Today, this black stone fortress is feared and hated by folk all over the Coast lands.and much farther afield in Faerûn.who.ve never seen it and hope never to. I am one of them. For obvious reasons, I dared not approach this grim stronghold.even in disguise.and can only tell you what I know of this place of death from questioning others, some of them long-lived and mighty in lore. From this fortalice (small fort) in Darkhold Vale (a cleft high up on a rock shoulder of the huge mountain known as the Gray Watcher of the Morning), the Zhentarim now raid down into Sunset Vale more or less at will, using hippogriffs, hendar, foulwings, and even more fearsome aerial steeds7 as spies to seek out caravans, holds whose militias are elsewhere or weakened, and other easy prey. Travelers are advised to avoid Darkhold’s reach as much as possible. and to be aware at all times that Darkhold’s reach includes almost all of Sunset Vale by night or whenever the defenders of Vale settlements are busy elsewhere.
Once a castle of the Giant-Emperors, Darkhold was built for folk of giant stature. (Some sages say the Giant- Emperors were but slaves of the decadent archwizards of Netheril who had the castle built by an elemental. The giants styled themselves Emperors only after Netheril fell and they were left to their own devices.) To human senses, its
Most tales of lore agree that whatever the castle’s origin, it came to be inhabited by giants, proud and willful robberfolk who raided the lands around the castle (verdant Tunland, then grasslands inhabited by countless herds of wild beasts.not the swamp so much of it is today.and the halfling-held lands of Sunset Vale) at will. The giants repelled halfling attacks and bold dwarven and human probings with ease, but in the end slew each other. Two rival princes slaughtered their sire and all the other giants by poison, spells, traps, and hireswords in their mad struggle to eliminate each other. Some tales say they ended up fighting each other in the otherwise-deserted castle, stabbed each other. and crawled off to separate hidden chambers to die. Their ghosts haunt the castle, striving for supremacy one over the other still, whispering so as to set one Zhent against another in an unending spectral struggle to rule the castle. halls, stairs, and chambers are vast. and icy cold in winter.
With all the giants dead, the Keep of the Far Hills stood empty. It was soon plundered by bold human and elven adventurers, and one of them, Othlong Blackhelm.he whom the ballads call the Robber Lord.made it his home.
He soon fell to treachery and his successor, Angarn Surfyst, used the castle as a base for brigandage in his turn. He, too, was slain by one of his followers, who set himself up as the Wolf Knight.
History doesn’t even recall his name. his throat was cut by a lady captive in his bedchamber one night. She turned out to be a sorceress, and a colder, more cruel brigand than the rest, ruling Farkeep as Sarunn Thoon (the ballad “The Witch of the Far Cold Hill” tells her tale). She fell in her turn to a cabal of masked wizards who turned out to be mind flayers, and held the banditwarriors of the castle in mind-thrall until they died in service and only zombies were left.
Then a dragon struck - a white wyrm, most say though accounts vary. It laired in the keep until slain by a dwarf hero, Harristor Thunderswing, who later went under land to form his own clan in the Lightless Lands and was never seen again. The empty castle was roamed by monsters - histories record both a beholder and a leucrotta using it as a lair at various times.and then was taken by brigands. They were slain by an adventuring company, the Wildmen of the North, led by Brundar Tigerbane. He renamed the castle the Wild Hold and refortified it, but he fell in battle, along with most of his followers. The castle changed hands again.
A succession of petty rulers’some of whom styled themselves Lord Knight of the Far Hills, and at least one of whom called himself the Duke of Sunset Vale.held the castle for 200 years, holding sway over varying parts of Sunset Vale. Sunset Keep became a hold well known (if not respected) among merchants traveling between the Sword Coast and the Sea of Fallen Stars.
The rulers of the Keep raided passing trade, fought with those who sought to drive them out, and either prevailed or were cut down and supplanted in their turn by a new petty lordling who grew into another proud robber baron. only to fall in his turn. At length one was left so weak by an attack that he and his few retainers perished under the claws and fangs of wolves and other monsters made bold by hard winter weather, and Sunset Keep became a monster hold again.
It gained the name of Darkhold when a lich-queen rose to rule it, extending her skeletal hand out over the Vale to raid and to rule much as her human predecessors had done. She used skeletal warriors, zombies, more sinister undead, and the monsters of the Keep who had submitted to her to enforce her rule. Those monsters of the Keep who did not submit, she destroyed.
Some say this lich-sorceress, Varalla, fought at the Battle of Bones. Others say she was an archsorceress of lost Netheril, freed from ages-long slumber by a monster smashing an inner wall of the Keep. Whatever the truth, Darkhold became a name of horror as word spread of the dark spells worked by Varalla to aid her undead minions as they raided far afield over the Coast lands and as far east as the outposts of Cormyr. Tales of Varalla’s new spells lured the Zhentarim into attacking her. Using goblins who were promised easy treasure and mercenaries who weren’t told what they.d have to fight, the Zhentarim used their magic and Zhentilar troops to smash Darkhold’s defenders and inter- rupted the lich-queen at her studies deep in the castle. While she traded spells with Manshoon of the Zhentarim and his magelings (many of whom perished in the fray), the dark priest Fzoul Chembryl used magic to reach her and felled her with a special mace that worked similarly to a mace of disruption.
From that moment in 1312 DR on, Darkhold has been a Zhentarim base. It has grown into a fortress rivaling the Citadel of the Raven in importance if not in size. Now home to a thousand Zhentilar under the wizard Sememmon, magelings, and priests of Cyric, Darkhold is a waystop for Zhent caravans. Its patrols roam from Asbravn to Skull Gorge. Beware them! Don’t be lured by tales of mighty spells and secret ways by which to reach them!