Lex-Gate Valley
Hidden within the Lost Mountains sits a valley how to a small population of Dryn. What sets this apart from many other Dryn settlements are is a large, square arch protruding from the southwestern wall of the valley. It was discovered by the a team excavating stone from the valley walls to be used in the construction of their structures, namely their guard houses and garrisons at the valley's entrance at its northern end. Shortly after is discovery, Lex, their deity, revealed that the arch was a gate that could take them back to the home of their ancestors. While the inhabitants of the appropriately-named Lex-Gate Valley have yet to bring the gate back to life, many live in fervent hope that they will live to see their long-lost home.
Geography
The Lex-Gate Valley sits among the peaks of the Lost Mountains, rising above the deep canyons and gorges that will the spaces between most of the other mountains. Its entrance to the north site just barely above the average elevation of the surrounding mountain roots and quickly slopes up to where the majority of the population resides. The only other geographic features of not is the large cavern entrance in its western wall that leads into a maze of tunnels burrowing deeper in the mountains and cliff-top obelisk, called the Gravestone, that looks down on the canyon far below.
Climate
The Lost Mountains are known for their high elevation and prolonged winters. As a result, the Lex-Gate Valley, which sits significantly above the floors of most of the canyons and other valleys of the region, is blanketed in snow for much of the year and never reaches the scorching temperatures often encountered elsewhere in the world. Its inhabitants do their best to weather the winters and Dark Days, but have, on occasion, taken shelter in the caverns beneath their valley to outlast the cold or to barricade themselves in its tunnels to evade the creatures that rise from the depths to hunt during the Dark Days.
Tourism
The Dryn inhabitants of the Lex-Gate Valley are chosen to remain in that region, traveling little further than a day's journey from their home. Seekers are frequently sent out to identify nearby resources or threats. Its earliest members did venture into the caverns and even into the Lost Labyrinth, but the increased danger of these quests quickly relegated them to remaining on the surface if all possible. As a result, there are very few outsiders that have visited the valley, though that number has increased after the discovery of a new way into the Lost Mountains and adventurers began to trickle into the region in search of the Lost City of Pallium.
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