Valley & the Iron Ring
Sarn Valley feeds the Southern Provinces and carries much of their trade. Its farms still send carts towards Sarnath, while armies fight over the crossing that connects them to the east.
A Divided Landscape
The River Globurn runs south from the Stoutspires, dividing green farmland from the pale Shivefrost Plain. To the west, orchards cover the slopes outside Sarnath and cattle graze the wet pastures of Stoutswale Moor, where farmhouses stand on raised ground between drainage ditches and reed-fringed pools. Eftwade’s fishing boats work the lakes, while grain carts leave Haywark Lees for the city under the protection of Sarnath’s patrols.
Across the Globurn, crystal dust blows north from the Screaming Wastes, scouring the open plain and wearing through clothes and exposed skin. Woolback horses carry travellers between isolated steadings, whose low buildings and windbreaks offer some shelter. Out here, the Palemen hold the forts and the roads that connect them.
To the north, Shivewall Ridge shelters wooded valleys beneath the granite crown of Erron’s Peak, with mountain streams feeding the rivers below. The Bittun guard their groves and trade in prized sperenweave, drawing merchants into country few know well. Farther west, Gloomwode’s ancient firs and yews close around the road to Ebstone, where the dead now patrol beneath the trees.
Roads Through the Valley
Soldiers search wagons at Sarnath’s Valley Gate before travellers join the roads through the farms and estates beyond. The High Road passes through Eftwade to Moorcross Fork, where army tolls and supply wagons crowd the approach to Globurn. Heavier loads travel by barge along the River Sarn towards Ebstone.
Beyond Globurn Crossing, the Woolback Road leads east towards Fellmarch. At its crossroads, other routes turn north into the Stoutspires and south towards the Screaming Wastes. Drovers and caravan guards keep to these roads: crossing the plain leaves them exposed to crystal winds and raiders, with little shelter between steadings.
The Iron Ring
Sarnath’s Quince rulers built the Iron Ring forts to control the valley’s roads, collect tolls and enforce their rule. Their garrisons protected the routes on which merchants and farmers depended, while extending Sarnath’s authority into lands that resisted it.
That chain is breaking. The Palemen have taken Shivenmolt and Fort Globurn, holding the main crossing against an army unable to dislodge them. Fort Deros stands abandoned in the mountains, and Brackendor’s defenders cannot spare men for the siege. Sarnath still patrols the farmland nearest the city, but its commanders can no longer rely on the forts beyond it.
The Closed Gates of Sarnlock
Sarnlock Fort straddles the River Sarn, where Captain Elias Dunbur has sealed the heavy gates controlling barge traffic between Ebstone and the city. Timber and stone meant for the Globurn siege sit on impounded barges as orders from Sarnath go unanswered.
Dunbur earned his men’s loyalty fighting the Goruks, but now spends hours studying weather charts, convinced that the danger he must guard against comes from the coast. Inside the fort, food is running low and soldiers wait for overdue pay, while his deputy, Field Captain Eftway, begins to question the commander he has served for fifteen years. Reopening the river means dealing with a garrison divided between loyalty to Dunbur and the needs of its own men.