The Savage Frontier

Capital: None Population: 564,480 (humans 55%, orcs 20%, dwarves 5%, half-elves 5%, elves 4%, half-orcs 4%, halflings 4%, gnomes 2%) Government: Free cities, tribes, clans Religions: Nearly all Imports: Books, manufactured items, magic items, miners, pottery, spices Exports: Furs, gems, leather goods, mercenaries, precious metals, timber Alignment: All The Savage Frontier includes the lands north of the Delimbiyr that are not strictly part of the High Forest, the Silver Marches, the Sword Coast North, or Waterdeep. Compared to the well-cleared lands of the south, much of the Savage Frontier is either rugged mountains or virgin forest. Non-human races still hold sway here, and vast regions are virtually untraveled by humans. The elves and dwarves who occupied this land before the humans still make their presence felt - in songs, in attitudes, in place names... and in deeds. Many elves and half-elves remained in the North instead of retreating to Evermeet, and the dwarves are reclaiming their ancient kingdoms. And the orcs? As the folk of the North say, "The orcs are always with us." Centuries of assaults from the Spine of the World do not appear likely to end any time soon. Life and Society The Savage Frontier is home to rough-and-tumble free cities, armed mining camps, trading outposts, fiercely independent freesteads, and wandering tribes of barbarians. This is a wilderness only lightly touched by human settlement, home to bloodthirsty marauders and terrible beasts that can descend on a settlement with no warning whatsoever. All able-bodied folk go armed here, even in sight their stockades and city walls. The folk of the frontier are alert, serious, and self-reliant. Most owe fealty to no lord and prize their hard lifestyle. The lands of the North temper folk to steel. The comforts, vanities, and decadence the southern cities have no place in this cold, hard realm. While some settlers come to these lands in search of territory to call their own, most are drawn by the great wealth of the frontier: valuable furs, vast forests, and rich ores in the snowy mountains. Ore and timber flow down the vast rivers of this land to the cities of the Sword Coast, or over the Black Road of the Zhents and across Anauroch to the Moonsea and the Dales. Sidebar: The Uthgardt Barbarians. Major Geographic Features Some of Faerûn's most rugged and difficult terrain lies in the region west of Anauroch. The broad river valleys give way to range upon range of snow-covered mountains and seemingly endless forests. In winter, blizzards lasting weeks halt travel for hundreds of miles about, and the spring melts transform the great highways of this land - its broad rivers - into torrents of icy destruction impassable to anything without wings or magic. The Evermoors: A region of bog-pocked hills, long rolling vistas, rocky ridges, and small peaks hiding deposits of valuable ores, the Evermoors are notorious for their numerous troll bands. Few humans have ever tried to tame this region, though it might be good, land for sheep herding or prospecting. In recent years, giants from the frigid lands to the north of the Spine of the World have taken up residence in these wild lands. Most are savage hill giants little better than overgrown ogres. The citizens of Nesme, and as many adventurers as they can recruit, are too busy fending off the trolls displaced by the new arrivals to deal with giant trouble. The Fallen Lands: A strip of rugged terrain on the west border of Anauroch, the Fallen Lands still bristle with magic energy left over from Netheril's fall. No doubt Anauroch will swallow the area if the Great Desert continues to expand for another hundred years. The Fallen Lands serve as a refuge for monstrous beings who do not wish to be disturbed, including a gigantic beholder performing breeding experiments on captured enemies and its own kin. Rogue phaerimms lurk here as well. Graypeak Mountains: This mountain range separates the Fallen Lands from the Delimbiyr River valley beside the High Forest. The range is named for its ubiquitous gray-skinned stone giants, some of whom are smart enough not to attack all travelers on sight. Graypeaks also offer bad weather, goblin keeps, numerous young dragons, and large packs of worgs led by barghest chieftains allied with the goblins. River Dessarin: This great river carves