Brindol:
Attacked years ago by the original Red Hand of Doom, Brindol since has a smaller population. But the last decade has brought mild prosperity to the region, with only bandits (such as Sinruth and his ilk) disturbing the peace.
Population: 6,700; another 1,000 live within a five-mile radius of the town itself. The people of Brindol are mostly humans, half-elves, and dwarves. The town’s population swells by several hundred whenever some connected halfling clans known as “the river people” are in town.
Government: A town has a council, two-thirds of whom are hereditary landlords and the remainder of whom are guildmasters from the city’s important trade guilds. Lord Warden Harrik Orenna is the public face of the council and commander of the city militia.
Defense: The city has 200 soldiers under arms at all times, with about one-quarter on duty at any given time. In times of crisis, the Lord Warden has access to another 200 well-equipped but poorly trained soldiers by calling up the militia.
Inns: Chatrenn and Sons; The Red Door; Avandrian Hostel; The Silk and Spoon; Pantashi Inn.
Taverns: Ilya’s Cardhouse; The Marooned Schooner; Cleftie’s; Brindol Gentleman’s Club; the Blue Parrot; the Antler and Thistle.
Major Guilds: Prospectors; Blacksmiths and Smelters; Teamsters and Farriers; Weavers; River Bargemen (halfling controlled).
Supplies: Alchemy by Adronsius (currently closed); Gavriel Arms and Smithy; Staghunter Outfitters; Alpenglow Trading House.
Temples: Temple of Erathis; College of Ioun; Shrine of the Sun (Pelor); Moondust Temple (Sehanine); Shrine of Bahamut (no permanent clergy); Shrine of the Open Door (Avandra).
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Overlook Region:
Overlook is one of the most interesting features of the Stonehome Mountains, but it isn’t the only one. Ruins of the old dwarven kingdom dot the peaks for hundreds of miles to the north and south, while old caves lead to tunnels worming through the rock. Closest to the Overlook, though, the land is safer and is home to numerous villages and other places of interest.
Armistice: Purported to be the site of victory of the giants and orcs, here the freed dwarves signed a compact of peace that would bind them into one nation. Now the kingdom is no more, so Armistice is just a relic of the past filled with old codgers who think back on better days.
Bordrin’s Watch: Straddling the old Dwarfroad is a mighty fortress that was raised to control traffic across the mountains and protect the Elsir Vale from attack. Bordrin’s Watch contains one of the three access points to the tunnels beneath the mountains. The stronghold consists of a long wall, which is 150-feet tall and over 80 feet thick at the base, and it is punctuated with steep towers fitted with arrowslits. Battlements cap the wall, allowing sentries to watch the pass and defend the fortress from attack. Atop each tower is a pair of catapults. Ballistae and scorpions are positioned every 40 feet along the wall’s length.
In the center of the pass is a massive gate. Its doors stand 100-feet tall, and it takes 40 aurochs to pull them open. The gatehouse surrounding the doors consists of two towers, each as tall as the wall and wider than three standing towers together.
Bordrin’s Watch can accommodate 3,000 soldiers on the walls and in the towers, but the grounds on the eastern side of the pass can hold up to 100 times this number if need be. Granaries are replenished each season, fed by towns, hamlets, and communities all under Overlook’s protection. The stores can keep a modest-sized force fed and watered for up to six months without needing to resupply.
Elsir River: The headwaters of the Elsir River flow in a series of waterfalls that drain the mountains back into the valley to the east. West of Sodden, the river is too rough and hides too many rocks for boats to navigate, though from Sodden, one can travel across the valley, going as far as Brindol.
Feud: Two dwarf families dominate this tiny hamlet and, as their name indicated, they are prone to violence. The only thing they can’t stand more than one another is outsiders.
Hope: Another speck of a town, Hope appeared after prospectors found a vein of silver nearby. Once the vein played out, most of the miners moved north to Armistice, but a few stubborn folk live here still, working the mines in search of precious metals.
Lantern: A minuscule settlement of just fifty souls, Lantern is little more than a logging camp.
