The Green Mountains form the spine of southern Windor, a rugged barrier separating the halfling lowlands from Poum Titch and the lands beyond. Despite the name, they're not forested. The "green" comes from the thick blankets of moss and lichen that coat the exposed rock faces, giving the peaks an algae-tinged pallor visible from the lowlands below.
These are not tall mountains by continental standards, but they're steep, broken, and riddled with caves. The perfect country for trolls.
Character
The Green Mountains are more highland than alpine: rocky plateaus broken by sudden ravines, slopes of loose scree, cliff faces bearded with moss. The peaks rarely exceed a mile in height, but the terrain is treacherous. Visibility is poor. Sound carries strangely. And the caves go deep.
In summer, the mountains are almost pleasant: wildflowers in the high meadows, clear cold streams, views that stretch to the distant coast. But summer is short. By autumn the first snows come, and the mountains become hostile. By winter they're impassable to anyone without wings or a death wish.
The smell is distinctive: wet stone, moss, and something faintly sulfurous from the thermal vents that dot the deeper valleys. Travelers say you can smell the mountains before you see them.
Trolls
The Green Mountains are infested. The infestation is persistent, if not everywhere or constant. Troll warrens honeycomb the deeper cave systems, and every few years a new clan pushes into territory closer to the lowlands.
The trolls here are the common variety: large, regenerating, not clever but cunning enough. They raid for food, preferring livestock but taking halflings when they can. A troll can carry off two sheep or one adult Windorf. They hunt at night, in bad weather, when visibility favors their darkvision.
Troll behavior follows rough patterns:
- Winter: Dormant or sluggish. Raids rare.
- Spring: Emerging hungry. Most dangerous season for raids.
- Summer: Active but dispersed, hunting the highlands.
- Autumn: Gorging before winter. Raids increase as easy prey grows scarce.
The Windorf have adapted. The Warden system exists because it must. But the trolls are never eliminated. The caves go too deep, and more always seem to emerge. It's a managed problem, not a solved one.
Passes
Three main routes cross the Green Mountains into Poum Titch:
The Nylen Pass: The primary route, relatively well-maintained, starting just south of the capital. Wide enough for wagons in good weather. Warden patrols sweep it regularly. Still dangerous, but the safest option.
The Eastern Stair: A steeper, narrower path descending toward the Throatslit Mountains and the lands beyond. Less traveled, less patrolled. The name comes from the carved steps, old work, pre-Windorf, that switchback down the most treacherous cliff faces.
The Goat Roads: Dozens of smaller tracks used by herders, smugglers, and the desperate. Unmarked, unmaintained, often impassable. Some dead-end in troll territory.
The Sulfur Vents
Scattered through the deeper valleys, these thermal vents release steam and sulfurous gases from somewhere far below. The ground around them stays warm year-round, melting snow and supporting patches of unusual vegetation: heat-loving ferns, pale fungi, things that shouldn't grow at this altitude.
Some vents are small, barely noticeable. Others form steaming pools or fumaroles that whistle and hiss. The largest cluster sits in a valley the Wardens call the Kettle, which they avoid. Something nests there. They haven't confirmed what.
The Old Mines
Before the Windorf, someone else worked these mountains. The evidence remains: abandoned mine shafts, collapsed tunnels, rusted tools of unfamiliar design. The mines sought copper and tin primarily, with traces of silver in the deeper veins.
Most are unstable and long-emptied. A few serve as Warden outposts or emergency shelters. Others have been claimed by trolls; the caves suit them. The deepest shafts connect to natural cave systems that no one has fully mapped.
Connecting to the Secret Mountains
The Green Mountains blend into the Secret Mountains to the southwest, with no clear boundary between them. The Secret Mountains are smaller, lower, and more accessible, but haunted by the legend of the lost halfling goldmine. Prospectors still occasionally venture into the overlap zone, searching for the old workings. Most come back empty-handed. Some don't come back.
Travel Advisory
The Windorf don't forbid travel into the Green Mountains, but they don't encourage it either. Anyone heading into the heights should:
- Travel in groups of at least four armed individuals
- Register their route with the Warden post at Vaken or Nylen
- Carry signal flares (the Wardens provide them, for a fee)
- Expect the journey to take twice as long as estimated
- Accept that rescue is unlikely if something goes wrong
The mountains are not a place for casual exploration. They're a buffer zone, a troll preserve, a problem contained rather than conquered. The Windorf live next to them because they must. They don't pretend to control them.