| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 15 Aug 2022 : 22:26:06
I find myself suddenly interested in the Cloak Wood, due in no small part to the fact my dwarf fighter is currently standing just outside it.
I just read the brief blurbs in the OGB, the 2E FRCS boxed set, the 3E FRCS book, and the 4E FRCG... Has anything more been written about this place? All of these blurbs, together, take less than half a page. |
| 14 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| TBeholder |
Posted - 21 Aug 2022 : 13:38:38
quote:
from Lands of Intrigue:
The Snakewood was once part of Shantel Othreier, which once spread over the Green Fields north of Amn. Its remnants are the Snakewood, the Wood of Sharp Teeth, and the Cloak Wood. The rivers and the main lake north of the Small Teeth kept Keltormir and Shantel Othreier separate timberlands.
- Elminster
Cape Raeth post (quoted by AJA).
That answer continues, moving to lore on the nearby islands in the next thread. |
| Eldacar |
Posted - 19 Aug 2022 : 15:14:06
quote:
Originally posted by The Masked Mage
There is VERY little about the wood in lore. Even Volo's guide didn't mention it. This is nice because you can do pretty much anything.
If drawing further on BG1, then in addition to what you've noted here, there is also the Heroes of Baldur's Gate adventure available on the DM's Guild. It has a chapter of the adventure dedicated to the Cloakwood, representing it as it was a while after the events of BG1.
I'll just give the opening preamble to the chapter:
"The Cloakwood is an ancient forest that some think used to be a part of the High Forest. It consists primarily of beech, birch, elm, and oak trees. Many streams run through the forest from the rugged east to the coastal west, emptying into the Trackless Sea.
The forest is a dangerous place, and only the most foolhardy travelers attempt to penetrate its depths. Many different monstrous spiders call the forest home. Wyverns roost in the rugged eastern end of the forest. Stirges are common throughout. One of the largest wolfwere packs in Faerun calls the Cloakwood home.
An infestation of goblinoid tasloi has taken root here in the past few decades. The creatures were introduced by a merchant ship that went to ground close to Cloakwood three decades ago. A tribe of tasloi were kept on the ship as a cargo of slaves, and they escaped into the forest. They have multiplied quickly, and they've exterminated the other goblinoid races that once flourished in the Cloakwood."
In the adventure, besides the monsters noted it also has random encounters for ankhegs, gibberlings, hamadryads, and a low chance of a wyvern. |
| ElfBane |
Posted - 18 Aug 2022 : 22:38:13
quote:
Originally posted by The Masked Mage
There is VERY little about the wood in lore. Even Volo's guide didn't mention it. This is nice because you can do pretty much anything.
However, as mentioned before, it was a key location in the first Baldur's gate video game - specifically an old dwarven mine within it. Since your character is a dwarf, maybe there could be a connection there. It was created by the dwarves of Clan Orothiar and it flooded in 1243 DR. Later the Iron Throne opened the mine with dwarf slaves and in 1368 the Baalspawn (Abdel Adrian or your main character) defeats the Iron Throne by re-flooding the mine.
We also know the wood has druids, and they are the more militant type, and the Shadow Druids. The games kind of mess up these druids as the apparently decide to abandon the cloak wood and move south with Badlur's Gate II. Whatever :P Add to this the monstrous flora and fauna, including hangman trees etc. and giant spiders etc. and its a dangerous place.
Anyhow, hope that helps.
AND the Cloakwood (in the BG1 game) has a Wyvern lair! |
| The Masked Mage |
Posted - 18 Aug 2022 : 19:43:32
There is VERY little about the wood in lore. Even Volo's guide didn't mention it. This is nice because you can do pretty much anything.
However, as mentioned before, it was a key location in the first Baldur's gate video game - specifically an old dwarven mine within it. Since your character is a dwarf, maybe there could be a connection there. It was created by the dwarves of Clan Orothiar and it flooded in 1243 DR. Later the Iron Throne opened the mine with dwarf slaves and in 1368 the Baalspawn (Abdel Adrian or your main character) defeats the Iron Throne by re-flooding the mine.
