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OFFICIAL GAME ACCESSORY

THE BLOODSTONE LANDSby Bob Salvatore

T&ble of ContentsIntroduction: How to use this Book 2Section 1: Overview of the Bloodstone Lands 3Section 2: What the Neighbors Think 15Section 3: Societies of the Bloodstone Lands 20Section 4: Cities, Towns, and Villages 26Section 5: The Geography of the Region 32Section 6: Strongholds, Ruins, and Dungeons . . . .36Section 7: Movers and Shakers 45Section 8: Travelling Bands and Organizations. . . .54Section 9: The Bloodstone Lands Campaign 61

CreditsEditing: Elizabeth T. DanforthCartography: DieselCover Art: Larry Elmore

Typography: Kathleen C. MacDonaldInterior Art: Uttam

Special thanks to Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb, Bruce Heard,Michael Dobson, Doug Niles, Brian Newton, "and the gang."

TSR,IncPOB 756Lake Geneva,VVI53147 USA

TSR Ltd.120 Church End, Cherry Hinton

Cambridge CB1 3LBUnited Kingdom

ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, FORGOTTEN REALMS, PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION, and the TSR logoare 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 Ltd.This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized useof the material or artwork presented herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc.

S1989 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in U.S.A.ISBN 0-88038-771-89267

$8.95 US9267XXX1501

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INTRODUCTION: THE BLOODSTONE LANDSUsing tbis BookThis sourcebook is divided into nine sec-tions. These offer the Dungeon Master asolid overview of the region, plus detailsof some specific places and personalities.

Section 1: Overview of the BloodstoneLands introduces a Dungeon Master tothe region, particularly to Vaasa andDamara. This section covers the historyof the region, with a close-up on the lasttwo years—the Year of the Prince andthe Year of the Shadows (FR1357 and1358). Present day is 1359, the Year ofthe Serpent. Recent events, created byplaying the H-series through to a logicalconclusion, have reduced Vaasa to itsformer status as an unclaimed wilder-ness (rich adventuring territory!). Thevarious provinces of Damara weave aweb of political intrigue that shouldprovide plenty for PCs to disentangle.

Section 2: What the Neighbors Thinkintroduces Narfell and Impiltur, neigh-boring kingdoms with a vested interestin Vaasa and Damara. Narfell and Im-piltur could themselves support a finecampaign. For this book, however, andin the context of the Bloodstone Lands,they are treated as icing on the cakethat is Vaasa and Damara.

Section 3: Societies of the BloodstoneLands presents the culture and flavorof the land. This section details religion,currency, races, and classes, all ofwhich transform a campaign from adice-rolling exercise into a role-playingevent worthy of daydreams.

Section 4: Cities, Tbwns, and Villages,and Section 5: The Geography of the Re-gion look at the physical geography andlocales that PCs will encounter. In-cluded are descriptions of various com-munities, their usual attitude towardstrangers, and a general feel of themore distinctive locations.

Section 6: Strongholds, Ruins, andDungeons goes a step further, providingspecific adventuring sites and "homebase" locations for the players. In theBloodstone Lands, knowing where tofind trouble, and where to go to escapeit, can mean the difference between asuccessful adventure and disaster.

The next two sections, Section 7:Movers and Shakers and Section 8:Traveling Bands and Organizations,give a Dungeon Master many of theNPCs that his players will encounter inthe region (or PCs they may choose torun). These are the characters whomight help the PCs out of a jam—or putthem into one!

Finally, Section 9: The BloodstoneLands Campaign gives some suggestionsfor potential adventures. It must benoted that one of these involves havingyour players run through the H-series ofmodules, rewriting the last two years ofhistory. This could pose a problem toDungeon Masters using this sourcebook,as the outcome of the game may alterthe situations described herein.

