Истхевен, Восточный Приют - Easthaven
“I remember when the Eastway was naught but a couple o’ ruts in the mud leadin’ to some shanties on the south side o’ the lac. Now look at the place! Seems like ye can’t turn around without trippin over a new bunch o’ buildings, and the town just keeps getting’ bigger-along with me profits.”The most popular and fastest growing fishing town since the paved road was created
"Anything goes in Easthaven"
Boom Times
Walking into Easthaven is like walking into Icewind Dale's past. When the White Gold craze hit- every town grew except Easthaven. Now everyone is in scrimshaw hunting routine..until Easthave paved a road, the Eastway, to Bryn Shander. Now Easthaven is going through it's own 'Boom' phase. Because of the Boom, Easthaven attracts people who are just starting off in Ten-TownsContested Waters
Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval use to have an accord in attempt to placate the two rivals. They hated the placate..until Easthaven BOOMED. Now they are standing fast against it in a way to stiffen their growth. And it's working. Only Bremen and Lonelywood have spoken out in support but everyone else is worried that they will lose with Easthavent's growth Few fishermen are bold enough to fish in the Caer contested waters. It's a powder keg.. it's only a matter of time before these incursions are met.Rags and Riches
With the limited room to fish, only the biggest ships with the biggest crews get anything. Small fishing boats that have been around before the boom are starving and have no hope for success The city has a huge reputation for the place to be. This is a lie for fishermen, but truth for merchants and shop owners. There are a gangs of boys who hold the best spots in the port, so ships can stay out later and leave first the next morning. They make a show of competition between them but in secret they conspire to drive up prices and split the profits every night.Goods & Services
Cairn's Crossing Inn
Oldest in and it shows Run by Vie Witters, stout, gray-haired, and tough as nails with no sign of slowing down Married to a fisher who is just as stubborn a fishermen and she is a merchant.The White Lady Inn
Looking out to the lake, banking on the legend the Ghost of Lac Dinneshere Run by Bartaban who let's a bard named Rinaldo spin the tale of the GhostThe Wet Trout Tavern
A stone furnace and two hearths slit the tavern in two. One side bar, other side kitchen Run by husband, Henrick (bar) and wife, Bitholde (kitchen) who shout at each other from across the tavernBanrock's Mithral Pot Tavern
Most famous Tavern in all of Icewind Dale, people as far South as Baldur's Gate come here for the pottage. Run by Banrock, a plump, ruddy-faced dwarf with mithral cookware. Wizard from Blackstaff Tower from Waterdeep comes every solstice to renew the wards (and to try the pottage)Rurden's Armory
"Once you go dwarven you never go back"Run by Rurden who especially helpful The shop looks like a small fortress, heavy doors and walls None of the gear is made to order. So hireswords need to force their way into the gear
Land Marks
Three areas of interest lie outside Easthaven Silvanus's Temple - A grove of white birch trees on a hillside overlooking Lac Dinneshere (2 miles west). Run by a self styled druid human from Easthaven who followers believe that Silvanus will return one day and restore the area to its pristine beauty. The Redrun - is the stream that empties Lacc Dinneshere into Redwaters. A frothing whitewater river that desperate fishermen fish at and mysteriously never return..Characters
Speaker of Easthaven: Danneth Waylen Earnest and fretful. Humble and forthright. He never wanted the position but his strong sense of duty stopped him from declining. Owns two of the most profitable fishing vessels and use to be a fishermen Green eyes and tousled middle aged man with striking good looks The scent of freshly sawed pine hangs in the air around the outskirts of Easthaven, where new con¬struction pushes the town’s perimeter ever outward. In the center, spacious shops, inns, and taverns solicit locals and travelers alike, their brightly painted signs clamoring for attention as loudly as the fish hawkers down on the docks. Grizzled trappers just returned from the wilds sell their pelts in stores that also offer the latest Waterdhavian fashions, and prosperous merchants step over penniless fishers in the town’s main boulevard.Boom Times
