Lake of Shadows

The Lake of Shadows was a large body of fresh water located in the Middledark beneath the Dagger Hills in the extreme northwest of Cormanthor.

Geography
The Lake of Shadows was a tenday from Lake Thoroot, to which it was connected by a river which flowered towards Lake Thoroot. The Fireflow was also tenday from the Lake of Shadows.

Description
The Lake of Shadows was huge, some 60 mi (80.47 km) in its longest dimension. The cavern arched from 50 ft (15.24 m) to 100 ft (30.48 m) above the surface of the lake at its highest point, and the lake itself reached a depth of 100 ft (30.48 m).

The lake was named for its bats and for its gate to the Plane of Shadows. Chimneys opened up above the lake.

Inhabitants
The lake was the domain of a fiendish kraken, which ruled the lake as an iron-fisted tyrant. The kraken's subjects included hundreds of kuo-toa who worshiped the kraken as a manifestation of Umberlee. Although a brood of aboleths also resided in the lake, they too acknowledged the kraken's dominance. On the eastern shore, a small tribe of stone giants lived under the guidance of their elders Ghunda and Thurrak. The stone giants had an uneasy alliance with the kuo-toa of the lake.

Notable locations
A portal from Myth Drannor reputedly led to a ledge overlooking the lake.

History
At some point before 1372 DR, a fiendish kraken had assumed rulership over most of the denizens of the Lake. Some of its kuo-toa followers even constructed a shrine to worship the kraken.

After the construction of the Shrine of the Claw, under the guidance of the kraken in the lake, the kuo-toa began attacking the nearby stone giant population. Eventually, after much warfare, the stone giants and kuo-toa came to a grudging truce which still during the Silence of Lolth.

Sometime prior to 1373 DR, a ship of chaos captained by the uridezu Raashub was caught in time in permanent vortex in the Lake of Shadows. That year, a drow expedition led by Quenthel Baenre recovered the ship. Pharaun Mizzrym, with the help of the alu-fiend Aliisza, learned to repair and navigate the ship and the group used it to travel to the Abyss in search of Lolth, where it crash-landed.

Appearances

 * City of the Spider Queen
 * Underdark
 * Extinction
 * Annihilation