Neverwinter woods is a rather unique place in the realms, and unbeknown to most, there is more than just an active volcano in its center that makes it a special and dangerous place. It is a vast, virgin alpine forest, that spans one end of the mountain chain known as the Crags and much of the land surrounding it. The majority of the Neverwinter woods covers roughly 200,000 sq miles.

The most obvious feature of the forest is the jagged peaks of the three last mountains in the Crags range. In particular, Mt Hotenow, which is a currently active volcano, which hasn’t erupted for about a millenia. There is also the Fallen Tears, and the Stargate, both unique in being sacred and holy places to both Eldath and Selune. The last two were actually created by Mt Hotenow, the last time it did erupt, blowing a massive chunk of rock out of it’s western face, which traveled over 30 miles, before bouncing and crashing to a stop. The path of its bounces cleared a long strip of forest 5 miles long, and created the Fallen Tears, a straight line string of small lakes leading away from the mountain and ending in the missing piece of rock. Each of the lakes are smaller than the last till the last which surrounds the base of the Stargate, the remains of the projectile, and all have glassy bottoms, as a result of the fusion caused in the sandy soil by the heat of their creator. This means that they give an almost perfect reflection of the sky above, and it is said that one can see the future in them if they look hard enough. The Stargate sits at the far side of the last Tear, as a massive wall of perfectly smooth, concave obsidian, that stands about 60 feet high. At night it’s shinny inside surface reflects the waters reflection of the sky, giving the disorienting feeling that the world is tilted up. On the nights of the full moon, a gate to the faerie realm is created for about one hour about the Tears surface, where the refracted moonlight is focused. It is also said that the Stargate may be an active gate to other places, possibly even the fabled Evermeet, if one can discover the triggers.

The Neverwinter woods is a very important place for the clergies of Eldath, Kossuth, Istishia, Auril, and now Bayemirr, since it is where there is an elemental nexus in the ethereal, between fire and water. With the active volcano, and an abundance of water caches from melted snow, excessive rainfall, and several underground and above ground streams, the elements are frequently clashing. The priests and druids of Eldath are on good terms with the priests of Istishia but do not share their hatred of the fiery ones. And in turn, the Cultists of Bayemirr, a little know cult from far south, that worships the Sultan of the Efreeti, fiercely defend their volcano and occasionally work with the clergy of Kossuth, but are indifferent to the water priests. As for Auril, she has a secret agenda to see the volcano die and cease to keep the surrounding land from freezing. None of the other groups are even presently aware of Aurils agents being present in the area however.

It is a stuggle of the elements, with the clergy of Kossuth trying to wear away the fabric between the prime material and the elemental plane of water, which would result in a hole in the fabric of the universe leaking fire matter and beings into the realms, which may already be happening, and the eruption of Mt Hotenow. The Clergy of Auril is currently seeking to team up which the priests of Istishia in their struggle against the fire cults, but whether they seek to betray the water priests afterward is a matter of speculation that the priests of Istishia will have to consider.

Each of the Fallen Tears is the sacred grove of an Eldath Druid, except the first largest one, which is about a mile across, after centuries of erosion, and houses an underwater temple of Istishia in it’s depths. There are many other druids tending to the Neverwinter woods, mainly Eldath druids, but there is also some groves and shrines to Silvanus, Rillifane Rallathil, Meilikki, Lurue, Baervan Wildwanderer, Emmantiensien, and several other local or obscure powers. In fact, the Grand druid of Neverwinter Woods is a druid of Silvanus. No one other than the druids themselves know how many druids tend to Neverwinter wood, but there would be at a minimum 30 druids, certainly a force to be considered, and along with the faerie folk, and the treants of the forest, they are one of the main reasons why the Neverwinter woods is still relatively untouched by civilisation.

Beneath the beautiful Canadian like surface, lies an extensive cavern system known as the Eighty Mile Caves, which have formed over the past millennia’s as an unusual combination of limestone water caves and volcanic chutes and fissures. Beneath the volcano itself are the lava caves, about 5 sq miles of tunnels and caverns filled with lakes and rivers of lava, and the Heartstone cavern.