Walking into Easthaven is like stepping into Icewind Dale’s past—the place is a picture of the boomtown way of life that gripped Ten-Towns centuries ago, when the cities of the south first got “white gold fever.” In the generations since, the other towns have settled into a predictable, if not always quiet, rhythm of life. Not so Easthaven. Having been overshadowed by the more established towns on Lac Dinneshere in the region’s initial rush, Easthaven languished while its neighbors thrived. But with the paving of the Eastway, more and more trade began to flow into Easthaven until it overtook Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval to become the most prosperous town on the lake. Now, it rivals Targos and Bryn Shander in size. Easthaven tends to attract people who are just starting out in Ten-Towns, as well as those who want to start over-the place seems to welcome all comers. It is a magnet for fortune-seekers and the con art¬ists who prey on them. From honorable warriors to unscrupulous merchants, from uncouth woodsmen to worldly travelers, the town displays a striking assortment of the best and worst that life in Ice¬wind Dale has to offer. Anything goes in Easthaven, according to a local saying—and that’s usually true. Contested Waters Although Easthaven’s fishing fleet is now larger than that of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval com-bined, its boats are relegated to plying only a small fraction of the lake thanks to an accord passed by the council back when Easthaven was a tenth of its present size. In those days, the fleets of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval dominated the waters of Lac Dinneshere, and the accord was brokered as an attempt to placate the two rivals and keep them from each other’s throats. The rivalry would not be so easily undone, however, and the agreement was quickly forgotten until a few years ago, when the speakers of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval invoked its terms as a way to restrict the operations of Easthav- en’s growing fleet of fishing boats. Easthavens speaker, Danneth Waylen, has peti-tioned several times to renegotiate the outdated agreement, but Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval have so far stood united behind it. Danneth also brought the matter before the council in Bryn Shander, but to no avail. Easthavens growth has cannibalized trade from the other towns, and both Targos and Termalaine have felt the effect. As a result, they support Caer- Konig’s and Caer-Dineval’s claims to the waters of Lac Dinneshere. With Bryn Shander remaining carefully noncommittal and the towns of Redwaters declining to get involved, only Bremen and Lonelywood have spoken out in support of Easthaven. Meanwhile, Easthavens boats are in competition with one another for the best fishing spots in the crowded waters. Fights over contested catches are common, and accidents have wrecked several ships and resulted in a few deaths. Some of the bolder fishers operate in the northern waters claimed by Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval, taking whatever haul they can before they are chased off by the other towns’ boats. Speaker Waylen knows it is only a matter of time before one of these incursions is met with violence. He hopes to find a solution to the problem before that happens.Rags and Riches
With the ongoing dispute over fishing rights on the lake, Easthavens fisherfolk are suffering. For many of them, fishing is all they know, and there simply aren’t enough fish in the small patch of water the town is allotted. Inevitably, the largest boats and the most experienced crews pull most of the fish out of the water, while everyone else scrambles for what’s left. Many fishers barely catch enough to feed their families, let alone have anything left over to sell. Many more come back after sunset with empty nets. Despite this state of affairs, more people show up every season hoping to make their fortune in Easthaven. The town’s reputation for opportunity is greater than the reality, yet the image keeps drawing people there even as it exacerbates the problems. Still, the prospects in Easthaven aren’t entirely illusory. Many people have made a comfortable living for themselves-just not fishers or fortune- seekers. With the influx of residents, Easthavens merchants, innkeepers, and tavern owners pull coin from purses like trout from the lakes. THE EASTWAY The Eastway is the only paved road in Icewind Dale, and it runs from Bryn Shander straight across to Easthaven. Its construction linked Lac Dinneshere to the caravans that came through Bryn Shander, resulting in the explosive growth of Easthaven and a gradual shift in trade away from Maer Dualdon. On many occasions, the people of Targos and Termalaine have considered improving the road north from Bryn Shander to encourage more traffic, but the mistrust between the two towns has prevented them from cooperating long enough to bring the project to fruition. Then, too, there are those who profit from the town’s problems, such as the gang of boys who are paid by fishing crews to hold the best spots at the docks until the boats come back at night. This arrangement allows those crews to stay out later than other boats and still be first out to the good fishing spots the next day. The boys make a show of compet¬ing to hold places along the dock for their clients, but they actually conspire to bid up the prices on the best spots, then split the profits every night after dark. Goods and Services Cairn’s Crossing is the oldest of Easthaven’s inns, which is to say it has the most chinks in its walls for the night winds to blow through. Still, most of the caravanners who come to town stay here out of habit, so