the rough hills of the central North into a broad, gentle valley. It is the principal route for trade and commerce in this region, linking Waterdeep near its mouth, with Yartar and Silverymoon hundreds of miles upstream. The Spine Of the World: To Faerûnians, the Spine of the World is simply an endless, nigh impassable wall of tall, frozen mountains that marks the end of the world. Beyond it lies the Endless Ice Sea, a howling, frigid waste where nothing can live, which eventually stretches through deadly white mists to divine realms. Citizens of Scornubel refer to this mountain range simply as the Wall. The propensity of the monstrous inhabitants of these peaks to raid the lands below keeps the conifer-cloaked, stag-roamed rolling foothills of the Wall relatively uninhabited, though fierce and hostile barbarian human tribes wander here. Icewind Dale and other sites of interest to miners, collectively known as the Frozenfar, lie beyond the western Wall. Few of the ways across involve climbing or flying: Hill giants roam the mountain slopes, and the peaks and frozen high valleys are home to frost giants, white dragons, and yeti. Instead, those determined to reach the Frozenfar endure perilous underground scrambles through abandoned dwarfholds, some of which lead into mines that pierce through the massive range. Countless tribes of orcs, hobgoblins, bugbears, goblins, and giants call the dwarfholds and mountain caverns home, and darker things lurk in the lightless levels of the mines. Important Sites The wilderness itself is the most important feature of this region. Its weather and terrain are more dangerous than monsters, and its vast distances serve to isolate remote towns and settlements from all but the most determined travelers. Griffon's Nest (Small City, 6,713): Kralgar Bonesnapper (NE male human Bbn5/Ftr6), the ruler of the Uthgardt settlement of Griffon's Nest dreams of crushing a walled city beneath the weapons of his barbarian horde and ruling as its master. He is not particular which city falls to him: Everlund, Neverwinter, or Waterdeep would suit his plans. While preparing for his war of conquest Kralgar has created the most prosperous and well-organized settlement of Uthgardt barbarians in the North. Unlike other Uthgardt tribes, the Griffon tribe welcomes contact with outsiders, particularly adventurers who can teach them tricks to use against civilized fighters. Kralgar may eventually realize his dream by building a mighty wall around his holdings and proclaiming himself lord, since Griffon's Nest is already the equal of most of the small cities of the North. Llorkh (Large Town, 3,051): Situated at the west end of the Black Road across Anauroch, Llorkh is a major caravan stop for the Zhents. In addition to the Zhent soldiery, the Lord Mayor Geildarr (CE male human Wiz7/Dev3 of Cyric) commands an army of three hundred purple-cloaked Lord's Men who protect the city against orcs, adventurers, and townspeople who do not appreciate the overt rule of the Zhents. Loudwater, (Small City, 8,137): Originally built by a master dwarven artisan for his elven friends, this pleasant and prosperous city of humans and half-elves offers a well-defended rest stop for caravans and riverboats. Merchants and travelers who pass through twice eventually come back to stay. Zhent trade passing to and from Llorkh is enriching the leading merchants of the town, and Zhentarim agents based in Llorkh are scheming to subvert this city as well. Regional History Out of the mists of ages long forgotten arose three great elven kingdoms - Illefarn, where Waterdeep now stands; Miyeritar, where the High Moor now lies; and Eaerlann, which lay along the valley of the River Delimbiyr. Under the Nether, Rauvin, Ruathym, and Ice Mountains and the valleys in between, the mighty dwarven kingdom of Delzoun stood. For thousands of years these realms held fast against the hordes of goblins, orcs, and worse that roamed the cold wilds and bitter mountains unclaimed by dwarf or elf. Thousands of years before the beginning of Dalereckoning, bands of barbaric humans began to migrate north along the Sword Coast and establish kingdoms of their own. While this new threat to the elven realms grew stronger, the elves themselves turned on each other in the legendary Crown Wars. Miyeritar was destroyed by a terrible magic that slew every elf of