Gauros

Gauros is a relatively poor tharch with no major cities. The

River Gauros flows down from the heights of the Sunrise

Mountains and through northeastern Thay before tumbling

over the edge of the First Escarpment to carve out the great

Gorge of Gauros. From there, it flows into Lake Mulsantir on

the nation’s northern border.

Gauros is rocky, rugged, and forbidding, a wild land of dry

pine forests and high, barren mesas. Swift, shallow snowmelt

rivers from the Sunrises rush through the land, but by

midsummer they are reduced to dusty rivulets. Most of the

folk in the district are Rashemi woodcutters and goatherds.

Ruined towers and empty keeps crown many of the barren

hills, the remnants of ancient Raumathar’s foothold on this

part of the Thayan plateau. The nearby mountains harbor

dangerous monsters, including athachs, chimeras, and bands of

feral gnolls.

The ruler of Gauros is Tharch Azhir Kren (NE female

human Ftr15). An aggressive general, she is itching to lead

Szass Tam’s legions into battle. The zulkir’s fascination with

developing trade does nothing but frustrate her. Kren’s troops

constantly patrol the Gorge of Gauros, looking for any excuse

to launch an invasion of her nation’s northern neighbor,

Rashemen. Kren only needs the thinnest of pretexts, and if she

doesn’t stumble across one soon, she’ll manufacture the necessary

evidence.

Daggertooth Pass

One of only two passes through the Sunrise Mountains, Daggertooth

Pass follows the Gauros up to its headwaters and

crosses a high saddle to come down in the upper vale of the

Murghol, a tributary to the Clearflow of the Endless Wastes.

To one side of the main track a knifelike peak looms, the

mountain that gives the pass its name. The top of the pass is a

little more than 9,000 feet above sea level, and heavy snows

linger on the shaded northern sides of the peaks all year long.

In some years, the Daggertooth is completely impassable.

The narrow and steep track is unsuitable for anything approaching

the size of an army, which is why the Tuigans have

never troubled the Thayans by this route. The zulkirs maintain

a sinister fortress called Chur-Gathos a little way down

from the saddle on the Thayan side. This cold, lonely outpost

is reserved for those soldiers unlucky enough to earn a posting

in one of the worst spots in the land.

Gorge of Gauros

Well over 100 miles in length, the Gorge of Gauros cleaves

the First Escarpment in a maze of deep, narrow canyons, dividing

the plateau of Thay from the Mulsanyaar Plateau in

Rashemen. Here the river Gauros joins a number of smaller

streams racing down from the heights of the Sunrise Mountains.

The northeast corner of the Plateau of Thay is more

than 4,000 feet above sea level, and the Mulsantir basin has

an elevation of about 1,500 feet, so the gorge averages half

a mile or more in depth. It is about twenty miles wide for

most of its length, its floor divided by numerous side-canyons,

nameless cascades, and crumbling plinths of rock scoured by

ancient floodwaters.

The Gorge of Gauros blocks all north and south travel east

of Lake Mulsantir, except for a narrow strip along the foot

of the escarpment right by the lakeshore. It is one of Rashemen’s

most effective defenses against Thayan attack. The

gorge is home to a number of monsters, including a very old

female red dragon named Magrevystala, who lairs in a dry

hanging valley somewhere in its heart.