Vraath Keep is in the far southwestern part of Sterich, near the headwaters of the Davish River. For centuries, the defenders of Vraath Keep guarded those using the ancient dwarf-road called the Dawn Way to travel through the Witchwood to the Crystalmists. Their presence kept the road safe for merchants.
A few years before Tavish II, King of the Lion Throne of Keoland and son of Tavish the Great, issued the Wealsun Proclamation in 348 CY, an ambitious young man named Amery Vraath inherited control of the keep. In the troubles that followed Tavish's foreign wars in Ket and Veluna, Amery laid claim to the entire Witchwood and sought to rid his new domain of its evil reputation. Chief among his targets was a tribe of forest giants that dwelt deep in the woods. Known as the Twistusks, these forest giants generally kept to themselves but raided merchants along the Dawn Way from time to time.
The brash young lord gathered together an impressive group of mercenaries and adventurers, and early one summer day led his force against the Twistusks. The battle was furious, but in the end Amery's force won the day and forced the Twistusks to flee into the Crystalmists. The soldiers burned the giants' steading to the ground and returned to Vraath Keep, victorious.
Yet their victory was short-lived. One week later, the surviving Twistusks returned and attacked Vraath Keep during a tremendous thunderstorm. The giants bombarded the keep all night with hurled boulders and massive poisoned arrows. When the sun rose, four of the Twistusks lay dead amid the ruined keep, but none of the keep's soldiers or residents remained. Those who had survived the battle were taken away to be eaten by the giants in their own victory feast - all except for Amery Vraath.
The young lord retreated into the vault below his keep after he was shot by a forest giant's poisoned arrow. He hoped to elude death, but instead perished slowly of his poisoned wound, alone and in darkness. They say Amery's ghost haunts the ruined keep, and those who dare to travel the Dawn Way at night say they sometimes hear the sounds of his anguished cries coming from somewhere deep underground.