This applies to you as weLL, even though you caLLed the keep home for ■many years. Those wishing to examine any writing in the Keep's library must gift Candlekeep with a new tome of no less than 10,000 gp value. The price for most travelers to enter the Keep proper is a book. Candlekeep is certainly no tourist resort, but there is a store, a temple, and a fair inn here. It is a many-towered fortress, once the home of the famous seer Alaundo, and it preserves his predictions along with all the written records and learning of the Realms that can be assembled. This citadel of learning stands on a volcanic crag, overlooking the sea. VoLoĬandlekeep I understand your ho^m^e is CaandLekkeep, so you probably remember mmore about it than I do, my friend. and Amn: "Leagues upon Leagues of Lawless waste, home to pirates and outlaws who prey on those who must go north or south while depending on the Sea of Swords as then guide, keeping it in sight so as not to Lose then way. *Zane HeLLar of Amn, the famous senior cartographer of the Merchants' League, on describing the coast between Wavterdeep. On the other hand, game is plentiful for travelers throughout this region. From such bases they raid travelers, warehouses, and weak settlements at will, particularly at night or in bad weather. Many brigands stay in roving encampments, living off stolen livestock. Brigands, dopplegangers, and kobolds are an ever-present danger. Throughout the rest of the Coast, the traveler's best protection is a ready blade and friendly magic close at hand. Travelers are warned that lawlessness is swiftly dealt with by ready, veteran patrols in the lands held by the nobles around Baldur's Gate. North of the river Chionthar as far as the Way Inn, the land is more sparsely inhabited and more dangerous, but it serves as a hunting range for those who must kill wild game to eat and as homestead for lonely pioneer farmers. From its gates south to Amn, the Coast on either side of the Coast Way road is pleasant, verdant farmland. Zane* was not far wrong, but the Coast today is also home to one of the two largest and most powerful cities in the region, Baldur's Gate (the other, far inland, is Iraebor). Those not traveling with a caravan in the Sword Coast are warned to hire escorts of armed, trustworthy adventurers! This guidebook directs the traveler toward the sights and lodgings in the cities. The area is littered with the ruins of failed dreams - abandoned villages, empty towers and dungeons - as well as the occasional town, city, or keep, such as Baldur's Gate, Beregost, Nashkel, the Friendly Arm Inn, and Candlekeep. Down through the ages, many folk have dreamed of founding a kingdom in this verdant valley hidden in the moors. Thanks to both human and bestial predators, the trip has always been dangerous - hence the name Sword Coast. In recent times the caravans have begun to see a new menace - raiding parties of humanoids who plunder mainly the miners in the Cloud Peak mountains north of Amn.
Legends abound of grisly fates that befell unfortunate travelers at the hands of the orcs, trolls, hobgoblins (and worse!) said to infest the area in veritable armies. The Sword Coastįor years, the lands between Waterdeep, a huge city far north of Baldur's Gate bustling Amn to the south the Sea of Swords to the West and the Wood of Sharp Teeth to the East have been thought of as the Empty Lands - a vast, stretch of wilderness folk venture into only to get from one place to another. It is the primary purpose of this tome to deal with the western portion of this huge landmass, in particular the region in Faerun between the Sea of Swords and the Inner Sea, and more particularly the area around the city known as Baldur's Gate.
This northern continent is called Faerun in the west, Kara-Tur in the east, and Zakhara in the south. Abeir-Toril is an Earth-sized planet dominated by a large continent in its northern hemisphere as well as a number of other large landmasses scattered about its surface. The name is archaic, meaning "cradle of life," and is rarely used in everyday speech. But for the races of Toril - for the elves and dwarves and gnomes and halflings and humans -Faerun is a very important place: it is home.Ībeir-toril (Ah-BEER Tor-RILL), more commonly called Toril, is the name of the orb that Faerun and the Forgotten Realms are set upon, just as Earth is the orb that Eurasia is set upon. A land of magic and adventure, Faerun is a continent hugging a larger world, which in turn is the third world of eight orbiting a central sun, which is encapsulated in a crystal sphere within a swirling chaos, which is only one in a myriad of alternate dimensions. Elcome to the Forgotten Realms and the world of Faerun! (Fay-ROON).