1. Avalada

I started by rolling Sacrifice: an ancient ritual done upon Avalada, a rocky clifftop overlooking a forested valley, over a thousand years ago, consigned to myth.  Yet evidence of the sacrifice remains prominent, unhidden: the remnants of the young man transformed to rock upon the hilltop, his agonized face and clawed hands still pointing from the top of the cliff, which the surrounding trees have never been able to conquer.  The entire forest surrounding the hill is haunted, driving away all but the most isolated rangers.  The river is broad and navigable, full of valuable resources, so neighbors will occasionally mount expeditions to extract them, but they are always turned away by the dark spirits that remember the sacrifice.

What can be found or done here

The aftermath of the ritual can be cleansed by following the dark spirits by moonlight; though the spirits are not kind, they will give clues as to their identity, and the wise can distinguish the wronged from the wrong, and arrange to perform a ritual that will cleanse the spirits so they are no longer a menace.  It might feel natural to open up the area to exploration, but those who cleanse the place and give it back to nature itself will reap the greatest reward.

2. Bethelede

Today’s word is Childhood.  Bethelede sits at the junction of 6 rivers from the various mountain dells, including the river that leads out of Avalada.  Childhood represents the youth of the city.  Until recently it was merely a trading outpost, founded on the site of a myth similar to the lion with a rose thorn stuck in its paw.  In recent decades people were driven here by the decadence of neighboring lands, so Bethelede has thrived on trade and available land, outshining other places.  It retains a frontier and outpost atmosphere, even though it has outgrown its original walls and towers.  It has also thrived because the river spirits are relatively friendly.

What can be found or done here

The city is still growing, so they are in need of people to broker political deals, deliver goods (both legal and illegal), negotiate with the handful of river spirits who have become belligerent at the spread of the city—especially at the installation of extra dams and watermills and the extra refuse pumped into the river—and explore surrounding wilderness in search of extra land and resources.  The truth of the lion and rose myth could also be explored, either with flashbacks or by encountering a lion spirit (or the descendent of one) who can reveal the truth of the Bethelede’s founding.

3. MnèdhStökt

Meat is an interesting prompt.  Up one of the rivers lies a mountain-rimmed plateau, not easy to travel to because of the hills and mountains, except by river—even that is tough going, especially the portage around various waterfalls.  Across this land lives a fierce, hardy, independent people, somewhat dwarf-like, who raise a variety of game animals: yaks and buffalo in the flatlands, violent hippo-like wallowers in the river itself, sheep and goats in the mountain leas, horses everywhere.  They are attended by a variety of animal companions: big dogs and hillcats and great stags.  Although many ferocious stories are told about them by outsiders, they are in fact quite friendly (as long as you do no harm to their animals), and they are rarely warlike, fighting each other only by the proxy of great collective gatherings where they host sporting events for both themselves and their animals as well as cutthroat strategy games.  They use a different naming convention: 2-3 short, monosyllabic words, each with a nonsensical diacretical mark, jammed together in a compound word but preserving capitalization.

What can be found or done here

For the light-hearted, go on a trading mission and participate in the sports and games, or make friends and go on hunts for fun animals or strange history.  Going a little heavier, have some dark beasts or spirits creeping into the boundaries of the land from more trouble neighbors, which must be investigated and defeated.

4. Zarailaza/Shrâgh

Today we must be Tranquil.  In the mountains between Bethelede and MnèdhStökt lies a tranquil shrine beside a pool between 2 waterfalls.  The same order of monks has maintained it for centuries, always numbering 9 individuals, each with up to two apprentices.  It is dedicated to the great spirit of small streams, and is favored by pilgrims who are seeking great healing where medicine has failed them, though this healing is granted capriciously and at unknown cost.  The shrine has different names for the folk on the two sides of the mountain range (the diphthong and its placement in Zarailaza is particularly meaningful, indicating the inherent sacredness of the location).

What can be found or done here

A simple pilgrimage, to reconnect with a spirit; a quest, to heal a fallen comrade; a mystery, to figure out what is wrong with the great spirit of small streams.

5. The Cut

Today’s word is Cut: a series of canyons and precipices in the mountains known only as The Cut.  It is the only direct route from one valley to another.  The terrain is so rugged that no one can exert control over it, so of course it has become plagued by all manner of bandits and ogre-like beings, who each demand their toll over rickety rope bridges or narrow passes, a toll sometimes only paid in blood.

What can be found or done here

You could try to clear out the bandits or slay an ogre (plenty of people would pay well for this), but in the end this will prove fruitless.  More likely, someone might pay you to recover an item (or a person) captured in the mountains and unable to pay the toll; or, an adventurous party might have heard of the parties that have gone missing, and decide to search for treasure all on their own.  Last, rumors suggest that a powerful crystal used for banishing recalcitrant spirits might have been thrown into a crevice and lost to time.

Update

I added some breadth to the dells and updated the map!