are fighting a campaign of stealth and sudden retreat. Mistledale’s defenders do not yet know that several different groups of drow live in Cormanthor, or that their principle antagonists are the drow under the command of Jezz of House Jaelre. ((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 2:11:02 GMT -5
Scardale
Capital: Chandlerscross Population: 125,015 (94% humans, 3% half-orcs, 2% halflings) Government: Republic (anarchy) Religions: Tempus, Tymora Imports: Illicit substances, manufactured goods, oil Exports: Ale, grain, vegetables Alignments: LN, N, CE
Shattered by wars it started, occupation by its enemies, and a horrible plague, Scardale might have gone the way of Teshendale. Scardalefolk, though, are made of sturdy stuff. In order to put their dale back on its feet, they have washed their hands of their former capital, the port of Scardale Town where the Ashaba empties into the Sea of Fallen Stars.
Scardale Town is in virtual anarchy, but the other major towns of the dale--Scarsdeep and Chandlerscross--are recovering from the disasters that beset Scardale over the last fifteen years and are slowly rebuilding the dale’s strength. Meanwhile, the Sembians and the Zhents are the most powerful factions in Scardale Town.
Life and Society
The port of Scardale Town has yet to recover from the triple blows of the defeat in Mistledale, the occupation, and the plague. Power has shifted away from the port town to the farming and mercantile communities of the interior, especially since many common folk fled Scardale Town to live with relatives farther inland.
The present government of the dale is a nine-person council. The nominal head of the council is Provisional Governor Khelvos Dermen (LN male human Ftr5/Clr4 of Torm), a priest chosen to replace the previous lord Myrian Beechwood on his resignation. Four members apiece are chosen from the two towns of Chandlerscross and Scarsdeep, and an additional member is chosen at random from among the farms along the Ashaba. Until the Scardale plague drove the garrisons from Scardale Town, the council numbered thirteen and included the Sembian, Zhent, and Hillsfarian, and Dalelands garrison commanders from Scardale Town, although in practice the garrison commanders rarely bothered to attend the Scardale Council and frequently ignored its edicts.
Major Geographical Features
Scardale’s three significant geographical features are the River Ashaba, which runs through the dale from west to east; the Sea of Fallen Stars at the river’s mouth; and the great gorge named the Scar, which gives the dale its name.
The Scar: According to legend, this high-sided gorge is the result of an errant blow from the sword of Corellon Larethian as he fought the orc god Gruumsh. The wound is still deep but has healed well, and the River Ashaba runs swiftly through the Scar on its final leg to the sea. The Scar is fifteen to twenty miles wide for most of its length. Feather Falls marks the gorge’s west end, and Scardale Town is at the east end where the Ashaba empties into the Sea of Fallen Stars.
Scardale Town’s decline has led to the rise of a new port farther up the Ashaba, the town of Chandlerscross within the Scar. Ocean-going ships cannot proceed all the way to Chandlerscross. Even small boats have to unload and seek portage at Feather Falls.
Important Sites
Scardale Town lost its preeminence as the balance of power shifted to the towns and country folk of the interior.
Chandlerscross (Large Town, 4,790): The chaos that overcame Scardale Town has no hold on Chandlerscross. The town is clean, the paint on the wooden houses is fresh, and the city watch--consisting entirely of Scardalefolk, with no foreign troops to run things--is quietly competent. Though not mindful of the original Dalelands charter, the citizens of Chandlerscross generally feel that cooperation with the rest of the Dales could be a fine thing, as long as the other Dales keep their troops out of Scardale and their spies in Sembia and Cormyr.
In partnership with the nearby town of Scarsdeep, Chandlerscross serves as the seat of Scardale’s government. Provisional Governor Khelvos Dermmen administers the dale from a small keep overlooking the Ashaba, and for routine business the Scardale Council meets here.
