Welcome to Neverwinter

Premise

AMID THE wilderness and savagery of the cold North, Neverwinter once stood as a beacon of civility and warmth. Even after the Spellplague wracked the world, the Jewel of the North lost little of its luster. The city’s destruction thus shocked many when it occurred, despite the portents that warned of coming peril. Vague prophecies and strange events seemed like shadows of the Spellplague, nothing more. Even the earth tremors that began to disturb the area could not shake its citizens’ belief in a bright future.

Then Mount Hotenow, deep in Neverwinter Wood, awoke with the power of an angry god. The city could do nothing against such a foe. The earth yawned open and broke apart. Whole districts shuddered and sank while other areas shot up, forming sudden cliffs. The river, running warm throughout winter, exploded into hissing steam and lava as scalding clouds of ash roared through the streets like an advancing army. Thousands lost their lives as Neverwinter died that day.

Slowly, life has returned to this ruined landscape. Many hope to rebuild what has been lost, but an equal number see the tragedy as an opportunity to seize all they can. Yet those who scratch out lives in the scarred city fail to see the infection below the scab. Under their noses, beneath their feet, and even within their earshot, dark forces battle one another for control of the city.

The year is 1479 and it is Marpenoth, the 10th month of the year.

Houserules

• I'm just going to do milestone leveling rather than precisely tracking experience.

• I'm not interested in closely tracking everyone's encumbrance but try to keep things reasonable on that front.

• We'll be using popcorn initiative, as Falkus described in this thread: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/request-for-a-4th-edition-dnd-game-set-in-the-forgotten-realms-using-the-keep-on-the-shadowfell-modules.921348/. Basically, once combat starts 1 PC will go (on a first come, first serve basis), then I'll have a NPC go, then another PC who hasn't acted yet will act, etc, until the end of the round, when the process starts over. Initiative won't serve any purpose, so you probably don't want to take any features that improve it.

• Skill Challenges:

• • Will be done round by round, so all players need to act in round 1 before we move to round 2, and then if the challenge doesn't end in round 2, everyone needs to act before we go to round 3, and so on.

• • Like combat, players can act in any order, it's first come, first serve. I'll attempt to update during the SC about how things are going after rolls, but if someone just went and another player wants to post, don't feel like you have to wait for me.

• • On each players' turn, they can do one of two things: 1) Attempt a success; roll whatever skill you can justify versus the challenge DC (each individual skill challenge will spell out what the DCs are and how many successes are needed), or 2) attempt to aid another player; pick a skill that could plausibly be used to help someone else and roll versus DC 10 and, if successful, that will give that PC a +2 the next time they act (the benefits from aiding someone don't stack, so a PC can't have +10 from 5 other PCs aiding them). In conjunction with that, if you have a utility/non-combat power that grants skill bonuses, or a really creative use for a combat power to get a skill bonus, you may use that power before you roll, but each player may only use one power per round.

• • As the previous point suggests, I'm not bothering with primary and secondary skills. Players may roll any skill that makes logical sense within the context of the scene. So each skill use should be justified in the fiction, but I'm not putting any restrictions in terms of what skills can be used.

• • Players can't use the same skill twice in a row. Other players, however, may use the same skill within the same round as long as it makes sense within the context of the scene.

Threads

IC Thread

OOC Thread

Planning Thread

PCs

• Ernst Lemuel. Human-appearing (Deva) Shaman. Oghma's Faithful/Dragon Coast.

• Lander Telantere. Human Cleric. Scion of Shadows.

• Tatha Dinistyn. Drow Sorcerer. Spellscarred Harbinger.

• Orcanu Tamar. Eladrin Swordmage. Iliyanbruen Guardian.

• Otis Oakson. Human Wizard. Blackstaff Apprentice.

• Vanadia. Dwarf Fighter. Heir of Delzoun

Skills

Skill Matrix (L.1)

Skill	Otis	Vanadia	Ernst	Lander	Tatha	Orcanu
Acrobatics (Dex)	+1	-2	+0	+0	+3	+0
Arcana (Int)	+9	-1	+4	0	+7	+14
Athletics (Str)	+0	+6	+0	+0	+0	+5
Bluff (Cha)	-1	+0	+0	+7	+10	+1
Diplomacy (Cha)	-1	+0	+0	+7	+10	+1
Dungeoneering (Wis)	+1	+8	+4	+4	-1	-1
Endurance (Con)	+2	+8	+1	+2	+0	+7
Heal (Wis)	+1	+1	+4	+4	-1	-1
History (Int)	+9	-1	+11	+5	+0	+12
Insight (Wis)	+1	+1	+9	+9	-1	-1
Intimidate (Cha)	-1	+0	+0	+2	+12	+1
Nature (Wis)	+6	+1	+9	+4	-1	-1
Perception (Wis)	+1	+1	+9	+4	-1	+4
Religion (Int)	+4	-1	+6	+5	+0	+5
Stealth (Dex)	+7	-2	+0	+0	+6	+0
Streetwise (Cha)	-1	+0	+0	+2	+4	+1
Thievery (Dex)	+7/+9	-2	+0	+0	+3	+0

Languages

• Otis: Common, Elven
• Ernst: Common, Chondathan, Goblin, Supernal
• Lander: Common, Netherese
• Tatha: Common, Elven
• Orcanu: Common, Eladrin
• Vanadia: Common, Dwarven

Passed into the Woods

• Cleo. Human Rogue. Dead Rat Deserter.
• Maria Fireheart. Human Mage. Harper Agent/Detective.

Treasure

• 52g 24s, 34c
• an ornate dagger worth 30g
• a Restful Bedroll

Neverwinter and the North

Even in safer times, the North’s reputation as the Savage North was well earned. Now, times are worse and the land more savage by far. Its great cities, once bastions of light and civilization, lie crippled. The small towns that served to shelter travelers stand empty—or have been claimed by murderous groups and hungry monsters. Roads etched into the earth with thousands of years of use are increasingly obscured by forest, bramble, and marsh. Communities now struggle alone amid the wilderness, fortunate if they see an outsider once in a generation. Neverwinter labors to breathe in the suffocating harshness of this new North, the sea its only lifeline. With few traders braving the increasingly long treks between settlements, the city’s docks now provide the area’s main means of import and precious little export. Gone are the days of plenty, beauty, and luxury. Today, Neverwinter struggles to break free of the forces that brought it low, still weak and surrounded by danger.

• Neverwinter: The City of Skilled Hands, the Jewel of the North—many were the accolades once heaped upon Neverwinter. Then, almost thirty years ago, the city died. Minor earth tremors that had plagued the region for months were the precursors of the eruption of Mount Hotenow. A portion of that volcano’s peak exploded with such force that lava and superheated ash poured across the city in an avalanche. Half of Neverwinter’s population died in a heartbeat, the city’s buildings razed. A great rift now known as the Chasm rent the surface where the shifting earth had pulled apart. Strange zombies roamed the land in the aftermath, their dead flesh turned to ash by the fires that consumed the city. Yet the people of the North have always been resilient. After the destruction, many who had fled at the first tremors returned. Opportunists and looters arrived. People began to rebuild. Lord Dagult Neverember, the Open Lord of Waterdeep, eventually arrived as well, along with an army of Mintarn mercenaries. Today, the city struggles back to life under the watchful rule of the self-styled Lord Protector.

• Neverwinter River: The bright water of the Neverwinter River runs warm throughout the year, a feature that helps to keep the city from being frozen in the winter months. When the cataclysm struck, dark ash choked the river for months before it began to flow from Neverwinter Wood through the city once more. Three bridges once spanned the river in Neverwinter— the Sleeping Dragon, the Winged Wyvern, and the Dolphin, each sculpted in the form of its name. Of the three, only the Winged Wyvern remains largely intact. Mintarn mercenaries in the hire of Lord Neverember patrol it day and night, watching traffic to and from the northern portion of the city and guarding against threats from Castle Never.

