Vraath Keep lies about 15 miles west ot Drellin's Ferry. The party suspects that the Red Hand has moved into this haunted keep to stage its assault on Daria.
History: As remembered by Will Hawklight, cleric of Oghma
Vraath Keep has a tragic history, as the ruins and skeletal remains attest. For centuries, trade through the Witchwood used the Dawn Way, and the soldiers stationed at Vraath Keep were the primary defenders of the region. Their presence kept the road safe for merchants to travel. A few years before the fall of Rhest, an ambitious young man named Amery Vraath inherited control of the keep. After the Rhestilor Kingdom dissolved, Amery laid claim to the entire Witchwood and sought to rid his new domain of its evil reputation.
Chief among his target was a tribe of forest giants that dwell deep in the woods. Known as the Twistusks, these forest giants generally kept to themselves but raided merchants on the Dawn Way from time to time.
The brash young lord gathered together an impressive group of mercenaries and adventurers, and early one summer day led his force against the Twistusks.The battle was furious, but in the end Amery’s men won the day and forced the Twistusks to flee into the mountains. The soldiers burned the giants’ steading to the ground and returned to Vraath, victorious.
Yet their victory was short-lived. One week later, the surviving Twistusks returned and attacked Vraath Keep during a tremendous thunderstorm. The giants bombarded the keep all night long with hurled boulders and massive poisoned arrows. When the sun rose, four of the Twistusks lay dead amid the ruined keep, but none of the keep’s soldiers or residents remained.
No one knows what happened to Amery Vraath. It is said that his tortured spirit remains to haunt the keep. Travelers say that at night, those who pass by Vraath Keep can hear his anguished cries.
Vraath Keep:
