Starter Set Sandbox 19 - The City of Neverwinter

For some strange reason, the city of Neverwinter was never properly mapped in an RPG product until 4E's Neverwinter Campaign Setting, and it was really only described in Volo's Guide to the North and then The North boxed set (the latter product was essentially a copy-and-paste version of the former).

It was, however, subsequently mapped and described in the original Neverwinter Nights and the CRPG's strategy guide(s). That means that there is not a lot of canon material - and in my version of the Realms, I avoid the CRPGs, in the main, as a source of canon - to draw upon but Volo's Guide, in particular, gives a few great ideas from the pre-Spellplague era that can complement the great job WotC did with the Neverwinter Campaign Setting.

This is the final post in my Starter Set sandbox series and is, clearly, long overdue. At first the delay was caused by my desire to finish my first Neverwinter campaign but then the combination of Third World internet and a new baby kept me from returning to blogging... especially when I also knew that this was going to be an extremely long post. I suspect I will also have to go back and edit this post because most of it was typed in 2015 so some of the links and whatnot may no longer work.

   

If you haven't read any of the other posts in this series, the <table of contents can be found here>. The 5E Starter Set tag will also pull up a list of all the posts, but not as conveniently as the ToC. And if this post is too long, just buy Volo's Guide to the North and steal all your Neverwinter adventure ideas from that book. :)

Neverwinter: Ruins of Adventure

While TSR may have been horribly managed, one thing it was able to do that WotC doesn't look it's ever going to be able to do is to find good partners to produce CRPGs. Of course, that was back in the days when computer games were relatively small time, and not part of an industry that (apparently?) exceeds studio films with respect to revenues (although the Marvel films may have changed that).

The first of the so-called Gold Box games was Pool of Radiance which also had a related D&D adventure published called FRC1 Ruins of Adventure. I had intended to post a link to the PDF on dndclassics.com but, for some strange reasons, it isn't there. Odd. That said, as with all of the TSR adventures and thanks to WotC's stupidity in pulling PDFs from sale for about five years, it's only a Google search away. The link is to the Wikipedia page instead. Also, the Wikipedia article notes that the CRPG was based on the tabletop adventure and not the other way around. Interesting.

The adventure's structure is simple: the city of Phlan and the surrounding region are divided up into regions/districts/locations/what have you and each of those regions/districts/locations/what have you includes one or more threats. The end of the adventure sees you fighting the final boss monster: a bronze dragon possessed by what might be referred to in 4E and 5E terms as an evil primordial.

Neverwinter

I find that this basic structure works really well with Neverwinter and you can see echoes of it in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting.  And this really long-winded introduction is basically my way of saying: this post turns Neverwinter into Ruins of Adventure with your PCs accepting quests (or motivating themselves) to clear various zones of the assorted riff-raff that make those zones unsafe for rebuilding by the new ruler of Neverwinter, whoever that may be.

Who Rules Neverwinter?

The Neverwinter Campaign Setting has Dagult Neverember, the Open Lord of Neverwinter, ruling Neverwinter as the Lord Protector and claiming some sort of blood-related link to the last (and maybe only) king of Neverwinter, Nasher Alagondar. That's definitely an option.

With my current Neverwinter campaign, I used Dagult but I made him a cultist of Graz'zt whose fortune was tied to his membership of the heretical cult of Graz'zt at the heart of the church of Waukeen. (In other words, in my version of the Realms, Waukeen remained Graz'zt's prisoner after the 2E era and the adventure For Duty & Deity never happened.)

If either the official Dagult Neverember or my cultist Dagult Neverember are not to your taste, you could also have Neverwinter ruled by a governor on behalf of the Lords' Alliance. This could work really well in the 5E era if you are using factions. (I hope to be starting another Neverwinter/Twilit Land campaign with a new group this year and I am planning to use this for that campaign... although I am actually thinking of having a council of five or so governors, not all of whom share the same objectives....)

If you're setting your campaign in the 5E era, which seems to be about a decade after the 4E era, another option is that the rightful Alagondar heir has been found and is now seeking to rebuild his or her city... and is likely also needing protections from assassins or whatnot.

On the subject of factions, I have been a fan of the Zhentarim since the OGB. A city like Neverwinter with coastal access and roads leading to Waterdeep and the Dessarin Valley would be attractive from the perspective of their trade interests: what if a Zhentarim pawn is Neverwinter's lord instead?

I suppose I could keep posting ideas - and I may edit some more in later - but I think it's important point to decide who is ruling Neverwinter and what his or her real motivations may be. Ideally, those motivations should also tie into elements of the background of one or more of the PCs.

If you're looking for inspiration about how to include politics in any campaign, I strongly recommend <this video> and <this video> by Matt Colville.

Who is the End Boss?

In the spirit of Ruins of Adventure, the idea of an end boss who is ultimately responsible for many of the threats that the city is facing is an attractive one. IMC, it was Graz'zt, or at least an aspect of Graz'zt, and that has worked out well so far in terms of inspiring various encounters and providing a link between various events that otherwise seem unrelated.

Do you want the same in your game?

The Zhentarim can, of course, fulfil such a role and I have already mentioned them in the previous section about who rules Neverwinter. If your game is going to draw on material from the Neverwinter MMORPG, then the ex-Arcane Brotherhood-and-now-Thayan lich Valindra Shadowmantle might prove to be suitable. My next campaign is likely to be focussed on the threat posted by the aboleth of The Chasm (see my notes below) which means it's going to feel a lot like 2E's Night Below and the aboleth are going to be the final boss monsters, plural.

What about the MMORPG?

I have never played games online so I don't know much about the Neverwinter MMORPG, per se; I have, however, used some of the YouTube videos, screenshots, and (most of all) concept art to provide visual cues for my Neverwinter campaign. I can recommend those and a couple of the concept art pieces are used in this post (including the one at the top).

I also imagine there are adventure/quest ideas that can be stolen from the Neverwinter walkthrough guides or wikias. (I remember strategy guides for the pre-online Blizzard games: does Neverwinter have one?)

What are the Zones?

