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AltaR MOUND Advanced Dun3eons£$)ra3ons OFFICIAL GAME ACCESSORY Tbe Saoage by PaulJaquays T&ble of Contents Introduction to the Savage Frontier 2 Maps Savage Frontier Overview 5 Economic Map of the North 7 The Peoples of the North 18 Ruins of Ascore inside cover Cities, Towns, and Villages 28 Grandfather Tree inside cover The Sea, the Ice, and the Islands 35 Hellgate Keep inside cover Lost Lands, Strongholds, and Ruins 39 Luskan inside cover Rivers, Mountains, and Rough Lands 45 Typical Ancestor Mounds inside cover The High Forest 49 The City of Waterdeep outside gatefold Uthgardt Ancestor Mounds 53 Icewind Dale Trackless Sea map Personalities of the North 56 The Ten Towns Trackless Sea map Silverymoon Trackless Sea map Appendices Beorunna's Well Trackless Sea map Appendix A: Magical Items 60 Hall of Mists 64 Appendix B: Northern Proficiencies 60 Appendix C: News of the Land 61 Appendix D: Adventures in the Savage FrontieSampler . 63 file Credits: Editing: Karen S. Boomgarden Cover Art: Larry Elmore Cartography: Dave Sutherland, Typography: Kim Janke Dennis Kauth, Interior Art: Esteban Maroto & PaulJaquays Keylining: Stephanie Tabat TSR, Inc. TSR UK Ltd. POB 756 TM The Mill, Rathmore Road Lake Geneva, Cambridge CB1 4AD TSR, Inc. WI53147 USA PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION™ United Kingdom ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, FORGOTTEN REALMS, BATTLESYSTEM, PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION, and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. Distributed in the United Kingdom by TSR UK Ltd. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork presented herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc. ®1988 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in U.S.A. ISHN 0-88038-593-6 $7.95 US 9233 9233XXX1501 INTRODUCTION TO THE SAVAGE FRONTIER "Civilization ends here." name for what many also call "the Although no sign in the North actu- North". In this book, the North refers to USINQ tl7is Book ally says this, the folk of the North those lands north of the city of Water- This book is intended to be read by know this to be true (Well, to be honest, deep, betweeSamplen the Swor dfile Coast and the Dungeon Masters only. Much of the there was a sign over the door to my Great Desert; the term also encompass- information contained within would laboratory that said it, but I made Erek es the islands of the Trackless Sea, not be known to players and their char- take it down. Who I am I, you ask. Let it including Tuern, Ruathym, and Gun- acters under any circumstances. be known, that I am Amelior Amanitas, darlun. Read this book in its entirety before alchemist extraordinaire and supreme It is a rugged, heavily wooded wilder- running a campaign in the Savage sage of the North. At the request of ness marked by cool, mild summers Frontier: it describes the major fea- Elminster, lam dictating the history and and harsh, bitter winters. What little tures of the North, beginning with his- wealth of information regarding my civilization can be found hugs the tory and ending in adventure. In savage homeland to my manservant coastal regions and a few inland river between, it looks at the geography, cli- Erek, who has promised to edit out valleys. The rest is the domain of ores, mate, creatures, peoples, religions, poli- digressions such as this when he reco- trolls, barbarian tribes, and uncount- tics, cities, island realms, areas of pies it. But as I said, I digress). able other monstrous denizens, who mystery, and personalities. Though it 7b walk past a city's walls is to rely regularly hurl themselves in fury upon hoards a wealth of detail, this book only only upon one's own skills and strength the palisades of the towns and villages scratches the surface of adventure of arms. It is truly a Savage Frontier, in the wilderlands. opportunities of the North. The rest has where man has yet to tame the land or It is a land of riches. Mineral wealth been left to the most potent force its denizens. You have been warned. unequalled elsewhere in the known present in the North... your realms is found here, along with seem- imagination. Wl7at is tt?e Savage ingly endless stands of timber of a size not often found elsewhere. Here too is Histony of ttye Nontl? FuoNtieu? the wealth of history, the plunder of lost civilizations and vanished realms. Eons before men walked the earth, ages "The Savage Frontier" is a descriptive