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Originally posted by LordofBones

{joke} It's home to the largest population of cloakers in the Realms. {/joke}

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Originally posted by George Krashos
Cloakers with a high sex drive. Hence the name of the forest.

-- George Krashos

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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.)

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Actually, it's the only canon location that is home to kampfults in the Realms.

#realmsloreGeorgeForgot

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Originally posted by George Krashos

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Originally posted by LordofBones

{joke} It's home to the largest population of cloakers in the Realms. {/joke}

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Cloakers with a high sex drive. Hence the name of the forest.

-- George Krashos

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Originally posted by AJA

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Originally posted by George Krashos
Cloakers with a high sex drive. Hence the name of the forest.

-- George Krashos

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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;

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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.)

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Don't know if that's useful?

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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.

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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.

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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

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