Based on the map I posted above, these are the adventuring zones I have divided the city into:

• Blacklake District
• Castle Never
• The Chasm
• The Docks (not marked on the map but this is where you can see the Beached Leviathan and Driftwood Tavern)
• Fisher's Float
• Neverdeath
• Pirates' Skyhold
• Protector's Enclave
• River District (this is known as the Tower District in the MMORPG)
• Upland Rise

The rest of this post will provide some notes on opportunities and threats in each of these zones. I should also mention that the rest of this post will make more sense if you have access to 4E's Neverwinter Campaign Setting and 2E's Volo's Guide to the North but I will try and include enough material so you can make sense of my suggestions even if you have only one or neither.

Blacklake District

I may be tackling the zones in alphabetical order, but this is definitely a great place to start. Why? It has sewers and wererats, two staples of any urban D&D campaign or adventure.

Dealing with the wererats, of course, can easily become the primary focus of adventures in Blacklake District, but rival thieves' guilds can also play a part. IMC, I had a band of halflings down by the docks that was able to survive against the wererats in large part because their leader was a halfling vampire. (These were the Kneecappers. The vampire's attack involved knocking someone prone and then feeding from the femoral artery.)

Beyond combat, there is the problem of the Blacklake itself. It's a toxic mess and resettling the district really requires that the lake itself get a clean-up but how to do that? There's a relatively obscure nature deity in FR responsible for, inter alia, pure waters named Eldath. There's an even more obscure reference to a temple of hers in 2E's Prayers from the Faithful which places the Fastness of Green Shadows in the Neverwinter Wood.

What if the PCs are given a quest to cleanse Blacklake and told to seek out the Chaunteans of Upland Rise (see below) to ask their assistance in cleaning up the mess? The Chaunteans cannot help but point the PCs in the directions of the Eldathyn of the Fastness of Green Shadows. The Eldathyn are willing to help but, as committed pacifists, they are unable to deal with a problem that their temple is facing. If the PCs deal with that on behalf of the Eldathyn, they give/loan the PCs an Eldathyn relic which will clean Blacklake. (IMC, I would probably also require a ritual... and then have foul horrors hiding in Blacklake attack while the ritual is being performed. YMMV.)

Castle Never

Despite its prominence on the city map and in the art I showed my players on my laptop - oh, and the fact that it is also on the cover of the Neverwinter Campaign Setting - in 20+ sessions of our Neverwinter campaign they have never once asked a question about it or tried to explore it or even noticed that it was there.

Odd

They were greatly surprised when I used that as part of the campaign's story: basically, Castle Never became the focus of the ritual that Graz'zt was preparing and part of that ritual had the side-effect of causing people to essentially forget about the tower. It seems an in-game ritual had an out-of-game effect....

Megadungeon

As it is highly unlikely that other players would do the same thing, I won't recommend that idea for anyone else. 

Concept Art for Castle Never

What I would recommend, especially for anyone running 5E or (other) old school D&D/AD&D rules is that you turn it into a megadungeon. Assume the Red Wizards of Thay unleashed some evil magic there and go a bit wild in the traditions of, inter alia, Castle Greyhawk and The Ruins of Undermountain.

Such a megadungeon would be fairly undead-heavy in terms of encounters, but you could also have living Thayans conducting experiments, constructs they use as a guardians, weird magical effects that are the side-effects of Thayan experiments, summoned creatures that guard certain areas, and even orcs and gnolls that the Thayans have here as living guards.

Also, the Neverwinter Nine - Nasher Alagondar's legendary bodyguards - are entombed beneath Castle Never. Both the Neverwinter Campaign Setting and the MMORPG turn them into undead as a result of Thayan necromancy: go a step further and make them into death knights! Make the crypts of Castle Never a place to be really feared... but match the danger of the encounters with the best loot in true megadungeon style. <Link to Neverwinter Nine concept art.>

While my own campaigns are focussed on story and much small adventure locations, I still like the idea of Castle Never as a megadungeon in the tradition of, particularly, The Ruins of Undermountain because it offers players a chance to do "normal" D&D adventures even if only for a session or two. My own players sometimes need a break from plots and simply need to explore and fight for a session or so. 

(This actually motivated one of the best sessions of our Neverwinter campaign where they fought a large orc war band and balor in a canyon filled with tar pits. While I tied it in to an important plot point, it really was something they did because they just wanted to fight some orcs for a change. I even avoided orc spellcasters of any sort just to make it simpler... but I also threw in the balor because that's what evil DMs do.)

Similarly, after the smaller adventure locations of Lost Mine of Phandelver, in the main, perhaps your players might also be ready for an old school megadungeon?

The Chasm

It's fair to say that I love The Chasm: the idea of this rift leading down to the Underdark in the middle of a city is simply rife with adventure possibilities.

There is, of course, the challenge of simply getting to the bottom. What does that mean in your Neverwinter? In mine it meant using climbing harnesses and going down an earthmote then crossing the earthmote and repeating the process with the climbing harnesses. (This super-cautious approach was driven by the desire of the players to simply avoid any possibility of falling... but at the cost of time.)

If you choose the same set-up in your Neverwinter, are any of the earthmotes or similar horizontal platforms inhabited? An adventure like 3E's The Sunless Citadel would make sense in a place like The Chasm: perhaps the PCs spy the entrance on the way down or are attacked by the kobolds or goblins that lair in that place?

The primary question to answer, though, is this: What's at the bottom of The Chasm? In the Neverwinter Campaign Setting the answer was plaguechanged creatures including plaguechanged aboleth but I imagine a lot of 5E and other DMs don't want to touch the Spellplague.

I also went with plaguechanged creatures but the highlight for my group was The Sinister Spire. The Sinister Spire was one of the good 3.5E adventures published by WotC toward the end of that edition and, thus, sadly often overlooked.

Assuming I do run another Neverwinter campaign, I suspect I will actually use the Seven-Pillared Hall from 4E's H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth as I suspect I won't be using plaguechanged creatures again.

Anyway, aside from some sort of Underdark trading post, The Chasm is an easy introduction to the Underdark with a safe city only a short climb away. My players encountered troglodytes, aboleth, a gelatinous cube, giant bats, skum, and even dwarven guardian golems plus the drow-flavoured encounters of The Sinister Spire (drow, duergar, spiders, quaggoths etc...). I also threw in some more interesting areas - slaadi vs githzerai where the Elemental Chaos was "leaking" into Toril, hook horror nest, winged sword-armed thing hives etc... - but the PCs stayed with their primary mission and chose not to explore. Hopefully your players and my group will be more adventurous because The Chasm has the potential to be one of the major adventure locations in Neverwinter.

