Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

those on foot. As well, the lands above the Surague Escarpment
are wild and untended, nothing like the civilized plains
of the First Escarpment. They are teeming with dangerous
animals and hostile humanoids. From time to time, scouts
from the goblin and kobold tribes living here forage into
Thay proper.
Every now and then, the tharchions of Surthay, Gauros,
Pyrados, and Thazalhar send an expedition into the peaks. Old
Raumviran towers and strongholds lie buried under the snows
of the high slopes, as well as the ancient well-like fortresses
of some even older people now forgotten by time. High and
perilous passes cross the mountains at Daggertooth and
Thazar, but there have long been rumors of a secret passage
through the deeps into the Endless Wastes beyond. If this
could be found and secured, it might divert the trade of the
Golden Way south to Thay and increase tenfold the power of
the tharchion whose people discovered the pass.
Scouts and adventurers have so far failed to discover such
a way through, despite centuries of searching. The dangers of
the mountains multiply the farther one descends from the
surface. The caverns beneath the Sunrise mountains are filled
with horrible creatures, including nagas, chimeras, and things
unspeakably worse.
The patrols along this edge of Thay are not as alert as those
of the nation’s other borders. The denizens of the mountains
rarely descend the Surague Escarpment to attack, and the idea
of invading force coming through the mountains is preposterous.
Border patrol here is considered one of the dullest and
most miserable jobs a soldier can get, so it often draws the less
ambitious of Thay’s defenders. No one ever became a tharchion
on such duty, after all.
Surthay
Surthay is the northernmost of the tharchs. It stretches from
the Surmarsh in the west to the Gorge of Gauros in the east,
and it encompasses all Thayan land from the northern edge
of the First Escarpment down to Lake Mulsantir. Surthay was
originally Thay’s first line of defense against invasion from
Rashemen, but over the years, it’s become the springboard for
attacks against the “barbarians” to the north.
While the Surmarsh is technically within this tharch, Tharchion
Homen Odesseiron (LE male human Evo6/Red1/Ftr12)
doesn’t bother with it much. As long as the marsh’s lizardfolk
don’t cross the River Thay, they are fine where they are.
Odesseiron gave up membership in the Red Wizards to pursue
a military career years ago, but he is not as foolishly aggressive
as Tharchion Kren of Gauros. Kren often pushes Odesseiron
to join her in launching an attack against Rashemen,
despite the orders of the zulkirs. So far, Odesseiron has not
been persuaded of the wisdom in that act, although he allows
Kren to move her troops through Surthay on the pretext of
“military exercises.”
THAY
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THE LONG PORTAGE
The River Thay cuts through the middle of the tharch on its
way from Lake Thaylambar to Lake Mulsantir below. It’s impossible
to navigate past the point where the river tumbles
down the First Escarpment. However, there is a long tradition
of portaging boats and goods up the escarpment, where a ship
can then work its way upriver to Lake Thaylambar and the
port at Eltabbar. The Guild of Portagers used to charge outrageous
prices to move goods, three hundred or more years
ago. The Red Wizards of the time grew frustrated with the
arrangement—homicidally so. They killed most of the
portagers and animated them as zombies.
To this day, tireless zombies handle the grunt work of
portaging. Although they can be clumsy, they are also obedient,
and they never steal from their masters or their clients.
And, unlike traditional slaves, they don’t have to be fed,
clothed, or permitted to rest.
THE SURMARSH
The Surmarsh is a wide, fetid swamp on the southern shore of
the western end of Lake Mulsantir, at the point where the
River Sur flows into the lake. This cold and dreary place lies
beyond the effects of the Red Wizards’ weather magic and is
exposed to seemingly endless rains as the cold air of Ashanath
and Rashemen meets the warm, stationary air mass artificially
maintained over the Plateau of Thay. Fierce thunderstorms
even in the depths of winter are not uncommon here.
The Surmarsh swarms with tribes of lizardfolk. These primitive
humanoids spend most of their energies struggling with
one another for supremacy over this soggy piece of land. Some
Red Wizards think the lizardfolk may be the descendants of
the serpent-people who built the Citadel, an ancient fortress
buried beneath the highest peak in the Thaymount. If that is
true, a once-proud folk have fallen a long, hard way.
Almost all the tribes here have a treaty of some sort with the
Red Wizards. The lizardfolk agree not to bother the Thayans of
the region, and the Red Wizards promise not to annihilate the
lizardfolk. The treaty specifically does not apply to foreigners
wandering through, whom the lizardfolk capture or kill and turn
over to the next Thayan patrol. This is usually rewarded with a
bounty of 10 gp worth of food per captive or corpse.
The lizardfolk of the Surmarsh consider it a great honor to
be drafted into any Thayan armed force. Many have proudly
served in the distant Umber Marshes during numerous campaigns
against Aglarond. Thayan nobles sometimes enter the
Surmarsh on hunting expeditions, employing the local lizardfolk
as porters and guides. The swamp is infested with dangerous
creatures, including ropers, otyughs, and beasts even
more threatening. The prize trophy of the land is the head of
a black dragon. A clan of the creatures lairs in the depths of
the Surmarsh, and dragons are routinely spotted soaring high
above the swamp. Finding such monsters is hard enough, and
besting them is even more unlikely, but several parties of
nobles give it a try every year just the same.