Kelvin's Cairn
Rising out of the desolate tundra of Icewind Dale is a mountain of giant boulders, piled one atop the other until they narrow to a snow-capped peak. Beasts hunt upon the craggy slopes, giants tread across the broken rills, and dwarves mine its hidden depths. This is Kelvins Cairn, the highest point in Icewind Dale and also its heart; all else is fixed by its position relative to the mountain.
Although the boulder-strewn slopes look about as stable as a pile of sand, the unusual mountain has stood for as long as anyone can remember. Accord¬ing to the barbarians, the cairn was formed when Tempus, the god of battle, fought Kelvin, a great hero of the frost giants, and slew him on the plain of Ice¬wind Dale. Tempus rent the ground with his axe and took the stones from the earth to heap upon his foe’s corpse, serving as a reminder to others of the conse¬quences of incurring the war god’s wrath.
Although the dwarves of Clan Battlehammer live in the valley at the foot of Kelvin’s Cairn, few humans or dwarves make their way onto the moun¬tain’s rocky slopes, and no settlement has ever taken root there. The mountain’s face is largely home to wild beasts, the most dangerous being the crag cat. Many boastful adventurers have set out from Ten- Towns with the intent of bringing back a crag cat’s pelt. Those who return often have harrowing tales to tell of being hunted across the mountain’s slopes by the creature they had imagined to be their prey7most of the slopes of Kelvin’s Cairn ough, uncharted terrain, a few locations on around the mountain are well known by the 5 and the handful of human explorers who
The Only Ways In: Icewind Pass and Bremen’s Run are the two passes running along the moun¬tain’s eastern and western slopes, respectively. Ores or barbarians looking to raid Ten-Towns must come down through one of these two passes, and which one they choose determines whether it is the people of Maer Dualdon or Lac Dinneshere who seek refuge behind Bryn Shander’s walls while their homes are pillaged and burned.
Daledrop: A natural switchback sits just below the mountain’s southern face, descending from the tundra into the valley at the mountain’s base.
This route, known as Daledrop, is the only acces¬sible entry point to the valley from Lac Dinneshere or Icewind Pass, and the dwarves use this natural chokepoint to defend their valley against intrusion from the north.
Bruenor’s Climb
Amid the jumble of boulders that forms Kelvin’s Cairn is a protrusion, a sort of spire that offers a commanding view of the Dwarven Valley below and the towns and tundra to all sides. As its name suggests, it was a favorite haunt of the renowned dwarf Bruenor Battlehammer, but it toppled during the battles against Akar Kessell and his armies, when the dwarves sealed their tunnels against the invaders. Years later, the dwarves pain¬stakingly recreated it in honor of the great king of Mithral Hall.Bruenor’s “Temple”
At the base of the mountain stands a small grotto, accessible by way of a narrow crevice from the northern end of the dwarven valley. Light shines down through natural holes in the cav¬ern’s ceiling, and the chamber thrums with the low whistle of the wind blowing across the mountain’s face. Carved into the stone here is a small forge with a freestanding anvil, created and used a century ago by Bruenor Battlehammer to craft his master- work, the hammer Aegis-fang. Bruenor was the first to discover the grotto and sense its deep con¬nection to the powers of the earth, and since then many dwarves have come to Bruenor’s “temple” to craft their own masterworks. Outsiders are seldom allowed to visit the grotto, since the dwarves of the valley regard it as a sacred space.Verbeeg Lair
Travelers who range farther up the south face might happen upon what appears to be a cave running into the mountainside, its entrance obscured by a boulder or a brace of frostbramble. Beyond the tunnels entrance lies adwarven out¬post that was abandoned by its creators long ago but has never lain empty for long. Ores, brigands, and giants have all made their homes here at times. Most memorably, a band of verbeegs in the service of Akar Kessell lived here once, striking out at the dwarves in the valley below before they were exterminated by the Companions of Icewind Dale. Ever since, the out¬post has been known in the collective imagination of Ten-Towns as the Verbeeg Lair, though the bands of fortune-seekers that periodically venture there never know who, or what, they will find in residence.Если вы хотите что то добавить или присоединится к команде редакторов - пишите комментарии
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