Therefore, this section also offers tipsto less-experienced Dungeon Masters.The Dungeon Master may have to dealwith his players deciding on differentlife-courses for the major PCs, particu-larly for Gareth Dragonsbane who is re-garded here as the central power figureof the entire region. Crafty DungeonMasters will slip around this by focus-ing on other NPCs. For example, BaronTranth or Lady Christine can fill in anygaps in the political structures left by anuncooperative Gareth.

Enough said. Let us now explore thisdangerous and exciting region calledthe Bloodstone Lands. All the ingredi-ents are here for a long and enjoyablecampaign, or for a welcome diversionfrom the mainstream events of a cam-paign set in some other region of thevast Forgotten Realms. Go to it!

Overzuieto of theBloodstone LandsThe phrase "Bloodstone Lands" refersto the region between the Great Glacierand Impiltur, particularly the two statesof Vaasa and Damara. The whole areaencompasses roughly 150,000 squaremiles in a roughly triangular shape, us-ing the southern line of the Great Gla-cier as its northernmost boundary.

To the west, beyond the EarthspurMountains, is the wicked land of Thar,the Moonsea, and the independent city-state of Mulmaster. To the south is Im-piltur and beyond that, the Sea of FallenStars. To the east looms Narfell and theGreat Dale.

One might assume that the nicknameof this rugged region comes from thequantity of blood spilled in the area, es-pecially in and around the GalenaMountains. There have been numerousbattles with goblinkin and giantkind.The sturdy inhabitants have also facedthe relentless forces of the climate, andeven fought among themselves over theyears. In truth, this would make "blood-stone" an apt label.

However, the phrase refers to the un-countable mineral wealth found in thearea, a deep-green chalcedony fleckedwith red jasper. Bloodstones were oncemined throughout the Galenas and theEarthspurs, luring men here in droves.Bloodstones established Damara as amajor power in the Forgotten Realms.

Geognapny andEcologyThe Bloodstone Lands are a cold region.Freezing winds roll down from theGreat Glacier and swirl through themountain peaks, making the longwinters of Vaasa and Damara longerstill. Yet though their temperatureranges are similar, the geography ofthese two states is vastly different.

VaasaThe northernmost of the two states,

Vaasa is also the smaller. The kingdomlies in a triangular region bounded bythe Earthspur Mountains, the Great Gla-cier, and the forbidding Galena Moun-tains. For centuries untold, Vaasaremained an unclaimed wasteland offrozen moors and broken clumps of tun-dra, a captured pocket of deep winter.

Summer does come here, if only for afew short weeks. Even then, Vaasa feelsthe edge of its climate's wickedness.When the moorwaters melt and the toplayers of tundra soften, the entire re-

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gion becomes one vast bog of sludgeand mud whe re " the tallest horsewould wet its belly," as the saying goesin Damara.

Even more insidious, many bottom-less bogs open up, particularly in thecentral region, above the BeaumarisRiver. These deadly moors would domuch more than "wet a horse's belly!"

Where small farms have beenscratched in Vaasa's rocky soil, harvestsshow a somewhat fertile land. How-ever, nowhere in all the kingdom has alarge enough stretch of arable landbeen found capable of supporting alarge-scale community.

Few people live in Vaasa. Even theyprobably wonder why.

DamaraMore hospitable is the land of Damara.

The hardy people of Damara get alongfairly well overall, but even so, deadlywinter1 takes its toll among the folk wholive here. Summer brings a short butfruitful farming season. Game is plenti-ful and the rivers tame enough to be use-ful. Generally speaking, the lands southand east of the Galenas provide a tolera-ble life, if not a comfortable one.

Damara's northern border runs alongthe Great Glacier, while the Earthspursdemark most of Damara's western andsouthern border. Impiltur is an impor-tant neighbor around the southern tipof this mighty mountain range.

Natural boundaries separate Damarafrom Narfell to the east. HugeRawlinswood, the Giantspire Moun-tains, and Icelace Lake have kept thetwo nations further apart than their lit-eral proximity would seem to indicate.

