Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

the Rawlinswood, the evil here is different. Its foulness is
not Talona’s blight—in fact, the Rotting Man is keenly interested
in the mystery of Fortress Narder and sends parties
of blightlords here, hoping to unearth something from its
horrible dungeons.
Under the direction of the Nentyarch, the Circle of Leth
is calling treants to move the remaining healthy trees to safer
parts of the forest. Then the druids plan to quarantine the
area and destroy the corrupted flora and fauna. This will
create a hole in the heart of the forest, but in time the wound
should heal over. If the druids have anything to say about it,
none but they and the Nentyar hunters will know there was
anything wrong here.
In the meantime, monstrous creatures spawned in Fortress
Narder’s dungeons creep out to hunt and slay in the forest
nearby, delaying the druids’ plans. The Nentyarch fears that
simply quarantining the ruins may not be enough. He may
have to find someone to uncover the source of the horrible
evil and destroy it once and for all.
MAUBERG’S OAK
Mauberg’s Oak is a huge tree located in the northwestern
reach of the Forest of Lethyr, about a hundred miles southeast
of Uthmere. The tree measures 50 feet in diameter at its
base and stands over 300 feet tall, towering over the canopy
of the forest around it. Its branches shade a vast area, and its
leaves are thick and green all year round, even in the dead of
the harshest winters.
Although still living, the tree was long ago hollowed out by
the powerful druid Mauberg. He magically worked the wood
to build a massive tower hideaway in the heart of the amazing
tree. Although Mauberg has been dead for over a century,
his legacy lives on. He crafted the oak to house a school for
young druids and to display the awesome power of nature. The
tower features almost a dozen levels on the inside of the tree
and extends below the soil for three more levels.
The school’s headmaster, a Theskian woman known as
Oakandra (NG female human Drd13) is wary of strangers,
even new applicants. Only those who prove their dedication to
nature by passing various tests, both magical and mundane,
are allowed to enter the tree itself. Others are permitted to
sleep under the eaves of the oak if they are of either good or
neutral alignment. Evil visitors are run off immediately.
A large colony of treants lives under the oak’s canopy. They
provide Oakandra with an early warning system against incoming
threats. A dozen aarakocras live in the upper
branches of the tree, watching the skies for danger from
above. The leader of this group, Chir’kawta (NG male
aarakocra Drd12), is a powerful druid who once studied here
under Oakandra herself.
THE MUCKLESTONES
This ancient druidic holy site is located in the northeastern
Forest of Lethyr. Its unusual clearing features no tree trunks
THE GREAT DALE
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but is protected from the sky by the bordering trees, which
meet over the center of the open space. Within this space
stand a number of weathered stones about 6 feet in height, 4
feet across, and 2 feet thick. Their surfaces are covered with
nature-runes.
The stones form an elaborate arrangement that shifts from
time to time, as the stones occasionally move about. Elder
druids who have tracked the progression of the Mucklestones
over the years claim that sometimes the entire clearing moves,
taking the stones along with it. It never moves very far,
though, and the druids have always been able to track it down.
Each of the Mucklestones is a portal to a different part of
Faerûn. The nature-runes on a given stone indicate where it
leads, but they are difficult to puzzle out—they are carved in
an ancient dialect of the Druidic tongue (Decipher Script
check DC 30 or knowledge of the secret language of druids).
Some of the runes have faded over the years, making it impossible
to know where the portal might lead.
At least one of these portals connects to the Sunglade deep
in the Yuirwood (see Chapter 8: Aglarond). The druids of this
area sometimes use it to meet with the Masters of the Yuirwood,
and sometimes they bring along young rangers who wish
to study with the foresters of those elder woods.
The Mucklestones aren’t the property of any person or
group. Still, the Circle of Leth guards the area jealously for
fear that evil creatures might locate the stones and destroy
them. A high druid named Briartan (LN male human Drd13)
lives nearby, and he coordinates the efforts of his fellows
to keep the Mucklestones safe. These people sometimes
call themselves “the Mucklefriends,” but rarely in the company
of strangers.
YESHELMAAR
Not far from the crossroads of Bezentil, near the center of the
Great Dale, a great rocky tor rises from the forest. A pristine
lake of clear, cold water stands at its foot. Carved into the tor
is an old wood-elf stronghold known as Yeshelmaar, built in
the days when the Lethyr elves faced destruction at the hands
of the sinister Empire of Narfell to the north.
The threat of old Narfell has long since passed away, but so
too have most of the elven folk. Of the wood elves who once
lived here, only a few small villages survive. The old elven
stronghold has become the new fortress of the Circle of Leth.
The Nentyarch and his High Druids formerly inhabited Dun-
Tharos in the Rawlinswood, but two years ago they were
driven out by the Talontar blightlords, and Yeshelmaar
became the Nentyarch’s seat-in-exile.
Yeshelmaar is the informal capital of the Great Dale, or at
least its eastern half. The folk of the lonely clanholds hold
a deep reverence for the Nentyarch. At any given time, a
dozen druids of various ranks and twice that number of
rangers, hunters, and foresters occupy the stronghold or the
woods nearby, along with a handful of Dalesfolk come to seek
advice or assistance. The Nentyarch is occupied in a fierce
contest against Talona’s Rotting Man for the very soul of
two great forests, but his druids do what they can to help out