the inn does a respectable business. The inn¬keeper, Vie Witters, is stout, gray-haired, and tough as nails, and she shows no sign of slowing down despite her age. Many of the inn’s visitors assume that she’s a widow, but in fact she’s married to a local fisher who still goes out on the lake every day. They hardly see each other, though, because Vie won’t let him sleep in the inn if he reeks of trout-which he always does. The White Lady Inn stands just across from the harbor, overlooking the lake. The inn is named for a local legend about the ghost of Lac Dinneshere (see the sidebar on page 21 and capitalizes on the morbid fascination generated by its eponymous tale. A halfling bard named Rinaldo works the inn’s tap¬room on most nights, recounting the titular story for the benefit of any newcomers and then segueing into hair-raising tales drawn (he swears) from the true accounts of the many adventurers who have stayed at the White Lady Inn. Rinaldo knows how to pull in a crowd, often loudly proclaiming that “this next tale is not fit for the ears of women, children, or those of tender heart” whenever he spies passersby in the street, reeling them in like fish on a line. On the other hand, his employer-a wiry, white-haired old man named Bartaban-seems perennially bored by the halfling’s tales. But the dour innkeeper is acutely aware of the value Rinaldo adds to his establishment and strives to make himself as invisible to his guests as possible, the better to let the bard’s tales work their magic. The Wet Trout is the largest and loudest tavern in Easthaven. A great chimney situated squarely in the building’s center has hearths on either side to warm the tavern’s two common rooms. The owner, Henrick, mans the bar at one end of the tavern while his wife, Bitholde, runs the kitchens at the other. The two frequently shout raunchy jeers at each other from across the floor, which always get a hearty laugh from the assembled patrons and lend to the ribald atmosphere the tavern is known for. Banrock’s Mithral Pot has the distinction of being one of the few establishments in Ten-Towns to have a reputation that extends outside Icewind Dale. Just walking into this tavern’s common room, with its distinctive dark wood paneling and cozy booths, is enough to set one’s mouth watering. Visitors from as far away as Baldur’s Gate come here to try Banrock’s pottage, which the dwarf cooks in his signature pot. Running the tavern is a labor of love for Banrock, who could retire on the value of his mithral cook¬ware alone, but the plump, ruddy-faced dwarf would rather spend his days cheerfully bustling from booth to booth chatting with travelers. His longest-stand¬ing customer is a wizard from Blackstaff Tower in Waterdeep, who comes to the tavern every solstice to renew the wards that protect the kitchen against thieves-and, of course, to sample the pottage. Burden’s Armory is an outlet where adventur¬ers can buy dwarven blades and mail forged in the valley below Kelvin’s Cairn. The shop’s interior looks like that of a keep preparing for siege-racks of swords and axes stand to one side, while suits of chain mail lie stacked on crates to the other (and the crates hold pieces of plate armor packed in wood chips). Piles of helms stand alongside the crates, halberds lean in the corner, and shields and cross¬bows hang on every inch of the rooms walls. The building’s heavy, reinforced door, complete with a thick bar, rounds out the image of a garrison; only a painted iron sign propped against the back wall identifies the shop as a place of business. Since none of the weapons and armor are made to order, buyers often have to adjust to equipment that’s heavier than they’re accustomed to-blistered palms and aching shoulders are common complaints among first-time customers. Even so, the quality of the merchandise speaks for itself, and the dwarf shopkeep, Rurden, is especially helpful when showing buyers how to alter their swings or angle their bodies for an incom¬ing blow to take advantage of their new purchases. The Population 850 “I remember when the Eastway was naught but a couple o’ ruts in the mud leadin’ to some shanties on the south side o’ the lac. Now look at the place! Seems like ye can’t turn around without trippin over a new bunch o’ buildings, and the town just keeps getting’ bigger-along with me profits.” -Beorne Steelstrike The scent of freshly sawed pine hangs in the air around the outskirts of Easthaven, where new con¬struction pushes the town’s perimeter ever outward. In the center, spacious shops, inns, and taverns solicit locals and travelers alike, their brightly painted signs clamoring for attention as loudly as the fish hawkers down on the docks. Grizzled trappers just returned from the wilds sell their pelts in stores that also offer the latest Waterdhavian fashions, and prosperous merchants step over penniless fishers in the town’s main boulevard. Boom Times Walking into Easthaven is like stepping into Icewind Dale’s past—the place is a picture of the boomtown way of life that gripped Ten-Towns centuries ago, when the cities of