The Chasm V2

In the campaign that I ran in Neverwinter, my players inadvertently - and, to this day - unknowingly broke the elemental bindings that were holding a city of aboleth in the petrified state known as the Long Dreaming and described in 3.5E's Lords of Madness.

(The entire set-up - including the city's name of Golismorga - was stolen from an adventure in the Savage Tide adventure path from the pages of the physical Dungeon magazine. Credit where credit is due, and all that.)

The consequences of this mistake were never explored in that campaign but, if I ever return to Neverwinter, it's definitely going to be a major story arc.

To that end, I used my kindergarten-level Paint skills to fill the Chasm with water: Yes, I was going to make it very easy for the aboleth to have access to Neverwinter. I thought that I might run an adaptation the 3E adventure The Speaker in Dreams and replace the illithid BBEG with one or more aboleth from the now flooded city of Golismorga. I suspect 2E's Night Below boxed set could provide further inspiration for a major aboleth plot as well.

The Docks

So, you're new in Neverwinter and you need a place to stay. Where will that be? If money is tight, chances are you're going to start at the Docks as my PCs did. And the Beached Leviathan - see the picture to the left - is perfect for that because 1. there's a really good picture of it, 2. there are really good maps for it, and 3. there was a DDi article published for it describing it in detail. (And, yes, you do need to be a DDi subscriber to legally download that article... or you can just use Google and grab it anyway. And, no, I am not advocating piracy: I've actually grabbed DDi articles this way by mistake when I have forgotten to include the WotC site in my Google search.)

The Docks are a great place to start because they're a bit lawless. Press-gangs and pirates roam here, and it's the ideal place for an essentially consequence-free tavern brawl. Further, if sahuagin attack the city - always a good idea for a city on a coast if you're a DM - then they will naturally target the Docks.

I had a halfling gang led by a halfling wererat vampire terrorising the docks and I can heartily recommend something similar to any other DMs. The Dead Rats of Blacklake District (see above) may also have increased their influence in this area so wererats could be another threat.

But I think slavers and press-gangs are the way to go. That and a sahuagin attack at some point.

Fisher's Float

The fisherfolk can make a fun diversion which is certainly the way I ran this location in my campaign. Most fishermen I have ever met have been a little bit crazy – and that is not an insult! – largely because their job involves risking their lives in a way that few, even soldiers, would ever understand.

So I made it something of a party place with wagon races, gambling, and whatnot. But it was also a source of information about things on the Sword Coast.

I’m hoping to run another campaign in Neverwinter this year and I plan to reuse the crazed one-eyed dwarven fisherman I used in my last game but, this time, have him talk about the dwarven dungeons behind the cliff that faces Fisher’s Float. With a successful Perception check, the PCs will be able to see the last weathered remnants of dwarven carvings on the cliff which will hopefully lead them to investigate further. Sea level changes in the thousands of years since Haunghdannar was a living kingdom will mean that the entrance is now underwater. (I’ve wanted to include an underwater entrance to a dungeon for decades and I honestly don’t know why I haven’t done it yet!) My version of Haunghdannar makes it a dwarven realm focussed on the elements – based on some references to Madbeards in FR5 The Savage Frontier – so I would have the dungeon reflect that, possibly something inspired by the Temple of Elemental Evil but smaller in scale and with an actual elemental theme running through the dungeon.

As a fairly large earthmote, it would also make sense for Fisher’s Float to include a classic dungeon or two (or more). This might even be linked by portal to the dwarven dungeon behind the cliff face opposite the ‘Float thus providing another means of accessing that location. Perhaps this could be the starter adventure for a new campaign where the PCs are hired by the fisherfolk to come to the ‘Float and end the threat being posed by some creatures that have now found a way to the surface. Basic stuff, but it could be a nice starter adventure that can conclude with a wild wagon-racing party on the earthmote. The party is likely to be more memorable than the bog standard dungeon!

(I’m actually glad I returned to finishing this blog post because I think this idea of building a dwarven dungeon with an elemental theme between the mainland behind the cliff face and in the centre of the ‘Float, with the two parts linked by portal, is just the sort of starter adventure I am personally looking for. If I ever write it up, I may just have to link it here.)

Neverdeath

While Castle Never can be the site for high-level undead-flavoured adventures, the graveyards of Neverdeath should be suitable for low- and mid-level PCs to give them their first taste of fighting zombies, ghouls, and similar undead.

So, a graveyard in a D&D world is expected to have undead but the question becomes: Who or what is responsible for the undead?

Personally, I like the idea of a cult of Orcus setting up shop. This is not simply because of the link between Orcus and the undead, but because I have already mentioned my use of a cult of Graz’zt at the heart of the church of Waukeen with that cult controlling both the Waukeenar and Lord Neverember. Orcus is opposed to Graz’zt so his cult is here to also oppose the schemes of the Dark Prince. That could even lead to the foul necromantic cult in the middle of the graveyard becoming a key ally and source of information should the PCs decide to take on the cult of Graz’zt. I could even imagine a situation where the thralls of Orcus seek to parley in the middle of combat offering to trade the knowledge of the true source of Neverember’s power for the right to continue unhindered in the cemetery for a certain period of time. There’s nothing quite like a bit of abyssal intrigue to keep the players on their toes….

Of course, the cult is not only trying to thwart the schemes of Graz’zt but also buy time so they can complete their rituals to summon an aspect of Orcus who would lead their undead forces to conquer Neverwinter. Or something like that. It’s basic stuff but it still works.

I had an extensive maze of ghoul-dug tunnels beneath Neverdeath in my last campaign which I found made for an interesting, claustrophobic adventuring environment. It’s not something you would want to visit session after session but it made for a good “one off” adventure. It might be even more “interesting” if you include, say, a vampire’s tomb in the centre of the tunnels with said vampire not only wanting fresh blood but wanting to convert one or more PCs into vampire spawn.

Pirates' Skyhold

This became one of my favourite locations in the last campaign because it ended up being the party’s safe refuge. They met an eladrin cleric of Selûne, Lady Moonsilver, whom they never discovered was a dragon in disguise. Lady Moonsilver became their confidant and quest-giver motivated by her status as a follower of Selûne wanting to restore hope to Neverwinter and thus defeat the nihilistic goals of the followers of Shar. (While the Selûne vs Shar rivalry didn’t affect that campaign much, it was there in my background notes in case the PCs ended up investigating the lost flying city of Xinlenal in the Neverwinter Wood.)