Scardale Town (Large Town, 4,440 [formerly Small City, 11,099]): Before the plague, Scardale Town had more than 10,000 occupants, making it the largest and most powerful city of the Dales. Even so damaged, it’s still big by Dales’ standards. The population has recovered somewhat since the plague. For every honest citizen who fled the city, one or two rogues or bandits moved in, finding life in Scardale more appealing than life on the run in the Dalelands forests.
Only the bravest, strongest, or most evil merchants bring their cargoes in through Scardale’s formerly flourishing port. Even so, the port is at least as busy as it was during the years of the occupation, which says something about how many brave and unscrupulous merchants roam the Sea of Fallen Stars.
Since no larger governments were willing to take a chance on occupying Scardale after the plague, the city runs itself by the laws of anarchy, the obligations of power politics, and the double-edged knives of friendship. In Scardale’s present topsy-turvy condition, the only things that matter are the identity and intentions of the groups presently struggling to gain control over the city.
One site in Scardale Town deserving of mention is Four Dolphins Fountain. Somehow, this beautiful statue of four leaping dolphins survived Scardale’s turmoil. The courtyard surrounding it is in the center of Scardale Town’s port district. Not only is it beloved by folk for its calm and beauty, it is also valued by those who want privacy and discretion because it generates a magical effect that prevents all scrying and eavesdropping magic from working in the courtyard.
Whenever possible, members of the Thayan enclave arrange their deals at Four Dolphins Fountain. They wish to give Dalesfolk the sense that they can shop for precious magic items without having to worry about being watched by prying wizards from other dales.
Regional History
After inheriting the throne from his father Uluf, Lord Lashan Aumersair set about building Scardale’s power and wealth, intending to conquer all the southern dales. In 1356 DR, he conquered Harrowdale, Featherdale, and, for a time, Battledale. He then moved against Mistledale and its ally Shadowdale, but was soundly defeated by a hasty alliance of several dales and foreign powers who had no wish to see the region united under a single, powerful leader like Lashan.
After Lashan’s fall, Scardale was occupied by an uneasy coalition of troops from Cormyr, Sembia, the other dales, and even Zhentil Keep. Lashan’s actions had threatened the security of the entire Heartlands region, so all the great powers of the Heartlands needed to play a part in seeing that the threat was not repeated. In truth, the Sembians and Zhents wanted to keep Scardale for themselves, so they instructed their garrisons to work to those ends.
By 1370 DR, Sembia felt ready to asset its power. The Cormyrian and other Dalelands forces had already left, Hillsfar’s troops had been bribed, and no one would protest overmuch if the Sembians drove the Zhents from the dale. Before the Sembians could act, Scardale suffered its second great disaster, the Shaking Plague. The Sembian garrison was particularly hard hit: Only three members survived. The towns and countryside of Scardale were hurt far less by the plague.
What’s left of Scardale Town is a lawless area fought over by gangs, agents of the various realms, cultists and religious leaders. The other dales talk about establishing a new interim government to control Scardale Town and prevent things from getting any worse, but Governor Khelvos and his Scardale Council are opposed to continuing the occupation in any guise. Given the other dales’ troubles with the Zhents and the arrival of the Cormanthor drow, few are willing to push ahead against the sullen resistance of the Scardalefolk.
While Khelvos and the rest of the Council work hard to put the countryside back on its feet and consider the question of how to reestablish the rule of law in their largest city, a growing number of Scardalefolk openly hope for the return of the Aumersair family. No Aumersair heirs have come forward, and Lashan’s fate is still not known, but a document discovered recently has jolted the Provisional Council and sent a shock of alarm through the other dales. Lashan’s will and testament, discovered in Scardale Town months after the plague, identifies the Zhent knight Scyllua Darkhope as Lashan’s illegitimate daughter and names her as his heir.
The news that the “rightful” heir of the Aumersair family is a Zhent champion received mixed reactions in the dale. Some Scardalefolk believe that Scyllua would make a fine lord and openly support the return of Aumersair rule in any form. Most think that Scardale Town and its former ruling line are problems that their dale would be better off without. In any event, Scyllua has not come to Scardale to assert her claim, although it’s not clear what exactly would happen if she did.
