Page 81 - Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting

tal’dorei campaign guide

The Verdant Expanse

East of the Stormcrest Mountains, hundreds of miles of massive, unbridled forest shrouds the landscape in mystery and
shadow. Widely understood to be the domain of the elves within Tal’Dorei—or Gwessar, as the continent is called in their
tongue—the dense timberland is traversed by few beside the elves of Syngorn. Brave, well-protected merchants travel from
Emon to Syngorn along roads sanctioned for trade, hunters both human and elven alike seek glory in tracking the wild
beasts that roam the untamed wilderness, and the occasional band of dark elf raiders from Ruhn-Shak prowls the forest
under cover of night. The enchanted nature of this wood holds the decay of the seasons at bay, the trees blooming evergreen
year-round.
The Verdant Expanse sprung from the ley energies that shifted here following the Calamity, bringing vibrant, acceler-
ated growth, and rampant magical flux to the region. This has instilled the forest with countless factions of stranded fey
folk, and displaced aberrations that call the darker groves their home. Ruins slowly fall to the swelling overgrowth, and
some say that parts of the wood move and hunt on their own, claiming the lives of those who wander too far from the
points of civilization. Even so, much of the Expanse is under watch of the Wardens of Syngorn, granting a measure of
safety to those who travel beneath its dusky boughs.

the gladepools Natural creatures often wander from the Mirescar altered
or touched by darkness, lending to population surges of
dire beasts and fey abominations.
Surrounding the southern edges of the Expanse lies a
While the source of the Mirescar’s corruption has many
cluster of broken ponds and lakes that ever draw fresh
myths in Syngornian folklore, none have yet been able to
water from the Stormcrest Mountains to the east, and salt
define the purpose nor reason for the darkened region.
water from the Ozmit Sea to the west. The strange mixes
While many scholars find fascination with this curiosity,
of habitats across this somewhat marshy grassland has
the few who proceed do so with caution, as a number who
led to unusual ecosystems and odd, dangerous denizens,
have delved deeply into the Mirescar either fail to return,
which in turn has drawn the attention of many fishermen
or do so with but a shred of their former sanity. These
from the Rifenmist region, and Syngornian hunters from
tales lead most denizens to avoid the area altogether,
within the Verdant Expanse.
instead using the fables to frighten young elven children
The clay and silt gathered along the shores of the
into not wandering the forest alone.
salt-water lakes can be refined into fine ceramics and
simple constructs that fetch fair prices in northern mirescar adventures
Tal’Dorei. Syngornian tradition speaks of an oracle’s spirit
that is bound to the lakes, and when given sufficient offer- a SickneSS SpreadS
ing and respect, the oracle will come to parlay a trade for
For mid-level characters: Whispers within the scouting
information of one’s fate.
circles speak of nervous observations: The ever-localized
gladepools adventures shadow of the Mirescar appears to be slowly spread-
ing, the corruption reaching out to consume more and
no baSiS for a SyStem of government more of the Expanse. New, wild terrors spring from the
shaded tangle, and the Wardens reach out in hopes of
For characters of any level: While traveling along the edge
finding trustworthy investigators to find the cause of this
of the Gladepools, a fighter or a paladin notices a gleaming
expanding darkness, perhaps even finally unveiling and
longsword embedded in the bank of the lake. No one but
destroying the true source of the Mirescar.
that character can see it until they draw it from the mud.
A phrase in dark elvish Undercommon is written along
the side, saying “Whosoever draws this blade has the power to the shifting Keep
free Ruhn-Shak from madness.” If translated in Syngorn, the
translator pauses before the name Ruhn-Shak, then stam-
Built within and around a cluster of massive, living trees
mers instead, “the, uh, city… from madness,” and refuses to
that form the heart of the Expanse, and enchanted with
help further.
the most powerful illusion magic Syngorn could muster,
the Shifting Keep acts as the satellite military compound
the mirescar for the Syngornian scouts and rangers that patrol and
defend the forest here. The enchantments embedded
within the keep’s foundation allow the fortress to cloak
Deep within the western reaches of the Expanse lies a
its presence, falsely projecting its location anywhere
section of extremely dense forest that allows nearly no
within a mile.
sunlight to enter. Existing since the birth of the Expanse
This advantage played a major role in the historical vic-
itself, the trees cluster and twist together into a labyrinth
tory over Neminar in the Scattered War, and lent to the
of knotted roots and branches, while a tangled canopy of
mystique that now surrounds the outpost. Nearly a thou-
drooping foliage and gray moss choke the sky from view.
sand trained elven warriors, hunters, and spies call the
80 chapter 2: gazetteer of tal’dorei