Dhedluk

Dhedluk has been threatened by orc raiders for the past century, though the village's sturdy stockade wall and small contingent of Purple Knights has managed to keep them at bay. A number of fine woodcarvers live in the village. Despite its origins as a lumber town, the town now has laws against cutting live wood that are punishable by hanging.
Dhedluk is also home to an organization known as the Women of the Woods, which dates back to the time of King Azoun IV, who believe that females should rule Cormyr and all realms. For a long while they engaged in banditry against the village, though they have turned over something of a new leaf since the crowning of Queen Raedra. Despite their banditry, the Women were placed under protection of the crown since their founding, leading to a persistent rumor that the founder, a woman known as Vandara Thulont, was in fact Azoun's daughter. This rumor has never been authenticated, but the crown's protection remains and any who speak to loudly of the east, a short distance behind Crownpost
A wide, looping trail circumnavigates the old ruins, bringing travelers to the inn from both directions along this short detour. The owner of the inn ad¬vertises it as a safe location amidst the terrors of Crownpost using small signboards along Calantar's Way, and has built a steadily expanding business from the traffic he has attracted. The barn features several additional wings, as well as numerous outbuildings where a small collective of artisans
by Purple Dragons who “respectfully” ask the rumormonger to keep quiet. The Women of the Woods live in the old Meliyekur estate in the forest west of the village and conduct trade within Dhedluk.

INN AND TAVERNS

The Blushing Maiden

Among the only noteworthy places in Dhedluk is the rustic wayhouse known as the Blushing Maiden, named for the long-dead leader of the Freeswords Aradaera "Ravensong" Tinshar. Its soundproofed private suites feature lux¬urious owlbear pelt rugs, breathtaking views of the surrounding forest, and each a private bathroom. One of the long halls in the inn has an enormous elven made tapestry fully one-hundred paces long featuring scenes of a forest hunt. The tapestry glows slightly with golden light, and it is said that woven within are numerous gates to and from lo

POPULATION

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Dhedluk is a small community of quail farmers, woodcutters, herbalists, and retired nobles located in a clearing in the forest dappled with sunlight and surrounded by gigantic moss-covered trees. Dhed­luk has been threatened by orc raiders for the past century, though the village's sturdy stockade wall and small contingent of Purple Knights has managed to keep them at bay. A number of fine woodcarvers live in the village. Despite its origins as a lumber town, the town now has laws against cutting live wood that are punishable by hanging.
Dhedluk is also home to an organization known as the Women of the Woods, which dates back to the time of King Azoun IV, who believe that females should rule Cormyr and all realms. For a long while they engaged in banditry against the village, though they have turned over something of a new leaf since the crowning of Queen Raedra. Despite their bandit­ry, the Women were placed under protection of the crown since their founding, leading to a persistent rumor that the founder, a woman known as Vandara Thulont, was in fact Azoun's daughter. This rumor has never been authenticated, but the crown's protection remains and any who speak to loudly of the east, a short distance behind Crownpost. A wide, looping trail circumnavigates the old ruins, bringing travelers to the inn from both directions along this short detour. The owner of the inn ad­vertises it as a safe location amidst the terrors of Crownpost using small signboards along Calantar's Way, and has built a steadily expanding business from the traffic he has attracted. The barn features several additional wings, as well as numerous outbuildings where a small collective of artisans cations throughout Faerun. The inn s reputation for comfort and service are without equal, and many merchants take the longer Starwater Road rather than Calantar's Way just so that they can stop here and at the Tankard in Eveningstar.

Dhedluk

This village of 370-odd folk stands at the meeting of Starwater Road and Ranger's Way, a short trail through dense forest that links Dhedluk with Waymoot to the southwest. Some upcountry folk still refer to this community by its former name of Dheolur, which it was called after the noble family who once dwelt here. That clan no longer exists after sid­ing against the Crown once too often. Dhedluk is the surname of a local wood­cutter who stood against them and was made king's lord of the place in recogni­tion of his loyalty.
Dhedluk today is a pretty place of log cottages nestling in the trees, tiny fern gardens, and small crop allotments. The expansion of cleared land is strictly regu­lated (in recent years, that really means “forbidden”), and the village is sur­rounded by bogs, so Dhedluk remains a waystop community of skilled wood­carvers and herbalists. Three small quail ranches and another that rears imported boobries operate in the village. Some of the boobries wander freely around the village, keeping it clear of snakes and other vermin.