Factions in Scardale
While Scardale Town is ungoverned at the moment, it isn’t completely lawless. Several factions all work to enforce their own sort of order on the chaos of the city.
The Dancers: These halfling fighter-rogues generally arm themselves with magically enhanced kukris. They seem to be nothing more than common brigands looking for an opportunity to wring as much gold as possible from the chaos in the city. The Dancers are quick to assert their strength with blade and bolt. Their boast: “One dance with a Dancer is all you get.”
The Long Death: Monks of the Long Death have taken advantage of Scardale’s dissolution to establish a school in old warehouses of the port district. Their existence isn’t exactly public, but the players on the political landscape hope to use the monks for their own ends instead of making enemies of them.
The Silver Ravens: Official Sembian policy is to leave Scardale alone until the mystery of the Shaking Plague is solved. The Silver Ravens follow Miklos Selkirk; not the Sembian government, and Miklos has no intention of watching the Zhents steal the prize that Sembia had in its grasp. Miklos’s fondest hope is to reform Scardale Town as a free port on the Sea of Fallen Stars that pays lip service to the Dales Compact. He thinks that “Silverdale” has a nice ring to it.
Thayan Enclave: The Red Wizards of Thay have a medium-sized enclave operating in Scardale Town. As usual, they sell magic items to anyone who pays their eminently fair prices. The Red Wizards operating in Scardale are of neutral alignments, and consequently, the Thayans are among the most trustworthy power groups operating in Scardale. Even the Harper agents in the area treat them with some forbearance, since the Red Wizards of Scardale scrupulously avoid slaving.
Zhentil Keep: The Dalesfolk are weighing what to make of Scyllua’s right to the throne of Scardale--assuming that the whole thing isn’t a Zhent ruse. Zhentarim agents in the town are laying the groundwork for Scyllua’s eventual bid for power, but old habits die hard, and some Zhent agents engage in their usual routines of sabotage, kidnapping, extortion, and murder.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 2:11:49 GMT -5
Shadowdale
Capital: Shadowdale Population: 14,020 (humans 78%, half-elves 8%, elves 6%, gnomes 4%, halflings 3%) Government: Elected lordship Religions: Chauntea, Lathander, Tymora (Mielikki, Silvanus) Imports: Jewelry, manufactured items, ore Exports: Ale, looted magic items, produce Alignments: CG, NG, CN
Shadowdale is the best known of all the Dales because of its history of successful battles against drow, Zhents, and would-be conquerors such as Lashan of Scardale. Although small, Shadowdale makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity of citizens. The dale is notorious as a home for adventurers who now prefer a quieter life but are capable of exerting extreme force when necessary.
Life and Society
Though not quite as spread out as Battledale, Shadowdale’s population lives beyond town walls or village fences, in small farms and cottages that may be within eyesight of a neighbor’s chimney but not within earshot of that neighbor’s disputes.
The folk of Shadowdale have a history of choosing their lords by popular acclaim. The last two lords were suggested by Khelben “Blackstaff” Arunsun of Waterdeep, but the tradition still holds, marking Shadowdale’s proud refusal to be ruled by anyone but the most deserving heroes. The town of Shadowdale is the center of the dale’s civic life and the home of its heroes, its lord, and the lord’s militia.
Major Geographical Features
Unlike Mistledale to the west, which was swept clean by a meteorite, Shadowdale alternates patches of cleared land with small forests and thick brush. The Northride between Cormyr and the Moonsea runs south to north through the dale, and the River Ashaba cuts west to east. The town of Shadowdale and the looming presence of the Old Skull dominate the forested area where the Northride and the Ashaba cross.