• Helm’s Hold: Once a small monastery and adjacent village dedicated to the deity Helm, the cathedral of Helm’s Hold now towers above the town and surrounding lands that bear its name. The death of Helm saw the monastery fall into disuse, but the fortified town became a refuge when the Spellplague hit during the year following Helm’s demise. Lord Neverember now exiles victims of the Spellplague to Helm’s Hold for treatment, and his mercenaries guard the town.

• Port Llast: This town was a great city in ancient times—the most northerly safe harbor on the Sword Coast whenever Luskan would fall to orcs or other evil forces. However, the rise of a relatively stable Luskan and ports farther north began to diminish its prominence. Then came the Spellplague, and with it the return of Abeir. The appearance of the new continent in the ocean to the west changed the tides around Port Llast, filling the harbor with silt and making Neverwinter an easier port to reach. With the docks of Port Llast failing and trade dying off, most of its citizens have long since abandoned their homes or died at the hands of marauders. Now a ghost town, Port Llast is known as the realm of the evil sea goddess Umberlee and as a home to sea monsters. However, some say that this reputation is simply rumor spread by those who want to keep the secrets of the town to themselves.

• Neverwinter Wood: For generations, this dark forest has been shunned by most people of the North. That magic exists in Neverwinter Wood cannot be doubted, but its nature—and whether it exists as a force of good or ill—remains unknown. The forest holds many secrets, and even on its fringes, one feels a sense of unease. Humans have never logged in this area, and the orcs of the North have traditionally avoided it during their incursions. Only druids and Uthgardt barbarians dare to pass into the deep forest.

• Thundertree: This small town once stood at the edge of the wood. Its inhabitants made a living by harvesting windfall timber to ship downriver to the Neverwinter and beyond. Now the forest has overgrown Thundertree’s abandoned and decaying buildings. Although the town survived the Spellplague largely intact, the ash zombies that arose after the destruction of Neverwinter overran it. As the dangers of Neverwinter Wood increase, the abandoned town and its unknown horrors are shunned.

• Mount Hotenow: For untold generations, this volcanic peak quietly fumed in the depths of Neverwinter Wood. Rumored to be the source of the warmth of the Neverwinter River, Mount Hotenow once featured in the bedtime stories of Neverwinter’s citizens as the home of fire giants, red dragons, and other blazing beasts. People looked upon the fantastic peak as a thing of beauty—until its wrath was unleashed against Neverwinter in the cataclysm. Now jutting like a broken tooth from the forest, Mount Hotenow still fumes, the land occasionally quaking with the echoes of its fury.

• The Crags: This long wrinkle of hills and ridges runs northeast from Neverwinter Wood. Goblins, gnolls, ogres, hill giants, and other wild peoples have dwelled within this rocky landscape for centuries. So too has the Sky Pony tribe of the Uthgardt barbarians. Rumors have long persisted that an entrance to Gauntlgrym lies somewhere in the Crags. However, the hundreds of ancient and now-dead mines that long ago brought humans to the area make for numerous false leads.

• Tower of Twilight: This enchanted tower long stood on an island in a small lake east of Neverwinter Wood. Home to a student of the great wizard Khelben Blackstaff, the tower stood invisible by day but would appear as the light failed. During the Spellplague, the tower vanished without a trace, though it now reappears infrequently and unpredictably at twilight. Who lives there now, where the tower disappears to, and why it returns remain a mystery.

• Conyberry: During the Spellplague, a portion of Abeir imposed itself upon the village of Conyberry. The terrain-altering effect of this transition forced the inhabitants of the village to come together with people dwelling in the regions of Abeir to which they were joined. However, in the intervening decades, the Gray Wolf Uthgardt tribe has sacked the settlement in retribution for this “invasion” of their lands, slaughtering Conyberry’s citizens or forcing them to join the tribe. The village now lies largely vacant.

• Old Owl Well: Known in ancient texts as Old Owlbear Well and in even older histories as Quesseer, this site marks the location of a Netherese outpost established millennia ago. The Netherese built a means of drawing water from the earth, using the site as a place of trade. For centuries, this water supply on a key trade route served as a source of conflict. Until the chaos of the Spellplague, orcs and humans from Neverwinter and Waterdeep still struggled to control the outpost. Now, it lies forgotten and abandoned. Until trade returns to these lands, the fate of the well and whatever ruins lie hidden in the surrounding hills remain unknown.

• Morgur’s Mound: Atop this foothill of the Crags, Uthgar—deity and founder of the Uthgardt barbarians— died after saving the North from Gurt, Lord of the Pale Giants. The mound is named for Uthgar’s brother Morgur (called Morgred by some), who is said to be buried there. Once, the bones of a great thunderbeast were spread atop the hill, marking it as the holy shrine of the Uthgardt.

• Luskan: An urban cesspool, the once-great City of Sails squats on the coastline like an open sore on the face of the continent of Faerûn. It lies about four days hard travel north of Neverwinter (about three days by sea, due to prevailing currents). Until some hundred years ago, Luskan choked in the grasp of the Arcane Brotherhood and its leader, Arklem Greeth. When a force of pirate-killers from Waterdeep along with the legendary hero Drizzt and his allies precipitated the destruction of the Hosttower of the Arcane, the city was destabilized and never fully recovered. Street gangs and pirates rule Luskan now, making the city a stomping ground for criminals, exiles from other lands, and hideous beasts.

• Gauntlgrym: This famous subterranean dwarven city has been the stuff of legend for centuries. Aside from the dwarves, most people of the North doubted Gauntlgrym’s existence—until the Summons, as it has come to be known. At that time, ghostly dwarves in ancient dress appeared before certain dwarves throughout the North and beyond, silently pleading for heroes to seek out Gauntlgrym. Some did set out in search of the lost city, though most counted themselves lucky when the ghosts troubled them no more. Many of those who sought Gauntlgrym did so in the Crags, for ancient legends mentioned an entrance there. Others plunged into Neverwinter Wood or scaled the Sword Mountains. Few returned from their quests, and those who survived almost never found any trace of their goal. Some dwarves seek the city still, but for the rest, Gauntlgrym remains a tantalizing legend.

• The Sword Mountains: The sharp peaks and hilly terrain of the Sword Mountains extend down the coast of the Sea of Swords for nearly two hundred miles. Long home to belligerent dwarf clans, orc tribes, trolls, dragons, and other fearsome creatures, this range is rarely traveled in these dangerous times. Those foolish enough to brave the mountains often do so in search of old mines and the ruins of civilizations past. However, most find only death in the end.

• Leilon: This sleepy mining town once served as a convenient resting place for travelers on the High Road. Now, the few travelers who still take this route shun Leilon, going miles out of their way to avoid even laying eyes on the town. The High Tower of Thalivar long stood as a landmark here, abandoned by a forgotten mage. For generations, the tower proved a tempting target for plunderers—and, too often, a grave for them as well. The people of Leilon knew that the tower held guardian monsters, and they were content to leave it alone. However, the Spellplague’s twisted magic unleashed the creatures trapped in the tower, which quickly ravaged the helpless village. Now, the tower is a place of terror, its magic allegedly freezing in place all creatures whose eyes rest upon it, even for a moment.

• Mere of Dead Men: This vast salt marsh contains the ruins of the numerous castles, manors, and farms it swallowed as it expanded. It takes its name from the great armies that were drowned here when a powerful lich flooded their battlefield. Whereas once the High Road skirted the swamp, what now remains of that highway plunges through its expanded borders. Those seeking to go south to Waterdeep from points north must often contend with the lizardfolk that claim the territory around the road. Alternative routes wind deeper into the mere or off into the Sword Mountains at the cost of extra days of travel and peril.

