The Shining Creek

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

This river begins near the southern edge of the Lurkwood, and is joined by the Goblintide just before it drains into the Surbrin.


Sources

Maps

Disclaimer

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The River Rauvin

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

A river descending from the Nether Mountains, and passing Sundabar, Everlund, and Silverymoon before joining the Surbrin.


Source

  • Waterdeep and the North [FR1/9213] page 5, under Dessarin
Maps

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Black Ash Plain

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

The Black Ash Plain is a broad badlands area extending south from the Smoking Mountains to the River Alamber.

Hot, acidic ash and tephra falling from the perpetual clouds over the mountain range has formed hardened ridges in some places, silty dunes in others, and elsewhere has partially dissolved the ground.  The latter effect, in particular, is dramatically worsened by flooding from the River Alamber.  The result is an uneven, unpredictable, and dangerous landscape.

Understandably, there’s not much wildlife here, but certain creatures tolerate or even appreciate the environment.  Notable among these are the ash giants who have settled the area and built a successful business selling the ash to farmers of the Greenfields, who use it to improve their soil.


Sources

Primary Sources
Maps

Disclaimer

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The Maerthwatch

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

The Hills of Maerth, also called the Maerthwatch, are a range of low hills found in central Chessenta, running eastward from the northern Adder Peaks to the Akanamere, then northeast to the Adderswamp.

There are no human communities within the hills, but several nearby settlements, including Maerduuth, Oslin, Saden, and Villon.

Source

  • Old Empires [FR10/9274] page 52 describes the Hills of Maerth

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Medusa

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Departure from Canon

In the Monster Manual, a medusa is described as “a well-proportioned human” …then as “repulsive” …then as “indistinguishable from a normal human” at a range as short as 30 ft.  And they have an average Charisma of 15.  Charisma is not all about looks, but ugly things are often given low Charisma scores.

I’m resolving these discrepancies and making the medusa a little more dangerous.  I’m also going out on a limb with their origins.  This presentation may contradict some official details, but it supersedes the MM description for the Xaeyruudh campaign.

At a Glance

A medusa is very similar in overall appearance to a human woman, with the obvious exception of her head and some subtler differences elsewhere.  When nude and prevented from disguising herself, she’s easily distinguished from other creatures, but by then it’s usually too late for the observer to flee.

  • The hair on her head is replaced by a mass of poisonous snakes.  She has no other hair, including no eyebrows or eyelashes.  The coloration of her scales, and the snakes, varies according to her habitat: dusty brown or red in the desert, emerald green in the forest, olive drab in the marshes, and so forth.  When living amongst humans or other races, her color approximates the tone of the dominant subrace. If she relocates, from the Raurin to the Lizard Marsh, for instance, her coloration changes over the course of a month or so.
  • Her skin is leathery, and covered with scales – very fine (looking like human skin) on her face, chest, and abdomen, thicker and harder on her shoulders, back, forearms, and legs.
  • Her eyes glow when she’s angered.  Eye color varies widely, but only among the vibrant shades… “chlorine” green, gold rather than brown, ice blue, and so forth.  Medusae who are blind (due to disease or other “natural” condition, not magic) have black eyes.  In all cases the eyes resemble glittery opaque gems, and lack visible pupils.
  • A medusa is an unrepentant carnivore, and she prefers her meals fresh and raw — she will disdainfully discard any leftover meat after a few hours.  She views fruits and vegetables the same way humans look at grass: at least two steps too far down the food chain.  Alcohol is a useful tool for making meals compliant, but a medusa will never get drunk.  “In the wild” a medusa will eat whatever meat she can catch, and drink the purest water she can find.

Some 10% have alluring sultry voices, but most have a slight-to-severe rasp which hampers their seduction of humans without the assistance of magic.

Once past puberty, a medusa can control the petrifying quality of her gaze… before that time it “has a mind of its own” and often frustrates her attempt to find treasure or a meal. A medusa cannot eat petrified victims, and unless she has the appropriate spells, she has no means to turn her statues back into meals.