Histong of tbeBloodstone LandsFor centuries, the story of the Blood-stone Lands was simply the story of Da-mara. The cold wastes of Vaasaattracted little attention from scholars(or anyone else!) outside the mountain-ous barricades of the region. The peo-ple of Vaasa gathered in scatteredcommunities of hunters, trappers, and

farmers, all pitifully poor and eking outa squalid, uninteresting existence.

Damara, though, had a different taleto tell. This kingdom traces its noblelines back almost three centuries, to thetime when Heliogabalus was foundedby Feldrin Bloodf eat hers, the first kingof Damara. Thereafter, his long, unbro-ken line of kindly heirs ruled Damarawell, only ending with King Virdin'sdeath. Until the most recent genera-tion, the kingdom was a force on parwith Impiltur.

Damara maintained strong trade rela-tions with the city-states along theMoonsea and along all the reaches ofthe Sea of Fallen Stars. The narrow gapbetween Rawlinswood and the south-ern expanse of the Earthspurs is stillknown as Merchants Run, though fewmerchants use it todav.

At the height of Damara's glory, longcaravans of merchants transportedchalcedony down this pass to the for-tress of Ilmwatch along the EastingReach. They were welcomed and evenprotected by the legions of Impiltur.Fortified by brigades of Impilturian sol-diers, the Damaran merchants thencrossed through the Traders Bay regionand into the great port of Sarshel. Shipsfrom Thesk and all the nations floatingvessels on the the Sea of Fallen Starsmet the merchants with open arms andopen purses.

A second trade route, shorter butmore difficult, carried the preciousstone through Bloodstone Pass, the onlysensible trail through the mighty Ga-lenas. From there, the stone went topoints north and west. Because itcrossed through the wilds of Vaasa andthrough the Earthspur Mountainsalong Garumn's Climb, this route wasnot preferred. But Garumn's Climb hasproven invaluable to Sembia and thecity-states on the Moonsea, especially intimes of heavy pirate activity, or onsuch occasions as when the Moonseawas cut off from the main waterway bya particularly nasty dragon turtle, ashappened a few decades ago.

The bloodstone was traded in bars,each measured at 25 gold pieces in

value. The crest of a Damaran noblehouse marked every bar, and on the op-posite side was the year in Damaranreckoning. Nearly 1,000,000 gold piecesworth of the stone was taken annuallyfrom the mines in the Galenas alone.Particularly rich was the small regionsurrounding Bloodstone Pass, aptlynamed the Barony of Bloodstone. Thisannual yield of raw wealth more thankept the interest of merchants andspeculators, and therefore the crafts-man, farmers, and ordinary folk of Da-mara lived quite well.

Furthermore, Damara had little tofear from its neighbors. Protected byimposing natural boundaries, with thenoble houses united under the rule of asingle well-accepted king, there was lit-tle cause for unrest. The king main-tained an army only to protect thecaravans, and to defend the outlying ru-ral communities from bands of raidinggoblins or other wretched creatures.Certainly, the scattered tribes of Vaasacould never unite or pose more than amarginal threat. Peace was the norm,and the expectation of future prosper-ity, obvious.

Or so the Damarans thought. Themerchants could never have guessedthat the bloodstone bars would in timebe called "cursed money," shunned byall outside the region for fear that itwould bring to the user the same disas-trous fate that befell Damara!

The Rise of the Witch-KingBarely twelve years ago, in FR1137, a

calamitous event in the wastes of Vaasarocked the stability of the entire region.In a single night, the evil fortress CastlePerilous arose on a lonely crag onlv 60miles north of the Galenas and the Da-maran border.

Out from this bastion of wickednessstepped Zhengyi the Witch-King, a lichof unspeakable powers. The Witch-King claimed the sovereign powers ofthe kingdom of Vaasa. Winning the coldhearts of the countless goblins, ores,and giants living in the mountains, theWitch-King pulled them all into his fold.Zhengyi enlisted the aid of powerful

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denizens of the lower planes and sur-rounded himself with the foul priests ofOrcus, who could raise and commandlegions of undead. With this vast armyswiftly assembled, and further aided bythe infamous Grandfather of Assassinsand his foul guild, the Witch-King pre-pared for war.

