Hi, all.
I'd just like to correct some mistaken impressions here, by adding to this discussion from Ed's notes:
The Stonelands are dominated by knife-edged stone ridges separated by "breakneck"-steep sided ravines. Lots of exposed rock, very rugged terrain, roads that can take carts or conventionally-mounted riders are unknown except along the very edges (Eveningstar's trails up to the plateau-top fields, for example), and almost impossible to create without lots of magic and large-scale labour. So it's foot-trails or nothing, very sparse settlement, and tough going to get anywhere fast unless you can fly. Good detailed local maps are rare to unknown, and even keeping to a given direction (unless it's "along the line of" all the roughly east-west ridges and ravines) difficult.
Water is NOT scarce anywhere in the Stonelands, and the eastern part of it, bordering "settled" Cormyr, is cloaked in trees. Water can be found in drinkable (sinkholes constantly replenished by rainwater runoff and spring-seepage, not stagnant) pools at the bottom of most ravines, and percolating throughout the rocks and dripping out everywhere as springs (high water table). This makes tunnel-mining without pumps nigh-impossible, but "following a vein" surface mining relatively easy and heavily practiced, on an individual prospector level (thanks to everpresent trolls, goblin hunting bands, owlbears, and other predators). Those veins of rich metal (mainly iron, copper, and nickel, all of them very pure) ore are abundant, and there are (much rarer) gem deposits here and there, too.
The abundant water, coupled with the lack of human settlement, makes the Stonelands teem with flora and fauna (the undergrowth makes ample food and shelter for critters, and there are a LOT of critters; which brings lots of foraging predators. Lizards and snakes are very populous, and so are "small furry scuttling and climbing things" like tree-cats (squirrels). Deer are scarce because of the rugged topography, but creatures that can cling or climb or are sure-footed on rocks are decidedly not.
So fur, lumber, herbs and plant-based medicines and distilled drinkables, metals, and edible "wild meats" are all abundant resources. There are several cascades that can run water-wheels and provide grinding power, too, even if the streams rapidly vanish beneath the surface and so appear on few maps. I repeat, drinking water is available everywhere. Don't let the name "Stonelands" mislead you. Any scribes familiar with the Canadian Shield country in the real-world, wherein surface rock predominates, will know that most of this terrain is cloaked with thick forests (which were far thicker before they were heavily logged). So strike "dry" and "desolate" from your mind.
love to all,
THO