Barony of Tavboryn

Cromm's Hold

A small village of about 50 buildings on the edge of the Lizard Marsh. The land around here is ruled by the Cromm family, whose head is known as the Baron.

Baron Cromm is known for his hunting of the large lizards in the swamp (Dinosaurs). Leading parties into the swamp from the hamlet's small Inn, the Robin's Breast.

A half dozen hamlets around Cromm's Hold also are under the Baron's protection raising the population of the Hold to about 700.

Gillian's Hill

This hamlet stands on the east side of the Coast Way a half-day’s ride south of Daggerford and about as long a ride from Liam’'s Hold. The community is named for a now-dead half-elven ranger of great beauty. Gillian Cantilar dwelt here in a long-vanished house atop a wooded knoll overlooking the road. Today, Gillian’'s Hill is a grass-girt mount topped by a covered fire cairn used as a signal beacon to warn Daggerford of approaching enemy armies— - from Dragonspear Castle or the Serpent Hills, presumably.

Typical of a hundred or more small farming settlements in the Sword Coast region, Gillian’s Hill wouldn’t even be mentioned in this guide except for a surprisingly good shop there and a dungeon that has both lured many adventurers hither—and slain many. The dungeon seems to be a truly ancient human tomb—as old as Netheril, or older—where someone of magical power and political might was laid to rest. Just who was entombed here isn’t clear. The tomb was pillaged long ago—from the Underdark beneath it! The location now serves as a spell-guarded entry to the Realms Below.

Unfortunately, those ancient and mighty binding spells originally set to stabilize and guard the tomb make it an ideal lair for creatures of the Underdark. About 20 winters ago, a band of illithids used it as a base from which they stealthily stalked and raided passing caravan merchants, controlling the minds of unfortunate victims to make them lure many others to a mindless doom.

A brave band of adventurers defeated the mind flayers, but warned that the danger could well recur. It seems that an even greater evil has moved in: A Harper note was found recently on the slopes of the hill that said only: “Beware—Phaerimm! Spread the warning!” The writer of the note presumably perished beneath the hill, as no further news has come to light as to its authorship —or its subject.

From the surface, the tomb in the hill can only be entered by wandering about until one finds the precise location of one of several invisible portals —snatch gates that whisk any person or object entering them into

the heart of the hill. Egress is by the same method, although the exit spots inside the tomb are apparently different sites than the entry or arrival locales, and hard to find.

Attempts to tunnel into the hill uncover stone walls that emit bolts of lightning16 when exposed to air— bolts that continue to lash out until earth is thrown onto them, and they’re covered again! This magical lightning can easily stab across the trade road, imperiling all passing traffic. Several mages of power have tried and failed to remove the spells that cause this deadly effect.