High Moor

High Moor The High Moor is a large, monster-infested, open moorland in western Faerûn, and is bordered on the east by the Serpent Hills and on the west by the Misty Forest. It was created in about -10500 DR when the fallen kingdom of Miyeritar was destroyed by the Vyshaantar Empire's magics during the Crown Wars. The High Moor contains numerous ancient ruins and structures, but the most familiar include Dragonspear Castle on the western edge, Hammer Hall, a log house and stables surrounded by a wooden palisade near the banks of Highstar Lake, and Orzogoth, a large ancestral hall near the Serpent Hills. Forays into the High Moor are usually based in the town of Secomber, north of the region. Most folk think the Moor is a rocky wilderness, vast and uninhabited - except by trolls. Its soil is too thin for farming, and its stone - mostly granite - is of poor quality for mining. It’s sparsely settled by human barbarian tribes that raise goats and sheep on the moors, guard caravans coming from the east, and fight constantly with the various goblinoid tribes. Bound on the west by the Misty Forest, whose dim blue glades and deep groves have always carried a fey and whimsical - but deadly - reputation, and on the east by the yuan-ti and ophidian-haunted Serpent Hills, these crag-studded, rolling grasslands are said to hide the ruins of lost, long-fallen kingdoms. Just which kingdoms sages argue furiously over. Minstrels sing colorful but contradictory ballads on the topic, and legends are uniformly vague."The bones and thrones of lost lands" is a favorite phrase; it’s borrowed from a long forgotten ballad. A few wolves and leucrotta are the most numerous predators on the Moor thanks to trolls, bugbears, and hobgoblins, who have slain most other large beasts of prey. Their relative scarcity has allowed hooved grazing animals of all sorts to flourish, from small, sure-footed rock ponies to shaggy-coated sheep. Those who dare to venture onto the moor can be assured of ready food - either they catch it, or they become it. Rope trip-traps, javelins, and arrows are the favored ways of bringing down the fleet grazing animals, although those with patience and a quick hand can dine on grouse, flunderwings, rabbits, and ground-dwelling moor rats in plenty. Like the Evermoors north of the Dessarin, the High Moor is studded with lichen-festooned rocky outcrops, moss, breakneck gullies, and small rivulets of clear water that spring from the ground, wind among the rocks for a time, and then sink down again. It’s also shrouded by frequent mists. The prevailing winds are gentler breezes than the mist-clearing, chill winds of the North. With the obvious exception of Dragonspear Castle, ruins are harder to find in the moorlands. Foundations and cellars are usually all that remain - and almost all such serve as the lairs of monsters. Many towers have toppled into rock piles and have later been hollowed out to serve as tombs - which have in turn been plundered and then turned into dwellings by beasts arriving still later. There are also legends of magically hidden castles and high houses appearing only in certain conditions, such as full moonlight or deep mists, to those in the right spot. The High Moor isn’t part of the North per se. A great cataclysm occurred here long ago, wiping out an entire elven kingdom, but little evidence of this event now remains except for some haunted ruins, tombs, and dungeons shrouded in thick fog. Many adventurers have perished in search of these ancient sites, for the High Moor is home to many monsters. The High Moor is a dark reflection of the High Forest. Filled with savage orcs, goblinoids, and trolls who fight constantly with one another and regularly raid the area nearby, especially the Trade Way between Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate, and the site of an ancient evil when the elven empire of Aryvandaar wiped out their rivals Miyeritar with such extreme prejudice that the forest was reduced to a swamp that eventually regrew into equal parts peat bog and grazing land. The easiest place to ambush caravans on the Trade Way is while they pass through the edges of the Misty Forest, where the trees can disguise the approach of the bandits. This lucrative raiding territory is controlled, of course, by the elves of the Misty Forest, so the High Moor and the Misty Forest are in perpetual low-grade warfare for control of the Misty Forest's periphery, with occasional retaliatory strikes by the elves into the Moor in order to disrupt the monsters. At the northwestern edge of the Moor is the town of Secomber. This town is the eastern edge of the Waterdeep sphere of influence and lies along the trade route between Waterdeep and the Moonsea running through the Anauroch Desert, and the proximity of the High Moor to Secomber is only the start of that route's dangers. Secomber is often used as a base for forays into the Moor, and is often raided in return by the Moor's inhabitants. Just like the High Forest, the High Moor has its fair share of ruins, although these ones favor the Netherese over those of Miyeritar, mostly because of just how thoroughly Miyeritar was obliterated. One such ruin is Orogoth, a Netherese family villa home to a noble family that attempted to capture dragons and somehow steal their power. Unsurprisingly, the stone walls of the estate are partly melted by dragon fire and are still home to a malevolent dracolich. This dracolich is thankfully quite content to keep to himself in Orogoth rather than laying waste to the countryside, but it would nevertheless be wise to remove him at soonest convenience, lest he decide to take action against anyone operating in the area. The most famous ruin of the High Moor is Dragonspear Castle, which has changed hands innumerable times and thus has remnants of undead, fiends, and evil elementals lurking about its halls currently. Both a necromancer and a red wizard (possibly a necromancer red wizard) have been rumored to have taken up residence in the castle currently. As with most places infested with orcs or similar, the easiest path to power in the High Moor is to align with one orc tribe and then beat the others into submission. After the infighting required to unite the monsters of the region, the resulting military is usually too weak to be a huge threat to much of anything on its own, but the High Moor is different. Its sheer size means that even a weakened force of its inhabitants could be a serious threat to neighbors, particularly Misty Forest. While the forces of the Moor couldn't threaten Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate on their own, they could certainly do serious damage to these mighty cities' hinterland before being caught and destroyed by their army, and, it supplemented with forces from other regions, could also form the foundation for an army that could challenge even titans like Baldur's Gate and Silverymoon. Further Reading Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle deals primarily with Daggerford and its surrounding areas, but the final adventure of that book does take place in the eponymous Dragonspear Castle at the Moor's edge. The Moor is also fairly unchanged since the 14th century, so the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting still applies, and of course the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide does go over the Moor in some detail.