Post by DM Sin on Nov 16, 2006 9:52:36 GMT -5
The Forest of Wyrms
This thick wood of pines and redwoods lies due south of the Serpent Hills. Like the Hills, the forest is infested by a wide variety of snakes. It also serves as a home to a halfdozen young green dragons. Several small communities and ruins lie hard by it.
Lyran’s Hold
A prominent ruin, Lyran’s Hold, is found in the Forest of Wyrms. Once the tower of a powerful archlich, the hold was claimed in 1357 DR by a pair of adventurers, who claimed to have participated in the destruction of the lich. Always interested in ancient magic, I took a brief side jaunt to explore the ruins with my faithful companion, Atad. I spent less than a day exploring and touched almost nothing because most items of interest appeared to have been removed. I saw no signs of the adventurers who had laid claim, but the tower was full of life, most of it reptilian. In addition, numerous specimens of undead, mostly skeletons and zombies, patrolled the lands around the keep. Curiously, I saw no undead creatures within the keep itself. If the adventurers still mean to claim the tower, perhaps they were merely gone for a short period.
Boareskyr Bridge
Not far west of the Forest of Wyrms, Boareskyr Bridge crosses the Winding Water, the river that drains the Marsh of Chelimber and continues from there to enter the Sea of Swords just south of the Troll Hills. At Boareskyr Bridge, the Winding Water becomes poisonous as a result of a battle between Cyric and Bhaal during the Time of Troubles. At the bridge, the river’s muddy waters become an inky black and release a foul, rotting stench. The waters remain poisonous until they reach Trollclaw Ford many miles downstream. On the southern side of the wide bridge is a small trading centre made mostly of tents and wagons. This centre’s only permanent structure, other than the bridge itself, is a rough stone fort with a poisonous moat known as the Bridgefort. The trading centre is rough and lawless and allows all sorts of creatures to come in and barter or buy, including lizard men and even ophidia from the Serpent Hills. The small settlement suffers from occasional raids from goblins or bandits but has never been molested by the reptile folk of the Serpent Hills. Apparently, the opportunity to conduct commerce is too important to the intelligent lizards and snakes of the hills to pursue such outright hostilities. Upstream a short distance from the bridge is Heartwing, the private estate of Aluena Halacanter, a mage who raises pegasi. She confided to me that her original pegasi eggs were a clutch she rescued from the heights of the Serpent Hills years ago. So, though wild pegasi are extremely rare in the hills (because predatory reptiles raid the creatures. nests), pegasi thrive at Heartwing.
Serpent's Cowl
Farther upstream from Boareskyr Bridge is the small town of Serpent’s Cowl, a village that is named for the great yuan-ti city and temple once maintained on this site. The village is small but pleasant and crowds around a small square. The villagers tend several farm fields near the village, but these fields lack any buildings. The farms lack buildings for the same reason the village is small: A ward protects the village’s buildings and people from dragons, but the ward has a fairly small area of effect. Dragons destroy any structure outside the protected area and occasionally attack people inside and outside that area as well. Beneath Serpent’s Cowl (and much of the surrounding area) lie the ruins of a powerful yuan-ti city, and beneath and among those ruins rest ancient Netherese ruins. The yuan-ti seized awesome magical items from the ancient Netherese ruins and built their city, which dominated the surrounding area for more than a century. In the centre of the city was a great temple in which hideous arcane experiments transformed monsters into horrid abominations. Legends tell of their creating giant winged flying snakes and beholders with snakelike, dangling rear bodies. The yuan-ti were eventually brought down by a force of mages. They caused the collapse of the temple, burying the yuan-ti and their terrible creations beneath. Many of the yuan-ti escaped to the Serpent Hills (as detailed in the earlier chapter on The Snake People), where they plot and scheme to reclaim their ancient lands.