the south first got “white gold fever.” In the generations since, the other towns have settled into a predictable, if not always quiet, rhythm of life. Not so Easthaven. Having been overshadowed by the more established towns on Lac Dinneshere in the region’s initial rush, Easthaven languished while its neighbors thrived. But with the paving of the Eastway, more and more trade began to flow into Easthaven until it overtook Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval to become the most prosperous town on the lake. Now, it rivals Targos and Bryn Shander in size. Easthaven tends to attract people who are just starting out in Ten-Towns, as well as those who want to start over-the place seems to welcome all comers. It is a magnet for fortune-seekers and the con art¬ists who prey on them. From honorable warriors to unscrupulous merchants, from uncouth woodsmen to worldly travelers, the town displays a striking assortment of the best and worst that life in Ice¬wind Dale has to offer. Anything goes in Easthaven, according to a local saying—and that’s usually true. Contested Waters Although Easthaven’s fishing fleet is now larger than that of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval com-bined, its boats are relegated to plying only a small fraction of the lake thanks to an accord passed by the council back when Easthaven was a tenth of its present size. In those days, the fleets of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval dominated the waters of Lac Dinneshere, and the accord was brokered as an attempt to placate the two rivals and keep them from each other’s throats. The rivalry would not be so easily undone, however, and the agreement was quickly forgotten until a few years ago, when the speakers of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval invoked its terms as a way to restrict the operations of Easthav- en’s growing fleet of fishing boats. Easthavens speaker, Danneth Waylen, has peti-tioned several times to renegotiate the outdated agreement, but Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval have so far stood united behind it. Danneth also brought the matter before the council in Bryn Shander, but to no avail. Easthavens growth has cannibalized trade from the other towns, and both Targos and Termalaine have felt the effect. As a result, they support Caer- Konig’s and Caer-Dineval’s claims to the waters of Lac Dinneshere. With Bryn Shander remaining carefully noncommittal and the towns of Redwaters declining to get involved, only Bremen and Lonelywood have spoken out in support of Easthaven. Meanwhile, Easthavens boats are in competition with one another for the best fishing spots in the crowded waters. Fights over contested catches are common, and accidents have wrecked several ships and resulted in a few deaths. Some of the bolder fishers operate in the northern waters claimed by Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval, taking whatever haul they can before they are chased off by the other towns’ boats. Speaker Waylen knows it is only a matter of time before one of these incursions is met with violence. He hopes to find a solution to the problem before that happens.Rags and Riches
With the ongoing dispute over fishing rights on the lake, Easthavens fisherfolk are suffering. For many of them, fishing is all they know, and there simply aren’t enough fish in the small patch of water the town is allotted. Inevitably, the largest boats and the most experienced crews pull most of the fish out of the water, while everyone else scrambles for what’s left. Many fishers barely catch enough to feed their families, let alone have anything left over to sell. Many more come back after sunset with empty nets. Despite this state of affairs, more people show up every season hoping to make their fortune in Easthaven. The town’s reputation for opportunity is greater than the reality, yet the image keeps drawing people there even as it exacerbates the problems. Still, the prospects in Easthaven aren’t entirely illusory. Many people have made a comfortable living for themselves-just not fishers or fortune- seekers. With the influx of residents, Easthavens merchants, innkeepers, and tavern owners pull coin from purses like trout from the lakes Then, too, there are those who profit from the town’s problems, such as the gang of boys who are paid by fishing crews to hold the best spots at the docks until the boats come back at night. This arrangement allows those crews to stay out later than other boats and still be first out to the good fishing spots the next day. The boys make a show of compet-ing to hold places along the dock for their clients, but they actually conspire to bid up the prices on the best spots, then split the profits every night after dark.Goods and Services
