Icewind Dale

Frozen winds blow across the flat strip of tundra north of the Spine of the World, coming in from across the Sea of Moving Ice and freezing everything in their paths, including the hearty barbarians and frontiersmen who call Icewind Dale home.
Icewind Dale is located at the northern end of the The Sword Coast, bordered to the South by the Spine of the World mountain range, to the North by the Sea of Moving Ice, and to the east by the Reghed Glacier. The only major mountain located inside the dale is the volcanic Kelvin's Cairn, which falls off into a valley called Bremen's Run. This is a harsh and unforgiving land of fierce tundra yetis, barbarian tribesmen, roaming giants, and ten small towns of tough people from across the Realms who are dedicated to carving a living from the ice and snow. The barbarian tribes follow herds of reindeer, and the people of Ten Towns fish the clear, frigid waters of their half-frozen lakes while the towering peak of Kalvin’s Cairn keeps watch over all.
The snow-capped peak of Kelvin’s Cairn rises alone above the frozen tundra, the only mountain in a thousand square miles. Because it appears to be a loose collection of boulders piled into a rough pyramid, barbarian legends call it a grave marker, though most likely it is an extinct volcano. Verbeegs make their dens on its rocky slopes, the dwarves of Clan Battlehammer mine a river valley along its south face, and Drizzt Do'Urden found a secluded home in a deep cave on its lonely north face.
Lakes in the dale include Lac Dinneshere and Maer Dualdon, both of which supply the Shaengarne river and are rich in knucklehead trout. The rough and tumble pioneers who settle in Icewind Dale are constantly on guard against roaming monsters, raging barbarians, and killing weather. The unforgiving landscape is rich with wild resources, but it doesn’t give up anything easily. The folk of Ten Towns are a hard lot, but they have come together in close-knit communities where neighbors depend on each other for their survival. The towns have attracted their share of rogues, but even these one-time criminals tend to either make themselves a part of the community or face a harsh form of frontier justice—if they aren’t smart enough to just head south.

Type

National Territory