Old Skull: When the drow ruled Shadowdale, this white granite promontory located on the north side of the Northride and just east of the River Ashaba loomed over the town like a message from the grave, a sign of bad things to come. Now that the dale is free and has proven itself against many enemies, its folk think of the big white dome fondly. Shepherds herd their sheep from town into the hills beyond the Skull, which keeps its sparse vegetation from getting any thicker.
Beneath the surface, Old Skull tells a different tale. The Twisted Tower was only the tip of the drow’s power in the dale. Old Skull’s depths descend to the Underdark itself. Nowadays, Old Skull’s monstrous inhabitants seldom trouble the townspeople, particularly not since 1350 DR, when Elminster took up residence in an abandoned windmill on the south side of the hill. Adventurers who insist on finding routes into the old volcanic dome pass beyond Elminster’s zone of protection and must rest their hopes for survival upon their wits. Every few years, adventuring groups confide that they have cleaned Old Skull out once and for all, but an equal number of Old Skull’s Underdark residents can boast that they taught the Shadowdale fools the price for trespassing.
Shadow Gap: This pass through the Desertsmouth Mountains south of Shadowdale marks several borders. First, Shadow Gap is the place where the Desertsmouth Mountains give way to the Thunder Peaks. Second, Shadow Gap separates the eastern lands controlled by the Dales from the western lands controlled by Cormyr. Third, now that Tilverton is a smoking black pit, Shadow Gap marks the point where travelers from the north gird themselves to pass by the magical ruin.
Spiderhaunt Woods: Sorcerers and wizards whose spell components call for the webs, eggs, or fangs of giant spiders have cause to venture into this dark forest. All others are well advised to keep a wary eye on the tree line as they ride along the Northride Trail toward Shadowdale or Shadow Gap. Ettercaps and chitines are known to swarm out of the woods to seize captives and drag them away.
Important Sites
Most noteworthy sites in the dale cluster in or around the town of Shadowdale in the forest at the valley’s western end.
Druid’s Grove: Just outside Shadowdale’s town limits to the northwest, one of Faerun’s most powerful druidic circles previously met to conduct rituals to increase the strength of the forest. The circle disbanded some time after the Time of Troubles. Powerful druids who may have been members of the Circle occasionally visit the old clearing and its circle of ancient menhirs, but none comment upon the Circle’s current whereabouts.
The grove is undoubtedly a place of power. The ancient standing stones hold many secrets, some of which could be used to help fight the battle against the drow of the forest.
Elminster’s Tower: If Elminster is not the most powerful mortal being in Faerun, it’s not clear who is. He lives in an unpretentious tower that looks like an old silo or windmill on the south side of the Old Skull. He doesn’t encourage visitors.
Morningdawn Hall: Even Lathander might blush at the ostentation of his temple in the town of Shadowdale. The building is a miracle of unbreakable rose-tinted glass blown into the shape of a giant phoenix, its wings outstretched to greet the dawn. Bane himself destroyed the first version of Morningdawn Hall during the Time of Troubles. Lathander’s zealous clergy then recreated it in every detail--to the private dismay of Shadowdale’s residents, who think highly of Lathander himself but not so well of the priests who have twice raised this gaudy monstrosity in their town.
Old Skull Inn: The inn at the base of Old Skull is around one hundred years old. It’s known throughout the Heartlands as one of the finest adventurer lairs in Faerun, so much so that in lands outside the Dales, adventurers use “old skull” as an adjective to describe an excellent place to drink. The proprietor, Jhaele Silvermane (NG female human Exp2/Ftr4), has a no-nonsense approach that endears her to her regular patrons and rids her quickly of skulkers and lay-abouts. Many adventurers hint that the tavern’s cellars have a secret passageways into the Underdark beneath Old Skull itself, a rumor that seems so obviously true to anyone with the least bit of experience in these matters that whisper to this effect are enough to mark someone as a novice.
Shadowdale (Small Town, 1,402): Shadowdale’s sleepy appearance and the retiring ways of its people have lulled half a dozen would-be conquerors into underestimating their target. Inside these sturdy wood and stone buildings, built to survive winters that send Sembians trotting back to the warm plains, Dalesfolk maintain a curious balance between commonplace lives and unshakeable courage and determination.
