Description
The valley lies in shadow from the perpetually cloudy sky, and a cold wind blows, filling the air with the scent of smoke. Pale petrified trees, still bearing their colorless leaves, rise from the rocky ground in a dense, blanched forest. They fill the majority of the valley and give it its name. Contributing to the scent of smoke is at least one 200-foot-wide circle of darkened trees that have perpetually burning cinders within.
The region bears the dark scars of the conflict that occurred there in the remnants of demonic presence that cling to the area. It is rumored to be home to demons, dark spirits, impish scavengers, and other dark entities drawn to it. It is also rumored that under the light of the red moon Ruidus, more powerful demons sometimes roam the land.
Within the valley, a large hill lies sundered by a massive crevasse, within which is a small fort occupied by followers of the Platinum Dragon, the Iridon Bastion.
History
Towards the end of the Scattered War, Trist Drassig pledged his service to Graz'zt, the Demon Prince of Indulgence, in exchange for power in order to win the war. Accepting the deal, Graz'zt sent his demonic forces to the Grey Valley in order to aid Trist in the Battle of the Umbra Hills. The rebel forces led by Zan Tal'Dorei won the battle, but both battlefields were left cursed and dead.
Graz'zt, banished back to his Abyssal prison, left behind his greatsword Graz'tchar in the valley, where twin hezrou demons and androgynous mariliths guard it, pretending to be the ghosts of great knights protecting the great blade of a lost Sovereign of Tal'Dorei.
Bells Hells visited the valley in 843 PD. They were in search of Blue Perennem flowers with which the Air Ashari believed they could create an ointment that would aid in the healing of wounds caused by weapons poisoned with Otohan Thull's anti-resurrection toxin. There, they battled and defeated a devourer and two wights. Graz'tchar was picked up by Chetney Pock O'Pea after Bells Hells had fought and killed its previous wielder, Extovass, the Gluttonous within the Iridion Bastion.