Does Pilot2ATC considder the terrain close to an airport?

[kiemdoder 0]

Does Pilot2ATC have information about the terrain in the vicinity of an airport? I tried my first flight with Pilot2ATC today and got told by ATC (Pilot2ATC) that I should descend to 3000ft when I start with the STAR that was on the fight plan (the name of the STAR was quoted). I followed the order and found myself flying into a mountain soon after (the visibility was almost 0 because of clouds).

I have no experience with ATC so I'm not sure whether keeping above terrain is something that one can expect ATC to help with or if that is something that the pilot(s) alone has to deal with.

Something else I found odd was that when I checked in with ATC after I've been asked to descend to 3000ft 'say it' told ATC that my height was 3000ft when in fact it was still much more at that stage.

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

You have to comply with the restrictions in the published STAR when told to descend to 3000 feet via xxxx arrival.  That is clearance for you to fly the published altitudes, not to descent directly to 3000 feet.

The copilot will report "descending to 3000 ft" but not "at 3000 ft" unless you are actually at 3000 ft.

Dave