On the eastern edge of the Neverwinter Woods, a days ride west of Longsaddle, stands The Tower of Twilight. This lone tower rises from an island in a small lake that drains into the woods to the west, and is the abode of Malchor Harpell and his apprentices and companions (Aflame and Nanitha). Its defenses are unknown. Aerial steeds are known to be able to land in or on the Tower itself.

Connect up with the endless caverns of the High Forest and Undermountain.

Kata Kome lies beneath the neverwinter woods. The Volcano in the center of the woods is currently inhabited by a fire type cult, who worship the god Bayemirr, the sultan of the efreeti, and an organisation of fire elementalist mages called the Fire Brands, who are allied with the cult. They both live in mutual benefit within the confines of the volcano where the exceptionally strong ties to the fire elemental plane has worn the fabric of existance thin. Both groups do their activities or research there to great effect, especially summoning of fire elemental creatures.

In the Volcano and the surrounding peaks live several red dragons, one being a very old dragon, the other 2 being younger dragons, and a tribe of fire giants also inhabit the area. The cult in on good terms with all of these and they provide mutual services for each each.

As one goes deeper down inside the volcano, they reach the lava caves. These caves consist of many interconnected caverns with rivers and lakes of lava housed in them all. Many creatures live in these caves, most notables, a large tribe of Fire Newts and Giant Striders control to top level of lava caves, before the chute that goes straight up the center of the volcano to connect with the cult complex. In that top level, in the center cave, is the home of the heartstone. The heartstone is a naturally growing gem, that is fed by the massive elemental and magic energy that convirges right at that point within any volcano. They appear as a fire agate, but with a visible fire burning inside the gem. The gem is very hot to touch and is worth 1000gp per year of age to buyer aware of it's point. As the gem starts to cool however, is just reverts to being a normal fire agate, worth 10 gp/ age category. Other creatures found in the caves are fire toads and fire snakes, there is 5 fire snakes living in the heartstone room specifically. Salamanders and fire elements can be found in abundance also. Plus the occasion cult patrol looking for slaves to take back to be sacrificed, or Fire Brands doing research in the area.

Hell hounds patrol some of the upper tunnels, deliberately placed there as rear guards by the cult, and there is a vast number of other creatures, often previously unheard of(which is what the Fire Brands are studying), which inhabit the laves caves.

The lava caves are connected to the 90 miles caves which honeycomb all under neverwinter woods, becoming the 90mile caves as one moves away from the lava caves. It is somewhere in the ninety mile caves that Kata Kome is located, roughly 20 miles south of the lava caverns. The 90 mile caves have several well travelled links to the underdark, including a trade route to Mantol Derilith, as well as countless unknown ones, including the one that Drizzt used to reach the surface. The ninety mile caves are teeming with life in certain areas, almost as much as the forest above, but some areas are completely dead. The diversity of life in the caverns is up to whatever will fit in your current campaign, but there are a few things to note.

Piecers exist in vast numbers through out to caves, and are a constant threat to all other inhabitants, and are regularly cleared from areas inhabited by intellegent life forms, as they become too great a menace to ignore. The greatest predators of the 90 miles caverns however, are the Silkats, who are amoung the top of the food chain here, and though only small in number, they are feared greatest of all by the other inhabitants. The Silkats hunt everything they can kill, especially humanoids and piecers, who are their greatest threats. What makes them so dangerous is that they don't hunt for food, only sport and defense of teritory. The Silkats are a vegetarian relative of the displacer beast, but are vegetarian by choice. There is a fungus called Myotoxious Baiterii, that affects all cats in a similar way to catnip. They love to smell of it, and it affects cats in a very perculiar manner, while being deadly poisonous to most other life forms.

