Earthspur Mountains


 * You may be looking for the Dragonspine Mountains or the Giantspire Mountains.

The Earthspur Mountains, or simply the Earthspurs, and sometimes named the Giantspike Mountains or the Dragonspike Mountains, was a great mountain range in north Faerûn. It ran roughly from northwest to southeast, from the Moonsea and the Galena Mountains in the north to the Sea of Fallen Stars in the south. It had two arms: the smaller Troll Mountains and the Earthfast Mountains. This range bordered Damara, Vaasa, and Impiltur in the east with the Vast in the west.

Geographical features
The Earthspur Mountains were high and imposing; the range's tallest peaks were nearly 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) high. There were few trails through the mountains, making them very dangerous. One was Three Trees Pass, a long cleft between the Earthfasts and the Troll Mountains. There was a gap in the mountains where the High Country of the Vast jutted east; rumors told of hidden passes through the mountains into neighboring Impiltur. Further east was the High Pass west of the River Icehilt.

At the center of the range, at its highest point, was the Glacier of the White Worm, from which cold winds continuously blew around the peaks. It covered an area of approximately 1200 square miles (3100 square kilometers). To the east was the Earthwood, and Lake Icemelt was to the south of this.

The mountains were rich in iron and silver, in apparently limitless lodes, with some bloodstone veins, and deposits of whitesteel. There were also small but highly pure deposits of gold located within the Giantspike Mountains. Thus many tunnels burrowed into the heart of the mountains in search of these metals.

Underdark
In the Underdark, the domain of the Deep Wastes stretched to the Earthspur Mountains in the east.

Locations
The Monastery of the Yellow Rose was positioned on one of the mountain range's highest peaks, beside the Glacier of the White Worm.

The goblinoid community of Brikklext sat beneath the southern foothills of the Earthspur Mountains, on the eastern side.

There were a number of shield dwarf settlements within the mountains.

Mining communities lay scattered across the lower slopes of the mountains, beside the tunnel entrances.

Watcher's Mounds were a series of campsites constructed and maintained by the Disciples of St. Sollars the Twice-Martyred, from the Monastery of the Yellow Rose, and by local rangers. They lay throughout the mountains south of the monastery, situated along the trails running down from it. There were thought to be well over a hundred of these sites; their exact number was unknown. They could take many forms, not only mounds, such as a simple lean-to or a fire-pit with a small cave and an overhanging boulder. They were defensible campsites with shelter where a traveler, a ranger, or a monk might spend a night in safety, or a goblin or orc band might rest and defend themselves. Each site also contained a hidden cache of preserved food, water, and tools. The monks and rangers restocked these caches.

Inhabitants
The Earthspurs were inhabited by orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears, and drow could also be found. Cave trolls were common in the mountains west of Impiltur as well. There also numerous other monsters.

The mountains were also home to shield dwarves, such as the Ludwakazar clan.

There were many hardy human and dwarven miners and prospectors working the mountains, as well as bandits who preyed on them.

History
In the Year of the Wyvernfall, 512 DR, the orc kingdom of Vastar rampaged out of the Vast and threatened other lands with war. Swarming through many small passes in the Earthspur Mountains, the orc chieftain Ulbror and his horde invaded the uplands of Impiltur.

As Vastar descended into civil war in the Year of Writhing Darkness, 572 DR, dwarves from the north and east expanded their mines under the Earthspur Mountains and into Vastar. The dwarves let no orc who'd seen a dwarf remain alive, to prevent any word reaching orcish chieftains of the nature of their enemy. The unexplained deaths of large numbers of orcs in the mountains were blamed on the civil war.

After defeating the orcs and bringing down Vastar, the dwarves founded the kingdom of Roldilar in its place. But Roldilar fell to resurgent orcs in the Year of the Bloody Crown, 649 DR, and many surviving dwarf clans escaped into the Earthspur Mountains.

From the mid-1350s DR, prosperous new deposits of ore were discovered in the Earthspur and Earthfast Mountains, inspiring prospectors to brave the harsh conditions and hobgoblins, hoping to strike it lucky. These new mines were predicted to fuel the Impilturan economy.

In the Year of Wild Magic, 1372 DR, an Earthspurs mine broke into an old temple of Laduguer, and miners discovered more tunnels leading into the Underdark. They sought adventurers to follow the tunnels and see if they led to duergar settlements. A local merchants' guild even prepared a trade expedition to the gray dwarves.

Miners were still working the Earthspurs by 1479 DR. However, the retreat of the Great Glacier in the 15th century defrosted a number of undead creatures, and possibly something worse, prompting an increasing number of humanoids and monsters to travel south.

Activities
Mining was lucrative here but conditions were harsh and dangerous. Miners endured a lot of hardship to pursue their wealth, and the mining communities suffered high death rates.

The mining communities of Dunfee in Impiltur and the Arcatan towns of Sudrav and Tomrav existed thanks to the mines here. On the other side of the mountains, King's Reach in the Vast grew wealthy off trade and smelting of the metals that came out, and by supplying the prospectors who found them. They went via secret routes to protect their claims and hide their finds.

Rumors & Legends
Some told horror stories of human and dwarven prospectors, lone and "gold-crazed", who attacked anyone who came too close to their claims and finds, and who lived like animals high in the mountains. Others told of so-called "gold caves", caverns with great stacks of lost dwarven gold and guarded by dragons or wyverns or by gold-crazed prospectors who'd slain those beasts and seized and guarded their hoards themselves. A few such stories turned out to be true. Lashan Aumersair of Scardale supposedly once led his followers to locate one of these gold caves and took its wealth to fuel his conquests.