Unlike the folk of other Dalelands towns situated along trade routes, Shadowdale’s people don’t go out of their way to cater to merchants, nor do they turn caravan folk aside. They just refuse to orient their civic life around the needs of traders who are just passing through.
Twisted Tower: If the ability to withstand overwhelming powerful Zhent invasions is an indicator, the helix-shaped Twisted Tower is the strongest fortress in the Dales. The tower earned its name because of its off balance appearance. The lord of Shadowdale, Mourngrym, rules from this former drow stronghold. The tower’s garrison is nearly a hundred members strong. The tower is presently used as a landing site for hippogriffs that serve as aerial mounts for several of the Tower’s guards.
Regional History
Before the founding of Shadowdale, Lolth-worshiping drow took advantage of the fall of Myth Drannor to conquer the area known as the Land Under Shadow. Humans and elves fought the drow for nearly two centuries, until the great water wizard Ashaba drove the dark elves from the Twisted Tower in 906 DR. For his trouble, the people of Shadowdale proclaimed Ashaba their first lord.
In the four centuries since Shadowdale’s founding, the Pendant of Ashaba, the magical symbol signifying Shadowdale’s lordship, was passed to good men, great men (Aencar the Mantled King), and a couple of false kings. The worst of the lot, a deceiver named Jyordhan, became lord of Shadowdale in 1339 DR, ruling first in secret, then openly, on behalf of the Zhents. Jyordhan was killed six years later by the wizard Khelben of Waterdeep, who later supported a new candidate for lordship, an adventurer named Doust Soulwood.
The present lord, Mourngrym Amcathra (NG male human Ftr8) was suggested by Khelben when Soulwood retired. For services rendered to Lord Soulwood and the dale, the people acclaimed Mourngrym as lord. He wed a Cormyrian agent named Shaerl Rowanmantle (LN female human Rog8), who soon renounced her allegiance to Cormyr to work for the good of her adopted people. The couple has a fourteen-year-old son, Scotti. Mourngrym has raised the boy as if he is to inherit the lordship from his father, a proposition that may test the dale’s resolve to avoid hereditary rulers.
Given Shadowdale’s history as a battle zone between humans and drow, it’s ironic that Lord Mourngrym has thus far kept his military out of the struggle against the Vhaeraunian drow. The surface drow settling into Cormanthor have chosen not to raid or infiltrate Shadowdale. Other dales accuse Mourngrym of turning his back on the Dalelands’ common plight. The truth is probably that Mourngrym is more worried about other threats that he does not discuss out loud for fear of distressing the anxious delegates to the Dales Council.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual
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Post by ancientempathy on Dec 28, 2010 2:12:39 GMT -5
Tasseldale
Capital: Tegal’s Mark Population: 14,020 (humans 94%, halflings 2%, gnomes 2%, half-elves 1%) Government: Republic Religions: Tyr Imports: Gold, jewels, silver, tin Exports: Fine manufactured goods, pottery, textiles Alignments: LG, LN, N
Tasseldale sits north and east of the Arch Wood, southwest of Featherdale, and just barely north of Sembia. Tasseldale is a dale of crafts folk and trades folk, heavily influenced by Sembia. Archenfolk and members of the Dales Council express surprise that Sembia hasn’t formally annexed Tasseldale. The truth is that Sembia prefers having Tasseldale as an independent buffer state to the north. Sembia won’t annex Tasseldale the way it turned Moondale into Ordulin until it can also take over the dales that truly matter to the north.
“Tassel” is the local word for town. The twelve tassels in Tasseldale shelter a bit over half of the dale’s inhabitants. The tassels would pass for hamlets only in other lands.
Life and Society
The Tassadrans are for the most part a contented lot, an orderly collection of crafts folk, small farmers, traders, and artists who see themselves as Sembia’s friends rather than Sembia’s clients.