We also know the wood has druids, and they are the more militant type, and the Shadow Druids. The games kind of mess up these druids as the apparently decide to abandon the cloak wood and move south with Badlur's Gate II. Whatever :P Add to this the monstrous flora and fauna, including hangman trees etc. and giant spiders etc. and its a dangerous place.
Anyhow, hope that helps.
|
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 17 Aug 2022 : 22:55:36
quote:
Originally posted by AJA
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
Cloakers with a high sex drive. Hence the name of the forest.
-- George Krashos
That is a sleyvas-level joke, George. you should be ashamed. 
The 2005 Ask Ed thread had info on the islands off the coast of Candlekeep (01 and 02 Jan 2005 from my notes), and this mention of the Cloak Wood environs;
quote:
Originally posted by Ed Greenwood via THO
Raerest’s northeasternmost point is about eighteen miles from the largely-uninhabited-by-humans cliffs of the mainland that lie southwest of Cloak Wood - - though it should be noted that there are the sparsely-inhabited ruins of a number of small fishing villages south of Cloak Wood, in what the elves call Raetheless (“RAYTH-lesss”) and most humans call “Cloak Bay,” nestled between the Wood and the pointing-at-Candlekeep cape called “Cape Raeth”).
These villages have been largely abandoned because of monster raids out of the Cloak Wood and the murderous visits of pirates and smugglers over the years, though some hardy folk still cling to the most defensible huts among the ruins (digging for clams and going out in small boats with drag-nets for crab and the fish silverfin and the eel-like laethe), and that various costers and pirate conferacies repeatedly try to use the beaches and rotting wharves for shipping purposes.
There were six villages, each located at a good natural harbour. As one moves northwest up the cape and then southeast back along the north shore of the Bay, they were: Orthul’s Notch, Calyaun (“CAL-yawn”), Eldelorr (“ELL-dell-ore”), Sumbur Rock, Borlyth (“BORE-lith”), and Ausabbason (“Aw-SAW-bass-on”). The Notch occupies the little indentation about a third of the way along the inside shore of the cape. Calyaun stands at the inside base of the cape (where the shore turns from running northwest to north-northeast). Eldelorr was located at the northwesternmost end of the Bay (where the Cloak Wood, as drawn on the map, almost touches the blue of the seawater). Large and mainly overgrown Sumbur Rock stands on the north shore of the bay just west of the small point known as the Fang. Monster-haunted Borlyth (which had a shipyard, and the most sheltered anchorage in “Borlyth Bay”) is at the nothernmost end of the small bay east of the Fang, and Ausabbason (still linked to the Coast Way by a clear wagon-trail that curls southeast and then northeast around the end of Cloak Wood, to join the Way just south of midway between the Way of the Lion and Baldur’s Gate) is a small, deserted cluster of cottages just south of the nameless plateau of rock that formed the eastern side of Borlyth Bay.
All of the Raetheless settlements were clusters of simple, one-storey thick-walled stone cottages with slate roofs, bolstered with tree-planted earth berms on their windward sides, and bolstered with timbers and ship-salvage. (Although the islands of the Reach are free of shoals, the shore between Ausabbason and Candlekeep has many jagged rocks a mile or less offshore, and sandbars constantly form and re-form between them and the rocky beaches of the mainland. Known as “the Jaws,” these rocks have claimed many a vessel drive ashore in the sudden, fierce onshore storms that afflict this stretch of shoreline in fall and winter.)
Don't know if that's useful?
Good info, but I'm mostly interested in what's in the Wood itself, and its history. I'm thinking if there are portals in there, then there were once civilized folks living there to need those portals. |
| Athreeren |
Posted - 17 Aug 2022 : 21:01:58
Lands of Intrigue mentions that: "The Snakewood was once part of Shantel Othreier, which once spread over the Green Fields north of Amn. Its remnants are the Snakewood, the Wood of Sharp Teeth, and the Cloak Wood."
The original FRCS says that:
"AT A GLANCE: This wood, north of Candlekeep, is ancient and thickly overgrown with elms, beeches, felsul, and hiexel trees.
ELMINSTER'S NOTES: The Cloak Wood is an old, thickly grown forest marking the southern end of the Sword Coast.
