Page 75 - D&D - Player's Handbook

I wish I could have asked the captain where the lost INDEPENDENT REALMS
ships-went! But I couldn't give myself away.
I had brought some food with me, since I didn't know I HAVE WANDERED THESE LANDS FOR LONGER THAN
how long I'd have to remain hidden aboard the ship. At
you've been alive, caravan master. I say this not to some-
the start of the journey, I pricked my ears up at every
how lord these years over you, but so that you understand
creak of the boards and at each elven voice, but after a
time, lulled by the rocking of the sea, I fell asleep. The that when I say your proposed "short cut" leads onry to the
journey after that has a dreamlike quality. I know I bloody demise of yourself and your work hands, you will
must have awoken, eaten, slept, and taken care of other
believe me, because I have seen others make the same as-
necessities- at least my food was all eaten by journey's
sumption, and die the same deaths.
end-but I don't recall the specifics. I only know that
at some point the ship stopped, and someone took - Aedyn Graymantle,
the basket in which I was hidden and placed it on a to Wundrith Parr, Waterdhavian caravan master
sandy beach.
Though there are myriad nations, kingdoms, and
WHAT I SAW
city-states scattered across the length and breadth of
I felt it before I saw it. With the barest glimmer of
Faen1n, it would be a dangerous mistake to assume that
golden light through the basket weave all that I could
all of the lands in and between those places are tamed.
see, Evermeet took my breath way. Coiled in the basket
Travel a short way beyond most civilized places, and one
like a snake, with cramps in every limb, I was desper-
finds oneself in the midst of wilderness haunted by crea-
ate not to give myself away, yet I could feel the magic
tures deadly and foul.
of Evermeet seep through my body, soothing aching
The information below is excerpted from Far from the
limbs and easing guilty conscience. When I could
Misty Hills, a treatise on far-flung places in the North,
breathe again, I gasped. And that was how the elf dis-
composed by one Aedyn Graymantle, a moon elf ranger
covered me.
who hails from Evereska. In her years of braving the
The blind elf, whose beloved treasures I'd displaced
wilds, Aedyn has acted as guide, caravan guard, body-
to take my journey, pulled me from his basket, and
guard, and trailblazer.
when he did so, his eyes were clear as diamonds and
just as hard. I thought for sure that I was dead, and on
BOARESKYR BRIDGE
seeing my surroundings, I can say with all my heart
that I didn't care. Had the elf killed me on the spot, my Boareskyr Bridge stands on the Trade Way and is the
soul would have gone to Gari and demanded a ship only consistently safe crossing over the Winding Water
so that I could sail right back to Evermeet. My dumb for more than a hundred miles in either direction. This
wonderment caused the elf to turn and look, and he too alone makes it remarkable, but there, in the midst of a
was enraptured. wilderness with nothing to set it apart for greatness, a
As to what we beheld, well, imagine a place of stag- mortal man murdered Bhaal, the god of murder. This is
gering natural beauty and impossible elven artifice, an no tall tale. Even a century after Bhaal's blood was shed
alien realm as distant and beautiful as the stars, but as there, the river's waters run black and foul for miles
much a part of you as your own dreams- part heaven, west of the bridge.
~rt~~- • Adding to the location's sacred nature, Cyric, the man
I'd like to say we shared a moment there, the elf and who killed Bhaal, was himself elevated to godhood.
I. Perhaps in recognition of that, he didn't kill me. Although he proved to be a malign power, statues of
It was over all too soon. I was put back on the boat, both Cyric and Bhaal were erected on the ends of the
returned to the world, and warned never to try any- bridge, the two gods facing each other (though it is said
thing so foolish again- on pain of death. And I don't Cyric stabbed Bhaal in the back). About a century ago,
think I will- at least not until I'm getting up there in fanatics of Mystra tore down the statues and flung their
years. Then I'll keep my eyes peeled for elves with stones in the river, but fearing retribution for such sac-
cloudy eyes looking west! rilege, the merchants who use the bridge pooled funds
Now, see? Wouldn't you have liked to have been a to have them rebuilt in grander style than before. Now
gnome's boots and touched Evermeet, even for just a few each god stands atop his own decorated archway that
beats of the heart? serves as entrance to the bridge.
Boareskyr Bridge is named for a long-ago adventurer
who built the original bridge and used it as the center
of a small kingdom, which also bore his name, north
and east of the Trade Way, though it lasted only a few
decades before falling to threats from the Fields of the
Dead. The bridge serves as a connection between the
lands of the North and the Western Heartlands.
The enormous black granite bridge is wide enough
that two wagons can pass one another going opposite
TOME OF directions, and its waist-high ramparts are thicker than
FEVWILO LO RE some castle walls. On most days of the summer and