In cats alone, it acts as a enhancer and stimulation drug that they find extremely addictive. While it affects all cats in a similar way, the Silkats have a monopoly on it due to location and the power of the Silkats. As an immediate effect, the fungus affects the cats imagination and subconcsious area of its brain, allowing its memorys or thoughts to actually be forced into physical form in the world in a way that duplicates Shadow magic. If a cat has eaten the fungus in the past 1d4 turns, this effect duplicates a limited form of demi-shadow monsters or demi-shadow magic. If the cat has eaten the fungus in the last 2d4 hours it acts as a shadow monsters or shadow magic effect, and if it has been within 1d4 days, then the effects are purely illusionary, but of a shadowy and indistinct nature. Prolonged exposure to the fungus will actually warp the felines mind making it progressively more intellegent and eccentric over time. The Silkats are the result of generations of almost exclusive diet of the fungus. They are still very capable of eating meat safely, but rather bother, prefering instead to dine on the fungus.

The Silkats cunningly and viciously guard their makeshift fungus farms and surrounding territory from all intruders, from rats to piecers to humanoids. And while they are most frequently found within several hundred yards of their "patch", they do occasionally roam for several miles in sport like hunts, sometimes even banding up with other cats to hunt, but never letting another cat other than their mate to ever approach their patch. Even their mate will be attacked if they feed from their patch while they are not present. The silkats are very similar to Displacer beasts except they are capable of producing up to 2d4 images of themselves, which can act in a semi independant nature and will be of appropriate strength according to how recently the Silkat has fed. The Silkat is also able to produce certain spell like effects also, created by the shadow magic powers, these effects will rarely be very direct or elaborate in nature however, more likely to be of a defensive or distracting nature. The one exception to this however, is phantasmal killer, which the Silkats seem to be very adept are creating. (I don't have the stats for displacer beast currently with me but I've just describe relatively)

Silkats

Int (Very Cunning) 13-14

HD +2 Thaco -2 AC 1 worse (but get +4 when invisible)

Dmg increase die by one size #Atts up to 5 + special but rarely use all at ones, usually only using its tentacles, and sometimes also its bite, but only usually uses its claws as well if facing a larger opponent.

SA Duplicate Creation (ill/SM/D-SM, replaces displacing power) 1/3 rounds; Phantasmal Killer 3/day; Shadow magic effect (ill/SM/D-SM) 1/turn; Surprise (-4 to roll); Leap up to 30' up;

SD Invisibility at will; Regenerate 1 hp/hour when eating and resting amoung fungus patch; 120' infravision.

Sz Large (10' long, 4' at shoulder)

ML Elite 13-14/Fanatic when defending "Patch" 19

MV 18

XP scale Displacer beast, using DMG table, probably atleast 3000.

The other dominant species of the caves are the Kobolds. The vermin exist in vast numbers here in a great city called Kata Kome. This is the biggest city of Kobolds in all the realms, with no one able to do an accurate count, but at a guess, somewhere between 10000 and 50000 kobolds. It is a gender equal society, where males and females are just as capable as fighters atleast 75% of the population are capable to defend. The kobolds lack cohesion however, which is probably a good thing for the outside world. To females have teets rather than the breast of most humanoids, and give birth to litters of 4-5 every 3-5 years. Infighting, careless accidents, natural predators such as the Silkats and the Piecers, and the cruel "justice" of the Fuzz keep the population numbers from vast exposion fortunately. The city is supports itself by the vast fungus farm cultivated over the roof of the massive series of caverns housing the city, that is harvested by the Urds. This alone is not enough however, so the kobolds trade goods for food in the huge market that consists of one whole cavern, with races such as goblins, orcs, drow, duergar, and various others, including Leprecauns. The kobolds love a good laugh, though their humor is usually geared toward pain (imagine funniest home videos where the winners are always when someone gets killed violently). They greatly enjoy the Leprechauns comedy shows however, and since they only use the huge volumes of gold they mine to trade with outsiders, prefering a barter system within the city, they feed the Leprechauns love of gold inreturn for food or performances. Surface foraging is also a major source of food and supplies for the city with bands of kobolds frequently going to the surface to forage, both in the forest above, and to prey on surface villages. Wealth in coins have little value to the kobolds, though they still take what to find to trade, but a valuable prize is a cow, or preferablely a horse, which is considered a delicacy in Kata Kome, and any horse caught will be eaten with a couple of days.

