Dragonspear Castle

Today, the outer wall of the castle is breached and broken in many places. Its great gate is a gaping hole, and from there a road leads straight to the inner gate, whose doors have also fallen. Though the inner ward is still a defensible—, if crumbling, — fortress, the former city between it and the outer wall has become scrub vegetation, pits (the former cellar delves of the dwarves), and heaps of stony rubble. The central keep is a blasted shell, the gigantic skeleton of a dragon draped over the broken walls, and the interior floors fallen in. Most of the surrounding inner ward towers stand relatively intact. Travelers fleeing from trolls, brigands, or worse in this area could take refuge in one of these and defend it.

Beneath the castle flows an underground river. It runs from an unknown source north into the Misty Forest, and there turns abruptly southeast. It can be entered from a certain cavern in the eastern reaches of the forest, and its main passage is large enough to be navigable by boats, although many lurking monsters, drown-hole side passages, and whirlpools make this a dangerous route. The river runs southeast along the edge of the moor, and then turns northeast and passes under the southwest tower of the castle’s inner ward. There it connects with a trapdoor and shaft in the cellar once used for waste disposal. It flows swiftly on to a large and permanent whirlpool and thence drains down to unexplored depths in the Underdark. If one wins past the whirlpool, the river runs on to emerge as a waterfall in a ravine (one of many such clefts in the High Moor), where it flows out into a small pool. The pool drains away into the depths again.

A century ago, Daeros Dragonspear was a famed half-dwarven adventurer of the North. Early in his career, the bearded half-dwarf rescued and befriended Halatathlaer, an ancient copper dragon who laired beneath three hillocks on the western edge of the High Moor, south of the Misty Forest.

In the Year of the Raging Flame (1255 DR), Daeros seized a fortune in gems from a beholder lairing in the lost, subterranean city of Kanaglym, in the depths of what was once Phalorm’s Duchy of Hunnabar, and decided to retire. The bearded half-dwarf chose the site of Halatathlaer’s lair to build his castle. The copper dragon had grown tired of constantly fighting off thieving orcs and goblins, but he was loathe to leave his lair.

Daeros gathered humans and dwarves loyal to him and built a large and splendid structure, composed of a massive central keep surrounded by a strong ring of four towers (the inner ward). Around the keep was a spear-head shaped outer wall linking nine great towers (the outer ward). Dwarves were welcome at Daeros’ castle, and soon the outer ward filled with small stone cottages and delvings beneath them. The Stout Folk included many members of Clan Arlspar and Clan Dragonsteel, whose ancestors had once dominated the Duchy of Hunnabar.

In the years that followed, Daeros and Halatathlaer were often seen in the skies above the High Moor, with Daeros wielding a massive spear against foes on the ground and employing a magical horn to summon his troops when needed. Daeros’ great weapon earned him the sobriquet “Dragonspear,” and, in time, his castle came to bear the same name. The pair’s energetic raids hurled back the orcs and trolls of the High Moor, and, for a brief time, they succeeded in purging much of the southeastern moorlands of their influence. However, nearly three decades after the castle’s completion, Halatathlaer succumbed to a wasting disease, which left him increasingly tired and weak. As word of the dragon’s plight spread, more than one wizard who coveted the copper dragon’s hoard used shape-shifting magics to infiltrate the ranks of Dragonspear Castle’s residents and investigate how the treasure was guarded.

In the Year of the Whelm (1290 DR), a Calishite mage named Ithtaerus Casalia crafted a spell that allowed him to teleport Halatathlaer away to the Fallen Lands, bound in slumber. Ithtaerus then revealed to Daeros what he had done by means of a false nightmare that showed the wizard creating a portal in the dragon’s lair through which Halatathlaer was taken.

In truth, the portal was created by an outcast devil named Armaros, known as “the Resolver of Enchantments,” who Ithtaerus had called. The Dragonspear portal led to Avernus, first of the Nine Hells of Baator, but required the sacrifice of a mortal to activate it. When the enraged Daeros plunged through the portal, he triggered the devil sorcerer’s spells, which immediately trapped the half-dwarf and opened the portal in both directions.