Despite the disdain that some Dalesfolk heap upon them, the Tassadrans tend to be a brave, cool-headed lot who defend their interests when they have need. Unlike other Dalesfolk, they also excel at arranging situations in which they do not have to defend themselves constantly.
A sizeable minority of Tassadrans don’t particularly care for the life of the free-crafter. Such citizens migrate to other dales for a time, or hunt and trap in the Arch Wood. As if to compensate for the complacency of the rest of their dale, Tassadran woodsfolk have a reputation for hotheadedness that rivals that of the Archenfolk.
Major Geographical Features
Like Sembia to the south, Tasseldale is largely flat, open land, perfect for farming. Arch Wood to the west provides fur, timber, and hunting for Tassadrans who can’t bear to work the loom or plow.
Dun Hills: The Dun Hills run diagonally across the north part of the dale, separating it from Battledale in the north, Deepingdale in the west, and Featherdale’s portion of the River Ashaba to the north. Wild ponies are more common than roving goblins here, so the Tassadrans treat the hills as safe land.
Glaun Bog: Southwest of the Dun Hills, the Glaun Bog presents travelers new to the area with obstacles including quicksand, carnivorous plants, and malicious will-o’-wisps. Local Tassadrans know how to pick their way through the Bog to harvest its peat and mine its iron ore without disturbing the undead spirits living in the barrows at its center.
Important Sites
Some would argue that Tasseldale has no important sites. Only a Tassadran would argue with them.
Abby of the Just Hammer: This abbey dedicated to Tyr bears the responsibility for the taming of the Dun Hills. Situated near the River Ashaba, the abbey emphasizes the “justice” aspect of Tyr’s portfolio, dispensing free legal education to all who care to journey there for instruction. Given the problems with drow just to the north in Battledale, the abbey is short-staffed. Its former defenders prefer traveling north and fighting in the cause of justice to patrolling the already pacified Dun Hills. Many former defenders have failed to survive their forays into the forest, causing the abbey to soften its hard-line disapproval of adventurers.
Sharburg: Located above Tegal’s Mark, the Sharburg is an ancient elven fort converted into the military headquarters of the mounted marshairs (a local variant of “marshals”) who police the Dale. If rumors of hidden elven magic within the Sharburg’s walls aren’t just wishful thinking, it’s certain that the Tassadrans have never chosen to summon them up.
Sun Soul Order: Further contributing to the pacification of the Dun Hills, monks of the Sun Soul order refurbished a ruined freehold and turned it into one of the Dalelands’ few active monasteries. The order accepts well-qualified students of all nationalities and races, but is exceptionally hard upon would-be monks of Sembian descent.
Tegal’s Mark (Small Town, 1,402): The so-called capital of Tasseldale is named after an ancient swordsmith’s mark. Citizens of Tegal’s Mark are proud of their city’s crafts. The quickest way to cause trouble here is to sell inferior merchandise or, worse, inferior merchandise with the claim that it was produced in Tegal’s Mark.
Regional History
The rivalry between the foresters of Archendale and those of certain Tasseldale hamlets such as Archtassel turned violent in 1368, after several Tassadran hunters were murdered by unknown assailants. The citizens of Archendale and Tasseldale now fight a peculiar type of limited war in the Arch Woods.
The Woodsman’s War battle depends on the willingness of youths, toughs, soldiers and rangers to wear their side’s colors into the Arch Wood. Archenfolk wear black and silver and Tassadrans wear blue and yellow. Those who are beaten senseless or surrender have their colors stripped off and a few bones broken, but they are generally left alive. Several inns in both dales cater to this game by displaying the colors taken from the opposing side.
Female fighters and rangers of the two dales normally avoid involvement in this silly fight, but those women who do participate take it extremely seriously. The phrase “bring a woman to the Woodsman’s War” has come to mean that a situation may turn deadly, as female adventurers from both dales have killed rival Woodsmen within the past year.
((This information was taken from the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Manual
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