Riffing off the “pirates” part of the location’s name, I also included a flying ship in the ruins on the earthmote. Unfortunately, the players forgot about it so it never became an actual part of the campaign but it’s definitely something I would use again making the titular pirates into sky pirates.

It’s also an obvious lair for any sort of flying creatures. I like the idea of harpies – aka sirens – because of their mythological roots as threats to sailors but wyverns – and just call them sea wyverns with a swim speed – would also work.

Another option that might work, depending on how high magic your game is, is that the Skyhold is a broken piece of the flying city of Xinlenal that crashed in the Neverwinter Wood. Somehow, this fragment was made to fly again and, somewhere in the ruins on the Skyhold’s surface, is a wizard’s tower where the controls to the Skyhold can be found. Of course, doing this would radically change your game when you have your PCs flying around the countryside on their own flying earthmote. (And just wait until they get the idea to send it crashing into the campaign’s biggest threat…!)

Protector's Enclave

At the beginning of this post I posed two fundamental questions for your Neverwinter campaign: Who rules Neverwinter? Who is the BBEG? These may inform how you approach Protector’s Enclave.

Of course, if you simply have Lord Neverember as the Lord Protector trying to do his best for “his” city, possibly with the support of the Lords’ Alliance, Protector’s Enclave becomes a largely safe place with higher end shops, well-policed by the Neverwinter Watch (I would model this on the Waterdeep Watch – source material is a Google search away or comment below), and dominated by one or more important temples. Pre-Spellplague Neverwinter’s Hall of Justice was a temple of Tyr. If you’re running this in the Spellplague era this might be Torm instead while the Sundering era can see it revert to being a temple of Tyr.

But if you like evil cults like I do, the Protector’s Enclave becomes a sinister place. Ostensibly safe and wealthy, there is a darkness hidden behind the scenes. Because I had a cult of Graz’zt at the heart of the dominant Waukeenar faith – and the Hall of Justice had become the Counting House, an apt name for a Waukeenar temple but also the name of a temple of Graz’zt in his abyssal realm of Azzagrat – Protector’s Enclave simply didn’t feel right. Shadows were longer than they had any legitimate right to be and sometimes could be seen moving in the corner of the PC’s eye. Abyssal glyphs appeared in stone throughout the district, as did six-fingered black hands seemingly burnt into the bricks on different buildings. All of these pointed to something sinister at work. (Frankly, my players were too scared to investigate until much later in the campaign!)

I have almost mentioned the aboleth of The Chasm. If Neverember is in their thrall, then strange things should be afoot in the enclave. Dreams should be weird due to the influence of the Far Realm and perhaps aberrant cults have been formed, much like Eberron’s Cults of the Dragon Below, among some of the rich merchants of the district.

I would also mention the 3E adventure The Speaker in Dreams at this point. This is nearly perfect for Neverwinter. The principal villain is an illithid but this is easily changed to the aboleth of The Chasm should you choose that as a theme of your campaign (otherwise, keep the illithid). There’s also a diabolic cult that unleashes a pillar hellfire in the temple of Pelor and this could work in the Hall of Justice with the cult of Graz’zt taking the place of the hellish cult. It even has wererats which makes a good fit with Blacklake and the Docks.

It’s definitely worth a read for some inspiration if not outright plagiarism.

River District (aka Tower District)

In some of the earlier posts in this series (I will edit in the links here later), I suggested increasing the threat of the orcs in Lost Mine of Phandelver and a big part of that is wanting to make the orcs of the River District that much more important to a larger campaign.

The Neverwinter Campaign Setting has orcs infesting the River District (this is known as the Tower District in the MMORPG which, frankly, I think is a better name) without giving much of an explanation as to what they are doing there.

Fortunately, Volo’s Guide to the North has some good ideas which can not only help explain why they are there but make it important for the PCs to end the threat that they pose before they find the orc macguffin and threaten the entire region.

Firstly, here’s a bit of backstory about one of the major power groups in this district pre-Spellplague: The Covenant. The Covenant was a group of mages, led by four mages of note, that sought to protect civilisation in the North from, inter alia, the depredations of the orcs. A really solid explanation of them can be found <here in the George Krashos quote>.

The Covenant also ran a School of Wizardry (capitalisation deliberate: that is what it was called) in the River District from where they trained the next generations of mages but also schemed to minimise the orc threat. Part of that scheming including manipulating the Uthgardt barbarians to launch pogroms against the orcs. (Yeah, The Covenant was a ruthless bunch.)

The Covenant had some effect against the orc kingdom of Uruth Ukrypt in the Sword Mountains. The strength of this kingdom was a magic throne – the Bone Throne of Uruth Ukrypt – which allowed a worthy orc to exercise rule over the normally chaotic orcs. My idea was simple: What if the orcs of the River District are here simply because they are looking for this throne so that their leader, a spellscarred female (anathema!), can become ruler of the orcs of the North? It’s a simple idea but it explains why the orcs are here and it means that they could even negotiate with the PCs – “We will let you live if you tell us where the ruins of the School of Wizardry might be.”

In my game, the throne was indeed hidden in the School of Wizardry where the mages of The Covenant had several difficult-to-access extradimensional spaces or demiplanes. The orcs stand no chance of opening or evening finding these spaces but they might trick the PCs into doing it for them.

If you’re going to use orcs here I would make one other suggestion: Don’t make them completely violent. I ran the orcs as really bored so that when the bard PC offered to play ancient orc war songs the PCs ended up spending a drunken night with them rather than simply fighting their way through a mini-horde. Also, if they are completely violent, why aren’t they constantly attacking the rest of the city?

Upland Rise

The Upland Rise used to be a small forest outside the walls of Neverwinter. Now it has been clear-felled to provide Neverwinter with building materials leaving land suitable for farming.

As a result, I not only had farmers here, I had Chauntean farmers led by Chauntean clerics migrate here from Goldenfields. This was also meant to be a safe haven for the PCs but also a place where they could be paid to fight ankhegs and bulettes… and then explore the dungeons revealed by the tunnels of these burrowing creatures.

As a counterpoint to the relatively peaceful Chaunteans, some angry druids could also make an appearance. Perhaps a druid’s grove was destroyed by the logging operations and the druid killed. Now that druid has returned as an undead creature and the farmers definitely need help.