Landmarks

Most travelers know Dhedluk for its only visible industry: the Blushing Maiden inn. It's run by the affable if hard-nosed king's lord of Dhedluk, the retired adven­turer Thiombur. I like to chat with the tune Freeswords, who seem to have tamed most of Tunland and the Stonelands in their day—though both areas have regrettably returned to a per­ilous state since. Be aware, though, that every word said to Thiombur may find its way forthwith to the ears of King Azoun, Vangerdahast, or one of their agents. Moreover, I suspect there's a gate linking the Royal Court with Dhedluk. In several cases I've heard of, senior court officials appeared on the scene, seemingly out of nowhere, when Thiombur needed their authority to deal with rather antisocial Thayan and Zhentish trade delegations.
Dhedluk is truly beautiful, a place of dappled sunlight, flittering and calling birds, and gigantic trees girt with mosses. A lot of dreamy nobles and seasoned Purple Dragons alike seem to retire here. With the shortage of available homes, prices of cottages here tend to be higher than those of prime-location shops in Suzail—I've heard of small stone and timber huts going for 16,000 lions! Dhed- luk's beauty also seems to captivate Cormyreans with odd ideas: It is home both to the Women of the Woods and a sinister underground cult known as the High Hunt.
The Women of the Woods are outlaws whom King Azoun tolerates and even befriends. They're under royal protec­tion, but Vangerdahast has obviously issued orders that they be constantly watched and harried—in contradiction of the king. These women believe females should rule Cormyr and all realms. They have eluded the clutches of Meliyekur's Magical Museum, a crum­bling old manor house that was turned into a museum of magic by its last owner, an eccentric noble. It stands in the depths of the forest west of the village.

Meliyekur's Magical Museum

The Museum is protected by magical traps that levitate and paralyze intruders. Their motionless bodies float forever on display in midair, freezing in winter, rot­ting the following summer, and persist­ing as skeletons thereafter. One of the reasons the authorities tolerate the con­tinued existence of this dangerous semi­ruin is that it gives foes of Cormyr something to explore. It has slain many a young and ambitious agent of the Zhen- tarim, the Cult of the Dragon, and the Red Wizards of Thay.
The Women of the Woods have made full use of the Museum's magical items, and at least one of them is a mage of some prowess. From a safe distance, I saw one bathing in a forest pool. When a Purple Dragon burst upon her with drawn sword, intending to capture her, she calmly crushed him with a huge tree that she uprooted and hurled with one wave of her hand!
The Women of the Woods steal food, drink, clothing, jewelry, and useful items such as axes, pots, pans, and knives dur­ing their raids on Dhedluk. It's thought they have a captive deepspawn[1] in the Mansion; certainly the Women never lack for venison and don't bother to hunt anything. Purple Dragon patrols cau­tiously skirting the Mansion often report encountering the smell of roasting veni­son wafting through the trees.
The Women are at least two dozen strong and are led by Vandara “the Vixen” Thulont, a lass of wealthy Suzailan mer­chant birth who once loved Thiombur. The breakup of their romance drove Vandara to recruit other women dissatis­fied with their men and found their woodland fellowship. The traveler is warned that Thiombur doesn't take kindly to queries or talk about Vandara. Further, Purple Dragons regard ques­tions about King Azoun's relationship with the Women as some sort of secret of the realm to be sharply guarded! Is Van­dara of royal blood? Is Azoun her sire, as well as her sire? I'd be interested in hear­ing from anyone who learns or is willing to talk about this matter further—in the interests of updating this entry for future editions of this guidebok, of course.[2]
The other notable outlaw organization active around Dhedluk does not enjoy royal favor or protection. The High Hunt is a decadent cult embraced by certain old families in Cormyr. It numbers some hon­ored nobility among its members. Cult members firmly believe the vitality of the land can only be renewed by sacrificial slayings of Cormyreans of noble blood— at least one annually. A sacrifice need not be a willing victim and is hunted like a stag through the King's Forest by the cult members on a moonlit night.
Such hunts traditionally begin in Dhedluk. To stop Thiombur and the Pur­ple Dragons from discovering them, recent victims have been treated with silence and repulsion magics to drive them forth from the village speedily with­out raising an alarm. In former times, more than one victim tried to hide in the village, and the hunt soon became a brawl through the night streets as Purple Dragons and travelers or adventurers roused from their sleep in the inn fought cultists. King Azoun outlawed the cult early in his reign, when it became appar­ent that certain unscrupulous nobles were using it as an excuse for murdering rivals. The severe penalties for kidnap­ping and confining nobles for any reason also date from this judgment.
Some High Hunt members use masks decorated with stag antlers, and the cult symbol is a point-down vertical dagger trailing three drops of blood off in an arc to the left. Fanatical cultists prick each other to draw at least three drops of blood whenever they meet on cult busi­ness, which is usually to discuss who is to be the next sacrifice. Travelers are warned not to consort with folk they believe to be cult members and never to let on they've seen any cult rituals or meetings. The first is a crime, but the second usually brings swift death at the hands of cult members bent on protect­ing their privacy.

