A Nentir Vale Gazetteer

A fan guide to the Nentir Vale setting.

D&D and related product names are property of Wizards of the Coast.

Introduction
The Nentir Vale was the default setting of D&D 4 th edition, created as a starting point
for DMs wanted to create their own homebrew world, with just enough fluff to justify
the existence of everything within 4th edition (i.e., races, classes, monsters, gods,
planes, etc.) without any meta-plot baggage to tie experienced DMs down or confuse
new DMs who may have never read campaign books or novels detailing the Forgotten
Realms, Dragonlance, Eberron, Greyhawk, or one of the myriad other D&D settings.
Many of the details of the Nentir Vale were left intentionally mysterious and vague,
leaving tons of room for the DM to world build, filling in the blanks with their own ideas.

The Nentir Vale is a setting where you’ll find small, isolated “points of light” surrounded
by the darkness of the untamed wild. The centers of civilization are few and far
between, and the world isn’t carved up between nations that jealously enforce their
borders. Roads are often closed by bandits, dangerous demihumans, wild animals, or
monsters. The common folk of the world look upon the wild lands with dread. Few
people are widely traveled—even the most ambitious merchant is careful to stick to
better-known, secure roads. In such a world, adventurers are aberrant. Commoners
view them as brave at best and insane at worst. But such a world is rife with the
possibility for adventure, and no true hero will ever lack for a villain to vanquish or a
quest to pursue.

What do you need to use this Gazetteer?

All you’ll need to play a campaign in the Nentir Vale using this Gazetteer is the
Dungeon Master’s Guide, the Player’s Handbook, and the Monster Manual books of the
D&D edition of your liking.

Other official D&D products that may enhance your experience include:

● Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale (a sandbox book)

● Starter Set (Red Box) – Twisting Halls (adventure)
● Dungeon Master’s Kit – Reavers of Harkenwold (adventure)
● Monster Vault – Cairn of the Winter King (adventure).
● Keep on the Shadowfell (adventure —)
● Thunderspire Labyrinth (adventure)
 ● Pyramid of Shadows (adventure)
● Orcs of Stonefang Pass (adventure)
● Madness at Gardmore Abbey (strongly recommended adventure)
● Hammerfast: A Dwarven Outpost Adventure Site (a mini-campaign setting
providing full information about the city of Hammerfast)
● Vor Rukoth: An Ancient Ruins Adventure Site (a mini-campaign setting providing
full information about an ancient ruined city to the south of the Nentir Vale)
● Into the Unknown: The Dungeon Survival Handbook (it provides information
about the Underdark below the Nentir Vale)

hile this gazetteer is edition neutral, the Nentir Vale was created as the core world of
D&D 4th edition, and some elements of that edition (such as certain races, planes, etc.)
are intrinsically tied with its history and theme. While many of these features were
included in the D&D 5th edition rules, making easy for any DM to run a Nentir Vale
campaign using those rules without too much work, if you’re using earlier editions
rules, you have to adapt those features to the system you’re using.

Credits:
Thanks to Wizards of the Coast for distributing the Dungeons & Dragons game, for
creating the Nentir Vale setting in the 4 th edition era. If you like this fan-work, please
support D&D by purchasing its official products.

Many thanks as well to the people in The Piazza forums, for encouraging me to this
Gazetteer despite my terrible English to the people of tribality.com, for the useful
information I’ve found their website. Special thanks to Tim Baker of The Piazza for
helping me with the proofreading.

And last but not least, special thanks to those DMs I don’t know, but created useful
wikis or websites about their campaigns in the Nentir Vale, as some of that information
was also used for the creation of this Gazetteer.
 The Nentir Vale

When the human empire of Nerath was at its height, about three hundred years ago,
the Nentir Vale stood as the northernmost extension of that great realm. Would-be
settlers navigated the Nentir River through a trackless swamp or forged their way
through a thick forest that separated this area from the rest of Nerath. At the end of
their journey, they came upon a pocket of rolling grassland and light woods more than
a hundred miles wide and ringed by mountains and forests—a frontier area that held
both promise and peril for those who braved it.

Several settlements sprang up in the area. between these outposts of civilization

turned into well-traveled roads, and most of the towns flourished over the next two
hundred years or so.

Then, nearly a century ago, chaos and ruin came to the Nentir Vale when an orc horde
called Clan Bloodspear swarmed down out of the mountains to the northwest. By this
time, the empire of Nerath had crumbled, and the hardy souls of the ale no help from
the south. Before the Bloodspear War was over, much of the Nentir Vale had been
ravaged. When the orcs finally withdrew, they left behind a broken and battered land.

The Vale is now mostly empty, with a handful of living villages and towns scattered
over a wide area of roughly twenty five hundred square miles. Abandoned farmsteads,
ruined manors, and broken keeps litter the countryside, remnants of the fallen empire
and even older civilizations that came before. Bandits, wild animals, and monsters
roam freely throughout the ale, threatening anyone who fares more than a few leagues
away from one of the surviving settlements. Travel along the roads or rivers is usually
safe—usually, but every now and then travelers come to bad ends between the towns.

Geography of the Nentir Vale:

The majority of the Vale is large stretches of open meadowland, copses of light forest,
gently rolling hills, and the occasional thicket of dense woodland and heavy
undergrowth. The downs are hilly grassland, with little tree cover. They are steeper and
more rugged, and include light forest in the valleys and saddles between the hilltops.
While the Nentir Vale is a northern land, it sees relatively little snow—winters are windy
and bitterly cold, and the Nentir River is too big to freeze except for a few weeks in the
coldest part of the year. Summers are cool and mild.

The Cairngorm Peaks:

This small mountain range provides a sheltering barrier between the Nentir Vale and
the savage monsters of the Stonemarch. Kobolds and goblins infest the eastern part of
the mountains, enjoying the same protection from the more terrible monsters of the
western reaches.

Perhaps most significantly, the green dragon Vestapalk makes his lair in these crags,
and the kobolds of the Greenscale tribe hunt the foothills and the neighboring terrain
under the dragon's aegis. The kobolds know enough to stay out of the high mountains,
which are the domain of the fearsome perytons and the bizarre aberrations known as
mooncalves.

The denizens of the Cairngorm Peaks will be the first to know if—most would say when
—the orcs of Clan Bloodspear decide to emerge from the Stonemarch and again
brutalize the Nentir Vale.

● Keep on the Shadowfell: Long ago, soldiers from Nerath built a strong
fortress over a rift leading to the Shadowfell, near the town of Winterhaven,
hoping to prevent shadowy horrors from entering the world. The old keep lies in
ruins now, and a new generation of cultists has secretly taken up residence
here. They seek to undo the magical wards sealing the Shadowfell rift.
● Sunderpeak Temple: Located in the northern mountain of the Cairngorms,
this temple was dedicated to the gods of good, constructed with the purpose of
safeguard a powerful artifact. However, a black dragon named Blightborn
attacked Sunderpeak Temple at the head of a small army. Blightborn claimed
the ruined temple as his lair, and has been digging in with its remaining
servants ever since.
● The Iron Gauntlet’s hideout: The headquarters of a band of hobgoblins
mercenaries and slavers, located in a mine on one of the southern mountains of
the Cairngorms.
 ● The Miser's Pit: A mad dwarf named Goldrun Coinkeeper discovered this deep
shaft hidden in the Cairngorm Peaks. A narrow stair at the edge of the shaft
descends at least 500 feet through the earth, leading eventually into the vast
expanse of the Underdark.
● Winterhaven: Hard under the Cairngorms at the west end of the Nentir Vale
lies the remote village of Winterhaven, surrounded by a few miles of farmland
and pastures.

The Chaos Scar:

A long, wide valley between the Ogrefist Hills and the Witchlight Fens, the Chaos Scar
was carved by the fall of a massive meteor—in truth, a cosmic horror from the Far
Realm—400 years ago. The arrival of this fallen star was fraught with ill omen, and the
place now seems a dark magnet for all that is evil, drawing horrific monsters and
people of malign character to make their homes in the valley. Rulers have tried to
contain the threat of the Chaos Scar in the past, with little to no success. A long-
forgotten king erected a wall, now known as the King’s Wall, across the valley's mouth.
It still stands, partly in ruins, its gates open and unguarded.

The Chaos Scar itself is death to most who wander in. It is filled with evil and riddled
with caves both natural and tunneled by generations of monstrous denizens. The
weakest settle near the mouth of the valley and the plain beyond, while the strongest
lair closer to the valley’s terminus. Strange features have been raised, or have simply
appeared, within the Scar—circles of standing stones, bizarre towers, grotesque
cottages, and other more otherworldly features.

● Hallowgaunt: This keep, built around the meteor in the heart of the Scar, is
crowned by a perpetual storm of black clouds and crackling lightning. It’s the
headquarters of the mysterious Brotherhood of the Scar, a group of worshipers
of Bane that rule over the valley without opposition.
● Restwell Keep: Also known as the Keep on the Borderlands, this citadel just
outside the King’s Wall has kept a sentinel’s post over the Chaos Scar for 400
years.
● Wenly Halt: A small village that has endured on the edge of the Chaos Scar,
just outside the southern edge of the King’s Wall.

The Cloak Wood:

This small forest to the west of Fallcrest is infested with several tribes of kobolds, the
most prominent of them being the Skull Kickers tribe. A young white dragon named
Szartharrax also lives in the forest, enjoying the adulation of the tiny pests.

● Kobold Hall: The wreck now known locally as Kobold Hall was once the estate
of a minor lord who came to the Nentir Vale to establish his own demesne.
Ruined during the Bloodspear War, the old castle has been abandoned for
almost a century and kobolds now lurk in its depths.
 ● Vanamere’s Tower: The ruined tower of the elf wizard Vanamere stands alone
at the southern reach of the Cloak Wood.

The Dawnforge Mountains:

Named for the legendary mountain at the eastern edge of the world where Moradin is
said to have crafted the sun, the Dawnforge Mountains define the eastern boundary of
the Nentir Vale. Beyond the mountains, the land grows quickly wilder, for only a few
settlements were ever established that far from Nerath's capital and even fewer have
lasted to the present day.

The foothills to the east of the mountains are infested with trolls, hill giants, ogres,
goblins, and orcs—most of them members of the Weeping Skull tribe—making trade
with those remaining towns dangerous and difficult. In the aftermath of the
Bloodspears' invasion, these monsters have grown bolder and more aggressive.
Several bands of goliaths range throughout the mountains as well. Most of the time,
these goliaths wander above the tree line to keep clear of monsters and travelers.
Apart from the dangers of bandits and monsters, the rough terrain, perilous slopes, and
bitter cold of the mountains present equally deadly threats.

These mountains also hide dragons—foremost among them the three-headed

monstrosity that calls herself Calastryx. The dragon is slumbering, still affected by a
curse placed on her centuries ago, but fears are growing stronger that her
reemergence is near. Like Vestapalk far to the west, she too has a tribe of kobolds that
are fanatically subservient to her. The Emberdark kobolds can hardly wait till Calastryx
wakes up, and they actively work to make that happen.

● Castle Inverness: A ruined castle in the southern slopes of the Dawnforges.

The four outer towers of Castle Inverness still stand above its ruins. They lean at
different angles like tombstones guarding neglected graves, jutting from the
ivy-choked rubble that was once the walls of a mighty fortress. Castle Inverness
is one of the three infamous "ghost towers" of the Nentir Vale, but unlike the
other two, it is not merely a focus for the activities of undead. Even without the
appearance of the Ghost Tower, Castle Inverness has long been shunned by the
locals. The legends of its tyrannical rise, and of the supernatural perils that
remain after its fall, are still the stuff of bard songs and tavern tales.
● Dawnforge onastery: A hidden monastery located in the mountains beyond
Hammerfast, which serve as the headquarters of a sect of dwarven worshippers
of Moradin known as the Kuldar. The Kuldar includes orders of holy warriors
such as the elite Hammers of Moradin to the sacred Soulforged knighthood.
● The Deep Guides' River: A river that runs from the Dawnforge Mountains and
deep into the Underdark, which a loosely confederated group of enterprising
adventurers use to ferry people back and forth from the Underdark.
● Dungeon of the Fire Opal: The ruins of a monastery stand on the northern
slope of one of the Dawnforge Mountains. This was the home of the monks of
the Enlightened Flame once, but after they were slain by marauding gnolls, the
dungeon was left abandoned until recently. A small group of bandits led by
Serlek Undertow currently occupy the dungeon's entry chambers now. Those
 bandits are members of Carthain's gang, a group of bandits that normally
operates in Hammerfast.
● Dwarven Steads: There are many minor dwarven towns carved in the
mountains of the Dawnforges, some of them connected to the Underdark.
● Forgepeak: This massive peak towers over the surrounding mountains. Visible
from across the entire Vale, Forgepeak has never been scaled. The red dragon
Calastryx slumbers within its lair hidden in Forgepeak. Thar, a dragonborn
champion of Gruumsh, seeks to awaken and bind the dragon to the service of
his god.
● Glimmer Peak: This small settlement is the center for mining in the area south
of Hammerfast. Glimmer Peak sits along the shores of Glimmer Lake. Rumors
persist that the palace of a fey lord long ago sunk beneath the lake. To this day,
fishermen sometimes report vague images of a grand, ruined fortress deep
within the water. The stories are true, and the ruins hide kuo-toas, undead
eladrin, and fabulous treasures.
● Hammerfast: A dwarven hold cut from the rock of a deep vale in the
Dawnforge Mountains. Hammerfast is the largest and wealthiest settlement in
the region, as well as the only city in the Nentir Vale. The Trade Road runs
through the citadel gates and continues eastward beyond the Dawnforge
Mountains. The dwarves have to share the town with a tribe of orcs, as part of
the divine compact forged between the gods Moradin and Gruumsh.
Hammerfast is governed by a council of masters, each the leaders of one of the
town’s powerful guilds.
● Highpeak: This small fortress cut into the high slopes of a northern mountain is
the center of mining operations in the Dawnforge Mountains. The settlement is
well stocked with supplies and heavily guarded. A number of mines work veins
of gold in the area, although the threat of monsters always looms over the
operations. In addition, lone prospectors willing to brave the wilderness scour
the land for new finds. The miners of Highpeak eagerly hire adventurers to
guard their caravans along the Iron Road or to defend their latest find. The
proximity of Stravalla's Tower provides an ever-present threat, and more than
one mining expedition has fallen to trolls or werewolves.
● Lake Dunmere: This body of water has a number of small fishing villages along
its shores. A large manor house and village once stood beside Lake Dunmere,
but both were destroyed by the Bloodspear orcs during their invasion. The ruins
of the manor and village still stand, as do the cellars beneath them.
● Rushing River: Few travelers use the major waterway in the region, because
many monsters lurk along its banks and the difficult terrain makes patrols
impossible. Bandits are the only beings who risk traveling by river, since it
allows them to escape with booty while avoiding guard patrols.
● Trade Road and Iron Road: Two roads cross the mountains in this region.
Both are kept in good repair by the dwarves, although in winter the constant
snows make them nearly impassable. Adventurers can travel along the road at
full speed. Although not frequented by monsters that live among the hills, the
roads are still a magnet for bandits and other threats.
● St. Allabat: A ruined monastery once belonging to a band of knights of Nerath,
hidden in the remote mountains of the Dawnforges. The only inhabitant of the
 temple is an angel, Remliel, who guards a holy relic known as the Sun’s Sliver,
the only weapon in the world that can destroy a winter archfey.
● Stravalla's Tower: Just south of Mount Starris, a valley cuts a scarlike line
through the Dawnforge Mountains. Despite the summer heat or the bitter winter
cold, a forest forever thick and lush fills this valley. Travelers smell
Summerdown Valley long before they see it, as the blooming flowers cast a
perfume on the wind. Despite its appearance, the valley is a place of grave
danger. A powerful hag, Queen Stravalla of Winter's Mourning, dwells within this
place. In her crystal tower, she surveys the verdant garden that is her realm.
Trolls, werewolves, and murderous fey heed her beck and call, and within the
ever-verdant forest shamble the animated corpses of those who dared enter her
realm. Clad in rusted armor and covered with sickly sweet orchids that grow
from their decaying flesh, these sentinels make quick work of those who blunder
into Summerdown Valley.

Gardbury Downs:
The site of Fallcrest's failed attempt to hold back the Bloodspear orcs ninety years ago,
Gardbury Downs is said to be haunted by the spirits of the fallen defenders of the
Nentir Vale. Remains of that ancient battle litter the Downs—broken swords, shattered
armor, and old bones. Travelers on the King's Road rarely see any sign of ghosts, but
the folk of Winterhaven know better than to wander out on the Downs at night. Orcs
from the Stonemarch also appear in the Gardbury Downs from time to time, circling the
Cairngorm Peaks to raid into the Nentir Vale.

● Gardmore Abbey: This striking ruin is a large monastery that has lain in ruins
for almost one hundred fifty years. The abbey was dedicated to Bahamut and
served as the base of a militant order of paladins who won great fame fighting
in Nerath's distant crusades. As the story goes, the paladins brought a dark
artifact back from a far crusade for safekeeping and evil forces gathered to
assault the abbey and take it back. Extensive dungeons lie beneath the ruins,
which might still conceal the hoarded wealth of the old crusading paladins.
● Baron's Hill: This small town is located on the western end of the Gardbury
Downs, along the King’s Road and south of Winterhaven. Recently it has been
leeched of all color and is cast in tones of grey.

Gray Downs:
This area of fog-shrouded low hills serves as the principal headquarters of the Gray
Company, loyalists of old Nerath that dedicate themselves to finding magic items and
other treasures lost when the empire fell.

Treasure hunters and explorers find the Gray Downs covered with burial mounds dating
back to ancient times when primitive humans lived and hunted here. The hill clans are
gone, but their spirits live on, guarded and shepherded by the undead creatures known
—for good reason—as hounds of ill omen.
 ● The Sword Barrow: This large burial mound stands near the middle of the
Gray Downs. The Sword Barrow gained its name because scores of rusted
blades of ancient design are buried around its edges, blades pointing inward; a
visitor can turn up several in a few minutes of looking around. The blades seen
completely ordinary, not hinting at the old warding magic that surrounds the
place. Explorers who approach the place might be accosted by the
Barrowhaunts, a band of former adventurers who delved into the Sword Barrow
and didn't come back alive.

Harken Forest:
This large woodland stretches from the Nentir River to the mountains and extends for
miles to the south. It separates the Nentir Vale from the more populous coastal towns
of the south. In this expansive wooded area along the ale's southern edge, any tree
might conceal a threat—or danger could come from the tree itself, if it happens to be
one of the treants that watch over the deep forest. The Harken treants are bitter
enemies of their counterparts in the Winterbole Forest. Allied with the Harken treants is
a group of elf druids who call themselves Harken's Heart. Laboring under an ancient
curse, the druids are effectively trapped within the forest, and they spare no effort in
their attempt to protect it.

A strong goblin keep called Daggerburg lies somewhere in the southwest reaches, not
too far from Kalton Manor; the goblins sometimes raid the river-traffic moving along the
Nentir, or send small parties of marauders to Harkenwold's borders. An elf tribe known
as the Woodsinger Clan roams the eastern portions of the forest. They occasionally
trade with the humans of Harkenwold and keep an eye on travelers along the old King's
Road. They have a long-standing feud with the Daggerburg goblins, and the goblins
keep to the western parts of the forest to avoid swift and deadly elven arrows.
However, the goblins are growing more numerous and have become bolder in recent
months.

The northernmost arm of Harken Forest is the temporary headquarters of the Hunter
Spiders. This group of drow was stranded on the surface years ago when the tunnel
back to their home city of Erelhei-Cinlu collapsed. They have a reason to believe that
concealed in this area of the forest, which they call Spiderhaunt Thicket, is another
passage back to the Underdark. Until they find it, the drow guard their adopted
territory against intruders.

Perhaps the most dangerous threat to the Forest is the red dragon named Cazzak “the
Blessed”, that had settled in the hills east of Harkenwold and believes all he can see
from his lair to be his realm. He is trying to convert his “subjects” to the worship of
Tiamat, by any means necessary.

● Dal Nystiere: The ruins of an Eladrin settlement accessible only through

magical portals.
● Harkenwold: Half a dozen small villages lie along the upper vales of the White
River. Among those settlements are Albridge, Dardun, Desul Torey, Duponde,
Easthill, Harken Village, and Tor's Hold. Together, they make up the Barony of
Harkenwold—a tiny realm whose total population is not much greater than
 Fallcrest's. The people of Harkenwold are farmers, woodcutters, and
woodworkers; little trade comes up or down the old King's Road. The barony has
drawn the attention of the Iron Circle, an army of mercenaries and followers of
Asmodeus from a city far to the south. The band's leader, Lord Vhennyk, sees
Harkenwold as a vulnerable spot where he and his soldiers can gain a foothold
for an eventual invasion of the entire Vale.
The Gravelstokes, one of Nerath's most prestigious families when the Empire
was as its height, rose to prominence by perfecting the art of assassination.
Today, what's left of the family is sequestered in an unassuming mansion in the
Harkenwold area while they prepare to regain their lost influence by once again
offering their murderous services to the highest bidder.
● Kalton Manor: Back in the days Nerath was settling the Nentir Vale, minor
lords in search of land to call their own established manors and holds
throughout the area. Kalton Manor was one of these, a small keep raised about
two hundred years ago. Now in ruins, stories tell of treasure—the old Kalton
fortune—hidden in secret chambers beneath the keep.
● Riverslye Homestead: A small halfling commune located near the White River
in the Barony of Harkenwold.