The newly opened portal quickly disgorged several devils in Armaros’ employ into the bowels of Dragonspear Castle. While Daeros’s followers battled the incursion, Ithtaerus looted the dragon’s hoard and then returned Halatathlaer to the inner ward, bound in magical slumber. Armaros returned to Avernus, content to have created a powerful new form of portal, known as a soulbind portal, but Ithtaerus lingered near, observing the destruction he had unleashed.

Once the devils were defeated, Ithtaerus called upon several dragons he knew, telling them that the copper dragon of Dragonspear Castle slept, near death, and it and its hoard were easy prey. Three young and ambitious dragons heeded his words and took wing to Dragonspear Castle. They met over the fortress and fought, destroying Halatathlaer and much of the castle before slaughtering each other. The last survivor, a black dragon named Sharndrel, was enraged to find the hoard it had fought so hard for looted so that only a few coins were left. It went seeking the triumphant and overconfident Ithaerus, found him gloating over the best wine of the castle in the upper chambers of the central keep, and blasted him with its acid until his bones crumbled to powder.

The castle was left as a shattered ruin, eagerly raided by orcs, hobgoblins, bugbears, goblins, and trolls from the High Moor as well as other evil spellcasters and brigands, until all the dwarves were dead or had fled. The Serpent Folk of the Serpent Hills even sent a large party to search the ruins for magic, and they bore away all they found. In the years that followed, the ruins fell empty for a time, and thereafter served as a temporary home to small groups of bandits or outcast mages.

In the Year of the Creeping Fang (1305 DR), an alliance of hobgoblin chiefs from the High Moor seized the castle. They used it as a base from which to raid the caravan road and the lands around it, gathering orcs and trolls into ever-larger bands until Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate raised armies and cleaned the castle out in the Year of Spilled Blood (1315 DR). The victors set an armed temple to Tempus, called the Hold of Battle Lions, in the cellars to guard against creatures using the portal, for it seemed indestructible. The magical gateway hurled back magics used against it and sent forth ghosts of creatures slain in the castle to attack those approaching it.

Seasons passed, and more devils from Avernus discovered the Dragonspear portal. In time, word of the portal’s existence reached the ears of Azazel, another outcast devil of Avernus. “The Serpent,” whose name had been changed from Hazzael to that of a demon prince by Asmodeus to reduce the chances of his being summoned, had long sought a base on the Material Plane. With such a base, he could work against the plans of the archdevils and gather strength to challenge for a place among the Lords of the Nine. The Dragonspear portal provided him the perfect opportunity.

In the Year of the Bow (1354 DR), Azazel began dispatching minions through the Dragonspear portal in increasing numbers until the devils overwhelmed the Tempuran defenders and claimed the castle for their own. Led by the pit fiend Baazka, the Serpent’s lieutenants then dispatched emissaries to the various humanoid tribes of the High Moor and slowly assembled them into a great alliance. In the year that followed, they began attacking travelers along the Trade Way and the isolated settlements of the region.

By the Year of the Worm (1356 DR), the Alliance of Avernus had devastated the region from the Way Inn to Boarskyr Bridge, such that travel along the Trade Way dwindled to almost nothing. In response, Waterdeep mustered an army to besiege Dragonspear Castle and battle the devil-led tribes wandering the Open Marches. By Tarskah, a strange, sorcerous mist (the Breath of Baerendurr) had enveloped the region, pouring forth through the portal and reducing the fighting to scattered skirmishes throughout the region. By summer, the Dragonspear War had spread from Triboar to the northern borders of Amn.

The war came to a sudden, anticlimactic conclusion when word of Azazel’s incursion into the Material Plane reached the ears of Asmodeus. Asmodeus then ordered Armaros to cast seal portal, (also known as gate seal) on his creation. The Resolver of Enchantments complied at the worst possible moment for Azazel, trapping the Serpent’s lieutenants in Avernus, where they had gathered to consult with their lord, and abruptly depriving the Alliance of Avernus of much of its infernal leadership. Finally, the Lord of the Nine forced upon Azazel the planar commitment trait, normally associated only with petitioners, to prevent the Serpent from escaping the Nine Hells.

By the Feast of the Moon, the Sword Coast was quiet again, with the sorcerous mist dispersed and the devils largely dead or scattered. Once again, the followers of Tempus set up a small shrine in the ruins, and the region returned to normalcy.