Places of Interest in Dhedluk

Inns

The Blushing Maiden

The Blushing Maiden is the sole land­mark of Dhedluk. This rustic wayhouse
sprawls through the trees, its (sound­proofed!) private rooms offering breath­taking views of forest scenery. Each room has its own fully equipped bathroom as luxurious as those of some inns in fabled Waterdeep, and pelt rugs of (mostly) owl­bear and wolf fur are everywhere.
One of the long, dark passages in the inn has fully a hundred paces of one wall covered with a single huge forest hunt tapestry of exquisite workmanship. This hanging, reputed to be elven in origin, glows with its own enchanted light. Some folk say distant stags woven into the scenes move about from time to time. Others, the good mage Elminster among them, say the tapestry holds many gates to and from other places in Faerun and even other worlds![3] These hidden doors are usable only by those who know how to evoke their magic and are accessed by stepping into (through) the weave at the right spot.
The Blushing Maiden is named for the now-dead leader of the Freeswords, the sorceress Aradaera “Ravensong” Tinshar, Thiombur’s first great love. Her phantom image—crafted by the best Sembian illu­sionists whom Thiombur paid over 50,000 gp!—appears in the entryway from time to time, dark-eyed and smil­ing, in a pearly gown that leaves little to the imagination of the viewer. In life, Aradaera was a fighting mage of great skill and even greater boldness, and she once fireballed her way into a beholder’s lair, coolly debated with the eye tyrant until her fellow Freeswords were in posi­tion to attack, and then charged the monster!
Aradaera’s nickname comes from her favorite alternative shape: a singing raven. She adopted it after seeing the Simbul, Witch-Queen of Aglarond, swoop into Azoun’s presence in raven form to con­front the astonished monarch over a mis­taken interpretation of a trade treaty between Cormyr and Aglarond. The Sim- bul explained her own view curtly, dra­gooned the young king into accepting additional clarifying wording on the spot, and departed, pausing in raven form to correct a minstrel who’d been singing all this while by singing the selection herself. Thiombur was also present at this inci­dent since Aradaera and he were securing the Freeswords charter at the time, and he never tires of telling this tale. One awed servant told me that several winters ago he was telling it to a group of travelers when one of them said softly, “Aye, that’s just how it befell. You have a good mem­ory and an honest tongue,” and then turned from the shape of a fat merchant to that of a raven, sang a snatch of song while Thiombur turned white, and flew out the door and away into the night!
Thiombur is good for more than sto­ries. He knows the woods well and can direct interested guests to good berry patches and clear springs, warn them of dryad locations and where the Women of the Wood are most active, and even mount rescue parties if patrons request them before setting out on trips.
The Maiden is a good inn and justly popular. Many merchants take the Star­water Road rather than Calantar’s Way just so they can stop here and at the Tankard in Eveningstar.
[1]See the Monstrous Manual™ for a discussion of deepspawn.
[2]Before Elminster took an editorial cleaver to Volo's original text, it was liberally studded with these not-so-sly references to later versions of the guide. Volo obviously believes in selling the same work over and over again. The Old Mage merely lifted an eyebrow and then winked when asked if Azoun might be Vandara's father.
[3]Elminster: Aye, this time he’s the telling truth. One can reach other planes, continents of Faerun, and even locales in the Underdark. Elves did make the tapestry, but who they were and for what purpose it was made, none of ye need know. Like Volo, I’ve now said rather more than enough.

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Maps

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  Dhedluk

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Тип

Town

Население

1000

Подместа

Cormyr