D&D 5E: Trickster's Gambit - Setting Elements

The Dwarven Empire

The Dwarven Empire represents the largest government on the Shattered Coast and occupies the entirety of the Hartshorn (a vast mountain range and forestland to the west) as well as the arable land between the mountains and the coast north of the Great Sands and south of the Clanlands of the northern barbarian tribes.

The Empire includes Dwarves, Gnomes, Elves, and Humans among its protected peoples.

The Wolf Gate and the Raven Gate

Five ancient stone gateways older than recorded time are interspersed throughout the Shattered Coast. Though the use of them is lost, the ancient standing stones are still considered powerful totemic monuments, and two of them stand within the borders of the Empire.

Named for the knotwork animal carvings on their faces, the Wolf Gate stands in the center of the great Hartshorn range, and the Raven Gate stands in the south of the range, marking the entrance to the Hall of the Mountain King.

The Cities

There are countless settlements throughout the Empire, but only three major cities.

Bar Kesh: City of Swords

Bar Kesh is the Capitol of the Empire. A great trade city on the coast at the mouth of the Blood River, the City of Swords is perhaps the most cosmopolitan city north of the Tiefling Confederacy, with races from all over the Empire, the Confederacy, and the Reach represented.

Ruvyntarn

Ruvyntarn began as a fortress in the days of the Dwarven Barbarian wars, and grew from there. Spartan and hard, Ruvyntarn is primarily inhabited by dwarves and humans and even in these times of peace still mostly serves as a bulwark against the barbarians of the clanlands to the north.

The bulk of the stoneships of the dwarven navy are harbored in Ruvyntarn Sound.

Hall of the Mountain King

The Hall of the Mountain King is at once a religious and historic destination and the seat of dwarven industry. The mines of the dwarves, the ores and gems of the earth's heart, flow through the Hall as does the lumber of the vast forest west of the mountains.

And while the bladesmiths of Bar Kesh are rivaled by none in their trade, the majority of dwarven metallurgy and manufacture takes place beneath the mountains.

The Empire is governed from the City of Swords, but the matriarchs of the Five High Houses live in the hallowed Hall as does the Mountain King herself.

The Chasm

Beginning in the forges deep within the Hall of the Mountain King, a great crack in the earth runs through the mountain bedrock east to the sea, a wound in the earth from the peaks to the depths of Treacher's Deep.

The Chasm connects the Hall with Bar Kesh.

The Blood River

Named for it's red color from the runoff of raw iron ore, the Blood River runs from the depths of the dwarven forges below the mountains to the capitol on the coast, traversing the depths of the chasm. Due to the high walls of the Chasm's banks and the violence of the river itself, the only craft that traverse its waters are barges guided on massive rope leads sunk into the sides of the chasm with deep iron rings.

The Hartshorn

The Hartshorn is a vast region that encompasses the central mountain range of the Shattered Coast and extends west and north through the massive forestland beyond the range.

The Pass of Jade

The northernmost pass through the Hartshorn range connects the frozen flatland of the Sundered Steppes and the northern forest. This pass used to be hotly disputed between the Dwarves and the Barbarian tribes to the north, but now only sees the occasional skirmish.

Hartshorn Pass

The broadest and most widely traveled pass between the eastern grasslands and the forest within the Empire is the Hartshorn Pass, the northern edge of which is fortified with several box towers.

Pass of Shale

To the south of the range the Pass of Shale is a barren pass just north of the Great Sands of the southron desert, and it is used peacefully by both the Empire and the Confederacy. There is a box tower on either end of the pass and a bizarre tent village stretched between them in the fashion of the bazaars of the southlanders.

The Pass of Shale is the shortest of the major passes and is agreed by one and all to be a fine and managable road from nowhere to nowhere.

Kir Ja

Kir Ja is the northernmost of three ancient stone towers stretching high above the mountain peaks. Though it stands within the bounds of the Empire, the shamans of the steppe barbarians control it now.

Kir Lan

Kir Lan, the middlemost of the towers and situated between the Wolf Gate and the Raven Gate, serves as the remote hub of advanced arcane learning within the empire.

Kir Ijon

Kir Ijon, equidistant between Bar Kesh and Ruvyentarn, is a towering ruin, infested with the tattered spirits of whatever cataclysm laid it bare.

Grimdane Vale

Remote and hidden in the deep folds of the mountains, Grimdane Vale was once a Plague town, a place of exile during the black times of Dwarven history. After that it was used for nearly a century as a penal colony until the inmates rose up against their wardens, took the town, and held it against three attempts to reclaim it.

Now it is the haven of the Blackhand, guildmaster of the Dwarven assassin's guild. Any outsider found in the Vale after dark is either murdered in the night or survives until morning and takes the brand of the hand.

The Tiefling Confederacy

The Tiefling Confederacy is mostly a moiety of Tieflings and Dragonborn. The Tieflings mostly concern themselves with governance and law and commerce while the Dragonborn make up the army and craftsmen of the confederacy. Both races function within a caste system wherein the lower castes are farmers and builders and the like respectively.

The Tiefling Parliament is probably at once the most strait and convlouted governing body in the entirety of the shattered coast.

The Serpent Gate

At the southern end of the Great Sands, half buried in the dunes, the Serpent Gate stands mostly ignored, though it is said among the caravanserai to provide good shade in the middle morning and middle afternoon if a stop is warranted in the absence of water.

Adamalasha

On the southron tip of the peninsula of the Ferrous Wastes stands the city of Adamalasha. The city rises in layers to culminate in the peak of the great zigurat in the center of the city.

The Ferrous Wastes

Along either coast of the peninsula below the Great Sands, the Ferrous Wastes are an iron rich mesaland and the source of most of the Confederacy's wealth.

The Great Sands

North of the Wastes stretch the dunes of the great Sands, a vast desert separating the Confederacy from the Empire.

The Water Homes

The Water Homes are a series of oases that can be found dotted about the meandering expanse of the desert.

The Wind Road

The Wind Road is the trade route between Adamalasha and the Empire and loosely connects the Water Homes along its route. No paved road marks the route and markers are unrelible in the vastness of the desert and the terrible winds that sweep through it.

The Wind Road may only be reilably traversed by sextant and star.