Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

into the rock, highlighting the difficulty of challenging Thay
on its own turf. In fact, the escarpment was one of the reasons
the wizards of Thay were able to fight off their Mulhorandi
overlords during their war of independence. Even
though the Thayans were disorganized and divided by vicious
feuds, the Mulhorandi army had a devil of a time getting up
and over those cliffs.
The plateau itself is a naturally arid, rolling plain with occasional
dusty mesas. Centuries ago, the Red Wizards crafted
great weather-controlling spells to bring rain and moderate
temperatures to this upland, and now vast tracts of former savannah
are densely cultivated cropland. In the southern
reaches of the plateau, every bit of land is put to use. Slaves
tend the fields and orchards, planting and harvesting crops,
felling timber, and picking fruit. Cotton and grain are the
major crops, although citrus and olive trees and the occasional
vineyard grow between the fields. Tax stations and the estates
of noble Thayans and Red Wizards dot the land, along with
small villages that sprout up around them. North of the
Second Escarpment, the plateau is much less densely populated.
The valleys of the rivers Gauros and Thay are heavily
settled, but much of the rest is empty scrubland, inhabited
only by goatherds, shepherds, and stonecutters.
Nearly 3 1/2 million people live on the Plateau of Thay. Of
these, about 2 1/2 million are slaves or the evil humanoids
who guard them (mostly gnolls and orcs). Both slaves and warriors
live in squalor in massive barracks. The Thayan economy
depends on slaves, a constantly replenished source of cheap
labor who are routinely worked to death under the watchful
eyes of cruel overseers and guards.
The Thayan merchant fleet ships surplus cotton, grain,
olive oil, and citrus fruit all across eastern Faerûn. Thayan
grain feeds Impiltur, Chessenta, and the Vast, as well as the
cities of the Wizards’ Reach. The success of this trade led to
the current strategy of exporting more valuable goods—
namely, magic items—to other lands. Thayan merchants already
knew the trade routes and had demonstrated for decades
that Thay could be a successful trading partner.
The entire plateau is impervious to scrying magic. The Red
Wizards have set up an elaborate shield of overlapping
wards that prevent such spying. Any spell with the scrying
descriptor that targets a person or point within the First
Escarpment fails automatically. Divination of other types
usually works, but many Red Wizards screen their activities
with additional defenses such as mind blank or nondetection.
These wards interfere with the Red Wizards’ own
scrying spells as well, making it difficult for them to magically
locate intruders. However, the patrols usually do a good
job of watching.
Guards both human and gnoll patrol the plateau in the settled
areas, on the lookout for escaped slaves and foreign spies.
Despite the opening of trade agreements with many nations,
few foreigners spend much time in the Thayan countryside.
Most are issued passes permitting travel to only one or two
cities along a specified route.
THAY
154
LAKE THAYLAMBAR
Lake Thaylambar is the largest body of fresh water within
Thay’s borders. It is wide, deep, and always cold, even in the
middle of summer. Its waters feed the River Thay, which
flows north to empty into Lake Mulsantir. Eltabbar, the capital
of Thay, sits on the southwestern shore of Lake Thaylambar.
Delhumide, the original provincial capital, once
looked out from the northeastern shore, but it was destroyed
in Thay’s war of independence.
The fishing in Lake Thaylambar is wonderful. Large
amounts of seafood from its depths find their way onto plates
throughout the nation. The lake is not without dangers,
though. Its depths are infested with dragon turtles that sometimes
like to snack on fishing vessels. Over the years, the
zulkirs have sent out hunting parties to thin their numbers,
with limited success. Although these expeditions sometimes
manage to find and kill dragon turtles, the hunters often
become the hunted. On occasion, expeditions have been completely
wiped out.
However, last year one group of hunters managed to capture
a dragon turtle alive. Brazhal Kos (LE male human
Enc7/Red4), a powerful enchanter, devised a magic harness
that enslaved the creature to his will. Kos has offered its services
to Homen Odesseiron, the tharchion of Surthay. Assuming
the Red Wizards can transport the creature, this would put
the captive dragon turtle in Lake Mulsantir to contest Rashemi
control of the lake. Brazhal Kos makes this offer expecting
something in return, of course.
RIVER THAY
From Lake Thaylambar, the River Thay flows north toward
Surthay and Lake Mulsantir, marking the boundary between
the tharchs of Delhumide and Eltabbar. The vale of the Thay
is heavily populated, a fertile plain supporting vast orchards
of fruit trees more suited to cool weather than the citrus
groves of the south, such as apples and cherries. The river
itself is the principal highway to the northern marches of
Thay, and numerous keelboats and barges ply its waters, towed
by slave teams along the banks.
Priador
Tharchion Aznar Thrul, the zulkir of evocation, rules this
tharch with an iron fist. Thay’s trade enclaves in other lands
brings immense wealth into Bezantur, the tharch’s largest
city. Thrul has almost unlimited resources at his disposal, and
there is little to stop him—other than the other zulkirs, that
is. Thrul derided the notion of selling magic items early on
when Thay was establishing the enclave system, so he has
reaped little of the enormous profits of the Guild of Foreign
Trade. The zulkir simmers over the lost opportunity. He believes
a hefty cut of the Guild’s take is due him as the tharchion
controlling Bezantur, and he is considering how to