Lake Nen:
The largest body of water in the Nentir Vale, Lake Nen stretches for nearly fifty miles
(80 km) across the southern edge of the Winterbole Forest. The eastern end supports
the nearby village of Nenlast, whose residents ply the waters for fish that they trade
with the dwarves of Hammerfast, and other groups. The frigid waters of Lake Nen hide
a mystery. On certain nights, fishers out too late on the lake hear singing—beautiful,
ethereal music that fills them with longing. Some never return to their homes, others
return forever changed, haunted by their experience. It is said that the boundaries
between the world and the Feywild grow thin when the full moon's light dances on the
water, and the music of the faerie court of the Prince of Thorns filters out over the lake.

The shoreline of the northwestern end of the lake is part of the dominion of the Frost
Witches, an eclectic group of magic-users who pay homage to the evil elemental prince
Cryonax. The witches wield the power of cold to brutal effect, whether recruiting new
members into their fold or kidnapping innocents. Although small groups of Frost
Witches might be encountered anywhere within the Winterbole Forest, the largest
concentration resides in the headquarters along the lake's edge that the group calls
Cold Camp.

Adventurers who explore the lakeshore might come upon a band of dragonborn, part of
the group known as Dythan's Legion, as they search for clues to the location of an
ancient Arkhosian enclave named Rolaz-Gaar, believed to be in this area.

● Nenlast: This tiny human village lies at the east end of Lake Nen. The folk here
make a meager living by trading smoked fish to the dwarves of Hammerfast.
They also deal with the Tigerclaw barbarians of the Winterbole Forest. When the
wild folk choose to trade, they come to Nenlast to barter their pelts and amber
for good dwarven metalwork.
 ● Ruins of Fastormel: Once a prosperous town on the shores of Lake Nen,
Fastormel was destroyed by the Bloodspear orcs and has never been resettled.
The town was ruled by a Lord Mage (the most powerful wizard in town claimed
the ruler's scepter), and the Mistborn Tower of the last Lord Mage still stands
amid the ruins of the town. The tower is shrouded in a strange silver mist that
never dissipates, no matter what the weather would otherwise dictate.

Lake Wintermist:
The fog that blankets Lake Wintermist is a year-round phenomenon, belying its name.
The lake is inhospitable for most creatures, but those that thrive in frigid climes. White
dragons frequently appear in the northwestern part of the lake, particularly in the dead
of winter when they seek out mates. The lake provides ample supplies of fish for the
Tigerclaw barbarians of the Winterbole Forest and a few homesteads along its southern
shore.

From time to time, someone passing through this area might come across an angry
troll—or perhaps even a pair of them. The twin troll brothers Hurly and Burly both lair in
caves not far from the lake—despite the fact that they can't stand each other. When
they get into one of their family feuds, anyone who crosses their path could become a
target of their rage.

● Mistwatch: Huddled against a hillside on a stony shore, Mistwatch has an

exquisite view of Lake Wintermist’s cold water. A sleepy town, blessed with
riches pulled from the unyielding stone in the nearby Cairngorm Peaks, grown
rich from timber cut from the Winterbole Forest, and fed well on trout and
salmon drawn from the clear, mist-covered water, has grown eerily quiet in
recent months due to an undead curse. Mistwatch, totally covered in mist, is in
the process of transforming into a domain of dread.

Moon Hills:
Arrayed to the south and east of Fallcrest, the Moon Hills are fairly tame. The
countryside for scores of miles around is dotted with abandoned homesteads and
manors from the days of Nerath, some of which were once the homes of well-off eladrin
families. The surrounding ridges shelter several small valleys where farmers and
woodsfolk live; few are more than six or seven miles from Fallcrest.

This cluster of rugged terrain between the Nentir River and the King's Road is not rife
with monsters and other villainous types, thanks mainly to the proximity of Fallcrest
and the vigilance of its town guard. But goblins and human bandits are fairly common
beyond the town.

The people of Fallcrest tell stories about the Dark Drake of the Moon Hills, a sinister
reptile that leads a pack of other evil drakes. These tales get more and more dramatic
in the retelling—even though few claim to actually have seen one of the creatures. The
hills also occasionally play host to terrors that wander out of either the Witchlight Fens
or the Harken Forest, including lizardfolk, giant spiders, and other random monsters in
search of new prey.
 ● Fallcrest: Amid the Moon Hills, Fallcrest is a hub for travel throughout the
Nentir Vale, as it stands at the intersection of the Nentir River and the ale's two
major trade routes the old King's Road that runs north and south, and the
dwarven Trade Road from the east. While the town guard does a capable job of
protecting the populace from raiders that emerge from the surrounding
wilderness, the biggest threats to Fallcrest's welfare come from within the town
itself. One such threat is the Fell Court, a band of outcast tieflings that have
gained a foothold in Fallcrest thanks to the subterfuge of their leader, Melech
Ambrose. Melech's dream is to take control of the town and use that success as
a springboard to spread the tieflings' influence throughout the ale.
At the same time, a gang of miscreants known as the River Rats are carving out
their own realm in Fallcrest's lower-class districts, and their leader also has
designs on expanding the organization to other communities. A rival gang, The
Honest Few, while still a new group, is slowly increasing its influence in the
upper class districts as well.
● The Twisting Halls: Ages ago, a group of minotaurs built a grand temple in a
cave of a hill south of the land that will become Fallcrest one day, dedicated to
four gods of good and law. In the deep recesses of the temple, the minotaurs
guarded a dark secret: a hidden shrine to the demon prince Baphomet. The
gods of good cursed the temple and its corrupt priests, and eventually it fell into
disuse and ruin. Over time, monsters made their lairs in the shelter of its stone
halls. The white dragon Farallax is currently the most powerful inhabitant of the
halls.

Ogrefist Hills:
Partially framing the western edge of the ale, this area has few redeeming qualities in
the eyes of those who know of the place or have visited there. These desolate hills are
said to be accursed by an ancient evil. During Nerath's height, several minor lords tried
in succession to establish manors in these hills, but none lasted more than a single
year.

Somewhere in these hills hides the mouth of a tunnel leading up from the Underdark
that the drow known as the Hunter Spiders used to reach the surface. When the tunnel
collapsed a mile underground just a few years ago, the Hunter Spiders became
stranded in the ale. It's not known whether the tunnel could be reopened from this
side.

A detachment of the corps of dragonborn known as Dythan's Legion is active here,

exploring rumors that a remnant of the old Arkhosian Empire lies somewhere in the
caverns beneath this area.

● Kiris Dahn: This human town located at the far end of the Ogrefist Hills was by
goblins eight years ago, who renamed it Gorizbadd. The town quickly fell into
ruin, since goblins were far more interested in vandalism than in proper
maintenance. A faction of kobolds took over the slums, since the goblins live
mostly in what were once residences for the wealthier people of Kiris Dahn.
● Temple of Yellow Skulls: This mysterious temple, nestled among the rugged
hills, might be the most infamous location in the area. Legend tells that a
 rakshasa prince summoned demons to this ancient shrine and bound them to
his service by imprisoning their vital essences in gold-plated human skulls. None
of these have yet been recovered from the ruins, but the story persists. Deep
caverns beneath the ruins lead all the way down to the Underdark, and from
time to time dangerous monsters of the deep places emerge here and prowl the
nearby lands.

The Old Hills:

Though the hills themselves are no older than any other geographical feature in the
Vale, the Old Hills bear signs of the first human settlements in the region: ancient ring-
forts built by the same hill-tribes that erected the barrows in the Gray Downs. The
remains of these ancient forts appear across the entire length and breadth of the hills,
from near Nenlast to Raven Roost and Fiveleague House, both of which were built atop
old ruins.

Nowadays, the area is firmly in the grasp of the vicious Blackfang gnolls. Slavishly
devoted to the demon god Yeenoghu, the gnolls emerge from their burrows in the hills
to kill or waylay travelers. Many of their captives are taken underground and sacrificed
in the Well of Demons at the center of the gnolls' many-chambered lair.

Other rumors concerning an older series of ruins spring up from time to time. These
tales, always told in whispers, speak of the ancient necropolis of Andok Sur. The place,
if it exists at all, is said to be holy to the followers of Orcus. The ruins of the City of the
Dead, according to the rumors, are buried beneath the oldest section of the Old Hills.

● Chad'Maragh, the Dark Magic Forge: An abandoned and seemingly

forgotten dwarven forge near a cliff that was constructed long ago, it houses a
magical portal to the Feywild. It was created to hinder the eladrin ability to step
between the natural world and the Feywild by a long forgotten dwarven king.
It's custodied by the magical floating skull of an undead dwarf.
● Fiveleague House: Fiveleague House is more properly known as the
Fiveleague Inn, a popular resting place for travelers heading to or from the ale's
larger communities, located a day's journey (five leagues) farther east from
Hammerfast. It's a strongly built innhouse surrounded by a wooden palisade.
The proprietor is a big bearlike human named Barton. Barton makes a good
show of joviality, but he's secretly allied with the bandits of Raven Roost and
sends them word of travelers worth robbing who will be continuing west toward
Fallcrest.
● Raven Roost: An old estate house known as Raven Roost Manor sits on a piece
of prime land just north of the Harken Forest. The place is almost impossible for
someone to approach without being seen—and that's just how the Raven Roost
bandits like it.
The manor has recently been taken over by a group of criminals and cutthroats
under the leadership of a trio of shadar-kai named Samminel, Erzoun, and
Geriesh. The bandits have a reputation for cruelty and mercilessness that
extends far beyond the area in which they practice their grisly trade. They
secretly deal with Barton, the proprietor of Fiveleague House, giving him a cut
of the take when he tips them off about wealthy travelers on the Trade Road.
 ● Trade Road: This dwarf-built highway is the most heavily traveled
thoroughfare in the ale—which means it carries enough bounty to support more
than one gang of thieves. Merchants and pilgrims who manage to avoid the
notice of the Raven Roost bandits still have to contend with the Wolf Runners, a
widely feared band of humans and wolves that work together in an uncanny
fashion along the length of the Trade Road.
● Thunderspire: The tallest natural spire in the ale, Thunderspire Mountain lies
on the southern fringe of the Old Hills. Its top forever encased in a raging storm,
Thunderspire is a majestic sight, even without considering what lies within its
depths. Beneath Thunderspire lies the ancient minotaur city of Saruun Khel. The
minotaur kingdom fell almost a hundred years before Fallcrest was established,
when a struggle for succession led to a vicious civil war.
The mysterious order of wizards known as the Mages of Saruun control the
caverns beneath Thunderspire Mountain that made up the minotaur city. In a
grand plaza called the Seven-Pillared Hall, the mages and their acolytes provide
a place for natives of the Underdark to barter goods with surface-dwellers, as
merchants passing along the Trade Road sometimes take shelter here. All the
while, the ages continue to seek out more of the artifacts and treasure left
behind by the minotaurs.
Beyond the relative safety of the Seven-Pillared Hall, however, curious explorers
can run into bandit gangs, gnoll tribes, undead, and various denizens of the
Underdark that aren't as congenial as those encountered within the purview of
the Mages.

The Stonemarch:
A rugged land of stony hills and deep gorges cut by white-rushing rivers, the
Stonemarch is home to tribes of dangerous humanoids and giants. Orcs, ogres, giants,
and trolls haunt the farther reaches of these barren lands. Every century or so,
Gruumsh's insatiable thirst for bloodshed and conquest calls the orcs of the
Stonemarch from their deep holes and whips them into a frenzied mob. They swarm
over the Cairngorm Peaks and into the Nentir Vale by the thousands, turning
everything in their path to ash and ruin. The last assault came ninety years ago, and
the ravaged earth has not yet fully healed. The people of the ale, ill prepared for
another rampage, are desperate for new heroes to halt the impending invasion.

● The Fanged Jaws of Kulkoszar: A great orc-warren that lies in the northern
part of the wasteland. Over the years, Clan Bloodspear has extended the
original cavern into an extensive warren furnished with forges, arenas, and
slave pens. The current chieftain of Clan Bloodspear is Msuga, the Orc Queen,
who rules over hundreds of fierce warriors.

Winterbole Forest:
The vast expanse of the Winterbole Forest defines the northern border of the Nentir
Vale and the limit of Nerath's expansion at its height. It is home to a multitude of
monsters and villains, among which a few stand out as the would-be masters of the
domain.
The white dragon Bitterstrike holds sway over a large part of the forest. Several of the
Winterbole's denizens, most notably the Tigerclaw barbarians and the Frost Witches,
pay fealty to the dragon. They keep her pacified and help her when she demands it,
but none of them are truly and honestly on her side.

Even a dragon with an army of vassals could not hope to control the entire forest—and
in fact the Tigerclaw barbarians consider themselves the real power to be reckoned
with in the Winterbole. This wide-ranging band of humans and shifters were never
brought under Nerath's sway, and remained uneasy neighbors of the empire at its
height. They claim to be descended from a great primal spirit known as the Hunter of
Winter, from which they draw their fighting skill and their determination. They trade
with the people of Nenlast at times, but in harsh winters they have also been known to
attack the village and simply take the food and weapons they need.

The Frost Witches are not nearly as numerous as the Tigerclaws, but their desire for
domination is no less strong. Clenderi, the witches' leader, would like nothing better
than to convince Bitterstrike to join their cause in service to Cryonax.

The coniferous treants of the Winterbole Forest contribute some of their ranks to the
cadre of Bitterstrike's vassals, and they typically stand with the dragon when it
becomes necessary to put down an incursion into the forest by humanoids. But their
true enemies are the treants of the Harken Forest. These two groups harbor an enmity
that dates back to the time when the two forests were a single expanse of green that
covered nearly the entire vale. Bitterstrike also have some satyrs as her vassals as
well.

● The Howling Forest: There is a region in the north of the Winterbole Forest
that the locals call the Howling Forest. This region is generally avoided by the
neighboring dwellers due to its vicious beasts and the trolls which come from
the central regions of the Winterbole Forest to hunt game. Very few ruins
remain in the wood, but Fey Passages can be found by those who know where
to look. Every midnight, the ruined eladrin city of Shinaelestra shimmers into
existence deep in the forest. Its rangers take advantage of this savage hunting
ground, patrolling the depths of the black forest and pitting themselves against
the mortal monsters who hunt its twisted paths. When dawn comes,
Shinaelestra worldfalls back to the Feywild.
● The Pyramid of Shadows: In the depths of the Winterbole Forest, this bizarre
extradimensional space full of weird monsters and strange magical effects holds
creatures from all planes of existence since the Dawn War. The Pyramid of
Shadows is one of many infernal prisons created to confine powerful beings. It
exists beyond space and time, appearing in multiple places in the world and
planes beyond.
The space within it knows nothing of the passage of time. Just like a prism splits
light into its component colors, the pyramid split the prisoners’ life force into
free-willed splinters, each one containing a fragment of the power of their
former selves. With their power spread among various splinters, the prisoners
couldn’t hope to break free from the pyramid.
Each of the pyramid’s three levels is home to multiple factions of creatures.
Each new arrival tries to find a place among the existing inhabitants, or to carve
 out its own living space. Eventually, the pyramid adapts to the creatures
trapped within it, providing a living space approximating their natural
environments. Since its prisoners don’t need to compete for resources, they
coexist in an uneasy truce.
● The Winterguard Prison: Criminals whisper of an inescapable prison of blue
ice built atop a snow-covered mountain far to the north of the Nentir Vale. They
say that its cruel fey inhabitants magically encase prisoners inside its icy walls,
freezing them alive forever. Despite the inevitable exaggeration that comes
with spreading rumors, the stories are true.
The Winterguard Prison is located somewhere in the northern reaches of the
Winterbole Forest, and dates back to the time of the long lost eladrin empire of
Cendriane. Created in the mortal world to house dangerous prisoners of the
Kinstrife War (the ancient war between the first elves), the prison is still
functional and now houses both ancient elven criminals and more recent
criminals of all races. The Winterguard, an order of swordmages, is charged with
administering the prison and they patrol the Nentir Vale and beyond in order to
apprehend dangerous criminals and to new recruits for their order.

The Witchlight Fens:

At the confluence of the Nentir River and the White River, a great swamp stretches for
miles. This marsh is territory coveted by few intelligent creatures, for one principal
reason: Shadowmire. As elusive as he is deadly, this black dragon considers the
Witchlight Fens his realm, and most of those who enter the swamp are not interested in
contesting that claim.

Savage lizardfolk hunt these fens, occasionally emerging from the swamp to skirmish
with the Woodsinger elves of Harken Forest. The lizardfolk manage to live in harmony
with the dragon, and some of the Witchlight lizardfolk tribes have come to worship him.

Near the eastern edge of the fens, where the wetland merges with Harken Forest, the
lizardfolk of the Mistkiller tribe frequently skirmish with bands of Daggerburg goblins
that make forays out of the forest.

A number of ruins related to the ancient empire of Bael Turath can be stumbled upon
by those who explore the depths of the swamp. Some of these have been occupied by
newer groups, including lizardfolk and goblin tribes, but others are so mysterious and
have such an air of malignance as to drive all but the most desperate or depraved from
their presence.

● Githzerai enclave: A small village populated only by githzerai, near the White
River.
● Renefik: This halfling enclave has a population of Ren Clan members who work
the local watercourses as traders and guides. Renefik’s neighbors view the
halflings as self-serving and a bit greedy, but as far less of a threat than most
creatures that dwell in the swamp. The enclave consists of four multistory
buildings, with the lowest level serving as an enclosed dock, the second level as
a storehouse, and the upper floors as living quarters. The enclave is lightly
fortified, which means that it more defensible than most holdings in the area.
 ● The Ghost Tower of the Witchlight Fens: One of the three infamous “ghost
towers” of the Nentir Vale appears in the swamp, near Kalton Manor.
● Treewater: A village of about fifty people, mainly humans and half-elves,
Treewater has ten buildings, consisting of small dwellings (little better than
shacks) and a few stores and storehouses. It stands along the edge of a small,
round lake, tied to the larger Nentir River by a narrow waterway. Treewater
hosts trading days several times a year, when regional residents can buy and
sell goods and acquire hard-to-find items.
● Witchlight Hermitage: A small hermitage that lies near the Nentir River,
along the ever-changing borders of the Brackmarsh lizardfolk tribal lands. It is
operated by a priestess of Pelor, Ofeen Nole, who works to counteract the
effects of the mire connections to the Shadowfell and the evil influence exerted
by the black dragon Shadowmire.

The Underdark:
The Underdark is a network of subterranean tunnels, caverns, seas, and rivers that
spans the entire world. Lightless but far from lifeless, the Underdark is home to a
dizzying array of creatures, from the underground fortress of dwarves and duergar, to
the civilized but unforgiving drow, to carnivorous monsters and aberrant creatures from
the Far Realm that haunt the darkness.

There are many tunnels that connect the Underdark to the Nentir Vale: The Misers' Pit
in the Cairngorm Peaks, the Seven-Pillared Hall in Thunderspire Mountain, and the
tunnels of the Deep Guides in the Dawnforge Mountains are the most known to learned
scholars. The foremost explorers of the Underdark in the Vale are the members of the
loose organization called the Deep Guides. These talented survivalists, scouts,
cartographers, and navigators range throughout the depths, ensuring open lanes of
travel. Motivated by both a desire for exploration and the patronage of wealthy
merchants, these trailblazers of the Underdark bring civilization into the Night Below.

● The Vault of the Drow: A gleaming but sinister gem, the Vault of the Drow is
one of the most spectacular and awe-inspiring locations in the Underdark. It lies
directly beneath the Nentir Vale, and only one known road gives access to the
area.
○ The Black Tower: A great mound of rock and crystal that guards the
only known entrance to Erelhei-Cinlu, the city of the drow. Soldiers patrol
the area at all times.
○ Erelhei-Cinlu: The greatest drow city on the Underdark, Erelhei-Cinlu is
a metropolitan hub of political intrigue, rivalries, and secrets. Female
drow known as the matron mothers rule their noble houses through
intimidation and magical might. Arcane academies train favored male
drow as potent spellcasters specializing in necromancy and
nethermancy. The vast majority of the males, though, are considered
inferior and relegated to militia duty. These small military forces are led
by a house's weaponmasters, elite soldiers who have demonstrated
leadership and courage in defense of the city.
 The Echoes of the World
Inextricably linked to the natural world are two parallel planes: the Feywild, also known
as the Plane of Faerie, and the Shadowfell, or the Plane of Shadow. Those worlds are
the closest of the planes to the mortal world.

Despite vastly different astronomies and alternative names for stars, the architecture
of the heavens remains constant in those echo planes. While stars are bright in the
mortal world and in the Feywild, in the Shadowfell the night sky all its own. It seems a
void of inky blackness with illusory stars that deceive the stargazer, but by careful
observation, dead stars, long ago faded from the mortal world, glimmer in dull solidity
in the Shadowfell, the only real stars there.

The Feywild
The Feywild is a verdant, wild twin of the mortal realm. Towering forests sprawl for a
thousand leagues. Perfect amber prairies roll between pristine mountain peaks soaring
into the flawless clouds. Emerald, turquoise, and jade green seas crash along endless
beaches. The skies are a perfect blue not seen in the mortal world—until storms come,
coal dark thunderheads boiling with fierce winds and torrential rains. In this world,
arcane power thrums through every tree and rock. All existence is magical.

Those who wander its enchanted roads discover miracles and wonders undreamed of in
the mortal world. In the Feywild, the laws of science, logic, and reason defer to the arts
of magic, story, and rhyme. Ordinary animals and objects converse as eloquently as
any worldly mortal. Enchanted forests wander across the landscape like herds of roving
sheep. Glorious castles perch on mountain spires that touch the starry heavens, and a
bold traveler can board a vessel to a fey palace on the moon. Fairies anoint the
dewdrops on morning flowers, and in the evening, satyrs play their gentle pipes to lull
the world to sleep.

