This small village occupies a solitary crag. The crag is located just east of Northdark Wood and halfway between the Hill of Lost souls and Hills Edge.
Northdark Wood is called by some the Dusk Wood and by others Reluvethels Wood, after a famous elven ranger who once hunted in it. This forest is east of the Trielta Hills, and is the most northerly arm of the Reaching Woods, separated from the others by the Dusk Road.
Drawn Swords is named for several hard-fought battles here in the past, plus the vigilance that all who dwell there must maintain if theyre to live long enough to see another morn. In the past, a combined human and elven
force smashed an orc realm at this location. In another past battle, elves put humans planning to found a realm of their own to flight.
From the distance, the traveler will see a broken stone tower atop a steep crag. The tower is surrounded by a ring of trees and a few unfenced culti-vated plots. The tower is an old rob-ber-knights keep, now partly in ruins.
The keep at the crest of the crag (called Swordskeep) provides a look-out, a shelter for food stores, and an armory. The local farmers and hunters, who dwell in stone-and-sod cottages on the steep slopes of the crag, retreat here when beset by large orc tribes, raiding trolls, and the like.
The village numbers perhaps 80 folk, about 20 of whom are usually off hunting. The village keeps a constant watch for approaching creatures of all sorts, and can muster over 40 expert archers. The usual defense of this often-attacked village is to fire volleys of arrows, retreat up the slopes to the next ring of cottages, fire all the arrows there, retreat again, and so on. Each home has at least eight quivers of 20 shafts each hung up just inside the door for easy access in a hurry. At least two quivers will be fire arrows, their shafts wrapped in cloth that has been soaked in pitch and is ready for light-ing with a firebrand.
A giant triple crossbow set up on the top surviving floor of the tower can hurl its bolts far enough to surprise many an enemy and hard enough to pierce three trolls standing one behind the other. Shafts are often set aflame just before firing in order to
Its surprising that such a small, iso-lated village has an inn, but the place serves as a base for many adventuring bands and a group of guides and swords-for-hire. This last group is known as Saerns Sharp Swords. Their founder and original leader, the war-rior Saern, was killed over 20 winters illuminate enemies attacking by night or to slay trolls.
ago in a winter skirmish with hobgob-lins north of the village.
The importance of the village, the existence of the inn, and the inns Harper defenses and probable owner-ship are due to an ancient gate located in a room of its own on the ground floor of the old keep. The gate appears as a shimmering blue upright oval of
silent, dancing, cold fire. This two-way portal operates continuously. It allows regular supply shipments to reach the village. The gate also permits the con-stant passing back and forth of adven-turers and hunters wanting to quickly reach the heart of the Backlands or Northdark Wood, which offers splen-did bear and stag hunting. The opera-tion of the portal also permits a constant flow of captured monsters or the trophies of slaughtered monsters from the frontier to Berdusk. Every-thing from heads and antlers to exotic innards destined for sale by apothe-caries and purveyors of magical ingre-dients passes through. Berdusk then offers both overland and riverborne connections for travel and trade.
Landmarks
There are two tourist attractions within easy reach of Drawn Swords. Remem-ber, however, that orcs and the like watch the village, waiting for prey to come to them, so easy refers to dis-tance, not safety or a leisurely trip.
One is sacred to worshipers of Sune Firehair, the Lady of Love. Her wor-shipers often make pilgrimages to it.
Known as the Flame Stone, it is a huge upright stone as tall as two adult human males that stands in a grassy glade on the eastern edge of Northdark Wood, within sight of Drawn Swords crag.
On Midsummer Nights, or when Sune wills, the stone glows with a vivid, orange-red, flickering radiance, resembling a leaping tongue of flame from a distance. Touching it thenif one is a worshiper of Suneis said to heal all diseases, curses, illnesses, wounds, and wastings. Good fortune is said to come from feasting and kiss-ing in its presence at all times, so the Flame Grove is the site of many unin-hibited revels by Sune-worshipers.
Most come in summer, when dancing and frolicking in scanty dress all night is relatively comfortablebut some brave souls come here in winter.
Whenever the grove is in use, Stag Warriors guard the revelers from predators. These Stag Warriors are hired warriors commanded by priests of Sune. They wear helms adorned with antlersapt to be awkward when plunging through trees, Im told. There are at least six Stag Warriors on duty every night that worshipers have made offerings to the priests of Sune in Drawn Swords, and usually twice that number
are present. Sometimes there may be as many as 20 Stag Warriors on duty.
These defenders normally ring the grove, facing outward at least 10 paces into the forest. Young wor-shipers and bridal couples often use the grove alone, without warning any-one. Their gnawed bones and gore tell their foolish fate to the next folk to venture into the grove without the protection of the Stag Warriors.
Stag Warriors earn 4 gp each per night. As can be expected, there are often several penniless hireswords staying in the village and awaiting a chance for this duty, foraging for food in the meantime.
The other nearby landmark lies halfway between Drawn Swords and Skull Gorge. Used as an occasional encampment by travelers ignorant of its legendary defenders or confident of being able to handle them, its called Fallen Giant Tomb.
In ancient times, a great chieftain of the mountain giants, whose name has been lost, perished. His grieving follow-ers carved a stone ridge into a sem-blance of his sleeping form. Much cracked and crumbled by the years, it remains an impressive, serene form over 200 feet long. There are the inevitable legends that it rises up to slay folk nearby on certain nights, but adventurers whove camped there tell me that the sculpted stone never moved. They warn, however, that if any bloodeven from already-existing wounds or uncooked meatis spilled on the slopes of the ridge or upon the stone form itself, four or more undead skeletons of mountain giants armed
with spiked clubs erupt from the earth and seek to slay any living creatures who dont flee the ridge immediately.
These guardians also appear whenever anyone digs on the ridge.
There seems to be an endless supply of them. One old ranger claimed to have personally destroyed over 30 of them over the years. No one can exca-vate without continuous interrup-tions from erupting undead.
The giant chieftain is buried some-where under the stone that bears his likeness. The way down to his tomb, which was presumably covered over by the giants who buried him, has been since totally obscured by time or delib-erate working of the ground and is completely lost. The dwarves, giants, and elves all have tales of this tomb, tales that are surprisingly detailedand in agreement about all of these details.
The giant lies buried beneath a body-plate of solid, everbright silver, resting on a bed of stacked golden ingots, with his magical war hammer on his chest
Each ingot must be worth over 100 gp if the descriptions of their size are true. There must be at least 2,000 of them in the tomb, and probably two or three times as many. Thrice war par-ties have found the buried giant and borne away his enchanted weapon, retreating from taking all the gold because of the undead guardians.
The war hammer is as large as a siege ram, but flies by itself, so people who cant lift it can wield it by touching it and willing it to accompany them.
They tow along the floating hammer rather as a mage can direct a Tenser’s
floating disc. The war hammer can be directed to fly at an opponent,1 but it does this only six times before flying away to return to the tomb, which reseals itself.