Upper Nettle

Upper Nettle is 6 miles/8 km downstream from Nettle, but it is no village as such. The creek cuts a gorge through the landscape, and Upper Nettle consists of six, spread-out cattle ranches above the gorge. A point there where the trail from Nettle turns into a switchback cutting up the sides of the gorge and heading to the ranches. That's the end of the trail for all intents and purposes. Beyond there is just the Nettle Creek and swamp and quicksand to both sides of it.

However, there is more than meets the eye there. Shortly after the Time of Troubles, the archmage Rhauntides in Highmoon, in Deepingdale, sent two of his students out on a mission to test the magic they had learned, with the assignment that they help the Freedom Fighters of Daggerdale. Using powerful scrolls given them by Rhauntides, the students created the swamp and quicksand, which are nothing more than powerful illusions.

Before Randal Morn's reconquest of Dagger Falls, when the Zhentarim were a stronger power in Daggerdale, escape routes often were the only thing coming between the necks of Randal's men and a Zhent noose. One of the key escape routes in this area is a well-maintained trail through the illusionary swamp and quicksand.

Instead of swamp, the true landscape is a beautiful, rocky stream bed through which Nettle Creek flows rapidly downstream into the confluence with the Dagger River. After one penetrates the first 50 yards/45 m of the illusion, it simply vanishes, and it's easy then to follow Nettle Creek all the way up to the confluence with the Dagger River, a mile/1,5 km or so west of the Serpentsbridge.

The illusion, however, is both tricky and dangerous. If one group follows the hidden trail into the illusion, a pursuing group will believe it sees the first group sink into quicksand, and it also will believe it hears the rapidly sinking group members' desperate cries for help. No one can safely enter the illusion without successfully disbelieving it.

Disbelief is no problem when a party has been informed in advance that the terrain is illusory. However, anyone who enters the swamp believing it to be real has a percentage chance as high as his or her experience level of actually making it through. Dual- and multi-class characters have a percentage chance as high as their highest level plus one. Those who fail are convinced they are sinking in quicksand and do indeed die.

Those who penetrate the first 50 yards/45 m will see 1d4+4 rotting corpses and skeletons of Zhentish soldiers who failed to penetrate the illusion. True Seeing and similar spells that invalidate illusions are effective against the swamp illusion, but those with permanent durations, such as Dispel Illusion, deactivate the illusion only for 1d10+10 turns. To date, it has not occurred to the Zhentish that the terrain here is illusory, and they have made no attempt to defeat or disbelieve in the illusion.

Map of Upper Nettle

1 - Dabbert Harny's Ranch. Breeder of draught horses, donkeys and mules. Harny (hm lvl 0, AL: NG) inherited the ranch from his father and has operated it since that time. He can recall a time before Nettle Creek began backing up, creating the swamp in the gorge below.

2 - Rulth Tardell's Ranch. Breeder of fine riding and war horses. Tardell (hm, lvl 0, AL: NG) is a friend of Randal Morn and was an important purveyor of horses to the Freedom Fighters during the Zhent occupation. When Zhentish troops came to Upper Nettle, they used to commandeer Tardell's finest steeds, paying only a fraction of their true price, until Morn brought a visiting mage to Upper Nettle who created a two-way teleportation door into the illusionary swamp in the gorge below, where Tardell hid his best stock until after the Zhentish troops had left town. Tardell is one of only two ranchers in Upper Nettle who know the swamp is an illusion.

3 - Kevett Tuhrn's Ranch. Breeder of draught and riding horses. Tuhrn (hm, Fighter lvl 2, AL: LG), aged 60, is a former Freedom Fighter in retirement, who received the abandoned ranch as a grant from Randal Morn in the Year of the Gauntlet (1369 DR). From his days as a Freedom Fighter, he knows that the swamp in the gorge is an illusion, having used it himself as an escape route.

4. Tarath Dulwin's Ranch. Breeder of quality riding and draught horses. Dulwin (hm, lvl 0, AL: NE) always has earned whatever money he could, and so, he sold horses during the time of occupation to both Zhentish procurers and the Freedom Fighters. He viewed the Zhentish as a band of skinflint horse thieves who paid only a part of a horse's value and the Freedom Fighters as a rag tag band of hopeless romantics he couldn't afford to pay more than they did. He viewed himself as the underprivileged horse breeder who never could get a fair price, but had to sell his horses for what he could get, because there were no other customers. Although the other ranchers are not unfriendly to him, they also do not particularly like him but simply get along with him, because Dulwin appears to be there to stay. Dulwin noted with great and skeptical interest how quickly the swamp developed in the gorge below, and it always has been his theory that it was a product of Zhentarim magic intended to trap fleeing Freedom Fighters. He also noted how the Zhentish horse buyers always ended up with Tardell's poorer stock and the Freedom Fighters with his better horses. He doesn't know how that succeeded, but he takes glee in his certainty that Tardell earned no more than he did, regardless of who got the horses in the end. Dulwin also has other conspiracy theories he gladly will reveal to anyone with an open or captive ear.

5 -Dulb Winton's Ranch. This ranch, abandoned for years, was obtained by Winton (hm lvl 0, AL: LE), an immigrant from Ashabenford in Mistledale, under a grant from Randal Morn in the Year of the Gauntlet (1369 DR). Morn wanted very much for Winton to settle in Daggerdale, because Winton is a contract breeder of the famous new Sembian Stoalzaner horses, a prize race that is much desired by adventurers and patrol riders. The Stoalzaner are a cross-breed of purebred riding and warhorse races that have the best qualities of both. At present, Winton also has an exclusive contract with Lord Morn to sell all of his Stoalzaner to the Freedom Fighters. The Stoalzaner are faster than war horses and tougher than riding horses, with an outstanding degree of endurance. They can ride harder and longer than other breeds without rest. The Stoalzaner, like mules, are sterile. Only the Moondale Equine Breeders Society of Ordulin knows how to breed this race. What Randal Morn does not know is that Moondale Equine is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Iron Throne, and that Winton is a valuable Throne agent whose main task is to use his good relationship with Lord Morn to learn all that he can which might be of value to the Throne in the future. At time, the Throne also may use Winton to plant ideas in Morn's thoughts.

6 - Kilby Werret's Ranch. Breeder of beef cattle and draught horses. Werret (hm lvl 0, AL: LN) has lived all of his life in Upper Nettle. He well may have some thoughts on the manner in which Nettle Creek suddenly backed up and produced a swamp, but if so, he keeps his opinions on this issue, like all of his other opinions, to himself.