Yet for all its dreamlike splendor, the plane can be as perilous as the Elemental Chaos
with its random explosions of stone and fire, and as deadly as the life-sapping
Shadowfell. Here wicked hags place everlasting curses on their enemies, change
mortals into toads, and blacken the moon in their flight across the midnight sky.
Capricious fey play careless games with mortal lives. Underground caverns sprawl the
length of the Feydark, the equivalent of the Underdark, and in these dark places,
fomorian tyrants, brutal cyclopses, and hateful drow await the day when they will
overthrow the surface dwellers.

Those who are drawn to this realm of enchantment and danger must take care, for
wonders and horrors beyond imagining lie around every bend in the woodland road.

● Al'Bihel, the City of Stairs: A ruined eladrin city on the Feywild that was
inhabited by cursed spider-drow until recently, when they were annihilated by
the forces of the First Lord Thrumbolg. Its former ruler, the eladrin Arcane Lord
N'ehlia, have plans to rebuild it. It's located near the fomorian realm of Mag
Tureah, and appears every certain time on the mortal world, somewhere in the
Old Hills, in the Nentir Vale.
● Amethystra: Once a part of Cendriane, Amethystra is a city of alabaster and
crystal that floats atop a cloud. It spends most of its time in the Feywild, but
sometimes appears temporarily in the mortal world after specially violent
storms. Those who brave its wonders in search for treasure often find
themselves enchanted by the city, compelled to contemplate its unearthly
beauty forever.
● Astrazalian, The City of Starlight: This magnificent eladrin city is the crown
jewel of the eladrin realms, the incarnate dream and the envy of every mortal
race. Appearing on the hillsides of a green island on the natural world in the first
day of spring, it is the fey realm most well known to the inhabitants of the
mortal world. At the end of the summer the city returns to the Feywild, and is
located in the sea known as the Kingdom of the Sea Lords. During autumn and
winter, savage fomorians besiege Astrazalian from their Feydark borderlands in
hopes of plundering the city and using it as a base from which to raid the
natural world. Astrazalian is ruled by Lady Shandria, an eladrin warlord and a
distant niece of Queen Tiandra of the Court of Stars.
● Brokenstone Vale: This forested valley and the mine-riddled mountains that
surround it are the province of werebeasts of all kinds, given free range by an
ancient pact with the Court of Stars. In tiny hamlets on the boundaries of this
realm, civilized lycanthropes can trade with merchants under the watchful eye
of werewolf lord Viktor Mazan. Underneath Brokenstone Vale lies an entrance to
the fomorian kingdom of Harrowhame.
● Cendriane: In the midst of a dark, twisted forest as old as the world stands the
abandoned city of Cendriane, its crystal towers rising through the treetops like
polished skeletal fingers emerging from the earth. Formerly the greatest city in
the Feywild, Cendriane is now a ruin, having been devastated during the ancient
wars fought by the drow, eladrin, and elves. Giant spiders, displacer beasts, and
owlbears make their lairs in mansions where noble eladrin once dwelled, and
sometimes by night terrifying specters drift through the streets.
● Cyndaria: An invisible eladrin city beyond a waterfall near The Maze of
Fathaghn. Its ruler is the powerful Sidhe Lord Toveliss E'teall.
● Feywild trails: Collective name for the trails and roads that crisscross the
Feywild. Travelers who stray from these paths might fall prey to dangerous
creatures such as fey panthers, hags, or worse.
● Harrowhame: This underground fomorian kingdom is built on the slave trade.
Its ruler, King Bronnor, is as mad as any fomorian, but he can be negotiated with
—occasionally. The lycanthropes of neighboring Brokenstone Vale often serve
Bronnor as spies and assassins.
● Mag Tureah: The largest of the subterranean fomorian realms, Mag Tureah is
ruled by King Thrumbolg, the First Lord. Although the military stronghold raids
and pillages competently, the biggest challenge for Thrumbolg is mapping and
testing the many planar portals found throughout the tunnels of his
underground kingdom. To this end, he employs slaves in his portal tests and is
always looking for more subjects with arcane knowledge.
● Mithrendain, The Autumn City: Once a great fortress of the long-lost empire
of Cendriane, Mithrendain has blossomed into a beautiful eladrin forest-city
whose buildings seem to grow naturally around the trees, and where time is
almost non-existent. Here, time drifts by as gradually as the first tentative
 falling leaves of autumn. However, Mithrendain has a dark secret: the central
sections of the city were built atop a now-sealed tunnel that leads to the
Feydark. This entrance to the underworld is heavily protected by the Barrier
Sentinels, an order of magical warriors that protects the Citadel Arcanum, the
fortress guarding the entrance to the Feydark, and the mysterious Watchers of
the Night, the secret police of Mithrendain.
● Nachtur, the Goblin Kingdom: Along the overland route between the eladrin
realms and the goblin kingdom of Nachtur lies a great expanse of wilderness.
This goblin kingdom, under the rule of the hobgoblin wizard Great Gark, is one
of the more civilized of its kind, but is also one of the most dangerous nations of
the Feywild. The underground realm engages in diplomatic matters with many
lands, and its goblin mercenaries serve anyone who meets their price.
● Plains of Echoing Thunder: This open country of rolling hills and grassy plains
is the stomping grounds of centaur tribes. Due to the centaurs' devotion to
Kord, storms are particularly common in this region.
● Porpherio's Island: Also known as Porpherio’s Garden, this enchanted island-
home located near the Isle of Dread in the kingdoms of the Sea Lords, was
created by Queen Tiandra and Lord Oran of the Green Court for a pair of lovers
long time ago. Now is home to the mysterious wizard known as the Green Man.
● Senaliesse: In the center of the Feywild’s primeval forest grows a massive
stand of ancient silver trees. The forest at the base of these trees seems
completely undisturbed. This silver grove is Senaliesse, the home of Queen
Tiandra of the Court of Stars. Here, the archfey of the Court of Stars gather to
confer, revel, and scheme. Courtiers and petitioners from every realm in the
known universe, overburdened with wondrous gifts, come to beg the Summer
Queen's favor.
● Shinaelestra, The Fading City: Shinaelestra is a city of rangers, and they
long ago decided to let the forest reclaim the ancient walls. Many of
Shinaelestra’s towers are broken, barely rising above the thick overgrowth of
the forest. The ranger Lord Calenon Thray governs Shinaelestra lightly. Some
say he is the greatest eladrin ranger of them all. Every midnight, Shinaelestra
appears in the midst of the Howling Forest in the mortal world, and each dawn it
returns to the Feywild. The greatest threat to Shinaelestra is the fomorian realm
of Vor Thomil.
● The Isle of Dread: Somewhere above the coral kingdoms of the Sea Lords
rises a tropical island ringed with treacherous reefs and storm-tossed seas. The
sands of its beaches are as dark as the jagged obsidian mountains in its center
or the plumes of smoke spewing from its volcanoes, and its coasts are littered
with the wreckage of ships. Sinister stone ziggurats break the canopy of verdant
jungles blanketed in clouds of steam. Unseen beneath the dense foliage,
enormous reptiles of the primeval world hold sway. The Isle of Dread is also the
home of the dreaded Su monsters, dangerous treetop predators created by the
wizard Halkith. Su monsters use their psychic link to monitor events that
transpire on the island, including keeping tabs on the island's population of
yuan-ti.
● The Lake of Dreams: This lake, known for the glass-like stillness of its waters,
is located in the middle of a particularly dark forest. The woods are rumored to
be the personal fiefdom of Razcoreth, the green dragon better known as the
 Whispering Wyrm. It’s said that those who submerge in the waters of this lake
have their memories completely erased.
● The Maze of Fathaghn: There is a place in the Feywild where the trees grow
close together and the twisting brambles are as tall and thick as living walls.
Here the trees speak their secrets in the faint whisper of rustling leaves. The
woodland path loses its way among shifting copses and the trunks of wandering
treants, and playful nymphs and dryads lure unwary travelers along twisting
detours to shady glades from which they will never emerge.
● The Murkendraw: The Murkendraw is a swamp the size of a sea, infested with
feymire crocodiles as large as the flat bottom skiffs that float among the putrid
detritus. Fat, bloodthirsty marsh flies, some the size of dogs, buzz through the
late afternoon air. Thunderstorms cover the area for days at a time, riddling the
swamp with lightning, and hags such as the infamous Baba Yaga exult in the
unbridled chaos.
○ Murkroot Trade Moot: Somewhere beneath the sodden soil at the
edge of the great Murkendraw Swamp, a secret hides from the angry
nobles of the Summer Court. Lost to all but those who have been there
before, this place remains beyond the reach of those who would destroy,
conquer, or exploit it—at least until someone who has been there
betrays it. The Murkroot Trade Moot is an underground bazaar of the
illegal and the illicit in the Feywild, a black market of things the Sidhe
lords don't want the people of their realms to know about.
● The Spiral Tower: The site of the last battle between the drow, the elves and
the eladrin. The original tower was destroyed in that ancient battle, and a new
tower was built atop the ruins. This new tower serves as an academy for wizards
and tacticians.
● The White Well: This pool, said to be the demesne of a powerful archfey
known as the Lady of the White Well, is amidst a serene forest that seems to
exude deep sorrow. Legends say that she grants the ability to control the
powerful magic of the night to those who seek to win her heart.
● Vale of the Long Night: Beneath the oppressive snowfalls that drown the land
in a crystal white ocean of winter, the Fortress of Frozen Tears rises from a high
glacial spire like a jagged icicle. The constant glow of the ever-full moon shines
down on frozen lakes, gnarled and barren orchards, and lonely, snow-covered
mountains. The stars burn coldly overhead, as distant and pitiless as billions of
icy snowflakes poised in the everlasting darkness, waiting to descend. Eladrin
with an affinity for winter live in the wilderness around the Prince's fortress , but
they give their liege a wide berth.
○ Fortress of Frozen Tears: Located in a desolate icy waste, the Fortress
of Frozen Tears is the seat of power for the Prince of Frost, mightiest of
the winter fey. His contempt for mortals is legendary, and his rivalry with
the summer fey is bitter, but he still receives ambassadors from distant
lands.
○ Winter’s Heart: The demesne of Koliada the Winter Witch, one of the
archfey of the Winter Court. It is connected by a Fey Passage to the
Dawnforge Mountains in the Nentir Vale.
 ● Vor Thomil: The nearest fomorian kingdom to Shinaelestra, Vor Thomil endures
at the whim of its mad Queen Connomae. Captured travelers are forced to
perform for her entertainment as poets, singers, actors or gladiators.

The Shadowfell
The Shadowfell is the dark echo of the mortal world, a twilight realm that exists “on the
other side” of the world and its earthly denizens. A place of deep shadows, of familiar
yet alien landscapes, of vistas that snatch the breath, and of mind-rending visions, the
Shadowfell is the gloomy reflection of the natural world. It is a plane dimmed and
dulled by a pervasive and insidious pall. The home of the dead, the realm of the
forsaken, a haven of the lost and the twisted, the birthplace of wretched creatures
famous for their grief and sorrow—the Plane of Shadow is all this and more.

The Shadowfell is more than just a mirror, even as darkly cast and twisted as it is. This
plane is the destination of souls loosed from their bodies. It is the domain of the dead,
the final stage of the soul’s journey before moving onto the unknown. For this reason,
the Shadowfell draws the attention of any with an interest in death. The power and
allure of this place even drew the Raven Queen from the Astral Sea to take residence
among the spirits, to govern them, and to monitor their movements as they await the
inexorable pull of dissolution.

The Shadowfell is a bleak realm that houses both the dead and those among the living
who have embraced a dismal existence there. As a shadowy reflection of the world, the
Shadowfell can manifest differently to visitors. The plane is an amalgam of differences
and similarities to the world. Each person finds something both recognizable and
disturbing in its grim landscape.

The Shadowfell is in a state of flux. These alterations can be dramatic or subtle: A giant
sinkhole might swallow up a swath of land, or a path that leads through a forbidding
mountain range might alter its course to descend into the Shadowdark. the equivalent
of the Underdark. These transformations can be physical. but they can also be a by-
product of the plane's ability to warp the memory and imagination of those who walk
its shadowed paths. Creatures sometimes perceive time differently in the Shadowfell
from how they do in the world. Rather than passing with the rise or fall of thee sun,
time moves based on the gloom infecting one's mind. If a person succumbs to
depression and apathy, time seems to slow to a crawl. If one sinks into the deepest
depths of despair, time seems to stop entirely.

● Darkreach Mountain Range: The Darkreach Mountains stand as the

remnants of an ancient primordial named Volunt, slain by the shades of the
Shadowfell in the Dawn War. The Darkreach is divided in two by the Gorge of
the Mourning Mist, a valley covered in impenetrable fog. To the south, a cluster
of tall and spindly mountains called the Claw slash at the sky and support only
the hardiest of life. To the north lie the Teeth: stouter, snow-capped peaks
offering more manageable terrain but harsher weather. The Claw and the Teeth
supposedly represent the last physical remains of Volunt's body. Each of these
sections of the range is perilous to both spirit and flesh. Any who live and
adventure in the mountains must be desperate, crazy, or extraordinarily driven.
 ○ Yandere: A hidden githzerai monastery built into the side of one peak of
the Claw.
○ Fellwroth Village: The village of Fellwroth, the ancestral home of
House Fellwroth of Gloomwrought, rests in the foothills of the Teeth. With
their noble manor in the City of Midnight now seemingly abandoned, the
shadar-kai of Fellwroth live here on the edge of civilization.
○ Kazzak'tul: This ancient structure was clearly intended for war on a
large scale before it was abandoned long ago.
○ The Frozen Path: The main passage through the Teeth is a narrow gap
covered by ice blizzards.
● Dead's Man Cross: Innumerable paths and dirt roads cut through the wild
places of the Shadowfell. No one is sure who built these roads, when, or why.
Many of them twist back on themselves repeatedly or end at the edge of a cliff
or against a featureless wall of stone. Only a few roads lead somewhere that
anyone would consider useful. No matter how long a road lies unattended,
plants can never take root on it. A corpse at the center of Dead Man's Cross,
simply and unromantically called the Dead Man, is said to have been a former
high priest of Nerull, condemned to an eternity of servitude by the Raven Queen
upon her elevation to godhood. The corpse gives a warning when something is
about to enter the Shadowfell. With a sound of creaking leather, the Dead Man's
head slowly swivels to look at the location where a creature will arrive,
moments before it appears.
○ The House of Black Lanterns: A wandering inn that travels across the
Dead’s Man Cross. Inside, a well-trained staff sees to the needs of
guests. These folk are amiable to travelers, ready to answer questions
about the Shadowfell and provide basic services. They hesitate only
when questioned about how they came to work at the inn, quickly finding
excuses to change the subject or disengage. The inn offers shelter for
travelers and easy transport across the Shadowfell, as well as a place to
share news and swap dark tales.
● Domains of Dread: Scattered throughout the Plane of Shadow are places
hidden behind thick walls of mist, places ruled by dark and deeply troubled
beings bound to the plane by dreadful curses. These isolated pockets within the
Shadowfell are called Domains of Dread. A creature that passes through the
curtain of mist into a Domain of Dread becomes trapped there —a prisoner of
the darklord who rules the domain.

○ Darani: One of the oldest cities of Nerath, it was transformed into a

Domain of Dread and sent to the Shadowfell after Magroth the Mad was
defeated by the hero Krondor, which in turn was killed by his own
brother, Kalaban.

○ Death of Innocence: The only remaining temple of Nerull. When the

Raven Queen became a full-fledged goddess, she transformed Death of
Innocence into a Domain of Dread and sealed its borders.

○ Graefmotte: A Nerathi city transformed into a Domain of Dread after its

lord killed his own son rather than see it slain in the last battle of the
Empire of Nerath.
 ○ Histaven: Also known as the Withered Lands, this is a relatively young
Domain of Dread, having existed for less than a century. Ruled over by
the self-deluded tyrant Count Artius and plagued by the constant assault
of a wretched dark paladin known as the Rag Man.

○ Monadhan: A Turathi town transformed into a Domain of Dread after

the dragon Arantor killed its innocent and defenseless inhabitants, and
afterwards betrayed and killed his protégée, the dragon Imrissa, during
the Arkhosian-Turathi wars.

○ Sunderheart: Once known as Harrack Unarth, this city was the pleasure
garden of the Empire of Bael Turath. After the assassinations of the
nobles Ivania Dreygu and Vorno Kahnebor, Harrack Unarth suffered from
a major curse where births had deformities, and where a storm covered
the city for a long time. While the usual robbers attempted to loot the
city and armies attempted to reoccupy it, the ancient curses came to
light and the city was transformed into a Domain of Dread..

○ The Endless Road: Formerly known as the village of Tranquility in the

natural world, it was transformed into a Domain of Dread after its village
elder, Eli Van Hassen, forced his daughter to falsely accuse a noble hero
of ravishing her, and having the innocent man beheaded.

○ Timbergorge: Once a Fey Demense of the Treant Silvermaw, this plane

has since slid into the Shadowfell and was transformed into a Domain of
Dread.

● Gloomwrought, the City of Midnight: Standing alone on a long stretch of

desolate shoreline, Gloomwrought is a dirty port with a huge swamp in one side
and a sea on the other. Inside its high, encircling wall, the city is cramped and
dismal place. Although the City of Midnight is one of the few strongholds of
civilization in the Shadowfell, it is neither a safe settlement nor a pleasant one.
The citizens of Gloomwrought come to the city or stay in it for simple reasons,
but rarely good ones. Among them are the inscrutable Keepers, a bizarre race of
caretakers found throughout the city. Although the Keepers exhibit no
discernible reason for their work, they are thought to be responsible for the
upkeep and continued existence of the City of Midnight.
● Letherna: The forbidding realm of the Raven Queen, Letherna lies in the frozen
north of the Shadowfell. Here the spirits of the dead are drawn to seek their
ultimate fate. Wherever their mortal bodies perished, most souls inevitably
come to Letherna and pass through the Raven Queen’s stronghold. It is not a
place for the living. And yet, despite it’s vast array of dangers and powers,
adventurers come to Letherna seeking ancient treasures or the fulfillment of
great quests. The vast, frozen mountain range that makes up Letherna has few
navigable routes to it or through it. A great valley called the Bleak Fallow lies in
the northeastern part of the domain, where an even greater mountain once
stood. At the southern end of the ring of mountains around Letherna is the
temple of Zvomarana, guarding entrance from that direction. Deep in a canyon
in the extreme northwest lies Farad Exitis, where the Raven Queen’s exarch,
 Vorkhesis, presides over pilgrims who would prove their faith by embracing the
god’s greatest tenets in a difficult trial.
● Oblivion Bog: Lying to the north and west of Gloomwrought, Oblivion Bog has
been a fearful place for as long as anyone can remember. Rotted signs lead up
to the bog, suggesting it was once habitable, but now the region is a murky
swampland that extends for miles. Oblivion Bog lies along a direct line between
Gloomwrought and Letherna. and though most travelers wisely skirt around the
swamp, a few are brave or foolish enough to try a shortcut through it.
○ Forsaken Hamlet: Only a few buildings remain of the village that stood
in the heart of Oblivion Bog, and they are slowly sinking deeper into the
swamp.
○ Hexus Commune: A coven of black-hearted hags has turned the
northern fringe of Oblivion Bog into their personal fiefdom.
○ Mirehide Tribe: The lands of a tribe of bullywugs stranded from the
natural world that now calls Oblivion Bog home.

The Planes Beyond

The mortal world and its parallel planes exist between two great infinite expanses—the
Astral Sea (also known as the Outer Planes) and the Elemental Chaos (also known as
the Inner Planes). These planes are levels of reality in which countless specific locales
exist like finite islands adrift in the infinite—the various astral dominions and elemental
realms of Gods, Primordials and Demon Lords.

For those planes of existance, use the ones of your favorite D&D edition.

Demographics of the Nentir Vale

It only covers the most important settlements of the Vale.

Harken Village
Referred to as Harken by the locals, this village is the largest settlement in Harkenwold.

Population: 212 another 100 or so live in the countryside around the village. The
people of Harken are mostly humans, halflings and dwarves.

Government: The human noble Jonn Stockmer is the baron of Harkenwold. He

oversees justice, defence and laws within six villages and surrounding countryside that
makes Harkenwold Barony. The baron appoints village elders to help with daily
governing of the Harkenwold.

Defense: Harken Village has no standing defenses, but 30 or so able-bodied warriors

can be raised from population. If the need arises, the baron can call up to 150 militia at
need from the whole Harkenwold.
Inns: Aunt’s Nonnie Place, which has common room as well as rooms for rent, is run by
the halfling Nonnie Farwhere. While not proper inn, it is the closest thing to one you’ll
find in whole of the Harkenwold.

Taverns: Cliffside Brewery, run by dwarven family, not only brews its own ales but also
sells its products to taverns in Fallcrest and Winterhaven.

Supplies: Harkenwold Trading Station.

Temple: House of Faith, which caters to worshippers of Pelor, Moradin, Erathis and
Sehanine.

Winterhaven
Built in the shelter of the Keep on the Shadowfell during Nerath's height, this village
stands as a feeble light at the edge of civilization.

Population: 977. Most villagers are farmers and herders who live outside the walls,
and most are human.

Government: Ernest Padraig, the lord of Winterhaven, is descended from the noble
family that ruled the area under edict of the old empire.

Defense: The Winterhaven Regulars are a core group of ten soldiers who perform
guard and police functions in and around the Village. Padraig can muster a force of
about fifty civilians, given a day's notice, to supplement this tiny force if the village is
threatened.

