Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

the Dalesfolk and shield them from the worst of the blightlords’
depredations.
Rawlinswood
The Rawlinswood forms the northern border of the Great
Dale, weaving its way south of the Giantspire Mountains and
the plains of Narfell until it peters out near the Cold Road
and the Firward Mountains. Once, the Rawlinswood was a
northern twin to the Forest of Lethyr, but a horrid evil has
clawed its way out of the black earth, poisoning the Rawlinswood
and filling its green gloom with blood, disease, and
madness. The sinister Rotting Man (NE male half-fiend
human druid 12/Talontar blightlord 10, Chosen of Talona)
leads a dark circle of evil clerics and druids devoted to the
Lady of Poison and, through these blightlords, a growing
host of blightspawned volodni warriors that menace all the
nearby lands.
The Rawlinswood is a mixture of deciduous and evergreen
trees along its southern border but quickly becomes a soggy
taiga as one travels north from the Dale. Treacherous muskeg
bogs fester above a deep layer of permafrost, giving rise to
clouds of mosquitoes in the Rawlinwsood’s short summer. In
its northwestern reaches, the forest climbs sharply toward the
Giantspire Mountains, covering rugged foothills and deep,
shadowed vales. Like all the Great Dale, it also rises toward the
east, and its easternmost reaches are quite hilly. The forest narrows
to a narrow band only twenty-five miles wide about twothirds
of the way along its length, moving from west to east.
The now-abandoned settlement of Denderdale is located here
along the northern edge, almost enclosed by the reaching arms
of the forest. This is the best place to try cutting through the
forest. The way isn’t long, comparatively, and those who are
eloquent or desperate enough may be able to hire a guide to
take them to the south side of the forest or back.
Just to the northwest of the forest is the Damaran settlement
of Tellerth, hard by the Long Road. For years, the Circle
of Leth worked to stop the encroachment of Damaran and
Impilturan loggers into the western reaches of the Rawlinswood,
but the Nentyarch’s followers have been driven into the
Forest of Lethyr and no longer patrol this area. The humans
now face the Rotting Man and his rising tide of evil.
DUN-THAROS
Once the capital of the ancient Empire of Narfell, Dun-
Tharos sprawls for miles through the pines and bogs at the
heart of the Rawlinswood. From this place, the Nentyarchs (as
the rulers of ancient Narfell were known) ruled a great and
terrible realm of dark keeps and proud, sinister lords. Dun-
Tharos was laid waste in the final cataclysmic war between
Raumathar and Narfell, the entire city leveled by some
mighty spell of unspeakable power. So ended the Nentyarchs
and their demon-haunted kingdom.
Centuries passed, and the forest grew over the great
black scar in its heart. A group of druids and rangers—the
THE GREAT DALE
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Circle of Leth—undertook the work of healing the wounded
land. Their leader took the title of Nentyarch anew to signify
that the druids of Leth ruled over the heart of ancient Narfell.
In the ruins of Dun-Tharos, the new Nentyarchs raised
a fortress to govern the great forest. The black keep of the old
demonpriests was reborn as a castle of living trees, woven by
druidic magic.
From this forest-castle the Nentyarchs ruled for nearly six
hundred years, preserving the Forest of Lethyr and the
Rawlinswood from encroachment by human kingdoms on all
sides. The ruins of the old Nar capital reminded the druids of
humanity’s ability to harm nature, and the forest that had
swallowed its black stones offered an example of what might
be accomplished with patience and strength.
All things come to an end, though. Ten years ago, the Rotting
Man, Chosen of Talona, began to gather a circle of dark
druids in the western reaches of the Rawlinswood. The Circle
of Leth fought against the rising power of the blightlords and
contained the Rotting Man in the west, but two years ago the
Rotting Man created a terrible new weapon to use against the
Nentyarch—the blight of Talona. He corrupted a handful of
captured Leth druids, changing them into blightlords who
serve him. Through these tortured minions, he ensnared hundreds
of volodnis and infected them with Talona’s blight. At
Midwinter in 1371 DR, he hurled his blightspawned army at
the Nentyarch’s fortress and drove the Circle of Leth out of
the Rawlinswood.
Dun-Tharos is still a castle of trees, but they are now dead,
animated through the Rotting Man’s foul sorcery. Hundreds
of his minions lurk in the ruins of Narfell’s old capital, ready
to surge forth and slay at his command. His blightspawned
warriors slaughtered the small community of Denderdale,
north of the forest, only two months ago, and bands of evil
volodnis harry the clanholds and farmsteads south of his
forest. Dun-Tharos has become a place of death and madness
once again.
CLYMPH TOWER
Once a proud, walled keep, Clymph Tower has lain in ruins for
as long as anyone can remember. A mighty sorcerer named
Clymph built the place nearly five hundred years ago. Clymph
is also believed to have constructed Tower Threespires, for the
two sites have a similar architecture and were built around the
same time. Clymph Tower has remained untouched for
decades, though, and the locals believe it is cursed for some
transgression of its fabled builder against the gods.
The best story—or at least the one that gets repeated the
most—is that Clymph was a powerful demonbinder, a student
of the forbidden arts of ancient Narfell. He dreamed of forging
a kingdom in the Great Dale with his demonic armies. He
constructed this keep as a pen for his foul servants and imbued
its very stones with abjurative magic, transforming the
perimeter of the building into a massive magic circle. He then
created a permanent gate directly into the Abyss. Unfortunately,
Clymph was unable to control the demonic hordes he
summoned, and his fiendish minions destroyed him. However,