Barony of Starnaer

Alicorn Tower of Mab

The Alicorn Tower of Mab sits astride a granite plug, north of the Way Inn, some ten miles east of the Trade Way. This slender, curving spire resembles the spiral horn of a unicorn and flickers with blue faerie fire when bathed in moonlight. The tower has no windows or battlements, and the only apparent means of entry is a rune-carved door built into the rock-face directly below the tower. The tower is named for a disgraced and fallen wizard who rebuilt his graces and good name serving in Daggerford before building this tower and retiring inside. No one has heard from him in the decades since.

Ambergul Estate

Not much remains of the Ambergul Estate, in fact the mansion proper is no more than a few crumbled walls.

Historically the Ambergul family were Phalorm nobles who, after falling on hard times rebuilt its fortune by robbing graves. These human nobles pillaged tombs up and down the Sword Coast and throughout the Heartlands, while their caravels scoured the coastline for sunken wrecks to plunder.

Lord Reynard Ambergul was an evil man by all accounts, and came into possession of several well preserved scrolls that described evil elemental beings of great power. He became obsessed with them and used his influence and money to found a secret society dedicated to the worship of these “elemental princes.” Reynard was a seductive man, and he attracted all manner of like-minded nobles. Eventually, the elemental cult became a sensation and subject of much speculation within Phalormin society. At first, the cult was an excuse for frivolous nobles to act badly and thumb their noses at traditional religions and social gatherings. However, certain members of the cult began to take their worship of the Elemental Princes of Evil very seriously, going so far as to build a secret temple and bring wizards into the fold. Some of the less enfranchised members who wanted out were afraid the cult leaders wouldn’t let them, so they agreed to tip off the local authorities. When Reynard Ambergul and the other cult leaders discovered that their activities were being monitored and people were whispering behind their backs, they tore down the temple, buried evidence, eliminated “loose ends,” and left the area.

No one knows where, if any, of the remaining Ambergul’s are hiding.

Bowshot

This hamlet stands on the western side of the Trade Way, a half-day’s ride north of the Way Inn. Named because it was just a bow shot away from the Misty Forest, it'’s been a logging center for a hundred years —and it’s been so successful that the forest is now miles away to the east.

Bowshot consists of the Bowshot Inn, a sawmill, six farms (two run by men who shoe horses as well as any smith), and almost a dozen home woodcarvers who turn out yokes, coffers, wheel spokes, tool handles, and whimsical carvings. The place deserves mention because of recently discovered caves beneath its western fringes. They are entered from the horse-well behind the inn, and by at least one cave mouth in the stands of trees north and west of the hamlet.

The Bowshot caverns show evidence of connections to deeper subterranean areas and of past use by smugglers. Some stolen goods were recently recovered from the caves and returned to their rightful owners in Waterdeep. With them were crates of ore very rich in silver, presumably mined in the deeps below the caverns.

There'’s local talk of hiring or inducing an adventuring company to dwell in Bowshot and mount a constant guard over the cavern entrances—and even of founding a company to mine and smelt silver in the depths, its workers protected by the hired adventurers. So far, no adventurers have agreed to such a defensive role. Many have come to the caverns and then moved on, talking of man-spiders in the deep ways.

Andalor’s Mill (Lumber Mill)

Ulmyn Andalor is an affable, portly man with a curly white beard and a bald pate who goes about covered with sawdust. He runs an always-busy mill that provides Waterdeep and Daggerford with cheap, plentiful green lumber. A copper piece will buy three posts as tall as an adult human male, or five 3-hand’s-width boards of the same length.

The Bowshot Inn (Inn)

This mediocre inn is a dim, chilly log structure that serves bad ale brought by the barrel from Waterdeep. The proprietor sells good hand crossbows for the traveler desiring self-protection and a little squirrel or fowl hunting. Evening feast here is usually a gummy stew made from those same squirrels or some wildfowl, and served with thick slices of adequate onion bread.

Liam's Hold

This hamlet of about 50 folk stands on the eastern side of the Trade Way about a day’s travel south of Daggerford. A flat-topped tor of bare rock, about two acres in area, overlooks the road. It is ringed by a low stone wall, and at the south end stands a crumbling keep tower. The settlement is crammed onto the top of the tor, with its grazing and tillage fields to the east and a pasture for passing caravans to camp in just to the south, overlooked by the tower.

The tower was the fortress-home of the powerful wizard and warrior Sunder Halyndliam, whose name’'s been shortened locally over the years to Liam. The hamlet is named in his memory - —partially because his silent armored wraith, chilling blade in hand, is said to still defend the tower against intruders. It is certain that no fewer than six thieves have been found dead at the base of the tor, having fallen from the tower during the night.

Liam is buried in a spell-guarded crypt deep under the tower. Although he'’s said to lie in a casket with all his spellbooks, a magical staff, an enchanted blade, and magical rings on his fingers, no adventurers, thieves, or rival wizards have succeeded in plundering his remains. They have failed because of the other-planar creatures that guard his tomb and local folk who furiously deny access to the crypt. They do so thanks to a community legend that says the tower was raised with magic and removal of Liam’'s magic will cause it to topple, crushing the hamlet under falling stone. This is why every possibly magical bauble Liam possessed was buried with him.

Today, the tower is part of the Holdfast Inn, which is good enough to deserve coverage in any guidebook to Sword Coast establishments.

The Holdfast Inn (Inn)

This inn consists of Liam’'s tower, full of ornately carved stone stairs and arched windows. The tower has three two-story-high wings stretching out from it. Two stand along the parapet walls of the Hold, and the third (the kitchen and pantries) joins the stables, enfolding the inn’s entry courtyard. All of the inn is built of stone. The halls are carpeted against the chill with furs atop rushes, and the bedchambers sport floor furs, window hangings to keep out cold breezes, and curtained and canopied beds.

Service at the Holdfast is attentive, with warming pans placed in the beds on cold nights, a nightkiss drink at bedside without charge, plentiful wash water and towels, warming robes for guests, and generous, filling food. A stay at the Holdfast is an experience not to be missed. Many merchants specially arrange their travels so they can stop here and relax.

Tosti’s Tower

The hamlet of Tosti’s Tower lies at the northern end of the Barony of Starnaer, midway between the Sword Hills and the Misty Forest, along the banks of Shimmerstar Stream, which winds north a mile or so to a confluence with the River Delimbyr.

Tosti’s Tower is one of several hamlets in the Barony of Shimmerstar whose inhabitants make their living through hunting and logging. Tosti’s Tower is the farthest upstream location from which one can easily float logs down the Shimmerstar Stream to the River Delimbiyr and from there down to Daggerford, making it a good location for woodsmen to bring felled tree trunks. Local law is enforced by the baron's appointed headsman, Starstrider Agrik Hartmoor.

Tosti’s Tower is notable for a simple stone tower built here in the Year of the Ominous Oracle (694 DR) by King Davyd, one of the few such towers to survive, to guard the Kingdom of Man against goblinkin raids from the High Moor. Although hardly in good repair, the three-story tower is still a suitable defensive redoubt into which the local populace can withdraw when raiders come down through the Misty Forest. The tower (and the hamlet) gets it name from a notorious bandit lord who occupied it a century ago.

The tower cellar connects to a series of limestone caverns that lie beneath Shimmerstar Vale that are said to run beneath the Misty Forest to the east. There are recurring tales that the real reason the tower was constructed was to guard against some recurring threat from below emanating from some ancient crypt in the depths, but the truth of the matter is long since forgotten.