A medusa has a keen taste for the finer things in life— art, cut gems and fabulous pieces of jewelry, rare coins especially platinum and gold, and extravagant clothing.  She also collects magic items… particularly ones that glitter attractively in addition to performing their functions.

Compassion is alien to a medusa.  She feels nothing resembling affection, for anyone other than herself.  Even her mates and spawn are owned and commanded, rather than loved… love is weak, like fruit.

Like vampires and lamia and other intelligent and cruel predators, a medusa likes to play with her food when she has the opportunity – meaning when she goes into a city, which she thinks of in the same way that humans think about a farmer’s market.  Suitably disguised, she will coyly flirt with whoever catches her eye, gentlemen and ladies alike, sometimes for hours if the conversation is stimulating, before taking them back to her lair-of-the-moment.  Once there, she’ll dally with them, or drop her charade and allow them to fight her, or tie them up and torture them… depending on her mood.  Before the end of the night, however, she’ll sate her hunger.

A young medusa will avoid sleeping in human cities… not that she’s afraid, mind you.  It’s just the stench of humanity; it gets to her, you understand.  However, an older medusa may be more than confident enough, particularly if she has levels in a spellcasting class, to maintain a semipermanent lair in a human city such as Scornubel or Baldur’s Gate or even Waterdeep… although the cold makes Waterdeep less appealing than a cozy buffet like Marsember.

The snakes grow throughout the medusa’s life, averaging a half inch per year of life.  Medusae who can cast spells, and who attempt to live among other races, obviously use magic to disguise the snakes and their own scales.  Those who can’t cast spells will go to any lengths to acquire the means to alter their shape so that they can have access to human and demihuman cities.

The Xaeyruudh Campaign

In my campaign, the medusa were created by the sarrukh.  This will not necessarily mesh with official lore, as noted above, but I think it makes good sense.

First, a medusa clearly has both humanoid and serpentine ancestry; this makes them a prime candidate for being the result of sarrukh genetic engineering. I think it makes sense for the medusae to have once been the personal servants of the sarrukh, since they have arms for wielding tools and a scaly form that the sarrukh would find more aesthetically pleasing than a non-reptilian slave race. Medusae also tend toward lawful alignments, making them more servile than other races.  The naga fancy themselves the favorites of the sarrukh, but I think that’s just ego and wishful thinking.

As the sarrukh empires waned, the medusae remained docile and nearly faded into obscurity with their masters, while the yuan-ti “stepped up” and began building kingdoms of their own.  In time the medusae scattered, remaining few in number and relatively shunned by the other reptilian races… though still greatly feared by kobolds, lizardfolk, and so forth, as the right hands of the ultimate masters.

Medusae venerate “Mother Sss’thasine’ss” — actually Talona since the old serpent deity was destroyed by an elven god in the days of Aryvandaar.  Historically, clerics have been rare among the medusae, for the many centuries since the fall of the sarrukh have made them self-sufficient and excessively proud.  Change is in the air, however, as the sarrukh begin to reawaken.

To Do

  • medusa lairs in the Realms, some individuals
  • successful Knowledge check results

Sources

  • Monster Manual [17755] page 180
  • Serpent Kingdoms: the sarrukh, and the connection between Sss’thasine’ss and Talona, come from Serpent Kingdoms
  • Original stuff: the rest is made up, and still a work-in-progress; constructive input is welcome

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

River Surbrin

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

The River Surbrin is a river which descends from the Spine of the World and is joined by three significant rivers (and at least two smaller streams) before it feeds into the Dessarin.  In order, these are the Rauvin, the Shining Creek, and the Laughing Flow.


Sources

Primary Sources
  • Waterdeep and the North [FR1/9213] page 4, under Dessarin
Passing Mention
Maps
Other Resources

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Dessarin River

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

A river beginning in the Lost Peaks, in the northwest corner of the High Forest.  It flows almost due west to Yartar, where it’s joined by the Surbrin, and from there southward to empty into the Sea of Swords at Zundbridge, just south of Waterdeep.

Bridges are found only at Zundbridge, Ironford, and the Stone Bridge. Elsewhere, the river can be crossed by swimming (or magic) but it cannot be forded.