before the elves were civilized enough / rtr— < ( < _ ^ i. .L to record history, in a time when the but all agree that a rapid climate change Netheril. Sages believe that the fishing North was always warm and the seas of occurred, creating a world unsuitable towns were unified by a powerful the world were deeper, the lands of to most of the creator races and the human wizard who may have discov- Abeir-Tbril were dominated by vast dinosaurs. Many believe that the ered a book of great magic power that empires of inhuman peoples. In the change resulted from a cataclysm the had survived from the Days of elven oral tradition, these were known races brought upon themselves. Propo- Thunder—a book that legend calls the as the "Days of Thunder," when cruel nents of this theory point to the Star Nether Scrolls. Under this nameless lizard, amphibian, and avian peoples Mounts in the central High Forest, wizard and those that followed, (known to the elves as the Iqua'Tel- whose origins are most likely magical Netheril rose in power and glory, 'Quessir or creator races, but with no and otherworldly. The elves believe becoming both the first human land in honor or respect intended) tamed the that around this time, the greater and the North and the most powerful. Some mighty dinosaurs, built towering cities lesser Powers began to manifest them- say that this discovery marked the birth of stone and glass on the shores of the selves in the world, particularly the of human wizardry, since before then, warm seas and spanned the wilderness beings known as Chauntea and Corel- mankind had only shamans and witch with shining roads, and fought constant Ion Laretheian, aiding the new races doctors. For over 3,000 years Netheril wars of extermination, such was their and confounding the survivors of the dominated the North, but even its leg- hatred towards each other. creator races. endary wizards were unable to stop The stuff of magic was rawer in those There has been civilization in the their final doom. days, less refined, more potent. These North since before the Time of Doom came as desert, devouring the ancient peoples experimented end- Dragons, yet little more than tantaliz- Narrow Sea and spreading to fill its lessly with magics more powerful than ingly vague myths survive. For millen- banks with dry dust and blowing sand. can be even imagined today. Powerful nia, gold elves dwelt in Illefarn (where Legend states that when the great wiz- mages hurled devastating bolts of seem- Waterdeep now stands) and Eaerlann ards of Netheril realized their land was ingly god-like power, leveling armies (along the River Shining). From their lost, they abandoned it and their coun- and mountains; and like gods, they ornate forest cities, they traded with trymen en masse, fleeing to all corners played at creating life, wryly choosing primitive, emerging human nations like of the world and taking the secrets of to release their monstrous mistakes Netheril and Illusk and repulsed the wizardry with them. More likely, this rather than destroy them. Tb those who constant attacks of the goblin races. Yet was a slow migration that began some made them, the mistakes were unnatu- as men began to dominate the world, 3,000 years ago and reached its conclu- ral horrors, unlike anything that the elvenSample lands declined fileand now little sion some 1,500 years later. walked the land. Most died in the cruel or no remnants remain of those lost and Whatever the truth, the wizards no jungles, yet many lived and as thought abandoned realms. When the elves longer dwelt in Netheril and to the awakened in them they hid themselves chose to leave the North and travel to north, once-majestic dwarven Delzoun from their creators. When the end Evermeet, their works quickly disap- had fallen upon hard days. Then the came at last, it was they, not the surviv- peared, leaving only places like the Old ores struck. Ores had always been foes ing creators who seized control of the Road and a ruined port in the High For- in the North, surging out of their holes suddenly colder realms. And so it was est to mark the passing of Eaerlann, every few tens of generations when that the first of the elves, the dragons, while a mysterious ruin called the their normal haunts could no longer the goblin races and an endless list of Crumbling Stair may be the last rem- support their burgeoning numbers. creatures of a new age took possession nant of fabled Illefarn. This time they charged out of their of their heritage.