Structure and Layout

High Horn crowns a 1,000-foot-tall mountain, its sprawling fortress etched directly into the stone. It is a vast complex of towers, defensive bastions, and concentric wards:

• Outer Ward: Contains stables, supply depots, armories, and smithies. It is encircled by its own moat and wall, with three fortified gates, each descending the mountainside via separate paths.
• Inner Ward: Houses barracks, deep wells, granaries, and training yards. This is the main garrison space.
• Central Keep: The stronghold proper, protected by its own ward and moat. It includes the War Wizards’ quarters, command rooms, scrying chambers, and the infamously warded dungeon cells.

The guest accommodations outside the walls are sparse and militaristic—shelter for messengers and merchant envoys, but lacking comfort or welcome. Civilian visitors receive only what necessity demands.

Garrison and Leadership

High Horn boasts the strongest concentration of military force in western Cormyr, particularly during the winter months, when it houses nearly half of the kingdom’s entire army.

Permanent Garrison:

• Ca. total soldiers at any time = 400
• 300 regulars (mixed arms)
• 100 archers
• For every 10 soldiers, there is a knight (Fighter 3)
• Commander: Lord Commander Thursk Dembarron (LG human, P15)
• Herald: Dhag Greybeard (LN human, R10)

Lord Dembarron is known for instilling high discipline and elevated readiness standards, particularly in response to increasing Zhentarim activity beyond the Dragon Coast.

Magical Presence

High Horn is also a War Wizard base. At any given time, there are at least three War Wizards of 6th level or higher present—one of whom has a 50% chance to be between 7th and 12th level.

These arcanists are tasked with:

• Intercepting arcane threats from the west
• Maintaining High Horn’s magical defenses
• Conducting interrogation and magical surveillance
• Guarding access to the dungeons, which are shielded from scrying and lined with antimagic sigils

Strategic Role

High Horn guards a critical road westward—overseen not just to deter border raiders and lizardfolk from the Tunlands and Marsh of Tun, but to secure access to royal gem mines nearby. It serves as both a blockade and a gate, controlling the only viable passage through the Storm Horns for miles.

Although its defenses are legendary, High Horn has never fallen, nor even faced a full-scale siege—perhaps precisely because of how impenetrable it is.

Known among the people of Cormyr as "The Horn that Watches," the fortress commands both awe and superstition. It is a place where soldiers are tested, wizards vanish into arcane labs for months, and enemies are held in cells so deep even their gods cannot hear them.