Cairn’s Crossing is the oldest of Easthaven’s inns, which is to say it has the most chinks in its walls for the night winds to blow through. Still, most of the caravanners who come to town stay here out of habit, so the inn does a respectable business. The inn¬keeper, Vie Witters, is stout, gray-haired, and tough as nails, and she shows no sign of slowing down despite her age. Many of the inn’s visitors assume that she’s a widow, but in fact she’s married to a local fisher who still goes out on the lake every day. They hardly see each other, though, because Vie won’t let him sleep in the inn if he reeks of trout-which he always does. The White Lady Inn stands just across from the harbor, overlooking the lake. The inn is named for a local legend about the ghost of Lac Dinneshere (see the sidebar on page 21 and capitalizes on the morbid fascination generated by its eponymous tale. A halfling bard named Rinaldo works the inn’s tap¬room on most nights, recounting the titular story for the benefit of any newcomers and then segueing into hair-raising tales drawn (he swears) from the true accounts of the many adventurers who have stayed at the White Lady Inn. Rinaldo knows how to pull in a crowd, often loudly proclaiming that “this next tale is not fit for the ears of women, children, or those of tender heart” whenever he spies passersby in the street, reeling them in like fish on a line. On the other hand, his employer-a wiry, white-haired old man named Bartaban-seems perennially bored by the halfling’s tales. But the dour innkeeper is acutely aware of the value Rinaldo adds to his establishment and strives to make himself as invisible to his guests as possible, the better to let the bard’s tales work their magic. The Wet Trout is the largest and loudest tavern in Easthaven. A great chimney situated squarely in the building’s center has hearths on either side to warm the tavern’s two common rooms. The owner, Henrick, mans the bar at one end of the tavern while his wife, Bitholde, runs the kitchens at the other. The two frequently shout raunchy jeers at each other from across the floor, which always get a hearty laugh from the assembled patrons and lend to the ribald atmosphere the tavern is known for. Banrock’s Mithral Pot has the distinction of being one of the few establishments in Ten-Towns to have a reputation that extends outside Icewind Dale. Just walking into this tavern’s common room, with its distinctive dark wood paneling and cozy booths, is enough to set one’s mouth watering. Visitors from as far away as Baldur’s Gate come here to try Banrock’s pottage, which the dwarf cooks in his signature pot. Running the tavern is a labor of love for Banrock, who could retire on the value of his mithral cook¬ware alone, but the plump, ruddy-faced dwarf would rather spend his days cheerfully bustling from booth to booth chatting with travelers. His longest-stand¬ing customer is a wizard from Blackstaff Tower in Waterdeep, who comes to the tavern every solstice to renew the wards that protect the kitchen against thieves-and, of course, to sample the pottage. Burden’s Armory is an outlet where adventur¬ers can buy dwarven blades and mail forged in the valley below Kelvin’s Cairn. The shop’s interior looks like that of a keep preparing for siege-racks of swords and axes stand to one side, while suits of chain mail lie stacked on crates to the other (and the crates hold pieces of plate armor packed in wood chips). Piles of helms stand alongside the crates, halberds lean in the corner, and shields and cross¬bows hang on every inch of the rooms walls. The building’s heavy, reinforced door, complete with a thick bar, rounds out the image of a garrison; only a painted iron sign propped against the back wall identifies the shop as a place of business. Since none of the weapons and armor are made to order, buyers often have to adjust to equipment that’s heavier than they’re accustomed to-blistered palms and aching shoulders are common complaints among first-time customers. Even so, the quality of the merchandise speaks for itself, and the dwarf shopkeep, Rurden, is especially helpful when showing buyers how to alter their swings or angle their bodies for an incom¬ing blow to take advantage of their new purchases. The sellswords who frequent his store have a saying: Once you go dwarven, you never go back. LOCAL LANDMARKS Three areas of interest lie outside Easthaven. Silvanus’s temple is a grove of white birch trees on a hillside overlooking Lac Dinneshere, about two miles west of town. Here, a small coven of the nature god’s followers gather every month at the full moon. They are led by a self-styled druid (one of the human residents of Easthaven) who teaches them that the town’s sprawl is a blight on the land and that someday Silvanus will call on them to help restore the area to its pristine beauty. The Redrun is the stream that empties Lac Dinneshere into Redwaters. Normally a series of spills that are easy to cross, the stream becomes a torrent of frothing whitewater during late spring. With all the competition on the lake, locals have taken to walking down the Redrun and fishing along its banks. But twice in the past fortnight, locals have gone to fish the Redrun and did not return. The other townsfolk assume they were killed by wild beasts, but no one is brave enough to investigate. A memorial outside the southwest gate com-memorates