Gap of Durma
The GAP OF DURMA is a lowland valley that straddles a fracture in the great expanse of the GIANTSPINE range. It is located far to the north along the western edge of Rhonish territories just before one reaches the UPPER AENAR. It is a beautiful but savage country; dangerous in the extreme. The Mountain-Clans, marauding Highlanders and the new threat from the strange Nothrimi people have made the northwestern border one of constant vigilance and danger. Worse, it is said that many entities spawned in the days of the Elderwar still lurk within the dark holes made by forest and rock.
The GAP is a wonder to behold from the eastern hills with an eye towards the sun setting in the west. It is covered in deep forest, thick grass and outcroppings of dark mountain stone that pierce the ground throughout the area like jagged teeth or perhaps grasping claws. The peaks that once towered here have been ground deep into the earth with only those piercings to remind one. The area has now sunk low between the two ranges and the rocky substrata has been pushed deep under the land’s surface. Centuries or more of heavy rains and winter storms have covered that strata in soil and seeds escalating into the great, green wild that the adventurous are confronted with upon beholding the GAP and the lands west of it. This has caused a fertility of the soil that unfortunately does not extend very deep; while sufficient for coniferous forests and green grass the makeup renders attempts at agriculture an exercise in frustration and obstacle.
North of the peninsula, the GAP is the only manageable route through the mountain deeps that ward travel to the western coast of the land. To attempt such travel elsewhere would require an expedition to penetrate the inner mysteries of the GIANTSPINE MOUNTAINS where the Mountain Clans hold sway and fell beasts from centuries past still lurk within darkened sanctuaries. While there have been expeditions that have accomplished shallow penetrations into this forbidding range no one has ever attempted to pass through it to reach the Western Shores. It would be certain death and certainly foolhardy as the GAP and the far southwestern shoreline provide identical access to those shores without tempting fate in the lonely wilds of the GIANTSPINE range.
Threats Old & New
Dangerous throughout its existence, the GAP has become even more perilous with the increased raiding tempo from the Mountain-Clans and now more of the same from these NOTHRIMI. LORD HIGHBROOK's family has warded the GAP and the surrounding lands for more than a century and a half. But in these times of an Empty Throne, the Free Lord finds himself stretched thin without the support of the THRONE that had been available in generations past. He has tried to raise the alarm but few except those in the bordermarch are listening...
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