Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
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Thayan bombards (see Chapter 5: Magic Items for more information),<br />
as well as a ship’s mage and a ship’s acolyte—a<br />
wizard and a cleric specializing in battle magic. <strong>The</strong> pride of<br />
the Thayan navy—a massive warship known as the Red<br />
Scourge—lies at anchor here when not escorting Thayan<br />
merchant ships in and out of the area. Most pirates flee at<br />
the first sight of the ship’s crimson-colored sails, for they<br />
know that to confront such a powerful vessel is to invite a<br />
swift and sorcerous death. Altogether, the fleet is crewed by<br />
almost 5,000 officers, soldiers, and slaves; most of the remaining<br />
folk who call this barren island home are carpenters,<br />
stevedores, provisioners, sailmakers, shipwrights, and all<br />
the other artisans and professionals needed to maintain a<br />
fleet in port.<br />
With the advent of Thay as a mercantile power, the Alaor<br />
has become even more vital to the nation’s interests. <strong>The</strong><br />
Thayan navy had long worked to keep the waters of the Sahuagin<br />
Sea (as the Alamber Sea is also called) free of pirates. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
have since extended their operations to include a good stretch<br />
of the Wizards’ Reach. Between the forces of Thay and Aglarond,<br />
there are few safe places for pirates to operate in this<br />
region. Several naval ships have even been converted into mercantile<br />
vessels carrying Thay’s goods to the rest of the world.<br />
Merchant ships from Bezantur carry much of Thay’s trade to<br />
other lands, but shipments to and from major enclaves are entrusted<br />
only to Thay’s navy.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Alaor is well defended. <strong>The</strong> zulkirs know the islands<br />
are Thay’s first line of defense against an invasion by sea. If<br />
the islands were to fall into a foreign power’s hands, the results<br />
would be disastrous. Any foe who had control over such<br />
a base could attack up and down the southern coast of Thay<br />
with impunity.<br />
Besides the garrison of 1,000 soldiers on duty here at all<br />
times, the islands are outfitted with dozens of batteries of<br />
Thayan bombards.<br />
Delhumide<br />
Once the most populous district of old Thay in the days of<br />
Mulhorandi rule, the tharch of Delhumide is now thinly settled.<br />
Stretching from Lake Thaylambar to the Gorge of<br />
Gauros and bounded on the east and west by the River Thay<br />
and the River Gauros, Delhumide is a broad land of open<br />
plains and few people. <strong>The</strong> tharch could easily support a much<br />
greater population, except that demons, ghosts, and sleeping<br />
spells of deadly malevolence taint the countryside for miles<br />
around the ruins of the old capital and the province’s abandoned<br />
estates.<br />
With the exception of some farmland along the river<br />
valleys, Delhumide is mostly used as open range for large<br />
herds of cattle. Tharchion Invarri Metron (LE male human<br />
Ftr11) governs the land from his palace at Umratharos, a<br />
small city at the bend of the River Thay. He has little interest<br />
in the ruins of the old capital but is happy to collect<br />
a cut of any wealth recovered by adventurers picking through<br />
the wreckage.<br />
THAY<br />
152<br />
Eltabbar<br />
Northwest Thay belongs to the tharch of Eltabbar, a curving<br />
swath of land that extends from the western shores of Lake<br />
Thaylambar and around the northern slopes of the Second Escarpment<br />
all the way to the River Umber, almost directly opposite<br />
the city of Eltabbar. Even though Thay’s capital city<br />
is located in this tharch, large portions of it are lightly populated—most<br />
of the land between the rich valley of the River<br />
Thay and the Umber is scrubland, home to the roaming bands<br />
of gnolls and orcs who make up the zulkirs’ foot soldiers.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tharchion of Eltabbar is the notorious Dmitra Flass<br />
(NE female human Ill7/Red8), the so-called First Princess of<br />
Thay. She spends all her time in the capital and gives little<br />
thought to anything that happens on the northwest frontier.<br />
<strong>The</strong> wreckage of old Nar ruins dot the remoter portions of<br />
the tharch, occasionally disgorging some forgotten demon<br />
that terrorizes the countryside until bound or destroyed by<br />
the Red Wizards.<br />
Gauros<br />
Gauros is a relatively poor tharch with no major cities. <strong>The</strong><br />
River Gauros flows down from the heights of the Sunrise<br />
Mountains and through northeastern Thay before tumbling<br />
over the edge of the First Escarpment to carve out the great<br />
Gorge of Gauros. From there, it flows into Lake Mulsantir on<br />
the nation’s northern border.<br />
Gauros is rocky, rugged, and forbidding, a wild land of dry<br />
pine forests and high, barren mesas. Swift, shallow snowmelt<br />
rivers from the Sunrises rush through the land, but by<br />
midsummer they are reduced to dusty rivulets. Most of the<br />
folk in the district are Rashemi woodcutters and goatherds.<br />
Ruined towers and empty keeps crown many of the barren<br />
hills, the remnants of ancient Raumathar’s foothold on this<br />
part of the Thayan plateau. <strong>The</strong> nearby mountains harbor<br />
dangerous monsters, including athachs, chimeras, and bands of<br />
feral gnolls.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ruler of Gauros is Tharch Azhir Kren (NE female<br />
human Ftr15). An aggressive general, she is itching to lead<br />
Szass Tam’s legions into battle. <strong>The</strong> zulkir’s fascination with<br />
developing trade does nothing but frustrate her. Kren’s troops<br />
constantly patrol the Gorge of Gauros, looking for any excuse<br />
to launch an invasion of her nation’s northern neighbor,<br />
Rashemen. Kren only needs the thinnest of pretexts, and if she<br />
doesn’t stumble across one soon, she’ll manufacture the necessary<br />
evidence.<br />
DAGGERTOOTH PASS<br />
One of only two passes through the Sunrise Mountains, Daggertooth<br />
Pass follows the Gauros up to its headwaters and<br />
crosses a high saddle to come down in the upper vale of the<br />
Murghol, a tributary to the Clearflow of the Endless Wastes.<br />
To one side of the main track a knifelike peak looms, the<br />
mountain that gives the pass its name. <strong>The</strong> top of the pass is