Elminster's Ecologies Appendix II: The High Moor & The Serpent Hills (2e)

An excerpt from A Treatise on the Life of the High Moor by the druid Bara:

The environment includes such things as terrain, flora, fauna, weather, and natural and arcane forces. All these elements - each aspect of the environment and each organism - form a tapestry known as the ecology. And like a tapestry of cloth, this one can suffer severe damage if a single thread is removed, no matter how ugly the thread.

This appendix includes two booklets penned by friends of Elminster of Shadowdale. Collected here are:

• a 32-page booklet containing the words of the inimitable Bara, feisty druid of the High Moor, describing the ecology of that region;
• a 32-page booklet by the Lark of Suzail that gives her descriptions of the slithering inhabitants of the Serpent Hills; and
• a brief booklet of tables to aid the Dungeon Master in determining random encounters for adventurers whose travels take them through these areas.

Those planning to explore these regions would be well advised to read the works herein to prepare themselves for the reptilian dangers of the Serpent Hills and the hazards of the High Moor - from the beasts to its protective druid herself!

Product History

Elminster's Ecologies Appendix II: The High Moor & The Serpent Hills (1995), by Tim Beach, completes the Elminster's Ecologies line with two more locales. It was published in September 1995.

Origins: Yet More Ecologies. Elminster's Ecologies Appendix II: The High Moor & The Serpent Hills (1995) is the final book in a series that began with Elminster's Ecologies (1994) and continued with ELminster's Ecologies Appendix I: The Battle of Bones & Hill of Lost Souls (1995). Like the previous Appendix, it expands the Ecologies with two 32-page books that describe the fauna, flora, and environs of two more locales in the Heartlands. It's once more written as in-character treatises by previously unknown peoples: a druid named Bara and a wizard named Lark of Suzail.

Exploring the Realms. Appendix II completes the Ecologies' march westward by describing two landscapes near the Sword Coast: the Serpent Hills and the High Moor. Of them, the Moor was quite well known because it adjoins Daggerford, the scene of the first Realms adventure, N5: "Under Illefarn" (1987), and the starting place for the first Marco Volo adventure, Departure (1994). The High Moor also encompasses Dragonspear Castle, the location of FRQ2: "Hordes of Dragonspear" (1992), and had appeared in "Horrors on the High Moor", one of the sections of PG2: Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms Campaign (1993).

Together with Elminster's Ecologies and Appendix I, Appendix II completes a tour of the countrysides of the Heartlands, from the Sword Coast to the Sea of Fallen Stars, making it a nice complement to the cities of the Heartlands described in Forgotten Realms Adventures (1989).

Monsters of Note. Most of the Ecologies focused on monsters appropriate for specific environments. The monsters of Appendix II are instead much more thematic.

The Serpent Hills feature a number of serpentine monsters, including dragons, lizard folk, nagas, yuan-ti, and ophidia. The last are a relatively unknown snake folk who first appeared in Monster Manual II (1983).

The High Moor focuses on "tribal creatures", by which it largely means humanoids such as goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, and other goblinkin.

About the Creators. By 1995, Beach was best known as the author of Red Steel (1994), though he'd also written assorted Realms books over the years. Pages from the Mages (1995), published just a few months later, would be Beach's last major work published by TSR.

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

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