Monastery of the Sundered Chain: About eighteen miles southwest of Overlook stands the old Monastery of the Sundered Chain. Raised to house an order of holy warriors in service to Moradin, the templars have largely withdrawn from Overlook, seeing the city as having lost its identity. Even though the relationship is strained, the monastery and the city remain allies.
Myler’s Stone: This town was once a large city, but years of decay, disease, and tragedy reduced the place to a handful of desperate people eking out an existence in the ruins of the past.
Old Den: A trade depot used by rangers and elves alike, this site is a cluster of wooden buildings surrounded by a palisade.
Shackles: Overlook’s sister, Shackles was a powerful city and was the former capital of the fallen dwarven kingdom. It fell nearly two centuries ago when the orcs sacked it before the kingdom could respond.
Sodden: A small town at the headwaters of the Elsir River, this is a quaint community of farmers and fisherfolk. They work well with the elves, which is perhaps the only thing that stops the elves from erasing Lantern altogether.
The Vents: Natural fissures vent steam from a superheated underground lake. The tunnels are dangerous since they are also choked with foul monsters of the Underdark, dangerous flora, and vicious fauna.
The Westdeep: This dense forest grows in the narrow depression between the Stonehome and Wyrmsmoke Mountains. A dangerous place, several tribes of xenophobic elves live here, and they do not take kindly to trespassers. Conflict between the loggers at Lantern and the elves has come close to open war, and it’s known that if the elves attack, the dwarves will be forced to respond.
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Overlook:
Population: 12,250; about another 5,000 people live in small settlements scattered on the lower slopes. The people of Overlook are mostly dwarves, humans, and halflings, though pockets of dragonborn, tiefling, eladrin, and elf communities are isolated in their own ethnic neighborhoods.
Overlook’s importance as a trade center results in great numbers of travelers from faraway lands and of a wild assortment of races, cultures, and beliefs, lending the city its cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Government: The Council of Elders, a group of five male and female dwarves, governs Overlook. Each is elected to office and serves a 10-year term. The dwarves see ruling as a burden and none relish the job, preferring to hand power off to someone else. Heading up the Council is the Great Elder, Morgoff Stonefirst, an aging dwarf who’s ready to retire.
One representative from each of the eight districts of Overlook attends the Council, serving as advisors and also to air the grievances of their particular constituencies. Although these individuals have the power to influence, they have no real authority in the city, though many are wealthy and powerful by means other than the office they hold.
Defense: Overlook keeps a standing garrison of 150 warriors armed and ready for any threat. In times of trouble (such as now), Overlook can muster another 500 warriors from the local militia, and another 100 from the outlying settlements. At Bordrin’s Watch, another 500 warriors protect the mountain pass from within its steep walls and skyscraping towers.
Inns: Belden’s Rest; Cadrick’s Boarding House; Clean Sheets; House of Sleep; Mountain’s Hearth; Polliver’s; the Turned Spoon; and numerous others.
Taverns: Coxcomb Spirits; Dergan’s XXX Brewery; Michael’s Blond; Pickled Imp; Pig and Bucket; the Salty Mug; and numerous others.
Supplies: Dungeoneer’s Survival Emporium; Elsir Consortium; Merty’s; Stonehome Treasures.
Temples: Divine Knot (various); Shrine of Erathis; Stone Anvil (Moradin).
Overlook's Districts:- A. Blister - The Blister is a rough-and-tumble section of the city, populated by mercenaries, adventurers, and the usual sort of traveling folk with few roots. Characterized by a great number of winesinks, taverns, pleasure dens, gambling halls, and bordellos, Blister is not a place to get lost.
- B. Boneyard - Occupying the southeast corner of Overlook, Boneyard has every distasteful business and venture, including everything from the city’s slaughterhouses, renderers, tanners, dyers, and even the city’s graveyards.
- C. Elftown - Elftown covers the northwestern corner of the inner city and takes its name from the one elf to live there some seventy years ago. The community consists of upscale and well-off entrepreneurs, merchants, bankers, lawyers, physicians, and other members of Overlook’s upper crust, and many folk elsewhere want to inhabit a small house on the edge of this fine quarter.