Just south of Baldur's Gate, the Cloak wood is a perilous place, and home to quicklings, satyrs, stirges, kampfult, and other less common monsters. This high number of creatures has turned the wood into a battleground between rival races. The sages of Candlekeep have sufficient evidence to indicate at least one gate exits in the wood, but the exact numbers and/or destination of these gates is unknown. They may lead to other parts of the Realms, to an Alternate Material Plane where such creatures are common, or to the Beastlands (Happy Hunting Grounds). Few who have investigated the matter have returned to report on it."
From FRCS 3E: "Cloak Wood: South of Baldur’s Gate and north of Candlekeep, the Cloak Wood is a thickly overgrown ancient forest that looms along the shore south of the Sword Coast. Unlike the cliffs to the north, the Cloak Wood’s shorline theoretically allows a ship to moor and send a small boat to shore for water and supplies. In practice, only desperate mariners dare the wood’s nasty population of beasts, monsters, and vicious fey. The sages of Candlekeep assert that Cloak Wood contains portals to several other parts of Faerűn."
But by fourth edition: "The Cloak Wood once contained portals to several other parts of Faerűn. The sages of Candlekeep say most of those passages are now defunct."
The question of portals is also mentioned in the Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms, where the POV character encounters strange creatures in the wood that seem to have come from those portals to other worlds. Champions of Ruins mentions that the Eldreth Veluuthra is interested in the portals and tasks low ranking members to find them.
Talking about the Eldreth Veluuthra, the infamous necromancer Ysuran Auondril studied in Zarad's Clock Tower in the Cloak Wood when he was still part of this organization. Another mention of the Cloak Wood in the Dark Alliance video game series is with Felldane Manor. The Felldanes used to be a noble family that became extremely perversed and eventually devolved into a group of ghouls. The dragon Aizagora the Red Death rebuilt it as Firewine manor and used it as the base of operation of the Red Fang Marauders. She eventually destroys it out of boredom.
The 4E Player's Guide says:"Cloak Wood: The expansion of Baldur’s Gate created a tremendous demand for timber. Numerous villages and logging camps arose along the perimeter of the Cloak Wood, but recently production has come to a halt. At first, only those who ventured into the forest disappeared, but now, townsfolk are vanishing in the night to some unseen menace that most people assume lurks in the forest."
The DD5 Players Handbook mentions a community of elves in the wood.
Crucible mentions a tribe of Cloak Wood orcs joining the army of Cyric.
The Bone Bird by Jaleigh Johnson mentions the village of Lendris off the main trade road from Baldur's Gate, which is at the border of the Cloak Wood (in 1479 DR). The story mentions yet another essence of tree in the wood: the helmthorn
In Candlekeep Mysteries, both and The Book of Cylinders and The Book of Inner Alchemy are set in the Cloakwood. The former is concerned with a village of grippli living West of the wood who trades with Candlekeep, and the latter with an order of monks who live deep in the wood.
Heroes of Baldur's Gate has two chapters set in the Cloakwood, which directly reference the videogame (which itself has lots of interesting things to say, and I'll refer you to the wiki if you want to make any of it canon). The other mentions I've found are even less canon. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 17 Aug 2022 : 20:08:04
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
quote:
Originally posted by LordofBones
{joke} It's home to the largest population of cloakers in the Realms. {/joke}
Cloakers with a high sex drive. Hence the name of the forest.
-- George Krashos
The poor guy that confuses a cloaker for a cloak and decides to wear it on his backside. |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 17 Aug 2022 : 13:51:00
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
Actually, it's the only canon location that is home to kampfults in the Realms.
#realmsloreGeorgeForgot
I'm not a fan of German "battle" monsters.
-- George Krashos |
| AJA |
Posted - 16 Aug 2022 : 16:09:00
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
Cloakers with a high sex drive. Hence the name of the forest.
-- George Krashos
That is a sleyvas-level joke, George. you should be ashamed.