• Waterdeep: Once the greatest and grandest city in the Realms, Waterdeep’s star has dimmed slightly in the last century as the world has progressively darkened. The great port—about a week south of Neverwinter, or three days by sea—no longer sustains its own navy, relying instead on mercenaries from the island of Mintarn and the city of Baldur’s Gate to the south. The city has long existed as a relatively fair and just center of civilization. Waterdeep is ruled by a council of twenty Masked Lords (nobles hidden behind powerful illusions to obscure their identities) and one Open Lord. The current Open Lord is the boisterous and dangerous Dagult Neverember, the so-called Lord Protector of Neverwinter. Unlike most of the other Open Lords in Waterdeep’s history, Lord Neverember has demonstrated an expansionist and imperialistic bent. In recent years, he has set his sights on Neverwinter as the next territory in his growing empire.

City of Neverwinter

Neverwinter: A once-bustling metropolis, the northern city of Neverwinter lies mostly in ruins after a century of turmoil that culminated in a great cataclysm nearly thirty years ago. Fires, earthquakes, and evil portents destroyed or chased away most of the populace, but even the supposed waking of an ancient primordial could not kill the city completely. Some stubborn natives remained, carrying on in spite of countless hardships. Because of them—and because of the reconstruction efforts of the last decade—Neverwinter still stands, despite its tragedies. Today, the city is a center of trade, warfare both open and secret, and—above all—adventure. After so much abuse and neglect, much of the city’s architecture is damaged or lies in rubble. Recent repair efforts have given Neverwinter a patchwork appearance; slums are juxtaposed with new construction, all resting on the shattered remnants of old buildings. Certain districts are more intact than others, and former citizens have returned to such areas, thanks to the efforts of the city’s Lord Protector: Dagult Neverember, Open Lord of Waterdeep.

• Protector's Enclave: The Lord Protector of Neverwinter rules the city from the Hall of Justice, the old temple of Tyr. Farthest from the source of the great earthquake that struck Mount Hotenow almost three decades ago, this area of Neverwinter suffered the least destruction. This good fortune also made the district a primary target for Lord Neverember. He moved an overwhelming force of mercenaries into the district, secured his base, and, ever since, has spent half his time here and half in Waterdeep. The Protector’s Enclave stands mostly intact, and many former residents of the city have returned to live here alongside new immigrants. Although this district is the most stable part of Neverwinter, it chafes under the firm hand of Sabine, the general of Lord Neverember’s forces. Spies watch every neighborhood and notable gathering place, and Mintarn enforcers march through the streets. The Enclave boasts the best-stocked market in the city, thanks to trade from Waterdeep and other cities along the Sword Coast. The city taxes all transactions made here at a steep rate that the natives have grudgingly come to accept. The taxes pay for the Mintarn soldiers who watch every newcomer to the district with a sharp eye. In the enclave, suspicious or unfamiliar characters do not stay hidden for long.

• • Locations

• • • Hall of Justice: The high walls and imposing stonework of Tyr’s former temple mark it as a timeless bastion of duty and honor. The great temple stands atop a seaside bluff, challenging all threats from the Sea of Swords or inland Faerûn. When Lord Neverember set his sights on the city, he chose the Hall of Justice as his base of operations for its practical value (the cataclysm left it almost untouched) and its emotional significance to the people of Neverwinter. The city had long served Tyr, the god of justice, and even after the deity fell nearly a hundred years ago, the residents refused to convert the temple to worship of another god. By restoring the temple to its former status, Neverember seeks to win over the city’s traditionalists and establish himself as a champion of just rule. He sponsors priests of Torm whose rites emulate the Tyrran tradition, hoping to attract new devotees to the temple (and to the Lord Protector’s cause). For the most part, the scheme has worked. Some of the locals, however—particularly the Sons of Alagondar—think that Neverember’s presence defiles the great temple, which they now call the “Hall of Never-Justice.” The temple itself is a radiant and beautiful structure, big enough inside for giants to walk comfortably or for dragons to rest in the great hall, beneath the high-domed ceiling. The trappings of the building reflect a bygone age, one dedicated to justice and temperance in all things.

• • • The Lord’s Residence: From his office, which looks more and more like a throne room all the time, Lord Neverember issues edicts, coordinates the activities of his followers, and (when he can spare the time) holds audience with the impoverished citizens of the city. However, he has no facility for dispensing justice, and thus he has delegated that role to Soman Galt, whom he has appointed mayor of Neverwinter. The dwarf listens wearily to supplicant after supplicant, offering grudging mediation. Meanwhile, the lord enhances his image as the charismatic champion who does not stoop to petty politics. Neverember has decorated his private quarters after the fashion of Waterdeep, although he takes care to display no seal or coat of arms pertaining to his home city. He has taken the former high priest’s apartments for his own, and he garrisons most of his sellswords in the temple’s other chambers, with a score of servants to wait upon them. A few priests of Torm dwell in the complex, faithful to their god and his precepts.

• • • The Moonstone Mask: A vertigo-inducing journey along a cliffside trail takes the adventurous to a new fixture of the Neverwinter skyline. The earthmote now known as the Moonstone floats beside the western edge of the Protector’s Enclave, high over the docks below. It hangs a hundred feet above the crashing waves of the Sea of Swords, bound in place by thick chains strung to heavy anchors. A bridge that runs between the earthmote and the docks allows visitors to enter and exit the Moonstone. The inn for which the mote is named, the Moonstone Mask, offers guests lavish quarters, pleasurable company, and a hard-to-beat view. In no small part, the Moonstone Mask owes its rebirth and current existence to Lord Neverember and New Neverwinter. It repays the favor by housing many of the city’s Mintarn enforcers, including their commander, General Sabine. As such, mercenaries dominate the once-genial atmosphere of the hedonistic inn, and Neverember’s sellswords are known to argue or fight with other patrons

• • • The Wall: A great hodgepodge of wood and scavenged stone, the Wall separates civilized Neverwinter from the Chasm and the horrors it spawns. The Wall lets guards strike at targets from positions of relative safety, and it provides regular outposts for watchers. The thick mess of bloodstained refuse at the eastern base—not to mention the occasional rotting corpse of a more recent kill— speaks to the Wall’s success as a defensive fortification. In its early days, the Wall held off the monsters by shunting them toward parts of the city that had already been destroyed. When Neverember arrived, he made it a priority to reinforce what he saw as an effective defensive fortification with his own engineers and soldiers. At first, the Wall blocked only a few streets where attacks were common, but since the reconstruction started, it has expanded to stretch from the Neverdeath graveyard to the old House of Knowledge. In combination with the Neverwinter River, the Wall continues to provide effective containment, although people have spotted plaguechanged monstrosities in the northern River District and, more recently, near sewer holes around the city. The situation grows dire, and petitions for Wall expansion come before Mayor Galt every day.

• • • House of Knowledge: At the far northeastern end of the Wall stands what was, in happier times, a flourishing temple to Oghma, god of knowledge and wisdom. Before the quake, the House of Knowledge served as a repository of chronicled learning, including maps, history, and hundreds of poems and chapbooks produced over the centuries. Today, it looks less like a library and more like a refugee camp, holding the area where the Wall approaches the Neverwinter River. After the cataclysm, leadership of the reduced flock at the House of Knowledge fell to Brother Anthus, an elderly human interested in studying the Chasm and the Spellplague-touched creatures that came from it. His research led to the temple’s use as a haven for Spellplague sufferers. After Anthus’s death under mysterious circumstances, a young woman in residence known as the Prophet relocated the makeshift hospital and the remaining clerics of Oghma to Helm’s Hold, claiming a prophesied disaster would befall the city if she did not. After the Prophet departed, the badly damaged temple stood empty and abandoned until recently, when a handful of squatters moved back into the House. These refugees from the River District earn their keep by ringing the temple’s bells when they sight a new wave of monstrosities spilling from the Chasm toward the Wall. Lord Neverember is said to be quite pleased with their resourcefulness, and the Mintarn mercenaries that guard the Wall are known to stop by with small gifts of food and drink to show their appreciation.