Conclusion

So, this is well-overdue as I have mentioned but it has also become a really long post. Now that I have finished it, I’m looking at bits that could be expanded or made more clear. Depending on the feedback I get, and how quickly I return to Neverwinter for my own game, I may end up writing a few more posts to try and make this a bit more coherent and thus more useful.

I've been running D&D for 35+ years and, for me, running a campaign in Neverwinter has been one of the absolute highlights. I am definitely looking forward to another campaign there ASAP. It really works. You have civilised areas where your players can have their characters feel relatively safe - barring assassins, wererats etc... - and where Bluff and Diplomacy are king and queen, and then you have, inter alia, the wererat-filled sewers of Blacklake, the Far Realm-tainted weirdness of The Chasm, ghoul packs in the Neverdeath graveyard, and the orc-ravaged River District... and it all basically makes sense.

Of course, the purpose of this series of posts has been to expand on the 5E starter set adventure Lost Mine of Phandelver and I hope this post, in particular, has shown how easy it is to expand on LMoP by simply going to Neverwinter and continuing the campaign there.

Starter Set Sandbox 18 - Using Red Hand of Doom to expand LMoP

I decided to post this for two reasons:

1. I was about to post something like this anyway because it's the direction that my own game is taking; and 

2. +Banesfinger posted an interesting question in the comments at the bottom of <this post>.

However, I need to add one disclaimer: I am not a fan of Tiamat. I also think she has been horribly overused as a BBEG across multiple editions of D&D and even in the execrable D&D cartoon from the 1980s. She also doesn't seem to me to be a classic FR villain but, of course, YMMV. 

But there is one major advantage of sticking with the idea of Tiamat as the BBEG of an adaptation of Red Hand of Doom: it will help tie the adventure into the wider events of the Tyranny of Dragons adventures, Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat, should that be important for your game.

The Simplest Approach

In theory, the simplest approach involves simply finding a section of the regional map from Lost Mine of Phandelver and simply overlaying the regional map from Red Hand of Doom. However, I emphasise in theory as there is nowhere that is really a good match particularly when you consider the map of the Elsir Vale in Red Hand is some 320 miles (EW) by 240 miles (NS) which is larger than the regional map in Lost Mine!

In practice, you really would need to move the whole adventure further east, off the regional map from Lost Mine, and then place the key locations from Elsir Vale elsewhere. I may edit in some comments about that another time but, for now, I want to focus this post on using Red Hand to expand a campaign set in and around Phandalin.

The More Complicated Approach

This involves ditching the Elsir Vale map from Red Hand and relying instead of placing key locations, or reasonable analogues, on the regional map that came with Lost Mine. 

When Red Hand of Doom was first released, WotC posted the introduction and a synopsis of the five parts on their website for public consumption. I saved a copy of this and it is probably still there buried beneath the sheer incompetence that characterises any WotC attempt at using modern technology in conjunction with D&D.

What I am going to do is, beginning with the introduction, quote each section of the synopsis and provide some ideas as how to make this work in and around Phandalin.

The quoted sections will appear in this format.

Introduction

Red Hand of Doom casts the player characters in the role of heroes fighting to stem the advance of Azarr Kul's horde. There are far too many enemy warriors for the PCs to deal with them all personally. Instead, the heroes undertake vital missions that influence the outcome of the war. These missions include the following:

• Spying out the movements of Azarr Kul's army.
• Defeating roving bands of marauders.
• Leading the effort to rally an elf army to meet the Red Hand horde.
• Disrupting an alliance between the Red Hand and a powerful lich.
• Killing important enemy commanders, champions, and monsters.
• And, finally, infiltrating the Fane of Tiamat to defeat the Red Hand warpriests and their leader in their secret stronghold.

The adventure is divided into five parts, describing five key locations the PCs are likely to explore in the course of the adventure. Event-triggered encounters are also woven into each of the five parts. The adventure locales and events are designed to interact: Events will steer the heroes toward adventure locales, and things the heroes do in the locales will trigger events.

At this point you need to decide whether to stick with the existing BBEG or to change it to something/someone else.

In my game, the real threat is the Zhentarim but the Zhentarim are split into two factions: the more traditionalist, but smaller, Bane-worshipping faction and the newer and larger Cyric-worshipping faction. The Banites need a significant victory to return to dominance of the Zhentarim so they're the ones behind the Red Hand of Doom. And an aspect of Bane is the replacement for the aspect of Tiamat as the final "boss" monster. (It's also helpful that I have an aspect of Bane miniature, but lack an aspect of Tiamat.)

That also means that the various spawn of Tiamat that are encountered during the course of the original Red Hand of Doom don't really have a place in my adaptation. That said, there is a beast of Bane template in 3.xE to represent creatures that have been touched by the Black Lord. So, for example, rather than having those greenspawn razorfiends flying around, I will just have wyvern or manticore beasts of Bane.

Azarr Kull also does not fit into my more Zhentarim/Bane-oriented adaptation. Rather than the half-dragon, the leader of the horde is either a hobgoblin warlord (and possibly also an evil paladin) or a human Zhentarim commander (who may also be an evil paladin: if you have the 5E DMG then you will also know such things exist in 5E too!). I don't need to make a decision about his identity right away so I will leave that undetermined for now.

However, for those of you who are sticking with the Tiamat-based storyline, unless you're running 3.xE you will need to convert the spawn of Tiamat to your preferred edition.

Part I: The Witchwood => Raid on Phandalin

The adventure begins when the player characters confront a powerful warband of raiders threatening the small town of Drellin's Ferry. Under the command of Wyrmlord Koth, the warband of hobgoblins and goblins lairs in the ruins of an old keep buried in the dense Witchwood, scouting out the surrounding lands in preparation for an attack. Soon the Wyrmlord and his warband intend to sweep down on Drellin's Ferry and slaughter its inhabitants.

In the course of their fight to drive off the marauders, the PCs learn that Koth's warband is just the tip of the spear, and that a horde of goblins, hobgoblins, and their allies is marching south. They also learn that their enemies are driven on by the fanatical warpriests of Tiamat. Drellin's Ferry can't be saved, but the heroes can give the townsfolk time to flee by wrecking a bridge on an old dwarf road the Red Hand horde needs to cross. There they confront the youngest of the Red Hand's dragon champions, a green dragon named Ozyrrandion.

