Abbey Mountains

The Abbey Mountains, also known as the  Turnback Mountains, were a range of tall peaks in the Moonsea North region of north Faerun. They were originally known as the Columns of the Sky to the Rengarth barbarians during the Golden Age of Netheril, and also known as Rabrae Hyuk to the local gnoll population.

Description
The range was quite frigid and windswept, with only the topmost peaks getting consistent snow caps.

Geography
The Abbey Mountains were located between the Tortured Land and the Frozen Forest, southwest of the Great Glacier.

Geographical Features
The foothills along the northern face of the Abbey range were known locally as the "Mammothbacks".

One third of the way along the range from its eastern end was Turnback Mountain, which was a distinctively tall peak among other heights to the north and south. Its name came from being where an ancient prospector expedition, after finding little of worth but endless creatures wanting them dead, finally took heed from their heavy losses and nigh-ceaseless attacks and decided to turn back. Extensive expeditions over the ages have found relatively few veins of ore worth mining in the range. West along the range was Mount Akoro, home to a local tribe of goliaths.

A very cold river, the Alaphaer Run, flowed north out of the western Abbey Mountains and into the nearby Frozen Forest. Following the course of the river led to the mysterious step pyramid known as the Monument of the Ancients.

History
At the end of the Age of Dragons, tens of thousands of years before the Era of Upheaval, the stone giants of Moch-Fanan were forced to abandon their great fortress in Pelvuria and relocated into the Abbey Mountains.

The Abbey Mountains name came from the the days of Netheril, when worshipers of Selûne built the Abbey of the Moon atop Selûne's Crest, the highest peak of the range. Once a magnificent building, the site is now a toppled ruin of shattered stone columns, foundations, and monster-haunted cellars.

For centuries they had been used for the caching of treasure, the entombment of barbarian chieftains from the Ride, and as natural funnel hunting traps by local gnolls to lure rothé and caribou herds to their doom.

More recent adventuring expeditions reported that there were no less than two dragon lairs and three shattered but extensive ruins, possibly fallen Netherese flying cities hidden away in the deep and rarely visited valleys at the heart of the range.

Notable Locations

 * House of Gold

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Dungeon #170, "Monument of the Ancients"