Godstair, the Great Escarpment

Written by CraftyGepetto

Northwest of the Grand Duchy of Calthrax is Godstair, a mile-high escarpment stretching along the Gray Mountains for nearly 800 miles. Passes are few, and treacherous. The mountains above Godstair are beyond civilization. They are home to the nightmares parents offer children to keep them in line, and the Godstair holds them at bay. Some say the escarpment is the result of some grand past battle when the gods walked the surface of Thel, some titanic upheavel. Other tales say a sea monster pushed against the western shores of Kel hard enough to tilt the land up on its axis to create the Gray mountains and the Godstair.
Whatever the cause, traversing the escarpment is attempted by few, and fewer still return to tell the tale. Those that do speak of vast empty wilderness, trees as tall as the sky, mountain peaks as jagged and sharp as the war god’s axe. Periodically fell beasts, or their corpses, fall through a river pass and are found by scavengers searching the base of the Godstair for treasures. The races that live a mile up are known to occasionally pitch one another over the edge.
Adventuring bands travel up the escarpment, some scaling the face at certain favorable lines, or else clawing their way up a river gorge, steep and full of treacherous stones and strange creatures. Adair’s Green Company was the most famous of these, led by Adair herself, the most famous scout on the northern frontier. With her went a dozen stalwart companions, bold and true every one of them. Only Skezzid returned, and unconscious at that. His body was found by scavengers floating out of a river gorge and thought dead. Yet he hung onto life, if barely, and slowly recovered over a long winter. In his traveling satchel was a collection of immense gemstones and platinum bars with strange markings. He swore there was a civilization of beast men living in a deep valley, ringed by guardians of stone and ice.
There are more bodies that float down out of the gorge now, spurred on by the tales of Skezzid. As for himself, after the long winter spent by the fire, he sold his holdings in IsleGate and moved as far east and south as he could, or so they say. He never wanted to feel the bite of winter again.

Geography

An 800-mile long escarpment, a mile high, running from the frozen seas to the north, south-southwest to the Ketch Serwen. The Godstair is the barrier between the high Gray Mountains and highlands and the realms of civilized men.

Fauna & Flora

Boreal and arctic, adapted to stone and cold. Bestial furred races are common, and great beasts capable of tearing a person in half without effort.

Natural Resources

Timber, stone, snow, ice. Ice cold water. Gemstones of a size not found anywhere else in Thelkelnar, if you can find them.

Image Credit: DasWortgewand, Pixabay CC0

Type

Mountain Range