Red Larch has been an important stop on the Long Road for two centuries now. Named for a distinctive stand of red larch trees that were cut down when the hamlet (=gehucht, dorpje) was founded, Red Larch became a settlement in the first place thanks to a drinkable spring that fed a sizable pond ideal for watering horses, oxen, and pack mules.

An east-west trail meets the Long Road at the pond, running west to the logging community of Kheldell and east to Bargewright Inn and eventually Secomber. Another trail leads to quarries in the Sumber Hills and to ruins of stone keeps long ago left to monsters and outlaws (the Haunted Keeps).

In recent years, new quarries have been opened on the northwestern edge of town. So far these have yielded up great slabs of marble much prized in Waterdeep for facing large new buildings and repairing older edifices. Red Larch is also a center for stonecutters quarrying slate on the fringes of the Sumber Hills.

CRUMBLECAKE

To the average citizen of Waterdeep, Red Larch is known only for crumblecake, a local specialty. This much-maligned but hearty food is useful on the trail: baked loaves of turkey and wildfowl scraps, nuts, and chopped roots and greens, mixed in a chickpea mash. It is bland at the best of times, but badly made crumblecake tastes terrible.