Survival in the Rift

However, these survivors are beset with problems. Cranzer is determined to wipe out as many as possible, mostly because the vital silver mines scattered around the area of Riftcrag are the only material resource worth having in the Bandit Lands. To secure their safety, his troops ruthlessly exterminate all bandits seen within some 30 miles of Riftcrag, where the mines are located. Others may be captured, in the hope of getting them to yield information about safe pathways. Since such routes are often sabotaged, booby-trapped, and then renewed by the Plar's men, any information which is so obtained by Iuz's men is soon rendered out of date. Nonetheless, Cranzer employs goblins and orcs for mass attacks in warbands of 200 and more. Well-equipped strike parties of orcs, orogs and hobgoblins with priests and mages are used for more important actions against the Plar. The second problem the Rift bandits have is simple: just getting enough to eat to stay alive. The Rift itself has fish, lizards and the like in the caves and their pools and springs, and some hardy goats on the hilly surfaces of the canyon and even the barrens beyond. Trapping yields a few birds, hares and other small animals. But this is meager fare and the bandits are forced to raid beyond the Rift in search of food. The Tangles provides some, and raids on supply trains headed for Riftcrag, Balmund or Hallorn provide more, but starvation is a very real threat.

A third problem is the bizarre weather of the Rift. Highly localized, swirling, gale-force winds can sweep men away from rock faces in the blink of an eye. In the winter, bitter frosts make any traversing of the rocks very dangerous indeed and Iuz's forces have learned most of the direct passage routes to the surface by now and stand guard over them. Drifting mists can make rock moist and as hazardous as ice and frost. Rockfalls are common, and cave-ins are hardly uncommon. This is dangerous terrain, to be sure.

Finally, the most inaccessible parts of the Rift, both on the Rift floor and In the deepest caves, have many monsters still, though bandits and humanoids have wiped out most of those which lived along the sides of this great crevasse over the last hundred or so years. Around a hundred ogres, though, still hang on to possession of one cluster of caves due north of Sheerwatch and represent a real threat to anyone approaching their domain. Behirs, carrion crawlers, cave fishers, giant lizards, and gelatinous cubes are among some of the more commonly reported hazards. A singular annis, a beholder, and, allegedly, a small group of illithids present more formidable, if thankfully rarer, threats. It is also very likely that passages to Underdark are to be found in some part of the Rift and there have been reports of dinosaur-like and prehistoric beasts in some of the very deep caverns below the Rift.