Inn and Tavern: Wrafton's Inn serves as the public house for the region.

Supplies: Bairwin's Grand Shoppe has variety of items for sale, occasionally a low-
level magical item. Also, once a week, the official Market Day is celebrated in the
Market Square of the village. Farmers sell produce, hunters hawk smoked meats,
villagers sell crafts, and sometimes a trader from the east sells implements or costly
goods.

Temple: A large stone structure is the village temple. Of the several deities worshiped
by locals, Avandra, goddess of luck and change, is the most prominent. The temple
priest, Sister Linora, runs services in the temple three times per week, and can offer
sacrifices to the entire pantheon when called on to do so, but otherwise she is not often
present.

Hammerfast
Hammerfast is the only city of the Nentir Vale, where the living dwell among the dead.
The buildings are converted tombs and sepulchers, cleared of rubble and refurbished to
serve as homes and businesses.

Population: 12,000. Hammerfast's population consists mostly of dwarves, with a

significant population of orcs.
Government: Three guilds—the trade guild, the lore guild, and the craft guild—rule
Hammerfast. Each guild elects three members to the Town Council. The Council then
elects a High Master. The current High Master is Marsinda Goldspinner, a
representative of the Trade Guild.

Defense: A full-time force of about 100 warriors defends the city, manning thick, stone
walls and a number of towers equipped with catapults and ballistae. In addition,
outsiders are allowed only in the Gate Ward. The rest of the city is accessible only with
permission from the guard.

Inns: The Arcane Star provides high quality but expensive accommodations. Rondal's
Inn offers a cheaper, though shabbier, alternative.

Taverns: The Foundation Stone is the most popular tavern for travelers in town. It
offers cheap food and drink, along with entertainment such as knife throwing
tournaments and a popular local game called giant's feet.

Supplies: An open air market in Hammerfast's Gate Ward offers a wide variety of
goods, though it is difficult to predict which caravans are in town at any given time.
Boltac's Goods is a more reliable source of adventuring gear, but its owner is renowned
for his greed.

Temples: The temple of Moradin, with the pool of fire that burns before it, is an
important center of the faith in the Nentir Vale. The priests craft items at the Forge of
Life all day and night. Hammerfast also has temples to Gruumsh (the Black Spire), loun
and Pelor. However, all temples are in the city's inner wards, rather than the open Gate
Ward.

Fallcrest
A small town built from the ruins of a larger city, Fallcrest is the crossroads of the
Nentir Vale.

Population: 1,350; another 900 or so live in the countryside within a few miles of the
town. The people of Fallcrest are mostly humans, halflings, and dwarves, but travelers
of all races pass through on occasion.

Government: The human noble Faren Markelhay is the Lord Warden (hereditary lord)
of the town. He is in charge of the town's justice, defense, and laws. The Lord Warden
appoints a town council to look after routine commerce and public projects.

Defense: The Fallcrest Guard numbers sixty warriors, who also serve as constables.
Moonstone Keep is their barracks. The Lord Warden can call up 350 militia at need.

Inns: Nentir Inn; Silver Unicorn. The Silver Unicorn is pricier and offers better service;
the Nentir Inn sees a more interesting clientele.

Taverns: Blue Moon Alehouse; Lucky Gnome Taphouse; Nentir Inn taproom.

Supplies: Halfmoon Trading House; House Azaer; The Market Green; Naerumar's
Imports; Sandercot Provisioners; Teldorthan's Arms.
Temples: Temple of Erathis (Erathis, loun, Moradin); Moonsong Temple (Sehanine,
Corellon, Avandra, Melora); House of the Sun (Pelor, Kord, Bahamut).

Duponde
Duponde is a town on banks of the White River. Large areas within crumbling walls
have been abandoned in the last hundred years, especially in southern half of the
town. Heavy undergrowth and trees grow in and among the dilapidated houses.

Population: 1000 inhabitants.

Government: Lady Celice Arnaud is Duponde’s hereditary ruler. She is an outspoken

human woman of sixty years who keeps four watchmen and a handful of servants and
clerks in attendance. Duponde’s guard answer only to her, but Lady Arnaud allows
Grimbold to manage the town’s defences.

Defence: Marshall Grimbold leads town guards. Their number is small, no more than
twenty at maximum.

Inns & Taverns: The Old Owl Inn is operated by Tilda, a human woman about fifty
years of age, who employs several cooks, barkeeps and stable hands.

Supplies: The General Store is operated by grumpy dwarf named Krugan. He has
standard adventuring gear for sale, as well as common magic items.

Temples: The Chapel of Peace is attended by Brother Zelan and two young acolytes.
Zelan is an old, fat, stubborn Pelorite with a blustering manner, but he's wiser than he
lets on.

Coins and currency

Merchants and adventurers alike use the gold pieces as the standard unit of currency
for most transactions. The exchange of large amounts of money might be handled by
letters of credit or gems and jewelry, but the value is always measured in gold pieces.
The common people of the world deal more widely with silver pieces and copper
pieces. A gold piece is worth 10 silver pieces, and a silver piece is worth 10 copper
pieces.

People use copper, silver, and gold pieces daily. Many of the world's ancient empires
also minted platinum pieces, and merchants still accept them even if most people
never see them. They're most common in ancient treasure hoards. A platinum piece is
worth 100 gold pieces.

A piece is a coin about an inch across, and weighs about a third of an ounce (50 pieces
to the pound). Gems and jewelry are a more portable form of wealth favored by
adventurers. Among commoners, "portable wealth" usually means cattle (with one cow
worth about 1 gold piece in trade).

In fantastic realms beyond the natural world—such as the cities of the Feywild and
similar markets—astral diamonds are used as currency for transactions involving
staggering amounts of wealth. One astral diamond is worth 100 platinum pieces, or
10,000 gold pieces. An astral diamond weighs one-tenth as much as a piece (500 astral
diamonds weigh 1 pound).

Other uncommon form of currency is the residuum, the magical substance that results
from disenchanting magic items. It’s a fine, silvery dust that some describe as
concentrated magic, useful as a generic component for magical rituals and complicated
spells. In some exotic locales, residuum is traded as currency, measured by weight and
carried in small metal vials. It’s a convenient way to transport large sums of wealth;
10,000 gold pieces worth of residuum weighs as much as a single gold piece and takes
up only slightly more space, so 1 pound of residuum is worth 500,000 gold pieces and
fits in a belt pouch.

Customs of the Nentir Vale

Though the old ways are vanishing, many Nerathi faithful have created new customs to
honor what was lost.

● Before dining or setting out on a great task, face toward the Nerath that was
and the Flame Imperishable that will forever be (to the south of the Nentir Vale),
and honor their dignity with a moment of silence.
● Wear a sash of blue, the color of Elidyr’s reign, across your shield to honor his
sacrifice.
● Allow no harm to be done to eladrin women to respect Empress Amphaesia.
● Kill carrion-flies whenever you find them, for they are the messengers of the
Ruler of Ruin.
● Speak the name of the gold dragon Ayunken-vanzen when undertaking brave
deeds in order to evoke its strength.
● When you meet a Nerathi descendant, place your hand over their heart to feel
the still-beating soul of the empire.

Holidays of Hammerfast
Hammerfast celebrates four holidays tied to its history.

Dragon’s Day

In the middle of summer, when days are at their hottest, the people of Hammerfast
celebrate the defeat of the dragon Calastryx by the wizard Starris in a battle that took
place nearly 300 years ago. The Trade Guild constructs an elaborate puppet of the
dragon that stretches nearly 30 feet in length. The puppet leads a parade through the
city, while the folk of Hammerfast gather along the streets to throw rocks at it.
Punching a hole in the puppet is said to bring good luck for the coming year. The
parade winds up at the temple of Moradin, where the puppet is cast into a pool of fire.

Siege Day
Early in the spring, the residents of Hammerfast set aside a day to remember the
attack that devastated the city. The citizens return indoors by sunset, since walking
abroad at night is said to bring terrible luck on this particular day. At midnight, a
spectral horde of orcs rushes through the streets, reenacting its attack.

Founder’s Day

When fall approaches, Hammerfast celebrates the last of the warm days with a great
festival. Revelers don elaborate costumes and parade through the streets, and every
family in the city offers cakes, cookies, and other treats to passersby. Within their
costumes, the rich and powerful mix anonymously with the common folk. The offerings
of food between neighbors represent the city's unity.

Festival of the Eye

Although the tension between the priests of Gruumsh and those of Moradin always
simmers, it never boils over. The Festival of the Eye provides an outlet for that tension.
Each year, in the dead of winter, the priests of Gruumsh erect a massive tent outside
Hammerfast. Champions of Gruumsh come from across the Nentir Vale to do battle in
ritualized combat to establish their rankings. Although some matches are to the death,
most end with one combatant unconscious. In addition to these duels, the warriors of
Gruumsh accept challenges from all comers. Priests of Kord, local roughnecks, and
anyone else looking for a fight are welcome to take part. Matches range from one-on-
one duels to chaotic brawls.

The festival lasts for a week. The priests of Gruumsh consider their champions'
victories as important omens for the coming year. The priests of Moradin encourage
hotheaded paladins and clerics to participate in hopes of embarrassing their rival
priests.

Languages of the Nentir Vale

There are ten languages used by the people of the Nentir Vale and the surrounding
regions. These languages are transcribed in different scripts, most of which are
alphabets. Goblin is the only language of the world that lacks its own script, owing to
the brutal and barbaric nature of the goblin race. The Giant language uses the Davek
runes of the dwarves, dating from the dwarves' long servitude to the giants.

The gods have their own language, Supernal, which they share with their angelic
servants. When a god or angel speaks Supernal, it can choose to speak so that any
creature that understands a language can understand this divine speech, as if the
speaker used their own languages. Immortals who speak Supernal can understand
speech and writing in any language. The Supernal script is a system of hieroglyphics.

The primordials have their own language as well, with none of the special qualities of
Supernal. The titans and giants adopted a debased version of this language for their
own tongue, and Abyssal is a form of Primordial warped and twisted by the evil at the
heart of the Abyss.
The Deep Speech is a language related to the alien communication of the Far Realm,
used by creatures influenced by the energy of that place beyond the world and the
planes. It uses the Rellanic script because the drow were the first to transcribe it, since
they share Underdark haunts with aberrant creatures.

Words of Power
The Supernal and Abyssal languages are both actual languages used to communicate,
but they also include words of power—words whose syllables contain the raw magic of
creation (in the case of Supernal) or primordial evil (Abyssal). Player characters can't
know these languages initially. They might eventually learn the basics of
communicating in these tongues, but without mastering these mighty sounds. Mortals
who learn Supernal don't gain the ability to have their words universally understood,
but they do learn to read the Supernal language and to understand immortals speaking
in that language, even if the immortals have not chosen to make themselves
understood to all listeners. Texts containing these words in either language could
unleash powerful effects—and these tomes or scrolls might be relics in their own right.

Language Spoken by (examples) Script

Common Humans, halflings, tieflings Common

Draconic Dragons, dragonborn, Iokharic

kobolds

Dwarven Dwarves, galeb dhurs Davek

Elves Elves, eladrin, fomorians Rellanic

Giant Giants, orcs, ogres Davek

Goblin Goblins, hobgoblins, Common

bugbears

Deep Speech Mind flayers, githyanki Rellanic

Primordial Efreets, archons, Barazhad

elementals

Supernal Angels, devils, gods Supernal

Abyssal Demons, gnolls, sahuagin Barazhad

 Speaking like a dragonborn
Dragonborn have a number of distinctive idioms, oaths, and proverbs. You can use
some of these to spice up your character's vocabulary, making sure that everyone at
the table remembers your character is a dragonborn.

● "Three and One!" (Tesjendar!) A common dragonborn exclamation, it refers to

the three gods of Arkhosia's Imperial temples and the emperor, called the
Golden One.
● "By my clan and honor" (Uth vethindas en thuris) An oath or interjection, this is
a solemn expression of what's most important to a dragonborn.
● "Not all scales shield a dragon's heart" (Thricanda molik litrem vethiejir
damstrix) A proverb expressing the fact that things are not always what they
seem—and in particular, a threat is often not as dangerous as it first appears.
Often used as a reminder to courage.
● "Io's Blood" (Vethio ierjir) Another exclamation, it's also a subtle reminder that
even the mighty Io could be slain—an exhortation to humility or to courage.
● "Every lair has two ways out" (Thurisvant eth donsjeret) There's more than one
way to accomplish any given task, and a window opens for every closed door.
● "Stop straddling the chasm" (Pokesthajar kharasj) Choose a side, get off the
fence, make a decision.
● "Bahamut's Breath!" (Vethisvaerx Bahamut!) Considered somewhat irreverent,
this oath is commonly used to express frustration, but can also refer to cold
weather.

Speaking like a tiefling

Tieflings have lived with humans and other races for centuries, but their often
ostracized families and communities have kept alive traditional sayings from Bael
Turath and created new expressions unique to members of the race. When you play a
tiefling, you can use these phrases to bring your character to life at the table.

● "By the Nine Gates!" The expression serves as an oath or a curse that tieflings
typically use in a moment of surprise, shock, or awe. It refers to the nine
magical gateways said to have existed in Bael Turath, one for each layer of the
Nine Hells.
● "Never trust a tiefling's promise." Surprisingly, tieflings have adopted this
derogatory statement as their own. Tieflings say it to one another as a reminder
of the promises their ancestors swore to the devils and of how even such blood-
sworn soul oaths could be broken.
● "A vizier's career." This phrase indicates a very short span of time. One of the
last emperors of Bael Turath rapidly cycled through advisors, executing them so
soon after their appointments that its was said you wouldn't "have time to eat a
slice of cake in a vizier's career."
● "Every house stood alone, and all fell together." Tieflings use this slogan to
remind one another of the need for cooperation. Obviously, it makes reference
to the noble tiefling houses of old. It often helps to dissuade individualistic
tieflings from the hubris of going it alone.

Religious beliefs the Nentir Vale

The peoples of the Nentir Vale and the surrounding regions believe in multiple powers.

The Gods of the Pantheon

Only the most learned scholars of the Vale know about the Dawn War, a primeval war
at the genesis of the World, between the gods and the dreaded primordials, god-like
beings from the deeps of the Elemental Chaos. The gods fought to stop the primordials
from destroying the world and were able to gain a narrow victory. The primordials were
imprisoned, but the threat they present remains.

The gods of the Pantheon (as they are commonly known) appear in dreams and visions
to their followers and wear countless different faces, and artwork depicting them shows
them in a variety of forms. Their true nature is beyond any physical form, as they alone
of all creatures in the universe consist only of astral essence. The gods are creatures of
thought and ideal, not bound by the same limitations as beings of flesh. Corellon is
often depicted as an eladrin, but he is no more an eladrin than he is a fey panther—he
is a god, and he transcends the physical laws that bind even angels to their concrete
forms. This transcendence allows the gods to perform deeds that physical creatures
can't.

Gods can also make physical forms for themselves with a moment's effort, and they do
when the need arises. In these forms, they can fight and be fought, and they can suffer
terrible consequences as a result. However, to destroy a god requires more than
merely striking its physical form down with spell or sword. Gods have killed other gods,
and the primordials killed many gods during the Dawn War. For a mortal to accomplish
this deed would require rituals of awesome power to bind a god to its physical form—
and then a truly epic battle to defeat that form.

The most powerful servants of the gods are their exarchs (demigods). Some exarchs
are angels whose faithful service has earned them this exalted status. Others were
once mortal servants who won the station through their mighty deeds. Asmodeus has
devils as exarchs, and both Bahamut and Tiamat have granted that status to powerful
dragons. Every exarch is a unique example of its kind, empowered with capabilities far
beyond those of other angels, mortals, or monsters.

In the Nentir Vale, commoners and adventurers would often revere (or pay lip service
to) more than one deity at once, praying to different gods at different times such as
Bahamut for protection, Avandra for safe travel or the popular Pelor for fertile crops.
Clerics and paladins more often serve a single deity, championing that god’s particular
cause in the world. The most commonly worshiped gods in the Vale are the good and
neutral ones, as well as Bane, even if he is an evil god, because he is considered a god
of the civilized peoples. The other evil gods are revered mostly by monsters and
barbarian tribes, and secret cults to them aren't unheard of in some cities as well.

Except for the chaotic evil gods (Gruumsh, Lolth, and Tharizdun), all deities are
enemies of the demons, which would rather destroy the world than govern it.

Asmodeus
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Areas of Influence: Power, domination, tyranny

Holy Symbol: Three triangles in tight formation

Asmodeus is the evil god of tyranny and domination. He rules the Nine Hells with an
iron fist and a silver tongue. Aside from devils, evil creatures such as rakshasas pay
him homage, and evil tieflings and warlocks are drawn to his dark cults. His rules are
strict and his punishment harsh:

● Seek power over others, that you might rule with strength as the Lord of Hell does.

● Repay evil with evil. If others are kind to you, exploit their weakness for your own
gain.

● Show neither pity nor mercy to those who are caught underfoot as you climb your
way to power. The weak do not deserve compassion.

Avandra
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Areas of Influence: Change, luck, trade, travel

Holy Symbol: Three stacked wavy lines

The good goddess of change, Avandra delights in freedom, trade, travel, adventure,
and the frontier. Her temples are few in civilized lands, but her wayside shrines appear
throughout the world. Halflings, merchants, and all types of adventurers are drawn to
her worship, and many people raise a glass in her honor, viewing her as the goddess of
luck. Her commandments are few:

● Luck favors the bold. Take your fate into your own hands, and Avandra smiles upon
you.

● Strike back against those who would rob you of your freedom and urge others to
fight for their own liberty.

● Change is inevitable, but it takes the work of the faithful to ensure that change is for
the better.

Bahamut
Alignment: Lawful Good

Areas of Influence: Justice, honor, nobility, protection

Holy Symbol: Dragon’s head in profile, facing to the left

Called the Platinum Dragon, Bahamut is the lawful good god of justice, protection,
nobility, and honor. Lawful good paladins often revere him, and metallic dragons
worship him as the first of their kind. Monarchs are crowned in his name. He commands
his followers thus:

● Uphold the highest ideals of honor and justice.

● Be constantly vigilant against evil and oppose it on all fronts.

● Protect the weak, liberate the oppressed, and defend just order.

● Kuyutha, the demigod of the dragonborn, was the last paladin from the ancient
empire of Arkhosia. Kuyutha did his best to gather and protect the scattered
dragonborn clans after the empire's fall. In recognition of Kuyutha's ceaseless
efforts to safeguard his people, Bahamut make him one of his demigods and
bade him train a new order of knights on Mount Mertion itself. Since that day,
Kuyutha has acted as Bahamut's ambassador to the dragonborn race. He
crisscrosses the world, shepherding dragonborn clans that find themselves in
dire straits and brokering honorable accords when two clans have a dispute
they cannot resolve. Kuyutha also seeks out the bravest among the dragonborn
to train with him on Mount Mertion—and takes the vilest dragonborn villains to
face their judgment before Bahamut.

Bane
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Areas of Influence: War, conquest

Holy Symbol: Claw with three talons pointing down

Bane is the evil god of war and conquest. Militaristic nations of humans and goblins
serve him and conquer in his name. Evil fighters and paladins serve him. He commands
his worshipers to:

● Never allow your fear to gain mastery over you, but drive it into the hearts of your
foes.

● Punish insubordination and disorder.

● Hone your combat skills to perfection, whether you are a mighty general or a lone
mercenary.

Corellon
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Areas of Influence: Arcane magic, spring, beauty, the arts

Holy Symbol: Starburst

The chaotic good god of spring, beauty, and the arts, Corellon is the patron of arcane
magic and the fey. He seeded the world with arcane magic and planted the most
ancient forests. Artists and musicians worship him, as do those who view their
spellcasting as an art, and his shrines can be found throughout the Feywild. He
despises Lolth and her priestesses for the leading the drow astray. He urges his
followers thus:

● Cultivate beauty in all that you do, whether you're casting a spell, composing a saga,
strumming a lute, or practicing the arts of war.

● Seek out lost magic items, forgotten rituals, and ancient works of art. Corellon might
have inspired them in the world's first days.

● Thwart the followers of Lolth at every opportunity.

● Corellon, alongside his bride Sehanine, is the head of the Seldarine, the
fellowship of brothers and sisters of the woods, that dwell in the court of Nath
Seldarie. Revered by elves and eladrin alike, these gods watch over and protect
their favored scions. Among their known members are Erevan Ilesere, the Fey
Jester, demigod of tricksters and mischief; Fenmarel Mestarine, the Lone Wolf,
demigod of rangers; Shevarash of the Black Bow, demigod of fury and
vengeance; and Hanali Celanil, demigoddess of romantic love and beauty.

Erathis
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Areas of Influence: Civilization, invention, laws

Holy Symbol: Upper half of a clockwork gear

Erathis is the lawful neutral goddess of civilization. She is the muse of great invention,
founder of cities, and author of laws. Rulers, judges, pioneers, and devoted citizens
revere her, and her temples hold prominent places in most of the world's major cities.
Her laws are many, but their purpose is straightforward:

● Work with others to achieve your goals. Community and order are always stronger
than the disjointed efforts of lone individuals.

● Tame the wilderness to make it fit for habitation, and defend the light of civilization
against the encroaching darkness.

● Seek out new ideas, new inventions, new lands to inhabit, new wilderness to
conquer. Build machines, build cities, build empires.

Gruumsh
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Areas of Influence: Turmoil, destruction

Holy Symbol: Unblinking triangular eye with bony protrusions

Gruumsh is the chaotic evil god of destruction, lord of marauding barbarian hordes.
Where Bane commands conquest, Gruumsh exhorts his followers to slaughter and
pillage. Orcs are his fervent followers, and they bear a particular hatred for elves and
eladrin because Corellon put out one of Gruumsh's eyes. The One-Eyed God gives
simple orders to his followers:

● Conquer and destroy.

