Ardeep Forest

The Ardeep Forest, also known as the Realm of the Deepening Moon and Faraway Forest, was a relatively small but thick woodland of blueleaf, duskwood and weirwood trees a few miles east of Waterdeep, on the south bank of the River Dessarin.

Geography
Ardeep Forest contained a lot of ridges and steep gullies that were hidden beneath thick vines, dense shrubbery and cloaked in mists which could present a danger. Thanks to the loamy ground, Ardeep Forest's vegetation was thick and healthy and aided the growth of mushrooms that glowed faintly. Visitors to Ardeep Forest either came to experience a truly untamed woodland or to seek secrecy. It was a place with sun-dappled paths and pleasant verges.

Inhabitants
Ardeep Forest in 1372 DR, like most of the ancient forests of Faerûn, was a lot smaller than it used to be but it still contained large numbers of wild boar and a lot of deer.

Eldreth Veluuthra
Traditionally, the Eldreth Veluuthra had been active in the forest. As of 1374 DR, two cells operated here, one hunting down worshipers of Eilistraee near the Dancing Dell and the Ladystone; and the other guarding the ruins of Phalorm.

Wood elves
By the 1480s DR, in the years surrounding the War of the Silver Marches, the forest was inhabited by a group of wood elves from Evermeet, led by Rond Arrowhome. The elves took it upon themselves to preserve the forest's ruins and wildlife.

History
During the Crown Wars, Ardeep, the moon elf nation that included the forest, was a vassal realm to Shantel Othreier. After Shantel Othreier was conquered by the Vyshaantar Empire, it was taken as a vassal realm of the Empire. When the Vyshaan were dissolved, Ardeep joined with Illefarn, then, when Aelinthaldaar was razed by its own people in -1100 DR so that they could all live in Evermeet, Illefarn split into three fragmented states of which Ardeep was one and became independent for the first time in many millenia.

Alliances were made with the dwarves of Dardath, the humans of Delimbiyran, the gnomes of Dolblunde and the halflings of Secomber and together they formed Phalorm. Phalorm eventually fell though and the last of the elves of Ardeep eventually Retreated West in 1344 DR. The elves left behind a lot of baelnorn and green warder guardians to protect their legacy but without the elves themselves, as of 1372 DR, various monsters including assassin vines, tribes of kobolds, nyths, tendriculouses, thirsts of stirges and other creatures had moved in.

In 1358 DR, Strumferrel, a Tanar'ri posing as a evil human wizard named Glandowr, lived in a tower in the forest.

About a decade before the War of the Silver Marches, the inhabitants of the neighboring village of Nightstone, led by Lord Drezlin Nandar from Waterdeep, started making hunting expeditions into the forest in an attempt to reestablish the hunting lodge held there by House Nandar two centuries earlier. These incursions infuriated the elves. In the following years, the conflict escalated until the elves killed Drezlin. In the aftermath, his widow Velrosa Nandar made peace with the elves and pledged never to make any such expeditions into the forest again. She kept that promised until her death one year later when the cloud giants attacked Nightstone.

Notable locations

 * The Crypts of the Deepening Moon : The royal vaults of abandoned Ardeep.
 * Dancing Dell : Contained a magical rock sacred to the followers of Eilistraee.
 * The Dungeon of the Shield : The dungeon beneath Harpshield Castle, inhabited by the ancestors of the aforementioned members of House Majarra. It lay within the south-eastern fringe of the forest.
 * The Glen of Aloevan : The site of a portal that led to a pocket plane wherein lay the ghost of the maddened queen and Chosen of Mystra and Sehanine, Laranla Aloevan. The site was guarded by an otherworldly dragon and the laranlas attendants, all priests of Sehanine.
 * The Floshin Estates : A lightly wooded expanse of land that bordered the forest proper. Elorfindar Floshin, lord of the lands, guarded the House of Long Silences from his secret fey'ri relatives in penance for his family's actions.
 * The Green Glade: a ring of elm trees that encompassed a minor mythal's effects.
 * Harpshield Lands : Were owned by House Majarra, some of whose members were survivors of a royal family but had forgotten their royal lineage. Their land bordered the south-eastern ridge of the forest.
 * The House of Long Silences : Was located at the bottom of the northern spur of the forest.
 * House of Stone
 * Nandar Lodge : The foundations of a hunting lodge that was abandoned by its stubborn owner after repeated elf attacks.
 * Phylund Hunting Lodge : Known for hosting hunts of exotic creatures, brought from elsewhere.
 * Reluraun's Tomb : The final resting place of a fallen elf warrior, cursed by evil magic during his final battle.
 * Talmost Keep : Located just outside the end of the forest's northern spur and was the royal seat of House Talmost, never reclaimed by its descendants.