Rand's Travelogue
More High Forest, Savage Frontier,
and Silver Marches!
By Rand Sharpsword

Lurkwood: As the most convenient route from the orc-ridden Spine of the World to both the Evermoors and the High Forest, Lurkwood is a dangerous place to tarry. Humans log the fringes of the wood, but only when well armed.

Longsaddle (Small Town, 950): Lurkwood is a small village that is notable as the rallying point for a widespread community of boisterous cattle ranchers who are held in check by a family of magicians with deep roots in the local community, the Harpells. The Harpells are members of the Lord's Alliance. Longsaddle may be a small community, but it's anything but sleepy, because magicians, outsiders, aberrants, and adventurers who side with or against the Harpells constantly trickle through town, looking for information or to settle a grudge.

Deadsnows (Village, 530): Among the crags of mountain country, near the trails left by dire bears and hunting dragons, sits an outpost of 500 dwarves and 30 humans. The dwarves worship Marthammor Finder of Trails, an adventurers' god. The humans worship Lathander. Together the two races maintain a watchtower, an Underdark cavern, and an abbey that provides shelter for travelers. In the new order of the Silver March, Deadsnows serves as an early warning post for the communities to the south.

"Tell Us Who to Hate": The centaurs of the High Forest have received multiple divinations telling them that they must win a war in the next month or lose their tribe's luck. The divinations specified that the centaurs cannot declare the war themselves -- they have to be told who to war against by a noncentaur who happens to be a member of a PC race. After the PC obliges, the centaurs reveal the second part of the prophecy: The noncentaur who names their enemy must lead them into battle. If the PCs avoid doing their prophetic duty, make sure that the noncentaur NPC who names an enemy picks a group the PCs are friendly with.

The Latest from Silverymoon: Alustriel of the Seven Sisters, the ruler of Silverymoon for 134 years until she stepped down to oversee all the Silver March, encourages stronger bonds between the diverse races of Silverymoon. Marriage and children between the races are still relatively rare, but childrearing, education, and professional training are often so intermingled that outsiders think of Silverymoon as the place where elves think they're dwarves, dwarves think they're elves, and humans think they're everything.

Tag in the Woods: Giants from the Evermoors chase a small army of orcs out of the moors into the Moonwood. While the orcs play the mice to the giants' dire cats, the giants begin to realize that they like it here. Not many folks around. Lots of big trees. Warmer than the moor. Nice place to live. The giants may hate orcs, but that doesn't make them nice giants, so the PCs need to dissuade them before they get too comfortable in their "new home."