● Let your strength crush the weak.

● Do as you will, and let no one stop you.

Ioun
Alignment: Neutral

Areas of Influence: Knowledge, prophecy, skill

Holy Symbol: Crook shaped like a stylized eye

Ioun is the neutral goddess of knowledge, skill, and prophecy. Sages, seers, and
tacticians revere her, as do all who live by their knowledge and mental power. Corellon
is the patron of arcane magic, but Ioun is the patron of its study. Libraries and wizard
academies are built in her name. Her commands are also teachings:

● Seek the perfection of your mind by bringing reason, perception, and emotion into
balance with one another.

● Accumulate, preserve, and distribute knowledge in all forms. Pursue education, build
libraries, and seek out lost and ancient lore.

● Be watchful at all times for the followers of Vecna, who seek to control knowledge
and keep secrets. Oppose their schemes, unmask their secrets, and blind them with
the light of truth and reason.
 Kord
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Areas of Influence: Storms, strength, battle

Holy Symbol: Sword with a lightning bolt cross guard

Kord is the chaotic neutral storm god and the lord of battle. He revels in strength,
battlefield prowess, and thunder. Fighters and athletes revere him. He is a mercurial
god, unbridled and wild, who summons storms over land and sea; those who hope for
better weather appease him with prayers and spirited toasts. He give few commands:

● Be strong, but do not use your strength for wanton destruction.

● Be brave and scorn cowardice in any form.

● Prove your might in battle to win glory and renown.

Lolth
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Areas of Influence: Spiders, shadows, lies

Holy Symbol: Eight-pointed star with a web motif; also, a spider

Lolth is the chaotic evil goddess of shadow, lies, and spiders. Scheming and treachery
are her commands, and her priests are a constant force of disruption in the otherwise
stable society of the evil drow. Though she is properly a goddess and not a demon, she
is called “Demon Queen of Spiders”. She demands that her followers:

● Do whatever it takes to gain and hold power.

● Rely on stealth and slander in preference to outright confrontation.

● Seek the death of elves and eladrin at every opportunity.

Melora
Alignment: Neutral

Areas of Influence: Wilderness, sea

Holy Symbol: Seashell with a wavelike swirl

Melora is the neutral goddess of the wilderness and the sea. She is both the wild beast
and the peaceful forest, the raging whirlpool and the quiet desert. Rangers, hunters,
and elves revere her, and sailors make offerings to her before beginning their voyages.
Her strictures are these:

● Protect the wild places of the world from destruction and overuse. Oppose the
rampant spread of cities and empires.

● Hunt aberrant monsters and other abominations of nature.

● Do not fear or condemn the savagery of nature. Live in harmony with the wild.

Alignment: Lawful Good

Moradin
Areas of Influence: Creation, artisans, family

Holy Symbol: Anvil

Moradin is the lawful good god of creation and patron of artisans, especially miners and
smiths. He carved the mountains from primordial earth and is the guardian and
protector of the hearth and the family. Dwarves from all walks of life follow him. He
demands these behaviors of his followers:

● Meet adversity with stoicism and tenacity.

● Demonstrate loyalty to your family, your clan, your leaders, and your people.

● Strive to make a mark on the world, a lasting legacy. To make something that lasts is
the highest good, whether you are a smith working at a forge or a ruler building a
dynasty.

● Moradin is the leader of the shining host known as the Morndinsamman (the
shield brothers of high), which includes the demigods Berronar Truesilver,
Moradin’s wife and the Mother of dwarven society; Clangeddin Silverbeard,
demigod of honour in warfare, and patron of dwarf warriors; Dugmaren
Brightmantle, demigod of discovery and invention, and patron of scholarship;
Dumathoin, demigod of mining and underground exploration, and protector of
the dwarven dead; Gorm Gulthyn, demigod of defense and watchfulness, and
guardian of all dwarves; Haela Brightaxe, demigoddess of battle and luck;
Marthammor Duin, demigod of exploration and patron of dwarves who have left
the clanholds to explore the world; Sharindlar, demigoddess of healing and
mercy; and Vergadain, demigod of commerce and wealth.

Pelor
Alignment: Neutral Good

Areas of Influence: Sun, summer, agriculture, time

Holy Symbol: Circle with six outwardly radiating points

The neutral good god of the sun and summer, Pelor is the keeper of time. He supports
those in need and opposes all that is evil. As the lord of agriculture and the bountiful
harvest, he is the deity most commonly worshiped by ordinary humans, and his priests
are well received wherever they go. Paladins and rangers are found among his
worshipers. He directs his followers thus:

● Alleviate suffering wherever you find it.

● Bring Pelor's light into places of darkness, showing kindness, mercy, and
compassion.
● Be watchful against evil.

The Raven Queen

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Areas of Influence: Death, fate, winter

Holy Symbol: Raven’s head in profile, facing left

The name of the lawful neutral goddess of death is long forgotten, but she is called the
Raven Queen. She is the spinner of fate and the patron of winter. She marks the end of
each mortal life, and mourners call upon her during funeral rites, in the hope that she
will guard the departed from the curse of undeath. She expects her followers to abide
by these commandments:

● Hold no pity for those who suffer and die, for death is the natural end of life.

● Bring down the proud who try to cast off the chains of fate. Punish hubris where you
find it.

● Watch for the cults of Orcus and stamp them out whenever they arise. The Demon
Prince of the Undead seeks to claim the Raven Queen's throne.

Sehanine
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Areas of Influence: Trickery, moon, love, autumn

Holy Symbol: Crescent moon

The chaotic good goddess of the moon and autumn, Sehanine is the patron of trickery
and illusions. She has close ties to Corellon and Melora and is a favorite deity among
elves and halflings. She is also the goddess of love, who sends shadows to cloak lovers'
trysts. Scouts and thieves ask for her blessing on their work. Her teachings are simple:

● Follow your goals and seek your own destiny.

● Keep to the shadows, avoiding the blazing light of zealous good and the utter
darkness of evil.

● Seek new horizons and new experiences, and let nothing tie you down.

● Alongside Corellon, Sehanine is at the head of the Seldarine, the fey pantheon.

Tharizdun
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Areas of Influence: Annihilation, madness

Holy Symbol: A spiral

Tharizdun is the chaotic evil god who created the Abyss. His name is rarely spoken and
even the fact of his existence is not widely known. A few scattered cults of demented
followers revere him, calling him the Chained God or the Elder Elemental Eye.
Tharizdun doesn't speak to his followers, so his commands are unknown, but his cults
teach their members to:

● Channel power to the Chained God, so he can break his chains.

● Retrieve lost relics and shrines to the Chained God.

● Pursue the obliteration of the world, in anticipation of the Chained God's liberation.

Tiamat
Alignment: Lawful Evil

Areas of Influence: Wealth, greed, vengeance

Holy Symbol: Five clawed star

Tiamat is the lawful evil goddess of wealth, greed, and envy. She is the patron of
chromatic dragons and those whose lust for wealth overrides any other goal or
concern. She commands her followers to:

● Hoard wealth, acquiring much and spending little. Wealth is its own reward.

● Forgive no slight and leave no wrong unpunished.

● Take what you desire from others. Those who lack the strength to defend their
possessions are not worthy to own them.

● Kurtulmak, one of the servants of Tiamat, is the demigod of the kobolds, and
they claimed he gave them life.

Torog
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Areas of Influence: Underdark, imprisonment

Holy Symbol: A T attached to a circular shackle

Torog is the neutral evil god of the Underdark, patron of jailers and torturers. Common
superstition holds that if his name is spoken, the King that Crawls burrows up from
below and drags the hapless speaker underground to an eternity of imprisonment and
torture. Jailers and torturers pray to him in deep caves and cellars, and creatures of the
Underdark revere him as well. He teaches his worshipers to:

● Seek out and revere the deep places beneath the earth.

● Delight in the giving of pain, and consider pain you receive as homage to Torog.

● Bind tightly what is in your charge, and restrain those who wander free.
 Vecna
Alignment: Neutral Evil

Areas of Influence: Undeath, secrets

Holy Symbol: Partially shattered one-eyed skull

Vecna is the neutral evil god of undead, necromancy, and secrets. He rules that which
is not meant to be known and that which people wish to keep secret. Evil spellcasters
and conspirators pay him homage. He commands them to:

● Never reveal all you know.

● Find the seed of darkness in your heart and nourish it; find it in others and exploit it
to your advantage.

● Oppose the followers of all other deities so that Vecna alone can rule the world.

Zehir
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Areas of Influence: Darkness, poison, serpents

Holy Symbol: Snake in the shape of a dagger

Zehir is the chaotic evil god of darkness, poison, and assassins. Snakes are his favored
creation, and the yuan-ti revere him above all other gods, offering sacrifice to him in
pits full of writhing serpents. He urges his followers to:

● Hide under the cloak of night, that your deeds might be kept in secret.

● Kill in Zehir's name and offer each murder as a sacrifice.

● Delight in poison, and surround yourself with snakes.

Common rites to the deities of the Pantheon

The people of the world and planes worship the deities in different ways. The next ones
are common practices in the Nentir Vale.

● When you are proven wrong, write down two copies of the truth you discover,
keeping one and taking the other to a shrine to loun.
● After you take fruit, herbs, or wood from a forest, trace a star in the soil so
Corellon's magic can replace what you've taken.
● Swear by Bahamut when you make an oath to bring someone to justice.
● When you agree to an alliance or a business arrangement, interlock your fingers
like the teeth of two gears—forming the symbol of Erathis.
● Etch Avandra's symbol on a path to indicate a safe course or on a building to
show it is a safe house.
● Shout at the heavens during a storm to prove your bravery to Kord.
● Wear golden jewelry during the day and silver at night, to please both Pelor and
Sehanine.
● Inter a raven's feather with a corpse to keep undeath from claiming the body.
History of the Nentir Vale
Recorded history began around two thousand years ago with the founding of the
southern dragon and dragonborn empire of Arkhosia. A few centuries later, in the east,
the human empire of Bael Turath arose. Both nations had a policy of expansion, and
soon conquered most of the known world. However, while Arkhosia expanded its
territories mostly through peaceful means, with the aim to spread civilization,
knowledge and security to untamed places and ignorant peoples, Bael Turath
expanded its territories by force, enslaving the conquered nations. Soon, the power
hungry nobles of Bael Turath began to lose control over their empire and swore to
retain their rule even at the cost of their humanity. Summoning devils from the Nine
Hells and using evil rituals to seal infernal pacts, they became the first tieflings.

By that time, the Nentir Vale—a land that wasn’t part of of the two empires yet—was
populated by savage tribes of humans, elves and monstrous humanoids. The oldest
traditions tell that in this bygone age, the Vale was a great forest named the Nentir
Forest. Nentir Forest had little to fear from dragonkind, because Malorunth the Eternal
Ash, a powerful archfey, extended its protection across the entire region, and all its
inhabitants bowed before the forest's venerable sovereigns, the treants.

The first eladrin who ventured into the Nentir Forest were the members of the
Winterguard, an order of swordmages from the eladrin realm of Cendriane who
constructed a prison in the Winter’s Rise, a mountain located in the northernmost
region of the forest, to sequester the most dangerous prisoners and criminals of the
Kinstrife War —the ancient war the eladrin and elves fought against the drow—,
including a powerful archfey whose name has been erased from history. After the fall of
Cendriane at the end of the war, the members of the Winterguard remained true to
their original mandate, thought they began to recruit members among the humans and
demihumans tribes of the forest to replenish their numbers.

After the Kinstrife War, the elves abandoned the Feywild in self-imposed exile and
came to the natural world. The first elves that inhabited the Nentir Forest settled in the
southern regions, the land now known as the Harken Forest.

One spring evening, Malorunth inexplicably fell silent, withered leaves falling in droves
from his brittle, petrified branches. With Malorunth's passing so too fell the vale's
protective mantle. Scores of dragons infiltrated the woodland, triggering the first of
several titanic confrontations between wyrm and treant.

When the so-called War of Endless Branches finally ended, the great wood stood
divided. Even though dragons' fire had razed large swaths of woodland, it was festering
suspicion and doubt that ultimately divided the treants. With little evidence to back
their claims, some deciduous treants openly blamed the conifers for the Eternal Ash's
demise. Soon, heated words bred violence, and civil war engulfed the forest.

The treant fellowship ripped apart, creating a deep rift that endures still. In the wake of
the treant civil war, most conifers migrated into the northern wood, known today as
Winterbole Forest. Reaffirming suspicions of their betrayal, the Winterbole treants
turned their veneration to the Prince of Frost. The deciduous treants continue to revere
Malorunth, whose petrified trunk stands enshrined in the heart of Harken Forest.
Harken treants cling to the belief that the Eternal Ash will return to them, but only if his
murder is avenged. And as with the forest divided, the region came to be known as the
Nentir Vale.

When the treants of the Harken Forest declared war the treants of the Winterbole
Forest, the elven druids known as the Harken’s Heart lent their aid to the Harken
treants with such zeal that many began to see them as dangerous, even other druid
sects. After the war ended, a powerful druid master named Eyton cursed the Harken's
Heart druids, severing them from their primal power source. Angered by Eyton's
actions, yet fearing his power, the Harken's Heart druids appealed to the goddess
Melora for aid. She altered their curse—now known as the Harken's curse—to affect
them only if they were outside of the Harken Forest. Despite having regained limited
power from the curse, the Harken's Heart druids have continued to seek an end to it.

The ancestors of the orcs that are known now as the Bloodspear Clan defeated the
ancient iron dragon Kulkoszar and established themselves in the Stonemarch, while the
human tribes of the Eastern Valley, in the Old Hills, founded the city of Andok Sur, a
necropolis dedicated to the demon prince Orcus, where the barbarians interred their
enemies while still alive. Eventually, the vampire lord Zarguna turned Andok Sur into a
vibrant City of the Dead, and gained control of almost the entire eastern region of the
Nentir Vale. The gods saw Andok Sur as a threat to the natural world—a threat they
could not abide. At the height of the city’s power, a great earthquake rocked the Old
Hills and the City of the Dead fell into the earth and was buried to be forgotten by time
and history.

The other relevant human group of the Vale of that time was the Tigerclaw barbarians.
They claim to be direct descendants of the primal spirit Hunter of Winter, a powerful
sabertooth tiger that placed its mark upon them in the savage dawn of the world, eons
before the first human empire rose from the dust. As the lorekeepers tell it, the
barbarian chieftain Hota Swiftstripe was hunting near a glacier when he encountered
the spirit and both battled, until Hota won. Hota didn’t kill the beast, however, and for
that he was blessed by Hunter of Winter, who transformed him into a shifter. All the
Tigerclaws shifters believe to be Hota’s descendants.

The Nentir Vale was also the occasional target of the archfey Koliada, the Winter Witch.
Every few centuries she came from the Feywild and attacked the Vale in her bid to
make the mortal world one of eternal winter, summoning strange armies of fey and
wicked mortals that have kneeled before her will, and subjugating and destroying the
tribes of barbarians and humanoids that lived in the Vale.

It’s also known that the Pyramid of Shadows, a multi-dimensional prison created by
infernal powers to keep dangerous and powerful individuals trapped in an eternity of
suffering, already existed by this time. The prison “door” on this world was anchored in
the northern exten of the Winterbole Forest.

Legends of this remote era also tell about an eldritch jewel known only as the Soul
Gem, is believed fallen from the sky and landed in the foothills near the Dawnforge
Mountains.
Eventually, the expanding borders of Bael Turath collided with those of Arkhosia.
Ideology, culture, and ambition smashed together and no common ground could be
found between the two empires. Both nations descended into hundreds of years of
warfare, and many of those battles were fought in the Nentir Vale. The Arkhosian and
Turathi ruins that dot the Vale date from that time. Finally, after desperate and ill-
considered acts of war that nearly destroyed the known world, both empires collapsed,
leaving chaos and a new dark age in their wake.

In the centuries following the collapse of Arkhosia and Bael Turath, smaller
communities began to flourish in the lands once claimed by these empires, eventually
becoming powerful nations unto themselves. Kingdoms such as the elven Solaneillon,
dwarven Mithralfast, and the barbarian Karkoth arose to fill the vacuum of power left
by the two ancient empires. And then, at the age of fifteen, the legendary Emperor
Magroth founded the empire of Nerath, after defeating the gold dragon Ayunken-
vanzen in the lands that would became the capital city of Nera, lighted the legendary
Flame Imperishable, and led the growing Nerathi legions on decades-long marches of
expansion that claimed most of the known world within his lifetime..

For all his successes, however, Magroth was filled with ambition and soon pledged
himself to the demon prince Orcus, who made Magroth immune to all non-magical
weapons in return for dead warriors to bolster his Shadowfell armies. As Magroth
turned the Nerathi legions against enemies real and imagined, he became a ruthless
ruler, and the people began to calling him Magroth the Mad. When his despotic rule
was as peak, Magroth was killed by the hero Krondor, ending his reign of terror, but
transforming the city of Darani in a domain of dread when Krondor's brother, the
knight-commander Kalabar, killed his own brother while trying to save the evil
emperor.

Empress Amphaesia, the eladrin princess Magroth had married after he defeated one of
the Sidhe Lords of the Feywild, guided the empire through the turbulent years after
Magroth's demise. After she mysteriously vanished, Nerath brought a long period of
peace as wise emperors brought justice and order to a world still ravaged by Bael
Turath’s iniquities.

By this time, the Nentir Vale was a thinly settled borderland, home to quarrelsome
human hill-chieftains and remote realms of humanoids such as dwarves and elves.
Giants, minotaurs, orcs, ogres, and goblins plagued the area, and ruins such as those
on the Gray Downs or the ring-forts atop the Old Hills date back to these days, as also
do the stories of the human hero Vendar and the dragon of the Nentir.

The most powerful inhabitants of the Vale at the time were a commune of dragons who
lived in the Dawnforge Mountains. These dragons considered themselves rulers of the
Vale and constantly raided the groups of nomadic people that were attempting to
settle the land. Among them, the most dangerous was a three-headed red dragon
named Calastryx.

Among the monstrous humanoids, the minotaur kingdom of Saruun Khel, located in the
deeps below Thunderspire Mountain, held dominion over most of the Vale. At the
height of its power, a battle for the throne erupted into a vicious civil war. Out of anger
at the minotaurs’ growing devotion to the god Torog, the demon prince Baphomet
cursed them with mindless fury. The minotaurs battled one another until only a few
survivors remained. Saruun Khel was abandoned and eventually forgotten.

Another powerful nation in the Vale of that age was the kingdom of a tiefling warlord
known as Karavakos. He had struck a pact with infernal powers for an army to defend
his land from both monsters and a rebellion, and soon his kingdom expanded to rival
Nerath, thanks to the might of his army. When he tried to invade the Feywild, however,
he was defeated by the lords of the fey and imprisoned in the Pyramid of Shadows
along with his eladrin consort, a princess known as Vyrellis. His kingdom disappeared
soon after that.

years ago, a massive meteor fell in the Ogrefist Hills, creating the valley known as the
Chaos Scar. The meteor was in fact the heart of an entity from the Far Realm known as
Shoth-Gorag, who was nearly killed by other Far Realms entities and had to flee that
plane to save its life. After wandering across the void between worlds for an eternity, it
eventually found the mortal world and fell in the Nentir Vale.

The “meteor” fell near a keep constructed by a powerful goliath sorcerer named Voran
Earthmane. While Voran was lucky and survived the destruction of his keep, many of
his magic items were lost. With his life’s work in shambles, Voran collected those of his
belongings he could find and departed the area for lands unknown, and his name and
legacy faded into history.

The malevolent remains of the “meteor” began to sow seeds of wickedness, attracting
those of a perverse and corruptible bent. Over the centuries, creatures of evil spirit
have been drawn to this part of the Vale. A long-forgotten king erected a wall across
the valley's mouth, trying to contain the threat of the Chaos Scar, with little to no
success.

Sometime after the Chaos Scar was created, a group of followers of Bane discovered
the heart of the meteor. Mistaking the heart for a gift from their tyrannical deity, they
took it. Around it, high on the cliffs above the Chaos Scar, they built a small fortress
temple they named Hallowgaunt, and began to be called the Brotherhood of the Scar.

It is rumored that around this time Restwell Keep was built near the Chaos Scar by a
clan of dwarves, but soon they were defeated and enslaved by a hobgoblin king only
known as Grim Eye. Other rumors tell that Grim Eye was the one who commissioned
the Keep, the dwarves already being his slaves. Whatever the truth, Grim Eye’s petty
kingdom didn’t last. Sometime after Grim Eye mysteriously disappeared, the blue
dragon Fafnar conquered the Keep and made it his lair for a time.

Around that time, a necromancer named Daelh invaded the Witchlight Fens, bringing
with him a handful of cadaver collectors. Nobody knows what happened to the
necromancer, but some of the constructs he brought eventually fell in the hands of the
Daggerburg tribe of goblins.

With the rise of the Nerathi Empire to the south, human settlers began to move up the
Nentir River. Gardmore Abbey and the town of Fastormel were the first Nerathi
settlements in the Vale, established around three hundred fifty years ago. In the
following decades, other settlers established the towns of Harkenwold and
Winterhaven. Valthrun’s Tower in Winterhaven is believed built around this time.

