Dead Tree Hollow

Dead Tree Hollow was a village in the Vast, lying on the North Road between Dragon Falls and Swords Pool, where Blaern's Trail from Fallentree met the North Road.

History
Long ago (but still within elven memory in 1370 DR), the flying carriage of Lady Alauthshaee was attacked by the spells of Ilthuryn, her scorned suitor. It supposedly crashed to earth within Dead Tree Hollow and Alauthshaee and her guards were subsequently buried alive. A side-effect of Ilthuryn's magic was to render the entire valley a dead-magic zone.

The valley was once a camping spot for travelers on the North Road as they crossed the High Country.

For many years, it was the site of an elderly, gnarled oak tree, so huge that its trunk was as wide as a regular cottage. It was also hollow and a druid once lived within, until a voracious dragon (thought to be Halarglautha) burned the tree and forced him out.

The tree was nothing but a rotting stump by 1370 DR, but the location had developed into the village known as Dead Tree Hollow.

Description
Dead Tree Hollow was a small valley that contained a number of ponds and wooded areas. It contained a small and sleepy village.

It was famous for its fern-frond soup and fiddlehead soup (when it was in season), as well as its exotic mushrooms that gourmets all around the Dragon Reach clamored for.

However, the entire valley was a dead-magic zone, apparently a result of Ilthuryn's spells.

Places
The Blue Stallion was an inn in Dead Tree Hollow. There was also a first-rate wagonworks.

A local landmark was the ancient and enormous oak tree; once it was a druid's home, but after being burned down, it was little more than a rotten stump.

Local legends
The flying carriage of Lady Alauthshaee, and the great treasures within, was thought to be buried or sunk in a pond somewhere in Dead Tree Hollow. It also possibly still contained the bodies of Alauthshaee and her guards. Adventurers occasionally came to search the valley for it.