The River Vesper was a river in the Vast that ran from the Earthspur Mountains to the Dragon Reach.[1][2][3]
Geography[]
The River Vesper began in the Earthspur Mountains[3] and descended through the High Country[1] down a long series of heavy waterfalls and rocky cascades. Here the waters were cold and clear.[4][5]
The town of King's Reach marked the highest navigable point on the river.[4][5] Afterwards, the Vesper was wide, slow, and generally calm. It lay in a broad, gradually sloping river valley as it ran by the Troll Mountains, and also left floodplains. These lands made for fertile farmland.[1][3] The river had several tributaries.[1]
The River Vesper could be forded at Viperstongue Ford. As this coincided with the Viperstongue pass through the mountains, it was a strategic crossing.[6]
The river emptied into the Dragon Reach in a wide delta, called the Vespermouth. In high summer, its banks turned into fields of stinking mud, producing clams and worms. The city of Calaunt, formerly a village known as "Vespermouth", sat at the mouth of the Vesper.[7][8][9][10]
Activities[]
The Vesper was a major trade route for goods exported from the Vast. However, it also offered off-road travel for orcs, thieves, and adventurers trying to avoid notice without getting lost. Some also sailed up the river to raid inland settlements.[1][3]
Rumors & Legends[]
Treasure[]
An occasional curious sight on the Vesper was a collection of ioun stones hovering above the water. Sightings were reported the full length of the river, but only began in the 1350s DR. A dozen glowing, twinkling stones were seen dancing in a slowly turning ring, some 6 feet (1.8 meters) or so above the water and moving here and there across it. The stones avoided efforts to grab them, and by 1370 DR, no one with a net, the ability to fly or a magical means of catching one was lucky enough to spot the ring. There was no known explanation for the phenomena, but a tale told in riverside taverns claimed that anyone who could grab one of the ioun stones could keep it, but was also compelled by a geas to perform some dangerous task, with a different task for each stone.[1]
Very rarely, dwarven gold washed down the river, likely from a flooded tomb-cavern[1] or the legendary gold-caves of the Giantspike Mountains.[5]
Monsters[]
Some pirates and sailors, fearful of putting into Calaunt, believed that there were certain creatures haunting the Vesper, and that they cursed a sailor who crossed them with bad luck.[11]
Rumors of monsters in Calaunt were helped along by occasional sightings of odd shark-like fins glimpsed moving through the mud of the Vespermouth delta, suggested to belong to a bulette.[8]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
The Good, the Undead, and the Ugly
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Ed Greenwood (October 1998). The City of Ravens Bluff. Edited by John D. Rateliff. (TSR, Inc.), p. 154. ISBN 0-7869-1195-6.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Sean K. Reynolds, Skip Williams, Rob Heinsoo (June 2001). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0-7869-1836-5.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Rand Sharpsword (April 2002). More of the Underdark and the Vast! (HTML). Rand's Travelogue. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2015-09-20. Retrieved on 2010-10-31.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), A Grand Tour of the Realms. (TSR, Inc), p. 74. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Ed Greenwood (October 1998). The City of Ravens Bluff. Edited by John D. Rateliff. (TSR, Inc.), p. 152. ISBN 0-7869-1195-6.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), A Grand Tour of the Realms. (TSR, Inc), p. 77. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb (August 1987). “Cyclopedia of the Realms”. In Karen S. Martin ed. Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (TSR, Inc.), p. 30. ISBN 0-88038-472-7.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood (1990). Forgotten Realms Adventures. (TSR, Inc), p. 80–81. ISBN 0-8803-8828-5.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), A Grand Tour of the Realms. (TSR, Inc), p. 72. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (October 1998). The City of Ravens Bluff. Edited by John D. Rateliff. (TSR, Inc.), p. 149. ISBN 0-7869-1195-6.
- ↑ Curtis Scott (March 1992). Pirates of the Fallen Stars. (TSR, Inc), p. 40. ISBN 978-1560763208.