Sources

Primary Sources
  • Welcome to Waterdeep by Ed Greenwood — Dragon Magazine 128 page 14
  • Waterdeep and the North [FR1/9213] page 4
Maps

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Roper

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.


At a Glance

A magical beast.

Ropers are stony creatures of the Underdark, best described as resembling stalagmites. They have a gizzard-like organ known as a horlobb, which accumulates the durable items the roper sometimes consumes along with its victims.

Ropers are thought to venerate Ghaunadaur.


Variations

Ropers are related to ghauropers, storopers, and urophions.


Appearance

Art Review

A suggestive interpretation of the roper turned up in the Erotic Monster Manual Contest at something awful.com.


Climitat


Sources

Primary Sources
Passing Mention
  • Drizzt Do’Urden’s Guide to the Underdark [11509] pages 18, 22, 31, 65, 66, 74, 80
  • Demihuman Deities – some reference to ghauropers
  • 2e Manual of the Planes – some reference to ghauropers
  • The 2e stats for ghauropers first appeared in Dungeon of the Hark, a now-difficult-to-obtain adventure; the stats are given in the Candlekeep thread referenced above, courtesy of Eric Boyd
  • Elminster’s Everwinking EyePolyhedron #110 page 7
  • WotC Monster Index

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Vault of the Thaalud

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

Once or twice per decade, an adventuring company returns after a successful foray into the Underdark beneath Anauroch, where the largest communities and expeditions of thaalud (aka tomb tappers) are found.  The adventurers, upon their return to the surface, naturally share (and suitably embellish) their experiences, in taverns and around campfires from Mirabar and Waterdeep to Suzail and Westgate, to Zhentil Keep and Mulmaster.  The Vault is often featured in those tales – not as an achievement, for no credible tale has ever been told of discovering it, but as the ultimate treasure trove of the Realms Below.

The thaalud seem to obsess over magic, pursuing it in the way the most avaricious of dragons or merchants seek wealth.  They will extort or kill for magic, without hesitation or remorse.  However, they don’t wear the armor they loot, and they use only the weapons that are crafted (and sometimes powerfully enchanted) by their own kin.  They’ve never been seen to eat magic items, and they certainly don’t destroy them.  Logically, then, they must be taking them somewhere.  A temple-city, the delvers insist… a dark place hidden far below, vast enough to display every magical item ever seen by a thaalud (who will not rest until it acquires the item).  This logic birthed, and still sustains, the legend of the Vault.

DM’s Notes

It’s not a bad idea.  So why not make it real?  However, there are a few buzzkills in store for acquisitive adventurers.

First, the biggest obstacle to be overcome is finding the Vault.  It’s assumed to be under the Anauroch because that’s where the vast majority of tomb tappers are found.  Nobody, other than the tomb tappers and whatever guardians they’ve put in place, has ever seen the Vault.  Human, dwarven, and even duergar sages have no sure knowledge about it, although some might make something up and charge you thousands of gold for their “wisdom” and then skip town while you’re gone to prevent possible retaliation for their underhandedness.  Obviously, the thaalud don’t advertise the existence or location of their Vault, and nobody else you encounter in the Underdark or on the surface will be able to point a finger and accurately say “it’s that way.”

Second, emerging from the first, is that you’re going to need a lot of power in order to get there.  It’s not the tomb tappers guarding the Vault that you should be worried about overcoming.  You should be concerned with the phaerimm, and the beholders, and the mind flayers (including a perhaps-shocking number of illithiliches).  You should think about all the drow (and the potentially vast numbers of driders who avoid the drow), and duergar (and far worse: derro), and kuo-toa, and deep dragons, and pseudonatural things creeping through portals from the Far Realm, and for that matter the natives of the ethereal and shadow planes who take their meals on the Prime Material, and all the constructs/elementals/outsiders/undead who’ve escaped their long-forgotten masters and now wander the Underdark bored and looking for a fight.  The places where you have to swim through miles of underground river, with only tiny/unpredictable air pockets, to get from one isolated pocket of the Underdark to the next because no dry tunnels exist.  The oozes, puddings, slimes, and the fact that every square foot of every tunnel has the potential to be infested with deadly molds and other fungi, many of which you’ve never seen before and/or won’t recognize until far too late.