the kingdom, leaving only the open, blasted High Moor behind, and the Ilythiki elves were cursed by Corellon Larethian and banished to the Underdark, becoming the ebon-hued drow. East of these elven realms, along the shores of what was then the Narrow Sea, the human empire of Netheril arose and grew mighty. The archwizards of Netheril dominated northern Faerûn until the catastrophic fall of their kingdom, roughly three hundred years before the raising of the Standing Stone in the Dales. Netherese fleeing the deserts growing in their once fair land and the magical dooms sweeping across it fled to all corners of Faerûn, and many came to the North. Their settlements became the progenitors of cities such as Everlund, Loudwater, and Sundabar. The dwarven realm of Delzoun fell soon after Netheril, inundated in the greatest outpouring of orcs ever seen in the North. And the elves of the North began to withdraw to Evermeet, abandoning their graceful cities and magical holds. To complete the fall of the great realms of the North, demons invaded Ascalhorn and transformed that place to the infamous Hellgate Keep, precipitating the final fall of Eaerlann. Meanwhile, the steady trickle of human settlers north along the Sword Coast led to the founding of Nimoar's Hold, the settlement that would eventually grow into Waterdeep. The folk of Nimoar's Hold and other young human settlements battled the monstrous denizens of the region in the Trollwars of old. Cities and farmlands grew where stockades and forests had once stood, as year by year the new human cities tamed the great wilderness. In the last ten years, the city of Silverymoon has become the capital of a new kingdom of humans, elves, and dwarves known as the Silver Marches (see the next entry). Dwarves have reclaimed Mithral Hall, one of the great dwarf-realms of old, and driven the orcs out of the Citadel of Many Arrows, renaming it Citadel Felbarr. The wood elves of the High Forest have set about driving the orcs from their lands as well. The North is changing, and the dark forces and powerful monsters of the Savage Frontier don't like what they see. A great storm is brewing in these lands. Plots and Rumors In addition to the constant threat posed by the numerous monsters of the Savage Frontier, more insidious perils are manifesting. The Zhentarim seek to extend their influence westward from Llorkh. The Kraken Society, an organization of spies, assassins, and sinister dealers in lore and knowledge, is well ensconced in Luskan and other coastal cities and dreams of subverting inland towns such as Yartar along the Dessarin valley. And the Arcane Brotherhood of Luskan contests the influence of Waterdeep's Lords over the region. Barbaric Justice: An Uthgardt barbarian of the Black Lion tribe flees into the arms of an adventuring company on the road, pursued by a small party of warriors determined to hunt him down. The fugitive, a young hunter named Thurvald, claims that he is accused of a crime he did not commit, the murder of the shaman Bogohardt at Beorunna's WelL The pursuers, of course, say he's guilty. If the heroes choose to protect Thurvald, the hunters are out matched by the party and can be driven off with a hard fight. They return in greater force later and trail Thuvald and the heroes wherever they go, even into the city of Silverymoon. The heroes can simply turn over Thurvald to his pursuers ... but he really is innocent. Thurvald is a shapechanger (a snow leopard), a secret suspected by his tribe and known to the People of the Black Blood. Malar's cultists tried and failed to recruit Thurvald of his own free will, so they murdered the tribal shaman and framed Thurvald. They plan to let the Black Lion tribe inflict its harsh justice on Thurvald and then rescue him before he is killed. Thurvald knows he was framed and knows the two Malar worshipers are responsible. To prove Thurvald's innocence, the heroes must track down the real murderers and expose their guilt. Giant Opportunities: Taern Horn blade, the new High Mage of Silverymoon, perceives the arrival of the giants in the Evermoors as a chance to pacify the Silver Marches' western border. Silverymoon seeks agents to enter the Moors, identify and contact the most lawful and powerful giants of the area, and attempt to form an alliance to reduce the giants' threat to Silverymoon and Nesme to the west.