Twisted passages still exist from the ancient yuan-ti city through the Underdark to the Serpent Hills and to sites within the Forest of Wyrms. The people of the Serpent.s Cowl area have a strong belief in the legends about the yuan-ti with good reason. By unspoken agreement, they never construct cellars or dig pits into the ground, and since they can get good water from the Winding Water, they do not drill wells. In this way, they do not risk accidental contact with any of the monsters presumed to still live beneath the site. At some unspecified time in the past (local tellings of the legends simply state “long before any of us were alive”), a group of evil mages entered the area riding dragons that they directed to dig up the ancient ruins in search of Netherese magic. It was these incursions that led to the creation of the ward that now protects the village. The ward’s presence and the fact that the dragon-riding mages seem to have found whatever it was they were looking for eventually led to the villagers being left alone by sorcerous guests.
I asked several inhabitants of Serpent’s Cowl why they stayed where they were when they all knew of the dangers of the Forest of Wyrms and they all believed in the dangers lurking beneath the ground; most villagers are farmers, hunters, fishers, and woodcutters, and most must travel with armed parties to practice even those inoffensive professions in safety. Of those I asked, most explained that they stayed because their ancestors had claimed the land and they were too stubborn to move. One old man, however, stated his belief that he had a sacred duty to watch over the area in case the snakemen should come back. If they did, he would be ready to stem the tide while others went for help. When he said this, several other townspeople silently nodded in agreement. While at first the people seemed foolish to me, I must admit that their chosen task, to serve as early warnings should the serpent people invade again, provided me with some comfort. It led me to reconsider my judgment of the villagers as foolish; I now believe them to be quietly noble and steadfast.
In the Forest
The Forest of Wyrms itself is a target of the yuan-ti and their ophidian allies. Though they denied trying to retake their ancestral territory whenever I asked, their denials were a little too quick and their attempts to change the subject a little too forced. The populations of snakes in the forests have been increasing, and more and more frequently worse creatures such as winged serpents and even an occasional behir are sighted. However, nobody has seen a yuan-ti or ophidian in the forest yet, or if they have, they haven’t lived to tell about it. Besides these snakes, winged snakes, behirs, and the previously mentioned family of young green dragons, the Forest of Wyrms is home to several undead creatures from Lyran’s Hold. This wood is one of the most dangerous forests I know of, and it is no wonder that local woodcutters work only around its edges and always travel with armed guards who watch constantly for attack.
This thick wood of pines and redwoods lies due south of the Serpent Hills. Like the Hills, the forest is infested by a wide variety of snakes. It also serves as a home to a halfdozen young green dragons. Several small communities and ruins lie hard by it.
Lyran’s Hold
A prominent ruin, Lyran’s Hold, is found in the Forest of Wyrms. Once the tower of a powerful archlich, the hold was claimed in 1357 DR by a pair of adventurers, who claimed to have participated in the destruction of the lich. Always interested in ancient magic, I took a brief side jaunt to explore the ruins with my faithful companion, Atad. I spent less than a day exploring and touched almost nothing because most items of interest appeared to have been removed. I saw no signs of the adventurers who had laid claim, but the tower was full of life, most of it reptilian. In addition, numerous specimens of undead, mostly skeletons and zombies, patrolled the lands around the keep. Curiously, I saw no undead creatures within the keep itself. If the adventurers still mean to claim the tower, perhaps they were merely gone for a short period.
Boareskyr Bridge
Not far west of the Forest of Wyrms, Boareskyr Bridge crosses the Winding Water, the river that drains the Marsh of Chelimber and continues from there to enter the Sea of Swords just south of the Troll Hills. At Boareskyr Bridge, the Winding Water becomes poisonous as a result of a battle between Cyric and Bhaal during the Time of Troubles. At the bridge, the river’s muddy waters become an inky black and release a foul, rotting stench. The waters remain poisonous until they reach Trollclaw Ford many miles downstream. On the southern side of the wide bridge is a small trading centre made mostly of tents and wagons. This centre’s only permanent structure, other than the bridge itself, is a rough stone fort with a poisonous moat known as the Bridgefort. The trading centre is rough and lawless and allows all sorts of creatures to come in and barter or buy, including lizard men and even ophidia from the Serpent Hills. The small settlement suffers from occasional raids from goblins or bandits but has never been molested by the reptile folk of the Serpent Hills. Apparently, the opportunity to conduct commerce is too important to the intelligent lizards and snakes of the hills to pursue such outright hostilities. Upstream a short distance from the bridge is Heartwing, the private estate of Aluena Halacanter, a mage who raises pegasi. She confided to me that her original pegasi eggs were a clutch she rescued from the heights of the Serpent Hills years ago. So, though wild pegasi are extremely rare in the hills (because predatory reptiles raid the creatures. nests), pegasi thrive at Heartwing.