By the end of this part, the war has begun. Thereafter the PCs divide their time between fighting to stem the advance of the Red Hand horde and foiling the plans of the other Wyrmlords, whose work will give the horde an irresistible advantage if left to run its course.

Firstly, the easiest thing to do is replace Drellin's Ferry with Phandalin. Sure, there are some terrain mismatches but the goal here is to make Red Hand an extension of Lost Mine: Phandalin is the only option.

There are quite a few options here, and none of them involve an area of forest: ditch the Witchwood.

Instead of destroying a bridge, there is instead a dwarf-crafted tunnel or a key pass that is facilitating the horde's access from the southern side of the Sword Mountains and the Kryptgarden Forest to this side. Collapsing the tunnel or causing an avalanche to block the key mountain pass will buy the "good guys" time to prepare for the horde's arrival.

Oh, and a green dragon may still be appropriate. Maybe it too is a follower of Bane.

Part II: The Ruins of Rhest => Ruins of Leilon

Something has cut off the Old North Road in the vicinity of the Blackfens. None can flee by that route, nor can help from more distant cities reach besieged Elsir Vale. While scouting the swamp and seeking an answer to the question of who or what has cut off the road, the PCs encounter the reclusive owl-riding wild elves known as the Tiri Kitor. From them, the PCs learn that Wyrmlord Saarvith has allied with a black dragon named Regiarax, and together they have established a hatchery of sinister dragonspawn in the ruins of the drowned city of Rhest. The PCs must defeat both the Wyrmlord and the dragon to prevent the appearance of these vicious creatures in the war. If the PCs play their cards right, they can even gain the aid of the Tiri Kitor elves against the advancing Red Hand horde.

At the end of this section, the PCs discover the threat of the Ghostlord (see Part III). Meanwhile, the Red Hand horde is striking deep all across the vale's western marches, and the war is going poorly indeed for the beleaguered humans.

The hatchery is instead in Leilon. This means a different take on Leilon compared to the version I posted earlier in this series of posts, but I would keep the enchanted tower that can paralyse those who gaze upon it.

You could also keep the Thayans if you assume that, as is the case in the 4E Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, these Thayans are followers of Bane which is, of course, the state religion of Thay thanks to The Haunted Lands trilogy of novels by Richard L Byers. Perhaps these are Thayan clerics who have been instructed by the Black Lord to prepare the wyvern or manticore beasts of Bane in support of the goblin horde. FR purists may find the idea of an alliance between the Zhentarim and the Thayans shocking but they are united by a common religious belief... and it provides further variety in terms of the encounters.

Part III: The Ghostlord's Tower => Master of the Dread Ring/Ebondeath Mausoleum

Azarr Kul brings a deadly new ally into the battle when Red Hand agents steal the phylactery of the human druid lich known as the Ghostlord and coerce this powerful undead menace into joining the war on the Red Hand's side. After gaining possession of the stolen phylactery, the PCs travel into the Thornwaste and do battle with Wyrmlord Ulwai Stormcaller in the lich's lionshaped lair. Eventually, the PCs must confront the Ghostlord himself and either destroy him (no small task) or purchase his neutrality by returning his phylactery in exchange for peace. By the time they dissuade the lich from joining his forces to those of Azarr Kul, the Red Hand horde is bearing down on Brindol.

I don't think a lion-shaped lair fits it with the Neverwinter Wood or anywhere nearby but YMMV. Personally, I think there are at least three other options that would be better:

1. The Dread Ring in the Neverwinter Wood can be seen on the earlier version of the regional map that was originally published in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting. Instead of a druid lich, the Dread Ring suggests the possibility of Valindra Shadowmantle who now haunts the benighted ruins of the Dread Ring cursed by Szass Tam himself.
2. I have already covered Agatha's Lair but what if the banshee stood in for the Ghostlord? She doesn't have a phylactery but perhaps, as my post about her lair suggests, there is something else she values than can be used to manipulate her?
3. Finally, for those who have access to Dungeon 73 and the Eye of Myrkul adventure - fifth in the first Dungeon adventure path, the Mere of Dead Men series -  what about Strongor Bonebag, a former cleric of Myrkul, as the lich that the bad guys control? On a related note, what about the black dragon Ebondoom returning as a dracolich?

Obviously, any of these changes would require a bit of work on the DM's part to create a new lair etc....

Part IV: The Enemy at the Gates => name unchanged

While the PCs have managed to counter some of the Red Hand's outlying efforts, the horde has been advancing remorselessly into human lands. Now the characters confront the main army of the enemy directly in the Battle of Brindol, in which the PCs' actions make the difference between the human city's survival or destruction. Depending on how successful the PCs were in the previous parts of the adventure, the battle can end in anything from a hard-fought draw to a catastrophic defeat. Either way, in the aftermath of the battle it becomes clear that the best chance of winning the war is for a brave band of infiltrators to strike into the heart of the hobgoblin lands and decapitate the horde by destroying the Red Hand order.

Brindol? No! This is a battle for Neverwinter itself, parts of which are still in ruins. Beyond the change of location and the use of Neverwinter's map, this section of the adventure may be largely unchanged.

That said, Neverwinter has a large band of orcs camped out in one of its districts: are they allies - and, if so, do they need to be won over? - or are they enemies? That could add an extra dimension to this section of the adventure, as could negotiations with a unit of Cyricist Zhentarim who may offer their services as mercenaries to help defend the city.

Part V: Fane of Tiamat => Fane of the Black Lord

The PCs assault the High Wyrmlord's stronghold, the Fane of Tiamat, deep in the Wyrmsmoke Mountains. Temporarily checked in the Battle of Brindol, Azarr Kul and his circle of high priests are seeking infernal aid from the Nine Hells, summoning devils and fiendish monsters, including an aspect of Tiamat herself, to break the last human resistance. The PCs fight a desperate battle in the dark temple, and ultimately confront High Wyrmlord Azarr Kul himself in the heart of the Fane of Tiamat.

Clearly I cannot call this the Fane of Bane so if I am going to stick with "fane" I suppose it has to be Fane of the Black Lord. However, I may steal one thing from Tyranny of Dragons: this picture of a temple of Tiamat could just as easily be a picture of a temple of Bane as there is nothing particularly draconic about it.