• • • Neverdeath: A cracked stone wall, patched in places with thick wood, surrounds the graveyard called Neverdeath. Consisting of two wide, roughly square areas of the city, Neverdeath is filled with rows of headstones interspersed with mausoleums and crumbling statues, often overgrown with withered grasses. Time, the Spellplague, and the cataclysm all took their toll on the graveyard, thrusting some sections higher than others, collapsing buildings, and revealing graves. Coffins now jut from small cliffs, and tumbled bones litter the ground. The graveyard takes its name from a common blessing given over the dead. As long as the city remained in summer, it was said, the dead would never truly leave. Many think that winter is coming soon for the city’s dead, however. Neverember’s mercenaries fear the graveyard, preferring to burn the dead outside the walls of the burial ground. If they are not burned, corpses left lying nearby sometimes rise of their own accord. Beneath a large, unassuming mausoleum lie the catacombs of the Waterclock Guild, an organization of artisans famous for building beautiful and intricate timepieces.

• • • Neverwinter Docks: Much of Neverwinter’s original wealth and influence came from its position as one of the few deep ports on the Sword Coast. The Neverwinter docks were the commercial heart of the city, though in some ways that heart was infected with darkness and corruption. The Spellplague went some way toward purging that corruption—chunks of land broke away and rose into the sky, forming earthmotes that hovered overhead. The surviving residents of the city adapted, connecting the low-floating motes to the shore with ropes, chains, and bridges. However, the cataclysm later destroyed the foundations of these bridges, and the changed currents swamped whole areas of the port with tidal waves. Neverwinter’s already diminished trade dried up entirely, leaving the docks a rotting ghost town. Only a few fishers and the occasional pirate ship made port here. Lord Neverember made rebuilding this center of trade a top priority. As part of his first initiatives, he sent engineers and loggers to the Upland Rise, a forested hill outside the city that once served as a park for the city’s residents. The crews stripped the hill of all salvageable timber, leaving the Upland Rise a sparse echo of its former beauty, and used it to rebuild the docks. Today, supplies and coin flow into Neverwinter through the docks, along with repatriated refugees. The Lord Protector takes a keen interest in anyone entering the city in this manner, and charges steep tariffs on deals consummated at the docks.

• • • Tarmalune Trade House: The rebuilt docks have attracted visitors from across the sea—members of a trade cartel from the city of Tarmalune in Returned Abeir. They have arrived in Neverwinter to arrange permanent trade routes between the two continents, and to outmaneuver their rivals from the Abeiran city of Lylorn, who have landed in Luskan with a similar goal. The Abeirans have set up shop in a large warehouse complex next to a set of docks that are being rebuilt. The Tarmalune Trade House is a busy area where contacts gather, deals are made, and adventurers find their services in high demand.

• • • The Winged Wyvern: Of the three bridges that once crossed the Neverwinter River, only the Winged Wyvern remains largely intact. Mintarn mercenaries in the hire of Lord Neverember patrol it day and night, watching traffic to and from the northern portion of the city, charging a toll, and guarding against threats from Castle Never.

• • Notable NPCS

• • • Lord Dagult Neverember: The Open Lord of Waterdeep, Neverember arrived in Neverwinter about ten years ago and proclaimed himself the Lord Protector of the city. Over the past decade, Dagult Neverember has made progress in restoring the devastated city. Seeing an opportunity to add to his mercantile empire, Lord Neverember employed an army of artisans and carpenters to rebuild, and he hired mercenaries from Mintarn to keep monsters at bay and maintain order. Five years ago, Neverember established the Protector’s Enclave from his base in the Hall of Justice, and declared that section of the city safe for occupation once more. Since then, he has worked to tame the wild streets, rebuild the ruins, and coax refugees to return to their homes. The Open Lord of Waterdeep is a commanding noble. Big, boisterous, and affable, Neverember treats each new acquaintance as a friend. But beneath his congenial display, his quick mind is sizing up everyone in attendance, tallying potential gains or threats each could offer him. Neverember hasn't tried to claim the throne of Neverwinter (yet, at least), but he has floated the idea he is a descendant of Nasher Alagondar, a beloved lord from before the Spellplague. The protector’s savants have managed to trace the lord’s heritage to the adventurer Vers Never, a supposed bastard son of Lord Nasher Alagondar and younger half-brother to Bann, who succeeded their shared father as king. As Neverember tells it, Vers settled in Waterdeep and married Mirtria Ember, thus forming the “Neverember” name.

• • • General Sabine: A tough-as-nails mercenary named Sabine leads Neverember's Mintarn forces. She serves as Neverember’s chief enforcer in the city and has come to represent the harsher aspects of his beneficence.

• • • Soman Galt, Mayor of Neverwinter: Once a great explorer, Soman Galt has turned into a calculated politician who projects a cold, disconnected presence. The dwarf stares absently, his eyes seeming to watch something no one else can see, and he often mumbles to himself. He is capable of rigid focus, however, when the situation warrants it, and he takes his work seriously. A former government official, Galt was a natural choice when Neverember sought an underling to manage the city’s affairs. He oversees tax collection, grants of property, and city files.

• • • Liset Cheldar: This half-elf woman runs the Moonstone Mask with a wink and a smile. She genuinely likes most of the people she meets, and she flirts with anyone who seems receptive. A recently returned native of the city who inherited the inn, Liset was pleased to find the place still in one piece (and still floating). The legitimacy of her claim to the Moonstone was unclear, but, plying her natural charm, she successfully lobbied Neverember for funds to reopen the inn, and she maintains a bright smile thanks to his patronage.

• • • Durham Shaw: The Captain of the Wall, he holds the command of it under General Sabine, seeing to its defense and coordinating patrols of it between the Mintarn mercenaries and the hardened natives who refuse to give up their stewardship. While he's not too harsh of a commander compared to Sabine or the Mintarns in general, he's resented by many people for a different reason—he has been allowed to stay in the city and work on the Wall even though he suffers from the effects of the Spellplague. Some say Shaw receives this special treatment because he is a personal friend or distant relation of Lord Neverember.

• • • Loremaster Atlavast: The only priest who remained after the Prophet’s departure from the House of Knowledge, he is a middle-aged human who became the custodian of the library after the cataclysm. Fearing the worst as the cataclysm occurred, the loremasters of the temple sealed the inner sanctum, leaving the young Atlavast sealed within. As the ground shuddered and shook, Atlavast’s mind grew unstable. Now grown into an eccentric recluse, Atlavast keeps to the lower vaults, continually cataloguing and reorganizing. He is rarely glimpsed these days, and the main evidence of his existence is the occasional flickering light that filters up from cracks in the cobblestones in the dead of night. As a rule, no one ventures closer to investigate.

• Fisher's Float: This island hovers over the Sea of Swords beyond the southern end of the bay. Dotted with a smattering of shacks, it is the home and workplace of fishers who have lived on this earthmote since the Spellplague. Skilled at their trade and fearless of the weather and the turbulent sea, they provide a great deal of food for the city. For many years, rumors have spread that the fishers have thrived because of their worship of dark gods or unnatural alliances with creatures that live beneath the waves. Regardless of the veracity of these barstool stories, the people of Neverwinter happily eat the fish and crustaceans brought to land each morning and evening.

• Pirates' Skyhold: Neverwinter legends say that this high-floating earthmote served as an unassailable harbor for sky pirates in the years following the Spellplague. Because the mote floats a hundred feet up and could not be accessed by a direct path from the land, the pirates supposedly stored all manner of treasure there, as safe storage for wealthy or well-connected residents of the city. Then, the story takes a dark turn. All the pirates died in one night of blood and betrayal, leaving the treasure and their skyship on the mote—along with whatever slew them. Some people believe that a dragon has claimed the pirates’ loot as its hoard, taking the earthmote as its lair because the city below lacks the means to interfere. Regardless of the story’s truth, one thing is true—Pirates’ Skyhold has long been abandoned. From the right locations in Neverwinter, one can see rotting wooden buildings poking out of the forests of the mote, but whatever still exists up there has seen little intrusion in decades.