Serpent's Cowl
Farther upstream from Boareskyr Bridge is the small town of Serpent’s Cowl, a village that is named for the great yuan-ti city and temple once maintained on this site. The village is small but pleasant and crowds around a small square. The villagers tend several farm fields near the village, but these fields lack any buildings. The farms lack buildings for the same reason the village is small: A ward protects the village’s buildings and people from dragons, but the ward has a fairly small area of effect. Dragons destroy any structure outside the protected area and occasionally attack people inside and outside that area as well. Beneath Serpent’s Cowl (and much of the surrounding area) lie the ruins of a powerful yuan-ti city, and beneath and among those ruins rest ancient Netherese ruins. The yuan-ti seized awesome magical items from the ancient Netherese ruins and built their city, which dominated the surrounding area for more than a century. In the centre of the city was a great temple in which hideous arcane experiments transformed monsters into horrid abominations. Legends tell of their creating giant winged flying snakes and beholders with snakelike, dangling rear bodies. The yuan-ti were eventually brought down by a force of mages. They caused the collapse of the temple, burying the yuan-ti and their terrible creations beneath. Many of the yuan-ti escaped to the Serpent Hills (as detailed in the earlier chapter on The Snake People), where they plot and scheme to reclaim their ancient lands.
Twisted passages still exist from the ancient yuan-ti city through the Underdark to the Serpent Hills and to sites within the Forest of Wyrms. The people of the Serpent.s Cowl area have a strong belief in the legends about the yuan-ti with good reason. By unspoken agreement, they never construct cellars or dig pits into the ground, and since they can get good water from the Winding Water, they do not drill wells. In this way, they do not risk accidental contact with any of the monsters presumed to still live beneath the site. At some unspecified time in the past (local tellings of the legends simply state “long before any of us were alive”), a group of evil mages entered the area riding dragons that they directed to dig up the ancient ruins in search of Netherese magic. It was these incursions that led to the creation of the ward that now protects the village. The ward’s presence and the fact that the dragon-riding mages seem to have found whatever it was they were looking for eventually led to the villagers being left alone by sorcerous guests.
I asked several inhabitants of Serpent’s Cowl why they stayed where they were when they all knew of the dangers of the Forest of Wyrms and they all believed in the dangers lurking beneath the ground; most villagers are farmers, hunters, fishers, and woodcutters, and most must travel with armed parties to practice even those inoffensive professions in safety. Of those I asked, most explained that they stayed because their ancestors had claimed the land and they were too stubborn to move. One old man, however, stated his belief that he had a sacred duty to watch over the area in case the snakemen should come back. If they did, he would be ready to stem the tide while others went for help. When he said this, several other townspeople silently nodded in agreement. While at first the people seemed foolish to me, I must admit that their chosen task, to serve as early warnings should the serpent people invade again, provided me with some comfort. It led me to reconsider my judgment of the villagers as foolish; I now believe them to be quietly noble and steadfast.
In the Forest
The Forest of Wyrms itself is a target of the yuan-ti and their ophidian allies. Though they denied trying to retake their ancestral territory whenever I asked, their denials were a little too quick and their attempts to change the subject a little too forced. The populations of snakes in the forests have been increasing, and more and more frequently worse creatures such as winged serpents and even an occasional behir are sighted. However, nobody has seen a yuan-ti or ophidian in the forest yet, or if they have, they haven’t lived to tell about it. Besides these snakes, winged snakes, behirs, and the previously mentioned family of young green dragons, the Forest of Wyrms is home to several undead creatures from Lyran’s Hold. This wood is one of the most dangerous forests I know of, and it is no wonder that local woodcutters work only around its edges and always travel with armed guards who watch constantly for attack.