Cohesion is a problem in Kata Kome because of the bugbears. The bugbears, while only several hundred strong, have the real power in Kata Kome, using the kobolds fear of their size to muscle their way into positions of power. They act as the law enforces of the city and tax collectors. The city is ruled by a dictator, that is a hereditry role, following a family line until the city decides to mob them and slaughter them for a change of face. The current dictator has been in for 3 generations, since the bugbears first arrived, being more secure in his position because of the bugbears enforcing hands. It is the bugbears who really rule however, using Dictator Uvaeitorak as a puppet ruler. There are several extremist groups in the city that hate the bugbears control and are constantly performing terrorist acts against them in protest and in a guerilla warfare against them. The most prominant of these groups roughly translated means "retribution of the angry claw", is a group with about 200 secret members, included both Kobolds and Urds, being led by Murray(Kobold Male T11 (Shadow Kit from CBoHum) CE), and the shamen of Gaknulak. Their recent activities include an attempted assassination of the Dictator, an ambush of a group of bugbears in the tunnels outside of town, and a plot to lure a Silkat into Kata Kome. Also they are constantly designing traps of the most viscious and evil nature. The actions of all the guerilla groups makes travelling in Kata Kome treacherous, as you never know when you'll stumble again one of thousands of waiting traps. The shaman of the bat cult are also cultivating farms of poisonous insects in vast numbers to use as a type of chemical warfare sometime in the future.

The most common weapons used in Kata Kome are blowguns, or small but dangerous crossbows, that use barbed bolts, or bolts whose heads are not properly attached, so as to remain in the wound. Barbed spears, garrottes or Gherker style knives that are a cross between a sickle and a short sword, with a bent blade with a heavy tip and the edge on the inside, called Sharls. The more elite or trained fighters of the city are trained to fight with a sharl in each hand, and who always also carry a blowgun or crossbow as well.

The Kobolds of Kata Kome also enjoy the use of a poison of their own creation. It is made from the Silkats poison, but fortunately only a small amount of fungus is needed to create a large amount. For this reason fungus hunters can get a real name for themselves for slipping quickly into Silkats patches and making off with a sack full of fungus. It is a highly specialled business (probably requiring it's own kit) that makes use of many specail tools such a foul concoction that can throw a Silkat off their scent to escape, and special tools for quickly harvesting the fungus without touching it. The poison have an onset of 2-5 rounds and causes the victim to become dizzy and disorientated. Two saves are required. If they make both the dizzy passes after 1d4 rounds, only causing a -1 to AC and Thaco during that time. If one fails, the victim gets the previous effect but are also affected as by a confusion spell for the poisons duration (3d6 rounds), during which the victim sees the world as red and shadowy and can be subject to violent halucinations. If both are failed, the effects above are suffered but the victim also suffers from intense headaches that cause 1d4 dmg each round for the duration of the poison. Pain Relieving herbs will remove 1d2 points of the headache damage each round, and Calamint properly given allows a second saving throw to shake the poison. However, tipical poison antidotes rarely have any effect on this poison.

Some NPCs of note are Hanley, Tanner, and Hollsworth, all being druids who tend to the 90 Mile Caves. They are underground druids (I can't remember their proper name) who keep the balance of the caves. They are respected by the kobolds, but also feared. Sometimes they will help kobolds in trouble, usually asking favours in return, but other times either luring the kobolds to a silkat lair, or slaying them outright. The druids avoid the silkats however, unable to befriend them, and unwilling to try and destroy the predators.

Also there is Alarnakt and Aldaryn, the two leading Bugbear generals, who council the Dictator and pull his strings.

Orobulak, Niin, Narphinak, Daephinak, and Murray, who are the kobold leaders of the extremest groups, except Niin who is an Urd.

Gormorak, Corhadak, and Balsourvin and the high shamen of each major religion within the city, the cult of the bat, Kurtlmak and Gaknulak. Gormorak, high shaman of the cult of the bat is an Urd.

Uvaeitorak is the current Dictator of the city, and is a weak and snivling Kobold who calls on the bug bears for every problem or issue. Which is exactly how they want it.