• Castle Never: An imposing fixture of Neverwinter’s western end, Castle Never stands as a monument to the city’s former glory. The cataclysm struck it hard, toppling towers, collapsing walls, and starting fires that burned throughout the structure. The entire royal family is thought to have perished, and the remaining servants sealed the vaults, crypts, and grounds with the hope that a worthy heir to Neverwinter would arrive one day to take his or her rightful place on the throne. On that day, it is said, the magic treasures and other resources of the castle will serve the new ruler. To the uninformed eye, Castle Never looks like a big, hulking ruin. Half its towers fell in the cataclysm, and the wall on its seaward side crumbled to rubble. Chunks of stone and fallen statues litter the windswept courtyard. Inside, the stone corridors stink of ash and dust, which swirls up around the feet of intruders. Even in their emptiness, the corridors never seem vacant. The spirits of the hundreds who died here linger on. The castle was built on a strong foundation, however, and if the structure were purged of monsters, it could be refurbished. Many of the interior rooms collapsed, but others stand eerily intact.

• • Locations

• • • Drow Encampment: The courtyard of Castle Never bears the traces of a camp that was well hidden but has become increasingly obvious from frequent use. The camp originally belonged to an infamous pair of drow: Drizzt Do’Urden, legendary ranger of the North, and the less well-regarded Jarlaxle, captain of the Bregan D’aerthe mercenaries. The two drow were in the area when the cataclysm claimed Neverwinter, and they still have interests in the region. The drow established this camp as a base of operations in Neverwinter, enabling them to keep an eye on their schemes in the city. At first, the camp consisted only of a few companions sharing a fire, but Drizzt’s and Jarlaxle’s occasional visits to the city encouraged young would-be adventurers to seek them out as teachers of the ways of combat and heroism. The drow, both grandmasters, have inspired a small following among the disenfranchised or ambitious youth of Neverwinter. After Drizzt and Jarlaxle’s last visit several months ago, half a dozen young citizens set up their own camp in this spot, where they practiced the ways of combat, dared one another to venture into the castle proper, and sought to make themselves apprentices to the two absent legends.

• • • Hall of Ashen Mirrors: Full-length mirrors once adorned the walls of this long corridor, wherein young heirs of Alagondar practiced their noble gait and posture. The mirrors shattered in the cataclysm, instantly killing anyone in the corridor at the time, just before a wave of searing gas blasted through the huge windows and turned the corpses to ash. This double catastrophe left the hallway a wasteland of soot and splintered glass.

• • • Fungal Bloom: This atrium once housed all manner of pretty birds and flowers. Since the cataclysm, they have been reduced to skeletons in gilded cages and rotted, desiccated blossoms. Boarded over to keep out the sunlight and trap the heat of rot inside, the cavernous chamber is suffused with dim blue light from glowing lichen.

• • • Web-Strewn Spires: Cobwebs fill the upper halls of Castle Never, and scrabbling noises can be heard in its high towers. Only the boldest explorers—those with no fear of fangs in the dark—venture up to the spires.

• • • Neverneath, Endless Maze: The catacombs beneath Castle Never came through the cataclysm mostly untouched, thanks to a warding spell commissioned in times past to maintain the structural integrity of the castle. However, the Spellplague wrought strange changes upon the ward, which has grown in strength. What once protected the catacombs now traps intruders. The complex beneath Castle Never, called Neverneath by locals, closes around trespassers. Corridors lead back around to themselves, and dead ends appear where tunnels led only moments before. Explorers can step through a door, turn around and go back through the same door, and end up in a different part of the dungeon. They can wander the abandoned halls and chambers for days without finding an exit.

• • • Vault of the Nine: Beneath the center of Neverneath lies a vault built especially for the legendary bodyguards of House Alagondar—the Neverwinter Nine. These great warriors served their beloved city in life, and they lie entombed with honor at her very foundation.

• • Notable NPCs

• • • Xalbyn: A moon elf who has established himself as the captain of the Drow Encampment in the absence of any actual drow. He's taken some of the younger would-be adventurers who stay or visit the camp under his wing, providing training and challenging them to complete minor quests. He values quick-witted warriors after his own heart.

• • • Aerlyse: A half-drow psion, she's a newer resident of the camp, who admires intelligence and charm. She has been tasked with securing the camp and making sure the denizens of the crypts beneath Castle Never don't spill out into the courtyard.

• Blacklake District: This region of Neverwinter stands largely intact in the wake of the cataclysm. Credit for the survival of the Blacklake District goes mostly to the nobles of Neverwinter who dwelt here and constructed their homes with extra support, both material and magical. Many of these nobles died in the fire that swept the area after the cataclysm, but their houses remain. The district holds a large number of overgrown estates, scores of stout, defensible holdfasts, and a large park that contains the lake for which the region is named. The water was polluted by a great deal of ash and rubbish in the quake, and today Blacklake looks more like a midden pit of sludge than a lake. Some locals are making an effort to dredge it and restore the surrounding environs. After securing the Protector’s Enclave, Lord Neverember’s mercenaries have turned more of their attention to Blacklake as the next district for resettlement, but their efforts have not been fruitful. Numerous secret societies aggressively resist their efforts to pacify the neighborhood. Blacklake harbors a great deal of old blood and nationalism, which takes the form of opposition to the Lord Protector. Muggers and hot-tempered duelists plague the streets of Blacklake, and political agitators hold small rallies or foment subtle conspiracies against the powers that be. The Sons of Alagondar set ambushes for Mintarn enforcers and wage pitched battles in the streets.

• • Locations

• • • The Driftwood Tavern: An inn and tavern that caters mainly to longtime locals, the Driftwood Tavern takes pride in having kept its doors open since before the Spellplague. When the cataclysm struck, innkeeper Madame Rosene, a serious woman now in her late fifties, sheltered refugees within her walls. The Driftwood offered people a makeshift city hall and gathering place during the troubled years. Madame Rosene and her regulars have filled the inside of the tavern with bric-à-brac, curios, and relics of Neverwinter before its fall. The statue from a favorite fountain stands in a corner. A wineseller’s planter boxes, filled with flowers, brighten the walls. A knob and a knocker from a noble’s estate are attached to the privy door. Ornate doors pulled from the wreckage make fine tables, and unbroken panes of stained glass hang overhead as chandeliers, lit by hundreds of carefully placed candles. Though the decorations have been salvaged from all over the city, the tavern does not feel junky, and no one thinks Madame Rosene is taking advantage of Neverwinter’s fall. Quite the opposite—the Driftwood is considered a monument to old Neverwinter, like a dusty painting of a beautiful girl hanging above the deathbed of an aged noblewoman. Prices for room and board at the tavern are high. The atmosphere is one of quiet reflection, rather than boisterous merriment. The Mintarn mercenaries stay away, preferring to eat and drink at the Moonstone Mask or some other cheaper place. Visitors to the city stop at the Driftwood to marvel at the museum of objects, or to learn about old Neverwinter from Madame Rosene for the (expensive) price of a drink and a meal.

• • • The Beached Leviathan: The Beached Leviathan tavern caters to sailors, smugglers, pirates, slavers, merchants, and others arriving by sea. The name of the tavern honors the owner's ship, Leviathan, which ran aground during a storm before the docks had been rebuilt. The tavern is built in and around the refurbished wreckage of the ship.

