Edelweiss
Once simply the High Valleys, now named for the flower that covers them: lush valleys, alpine forest and snow-capped peaks, reachable by road, funicular or airship. The Wichtel make watches, jewellery and beer here, and throw a festival at the slightest provocation.
The Land
The gentle face of the Rimeward, and the only part of it most visitors ever see. The valleys are green and warm through summer, the chalets are genuinely comfortable, and the region has organised itself around being pleasant to arrive in — which, for a province otherwise defined by hostile altitude, is a considerable feat of will.
Its southern edge runs into the Taiga, which is how the Rimeward's goods leave. East lies the Misted Fjord; north, the Crowns. Its western drainage runs off the mountains and becomes the Nightmarsh, a fact the Wichtel rarely think about and the Loa think about constantly.
The Wichtel
Consummate craftsmen at the small scale — watchmaking, jewellery, fine metalwork, anything that rewards patience and a steady hand. They are also the most sociable Dwarves by a wide margin, and Edelweiss keeps so many festival days that visitors routinely assume they have arrived during an unusual week. They have not.
The breweries and pubs here are the best in the realm, and the Wichtel will tell you so at length while pouring.
Encounters
Roll d100. The gentle face of the Rimeward, which means most rolls produce hospitality and the rest produce altitude. CR is scaled to Faerie size — see Challenge by Size.
| d100 | Encounter | CR |
|---|---|---|
| 01–10 | 1d6 Wichtel bound for a festival you have not heard of, who will not take no | — |
| 11–18 | 2d6 honeybees working the edelweiss meadows in high summer | 1 |
| 19–25 | 1 tour party off the funicular, 2d6 strong, thoroughly lost and cheerful about it | — |
| 26–31 | 1d4 crickets singing from a chalet stall, bred for tone | ¼ |
| 32–37 | 1d3 grasshoppers ridden by children who are well above where they should be | 1 |
| 38–43 | 2d4 bumblebees on the flower slopes — placid, tireless, warm to sit on | 2 |
| 44–49 | 1d6 ladybird beetles in a hillside aphid pasture, and a shouting drover | 1 |
| 50–55 | 1d2 paper wasps scouting a nest site directly above a chalet village | 2 |
| 56–61 | 1d2 butterflies, escaped show mounts, ruinously expensive and utterly lost | 1 |
| 62–67 | avalanche warning: the valley shuts, and 1d6 travellers are already above the line | — |
| 68–73 | 1d4 hornets at a brewery spill, and nobody willing to be the one who deals with it | 4 |
| 74–78 | 1 mantis nymph in the long valley grass — already lethal, not yet arrogant | 4 |
| 79–83 | 1 newt in a spring pool, slow, unbothered, poisonous to the touch | 5 |
| 84–88 | 1d2 mice out of a chalet stable, unbroken and unimpressed | 6 |
| 89–92 | 1d2 voles raiding a granary in plain daylight | 6 |
| 93–95 | 1 songbird over the meadow, and no cover between here and the treeline | 11 |
| 96–97 | 1 jay at a picnic, calling in a voice one of the party loves | 13 |
| 98–99 | 1 stoat into a chalet's understory, killing past hunger | 15 |
| 00 | 1 fox through the valley at dusk — cunning enough to be a person, hungry enough not to bother | 24 |