Above the Spine of the World mountain range in the northwestern corner of Faerun lies the wide valley known as Icewind Dale. Originally settled by rogues with no where else to go centuries before, the Dale now boasted ten villages, collectively known as Ten-Towns. Each of the ten villages made their livelihood through fishing for the knucklehead trout which lived in abundance in the several lakes of the Dale. Good for food, the knucklehead troat was also the sole source of bone for the Dale's other well-known export, scrimshaw.

Dominating the landscape of the Dale is the sole mountain in the grand valley, a craggy peak known as Kelvin's Cairn. Many of the ten villages had been built with their back to the mountain, allowing it to form a natural barrier between the individual settlements, and forming a last resort of defense from the orc and giant hoards found in the northern reaches. Down below the mass of Kelvin's Cairn, lies another unseen settlement, unknown to the casual observer. The Battlehammer clan of dwarves, in exile from their traditional home of Mithril Hall.