• • • The Swamped Docks: Below the more recent construction lie the remnants of the original docks: a splintering, rotting mass of ancient wood and stone that makes any number of natural lairs for aquatic creatures or hideouts for those on the run from the Mintarns. This area was partially submerged during the city’s devastation. Now, half-sunken buildings rot beneath seaweed, the drowned dead float through foul water, and amphibious horrors crawl up onto land. No one, not even Lord Neverember, looks forward to cleaning up this area, but the job must be tackled eventually. The city’s hand might be forced soon—sahuagin have been sighted in the bay, and disappearances from nearby areas have become common. Rumor has it that a halfling gang operates out of the swamped docks, led by a sneak thief named Palas. The halflings prey on those who wander the docks alone or in the dark.

• • • Vellgard Manor: At least one noble villa in the Blacklake District houses its actual owner, the dashing Mordai Vell holds sway over a small, well-guarded compound known as Vellgard Manor. The product of an affair between a devil and an member of a human family from the south, Mordai was a scandalous embarrassment hushed up by his human relatives. When they perished in the cataclysm, he inherited the family estate. Mordai moved back into the city before Neverember arrived and with the arrival of the Lord Protector, Mordai took a more visible role in the district. Charismatic, handsome, and wealthy, he has become a popular figure—a civic leader who, some whisper, might aspire to hold the throne of Neverwinter. The estate is an armed compound flanked by metal gates and hidden guards. An inner wall creates a killing field that could stop a small army.

• • • House of a Thousand Faces: With its broad windows and comfortable couches, this tavern is a popular gathering place in the Blacklake District. Amid mannequins dressed in the threadbare trends of thirty years past, patrons lounge about the airy interior, drinking, laughing, and scheming. Named for the dozens of mirrors and mannequins positioned about the common room, the House of a Thousand Faces once was a fashionable boutique. The cataclysm crippled the house’s business, and the owner, an elf named Theryis, packed up her remaining goods and closed her doors. When the city’s population began to recover and increase, she opened the shop again as a tavern, using the dusty clothes and mirrors as decoration.

• • Notable NPCs

• • • Madame Rosene: A serious woman in her late fifties, she is the tavernkeeper of the Driftwood Tavern. Only longtime customers and old friends come to the Driftwood regularly, a situation that suits Madame Rosene just fine, as she is slow to trust outsiders, placing her faith mainly in familiar citizens of old Neverwinter or their children.

• • • Harrag: A sallow former pirate captain who lost a leg in a battle with sahuagin long ago, he is the proprietor of the Beached Leviathan. Harrag is as a scurvy, independent scoundrel who will deal with anyone, but never permanently joins a side.

• • • Len-jes: A scarred watersoul genasi, she serves as Neverember’s harbormaster. Once a corsair on the Sea of Fallen Stars, she fled her enemies there and settled in Waterdeep. Neverember recognized her business acumen and recruited Len-jes to be his master of trade in the reborn city. The harbormaster’s head for numbers serves her well in balancing Soman Galt’s tax ledgers. Her less academic duties include dredging the bay to open more berths for trade ships. She permanently leases a chamber in the Beached Leviathan and can be found in the taproom there many nights, recounting her adventures as a corsair.

• • • Mordai Vell: Tall and dark, Mordai has luminous gold eyes even though most tieflings boast red or black ones. Charisma practically drips from him, setting all around him off their guard. His obvious wealth doesn’t hurt, either. As the last heir of a noble family (one whose holdings remained remarkably intact after the cataclysm), he exerts great influence over Neverwinter’s economy and politics. Mordai is arrogance incarnate. He pursues whatever interests him, regardless of how far he must reach. Mordai is a smooth operator—charming, rich, and always keen on how he might ally with new acquaintances and use them.

• • • Theryis: The owner of the House of a Thousand Faces, she has short, straight, silver hair and golden eyes. She can be friendly and kind to those she knows well, but often comes off as gruff and no-nonsense to others.

• • • Toram: A half-elf with long, wavy, red hair and blue eyes, he is Theryis's half-brother, though they bear little resemblance. He is competitive in a good-natured way, often challenging patrons of the Thousand Faces to friendly competitions in one thing or another. He lives at the tavern, staying in its basement, and helps his sister run it.

• River District: The River District takes its name from the terrain feature that has saved it from being overrun—namely, the Neverwinter River, which holds at bay the plaguechanged forces that emerge from the Chasm to the south. The bulk of Neverwinter’s merchant class once dwelt here, and the architecture shows it. The houses were sturdily built, and although they are not ostentatious, most are large enough to have held a family of six or eight plus servants. Guardhouses and security walls abound offering cover for skirmishers looking to ambush unsuspecting visitors. Long flower gardens run through the center of each street, although over the years they have gone to weeds or decay. One might think the Mintarns could have pacified the River District by now, but safety proves elusive, mostly due to a band of orcs in the ancient Cloak Tower at the eastern edge of the area. New Neverwinter’s forces occasionally venture into the district, but generally only as far as the Fallen Tower tavern. That establishment serves as neutral ground for negotiations between Lord Neverember and Vansi of the orcs, to whom the rest of the district belongs. Beasts from the surrounding wilderness occasionally stalk the streets here, hunting for food. Even if the orcs were not present, the other dangerous creatures would be reason enough for refugees to avoid this district, regardless of whether their houses remain standing. For now, a hastily erected barrier seals most of the River District from Blacklake. It usually stands unattended, since the Mintarn guards have better things to do than patrol the barrier, opting instead to post signs warning people away. Some people enter the district despite these warnings. The relative privacy makes discreet liaisons and daredevil games frequent occurrences in the River District, and stern parents have to caution youngbloods with a thirst for adventure against going in.

• • Locations

• • • The Fallen Tower: The broken base of an old wizard’s tower has long been the site of a popular tavern in Neverwinter. Within the Fallen Tower, phantoms form in the air each night, seeming solid and real as they replay the moments of their deaths during the Spellplague by appearing to fall into and through the cookfire in the middle of the tavern. Two terrified wizards, their bodies already ablaze, fall first, followed by another wizard whose limbs have turned into eels. Finally, a fourth wizard’s body descends as its flesh is stripped away, leaving the skull’s eerie grin as the last image to fade. Since before the cataclysm, the show has attracted customers to the Fallen Tower. When the Many-Arrows orcs discovered this vacant building, they found stores of wine and were in the midst of a celebration when the phantoms appeared. The orcs started to flee, but when it became clear that the spirits were harmless, the wine lured them back. Now the Many-Arrows orcs run the tavern as a place where members of their force and others worthy enough to join them can share a few drinks. The Lord Protector and the leader of the Many- Arrows orcs have declared the Fallen Tower neutral ground, and the orcs do not bother anyone who comes to the tavern to do business. No bouncers are needed, because anyone who breaks the truce of the tavern faces the blades of every patron present.

• • • Cloak Tower: An expeditionary force of orcs from the Many-Arrows kingdom has come to Neverwinter and makes its base in the structure known as the Cloak Tower. The orcs have defied all attempts to rein them in or push them out, and Lord Neverember is biding his time until he figures out how to get rid of them. For the moment, the orcs have helped to control the monster population in the northern half of the city. They tend to slay anyone who interferes with their business, including plaguechanged spawn that come up through the sewers on the north side of the river. The tower takes its name from a guild of mages called the Many-Starred Cloaks who lived and gathered there. They were well known in the city for their arcane skill and for the whimsical, colorful cloaks they wore. During the Spellplague, the tower and its occupants vanished. The tower reappeared half a year later on a different patch of ground in the city. As tavern tales have it, when thieves first broke into the tower several months after it first reappeared, they found empty halls and no mages (or bodies). Only the guild members’ many-starred cloaks remained, hanging from pegs on the walls. Then disaster struck the thieves: The lone survivor of the group told of a horrific attack from cloaks that suddenly came to life and enveloped the other bandits. Whether the tale or any part of it is true, the citizens of Neverwinter shunned the tower for decades thereafter—no one wanted to risk entering it. District residents expected that the orcs, too, would run afoul of the tower’s wards when they tried to occupy the place, but the warriors were able to move in safely. They have now established themselves quite nicely in the most protected holdfast in the district.