Damara's eyes were blind to the sud-den rise of Zhengyi. At the time of theWitch-King's rise, the kingdom was suf-fering a series of catastrophies—eventswhich, in hindsight, seem suspiciouslyconnected with the Witch-King.

First, a nameless evil awakened inthe Mines of Bloodstone, a force thatdrove the men and dwarves from theplace in terror. These mines had beenthe primary source of wealth for thenorthern barony. Indeed, up to thattime, the wealth rolling out of them—more than 400,000 gold piecesannually—represented nearly half ofall the bloodstone flowing out of Da-mara. Hundreds of brave men tried toreclaim the mines in the next fewmonths, but none returned.

Wolf Winter fell that same year. Earlyfrosts destroyed the harvest and thewinter that ensued was therefore dou-bly terrible. Starvation was commonamong man and beast alike. Packs ofdire wolves swept into northern Da-mara from the Galenas, leaving littlebut bloodied snow in their wake. Evenworse, many of the wolves were in-fected with lycanthropy.

The Witch-King's armies roareddown to the Galenas the very next year,cutting off Bloodstone Pass and effec-tively shutting down all the mines onthe Vaasan side of the mountains. Thehorrid army pushed on, driving hardinto Damara and committing one mas-sacre after another.

But the people of Damara were atough people. After they recoveredfrom the initial shock of Zhengyi's light-ning attacks, they fought back bravely.For ten brutal years, Vaasa and Damarafought. Neighboring nations, notablyImpiltur and Narfell, looked on withmore than passing interest, fearing theshape of their own future if Zhengyi

proved victorious. Yet though theysided with Damara in principle and forpractical reasons, the nearby kingdomsof the region had problems of theirown. In turn, they had too many oppor-tunistic neighbors just waiting to gaintheir own advantage. Neither Impilturnor Narfell offered Damara any sub-stantial assistance. Their paralysis al-most cost them dearly.

In the summer of FR1147, Zhengyi'sforces faced off against King Virdin atthe Ford of Goliad. Neither side couldgain any advantage through the monthof June and many thought that the warwould hold in stalemate until the nextwinter, when the river would freeze.

Then came the day that Damaranswill ever despise. No one can say forcertain what occurred that foul day,but it seems obvious that treachery ledthe way for Zhengyi. Most scholarsagree that the scoundrel was Felix, KingVirdin's chief lieutenant. Long after-ward Felix was discovered to be a mem-ber of the Assassins Guild of the

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Galenas, Zhengyi's cohorts. Nothingwas suspected at the time.

Felix—if it was him—tricked youngKing Virdin into believing that a magicalwand he had acquired would allow theDamaran army secret passage acrossthe river. Actually the "wand" was acheap stick stacked with twelve Nystul'smagic aura spells. Virdin desperatelygrasped at the chance to end the longand costly conflict. Already aware ofthe deception, Zhengyi held his forcesin check for several tense minutes,coaxing in the Damarans. Then the lich-king struck hard, trapping the bulk ofthe Damaran army in the river andshattering Virdin's forces. On a hillock ashort distance away, the young kingwatched his kingdom fall. His griefended when a dagger (wielded by Fe-lix?) found its way into his back.

Zhengyi had spent ten years prepar-ing for this day, and he didn't hesitate.Calling on the forces of the Grandfatherof Assassins, the Witch-King institutedthe second phase of the destruction ofDamara. It took only one bloody nightfor the most loyal and powerful noblesof Damara to be slain.

The "peace" that ensued was not fa-vorable to the conquered. The Witch-King granted a veneer of independenceto the feeble remnants of the Damaranhouses, dividing the southern reachesof the old kingdom into six poorbaronies—poorer still after paying trib-ute to their conqueror, the Witch-King.