But if you want a picture that says "Bane" and "Zhentarim", you cannot beat, IMO, William O'Connor's cover art for 3.5E's Mysteries of the Moonsea:

Banite Monsters

And that picture segues nicely into another issue in the event that you're using Bane instead of Tiamat: what do you replace all the dragons with? For me, the quintessential Banite monster is the beholder: use them liberally. And if a straight-up beholder is too much of a challenge, use gauth, their weaker cousins. They have yet to be officially statted up for 5E but I ran one on the fly using a few adjustments to the spectator stat block in the 5E Monster Manual.

Otherwise, 3.xE introduced the beast of Bane template to represent a creature touched by the Black Lord. They had a barghest-like ability to devour a creature and they could produce fear by howling or roaring. It wouldn't take too much to do the same thing in either 4E or 5E and give such creatures as wolves, worgs, hellhounds, manticores, wyverns etc... a howling attack that created some sort of fear effect. And other than that, all you would need to do is change their colour to black with emerald green for their eyes, tongues, breath weapons etc.... (I rather like the imagery of a black manticore firing off bolts of baatorian green steel [that's a substance introduced in one of the 3.xE books: Arms & Equipment Guide, perhaps?].) 

But the main reason to run Red Hand of Doom is to fight goblins and lots of them. And that doesn't change whether the BBEG is Bane or Tiamat.
 

Summing Up

Speaking selfishly, I now have the outline for the rest of my campaign following on from events in Phandalin and possibly a side-trip to the Caves of Chaos. That aside, I think there's a fairly logical progression from Lost Mine of Phandelver to Red Hand of Doom with a penultimate confrontation against the goblin horde around the walls and within the gates of Neverwinter, followed by a final battle in a temple of either Bane or Tiamat with an aspect of the appropriate deity.

While there it doesn't then allow an easy segue into Hoard of the Dragon Queen or Rise of Tiamat because of the level of the PCs, if you were to skip Part V: Fane of Tiamat/Fane of the Black Lord as detailed here then Rise of Tiamat does become a possibility. However, a few more easter eggs may be required to better link it into Rise.

But for my game this is nearly perfect. It's an outline based on a tried and tested adventure and it allows me to continue to feature the Zhentarim as the BBEGs of my first foray into 5E. And that to me feels more like the Realms than trying to stop Tiamat from being freed....

Starter Set Sandbox 17 - Hexcrawling Around Phandalin (post updated - previous post incomplete)

As per the revised post title, I originally posted this before I completed the post. I've edited in the missing content now.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had now begun a 5E campaign set in and around Phandalin which I am currently calling The Twilit Land: Rise of the Zhentarim but may eventually be called by its original name - Tyrant of the Twilit Land - after a few more sessions. And If I end up with a beholder as the BBEG, it may even become I, Tyrant.

For me, 5E is the third edition of AD&D, although I also recognise the influence of both 3.xE and 4E in its design, but it feels and plays like AD&D, IMO (and YMMV).

And in a conscious homage to that old school vibe that it gives me, the campaign has begun with the basic idea of having an updated version of the Caves of Chaos from B2 The Keep on the Borderlands as its centrepiece. However, besides the Caves of Chaos, and in keeping with the old school vibe, I wanted to throw in a hexcrawl with various locations that can be explored and/or avoided.

So that's all a long way of saying that I've prepared a hexcrawl map for the 10 mile x 10 mile area south and east of Phandalin and some other DMs may find it useful. The scale is 1/2 mile per hex. (It was created using Hexographer which is such an elegant programme that I wished I had used before.)

And for those who want a little bit of inspiration for the locations I have placed on the map, here are my rough notes which I will gradually expand as we play.

01.01 Phandalin

This also includes hexes 01.02 and 02.01. This is the village of Phandalin described in Lost Mine of Phandelver.

04.12 The Statue Mines

Although these mines are rich, nobody will go there because of the petrified miners around the entrance and through the entrance tunnel. Basilisks lair here… and grimlocks can also be found.

The grimlocks worship a petrified, coiled, purple dragon (aka deep dragon) that "resides" in the middle of a vast amphitheatre-like cavern. The petrified dragon has been rubbed smooth over the centuries by the hands of grimlocks devotees.

04.17 The Moathouse

I think anyone reading this blog is familiar with the the Moathouse from T1 The Village of Hommlet or the execrable T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil. I think it's a fantastic little dungeon and I think it might work here. Otherwise, this could instead be the Place of the Unicorn or even The Shattered Circle.



(I note that the Place of the Unicorn should probably be northwest of Phandalin rather than south... but maybe the Spellplague caused it to shift? That statement, of course, is entirely tongue-in-cheek....)

05.05 Mines of the Goblin King

This is the location nearest to Phandalin and thus the one most likely to be explored first. I've already set up a Zhent-sponsored goblin threat to Phandalin in my game so this set of mines is going to be ruled by a goblin "king" but there will also be a Zhentarim presence.

10.03 The Last Copper Mines
 
The reason for the name is that miners believe you would have to be down to your last copper before you tried to delve these played-out mines which supposedly date back more than a thousand years…

… and are notorious for bad luck so lots of small shrines to Beshaba can be found along the way. Failing to pay homage at these shrines - or, even worse, desecrating same, can result in the Maid of Misfortune visiting the unbeliever with disadvantage on all saving throws, attack rolls, or skill/ability checks, or even all three.

It would also be a good location to run 2E's Dungeon of Death (which includes mines), although that adventure is set in The North so would require a few changes to place names and background details. And for those running it using 5E, you would need to convert a few monsters including the nabassu demons.

10.11 The Nexus Caverns

I am probably just regurgitating some ideas I had for the Old Owl Well, but I want at least one "weird dungeon" location in this area and I am thinking these could be something like S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.



Frankly, I should also take a fresh look at the wilderness portions of Lost Caverns and see if I can translate them to this hexcrawl map....

13.04 The Pit of Whispers

I want to take the basic idea of The Shattered Circle but have access to it be via a sinkhole or pit which resonates with weird whispers from the ancient past.

13.07 The Spire of Uruth Ukrypt

Ahhh, this is the orc-raised tower from the classic 3.5E adventure Sons of Gruumsh. Besides orcs - and orogs! - this adventure also conveniently includes Zhentarim which suits my purposes perfectly. It's one of my favourite adventures that I have yet to run and the maps are simply superb.

