Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
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Major Geographic<br />
Features<br />
<strong>The</strong> two defining features of the Great Dale are the massive<br />
forests that bound it to either side. <strong>The</strong> Rawlinswood runs to<br />
the north of the dale from which the land gets its name, and<br />
the Forest of Lethyr borders the south. <strong>The</strong> dale climbs<br />
steadily from west to east, reaching an elevation of nearly<br />
2,000 feet above sea level at Ashanath.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dale<br />
<strong>The</strong> most prominent feature of the Great Dale is this long,<br />
windswept gap between the Forest of Lethyr and the<br />
Rawlinswood. When the world was young, some arm of the<br />
Great Glacier scoured a path between two slightly higher<br />
stretches of land, and since that long-ago time, the great<br />
forests have been unable to take root in the vale between.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dalesfolk tell other stories to explain the gap; some say<br />
a great dragon burned a path through one great forest,<br />
while others claim that Shaundakul and Silvanus held a contest<br />
to determine whether wood or wind would rule this<br />
land, and that Auril the Frostmaiden intervened to set<br />
winter over both.<br />
Whatever its origin, the gap averages forty to sixty miles<br />
in width and stretches nearly 250 miles in length. (<strong>The</strong><br />
region known as the Great Dale includes the two forests and<br />
is quite a bit larger than the dale itself.) Rumpled ridges of<br />
bare rock rise from its thin soil, growing steeper and more<br />
rugged toward the forests that flank north and south. In<br />
sheltered spots, the topsoil is thick and fertile, but most of<br />
the land is suited only for raising hardy livestock such as<br />
goats and sheep.<br />
Most of the people of the Great Dale live in the western<br />
reaches of the land, near Uthmere. As one travels east, settlements<br />
become fewer and farther between; most folk live on<br />
the edge of the two major forests or just inside their eaves. <strong>The</strong><br />
canopy of the trees is so thick, even in the heart of winter,<br />
that almost no light passes through, casting vast portions of<br />
the land in twilight even at the height of the day. While this<br />
also provides for shelter from the rains, sun, and snows, it<br />
makes for poor farming.<br />
A long road—the only well-traveled one in the territory—<br />
runs from Uthmere all the way to the Cold Road in the east.<br />
Technically called the Great Road, it is known by many names<br />
throughout the region, but most of the area’s residents just<br />
refer to it as “the Road.” Since there aren’t any other major<br />
roads, it’s clear which one is meant.<br />
<strong>The</strong> dale is known for its fierce winter winds. Those farms<br />
and settlements not sheltered by the woodlands are scoured by<br />
harsh west winds that blow down the length of the gap as if<br />
Shaundakul himself were racing along the Great Road.<br />
THE GREAT DALE<br />
114<br />
THE GREAT BARROW<br />
About seventy miles up the Great Road from Uthmere looms<br />
the Great Barrow, a vast dark mound. A number of lesser barrows<br />
ring it like cold sentinels, the long brown grasses of their<br />
rounded sides hissing endlessly in a chill north wind that never<br />
dies away completely. No one knows who is interred in the<br />
Great Barrow, or what forgotten people raised it, but stories<br />
say that a cruel human tribe once roamed these lands before<br />
even the rise of Narfell, and that their god-born champion lies<br />
buried here. Naturally, the place is said to be haunted by restless<br />
spirits.<br />
A century ago, an Impilturan lord named Elphras mocked<br />
the old stories and raised a small stone keep on a nearby hill,<br />
claiming the barrowfield along with the land for miles about.<br />
Some unknown catastrophe overtook Elphras and his entire<br />
household, for the Impilturan lord, his family, and a keep full<br />
of guards and servants disappeared one cold night, leaving<br />
behind an empty and cheerless tower.<br />
VAL-MURTHAG<br />
North and east of Bezentil lies the wreckage of the old fortress<br />
of Val-Murthag, one of the largest Nar ruins not covered by<br />
forest. This great castle stood watch over the eastern approaches<br />
of the Dale, a formidable rampart in the path of any<br />
attack from Raumathar to the east. Val-Murthag was a place<br />
of madness and horror, the spiritual center of the demonic cult<br />
that dominated the dark empire’s final days, and Raumathari<br />
battlemages visited untold destruction on the place in the final<br />
battle of the two realms. Little of Val-Murthag remains to be<br />
seen, except for sprawling old walls of weathered black stone<br />
that run for miles across the cold downs and the shattered<br />
stumps of watchtowers amid heaps of battered stone.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ghosts of Nar demonpriests are said to haunt the ruins,<br />
and most of the Dalesfolk give the place a wide berth.<br />
Firward Mountains<br />
At the northeastern end of the Rawlinswood, hard by Lake<br />
Ashane, stand the Firward Mountains. This range lies<br />
midway between the Giantspires of Narfell and the northern<br />
Sunrise Mountains of Rashemen. <strong>The</strong> Firwards are unlike the<br />
forbidding ranges of the neighboring lands. Relatively low,<br />
they are densely forested to their summits and unusually cold<br />
and snowy in wintertime. Narfell, Rashemen, and the Great<br />
Dale all could claim the Firwards, but the mountains rise between<br />
the least populous portions of all three countries, so<br />
they form an uncontested border between them.<br />
Even in the days of ancient Narfell, the Firwards were not<br />
heavily populated, although some of the kingdom’s more powerful<br />
archsummoners raised demon-built fortresses in their<br />
cold isolation. <strong>The</strong>se days, the Firwards are home to the<br />
Horned Skulls (a large, fierce tribe of bugbears), bands of frost<br />
giants, and several clans of vicious taers. Beneath their frozen