a battle between Tiago Baenre and the balor Errtu, who came to Icewind Dale seeking Drizzt Do’Urden. A circle of blackened ground is surrounded by a rock wall, the center of which has a stone statue of Tiago and a plaque that reads “On this spot did Master Tiago slay the demon. And the snows will cover it nevermore.” And the scorched earth remains untouched by snow even in winter. "I remember when the Eastway was naught but a couple o' ruts in the mud leadin' to some shanties on the south side o' the lac. Now look at the place! Seems like ye can't turn around without trippin' over a new bunch o' buildings, and the town just keeps getting' bigger - along with me profits." -Beorne Steelstrike Image: Easthaven Map The scent of freshly sawed pine hangs in the air around the outskirts of Easthaven, where new construction pushes the town's perimeter ever outward. In the center, spacious shops, inns, and taverns solicit locals and travelers alike, their brightly painted signs clamoring for attention as loudly as the fish hawkers down on the docks. Grizzled trappers just returned from the wilds sell their pelts in stores that also offer the latest Waterdhavian fashions, and prosperous merchants step over penniless fishers in the town's main boulevard. Boom Times Walking into Easthaven is like stepping into Icewind Dale's past - the place is a picture of the boomtown way of life that gripped Ten-Towns centuries ago, when the cities of the south first got "white gold fever." In the generations since, the other towns have settled into a predictable, if not always quiet, rhythm of life. Not so Easthaven. Having been overshadowed by the more established towns on Lac Dinneshere in the region's initial rush, Easthaven languished while its neighbors thrived. But with the paving of the Eastway, more and more trade began to flow into Easthaven until it overtook Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval to become the most prosperous town on the lake. Now, it rivals Targos and Bryn Shander in size. Easthaven tends to attract people who are just starting out in Ten-Towns, as well as those who want to start over - the place seems to welcome all comers. It is a magnet for fortune-seekers and the con artists who prey on them. From honorable warriors to unscrupulous merchants, from uncouth woodsmen to worldly travelers, the town displays a striking assortment of the best and worst that life in Icewind Dale has to offer. Anything goes in Easthaven, according to a local saying - and that's usually true.Contested Waters
Although Easthaven's fishing fleet is now larger than that of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval combined, its boats are relegated to plying only a small fraction of the lake thanks to an accord passed by the council back when Easthaven was a tenth of its present size. In those days, the fleets of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval dominated the waters of Lac Dinneshere, and the accord was brokered as an attempt to placate the two rivals and keep them from each other's throats. The rivalry would not be so easily undone, however, and the agreement was quickly forgotten until a few years ago, when the speakers of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval invoked its terms as a way to restrict the operations of Easthaven's growing fleet of fishing boats. Easthaven's speaker, Danneth Waylen, has petitioned several times to renegotiate the outdated agreement, but Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval have so far stood united behind it. Danneth also brought the matter before the council in Bryn Shander, but to no avail. Easthaven's growth has cannibalized trade from the other towns, and both Targos and Termalaine have felt the effect. As a result, they support Caer-Konig's and Caer-Dineval's claims to the waters of Lac Dinneshere. With Bryn Shander remaining carefully noncommittal and the towns of Redwaters declining to get involved, only Bremen and Lonelywood have spoken out in support of Easthaven. Meanwhile, Easthaven's boats are in competition with one another for the best fishing spots in the crowded waters. Fights over contested catches are common, and accidents have wrecked several ships and resulted in a few deaths. Some of the bolder fishers operate in the northern waters claimed by Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval, taking whatever haul they can before they are chased off by the other towns' boats. Speaker Waylen knows it is only a matter of time before one of these incursions is met with violence. He hopes to find a solution to the problem before that happens.Rags and Riches
