The hills and valleys that stretch from the eastern slopes of The Sunset Spine to the coastline of The Frog Bog, is seldom referred to in specifics. It's 'the area around Daring Heights' to many, or 'the hills.' However they refer to it though, all agree on roughly what it entails. Bounded on the west by the mountains, to the north and south by the Angelbark Woods and the Feythorn Forest respectively, and to the east by the swamp, this area is known on official Daring Heights maps as The Dawnlands.
Named by someone with an eye for marketing, the Dawnlands are touted as the region that newcomers from Faerun will arrive in and start their new life. It encompasses all of Daring Heights and its surrounding farms, the small hamlets and thorps that dot the landscape around it now. There's some discrepancy between maps as to whether the Frog Bog (and therefore Port Ffirst) is geographically contained within the Dawnlands or if it is a separate area.
Nevertheless, the general topography of the Dawnlands is constant rolling hills, with small streams and brooks running through the valleys between them as water flows from the Sunset Spine to the sea. It’s an area of about 400,000 to 450,000 acres (roughly the size of Greater London). For the most part the Dawnlands are fairly safe, though bandits, gnolls, and goblins are not unknown.
The most travelled path in the Dawnlands is the Swamp Way, which joins Port Ffirst and Daring Heights. It runs roughly east from Daring until it reaches the edge of the Frog Bog,
from where it takes a rather marshy detour, occasionally over raised wooden walkways, along the southern edge of the swamp where it meets the Feythorn Forest. The journey is a
little more than 30 miles in all. Older than the Swamp Way but less used is the route between Daring Heights and Stoneleaf. It’s called the Stone Road, not because it’s paved
with stone (it isn’t) but because its original purpose was to transport stone to the town. It runs east-west and is about 20 miles long. Another major route branches off the Stone Road
and leads north-north-west to Kundar.
There are many other commonly known landmarks in the Dawnlands including: Evenbloom Hill, a hill covered with purple flowers nearly three hours north-east of Daring Heights, where it’s said to be possible to cross into the Feywild; Cleft Hill, in the foothills of the Sunset Spine westnorth-west of Daring Heights; the Coldshaw River, flowing down from the mountains into a lake near the Dell; the “dry river bed” that runs roughly north-south from near Kundar, crossing the Stone Road as it goes; the “People”, a group of tall standing stones in the dry river bed near where it crosses the Stone Road; the “draconic arch”, a stone archway southwest of the People; the “fortress ravine”, the site of a waterfall in the hills west of Daring Heights; Greenleaf, a hamlet two to three hours north-west of Daring; the Hugging Rocks, a pair of entwined standing stones near the Stone Road that marks the beginning of the foothills of the Sunset Spine; Silva’s tree, a tree standing in the dry river bed about half a day southwest of Daring Heights; the Snake Stones, a set of three standing stones north-east of New Hillborrow; the “sunken tower”, an old half-buried tower 10 miles north of Daring; Upper Bloody Creek (sometimes just called Bloody Creek), a village north of Daring Heights near the edge of the Angelbark Wood.