• • • The Shard of Night: A bleak tower of black stone hovers above a cluster of ruined apartments in the River District, seemingly sheared off at its base when it was torn from whatever location it once occupied. The tower has been here since the Spellplague, but no one who investigated the structure in the early years after its appearance ever returned, so people decided to leave it alone. The Shard of Night rises high into the sky over Neverwinter, but it casts no shadow during the day. Any creature that passes under the tower in daylight sees its own shadow disappear, as if the tower were absorbing the darkness. During the night, the tower casts a shadow by the light of the moon that looms over much of the area around the place. Nearby residents believe that the Shard of Night is haunted, since no one or thing is ever seen to come or go, yet sounds sometimes echo down from the opening in its base.

• • Notable NPCs

• • • Vagdru One-Ear: This orc veteran acts as bartender and purveyor of the Fallen Tower, providing whatever drinks the orcs can find and passing out raw meat of dubious origin for the patrons to roast at the central fire (or to eat uncooked if they want).

• • • Vansi: The commander of the orc force, she is a warrior known for her reaving flail and fearsome war cry. Ferocious even for an orc soldier, Vansi claims the streets of the River District as a colony of the Many-Arrows kingdom, governed from the mysterious Cloak Tower.

• The Chasm: The southeastern quarter of Neverwinter lies in almost complete ruin, virtually flattened by the earthquake during the cataclysm and since then under continual assault by plaguechanged monsters that emerge from the depths. At the center of this wasteland yawns the Chasm—a canyon-like crack in the earth that spawns all manner of twisted and deadly beasts. It supposedly extends down into the Underdark, but few have ever ventured down the Chasm and even fewer returned. Proximity to the Chasm causes mild anxiety, moodiness, and paranoia. The effects are obvious on people at the Wall, and they increase in intensity as one moves closer to—or deeper into—the Chasm. It becomes difficult to think clearly, and even allies seem to hold treachery in their hearts. Recently, this pervasive ill will has begun to radiate beyond the confines of the Wall, plaguing the dreams of Neverwinter’s residents with terrible nightmares.

• • Ruined Terrain: The surrounding land in the district that takes its name from the Chasm is a tangled maze of broken buildings and clotted streets, all of it battered by the elements and crushed under the paws of the Chasm’s monsters. Wall patrols venture into this wasteland only occasionally, since few who leave the barricade’s safety return. Those who do sometimes carry marks from the experience, such as azure burns, twisted limbs, or some other physical manifestation of a spellscar. Lord Neverember has ordered that anyone showing symptoms of infection should be sent to Helm’s Hold for treatment.

• • The Upper Reach: For the few people who have done it, climbing down into the Chasm resembles what they may have heard of tales about venturing into the Abyss. The first hundred or so feet are fairly normal, except for occasional swells of superheated air. Past that point, conditions grow more hostile. Elemental energy surges up from the depths in sudden storms. Earthmotes float in the pit, some drifting slowly and others bashing against the walls as though driven by demons. Handholds are scarce on the treacherous walls, which can explode with flame or lightning at any moment. Rocky outcroppings come and go, collapsing or molding themselves as onlookers watch. All manner of plaguechanged creatures dwell in pockets and on precipices in the upper Chasm. Some climb the walls, and others ride bolts of chaotic energy that flare from the bottom of the pit. These creatures rise like birds filling their wings with wind.

• • Few, if any, know what lies in the lower reaches of the Chasm...

• Underground Neverwinter: True danger in Neverwinter lurks in places the sun never touches—in the darkness beneath hundreds of tons of stone. Underground ruins abound in a city that has suffered so much damage. The Mintarn enforcers rarely venture below ground, preferring to deal with threats if and when they emerge onto the surface. Thus, sewers and crypts make perfect lairs for all sorts of creeping, scheming evil.

• • Shattered Sewers: When the cataclysm struck, Neverwinter’s sewer system took a serious beating as buildings collapsed into their foundations, leaving a maze of precarious wreckage and treacherous tunnels. The sewers quickly became dangerous in the extreme, home to all manner of awful beasts. Provided one is willing to risk getting lost or being attacked, the extensive sewers provide a means of moving about the city. This method of travel is confusing and potentially deadly, however—one never knows when a building overhead will collapse, bringing part of the ceiling down with it, or when a group of underworld squatters might ambush intruders. The tunnels near the Chasm are particularly hazardous because they play host to aberrant beings. The forces of New Neverwinter rarely search the sewers, so rebels and schemers use the filthy tunnels freely.

• • Kraken Tunnels: A seaside, underground maze shaped vaguely like an octopus, this complex once belonged to the Kraken Society, a ruthless conglomerate of slavers and blackmarket traders that sought to control the Sword Coast. Many rooms throughout the complex have openings in their floors, revealing the dark, murky water that lies beneath.

• • Tunnels and Trenches: The opening of the Chasm and the earthquakes that brought down many buildings in southeastern Neverwinter collapsed many of the sewers in the district. This created trenches in or beside the streets and tunnels where the sewers had not collapsed. These pathways now provide cover for the movement of monsters beyond the Wall and secure places to which they can retreat when repelled from their frequent assaults. The sewers, trenches, and ruined buildings offer an excellent tactical advantage by allowing the forces of the Chasm to approach close to the Wall without sustaining attack, but this is offset by the high vantage of the House of Knowledge, whose occupants ring a bell when they can see significant movement in the far-off trenches. Unfortunately for the Wall’s defenders, night and weather can obscure observation of the trenches, and thus they often use arbalests to launch balls of flaming pitch into the district in the hopes of illuminating the scene.

Helm's Hold

Once a bastion of safety on the edge of Neverwinter Wood, the fortified monastery and community called Helm’s Hold has endured through the last decades, diminished but unyielding. It has lived through the death of the god who gave the place its name, the ravages of the Spellplague, and the ruination of Neverwinter. Through all this, Helm’s Hold has taken a serious beating but stubbornly clings to its original purpose: to provide sanctuary for those who none. Helm’s Hold has always been a place of healing and protection for the people of Faerûn. Even when Helm perished a year before the Spellplague, the monastery remained open, seeking to aid those with nowhere else to turn. During the decades after the Spellplague hit, the Hold became one of the few safe destinations—if not the only one—along the Sword Coast. The cataclysm once again made clear the need for Helm’s Hold and its services. Its doors have remained open over the years, admitting all who suffer, regardless of race, background, or faith. Today, the monastery proper serves as an asylum for those cursed with the Spellplague. People from all over Faerûn make the pilgrimage here for treatment, as do people from Neverwinter, which is less than a day’s journey to the northwest. In fact, Lord Neverember issued a standing order a year ago that anyone in the city showing symptoms of Spellplague infection should be sent to Helm’s Hold as soon as possible. The influx of the needy since that time has swelled the town’s numbers, but tolerance is in the air here, so the spellscarred feel more at home in the Hold than anywhere else in the Realms. Originally a small monastery and its surrounding village, Helm’s Hold has grown over the decades. The cathedral’s foundation had hardly been laid when Helm died, but the people finished it as a monument in his honor. Helm has become a cultural icon here—a patron saint of the community—and all followers of all gods are welcome under his watchful gaze.

• Locations

• • The Hungry Flame: A decrepit tavern which has a reputation for being unfriendly to patrons who are not spellscarred. The place is a rogue’s gallery of the strange and twisted.

• • The Dragon’s Gauntlet: The battered town hall of Helm’s Hold, formerly an inn, is a popular gathering place for the people of the city, as well as a forum for its tempestuous governmental process. The people of the town are rugged individualists at heart, a characteristic that does not always mesh well with governmental edicts. Loud shouts, challenges, and shows of intimidation are acceptable methods of discussing legislation.

