Easthaven
asthaven was one of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale. 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.
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.
Geography
The town was located on the southern shore of Lac Dinneshere on the east end of the Eastway that led to Bryn Shander.[5] Originally just a small hamlet, the building of the Eastway trade road to Bryn Shander proved to be a boon to the village which became the fastest-growing community in the region with a fishing fleet rivaling that of Caer-Dineval.
A breakwater protected most of the piers that reached out into Lac Dinneshere.
Trade
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.
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.
History
In 1281 DR, Hrothgar assembled an expedition to Kuldahar following the arrival of a messenger. However, the expedition was ambushed by frost giants in Kuldahar Pass and the only survivors to reach Kuldahar were a newly arrived group of adventurers.
Akar Kessell murdered his mentor Morkai the Red in Easthaven.
In 1356 DR, the representative to the council was Glensather. He was a respected and even-tempered councilman, viewing the Ten Towns as "sturdy bulwarks against barbarism." During the Battle of Icewind Dale, Glensather waded into a group of orcs, killing two, but as he reached Wulfgar a spear drove into his back and tearing through his chest killing him.
Notable inhabitants
- Quimby, owner and innkeeper of the Snowdrift Inn.
- Everard, priest of Tempus.
- Apsel, local scrimshander who has been having trouble with wolves in his store.
- Churin, foreman of Gaspar's warehouse.
- Gaspar, local fishmonger and small-time businessman.
- Old Jed, heavy drinker and town drunk.
- Damien, the young son of Gaspar who is constantly terrified of being eaten by monsters.
- Grisella, owner and barkeeper of the Winter's Cradle Tavern.
- Jhonen, local fisherman and secret love of the spirit Elisia.
- Jeffy, small boy and playmate of Dillsandra and Ahmadora.
- Dillsandra, small girl and playmate of Jeffy and Ahmadora.
- Ahmadora, small girl and playmate of Jeffy and Dillsandra who wants to be an adventurer.
Notable locations
Inns & Taverns
- Cairn’s Crossing - 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 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 - 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 - This tavern 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.
- Big Fat Knucklehead - A lakeside tavern run by Flug the Blind (who lost an eye to a fish hook), catering to fishermen.
Temples
- Temple of Tempus
- Silvanus’s Temple - 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.
Mercantile
- Rurden’s Armory - 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.
- Market square, located on the waterfront.
Other Locations
- The Redrun - 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.
“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.”
Knucklehead Trout Scrimshaw
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