With the ongoing dispute over fishing rights on the lake, Easthaven's fisherfolk are suffering. For many of them, fishing is all they know, and there simply aren't enough fish in the small patch of water the town is allotted. Inevitably, the largest boats and the most experienced crews pull most of the fish out of the water, while everyone else scrambles for what's left. Many fishers barely catch enough to feed their families, let alone have anything left over to sell. Many more come back after sunset with empty nets. Despite this state of affairs, more people show up every season hoping to make their fortune in Easthaven. The town's reputation for opportunity is greater than the reality, yet the image keeps drawing people there even as it exacerbates the problems. Still, the prospects in Easthaven aren't entirely illusory. Many people have made a comfortable living for themselves - just not fishers or fortuneseekers. With the influx of residents, Easthaven's merchants, innkeepers, and tavern owners pull coin from purses like trout from the lakes. Then, too, there are those who profit from the town's problems, such as the gang of boys who are paid by fishing crews to hold the best spots at the docks until the boats come back at night. This arrangement allows those crews to stay out later than other boats and still be first out to the good fishing spots the next day. The boys make a show of competing to hold places along the dock for their clients, but they actually conspire to bid up the prices on the best spots, then split the profits every night after dark.The Eastway
The Eastway is the only paved road in Icewind Dale, and it runs from Bryn Shander straight across to Easthaven. Its construction linked Lac Dinneshere to the caravans that came through Bryn Shander, resulting in the explosive growth of Easthaven and a gradual shift in trade away from Maer Dualdon. On many occasions, the people of Targos and Termalaine have considered improving the road north from Bryn Shander to encourage more traffic, but the mistrust between the two towns has prevented them from cooperating long enough to bring the project to fruition. Goods and Services Cairn's Crossing is the oldest of Easthaven's inns, which is to say it has the most chinks in its walls for the night winds to blow through. Still, most of the caravanners who come to town stay here out of habit, so the inn does a respectable business. The innkeeper, Vie Witters, is stout, gray-haired, and tough as nails, and she shows no sign of slowing down despite her age. Many of the inn's visitors assume that she's a widow, but in fact she's married to a local fisher who still goes out on the lake every day. They hardly see each other, though, because Vie won't let him sleep in the inn if he reeks of trout - which he always does.The White Lady Inn
stands just across from the harbor, overlooking the lake. The inn is named for a local legend about the ghost of Lac Dinneshere (see the "The Ghost Of Lac Dinneshere" under the "Caer-Dineval" heading) and capitalizes on the morbid fascination generated by its eponymous tale. A halfling bard named Rinaldo works the inn's taproom on most nights, recounting the titular story for the benefit of any newcomers and then segueing into hair-raising tales drawn (he swears) from the true accounts of the many adventurers who have stayed at the White Lady Inn. Rinaldo knows how to pull in a crowd, often loudly proclaiming that "this next tale is not fit for the ears of women, children, or those of tender heart" whenever he spies passersby in the street, reeling them in like fish on a line. On the other hand, his employer - a wiry, white-haired old man named Bartaban - seems perennially bored by the halfling's tales. But the dour innkeeper is acutely aware of the value Rinaldo adds to his establishment and strives to make himself as invisible to his guests as possible, the better to let the bard's tales work their magic. The Wet Trout is the largest and loudest tavern in Easthaven. A great chimney situated squarely in the building's center has hearths on either side to warm the tavern's two common rooms. The owner, Henrick, mans the bar at one end of the tavern while his wife, Bitholde, runs the kitchens at the other. The two frequently shout raunchy jeers at each other from across the floor, which always get a hearty laugh from the assembled patrons and lend to the ribald atmosphere the tavern is known for.Banrock's Mithral Pot
has the distinction of being one of the few establishments in Ten-Towns to have a reputation that extends outside Icewind Dale. Just walking into this tavern's common room, with its distinctive dark wood paneling and cozy booths, is enough to set one's mouth watering. Visitors from as far away as Baldur's Gate come here to try Banrock's pottage, which the dwarf cooks in his signature pot. Running the tavern is a labor of love for Banrock, who could retire on the value of his mithral cookware alone, but the plump, ruddy-faced dwarf would rather spend his days cheerfully bustling from booth to booth chatting with travelers. His longest-standing customer is a wizard from Blackstaff Tower in Waterdeep, who comes to the tavern every solstice to renew the wards that protect the kitchen against thieves - and, of course, to sample the pottage.Rurden's Armory
