Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms
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<strong>The</strong>sk is most famous for the Golden Way. This well-maintained<br />
road starts in Telflamm, crosses the River Flam, and<br />
then passes through Phent, Phsant, Tammar, and Two Stars,<br />
skirting the northern side of the <strong>The</strong>sk Mountains before it<br />
dead-ends at the River Mulsantir, between Lake Ashane and<br />
Lake Mulsantir. From there, travelers and their cargo take<br />
ferries across the water to Mulsantir, in Rashemen, and continue<br />
along the Golden Way through Rashemen and the Endless<br />
Wastes all the way to distant Kara-Tur. <strong>The</strong> Golden Way<br />
is a major overland trade artery. Its existence is the primary<br />
reason that <strong>The</strong>sk isn’t simply part of the Great Dale or—<br />
worse yet—another tharch in Thay.<br />
With the increase in trade in and out of Thay, merchants<br />
have developed a number of paths to Nethentir from Phent,<br />
Tammar, and Two Stars. <strong>The</strong>y are well traveled these days, but<br />
all of them are long treks plagued by brigands and hungry<br />
monsters. <strong>The</strong> merchant princes of <strong>The</strong>sk have no interest in<br />
building expensive new roads that would only make it easy for<br />
Thay to roll its siege engines from Eltabbar to Telflamm.<br />
<strong>The</strong>sk may be a land of merchants rather than warriors, but<br />
its people know enough not to build a convenient invasion<br />
route for a power that has been their enemy in the past and<br />
will likely be their enemy again someday.<br />
THESK<br />
A merchant on the Golden Way<br />
172<br />
Major Geographic<br />
Features<br />
For the most part, <strong>The</strong>sk is a rural, lightly settled nation. Its<br />
main sources of revenue are farming and providing services<br />
to travelers along the Golden Way. Like the Great Dale to the<br />
north, <strong>The</strong>sk is also a place of untouched natural beauty. Vast<br />
stretches of land are empty of people. Even most of the farmers<br />
in <strong>The</strong>sk live along the Golden Way, making it easier to<br />
transport their harvests to market.<br />
Few people live along the path between Phent and Nethentir,<br />
although this is one of the most breathtaking stretches of<br />
land in this part of Faerûn, running as it does between two<br />
mountain ranges separated by only twenty miles. Even in high<br />
summer, travelers can see snow high on the white-capped<br />
peaks to both the left and right.<br />
Ashanath<br />
Ashanath consists of the high, windswept plains leading up to<br />
the eastern border of <strong>The</strong>sk, Lake Ashane. This region is<br />
almost entirely empty of habitation, even though it has the<br />
Illustration by Wayne England