Shadowfell Road

The Shadowfell Road was a disorienting route that connected the city of Evernight to the nation of Thay through the Shadowfell. It was discovered and used in the 15^th century DR by agents of Thay loyal to Valindra Shadowmantle and Szass Tam to further their clandestine schemes in the Sword Coast North.^[1][2][3]

Description[]

Travel along the Shadowfell Road was grueling and filled with horrors,^[4] but thanks to the space-warping properties of the Shadowfell, it was a quick but complex route across Faerûn.^[1] The magic of the route was such that the "road" only really existed if approached and followed precisely,^[2] making it easy to get lost without following a Thayan caravan.^[5] The route's true secrets were known only to a few.^[1]

Some stretches of the road were treacherous, following mountain ledges, crossing rickety wooden bridges, or passing through haunted terrain. Certain parts were particularly difficult to navigate with carts, if not impossible.^[5]

Geography[]

Unlike a mundane trail, the Shadowfell Road comprised many disconnected paths—sperated by many miles if not across planes—that were linked by subtle teleportation effects that had to be activated by following the route precisely.^[1][5] Efforts to take shortcuts or to join the path midway, or any failure to take the correct turn or to go through a specific archway or cave would mean backtracking to fix the mistake.^[1]

The route began in the Shadowfell city of Evernight. It exited the city via the southwestern gate before turning east through the Burning Woods,^[5] where extreme heat, pervasive smoke, piles of ash, and raining fire were potentially fatal obstacles.^[1] The trail passed nearby to where the Dread Ring was located on the Material Plane, which connected to the Shadowfell Road via a portal (although the Dread Ring itself was not technically on the Road).^[5][6] The route then proceeded into the darker and more confusing depths of the Shadowfell for a few hours before arriving at its first teleportation point, which led to the haunted labyrinth known as Endless Alleys. The Alleys were not navigable by cart, and so the Thayans were known to leave carts at both this entrance and the exit further along the route (sometimes defended by their undead minions).^[5]

As the Shadowfell Road continued, it jumped back-and-forth between different places both within the Shadowfell and across the Material Plane. It ran through a wide array of regions and landscapes, including graveyards, mountains, ruins, swamps, and villages (some abandoned and others populated). One stretch bounced through secluded passes, vales, and ledges in the mountain ranges of central Faerûn before reentering the Shadowfell in a cave. Some of the locations through which the Road passed on Toril were not physically located between its starting point near Neverwinter and its endpoint in Thay.^[5]

The Road eventually terminated in the town of Veil in western Thay, a village split by a permanent rift between the planes that left half of it inside the Shadowfell.^[3][4] However, the Thayans who used the route would proceed through Veil and along a winding trail on the Material Plane that led to Surcross, their final destination. This path was well defended: it was trapped with concealed necromantic glyphs that psychically assaulted any living creature that passed over them, and the road was lined with impaled corpses that would rise to attack Thay's enemies.^[7]

History[]

The Thayans gained control over the Shadowfell Road sometime shortly before 1479 DR. This entailed not only discovering the very precise series of twists and turns required to traverse the whole route,^[1] but also subjugating the various peoples and monsters along the route who would threaten their caravans^[5] and bribing the ghouls and vampires of Evernight with food (in the form of both living and deceased humanoids) for access to the route's western end.^[2] They used the Road to move supplies and troops to and from the Dread Ring and Surcross, and to move bodies to the Dread Ring from Neverwinter's Neverdeath graveyard^[3][6] (which was linked to Evernight via a shadow crossing).^[8]

As a military supply route, the Shadowfell Road became a major point of tension between Thay and Netheril,^[1] and as the Shadovar–Thay War intensified, the Netherese sent their flying fortress-city Kolthunral to attack Surcross and deny the Thayans access to the Road.^[9][10] However, they were unable to do so decisively as of 1479 DR because the Shadow Veil in Veil disrupted their fortress's meteor tubes, which worked by routing projectiles through the Shadowfell to generate momentum.^[10] Meanwhile in Evernight, the two sides were forced by the ruling ghouls to keep their war out of sight,^[2] which the Thayans were content to do as long as they continued to receive supplies along the Shadowfell Road.^[11]

Notable Locations[]

• Evernight, the western terminus of the Road.^[5]
• Endless Alleys, a haunted labyrinth of alleyways and rooftops.^[5]
• Still Waters, an inhabited but intensely haunted swamp.^[5]
• The Obsidian Ziggurat, a looming pyramid amid an abandoned village.^[12]
• Village of the Mad Druid, a town where all of the people pretended to be undead.^[12]
• Veil, the eastern terminus of the Road, from which it was a short journey to Surcross.^[4]

Inhabitants[]

Unless accompanying a Thayan caravan or otherwise travelling in large numbers, monsters and factions along the Shadowfell Road were liable to attack any travelers. The Thayans themselves were a threat, as were their Netherese rivals for control of the Road. In addition, dark ones, nightmares, shadows, and undead monsters were potential threats, as were bandits and gangs of lost wanderers.^[5] Travelers near Evernight might be attacked and robbed by the Glumguts (a clan of dark creepers in service to the Netherese) who lurked along the Road,^[8] or by the fiery undead and animate ash trees of the Burning Woods.^[1][13] Meanwhile, travelers approaching Veil had to contend with the Thayan garrison who defended the Shadow Veil, which included both living and undead soldiers in fortified bunkers equipped with arcane siege engines.^[3]

Some of the villages through which the Road passed were populated with shadowborn inhabitants who simply wished for travelers to leave them alone, while other sites were abandoned and haunted by incorporeal spirits.^[5][12]

Appendix[]

References[]