Mountains in Anauroch.
The Sand Dragon Portal[]
Valraxaxath, the dragon portal maker, visits the far corners of Faerûn seeking new places to build gates to aid the dragons that he works with. Realizing that the Anauroch offered little in the way of wealth, but much in the way of secrecy and tactical advantage for his allies, he sought a dragon to live there and guard the portal that he planned to create. He found such a dragon in the brown dragon Axlitis (adult brown dragon Sor10), who tired of life on the plains of Mulhorand. She agreed to ally with Valraxaxath and move to Anauroch. They selected a site in the Scimitar Spires Mountains, on the south side away from the city of Shade, and there constructed a portal and treasure hoard cave.
Axlitis's role is to prevent nondragons from using the portal and to guard the hoard that is located there. Valraxaxath stores some wealth in this remote spot, separate from and safe from his main hoard. Other dragons on raiding missions also deposit large items of wealth at the Anauroch cave and move on, returning later to retrieve the items. When adventurers become too interested in an allied dragon's hoard, the dragon moves the most valuable items here to the Anauroch hoard and allows the adventurers to clear out the dross. In return for temporary storage, Axlitis is paid in gems and coin by the other dragons. Axlitis herself sometimes uses the portal to raid in some far away place, returning here with her loot. This loot is sometimes traded to other dragons if it would be more useful for them than for her.
The portal is located above a cave opening at the base of the Scimitar Spires. The portal is sized for dragons of any size, and it is marked by a kind of horseshoe formation of rock that occurred naturally in the mountain range. The horseshoe opens upward and is some 70 feet wide, and the portal sits just above it rather than inside the horseshoe. Thus, one must fly through the portal to use it. As with the other Dragon's Claw portals, it has several destinations, and all are two-way portals. This portal has not been fully integrated into the Dragon's Claw portal set.
- The portal to the Dragonsword Mountains in Mulhorand, located on the east side of the range close to the Plains of Purple Dust, requires acid to pass through the portal area. This can be from a brown dragon breath weapon, or a spell, or a vial of thrown acid.
- The portal to the Forest of Wyrms requires a dragon's breath weapon directed through the portal markerto activate.
- The portal to the Dragonjaw Mountains requires the user to speak the word "gem" in Draconic.
The Dragon's Claw portals (and the Mulhorand one) mentioned above all connect to this one, using the key that a clawful of sand (at least two pounds) must be thrown all at once at the portal to set it to this location. The thrown sand does not pass through the portal when activating it.
Deep in the cave complex beneath the portal is the lair of Axlitis and the hoard she guards. Finding where she sleeps is not that difficult (normal chances to track), but the hoard is warded by spells designed to mislead. This is especially true of the temporary storage areas, which are also sometimes behind walls that have been altered with stone shape spells.
Valraxaxath has plans to use this portal to stage raids on the wizards of Shade at some point in the future, since he intends to capture their wealth of knowledge for the use of dragonkind. In the meantime, it makes a good place to store loot because of its remote location.
The Bedine all know that a dragon of sand lives north of the Saiyaddar, but they have little reason to seek it out. As Valraxaxath's schemes involve keeping this portal a secret, Axlitis does not visit the surrounding lands much except for the occasional food raid.