DM Xanatos Gambit Locations
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Moonreach Keep
Physical Description:
Northeast of Narfell, past the scar, the cold road and the Icelace, amidst the very edge of the Icerim Mountains is a coastal fortress called Moonreach Keep.
As it was in the past, and as it is once more today, its namesake comes from the central tower, taller than its outer walls. The tower was designed to house numerous lookouts, beset by numerous windows and fortified balconies. Indeed, the tower is said to have been built high enough to pierce the clouds, enabling the tower's denizens to gaze upon the moon.
The tower was and now again remains surrounded by layers of fortified stone, including a heavily secured inner layer. This inner layer comprises the majority of the keep's inner quarters. A large, spacious courtyard follows, itself protected by outer walls.
More recently, the keep has become surrounded by thick fog, which prevents onlookers from determining its features.
Public Knowledge:
Military historians are unsure who it was that initially built the keep. Some have argued it was age-old warlocks who erected the tower using magic, and scaled its height to make communion with entities among the stars. Others claim it was a faction of demon-binders, who used it as a temporary headquarters for a bygone war. There is a strong suggestion that the keep was, at least one point in its history, used for the occult, supernatural, and otherworldly -- of whatever type, if not something stranger.
There is agreement, nonetheless, that long ago the City of Peltarch occupied the keep as a forward expeditionary force against the Eastlander Bandits. After having liberated the keep from the Eastlanders, Peltarch's military housed the tower with its scouts and spell-casters, and manned its walls with soldiers. That was to launch offensives from the keep against various bandit camps.
The defeat of the bandits, the tower's faraway position, and the city of Peltarch's domestic turmoil diminished its interest in Moonreach Keep. The city abandoned its position there, and left the tower in a state of disrepair. Eventually, the tower crumbled. The rest of the keep fell to derelict, and the overall fortress became ruins.
More recently, however, those kept informed by military observers understand that Moonreach Keep has been restored. The restoration was completed sometime in the middling past, likely through a combination of physical and magical construction. It is further understood that the keep is manned by one or perhaps several armies. Soldiers man its walls, notably those raising the banners of certain noble houses, as well as bannerless soldiers draped in darks and grays.
It has recently been confirmed that Moonreach Keep is the current Seat of the Cleimant Council. This explains reported sightings of bannermen of the house Gor, house Stockley, and house Brokenblade, each former houses of High Hold. It also explains the bannerless soldiers - nearly one hundred strong, with approximately ten mages among them, are rumored to be former Zhentarim, under the command of house Sepret. Or, at least, Bennek Sepret.
However, the sightings were put to an end following the thick fog that now surrounds the keep, from head to toe, and from its coastal peak, to the top of its tower and the clouds beyond. The fog has proven resilient to both mundane and magical monitoring. Apparently, spy-glasses cannot pierce it. Scrying efforts and any means of magical communication are also futile.
Thematic Music:
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Aureate Ruins & Fane
Physical Description:
Located in the depths beneath Moonreach Keep, seemingly fused and sunken into the earth and stone, this cascade of decaying architecture is the corpse of an empire, and monument to a long-dead and shattered devotion. The stones were once painted a veneer of gold, now long since tarnished and dulled to a defeated, pale tallow-yellow. It is doubtful whether the builders ever once used true gold, though from time to time a more genuine glitter can be found amidst the ravaged stone.
The devastated structure is damaged every which way: some have crashed together, as evidenced by damage to the sides; others, from an impact, as evidenced from damage above; and others still are damaged bottom-upwards, their rooftops intact but lower portions having absorbed sudden and violent blow, as though from severe crashing or earthquakes.
Though long having been laid low & destroyed, it shines with a sort of ruined majesty. Viewed from afar, the sheer height of its crumbling ramparts, the magnitude of its abandoned aqueducts, its slanted and devastated temple structures, and the very many walk-ways, roof-tops, and streets encompass its enduring & decrepit splendor. Its walls are etched with glowing runes. They are in a lost language. Arcanists recognize them as the reason why, despite the ravages of time and whatever other great calamity that this ancient architecture has endured, it nevertheless remains recognizable, reasonably intact, and navigable.
Public Knowledge:
According to the reports of adventurers, the ruins are haunted by the memories of their past, and the damage inflicted by an unknown calamity. Adventurers who have managed to reach them reported conflict against ghostly soldiers, mages, priests and more, adorned with the tarnished golden armor of a bygone age. Enemies appear to relive some long-past battle or catastrophe. Defeating them causes the strange soldiers to fall and, in some instances, ephemerally dissipate -- effectively clearing an area of the threats. Yet returning to that same area later on sees the very same enemies, walking the same paths, uttering the same noises.
Tangential research so far suggests it was once the premiere site of rune-crafting and runic magic. Rare and archaic books describe the profound and fearsome rites that took place in its holy fane, to transform, elevate, and imbue their champions with runic might and magic. Their strongest warriors were adorned with runic transcriptions -- ancient words of power -- upon their armors and blades and, in some cases, even their flesh.
Recent quakes beneath Moonreach Keep have once again opened its perilous passages.
Thematic Music:
