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Originally posted by Ergdusch

It's in DUNGEON (not Dragon) issue #18 from 1989. Markusthay was reffering to a mini adventure in that old issue called 'Ironguard'. Its about an old abandoned wizards dungeon though I personally doubt that this place Ed discribed therein is what he had in mind as the Forgotten Keep.

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Originally posted by Asgetrion
Also, IIRC Ed had nothing to do with Forgotten Keep, which was developed by one of the TSR designers.

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Helloa agin, all.
This time I speak unto Marusktay, re. matters cartographic and Cormyrean:
Worg Pass is indeed the way through the Stormhorns via High Horn, and the High Heath is the region around Huthduth. The "unreliable pass" is a climb for much of its way, passable only by skilled climbers, not even by pack mules (the origin of the name "Mule Ears" being where the mules laid their ears flat and refused to proceed; a very clever naming on Troy Denning's part). Again, you have the location right.
However, the Forgotten Keep is NOT Ironguard. Ironguard is a tomb complex with almost nothing aboveground to gain any sort of name. The "Forgotten Keep" is a ruined shell of a long-abandoned (except by monsters, heh-heh) castle from the days when Cormyr's rule in the northern lands was tenuous, at best.
As for getting your hands on Ed's original Cormyr map: you and me both! It's somewhere in some of the many boxes in Ed's basement, from his long-ago, exhausting move (one man, a rented cube van, some 40,000 books plus comics plus papers, a bent axle on the van from all the weight of said cargo . . . then Ed collapsed :} ).
And as for the praise for your maps: merely credit where 'tis due, Ed says. You do great work, and good service unto us all (Realms scribes).
love,
THO

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Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hi again, everyone.
Markustay, the Forgotten Keep and Ironguard ARE very close to each other, but there’s a good quarter-day of hard travel in between them, unless you know PRECISELY the best route, because there are so many of the trademark knife-edged ridges-with-breakneck-ravines between, separating the two. In other words, to travel horizontally a quite short distance, you have to travel a long way up and down (in many stages, all of them uncomfortable climbing or slithering/falling).

So saith Ed. The Great God Santa Claus of the Realms . . .
(Oops, I blaspheme again. Whip me, someone. Please?)
love to all,
THO

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Originally posted by Afetbinttuzani

Thanks for that, Markustay.

Since Ed has left it open to development, here�s my IMC version of the Forgotten Keep. Hopefully it will provide a starting point for others to work with. I haven�t developed any diagrams yet.

The Forgotten Keep is a partially ruined and long abandoned castle located around 35 miles, as the crow flies, northeast of Arabel, in Cormyr. The Keep stands in the southern foot hills of the Storm Horns at the edge of a now barren plateau overlooking the Tempest Valley, a traversable, though difficult, pass from the Helmlands through the Storm Horns to the eastern edge of the Farsea Marshes.

The Forgotten Keep is built at the top of a rocky outcrop and consists of an irregularly shaped (following the contours of the outcrop) walled enclosure dominated at its highest point by a square, three story tower. The Keep has a massive subterranean cistern, several underground levels (some of which are collapsed) connected to a natural cave system. The western two thirds of the Keep, comprised of the tower, several lower buildings, the gatehouse and a number of wall segments, is still largely intact, thanks to the Keep's superior stonework. The tower and the walls, however, appear to have been blasted in several places by dragon fire and acid. Curiously, one of the lower buildings and what appears to have been planned as a courtyard pond area are incomplete. Moss/covered piles of quarried and shaped stone lay ready nearby, giving the impression that construction was abruptly halted. The eastern third of the Keep lays in ruins. The buildings and walls in this area appear to have been literally shaken apart not long ago. Given the damage�s recent and oddly localized nature, it likely occurred during the Time of Troubles. In any case, this destroyed section is now an area of dead magic.

The Keep's original purpose and history are not known with certainty, but it's construction and condition offer some clues.

The Keep's pyramid-topped battlements, its intricate stonework�using little or no mortar�, its horseshoe arches and its massive subterranean cistern, complete with a spiral gallery to the bottom, are characteristics of the architecture of the post-Netheril survivor states of Anauria, Asram and Hlondeth (-339 to 329 DR), whose cities were swallowed by the southward expansion of the Anauroch. The builders may have crossed the Storm Horns in search of new lands to settle as they escaped from conflicts between the survivor states and the advancing sands of the Anauroch.

It seems unlikely that the black dragon Thauglor would have permitted the construction of a keep here while the land between the Storm Horns and the Dragonmere was still his domain; although it is possible that the Keep was built during one of the black dragon's multi-year "naps". A sudden waking of the dragon would account for the unfinished building and the Keep's dragon-fire scars. It is also possible, however, that the Keep was built after -205 DR when Iliphar Nelnueve won the Forest Kingdom for the elves by defeating Thauglor. While the Keep's builders would likely have heard of the dragons' defeat, they might not have known that Thauglor was still alive, or that he had explicitly agreed to cede the Forest Kingdom only to the elves. For their part, the elves would likely have objected to the human presence only if it had extended south of the Stonecliff into the forests. If Thauglor had reemerged to discover a non-elven keep under construction near the Storm Horns, he would have been within his right attack it.

Speculation aside, the earliest known records indicate that when Cormyr was established by the Orbaskyrs in 26 DR, the Keep was already long abandoned. In the early days of the Orbaskyr kingdom, the Keep was used as a Purple Dragon border outpost. The sagging and collapsed roof beams of the tower and courtyard buildings date from this time.

Afet

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Originally posted by Asgetrion
All of your ideas are good and believable. :)

You also have the possibility of Forgotten Keep having been a Netherese "oupost" or "border fort" (similar to Blister, in the Thunder Peaks, or the one in the Stonelands -- see Dungeon #88 for details on both) which was abandoded.

Another option is to use the short-lived kingdom of Orva (which was situated where the Vast Swamp lies today), but it is a bit far-fetched.

I would personally go with a small Netherese keep that is connected to the "portal network" which is detailed in Dungeon #88 (in the adventure 'Door to Everywhere'). That would be an easy feat to lure PCs into further adventures (some of the them half-across the world). I would probably use a hook with increased orc raids north of Arabel, and worried officials about the "next Doom come to visit Cormyr". :)

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Originally posted by Afetbinttuzani

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Originally posted by Asgetrion
All of your ideas are good and believable. :)

You also have the possibility of Forgotten Keep having been a Netherese "oupost" or "border fort" (similar to Blister, in the Thunder Peaks, or the one in the Stonelands -- see Dungeon #88 for details on both) which was abandoded.

Another option is to use the short-lived kingdom of Orva (which was situated where the Vast Swamp lies today), but it is a bit far-fetched.

I would personally go with a small Netherese keep that is connected to the "portal network" which is detailed in Dungeon #88 (in the adventure 'Door to Everywhere'). That would be an easy feat to lure PCs into further adventures (some of the them half-across the world). I would probably use a hook with increased orc raids north of Arabel, and worried officials about the "next Doom come to visit Cormyr". :)

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The Dungeon article sounds interesting but, unfortunately, I have no access to back issues of Dungeon. But, coincidentally, I was in fact planning to put a portal in the dungeons of the Forgotten Keep as a part of a portal network set up by the Wizard Ashemmi of Darkhold to allow her agent, Asbarode, to move quickly about the Heartland. The PCs will discover that the Forgotten Keep is to be used as a staging point in a plan to destabilize Arabel.
Cheers,
Afet

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