The Dessarin Valley

Dessarin Valley, is a lightly settled region of caravan towns, isolated homesteads, and uninhabited wilderness just a week's journey from Waterdeep. Nothing of note to the wider world has happened here for hundreds of years. The frontier long ago receded farther northward, leaving behind a quiet backwater littered with ruins. Even if the Dessarin Valley isn't quite as wild and lawless as it once was, it's still lightly settled territory that serves as a route to distant lands. Residents in places such as Red Larch or Triboar boast that their humble settlements are "the Gateway to the North." In these lands hundreds of caravans and keelboats pass through each year, linking the great ports of Waterdeep and Neverwinter with places such as Everlund, Mirabar, or Silverymoon. The steady caravan traffic breathes life into the towns of this area, supporting businesses in the settlements along the Long Road. Inns cater to travelers anxious to sleep safely within sturdy walls and enjoy good food by a warm fire instead of camping by the side of the

Geography

Mountains and hills

Dessarin Hills: These rugged hills held a number of ancient dwarven ruins and were home to orcs, ogres, and other fearsome beasts

Rivers and streams

The valley was named for the great River Dessarin, which flows from the Evermoors in the Savage Frontier, to the Sea of Swords just south of Waterdeep.

It is home to a diverse range of folk, although most inhabitants are either humans or halflings. The main industry of the Dessarin Valley is agriculture, and "Goldenfields" play a large part in the agricultural economy of the North.

Maps

The Dessarin Valley
The Dessarin Valley, also known as "The Gateway to the North" by its residents, is a valley region situated between and
Beliard
Home to many cattle ranchers whose herds roam the hills around it, particularly to the east. The village offers a public well, as well as a pond where harnessed horses or oxen can be driven through the water to bathe them, drive off flies, and let them drink. It's also home to a tanner, a smith, some horse dealers and trainers who keep extensive stables, and an inn: the venerable, popular, and several-times-expanded Watchful Knight.
Bargewright Inn
Once a hilltop wayside inn, this site has become a walled community of ramshackle, often-rebuilt wooden towers and buildings now entirely cloaking a hill that overlooks the village of Womford across the river.
Westbridge
A village strung out along the Long Road between Red Larch and Triboar, Westbridge is home to the Harvest Inn, which stands on the west side of the Long Road facing the wagon road from the Stone Bridge. The inn is run by the affable Herivin Dardragon (male halfling commoner), a curly-haired collector and reseller of paintings and statuettes of questionable taste.
Red Larch
A way stop on the Long Road seven days north of Waterdeep, and is located at the intersection of three trails. The town was named for a stand of red larch trees that were chopped down about the time of the town's