Metsästäjöiden Saari

The southernmost isle of Forochel's archipelago is known as Metsästäjöiden Saari(La. "Hunter's Isle'), so named because, from late autumn to early spring, herd animals and other game cross over to it by means of an icebridge, partaking of its meadows and flowering glades. The spring thaw traps these animals on the island in great numbers, transforming it into a hunter's paradise. The island's shores, while rough and rocky, contain many small bays and rubblestrewn beaches that make fair to excellent harbors for boats. Its northern end forms a flat, grassy plain that arcs neatly around the island's mountains. In spring, this plain explodes into a riot of color from blooming wildflowers.

Metsästäjöiden Saari became an island through the War of Wrath, whose shockwaves literally ripped it free of the mainland, giving its low mountains a rough and tumbled appearance. Their stony highlands are alive with mountain goats and big-horn sheep, while the spring snow-melt gives birth to rushing mountain streams, where salmon come to mate and spawn. Smaller fish proliferate amid the mountain tarns. The foothills and mountain vales support small coniferous forests of pine and fir. These woodlands also contain many shrubs and bushes bearing edible berries.

The island maintains a small population of reindeer and elk and, as always, prey brings predators. Wolf packs prowl among the mountains—primarily dire wolves, but white wolves have been known to cross the ice in search of prey, only to become trapped there for the summer. Bears too come for the salmon runs, stuffing themselves with fish. Even the occasional band of Orcs or Trolls from the southern Ered Rhívamar might cross the icebridge to the island in search of prey (meaning anything they can slay and eat, including one another).

Jäämies camps are few, since Metsästäjöiden Saari is too distant from their villages to make the trek worthwhile. The Merimetsästäjät come to hunt and gather resources, but the island is too close to their berg-delvings to bother with whaling camps. Any camps encountered are likely to be open and friendly enough to travelers. However, the camps have few supplies other than for hunting and fishing, and only small boats are available.