Zhengyi gave control of the Galenasto the Grandfather of Assassins, thentightened his own evil clutch on thenorth. A stream of refugees trekkedsouth as best they could.

With Damara spiralling into eco-nomic ruin and Zhengyi's power grow-ing every day, the neighboring statescould only sit tight and hope that theWitch-King would be content with hisnew domain.

That was only two years ago. Howswiftly things can change!

RECENT EVENTS INTHE REGIONIvoo Tumultuous YeaRs"Pray tell, fellow bard, where will thyhorse fly?" asked the first. "Tb Damarato busy my pen. "Tis said that more hashappened in the last two years than inthe last two centuries!" The secondbard twirled his lute in excitement atthe mere thought of entering the Blood-stone Lands.

"Then surely you have missed yourtime, good fellow," said the first, "forthe Witch-King is dead and his armiesscattered."

"Not so, not so," argued the second."The issue is far from settled. And al-though the new heroes have lived moreadventures in two years than most willsee in a lifetime, they have many morebefore them." He spurred his horse andgalloped away. The call, "Many more!"echoed back as he went.

This may be a typical scene among thebards of the Forgotten Realms thesedays, for indeed the bloodstone regionhas undergone tremendous changessince the victory of the Witch-King.Still more lie ahead before the situa-tion stabilizes.

After the Witch-King secured his holdon northern Damara, he disappearedfor a time, presumably to reevaluatethe remaining strength of his forcesand to plan out his next moves. Deliber-ately, he left a nation in disarray.

Zhengyi's decision to divide southernDamara into separate, independentbaronies was shrewd indeed. In spite ofthe hardships descending on the con-quered land, the puppet rulers of thesebaronies squabbled, conspiring againsteach other. Each one would gladly fightanother over whatever might add to hisown power and meager wealth.

Combined with the terrible tribute tothe Witch-King, this disarray crushedthe pride of the people of Damara. Un-der such ineffective rule, the entiresouthern region was quickly throwninto chaos, both political and economic.

As he had planned, Zhengyi was left inpeace to concentrate on his next moves.

In the security of his arrogance,Zhengyi took no notice of the actions ofhis cohorts, the bandit army of the Ga-lena Mountains. Led by the Grandfa-ther of Assassins, a High Priest ofOrcus, and an Arch-mage who had oncebeen Zhengyi's own personal advisor, atribute of gold and even slaves was de-manded from the poor people of theBarony of Bloodstone.

This proved to be the proverbial laststraw. The bandit army's depredationsbred an angry resolve in Baron Tranthand in all the people of Bloodstone. Per-haps because arrogance and evil so of-ten go hand-in-hand, Zhengyi did notimagine mighty heroes might arise, butproud people can only be pushed so far.When a group of heroes emerged tolead them, the people of Bloodstonerose up and fought for their homes.

The heroic leaders were Gareth Dra-gonsbane and his company of six: Erne-lyn the Gray, Friar Dugald, CeledonKearney, Riordan Parnell, OlwenForest-friend, and Kane, monk of theMonastery of the Yellow Rose. Men,women, and even children of Blood-stone Village followed them, and boldlyfaced the bandits, even standing proudagainst the horrible undead brigades ofthe evil priest, Banak. The sheer cour-age of the villagers rallied support, andgroups of dwarves, halflings, and cen-taurs rolled up from the woodland clus-ters just south of Bloodstone Village.The Grandfather of Assassins was slainby the monk, Kane, and the banditarmy was soundly defeated.

The most important result of the bat-tle was that the races of the region hadcome together and mighty new leadershad been found. Quiet whispers spokeof hope when rumors circulated thatGareth Dragonsbane had fallen in lovewith the Lady Christine, Baron Tranth'sdaughter.

But just when Gareth and his friendsseemed to have the region turned backtoward the right course, bad luck andan unspeakable evil once again camecrashing down.

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