As the Nerathi settlers began to conquer more territories on the Vale, the old hill clans
resisted. Hopelessly outnumbered, they stood with their faithful hounds against the
mighty armies of Nerath, even as the Tigerclaw barbarians and other native tribes
abandoned the ale and retreated far into the northern wilderness of the Winterbole
Forest. Although the hill clans fought bravely, they were annihilated in a final desperate
battle upon the downs. Long after the battle, the hounds of the hill clans prowled the
battlefields, howling over the corpses of their masters and refusing to leave their sides.
The Nerathans built a great barrow in honor of the warriors of the hill clans, and after
the last of their bodies was interred, the hounds vanished. Legends of ghostly “hounds
of ill-omen” became common in the subsequent years.

Legends of the time tell about a group of adventurers who massacred the hill clan that
inhabited the region known as the Sword Barrow. It is said that, with his last breath, the
elder of the tribe cursed the adventurers to be bound to the Barrow forever. When the
adventurers were killed by monsters of the Sword Barrow when they were searching for
the treasures of the tribe, they rose as undead, or so the legend says. Soon after, the
people of the Vale began to tell stories about the “Barrowhaunts” that patrol the Sword
Barrow.

years ago, a Nerathan hero named Aranda Markelhay obtained a charter to build a
keep at the portage of the Nentir Falls, where is believed the legendary Vendar killed
the dragon of the Nentir. She raised a simple tower at the site of Moonstone Keep, and
under its protection the town of Fallcrest began to grow. Sometime after that, many
wealthy lords built manors and states around the town, including families of well-off
eladrin that came from the Feywild. Over the next two centuries, Fallcrest grew into a
small and prosperous city.

The dragons of the Dawnforge Mountains wiped out several of the new human
settlements that were established during this time. The Nerathi settlers sought out any
who could help quell such assaults, and a dwarven thane sent a battalion of dwarf
warriors to establish a forward operating fortress in the mountains. The dwarves named
it Hammerfast. The struggle ended three hundred years ago, when the Nerathi wizard
Starris sacrificed his life to place a curse on Calastryx, forcing the dragon to slumber
beneath the Forgepeak Mountain. The other dragons' attacks lessened, allowing
civilization in the Vale to grow. The fortress of Hammerfast became a sacred necropolis
and eventually a vault for dwarven treasures.

While the humans from Nerath and the dwarves fought the dragons of the Dawnforge
Mountains, Chief Fangstrike of the Tigerclaw barbarians defeated Bitterstrike, a white
dragon that had claimed the Winterbole Forest as her realm. Bitterstrike retreated into
hiding and only reappeared thirty years later, when Chief Fangstrike died of old age.
Bitterstrike destroyed the Tigerclaw's main settlement and subdued the surviving
barbarians into serving her. Having discovered the benefits of rule over the inhabitants
of the forest, Bitterstrike soon dominated the other forest inhabitants as well.

After having slaying the red dragon Pyrothenes, the Nerathan knight Boris Zaspar was
granted lands extending out from Lake Wintermist’s western shore for as far as he
could walk in every direction from sunrise to sunset. In those lands, he founded the
town of Mistwatch. The first building raised was Widower’s Watch, named at its
completion for Lord Zaspar, who lost his beloved wife to sickness the first year after
claiming his land. After his castle was completed, stone buildings replaced the wooden
shacks and piers grew out across the water to meet the burgeoning fishing industry’s
needs. The crude hamlet became a thriving town, a trade partner for nearby
Winterhaven, and an important stop for merchants bound west from Fallcrest,
Hammerfast, and Harkenwold.

Tales say that the great wizard Galap-Dreidel, after he had found the mystical Soul
Gem, had lifted the keep known as Castle Inverness from the bedrock to make a
kingdom of others' lands for himself. When lords and royals came to challenge his
claim, Galap-Dreidel's spells struck them down long before they could even see Castle
Inverness. Thus were the boundaries of Galap-Dreidel's lands discerned. Most grand
and terrible of all Galap-Dreidel's work was the keep's great inner tower where the
wizard's most prized possession, the Soul Gem. To protect it, Galap-Dreidel raised up
the great central tower and filled his castle with horrible creatures and traps. Then,
using a great incantation, he wrested the tower from the fabric of time so that those
within would not be affected by the passage of years. Even when the creatures didn't
age or needed food, still had need of amusement, so at times Galap-Dreidel would take
a prisoner from the surrounding lands and set the victim free in the tower for their
sport.

A time came when Galap-Dreidel left his keep and did not return, however. When at
last it seemed safe to assume the wizard was not coming back, a mob of superstitious
people from the surrounding lands laid siege to the castle. Without the wizard to
protect it, its walls fell before the force of their rage, and they even threw down the
great tower. Despite this victory over their former master, people feared the ruins—for
on foggy nights the keep seemed to return. Did the old magic and monsters also
return, or perhaps the ghost of Galap-Dreidel himself? No one knows for certain, but
that's what the bards seem to suggest.

By this time, noble knights of Pelor quested to find the Sunspire, a legendary amber
tower where the sun's daughter dwelled. Many knights of Nerath explored the world in
search of that tower to no avail. It is said that many of those knights found a
mysterious tower similar to the Sunspire in the Nentir Vale, but reports are confusing,
because the Tower was spotted on different regions of the Vale. The knights that
ventured into that Tower were never heard from again.

The famed dwarf bandit Greysen Ramthane was a scourge of Nerath’s borders for
many long years. He and his coterie of thieves looted untold wealth from the empire.
Eventually, Nerath dispatched a small army that tracked Greysen to the Restwell Keep.
After an extended siege, the soldiers stormed the keep and slew the bandits to a man.
But what happened next became the source of countless rumors and legends. The task
force’s commanding officer, a half-orc named Bertak, claimed to find only a tiny portion
of Greysen’s stolen wealth within the keep. Stories claiming that Bertak and his cronies
pocketed much of the treasure persist to this day, but others believe that Greysen’s
wealth is still hidden somewhere in the keep, protected by traps and mechanical
guardians.
When the settlements of the Nentir Vale became populous enough, Commandant
Lathiel of the Winterguard order sent messengers to negotiate an accord with the
rulers of Nerath. In return for a considerable sum of gold and magical items and
knowledge, the order would incarcerate the empire’s most dangerous criminals—those
so powerful that execution would be an insufficient means of stopping them. The
emperors were pleased with the Winterguard’s services, and allowed its members to
operate legally as bounty hunters within its borders, thus enabling the order to recruit
new members from farther afield. One side effect of the agreement has been the
gradual dissemination of the swordmage’s traditions in the lands of the empire and
beyond.

During the height of Nerath's rule, the holy knights of Gardmore Abbey fought valiantly
in Bahamut's name against any monstrous and evil forces that encroached into the
Nentir Vale, and on occasion launched campaigns to bring down bastions of evil in the
world beyond the ale. They destroyed thousands of orcs in the Stonemarch, and
brought low a temple of Zehir in the depths of the Witchlight Fens. However, the
knights suffered devastating losses in this campaign, primarily because the cult of
Zehir was so adept at recruiting converts to their faith from within the ranks of the
knights, creating highly effective spies. Eventually, Zarel, the daughter of the head of
the paladin order of that time, was corrupted by the Yuan-ti and transformed into a
vampire.

The last time the Winter Witch walked upon the world, a group of Imperial Knights
halted her advance. These heroes procured Koliada’s nemesis—a powerful artifact of
pure sunlight called the Sun’s Sliver—and entered the frozen far reaches of the Feywild
and confronted Koliada within her fortress of Winter’s Heart. Sun’s Sliver in hand, they
battled the archfey, but before they could use the artifact to destroy her, Koliada fled
the field, and while the knights won the day, they knew someone would have to
confront the Winter Witch again. In preparation for that day, they hid the Sun’s Sliver,
sealing it in an isolated monastery in the Dawnforge Mountains where a member of
their order could retrieve it again the next time Koliada walked the world.

Some legends tell that, during this time, the Nerathi Prince Rande (later known as “the
Lost of Nerath”) established House Random near the banks of the Lake Nen, after
having chased and killed a doppelganger criminal. A few years after that, he and his
entire mansion disappeared without a trace.

Many Nerathi lords also wanted to settle down in the Vale. The wrecks now known as
Kobold Hall and Kalton Manor were such attempts. Many people still tell about the folly
of Lord Arrol Kalton, who raised his manor about 200 years ago in the Witchlight Fens.
Soon, however, monsters—among them the powerful black dragon Shadowmire—drove
off the tenants Arrol had brought with him, and the manor was never finished. At the
end, Arrol and a handful of his servants and family lived alone in a half-finished keep,
slowly falling into ruin until they disappeared as well. Some believe the old Kalton
fortune still lies within the ruins of the abandoned manor. Few know that the
descendants of Lord Kalton fled the area and survived, tainted by the foul energies of
the Witchlight Fens.

Sometime after the destruction of Kalton Manor, Shadowmire was able to establish
himself as the ruler of the Witchlight Fens, subduing the inhabitants of the swamp to
his will. Among his most loyal subjects are the vast majority of the lizardfolk tribes of
the Nentir and White ivers.

In the same year, a cult of worshipers of the demon prince Orcus purposely created a
rift to the Shadowfell in the Cairngorm Peaks, near the town of Winterhaven,
connecting one of Orcus’s unholy sites to the mortal world. Skeletons, zombies, and
fouler creatures flooded through the rift into the light of day. The empire of Nerath
dispatched a legion to join forces with the knights of Gardmore Abbey, and they quickly
destroyed the undead, sealed the opening, and built a keep to watch over the location
and contain the threat ages of Nerath put a magical seal the rift to Shadowfell horrors
to the mortal world. This is the site known as the Keep on the Shadowfell.

Some years after that, the paladins of Gardmore Abbey, along with the imperial
legions, journeyed to the Dragondown Coast, far to the south, to destroy the Infernal
Bastion and defeat its leader, the terrible hobgoblin warlord Hur-Tharak, who had
conquered many of the Nerathi lands. After a victory that is acclaimed by historians as
the most glorious of Nerath’s victories, the paladins were tasked to safeguard the
powerful artifacts the warlord had stored in the Infernal Bastion. One of the treasures
the knights brought back from the war was the ancient artifact known as the Deck of
Many Things.

About one hundred fifty years ago, the empire of Nerath found itself in a massive
campaign against an invasion of orcs, goblinoids, gnolls and demons, led by the
mysterious "Ruler of Ruin" The last Nerathi Emperor, Elidyr the Just, rallied a valiant
defense against the demonic threat. To bolster his armies, he commissioned the
Imperial Order of Artificers to create the warforged, a race of mechanical warriors, and
also recalled all the legions that were in the far-flung corners of the Empire. Not all the
armies returned to protect Nerath’s capital, as they had to deal with the enemies that
also threatened the Empire’s far outposts. Among those who didn’t return were the
knights of Gardmore Abbey.

A force of orcs from the Stonemarch descended on Gardmore Abbey. Aided by ogres,
hill giants, and demonic embodiments of chaos, the orcs laid siege to the abbey.
Rumors say the knights could have survived if it not for the folly of one person. Fearing
the attackers and unable to trust in Bahamut's deliverance, the captain of the knights,
Havarr of Nenlast, turned to the Deck of Many Things for aid in the siege. Havarr drew
the Skull card, and scores of undead monsters emerged from the space between
worlds and spread throughout the abbey, bringing terror and destruction in their wake.
The walls were breached, the Stonemarch forces spilled inside, and a titanic battle
among knights, undead, and orcs left the abbey in ruins. Some believe the Deck of
Many Things remains in the abbey, unable to leave because the magic the paladins had
placed to prevent intruders from reaching the artifact also prevented the Deck from
disappearing. No one knows the truth.

When the armies of evil encircled the abbey, the knights entrusted a messenger with a
map indicating the locations of their greatest artifacts and begged him to deliver it to
the Emperor. The messenger never reached his destination, however.

Some believe that empress Amphaesia returned soon before the final battle against the
“Ruler of Ruin” to save as many people she could from the war. The rumors say she
took those she saved to her realm in the Feywild, but no one knows if the rumors are
true.

Alas, Elydir’s efforts to save Nerath were not enough. Just before the final, catastrophic
battle of Nerath, the foolish Prince Roland, firstborn of Emperor Elydir, used his
influence to move the Third Legion, one of the most powerful legions of the Imperial
Army, to defend the remotest outposts. He did so because he coveted a woman who
was betrothed to the commander of the Third Legion, a veteran named Paulus. Roland
hoped that with leagues between them, she would forget Paulus and welcome his
advances. While Roland courted the young woman, the demonic army spilled into the
city of Nera.

In a tragic battle that would be forever remembered as “the Battle of the Nine Sons,”
The Emperor, along with his heirs and his most trusted nobles, fell in battle. The "Ruler
of Ruin" simply returned to the Abyss, apparently content to leave the world in a state
of chaos. It is said that, when Paulus heard about the attack on the capital, he rushed
the Third Legion to help the Emperor, but is was too late. By the time they reached the
battlefield, the city of Nera was already destroyed. Paulus renamed them the Last
Legion and they spend their remaining days righting such wrongs as they could.

The remaining lords of the empire—fragmented, fearful, and desperate—fell upon one
another for survival. The empire crumbled quickly into factional wars, commerce
ground to a halt and famine and plague grew thick across the land, while monsters and
raiders prowled freely. The greatest of the human empires was no more, leaving the
world in a new dark age.

Whispered rumors in the Empire’s final days told of the younger daughter of the
Emperor, born amid the lethal chaos of the war. She survived her mother’s death and
was secreted away by Uhon Nerika, the last surviving member of the Ghost Blades, the
imperial guard. What became of the girl or her savior, no one knows. Some of the
oldest farmers of the Vale tell of woman named Uhon Nerika that came from the south
and lived her last days with her “daughter” in the village of Nenlast.

After Nerath fell, the Gravelstrokes—a family of assassins on the service of the crown—
lost much of their fortune and influence. Maintaining their true nature as a secret, the
Gravelstrokes retired to the country, eventually raising a manor in the Barony of
Harkenwold, where its descendants live to this day.

The town of Kiris Dahn, built by human hands in the western lands of the Ogrefist Hills,
stood strong against invaders for decades after the fall of the Empire. It had magical
stones created by tiefling artisans that could kill anyone who attacked the town. The
stones were almost all t, but protected the town against invaders for decades.

Roughly one hundred thirty years ago, during his teenage years, a boy named Aurtus
hired himself out as a messenger, delivering messages and packages in the city of
Fallcrest. When he could afford a horse, he began delivering messages throughout the
Nentir Vale. During his travels, he visited many towns and settlements, and, in the
process, saw the problems that people faced. At age 27, Aurtus heard the call of Pelor
and began studying at the House of the Sun in Fallcrest. Rising quickly through the
ranks, Aurtus became one of the most trusted and respected priests of Pelor in the city.
Then, ninety years ago, a fierce horde of orcs known as the Bloodspears Clan
descended from the Stonemarch and swept over the Vale. Without the knights and
paladins of Gardmore Abbey to aid them, Fallcrest's army was defeated in a rash
attempt to halt the Bloodspears in the Gardbury Downs, and the horde burned and
pillaged Fallcrest and completely destroyed Fastormel and other towns before finally
met their match in the necropolis of Hammerfast. Even when they conquered the
fortress and killed all the dwarven warriors and priests tasked with guarding its
treasures, the orcs suffered heavy losses as well. After capturing only a few of its
treasures, the Bloodspears abandoned the Vale.

Aurtus was one of the few survivors of the Bloodspear War. He saw the fall of his home
as a calling to serve Pelor in a new way. As the people of Fallcrest struggled to rebuild
their home, Aurtus refocused his efforts in service to Pelor. He began collecting
histories of all the nearby lands and compiling them into a great book he called The
Living Tome of Pelor. He hoped that the followers of Pelor could use this knowledge to
enlighten the people of the Nentir Vale, teach them to avoid the hazards of history, and
in so doing, bring a brighter tomorrow to all. As Fallcrest grew anew, several followers
of Pelor found merit in Aurtus’s work. These priests and acolytes began working with
Aurtus to teach the people of Fallcrest and others about the follies of the past, so that
events such as the fall of Fallcrest could be avoided in the future. They came to call
themselves the Students of Aurtus.

At the same time, dwarves came from the south with the aim to settle in the Vale. Due
to the fall of Nerath, the southern citadels of the dwarves were broken and in a state of
chaos, and the dwarves determined that dead had no use for a fortification such as
Hammerfast. Thus, the necropolis was transformed into a city of the living. However,
orcs demanded that the dwarves set aside part of the fortress for their priests, as the
fortress that had claimed so many orc lives had become a holy site for the followers of
Gruush. The dwarven priests beseeched the gods for guidance, and in a sacred
compact struck with Moradin and Gruumsh, the town's founders agreed to let the orcs
live in the city as long as the orcs agreed to live with them in peaceful terms, respect
the dead and protect the city from attacks. The orcs agreed, and since then
Hammerfast has grown into the largest and richest settlement in the eastern portion of
the Nentir Vale.

years ago, Sir Jerold Keegan, the commander of the last of the Imperial Knights forces,
that were tasked with the protection of Shadowfell Keep, slaughtered many of the
keep’s residents—including his own family—and them himself in a fit of madness,
produced by the dread powers from the Shadowfell. In doing so, Sir Keegan was bound
to the site of his dead, and became a ghost. The keep was abandoned after that, and
eventually, more or less forgotten. An earthquake a few years later collapsed the upper
towers and walls, and turned the place into a ruin of tumbled stone. Sometime after
that, a tribe of goblins set up a lair within the subterranean chambers beneath the
keep.

Over sixty years ago, a group of famous explorers and warriors who operated near
Hammerfast, known as the Silver Company, delved into the “ghost tower” that
appeared in the ruins of Castle Inverness for the first time. The result was tragic—one
of the Silver Company, a woman named Oldivya Vladistone, perished. Her husband,
Salazar, continued to adventure with the Silver Company for some years, growing more
despondent the longer he had to deal with his wife's death. Eventually, Salazar
Vladistone sacrificed himself to save his allies and the people of Hammerfast from a
catastrophic dragon named Actherimos and his duergar followers, in a remote
monastery in the Dawnforge Mountains. Vladistone's spirit did not rest quietly after his
sacrifice however. He became a ghost, haunting the Nentir Vale as he made
pilgrimages to the grave of his wife in the ruins of Inverness. Soon after, the deeds of
the Silver Company faded into obscurity.

More than fifty years ago, the monks of the Enlightened Flame were killed in their
monastery, the Dungeon of the Fire Opal, by a band of marauding gnolls. The gnolls
went to the monastery in search of a great fire opal, a gem said to contain the bound
spirit of a powerful efreeti lord, but they never found the gem. Rumors persist of secret
passages and tunnels within the dungeons beneath the ruins of the monastery.

years ago two rival adventurers, the human Jasyn of Therund and the dwarf Marholt
Arlestone, found themselves trapped in the Underdark in the aftermath of an
expedition gone bad. For years the two had competed to find the legendary ruby of
Sereth Van, and both arrived at the gem's location serendipitously. The treasure
hunters, however, didn't plan for a nest of purple worms surrounding the ruby, and
they were driven back into the tunnels. Each blamed the other for their mutual failure,
and they lost the path during their bickering. Just as they realized their predicament, a
violent quake trapped them in a hitherto unknown region of the Underdark.

Forced to rely on each other for survival, Marholt and Jasyn set aside their differences
and, after a four month trek, they emerged in a huge lava tube that held a river
teeming with subterranean life. When they finally reached the surface, Jasyn realized
that the two were in the immense Dawnforge mountain range. The two, now fast
friends and keen for any opportunity to amass wealth, came up with the same idea:
They could use the underground river to bypass the Dawnforges, opening up new trade
routes and earning a fortune. The Deep Guides organization was born. A few years
after the dea of their founders, the Deep Guides separated into many independent,
rival organizations that compete for their customers, however.

Nearly forty years ago, a pair of retired adventurers—an elf wizard named Vanamere
and a human fighter named Lethion Goldenhawk—married and built a tower south of
the Cloak Wood as a private residence. A few years later the tower became an
important point the defense of Nentir Vale, due to its strategic placement between
Fallcrest, the Ogrefist Hills and the Witchlight Fens. When Lethion passed away,
Vanamere placed his remains in a secret tomb carved out of the hill beneath the tower.
With him she buried their remaining treasure, including magic items seized during their
careers. One of the items entombed with Lethion was a gold-plated human skull, taken
from the corpse of a gnoll demon-worshiper in the Ogrefist Hills. The golden skull is
believed to be one of several stolen from the Temple of Yellow Skulls.

years ago, goblins from the Ogrefist Hills and the Witchlight Fens joined forces with a
clan of hill giants, and launched an attack on Vanamere’s tower. Vanamere used a
ritual to summon a mighty storm, and when the monsters breached the tower, a great
bolt of lightning struck its peak, causing the tower to explode. Jagged shards of rock
killed most of the invaders, and the remaining monsters fled back into the hills, never
to return again. What became of Vanamere no one knows. According to legend, when
the lightning struck, she became one with the tower and remains trapped within its
ruined walls to this day.

Nearly thirty years ago, after having killed her former hobgoblin commander, the
bugbear Graala Bloodghost founded the Bloodghost Syndicate, composed mostly of
bugbears, though they also employ mercenaries of other races as well. The syndicate
dabbles in a variety of criminal enterprises, from gambling, protection rackets,
assassinations, and money lending. It operates in the most important cities of the
Nentir Vale and beyond.