• • Heartward: Life and death are both on stage in the plaza called Heartward at the center of Helm’s Hold, where a marketplace is arrayed around a hangman’s scaffold. Food and gold are both scarce in the marketplace, and brawls break out between customers who feel cheated. Soldiers keep watch from the perimeter of the plaza. Town criers declaim the words of the Prophet, particularly when she has foretold something seen as especially wonderful or dire. The pronouncements are entertainment as well as news, since people love debating exactly what her portents mean. The Heartward’s chief notoriety is a haunting that fills the plaza on certain nights, when clouds obscure the waning moon. Luminous shapes appear—a gathering of ghosts that go about the business of the living. Phantom vendors sell ephemeral apples at empty stands, ghost children run happily through the streets, and spirits hang one another at the scaffold. Some of the scenes appear to be reenactments of past events, whereas others have not occurred—at least, not yet. The ghosts speak mostly nonsense, but some of what they say might offer clues to past or future happenings. The plaza’s name comes from a small shrine on the edge of the marketplace devoted to Sune, goddess of beauty and romance, which is a favored meeting place for lovers in the city. On haunted nights, couples gather at the shrine, hoping for a thrill.

• • The Old Dirty Dwarf: The region’s hard years have closed many businesses, but the Old Dirty Dwarf has stood the test of time. The best inn and tavern in Helm’s Hold, the Old Dirty Dwarf caters mostly to newcomers to the city. In the wake of the Lord Protector’s occupation of Neverwinter and his increasing presence in the Hold, Mintarn mercenaries have come to dominate the inn’s patronage, often with new exiles from Neverwinter in tow.

• • Scar Alley: Numerous setbacks have taken their toll on the structures and the people of Helm’s Hold. Nowhere in town is this fact more evident than in the oldest district—Scar Alley, a small collection of weathered streets where the least fortunate residents live. The district is home to the worst spellscarred in town, those shunned because of their extreme physical deformities. During the Spellplague, the ground upon which the Hold is built softened, causing some buildings to bow or lean precariously out over the streets. Much of the original stone construction of Scar Alley is approaching ruin, and the residents do what they can to bolster the failing structures with planks, mortar, and fresh stone. The district is poorly patrolled, full of hovels that are frequented by shady characters or infested by monsters.

• • Helm's Cathedral: The cathedral to the dead god Helm lost its original religious purpose long ago and became a sanatorium for the ailing, tended by the aging faithful who still honor the traditions of their deity. The spellscarred find treatment here, and many of the servants in the cathedral are also patients. They work as part of their treatment. The Prophet Rohini is the undisputed master of Helm’s cathedral, even if she disdains political status. She exists, she says, only to pass on the mysterious prophecies of her equally mysterious faith. The cathedral can hold about a thousand souls. Most of them are patients of the sanatorium, though a few enjoy relatively good health and handle the day-to-day maintenance of the temple. A dozen or so acolytes who have skill in non-magical healing or an aptitude for service keep order in the cathedral. Several followers of Oghma labor alongside the former Helmites, continuing the work of the late Brother Anthus.

• • • Halls of the Guardian: The daylight floors of the temple look much as they did a hundred years ago: hung with banners of Helm’s sigil and warded at all corners by suits of armor that feature stylized eyes on their gauntlets and prominent, blankfaced helms. Cavernous chambers soar high through flying buttresses, and great statues of Helm and heroes of legend gaze down upon supplicants. The walls block most sound, but sometimes a cry or an incoherent rant reverberates up from the deeper levels of the complex. The effect is a sharp contrast in what otherwise appears to be a glorious temple. The great hall of the cathedral could accommodate a hundred men-at-arms comfortably, though today it has a far different purpose. It is here that the Prophet sits in audience, dispensing her predictions of future events. If asked to do so, she may lay her hands on those in attendance and tell their fortunes.

• • • Sanatorium: Beneath the stately, well-lit halls on the surface, the lower levels of the cathedral grow darker and more frightening. A sanatorium hides in the vaults: a maze of cramped corridors that houses a growing number of spellscarred victims, who struggle with insanity or physical deformities. Once a day, the patients are allowed out onto the cathedral grounds, under close observation by priests. Although the madness of these unfortunates unnerves most visitors, the Prophet spends a great deal of time in the sanatorium without being affected. To the folk of Helm’s Hold, this is a sign of her compassionate nature.

• • Beneath Helm's Hold: Through the many years that Helm’s Hold has stood, its occupants delved underground. Their crypts and ossuaries utilized natural caverns as well as chambers left in the earth by old empires, creating a vast network of tunnels and levels. Once the domain only of the peaceful departed, these places have now been invaded by the living, making the dead grow restless.

• Notable NPCs

• • Halas: A charismatic half-elf, he is a former landowner in Neverwinter who came to Helm's Hold after being afflicted with a spellscar. He is an informal leader of the spellscarred, and pushes back against those who wish them gone.

• • Meryth: A female elf, she is another informal leader of Helm's Hold's spellscarred population. She advocates peaceful resistance in the face of prejudice.

• • Rohini, the Prophet of Helm’s Hold: Rohini is the main healer and head researcher of Helm's Hold monastery, taking over in that last role for the now deceased Brother Anthus, who passed away shortly after her arrival at the House of Knowledge. Rohini earned her sobriquet through the foretellings she speaks of pivotal events to come, both good and ill. The Prophet claims knowledge of extraordinary mysteries beyond mortal understanding. She says this awareness gives her the power to purify the worthy. She bestows healing on individuals that have been visited by the Spellplague. Although Rohini does not sit in overt leadership in the cathedral, the acolytes, servants, and patients bow to her, calling her simply “Prophet.”

• • Dunfield: An old associate of Lord Neverember, he leads a band of mercenaries the Lord Protector has lent Helm's Hold to serve as a town watch. Hard-bitten and cynical, Dunfield remains an honorable man who tries to keep his soldiers in line and serve the community as best as he can.

• • Alisara Callum: Everyone in Helm’s Hold pays deference to her, the town’s elected Chief Speaker. Her ability to inspire loyalty helps to keep the haphazard government functioning. A former soldier now past her prime, Alisara brings a note of legitimacy to the council. She wears a frayed purple tabard with a white dragon sigil—the symbol of her former service with the Purple Dragon Knights of Cormyr—which some locals consider to be her personal coat of arms. Alisara is well liked, though her policies of accepting the spellscarred irk some in the city.

• • Doloran Bard: An aging farmer and councilman whose family long ago helped build the original monastery, he is wary of trusting the direction of Helm’s Hold to an outsider. An unrepentant purist when it comes to the spellscarred, Bard would prefer that the town push out the “unclean” hordes and return the Hold to its original purpose.

• • Juetta: A human female of about thirty years, she is the proprietor of the Old Dirty Dwarf, an establishment that is mostly safe, if none too clean. The Old Dirty Dwarf welcomes all, but some of the staff makes an exclusion for spellscarred, actively discouraging their business. Juetta frowns on this sort of behavior, but she can’t be everywhere in the place at the same time, so she can’t stop the growing tensions that bubble over in the tavern from time to time.

• • Brother Satarin: An acolyte before Helm’s death, the young dwarf took his vows shortly before the god fell. Satarin stayed at the cathedral, teaching the ways of his fallen master and attending to the needy after the rest of Helm’s clergy left the place for other gods or retired from the cloth. Now, at the age of 160, Satarin is as close to a high priest as the cathedral is likely to see again, though he firmly eschews any title but Brother. He opened the cathedral’s doors to the Prophet at the request of Brother Vartan, a priest of Oghma whose research on resurrecting dead gods was of interest to the still-devout Satarin.

• • Torlgar: The warden of the sanatorium is Torlgar, a hulking goliath. An early convert to Rohini’s ways, Torlgar is fiercely loyal to his beloved mistress, to the point of death or beyond.