14.05 Forgotten Temple of Amaunator
 
I ran a year-long 3.5E campaign at a game store that began a couple of days after the revised edition's release and it was set in and around Deadsnows in the Silver Marches. I ran it as something of a hexcrawl using the map of the area around Deadsnows that appeared in 3E's The Silver Marches (one of FR's best ever regional supplements, IMO).

One of the few dungeon locations I used in that campaign was a lost temple of Amaunator that dated back to the Netherese era and still contained the clerics of that time, albeit as undead huecuvae (I am hoping that's the correct spelling of the plural of huecuva). The map was actually based on the dungeon in B3 Palace of the Silver Princess.

Anyway, I want to use it again. It's high up on a cliff top and accessible by a carefully hidden switchback path.

15.10 Lost Forgebar Mines

These are the Caves of Chaos from B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. They're supposed to be the focus of my new 5E game but I'm now not sure if the PCs will get there! :)

15.13 The Zhentarim Iron Mines
 
To support their activities in the area, and the eventually fitting out of the army they're raising, the Zhentarim have reopened some iron mines at this location and have pressed slave labour into doing the work. I don't have a published adventure to steal from at this point, but I may use the maps for the first section of the Mines of Tethyamar that appear in 3E's Lords of Darkness.

16.02 The Deep Delve

I want these to be active mines because the PCs have met a band of dwarven miners who were heading there... but I am also so very tempted to run 3E's Forge of Fury at this point, in large part because this campaign needs a dragon and there is a black dragon in Forge of Fury....

Alternatively, this could also be 4E's Orcs of Stonefang Pass....

18.15 Vulture's Roost

This is from the DDi adventure of the same name.

19.02 Temple of the Winds

This is based on the Lair Assault involving the temple of Shaundakul. However, it may now be the demesne of an ogre mage or three.

Basically, I want one location on this map to be up in the Sky. Temple of the Skygod is probably the best published fit, although I recall there is at least one published Dungeon adventure set in a cloud castle....

(5E) The Twilit Land: Rise of the Zhentarim 0 - Introduction & Hexcrawl Map

When I began typing this post, it was going to be a similar sort of introduction but for a campaign I was planning to call Tyrant of the Twilit Land. It was going to be largely based on B2 The Keep on the Borderlands - as explained in <this post> - with the town of Phandalin from Lost Mine of Phandelver taking the place of the titular keep. The Caves of Chaos would be lost dwarven mines where a tyrant - originally a beholder but I finally decided to use a blue dragon scion of the Blood of Morueme - had managed to unite disparate humanoid tribes and was gradually forging them into an army that would threaten Phandalin and other settlements in the North...

... but then we played tonight and my attempts to make Phandalin feel like Tombstone resulted in the players deciding they wanted to clean up this town and make it a safe place for miners, farmers, and their families.

And as the Zhentarim were identified as the primary threat facing this town - more on this when I write up the session report in my next post - I decided to use some ideas I have been playing with since 2E about the civil war within the Zhentarim between the Cyricist and Banite factions. So, while the Zhents are definitely trying to secure their position within Phandalin because of its easy access to several mines they expect to have real value, there are also two factions within the Zhentarim that are competing with each other in a desire to dominate the Black Network.

Anyway, here's some details of the four PCs that I'm running through this campaign which does not include a healer of any sort (but I do have a DMPC on standby, just in case). It's an odd group, including my very first drow ranger in 33+ years of D&D. But these are good players who I know won't turn the drow into some desperate, angst-filled, Drizzt-wannabe. And I am sure the fact that he is drow will be used against him more than once....

A. CG Male Drow Ranger

Background: Outlander.

Personality Traits: I'm driven by a wanderlust that led me away from home.

Ideals: Life is like the seasons, in constant change, and we must change with it.

Bonds: An injury to the unspoiled wilderness of my home is an injury to me.

Flaws: Don't expect me to save those who can't save themselves. It is nature's way that the strong survive and the weak perish.

A's favoured enemies are goblins and orcs.

B. CN Male Elf Monk

Background: Guild Merchant.

Personality Traits: I always want to know how things work and what makes people tick.

Ideals: Freedom. Everyone should be free to pursue his or her own livelihood.

Bonds: I owe my guild a great debt for forging me into the person I am today.

Flaws: I speak without really thinking through my words, invariably insulting others.

B is holding a letter of introduction from the Lionshield Coster in Waterdeep.

C. LG Male Human Fighter

Background: Soldier.

Personality Traits: Haunted by images of war.

Ideals: Greater good. Our lot is to lay down our lives in defence of others.

Bonds: I fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

Flaws: I'd rather eat my armour than admit when I'm wrong.

C has a dice set (and, presumably, proficiency) and insignia of his former officer's rank. Unusually for a former soldier, he wears leather armour and fights with a greataxe. Coupled with his great strength (it is 18), the way he carries himself as a former soldier, and the fact that he is keeping company with a drow, the Zhentarim of Phandalin are going to look at him as a prospective recruit.

D. LG Male Human Warlock

Background: Noble.

Personality Traits: Despite my noble birth, I do not place myself above other folk. We all have the same blood. Even as a noble, I still feel the need to prove myself to others.

Ideals: Noble Obligation. I hope to become strong enough to protect all those beneath me.

Bonds: I will face any challenge to win the approval of my family.

Flaws: I hide a truly scandalous secret that could ruin my family forever.

A scion of House Adarbrent of Waterdeep, D enjoys the position of privilege trait of his Noble background. He also possesses a dragonchess set and presumably proficiency in same.

Hexcrawl!

I've been using an old computer for the past few weeks because of problems with my laptop which is being repaired. (And this is the Philippines so nothing happens quickly... or on time.) I had forgotten that I had bought Hexographer roughly four years ago and had never actually used it. Anyway, as part of a desire to give this campaign a bit of an old school vibe, I thought a hexcrawl might be the perfect complement to a conversion of Keep on the Borderlands.

Here's the map I made in a few minutes using Hexographer (it really is fast!) but I am still brainstorming what each of the locations mean and will include them in another post.

The PCs actually obtained this map during the course of the first session of play - see next post - which is going to help with the mechanics of actually running a hexcrawl online without using a virtual tabletop.

BTW, the scale is 1/2 mile per hex. It's a pretty simple map so I hope it makes sense without further explanation. I've also posted some ideas about the locations in <this post>, part of my Starter Set Sandbox series.