- D. Forgeworks - The Forgeworks, or just the Forge, is a middle-class district given over to successful artisans, tradesfolk, and other men and women who work hard and are successful in their professions. More than half of the buildings here are workshops with apartments overhead. Warehouses, businesses, stables, and other places of industry round out the rest. The Forgeworks stands in the Middle City, south of Tradetown.
- E. High Hall - High Hall, or the Old City, is where the city leaders convene to govern Overlook. Few folk still live in High Hall since nearly every inch of available space is given over to the various ministries making up the city’s government. Thus, aside from a few extremely wealthy folks, most people funnel out of High Hall at the end of the day to head home to Elftown, Stonehammer, or elsewhere.
- F. Nine Bells - Nine Bells district takes its name for the nine temples found in the heart of the district. Since these temples cater to the sick and the poor, this district draws the hungry, the diseased, and the destitute to its streets. Before the walls were raised here, Nine Bells was a place of great wealth—a community favored by those rich citizens who wanted to escape the clamor of the city. However, after it was annexed along with Blister and the Boneyard, the estates were abandoned and the folks fled to Stonehammer or Elftown to escape the flood of destitute people that washed into the place. Now, Nine Bells is the worst part of the city and is ever a source of embarrassment for the city’s elite.
- G. Stonehammer - Stonehammer occupies the southern half of the inner city, and it wraps around High Hall up to the Dwarfroad. Like Elftown, Stonehammer is home to the wealthy citizens of Overlook, specifically the dwarves. Since this district is cleaner, safer, and more exclusive than other parts of the city, great deal of resentment exists toward the folks of Stonehammer from those of lower means and status.
- H. Tradetown - Tradetown is a melting pot of all races, cultures, and occupations. In many ways, Tradetown is a lot like the Blister, but it has been established for longer and it has a mix of fabulous wealth and appalling poverty. Tradetown, as one might expect, is a commercial and retail district, where merchants, tradesfolk, and prospectors come to do business. Most middle-tier business-inclined people have homes here and gather in coffee houses, upscale bars, and bathhouses to do business. In stark contrast to the bustling commerce, Tradetown is also home to a powerful thieving guild named the Lost Ones. A clandestine organization, they have agreements with nearly all the major enterprises here, offering protection (or rather exemption) from thievery and the promise to leave their customers alone.
- I. Shantytown - Not a true district, Shantytown clings to the back of the city like festering boil. Shantytown is a wretched maze of tents, shacks, and rotting wooden buildings, and it is home to the poorest and most desperate of people that have nowhere else to go. Most of Shantytown’s people are refugees from other lands, victims of tragedy and circumstance, or exiles who keep a low profile so they can go about their wicked business without attracting attention. Thus, Shantytown’s people are beggars, destitute farmers, maimed adventurers, undead, necromancers, cultists, and worse, all thrown together in one of the most desperate spots in the region.
Some points of interest:
- Dwarfroad
- The Gray Redoubt of Rufus Crumley
- Clean Sheets
- Mountain’s Hearth
- Pig and Bucket
- Dungeoneer’s Survival Emporium
- Tombs
- Dergan’s XXX Brewery
- Stonehome Treasures
- Belden’s Rest
- The Salty Mug
- Merty’s
- Shrine of Erathis
- Coxcomb Spirits
- Stone Anvil
- House of Sleep
- The Turned Spoon
- Elsir Consortium
- Polliver’s
- Michael’s Blond
- Caer Overlook (Government)
- Ministry of War
- Cadrick’s Boarding House
- Divine Knot
- Pickled Imp
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Shadowfell:
The Shadowfell is a dark echo of the world. It touches the world in places of deep shadow, sometimes spilling out into the world, and other times drawing hapless travelers into its dark embrace. It is not wholly evil, but everything in the Shadowfell has its dark and sinister side. When mortal creatures die, their spirits travel first to the Shadowfell before moving on to their final fate.
