Bear's Head Inn

The Founder of Bear's Head   In the annals of the Sunset Vale, few settlements boast an origin as unlikely as Bear's Head. Its story begins not with human pioneers or dwarven prospectors, but with the fall of a drow noble house in the lightless depths of the Underdark.   In 1371 DR, House De'Barronn of Eryndlyn was shattered by the schemes of a rival house, its matron mother slain and its compounds overrun. The few survivors, led by the fallen matron's husband, Huntrah, and his two sons, Zaachaeus and Gaerd, fled the city and were separated. Zaachaeus, a disciplined warrior of chilling pragmatism, made his way to the much-hated surface world where his life would be forever changed.   The Inn and the Name   In the mid-1400s DR, Zaachaeus chose a defensible rise near the edge of the woods, overlooking the Uldoon Trail. The first and only structure he had built was not a temple or a fortress, but a fortified inn and trading post, built with the dark, heavy timber of the woods. It was to be their stronghold and their livelihood.   Mere days before its completion, a massive dire bear, ancient and scarred, emerged from the woods. It viewed the new structure as an intrusion on its territory and attacked with savage fury. The settlers met the beast at their own doorstep. The battle was brutal, but it was Zaachaeus who finally scaled the creature's back and drove his blade through its skull.   In victory, Zaachaeus had the beast's enormous head severed and mounted above the inn's bar as a stark trophy and a warning. The inn was christened "The Bear's Head." It was the only building for miles, and as hopeful settlers, loggers, and merchants began to build a small community around its protected walls, the nascent town adopted the inn's name.   From Drow Lord to Merchant Council   Zaachaeus De'Barronn, along with his father Huntrah and his brother Geard, after they were reunited, ruled the settlement with a drow's efficiency and a warrior's iron will. He was not cruel, but he was determined. He established the town's primary export—logging—and used his family's cunning to secure lucrative trade contracts. Under his protection, Bear's Head became a vital, and notably safe, trading stop in the Sunset Vale.   But the De'Barronns were never truly at home. Decades passed, and while the town prospered, the three drow exiles grew restless and troubled. Their ambitions, forged in a city of endless scheming, could not be contained by a simple surface town. They learned of Sigil, the City of Doors, a place where the entire multiverse was within reach. It was a nexus of power that dwarfed even Eryndlyn.   In the 1480s DR, Zaachaeus, Huntrah, and Gaerd made their decision. They would take the wealth they had accrued and become powers on an interplanar scale.   This left a vacuum of leadership. Zaachaeus, in his pragmatic way, had been grooming a successor for years. She was a young, sharp-witted half-elf named Kira, who had worked at the inn since she was in her twenties. She understood the trade, the people, and the dangers of the woods. Zaachaeus formally ceded control of the town to a new merchant council, composed of the town's most successful loggers and traders, and ensured that Kira was named its first leader. He then gifted the Bear's Head Inn—the heart of the town—to Kira and her new husband, Torrens.   With their affairs in order, the three drows vanished from the Realms, never to be seen again.   Bear's Head Today   Today, Bear's Head remains a thriving hub, its economy still dominated by the timber trade from the Reaching Woods. The merchant council rules, guided by the firm but fair hand of Kira, now in her thirties. She and her husband still personally run The Bear's Head Inn, which serves as the town's unofficial hall, a place of trade negotiation, and a living monument to its strange founders. The massive, weather-beaten bear's head still hangs over the bar, a reminder that this town was carved from the wilderness by the unlikeliest of hands.