is an outlet where adventurers can buy dwarven blades and mail forged in the valley below Kelvin's Cairn. The shop's interior looks like that of a keep preparing for siege - racks of swords and axes stand to one side, while suits of chain mail lie stacked on crates to the other (and the crates hold pieces of plate armor packed in wood chips). Piles of helms stand alongside the crates, halberds lean in the corner, and shields and crossbows hang on every inch of the room's walls. The building's heavy, reinforced door, complete with a thick bar, rounds out the image of a garrison; only a painted iron sign propped against the back wall identifies the shop as a place of business. Since none of the weapons and armor are made to order, buyers often have to adjust to equipment that's heavier than they're accustomed to - blistered palms and aching shoulders are common complaints among first-time customers. Even so, the quality of the merchandise speaks for itself, and the dwarf shopkeep, Rurden, is especially helpful when showing buyers how to alter their swings or angle their bodies for an incoming blow to take advantage of their new purchases. The sellswords who frequent his store have a saying: Once you go dwarven, you never go back.Local Landmarks
Three areas of interest lie outside Easthaven.Silvanus's temple
is a grove of white birch trees on a hillside overlooking Lac Dinneshere, about two miles west of town. Here, a small coven of the nature god's followers gather every month at the full moon. They are led by a self-styled druid (one of the human residents of Easthaven) who teaches them that the town's sprawl is a blight on the land and that someday Silvanus will call on them to help restore the area to its pristine beauty. The Redrun is the stream that empties Lac Dinneshere into Redwaters. Normally a series of spills that are easy to cross, the stream becomes a torrent of frothing whitewater during late spring. With all the competition on the lake, locals have taken to walking down the Redrun and fishing along its banks. But twice in the past fortnight, locals have gone to fish the Redrun and did not return. The other townsfolk assume they were killed by wild beasts, but no one is brave enough to investigate. A memorial outside the southwest gate commemorates a battle between Tiago Baenre and the balor Errtu, who came to Icewind Dale seeking Drizzt Do'Urden. A circle of blackened ground is surrounded by a rock wall, the center of which has a stone statue of Tiago and a plaque that reads "On this spot did Master Tiago slay the demon. And the snows will cover it nevermore." And the scorched earth remains untouched by snow even in winter.Danneth Waylen
Speaker of Easthaven Danneth Waylen is the earnest, if fretful, speaker of Easthaven. He never wanted the position, but he was nominated for it when the town's business leaders, after nearly tearing Easthaven apart in their contests to claim the title after the last speaker's death, finally decided to compromise on a neutral party. Danneth's humility and forthrightness made him an ideal candidate, and his sense of duty precluded him from declining the nomination. Just coming into middle age, with green eyes and tousled auburn locks that often garner him unwanted romantic attention, Danneth owns two of the town's most profitable fishing vessels, and he was a fisher himself before turning his attentions to the town's myriad problems. He tends to be soft-spoken, though his voice carries an undertone of steely determination. Lac Dinneshere Lac Dinneshere's waters begin in the tundra alongside Kelvin's Cairn and stretch south to the forest that borders the banks of Redwaters. To those who look down on it from the slopes of the mountain, the lake's broad expanse seems like a great shard of sky that fell to the earth, dotted with tiny boats that traverse its icy blue firmament. From the water's edge, the imagery no longer seems quite so apt. Frigid winds blowing in off the Reghed Glacier whip across the lake, its surface chopping with waves that stand at odds with the serene sky above. The lake does seem to reflect the moods of the heavens; it blushes pink on tranquil evenings, turns steel-gray when storms approach, and blanches white during quiet snows. People who have spent their lives along Lac Dinneshere don't bother looking up to see what the weather will be - they just look to the lake. Though as large as Maer Dualdon, Lac Dinneshere is shallower and thus has a smaller population of knucklehead trout (but enough to keep the combined fishing fleets of Caer-Dineval and Caer-Konig in business). The lake's ecosystem is also less diverse than that of Maer Dualdon. The winds from the glacier stunt what trees manage to grow along the shore and drive avians to the more sheltered areas along Maer Dualdon and Redwaters, and the lake's rocky banks prevent seasonal flooding and forestall the formation of sandy bars capable of supporting cold-water clams and the otters that feast on the clams. Still, the lure of the lake's "white gold" is enough to keep hundreds of people living here in small communities carved into the steep, rocky banks, huddled against the wind and cold.Если вы хотите что то добавить или присоединится к команде редакторов - пишите комментарии
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