A relatively minor river, the River Foam skirts the southern foothills of Droskar’s Crag before cutting across the northern basin of Darkmoon Vale. The river punches through the Wolfrun Hills via a narrow gorge filled with rapids and shallows before dumping into the Andossan River.
Despite its proximity to Darkmoon Wood and that Falcon’s Hollow sits upon its northern bank, the River Foam makes for a poor highway. Not even riverboats can pass through the Wolfrun Rapids, and the few ferries and boats on the river (including the Falcon’s Hollow ferry) were carried overland or built on the river.
No bridge spans the river, but two fords and one ferry provide ways across the Foam. The only bridge to have spanned the river was destroyed in the Rending of 3980. One of the river’s fords lies a few miles upriver from the remains of that bridge, while the other cross just upriver from where the Foam dumps into the Andossan River. The lone ferry crosses at Falcon’s Hollow.
Large, silver-flanked salmon fill the river in the spring and autumn, spawning at the base of Gold Falls and filling the river with their easily harvested corpses. Crawdads live all along the river’s banks as it widens and slows through most of Darkmoon Vale. Otters, fisks, marles, herons, and various breeds of alligators also live along the river at various places. Aside from all these animals, the occasional reefclaw makes its way to the River Foam, as does the infrequent water naga.
Gold Falls: The River Foam drops over the edge of a tall plateau at the roaring Gold Falls. Gold Falls drops a total of 564 feet in two sections: a 323-foot plunge into a deep, cold pool and a 241-foot cascade fed from the oft-ice-encrusted basin. Gold Falls Inn hangs out over both River Foam and Gold Falls, giving guests of the inn spectacular views of the waterfall.
Gold Falls Inn: This large, well-guarded stone-andtimber lodge stands on the northern shore of the River Foam, right next to plunging Gold Falls. Owned and operated by Mierson Berekland, a friendly middle-aged retired Pathfinder, the inn originated as a small dwarven fortress built to control a wide bridge across the river at the top of the falls. One of the massive earthquakes accompanying Droskar’s Crag’s eruption during the Rending collapsed the bridge. No longer serving a purpose and heavily damaged from the Rending, the fortress was abandoned and fell quickly into ruin.
For several hundred years, the fortress ruins served as a home to a succession of creatures until, in 4437, an explorer named Argus Berekland discovered placer gold at the base of the falls. In less than a year, Argus and a small group of his friends cleared the fortress ruins and built a sluice above the falls among the ruins of the great bridge. Over time, the group built a heavily defended manor house to guard the sluice and to offer protection to travelers along the riverside trail.
Today, Gold Falls Inn serves as a heavily defended waypoint on the trail from Falcon’s Hollow west to Cheliax. The Berekland family now owns the inn outright, and it still operates the nearby sluice as well. Thanks to the revenue from the sluice, the family can afford to offer very affordable rates on food and lodging, making the Gold Falls Inn a popular destination for bored residents of Olfden and Oregent looking for an excuse to traverse the dangers of Darkmoon Vale.
Wolfrun Rapids: One of the major causes of lost timber when floating logs down the River Foam, this 3-mile stretch of whitewater begins just before the base of the Wolfrun Hills and continues on nearly until the Foam dumps into the Andossan River. Multiple efforts to smooth out the rapids have failed, thanks partially to the frequent landslides that constantly dump in more rocks (changing their shape every few months) and partially to the many logs that have become snared in the rapids over the years.
