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| Great Hall of the White Wolf |
The palisade-circled city that surrounds the mead halls overlooks a curious feature of the land. There was once a lake, with a number of streams and a single river (the Moonharp lake, fed by the Shining River) that ran down into the Great Owl Forest. Many, many years ago there was a fight in this are between Helgor and the Storm Lady, Othero. In the battle, Othero fired her bow, Icefinger, three times at Helgor. All three times, Helgor deftly dodged the frozen missiles fired by the Storm Lady. But all three of them fell into the Moonharp Lake. The lake itself was instantly frozen by the first, and the ice made thicker and deeper with the two successive shots. To this day it stands frozen solid, even in the bright sun of the short, but warm, northern summer.
In the middle of the Ice Lake, which itself is 5 miles across, there stands a rough concentric wall and tower, both made of ice. These have been constructed by the surviving members of a tribe of Fish Men (Ichor Lang) that lived in the lake at one time. There is a rough truce between the Fish Men and the men of Hearth Home, but that truce does not extend to travelers, or others on the eastern shores of the lake. The culture and practices of the Fish Men has been described as "vile and disgusting - cursed by the gods" by some skalds and rangers that have encountered them.
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| Ice Castle of the Ichor Lang (Fish Men) |
The Shining River has dried up, for the most part, but the lands in and around it are a sort of marshy territory. The amount of moisture, and free standing water, in the marsh varies widely during the year, and it serves as a hunting ground for some of the far-ranging Fish Men, as well as other beings that live there, and even more that wander up in search of prey, out of the Great Owl Forest.
South of the steading, almost on the border of the Great Owl Forest, stands a curious tower, nicknamed by wanderers from Hearth Home as the "tower of the world's ending". It is not known where this nickname comes from, but it could be that the rolling hills that the Hearth Home is part of, finally flatten out, and give way to the very dense Great Owl Forest, and the lands of the tower are at the point where they meet. Or it could have to do with the sorcerer Belue Gorm who built the tower. Belue Gorm was obsessed with the long forgotten (by sane men) elder beings that the Old Ones worshiped, especially the Lord of Fire. The sorcerer felt that the world, since the Old Ones had departed, had fallen into corruption and misuse, and that it was the duty of those who remembered the elder beings from the beginning of time (and before) should seek to recall them to this domain. In order to do that, at least with the Lord of Fire, Belue Gorm was seeking about a way to bring about the end of most of life within the Valley (and else where) by means of magical fire. How far he got in his studies, and how successful he might have been, it will never be known, for a war party of Elfin warriors came and laid waste to the tower, and threw down the dead body of Belue Gorm. It is rumored that the White Wolf was asked by the Fey war party for assistance, and refused. This story is used to explain the curious rift between the men of Hearth Home and any and all representatives of the Seely court.
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| Tower of Belue Gorm |
In spite of what the Elfin warriors wrought against Belue Gorm, the "tower of the world's ending" still stands, and the dungeons underneath it are unplumbed to this day.
During the Week of Adventure Locations, the writeup of The Glade of Time was originally part of this article on Hearth Home. This was location 4.
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