About twenty five years ago, three wizards—Hasifir, Niame, and Samazar—discovered
the ruins of Saruun Khel in the Thunderspire Mountain, while seeking reliable access to
the Underdark. Accompanied by retainers, the wizards spent long months in the ruins.
Among the magic items they recovered were several command amulets, which allowed
them to control the bronze warders, minotaur constructs built in the city’s heyday. The
wizards used the bronze warders to clear the upper level of the ruins, establishing a
stronghold there—the Seven-Pillared Hall, and founded the order of the Mages of
Saruun. In the Seven-Pillared Hall, dwarves, duergar, drow, and other merchants of the
Underdark come to trade with a few lucky merchants of the surface. The existence of
the place is not widely known either by Underdark denizens or surface-dwellers, and
the mages try to keep it that way

Eight years ago, the citizens of Kiris Dahn abandoned the town when faced with
invading goblin hordes, as they believed all of the slaying stones were expended at
last. The town had endured a long decline under the rule of the Kiris family, and the
citizens scattered rather than follow their ruler, Kiris Alkirk. Along with his advisor and
seer Treona, Alkirk found a place to live in obscurity. The goblins overran the town and
renamed it Gorizbadd. Recently, Treona discovered old records that indicate one
slaying stone still remains. She now looks for powerful individuals to recover it.

A few years ago, Restwell Keep served as the base of operations for a band of evil
adventurers known as the Six Blades of Fortune. While the Blades fought monsters in
the Chaos Scar, they also preyed on other, weaker adventuring bands, and even raided
a few caravans. As they were content to keep their depredations far from their base of
operations, in time the keep became a small outpost of civilization. Wanderers,
refugees, and other folk in search of a safe harbor settled within the keep. The Blades
saw a benefit in the growing community within their walls. The taxes they collected
paid the mercenaries who guarded the keep, and within five years, a small village
stabilized within its walls and became a center for adventurers heading to the Chaos
Scar. Despite the Blades’ nature, they believed the safe harbor and profit offered by
the keep was worth preserving.

In time, though, the Blades’ criminal ways caught up with them. After stealing a holy
icon of Erathis, they were tracked to the keep and defeated by Lord Peridin Drysdale, a
human paladin of Erathis. Lord Drysdale and his followers slew four of the Blades and
drove off the remaining two survivors. While he had planned to leave the keep and its
inhabitants to their own devices, he saw that doing so would leave the inhabitants
vulnerable without the Blades’ protection. Assessing the threat posed by the Chaos
Scar, he decided to remain in the keep as its new ruler. The guards and administrators
who ran the village under the Blades’ rule are still in place, and Drysdale plans to
organize expeditions into the Scar to defeat the evil that dwells there. More than a few
residents, accustomed to the old regime, resent the paladin's uncompromising push
toward order and morality. As a result, Drysdale's authority is weak in the village.

Meanwhile, a priest of Orcus named Kalarel uncovered the truth about Shadowfell
Keep, after finding records dating back to the time of the original opening of the rift.
Since then, he has been ceaselessly researching an evil ritual that he believes will allow
him to shatter the seal and once more open the rift. After gaining control of the keep,
Kalarel placed agents in the surrounding areas. He established dominion over the tribe
of goblins that lived within the subterranean chambers beneath the keep, and also
control a tribe of kobolds operating out of a lair near Winterhaven. Kalarel has ordered
the kobolds to harass and, if possible, eliminate anyone in the vicinity (such as
adventurers) that have the potential to delay or thwart the priest’s plans. Kalarel also
installed an elf spy named Ninaran in Winterhaven. Through the reports of this
individual, Kalarel keeps an eye on the activities of Winterhaven’s residents and knows
when newcomers arrive.

At the same time, the green dragon Vestapalk began to raiding the regions nearby the
Cairngorm Peaks, including the lands near Winterhaven.

The red dragon Cazakk “the Blessed” also came to the Nentir Vale. Raised among
dragons that venerate Tiamat, the red dragon brought with him a piety and a drive
unusual among dragons. He sees himself as a crusader for Tiamat, and he enforces
conversion with fire, fang, and claw. Considering all he can survey from his mountain
home, including the lowlands of Harkenwold, to be his demesne, Cazakk has now set
his sights on the wider valley.

Sometime after that, a wicked blackguard named Parald made a name for himself by
hunting and killing elves. He stole a powerful magic sword from one of the few elves
that was able to survive his fury. The elf searched for her sword, but Parald fled and
she never able to track him down. Parald’s luck didn’t last, however. A cavalier named
Richard chased him down and defeated him in single combat. It’s said the body—and
the magic sword—was stolen before it could be burned. The rumors said the body of
Parald was hidden in the “ghost tower” of the Witchlight Fens.

Four years ago, the halfling adventurer named Reed Tinderfoot, severely wounded a
bear that was living near Riverslye Homestead, one of the villages that compose the
Barony of Harkenwold. The bear, named Smiley Bob for the grisly scar the wound left in
its face, coexisted peacefully with the halflings of the homestead .

years ago, the tunnels connecting the Ogrefist Hills and the Underdark city of Erelhei-
Cinlu collapsed due to borrowing umber hulks, stranding a party of drow raiders of
House Despana, the Hunter Spiders, the surface. Convinced that Erelhei-Cinlu had
abandoned them, the Hunter Spiders sought the goddess Lolth for guidance, and she
guided them to a forgotten elven ruins in the Harken Forest known as the Spiderhaunt
Thicket, were is believed the eladrin and elves fought against the drow in the past.
There, Ti'irtha Despana, a priest of Lolth, killed her consort and was "blessed" by Lolth,
who transformed her into a werespider instead of showing her the way home. Since
then, the few Hunter Spiders had been enslaving people of the Vale to search a new
way to the Underdark for them.

A year ago, a clan of shadar-kai under the leadership of Mistress Ranala, a priest
devoted to the Raven Queen, emerged from the Shadowfell, having escaped through
the rift beneath the Keep on the Shadowfell disrupted by Kalarel. They drifted north to
settle in the Winterbole Forest. Along the way, Ranala discovered through her auguries
that followers of the Chained God hid among Mistwatch’s people. They entered the
town to root out the infestation and reveal their presence to Lord Cadmus Zaspar, the
ruler of the town. To their surprise, they learned Cadmus was one of the worshipers.
The confrontation went poorly, and Ranala’s effort to destroy him failed. She left
defeated, her magical abilities and her obsidian magic disk stolen, and with Cadmus
more powerful than ever before.

Some few days after that, Lord Cadmus used the magic disk to darken the town,
infecting it with a poisonous curse. Over the next nine months, the sun paled in the sky
and temperatures dropped. Fog rolled in from the Wintermist Lake and never left.
Disease chewed away at the oldest and youngest citizens until the temple filled near to
bursting with new corpses to bury. Lord Camus’ wife died while giving birth to an
aberrant child. After that day, dark clouds shut out the sun. The plague started
affecting even healthy people and the dead began to rise from their graves. Leaving
Mistwatch proved impossible. The shadar-kai prevents anyone from leaving, as a
carrier could pass along the infection to anyone he or she meets. Those fleeing citizens
who were not struck down by the shadar-kai’s swords and spells were driven back to
the accursed town. Mistwatch now sinks into the Shadowfell, where it might be
destroyed in the darklands or be transformed into a new domain of dread with Cadmus
as its dark lord.

A few months ago, following visions granted by the mysterious “Elder Elemental Eye”,
Vestapalk presented himself to Tiktak, the wyrmpriest of the Greenscale tribe of
kobolds, a minor tribe that live in the Cairngorm Peaks. Worshiping Vestapalk as a god
and following his prophetic visions, Tiktak has begun to send the Greenscales to raid
the area near Winterhaven. It seems they are searching for the “herald of the Eye”.

At the same time, rangers operating out the Cairngorm Peaks have reported an
alarming resurgence of activity among the Stonemarch orcs in recent months. They
fear that a new Bloodspear horde can rise soon.

Meanwhile, the tribal elders of the Emberdark kobolds in the Dawnforge Mountains
have received signs from Kurtulmak, exarch of Tiamat, that Calastryx is nearing
freedom. The tribe is now raiding the Vale to gather a trove to win her favor and
become her loyal servitors. Unknown to them, however, are the efforts of Thar, a
dragonborn champion of Gruumsh, to bind Calastrix to the service of his god before she
awakens.

On the hunt for lost dragonborn relics, Dythan's Legion arrived to the Nentir Vale
recently to locate ancient Arkhosian ruins. Its members are all dragonborn that have
flocked around the banner of Legatus Dythan, a charismatic idealist who seeks to raise
Arkhosia from the ashes. Dythan's Legion numbers close to five hundred —small in
comparison to the legions of old, but large in an age without empires. The legion is split
into platoons, each one numbering between twenty and twenty-four legionnaires,
scattered throughout the Nentir Vale.

Roughly two months ago, lord Vhennyk and his mysterious Iron Circle mercenaries
came to the Nentir Vale from the southern city of Sarthel. With the intention of
dominating the Nentir Vale, Vhennyk decided that overt operations would start in the
relatively isolated Barony of Harkenwold. He tasked his subordinate, a brigand captain
named Nazin Redthorn, with seizing the region, then hurried on to implement his other
plans for the Vale. For now, Nazin is collecting information about Harkenwold, but he is
planning to invade the barony soon.

A few weeks ago, Smiley Bob began to attack the halflings of the Riverslye Homestead.
Nobody knows why the peaceful bear became dangerous, though some suspect it has
to do with goblin activity in the area.

At the same time, the human wizard Anarus Kalton, the last surviving member of the
Kalton bloodline, was killed by one of his apprentices, the dwarf wizard Traevus, who
also stole his master’s books. The other apprentice, a human wizard named Malareth,
is now searching Traevus to avenge his master and retrieve his books, that Malareth
intends to use to finish his master’s evil, dark magic ritual. In the meantime, Traevus is
hiring adventurers to go to the ghost tower of the Witchlight Fens and retrieve his
master’s dark grimoire.

Another ambitious young dwarf, a cleric of Moradin named Aldus Splintershield,

seeking to make a name for himself and his clan, has begun organizing a group of
settlers to found a new town in the ruins of Castle Inverness. Brother Splintershield is
hiring adventurers to escort him and his pilgrims to the ruins.

At same time, rumors of a strange plague that affect both humanoids and beasts on
many regions of the Vale spread like fire in taverns and inns. Strange creatures with
protruding red crystal on their bodies have been sighted on the roads and abandoned
farms. Only a few know about this Abyssal Plague, and they’re being hunted down by
members of the Cult of the Elder Elemental Eye to maintain the secret of the plague
until they can conquer the Vale and prepare an invasion to conquer the rest of the
world.

A few days ago, the vampire lich Magroth, the first emperor of Nerath, put in motion his
plans to free himself from the domain of dread known as Darani, in the Shadowfell. As
the first step of his plan, he needs to locate the last of his descendants, which he had
divined live in the Nentir Vale. For that reason, he opened the way into the buried
Andok Sur, the City of the Dead…

Factions of the Nentir Vale

Some people of the Nentir Vale have banded together to pursue their common goals.
Some of these goals align with that of other organizations or groups and some do not.
 The Barrowhaunts
The Barrowhaunts are a group of five former adventurers bound to the lands
surrounding the Sword Barrow. Their deeds in life are seldom recollected, and no one is
truly sure why their spirits have never been laid to rest. Now they savagely attack any
who enter the lands of their trust. Many rumors exist about the exact nature of their
curse; one common legend suggests that they sought to plunder the Sword Barrow and
evoked the wrath of a warlord entombed within. The warlord's spirit called to the native
hill folk in the area, who marched to the Sword Barrow to confront the adventurers and
reclaim the warlord's treasures. The adventurers, rather than relinquish their trove,
slaughtered the hill folk. A dying elder placed a curse on the adventurers' souls,
binding them to the land for all of eternity.

At first, the elder's curse seemed empty and hollow, but every time the adventurers
left the Gray Downs to sell their hard-won loot, they could not help but return to the
hills in search of even greater treasures. Eventually, their greed surpassed their skill.
Descending deeper into the Sword Barrow than they'd ever gone before, the
adventurers fell prey, one by one, to horrid monsters and insidious traps. Though
cursed to haunt the Gray Downs and guard "their" barrows from other would-be
pillagers, they still seek out treasures and relics for themselves.

The spoils of their exploits are stashed in an ancient crypt deep within the Sword
Barrow. Their motive for collecting such worldly possessions isn't clear, but some
believe they are forced to sate their everlasting yearning for adventure and
exploration. Regardless of the reason, most believe that this cache is of significant
worth. Many other adventurers have tried to locate the hoard, but all have been slain
or rebuked.

The five adventurers are (or were): Boldos Grimehammer (male dawrf fighter), Adrian
"Iceheart" Reninold (male human wizard), Cassian d'Cherevan (male human figther),
Joplin the Sly (female hlafling rogue), Uthelyn the Mad (female half-elf ranger).

Blackfang Gnolls
Predatory and fiercely territorial, the Blackfang gnolls have long terrorized travelers
who dare to cross the Old Hills. Caravans moving along the trail between Nenlast and
Fiveleague House are common targets for Blackfang ambushes. The pack either
devours captured victims in a nearby den or drags them through the warrens to the
Well of Demons, where the victims are sacrificed to Yeenoghu, the Demon Prince of
Gnolls.

They currently lair under Thunderspire Mountain, in the Well of Demons, an ancient
monastery sanctified to the demon lord Baphomet. The Blackfang chieftain, Maldrick
Scarmaker, recently locked himself inside the Well of Demons chamber in preparation
for reconsecrating the temple to his demonic patron, Yeenoghu. With Maldrik isolated
from his followers, the Blackfang tribe is effectively leaderless. If the chieftain does not
emerge soon, another prominent pack leader will move to seize the throne.
 The Bloody Order of Harkenwold
The Bloody Order of Harkenwold is one of the most feared and respected group of
sellswords in the Nentir Vale. The leader of the order is Guarn Logran, fearsome but
somewhat foolish dwarven warlord. The Bloody Order is known for their honor and for
their bloodthirsty methods.

The Bloodghost Syndicate

The syndicate traces its humble beginnings to one bugbear, Graala Bloodghost. Graala
served as a warrior aboard a pirate galleon under the command of a hobgoblin captain.
Graala worked her way up the ranks, and in time she became a personal bodyguard to
her captain. She saw firsthand how the captain turned plundered cargo into cash by
dealing with human, tiefling, and dwarf smugglers, fences, and merchants of flexible
morality. Graala’s assignment also gave her insight into the fabulous wealth that the
captain and his coterie enjoyed, while she and the bugbear marines survived on a few
coins from each raid.

The next time she accompanied the captain on a secret rendezvous with a smuggler on
the docks of a human city, her bugbear compatriots killed the hobgoblin officers left
aboard, waited in ambush for the captain’s return, and killed him. Graala then led the
survivors ashore and into the city, but not before arranging for the smuggler to collect
on a bounty placed on the captain’s head. Graala claimed half the share, and with the
cash liberated from the ship, she founded the Bloodghost syndicate, nearly thirty years
ago. Today, she still takes an active hand in the syndicate’s affairs, but her age and
infirmity have pushed her son Rathos to take command.

The syndicate operates in all the important cities of the Nentir Vale, as well in the more
populous cities of the south, and dabbles in a variety of criminal enterprises, from
gambling, protection rackets, assassinations, and money lending, as well as some
legitimate business venture. The Bloodghosts carved their niche in the underworld
through a combination of brute force, cash, and access to monstrous allies outside
civilization who are eager to do business with forces within the cities: Orc mercenaries
seeking to sell their swords, cultists in search of a safe dungeon lair or illegal reagents
for their rituals, and outlaws (whether monstrous or humanoid) eager to turn the goods
and coin plundered from their victims into material comforts and fine goods.

The Bloodreavers
A gang of slavers and marauders, the Bloodreavers includes goblinoids and humans.
Most of them are fierce warriors, though some act as spies throughout Nentir Vale and
beyond. The Bloodreavers are leaded by a hobgoblin named Krank.

Clan Bloodspear
Legend says that the first great chieftain of Clan Bloodspear singlehandedly slew the
elder iron dragon Kulkoszar. The self-proclaimed King Bloodspear declared the dragon's
lair to be the seat of his new empire, and he forged a throne there from the dragon's
jaws. Over the years, Clan Bloodspear has extended the original cavern into an
extensive warren furnished with forges, arenas, and slave pens.

Rallying the tribes under the banner of Bloodspear is an unusual chieftain for the
patriarchal orcs—a female. Queen Msuga is as formidable as she is indomitable.
Though many warriors defied her rule in the early years, none contest her reign now;
scars from many victories mark her as rightful chieftain. She claims to be the consort to
Gruumsh himself, with a divine mandate to force the Nentir Vale's submission.

Never lurking far from the queen's side is her twin sister, Rohka. As high shaman of
Clan Bloodspear, Rohka commands terrifying power, despite her withered body, and
none dare cross the Blood Witch. It is whispered that Rohka is the true power behind
the throne, with Msuga her unwitting puppet. Whatever the truth, the two sisters lust
equally for power and conquest—woe to anyone who stands in their way.

The Brotherhood of the Scar

Centuries ago, a group of Banites discovered the heart of Shoth-Gorag in the Chaos
Scar. Mistaking it for a gift from their tyrannical deity, they took it and built a small
fortress-temple around it. They named the fortress Hallowgaunt. The heart of Shoth-
Gorag became the center of worship for the Banites, who began to call themselves the
Brotherhood of the Scar. From their temple, the heart began to exert its influence,
inundating the Chaos Scar with its evil. Shoth-Gorag has also been poisoning the minds
of the Banites in Hallowgaunt. Banite clerics there draw some of their strength directly
from Shoth-Gorag instead of Bane. Its influence has also begun to twist the bodies of
these misguided servitors, and some of them have bizarre deformities indicative of
exposure to the Far Realm’s energy.

While gaining mastery over Hallowgaunt, Shoth-Gorag has also amassed enough power
to begin the final phase of its plans. It is undergoing a hideous resurgence, building a
physical body worthy of a Far Realm lord. To build this physical form, Shoth-Gorag
requires ample supplies of flesh. It has been sending out its most trusted servants,
members of the Brotherhood of the Scar, to capture creatures great and small. Any
unfortunates these Banites capture are dragged back to Hallowgaunt to be tortured out
of their wits and cast down to where Shoth-Gorag dwells deep under the fortress.
Shoth-Gorag absorbs those brought to it, using their flesh as raw material to construct
a horrific body around its heart. Soon, Shoth-Gorag will be powerful enough to move
beyond the temple of Bane and begin absorbing the myriad creatures dwelling in the
Chaos Scar.

Although Shoth-Gorag now controls a majority of the priests and soldiers serving in
Hallowgaunt, a small group of temple guards loyal to Bane resisted the Far Realm
lord’s growing influence. These faithful Banites surreptitiously sought aid from any
allies they can get outside the Chaos Scar, seeking a way to destroy Shoth-Gorag and
return the temple to Bane.
 Carthain's gang
A would-be petty noble, Carthain indulges himself with fine clothes and an elegantly
waxed mustache. He is a thug and a murderer, who works for both the Circle of Stone
and for Thar, the champion of Gruumsh plotting to destroy Hammerfast.

The main body of Carthain's band lives in a small, temporary village northeast of
Hammerfast. Carthain and his followers have cleared a number of trails through the
mountains, allowing them to move much faster than their pursuers. Carthain's gang
consists of half-orcs, gnomes, kenkus, and humans. Serlek Undertow, Carthain's
lieutenant, handles many of the raids on caravans near Hammerfast. Carthain
accompanies him only when victory is assured.

A vicious halfling, Serlek was once a member of the Swiftriver Clan. He was exiled for
murdering his brother over a gold statue the two found in the wilds. He currently hides
in the Dungeon of the Fire Opal. He and the other bandits pose as treasure seekers
exploring the dungeon. They offer to ally with adventurers and then try to kill them in
their sleep.

Carthain and his men pose as prospectors. Their small village is heavily fortified, and
they engage in some prospecting to pass the time between raids and to lend truth to
their cover story.

The Circle of Stone

A conspiracy of fundamentalist priests of Moradin, the Circle of Stone poses the
greatest current threat to Hammerfast. Led by Grond Silverstar, the second most
powerful priest in the ranks of Moradin's church, the priests in its ranks and their
followers believe that turning the necropolis into a center for trade is a grave insult to
Moradin. Even worse, they believe, was allowing worshipers of Gruumsh into the town.
Thus, the Circle works to drive the orcs out of Hammerfast and to destroy the Black
Spire, the temple of Gruumsh.

Of course, destroying Gruumsh's temple would violate the compact on which

Hammerfast is founded. It would invite divine retribution not only from Gruumsh but
also from Moradin, whose pledge to the god of destruction would be broken. The
members of the Circle of Stone are unconcerned with this possibility, however, having
been duped into believing that the compact is a sham.

Among their most vicious members is Gerrek. A bloodthirsty fanatic, he maintains a

lowkey reputation as a quiet champion of Moradin, but in truth he leads the Hammers,
the Circle's muscle. The Hammers harass businesses and other folk that Grond targets
for destruction. They are generally the least pious of the Circle's members. Most of
them are little more than thugs eager for a few coins and the chance to hurt innocent
folk. Gerrek also carries out assassinations on Grond's behalf. Although he appears to
be devoted to Moradin, in truth he secretly worships Bane.
 The Company of the Iron Gauntlet
A hobgoblin mercenary group leaded by a hobgoblin warlord known as Prag. The Iron
Gauntlet mercenaries are trained to fight as a squad, and their behavior suggests strict
military training and organization. These goblinoids have joined forces with Kalarel's
Cult.

Among their most notable members are the goblins Irontooth and Balgron the Fat, and
the commander of the mercenaries, a bugbear named Frubog.

