Charnel Fields

The charnel fields outside of Surcross in Thay was a wide plain that had been transformed in the late 15 century DR into a stinking mire of blood and carnage caused by bombardment from the Netherese enclave Kolthunral.
==Description==
The charnel fields were a fiercely windy area of bloody mud littered with countless, mangled corpses. Tufts of hair and scraps of skin were nearly as common as grass. The whole region reeked with the scent of death, and spending more than a few hours trudging through it left travelers exposed to contracting a virulent strain of filth fever. Nearby villages were destroyed and hollowed out, and notably lacked any bodies.
New corpses would sprout and emerge from the clinging mud of the charnel fields as if being born from the soil. This was a result of a powerful necromantic effect that caused any corpse that was lain on or in the ground within to be absorbed into the ground and to slowly migrate to the charnel fields.
==Geography==
The charnel fields stretched for several miles from the city of Surcross to the western horizon in a region that was darkened by the looming cliffs of the Thayan Plateau and eruptions from the Thaymount.
==History==
In the , the Netherese flying city of Kolthunral arrived in the region to besiege Surcross and Veil in order to deny the Thayans access to the Shadowfell Road, a military supply route to the Dread Ring near Neverwinter. The plain west of Surcross became the site of the first great battles between the Netherese and Thayans—in which countless people were slain, only to be reanimated by the Thayans and sent out to die again—and in a span of months, bombardment from the Netherese's meteor tubes had caused so much death that the area had been transformed into the charnel fields.
The huge loss of life and the blood of so many hundreds inundating the ground became a source of inspiration for the Thayan necromancers. They enchanted the area with a powerful necromantic pull that caused the dead in all surrounding villages and battlefields to be summoned to the charnel fields so that they could be collected and reanimated. Slowly, the magical effect expanded to encompass a wide region around Surcross. This prompted the Netherese to begin their own efforts to scavenge bodies from the charnel fields, either for their own purposes or just to deprive the Thayans of potential zombie troops.
==Inhabitants==
Aside from Thayan and Netherese scavengers, hundreds of predators came to the area to feast on carrion. A number of desperate villagers from communities on the edges of the charnel fields would hunt for valuables or even for bodies fresh enough to serve as food. These were the few survivors of the war, and many were either hostile or hopeless if faced with outsiders. Only one village still survived within the charnel fields proper—Relsforin—and its inhabitants collected bodies for the Thayans in exchange for protection from the Netherese.
==Appendix==
===References===
Category:Swamps
Category:Plains
Category:Magical locations
Category:Locations in Thay
Category:Locations in the Bonedark Hills
Category:Locations in the Unapproachable East
Category:Locations in East Faerûn
Category:Locations in Faerûn
Category:Locations on Toril