Shadow Hold

Ruler: The Black Network Economy: made from trade caravans Militia: at least 1000 Black Network Mercenaries are quickly available to come battle Points of interest: Shadow Hold Keep
Today, this black stone fortress is feared and hated by folk all over the lands and much farther afield in the world who have never seen it and hope never to. Most dare not approach this grim Stronghold for what is known of this place of death comes from questions asked in whispers to others in the North.
What is believed to be true is that from this fortalice in Shadow Hold Vale, a cleft high up on a rock shoulder of the huge mountain known as the Gray Morning, the raiders pour down into more or less at will, using hippogriffs, hendar, foulwings, and even more fearsome aerial steeds as spies to seek out caravans, holds whose militias are elsewhere or weakened, and other easy prey. Travelers are advised to avoid Shadow Hold’s reach as much as possible and to be aware at all times that Shadow Hold‘s reach includes almost all of the valley by night or whenever defenders of settlements are busy elsewhere.
Once a castle of the Giant-Emperors, Shadow Hold was built for folk of that stature, according to some the Giant-Emperors were but slaves of decadent archwizards who had the castle built by an elemental. The giants styled themselves Emperors only after these overlords fell and they were left to their own devices. Most tales of lore agree that whatever the castle’s origin, it came to be inhabited by giants, proud and wilful, who raided the lands around the castle’s verdant region then grasslands inhabited by countless herds of wild beasts, not the dry broken land so much of it is today. The giants repelled elf attacks and bold dwarf and human probings with ease, but in the end, as the stories tell, they slew each other. Two rival princes slaughtered their sire and all the other giants who opposed them by poison, spells, traps, and hireswords in their mad struggle to eliminate each other. Some tales say they ended up fighting each other in the otherwise-deserted castle, stabbed each other, and crawled off to separate hidden chambers to die. Their ghosts haunt the castle, striving for supremacy one over the other still, whispering curses so as to set one inhabitant against another in an unending spectral struggle to rule the castle.
With all the giants dead, the Keep stood empty. It was soon plundered by bold human and elven adventurers, and one of them called Bothong Longhelm, whom the ballads call the Robber Lord, made it his home. He soon fell to treachery and his successor, Sangarn Urfyst, used the castle as a base for brigandage in his turn. He, too, was slain by one of his followers, who set himself up as the Wolf Knight, history doesn’t even recall his name. His throat was cut by a lady captive in his bedchamber one night. She turned out to be a sorceress, and a colder, a crueller brigand than the rest, ruling Farkeep as Sarunn Thoon (the ballad The Witch of the Far Cold Hill tells her tale). She fell in her turn to a cabal of masked wizards who turned out to be horrific monsters who devoured the mind of their victims and held the bandit warriors of the castle in thrall until they died in their service and only walking corpses were left. Then a dragon struck, a white wyrm most say though accounts vary, lairing in the keep until slain by a dwarf hero, Harristor Thunderswing, who later went under land to form his own clan in the Lightless Lands of Underholme and was never seen again. The empty castle was roamed by monsters in the years that followed. Histories record both a beholder and a leucrotta using it as a lair at various times and then it was taken by again by brigands. They were slain by the Wildmen of the North, led by Brundar Tigerbane. He renamed the castle the Wild Hold and refortified it but he fell in battle along with most of his tribe. The castle changed hands again. A succession of petty rulers, some of whom styled themselves Lord Knight of the Far Hills, and at least one of whom called himself the Duke of The Vale, held the castle for 200 years, holding sway over varying parts of the region. Sunset Keep became a hold well known, if not respected, among merchants. The rulers of the Keep raided passing trade, fought with those who sought to drive them out, and either prevailed or were cut down and supplanted in their turn by a new petty lord who grew into another proud robber baron only to fall in his turn. At length one was left so weak by an attack that he and his few retainers perished under the claws and fangs of wolves and other monsters made bold by hard winter weather, and Sunset Keep became a monster hold again.
It gained the name of Shadow Hold when a lich-queen rose to rule it, extending her skeletal hand out to raid and to rule much as her human predecessors had done. She used skeletal warriors, zombies, more sinister undead, and the monsters of the Hold who had submitted to her to enforce her rule. Those who did not submit, she destroyed. Some say this lich-sorceress, Varalla, fought at the Battle of Bones, others say she was an archsorceress of a lost empire freed from ages-long slumber by a monster smashing an inner wall of the Hold.
Whatever the truth, Shadow Hold became a name of horror as word spread of the dark spells worked by Varalla to aid her undead minions as they raided far afield over the coastlands and as far east as the outposts of the Heartlands. Tales of new spells lured the Black Network into attacking her. Using goblins who were promised easy treasure and mercenaries who weren’t told what they’d have to fight, the Network used their magic and troops to smash Shadow Hold’s defenders. From that moment in on, Shadow Hold has been a Black Network base. It has grown into a fortress rivaling Citadel in importance if not in size.
Now home to a thousand Network magelings, and priests, Shadow Hold is a waystop for caravans, with patrols roaming the nearby lands best avoided by those not affiliated with the Black Network.

Type

City

Location under

Ethigoviel