Third, here’s the real kicker.  If you manage to find the Vault, and discover how to get into it, you’ll likely have the power to overcome the tomb tappers defending what is rightfully theirs… only to discover the ultimate disappointment.  The items in the Vault, no matter how numerous, won’t be appropriate to your level.  They’re not going to have +10 armor and weapons, or rings of universal elemental immunity, or the other fun items from the ELH… because in order to get them, they would have had to defeat adventurers like you… in which case they would have defeated you and kept you out of their Vault.  The treasures of the Vault are going to be mostly level 1-10 items, with some stretching up to level 20 (looted from tombs or taken from weaker adventurers who inherited them or stole them from tombs).  It is possible that the Vault contains one or more artifacts, especially the minor ones, but probably no major artifacts.

Then of course, there’s the question of how do you get all the treasure out of the Vault?  Even extradimensional spaces have limits.  Your best bet would probably be to set up a two-way portal, connecting the Vault with the personal stronghold you had the foresight to acquire.  From your keep, you can then sell the magical items off to merchants and adventurers passing through.

Yes, it is definitely an awesome quest, and don’t be discouraged from pursuing it.  Even the simple accumulation of several hundred +1 swords would be enough to make sure that you’re immortalized in taproom tales.  Just don’t count on it being quick, or easy, or hugely beneficial.  Profitable in gold… yes, perhaps, although the journey will have involved a lot of expense (ongoing armor/weapon repair and replacement as you get kicked in the crotch by everything and its brother, resurrection fees because some party members will definitely die, food and gear for your army while you blast your way through the Underdark, construction and upkeep of your castle, etc).  Upgrades in your own gear… no, the Vault probably won’t give you that.

Sources

  • The Tomb (I changed the name because I think “tomb of the tomb tappers” sounds lame) is mentioned under Tomb Tapper on page 82 of Monsters of Faerûn.
  • Underdark [88581] page 179 describes the Tomb as well. I have not yet incorporated this source into the ideas above.

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The Enclaves of Netheril

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

A flying city, from the WotC Epic Level Handbook Art Gallery... click on the image for the link. All rights are assumed to be reserved by Wizards of the Coast

At a Glance

Legend has it that the wizards of ancient Netheril raised flying cities into the sky over their realm. They called these cities Enclaves… or so the bards say. The magic needed to accomplish this is now lost, prompting generations of mages and treasure hunters to comb the sands searching for ancient Netherese magic and manuscripts. Only the most powerful survive, returning with tales of tribal humans who are violently superstitious about magic, murderous lizards of apparently infinite numbers, and ancient spell-sapping horrors who lurk in lightless depths beneath the world. Even among those who have found the ruins of the fallen empire, few have found magic enough to make the risk – and the investment of time – worthwhile.

DM’s Notes

The aforementioned tribes are the Bedine, the lizards are the laerti, and the (generally nameless because surface-dwellers know nothing about them) “horrors” are the phaerimm, though various ruins are also inhabited or watched by other races including beholderkin, illithids, lamia, and sharn.

The sharn generally leave folks alone who don’t go bumbling into their lairs and causing trouble, but the phaerimm (and even more commonly, their minions) will eventually notice humanoids putzing around in their realm… which is to say: everything over, under, or buried in the sand or ice of Anauroch.

The Enclaves

At one time, there were 54 flying cities. The “official” list of enclaves, from various sources including Lost Empires [17738] and the Netheril boxed set [1147], includes

Three enclaves —supposedly named Anauria, Asram, and Hlondath— were saved by Mystra and became the centers of the survivor states of the same names. These might be among the enclaves whose fate or location are unclear, including Aquessir, Delia, Doubloon, Phylornel, Xinlenal, and Spiel. Spiel would be a particularly good candidate for one of these survivor cities, since it was close and apparently no trace of a ruin is found on the location today.

There are other cities with mythallars, which did not fly.

  • The Sargauth Demesne

Sources

  • Lost Empires of Faerûn [17738] pages 95-112
  • Netheril: Empire of Magic [1147]

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.