The 2005 Ask Ed thread had info on the islands off the coast of Candlekeep (01 and 02 Jan 2005 from my notes), and this mention of the Cloak Wood environs;
quote:
Originally posted by Ed Greenwood via THO
Raerest’s northeasternmost point is about eighteen miles from the largely-uninhabited-by-humans cliffs of the mainland that lie southwest of Cloak Wood - - though it should be noted that there are the sparsely-inhabited ruins of a number of small fishing villages south of Cloak Wood, in what the elves call Raetheless (“RAYTH-lesss”) and most humans call “Cloak Bay,” nestled between the Wood and the pointing-at-Candlekeep cape called “Cape Raeth”).
These villages have been largely abandoned because of monster raids out of the Cloak Wood and the murderous visits of pirates and smugglers over the years, though some hardy folk still cling to the most defensible huts among the ruins (digging for clams and going out in small boats with drag-nets for crab and the fish silverfin and the eel-like laethe), and that various costers and pirate conferacies repeatedly try to use the beaches and rotting wharves for shipping purposes.
There were six villages, each located at a good natural harbour. As one moves northwest up the cape and then southeast back along the north shore of the Bay, they were: Orthul’s Notch, Calyaun (“CAL-yawn”), Eldelorr (“ELL-dell-ore”), Sumbur Rock, Borlyth (“BORE-lith”), and Ausabbason (“Aw-SAW-bass-on”). The Notch occupies the little indentation about a third of the way along the inside shore of the cape. Calyaun stands at the inside base of the cape (where the shore turns from running northwest to north-northeast). Eldelorr was located at the northwesternmost end of the Bay (where the Cloak Wood, as drawn on the map, almost touches the blue of the seawater). Large and mainly overgrown Sumbur Rock stands on the north shore of the bay just west of the small point known as the Fang. Monster-haunted Borlyth (which had a shipyard, and the most sheltered anchorage in “Borlyth Bay”) is at the nothernmost end of the small bay east of the Fang, and Ausabbason (still linked to the Coast Way by a clear wagon-trail that curls southeast and then northeast around the end of Cloak Wood, to join the Way just south of midway between the Way of the Lion and Baldur’s Gate) is a small, deserted cluster of cottages just south of the nameless plateau of rock that formed the eastern side of Borlyth Bay.
All of the Raetheless settlements were clusters of simple, one-storey thick-walled stone cottages with slate roofs, bolstered with tree-planted earth berms on their windward sides, and bolstered with timbers and ship-salvage. (Although the islands of the Reach are free of shoals, the shore between Ausabbason and Candlekeep has many jagged rocks a mile or less offshore, and sandbars constantly form and re-form between them and the rocky beaches of the mainland. Known as “the Jaws,” these rocks have claimed many a vessel drive ashore in the sudden, fierce onshore storms that afflict this stretch of shoreline in fall and winter.)
Don't know if that's useful?
|
| ericlboyd |
Posted - 16 Aug 2022 : 13:56:03
Actually, it's the only canon location that is home to kampfults in the Realms.
#realmsloreGeorgeForgot |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 16 Aug 2022 : 11:10:23
quote:
Originally posted by LordofBones
{joke} It's home to the largest population of cloakers in the Realms. {/joke}
Cloakers with a high sex drive. Hence the name of the forest.
-- George Krashos |
| LordofBones |
Posted - 16 Aug 2022 : 02:20:42
{joke} It's home to the largest population of cloakers in the Realms. {/joke} |
| TheIriaeban |
Posted - 16 Aug 2022 : 00:14:53
This is what I found:
The Candlekeep Compendium IV, page 18
"But recently I befriended an oceanus dragon, Melanthorace, who nests within a sea-elf ruin beneath the bay just south of the Cloak Wood. Within her lair is an ancient portal to the Sparkling Sea of Arvandor"
So Sayeth Ed part 14,page 101
"Nor have I seen much in the sense of coal mines - other than a few appearances in dwarven holds and the mine in the Baldur's Gate game in the Cloak Wood."
Page 3 of So Sayeth Ed part 5 (several paragraphs about the area that has hints about Cloak Wood) |
| ElfBane |
Posted - 15 Aug 2022 : 22:53:04
Hmmm... well, the Cloakwood was a major quest in the BG1 game. However, there wasn't much Lore about it in the game. I can tell you there are PLENTY of bad-ass spiders there though! |
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