Kryptgarden Forest

Kryptgarden Forest, also known as Tsordvudd, was a small but ancient and foreboding forest on the Sword Coast North in northwest Faerûn and one of the so-called the Moonwoods of the North. It was a site that once housed long-lost realms of the elves and dwarves. "Dark times have come to Kryptgarden. May gods and heroes end the corruption on this day!"

- Dala Silmerselve.

Name
The name 'Kryptgarden' arose from the dwarfhold known as Southkrypt Garden, which stood in the north. The forest was itself sometimes called Southkrypt Garden. The name also seemed to originate in the orc realm called Uruth Ukrypt, meaning "Home of Uruth" in Orcish, that rose in the Sword Mountains in the 10 century DR.

Geography
It was located east of the Sword Mountains. It lay just west of the Long Road and the village of Westbridge and north of Waterdeep.

Description
It was an old-growth forest and local humans knew little of what lay within as of the mid-1300s DR.

Kryptgarden was a hilly woodland was covered in a thick layer of foul-smelling fog. Parts of the wood had an unexplained reddish hue about the forest floor and the bases of the trees in the late 1400s DR.

The forest contained many ruins of bygone dwarven civilizations.

Geographical Features
A portion of Kryptgarden south of Phandalin was known as the Crooked Forest because some of the trees there had been bent by ancient creatures that dwelled there to indicate paths through the forest. Following the passage of Volothamp Geddarm through the area, the forest received more visitors than it had in decades, disturbing a number of treants and blights.

A deep hole in the ground—known to some as "the orifice"—in the red forest east of the Sword Mountains led to the Underdark and a passage to the Hanging City of Dolblunde.

Flora & Fauna
Small game animals lived in the forest, but few larger creatures dwelled within, as they were readily eaten by Kryptgarden's most fearsome predator, the dragon Claugiyliamatar.

Activities
Folk from Westbridge hunted animals along the eastern edges of the forest during the 1300s DR, but did not dare go deeper than a few hours on foot. They'd stopped by the late 1400s DR after some of their fellows went missing.

Some logging also went on around the edges in the mid-1300s DR.

History
During the era of the First Flowering, the forest that later came to be known as Kryptgarden was a part of the ancient elven realm of Illefarn, which was founded circa. The surface-dwelling dwarves of the briefling flourishing realm of Besilmer, from to,  also had borders reaching Kryptgarden Forest. When Illefarn fell circa, the elf realm broke up into several smaller states; of these, Rilithar encompassed Kryptgarden Forest.

The green dragon Claugiyliamatar established her lair within the Kryptgarden Forest in the.

In the, the Five Factions all gathered in the forest to deal with the rising threat of the renewed Cult of the Dragon. The cult's Green Dragon Mask was recovered from the lair of Claugiyliamatar in Kryptgarden Forest. Old Gnawbone herself was injured while blows were struck against the Red Wizards of Thay, the Cult of the Dragon, and the Zartruss hobgoblin clan.

Around the, the undead servants of Ularun Mortus passed through Kryptgarden in an ongoing assault against the lair of Claugiyliamatar.

In the late 1490s DR, Xenk Yendar led a party comprising Edgin Davis, Holga Kilgore, Simon Aumar, and Doric into the Kryptgarden Forest to find the orifice into the Underdark.

Notable Locations

 * Cult stronghold, a temporary, fortified settlement established by the Cult of the Dragon.
 * Deeping Cave, lair of the green dragon Claugiyliamatar. It lay in a deep ravine at the base of one of the bordering mountains.
 * Southkrypt Garden, an abandoned silver mine that once housed a community of dwarves.
 * A portal in a cave led to Vanrakdoom, a Sharran temple in Undermountain.
 * Uncle's Keep, a dwarf-built keep that was part of deeds granted by the Lords of Waterdeep and received in an inheritance.

Inhabitants
The forest was home to a small group of druids, known as the Dusk Circle, that maintained and protected the woods.

The Lostafinga hobgoblin tribe claimed northern and central parts of Kryptgarden Forest.

Elves were thought to dwell in Kryptgarden Forest in the late 1400s DR.

Small green dragons were reputed to dwell in the Kryptgarden Forest, as they do in other forests of the North. However, few dragons stayed long, because of aggressive competition from Claugiyliamatar.

Notable Inhabitants

 * Claugiyliamatar, the monstrous green dragon also known as "Old Gnawbone" who terrorized anything and everything that passed through her domain.
 * King Witchthorn, a verdant prince and ruler of the fey in Kryptgarden Forest.
 * Ishaldra, a dryad who studied evil magic.

Rumors & Legends
Kryptgarden Forest was reputed to be one of the sources of the evil that lurked in the ruined dwarfhold of Southkrypt, and only the second most powerful of them after the Sword Mountains.

In the mid-to-late 1300s DR, rumors swirled of another dwarven citadel in the hills at the heart of Kryptgarden, but these were unconfirmed.

At that time, a crazed adventurer was discovered in the plains west of Red Larch, on Kheldell Path. Supposedly the only survivor of a nine-person adventuring company, he rambled on about a strange citadel in Kryptgarden, one that housed insectoid creatures that walked upright, wielded powerful magic, threw weapons that slew a man at 500 paces, and could camouflage themselves so well they could only be detected by smell and tracking, suggesting it was a supernatural power. Moreover, he had unexplainable burns on his arms and back and had no possessions on him. However, this man was a known to be a lair by 1370 DR.

In the 1300s DR, King Witchthorn had a relationship with the Adarbrent noble family of Waterdeep. For decades, the family sent its firstborn child of each generation to pledge an oath to Witchthorn. The children performed an unknown service to the king by their eleventh year and in exchange the family businesses and their homes were protected by secret fey guardians. This arrangement was unknown to all but the eldest son and daughter of each generation.