The Cult of the Elder Elemental Eye

The danger posed to the world by any other primordial cult pales in comparison to the
Cult of the Elder Elemental Eye. The cult is most often associated with the Princes of
Elemental Evil, but they are merely stewards for a vast and unknowable entity. The
Elder Elemental Eye is believed to be an ancient primordial being that was cast out
from the Elemental Chaos by its fellow primordials. It works to regain a foothold in the
planes and resume efforts toward the goal it once sought—the end of all things.

Throughout history, the cult has threatened civilization by raising armies and dark
temples, whose priests scour the world for the keys needed to free their master. What
gains the cult makes are often sabotaged by infighting and betrayal. Factions rule the
cult, each seeking to gain dominance over the others—even if doing so means
destroying everything they work toward. Compounding these troubles are other powers
who seek to exploit the cult. At various times, Zuggtmoy, Graz'zt, Lolth, and other
Demon Lords have all manipulated the cult into advancing their own agendas.

In the Nentir Vale, the various cells of the Cult of the Elder Elemental Evil are working
to help spread the Abyssal Plague into the mortal world, as they believe the plague is
the only key they need to free their master at last.

The Deep Guides

The explorers of the Deep Guides are an adventurous lot concerned mostly with
discovery and excitement. They leave the politics to those who stay behind at
headquarters or on the surface. Individual guides are allowed to operate
independently, as long as they give the company's leaders a portion of earnings under
the Deep Guides name. Each company of Deep Guides operates independently, making
alliances with caravan masters, lords, and travelers at its own discretion. Each has a
different leadership style and its own priorities, though most members are still
explorers at heart.

Little consensus exists today among the bickering factions of Deep Guides. Each claims
to be pursuing the original intention of the organization: exploring and mapping the
Underdark. However, their motives vary wildly. No company of Deep Guides is evil, but
the groups' mutual resentment prevents them from cooperating as the organization did
in early days.
Daggerburg goblins
Where the Witchlight Fens and Harken Forest meet, a craggy hill conceals the main
entrance to Daggerburg, an ominous goblin fortress. Far from the tyranny of more
powerful creatures, the Daggerburg goblins have long been free to plunder, maim, and
murder. Mounted on swift battle worgs, Daggerburg raiders exploit their speed to
bushwhack victims throughout the southern Nentir Vale.

A clever hobgoblin named Delderosh masterminds the raiders' attacks and trains them
in their unorthodox combat style. Under Warlord Delderosh's leadership, the
Daggerburg goblins have refined their hit-and-run tactics, which has enabled them to
dodge capture and certain execution for more than a decade.

As if the band weren't a diverse enough group already, it counts among its ranks a
number of mistmane bugbears, which are obsessed with alchemy and dark magic.
Their long servitude to the black arts has enabled them to enlarge their bodies so that
they stand as giants compared to other bugbears. Also large beyond the norm is the
enormous goblin that calls himself Kabo Bomble. Although he is two feet shorter than
the mistmanes, he is still nearly twice the size of his goblin kin.

Gokof, a notorious hobgoblin necromancer of the southern Nentir Vale is nominally a

member of the Daggerburg goblins, but he spends most of his time with his collectors
and undead servants. Gokof has a particular affinity for locating cadaver collectors and
bending them to his will. It is not unusual for him to search the vale for collectors,
though he rarely has more than two at his command. He also trains other Daggerburg
goblins to command the collectors, but only if doing so further enriches him or adds to
his power base.

Dythan's Legion
A fighting force comprised of about five hundred dragonborn, Dythan’s Legion is leaded
by the charismatic Legatus Dythan, a prime example of his race. The legatus is rarely
seen without his gold-inlaid plate armor, which is embossed with heraldic devices of
Arkhosia. Though the lost civilization of Arkhosia was centered in the lands south of the
Nentir Vale, the dragonborn empire did have handful of remote enclaves this far north.
Legatus Dythan plans to collect wisdom and power from the old empire's relics to
facilitate his monumental task: restore old Arkhosia to her former glory.

The legion employs a strict hierarchy based on the service ranks used in ancient
Arkhosia. Rank is earned through great deeds performed on and off the battlefield.
Adroit tactical planning and critical thinking are valued as much as, if not more than,
melee prowess. From highest to lowest, the legion's ranks include legatus (general),
thaenar (major), vargus (captain), morikar (lieutenant), farang (sergeant), hengot
(corporal), and baka (private). Independent of rank, each legionnaire is assigned to one
of three specialized corps: infantry, cavalry, or artillery.

Even though the legion is formidable in its own right, its use of drakes and behemoths
greatly enhances its effectiveness. Legion dragoons capture liondrakes in desert lands
far to the south and train them as mounts. Dythan's Legion also salvaged a handful of
Arkhosia's animated constructs. These 15-foot-wide, 30-foot-tall stone-dragon towers
use 10-foot-tall granite rollers to move unimpeded over rough terrain and can shoot
fireballs or a volley of arrows in any direction.

The Fallcrest Guard

The Fallcrest Guard numbers sixty warriors, who also serve as constables. Moonstone
Keep is their barracks. The Lord Warden can call up 350 militia at need. There are 6
warriors at each gate of Fallcrest, 30 at the Moonstone keep at all time and 8 on a
rotating patrol throughout the city. The rest of guard patrols the Moon Hills surrounding
Fallcrest, maintaining peace and order in the region.

They are led by Commander Gondar (male dragonborn). Among the high ranking
officers are Captain Nathan Faringray (male human), Sergeant Thurmina (female
human), Sergeant Nereth (male human), and Sergeant Murgeddin (male dwarf), a
veteran from the Bloodspear War.

Fallcrest Mage's Guild

The Mage's Guild was an order of spellcasters that practiced their art in the Septarch's
Tower, in Fallcrest. During the Bloodspear War, they fell in battle or fled to safer lands.
The tower is now the property of Nimozaran the Green, an elderly wizard who was once
apprenticed to the last of the old guild mages.

Nimozaran considers himself the “High Septarch of Fallcrest” and master of the guild,
whose membership now includes only himself and his two apprentices: the young male
eladrin Albanon, and a rather unpromising male halfling named Tobolar Quickfoot.
Nimozaran expects any potential new guild members to pay a hefty initiation fee, and
so far none of the few other arcanists living in or passing through Fallcrest have seen
reason to join.

The Fell Court

A handful of tieflings have banded together for mutual protection, calling themselves
the Fell Court. These self-proclaimed scions of Bael Turath are determined to restore
the shattered empire under their rule. Their leader, Melech Ambrose, fancies himself a
visionary and a general, but in truth he behaves more like a petty crime lord, lurking
within Fallcrest's slums and conducting clandestine operations that fund his "war
chest." He has become a folk hero among the slum dwellers, who are usually
unprotected by the constabulary, because of his defiance of the established
authorities. In various hidden redoubts, the Fell Court has begun to amass weapons
and supplies for a secret army that will one day overthrow the Lord Warden of Fallcrest.

Melech reports to his own dark masters. He is in direct communication with powerful
devils that guide him in his dealings, and these fiends have a vested interest in seeing
Bael Turath rise from the ashes. To aid him, the devils have granted Melech some
measure of control over the felldrakes that have invaded the Nentir Vale, giving the
Fell Court access to small groups of the tiefling-bred monsters.
Through his network of spies and informants, Melech has become aware of the
activities of the Iron Circle and learned that its leaders are followers of Asmodeus. Thus
it seems to him that the Fell Court and the Iron Circle have much in common. The Iron
Circle has the power to conquer the Nentir Vale far more quickly than the Fell Court
could, and yet Melech chooses not to feel threatened by such a rival. Instead of
opposing and undermining the efforts of the Iron Circle, Melech has attempted to make
contact with Iron Circle agents in the hope of forging an alliance.

The Frost Witches

Over the past several decades, the evil elemental prince Cryonax has sent underlings
to infiltrate the Winterbole Forest, looking to extend his influence into the Nentir Vale.
Chief among these servants are the Frost Witches, who use cold-based magic to
frighten, fight, and manipulate all with whom they come in contact. The Frost Witches
are relatively few in number. To combat this weakness, they often ally themselves with
similarly minded creatures or try to manipulate more powerful forest creatures.

The Frost Witches come from many races, including elves, humans, harpies, and
gnomes. Most are female, and all use magic. Though a new witch is occasionally born
into the group, they normally recruit like-minded individuals, or even kidnap young
females who have shown an aptitude for magic.

Clenderi is the highest authority within the group, aside from Cryonax. Little affects
one's status in the group beyond personal experience and Clenderi's approval. Though
some amount of intrigue naturally occurs between the witches and Clenderi's current
favorites, it is far less than would be found in a royal court. Most direct their energy and
schemes toward outsiders, because expanding the group's reach expands their own
power, as well as that of their elemental prince.

The Frostblood cult

In the uncharted reaches of the Winterbole Forest, a cult of blue-skinned humans
known as the Frostbloods pay homage, with blood and sacrifice, to their chained lord
Cryonax. Few civilized people know of this cult. Only the wild folk who live on the
borders of civilization and the wild north know of the existence of the Frostblood cult.
Even among the wild barbarians and uncivilized tribes of the north, the Frostbloods are
shunned and condemned as cannibals and monsters. No one knows how many
Frostblood cultists exist. Their organization is broken up into separate tribes that roam
the frozen wastes. Their tribes are mostly nomadic, traveling in groups of eighteen to
thirty.

Born human, Frostbloods must undergo three rituals at different points in their lives to
become Frostbloods. Each of these rituals proves fatal to half of those who undergo it,
thus keeping the total number of adult Frostbloods low. During the first ritual, a drop of
Cryonax’s blood, diluted through its transfer between the Elemental Chaos and the
mortal world, is fed to a child of four years. If the child survives, it ingests another
larger amount of the blood at age twelve. Finally, at age seventeen, the young adult is
given the final largest dose of the black liquid. This infuses the new Frostblood with
terrible visions of the chained lord, Cryonax, atop his plateau in the swirling storms of
chaos. It also gives the Frostblood a touch of his power and turns the young adult’s skin
blue.

The northern tribes are right to fear and shun the Frostbloods. Any humanoids captured
by the Frostbloods are designated either as sacrifices to Cryonax or as food. The
Frostbloods consider themselves beyond mortality and ingest the fresh warm blood and
flesh of their mortal victims. Horrid tales spread among the northern tribes tell of large
herds of captured slaves held by multiple Frostblood warbands as a surplus of food for
the tribes.

The Gravelstokes
Before the fall of Nerath, when the Gravelstoke family was at the height of its power
and prestige, it was the envy of noble society. When Nerath fell, so did the family's
good fortunes. However, throughout that difficult time and to this day, the family has
guarded its dark secret: The Gravelstokes were not only proud supporters of the
emperor but also assassins in service to the crown. But after Nerath had fallen, they no
longer had a rich benefactor to support their bloody work.

Currently, the Gravelstoke family inhabits a bleak stone mansion in the Barony of
Harkenwold, and it keeps a modest summer retreat on the outskirts of Fallcrest. The
reigning patriarch is Xander Gravelstroke, and he has an itch to restore his family to
greatness by doing what it does best—murdering people.

The others members of the family are: Vincent, Xander's only child (from his second
marriage), who a reclusive and quiet sociopath; and Xander’s younger siblings, Alesia,
Mikus, and Tovin (Mikus and Tovin are twins). The three siblings are inseparable,
traveling back and forth between their estates along with other family members and
household staff, or wherever "the work" takes them. It's well known that they share a
fondness for one another, and rumors of their "debased offspring" have become fodder
for whispered taproom conversations. The rumors are false, but the siblings are
nonetheless grasping, cruel, and moody.

The Gravelstokes take pride in their skills in the art of assassination, and over the years
they have perfected a signature ability that turns their victims to black rock. Though
they surround themselves with the faded trappings of nobility, they are often
contracted to perform dastardly deeds that are not for the faint of heart.

The Gray Company

From a young age, the Gray Company's soldiers heard stories from their grandfathers
of how Nerath's grand pennants flew above every city in the ancient world. Finally
grown and trained in combat, these enlistees from the Gray Downs intend to take back
their heritage. Determined to resurrect the glory of ancient Nerath, the Gray Company
actively recruits new soldiers. Warriors make up the company's rank and file, backed
by mages whose ability should not be underestimated. These mist mages can call upon
and manipulate the fog that rolls in over the Gray Downs to hamper their enemies.
Recruits who join the Gray Company do not leave its ranks. Once inducted and told the
fragmented secrets of old Nerath, a soldier is committed for life. Deserters are hunted
down and hanged publicly at the nearest crossroads.

Halvath Cormarrin, the self-proclaimed successor to Nerath's throne, is leading the

group from the foggy hinterlands across the Nentir Vale and down into the former
empire's foremost lands. Along the way, the company is recruiting new soldiers,
plundering ancient ruins, seeking relics such as the lost Sword of Nerath and the
Threefold Crown, and hunting down treasure seekers who pilfered fragments of the
soldiers' so-called birthright. According to rumor, the Gray Company didn't earn its
name from its home region, but from its faded banners of long-dead noble houses and
its soldiers' grim moral views.

Although the group's power base is located in the Gray Downs, Gray Company chapters
have sprouted elsewhere—under the leadership of other so-called princes of Nerath. If
united, these separate chapters might be strong enough to accomplish the company's
dream of restoration. However, political power struggles, infighting, and accusations of
false lineage have kept the chapter leaders from coming together under a single
banner. Despite the members' vaunted claims of honor and nobility, many Nentir Vale
inhabitants believe the Gray Company is nothing more than a gang of bandits seeking
legitimacy.

Hammerfast Guilds
The town's three guilds—the Trade Guild, the Lore Guild, and the Craft Guild—govern
Hammerfast. Each guild elects three members to the Town Council. The Council then
elects a High Master. The High Master serves as the town's executive, overseeing daily
functions and managing affairs with other settlements in the Nentir Vale.

The consent of a majority of the Council is required to pass a law, and so the guilds
constantly forge and break alliances in order to pursue their separate interests. The
guild with the most influence over the High Master gains a further advantage in these
maneuvers, since the High Master casts the deciding vote in case of ties. Marsinda
Goldspinner, the leader of the Trade Guild, has been High Master for four years and
shows no inclination to step down. The other guilds are content with this situation as
long as the town continues to prosper.

● Trade Guild: The other guilds rely on the Trade Guild to move their products far
and wide. With its control over commerce, the Trade Guild is the most powerful
group in Hammerfast. The Trade Guild maintains strong connections with other
settlements, including Nenlast, Fallcrest, the Seven-Pillared Hall, and
Winterhaven.
● Lore Guild: The Lore Guild consists of professors, researchers, and sages. As the
center of learning in the Nentir Vale, Hammerfast attracts students from far and
wide. The economic and political advantages that accrue to Hammerfast as the
intellectual center of the region contribute to the prestige of the Lore Guild.
● The Craft Guild: The Craft Guild is the largest guild currently active in
Hammerfast. For years, the independent miners, prospectors, smiths, and other
artisans in Hammerfast negotiated individual contracts with the Trade Guild.
 The Craft Guild was formed twelve years ago as a way of presenting a unified
bargaining front. Since then, the Craft Guild has enjoyed a steady rise in power
and wealth, and its membership continues to increase as the town prospers.

Harken's Heart
Allied with the Harken treants is a group of elf druids who call themselves Harken’s
Heart. Laboring under an ancient curse, the druids are effectively trapped within
Harken Forest, and they spare no effort in their attempt to protect it.

The general membership of Harken's Heart numbers in the hundreds. Most are born
into the group, though some outside elves occasionally join. Harken's Heart druids live
in small camps or settlements sprinkled throughout the forest, and they rarely number
more than a dozen members in a particular community. Many live and travel alone.
Harken's Heart druids prefer to travel in beast form, or at least in a highly stealthy
manner when moving about the forest. A druid known as the Hierophant leads Harken's
Heart. He or she is the group's ultimate negotiator, judge, arbiter, and policymaker.
Once a druid attains this top position, it's for life. Each Hierophant handpicks and rears
his or her successor. If the Hierophant dies without an established heir, the Harken's
Heart druids elect a new leader. The Hierophant is highly respected for his or her
power, wisdom, and forest knowledge, even by some elves and druids outside the
group.

In recent years, a Harken's Heart's sect has devoted itself to expanding the forest's
boundaries, which would give all Harken's Heart druids a wider berth in which to use
their powers. Meanwhile, the Harken treants are rumored to be planning an all-out land
grab in the near future.

House Azaer
One of the two most important tieflings families in Fallcrest. The Azaer family import
goods (including weapons and armors) from Hammerfast, Harkenwold, and the lands to
the south, and organize caravans up to Winterhaven several times a year. House Azaer
is an excellent place to purchase nearly any mundane equipment, although its prices
are a little on the high side.

Amara Azaer is in charge of the family business in Fallcrest, and spends her time on the
premises. Though young, the tiefling is quite sharp and doesn’t miss an opportunity for
profit in running the Azaer business.

House Naerumar
The second of the two most important tiefling families in Fallcrest. The patriarch is
Orest Naerumar, a tiefling who displays impeccable manners and discretion. He is the
proprietor of Naerumar’s Imports, considered the finest of Fallcrest’s retail
establishments. Orest corresponds with relatives and colleagues in several towns and
cities outside the Nentir Vale; given a few weeks, he can order in low-level magic items
or other items of unusual value. Similarly, Orest purchases interesting items such as
these, since other dealers in distant towns or cities might be looking for them.

Orest doesn’t ask questions about where characters in his store found the goods
they’re selling to him, but he is not a fence—if he knows that something was obtained
illegally, he declines to purchase it. Orest normally arranges for halflings of the
Swiftwater clan to transport special orders—jewelry, gems, or magic items of value.
However, he sometimes makes other arrangements for items that seem especially
valuable or dangerous. If the player characters are looking for something to do, Orest
can hire them to carry or guard exceptionally valuable goods he’s sending to a
merchant in another town.

The Honest Few

The Honest Few is a small thieves’ gang operating out of Fallcrest in the Nentir Vale.
It's rumored the band is sponsored by Orest Naerumar and Kelson of the Lucky Gnome
Taphouse, though those are baseless rumors. As a new group, they don’t quite have
the numbers or influence to call themselves a thieves’ guild per se, but with the right
kind of leadership, they might rise above their meager standing and become a
syndicate worth fearing.

The Hunter Spiders

Three years ago, a party of drow raiders was stranded in the surface after the tunnel to
Erelhei-Cinlu collapsed. The raiders, calling themselves the Hunter Spiders, are
members of House Despana. The group's leader, Ti'irtha, the daughter of House
Despana's matron, turned to Lolth for guidance, and the goddess led her to a corner of
Harken Forest known as the Spiderhaunt Thicket. Control of the Spiderhaunt Thicket
did not come without a price. Shortly after the Hunter Spiders arrived in the gnarled
grove, Lolth saw fit to test them. Exploring the grove alone, Ti'irtha and her consort
discovered a small shrine to the Spider Goddess in one of the ruins. Ti'irtha murdered
her consort and spilled his blood on the spider-shaped altar as an offering. Rather than
show her the way home, Lolth transformed Ti'irtha into a werespider, which allowed her
to assume the form of a hideous black spider.

The Hunter Spiders haunt the King's Road, snatching travelers between Fallcrest and
Harkenwold. When armed patrols make it difficult for them to carry out this tactic, the
drow head north and set up ambushes along the Trade Road between Fallcrest and
Thunderspire, although they face stiff competition there from the Raven Roost bandits.
When pickings are slim, the Hunter Spiders are not afraid to creep into Fallcrest's
outlying farms under the shroud of night and snatch people from their beds.

The Hunter Spiders have managed to survive on the surface without losing more than a
few members. Still, they number only twenty-four, including Ti'irtha. A handful always
remain in Spiderhaunt Thicket, overseeing the slaves search for a new passage to the
Underdark, while the others set ambushes. The Hunter Spiders are willing to negotiate
with anyone who claims to know the location of a passage to the Underdark. However,
Ti'irtha is no stranger to the art of deception, and she expects proof before upholding
her end of any bargain.

The Iron Circle

The Iron Circle is a powerful band of mercenaries under the control of the inscrutable
Lord Vhennyk, who hails from the city of Sarthel, to the south of the Nentir Vale. Lord
Vhennyk and his followers worship Asmodeus, but few Nentir Vale inhabitants are
aware of the mercenaries' true affiliations. Lord Vhennyk's sweeping plans to conquer
civilization in the name of his diabolical god are genuine, however, and he has set his
sights on the barony of Harkenwold.

Since the Iron Circle is largely unknown in the Nentir Vale, few of the ale's inhabitants
have heard of Lord Vhennyk, though that state of affairs could eventually change.
However, southern settlers who deal more regularly with the Iron Circle might soon
hear the names Nazin Redthorn and Val Esed. Redthorn is a brigand captain recently
tasked with launching overt operations in the southern Nentir Vale. Esed is Lord
Vhennyk's spymaster and chief information gatherer. She secretly lives in the
Harkenwold region, assuming a variety of aliases. A tough human, she is part spy, part
thief, and all mercenary.

Iron Circle members are primarily human, though like-minded individuals of other races
can be found in the organization's ranks. The Iron Circle also employs powerful sages
and dark adepts that animate constructs to guard its bases and important figures,
among other tasks. Infernal pacts forged with the Nine Hells enable the band's most
powerful adepts to summon and command tar devils. A tarlike substance oozes from a
tar devil's skin, dribbling down its body and leaving thin trails of tacky sludge in its
wake. A tar devil is humanoid in shape with short horns that emerge from, and curve
over, its humanlike head. It has haunting, pupilless eyes, beastlike feet, and a strong,
lizardlike, nonprehensile tail. A tar devil wears little or no armor and carries exotic
weaponry.

Kalarel’s Cult of Orcus

A cult dedicated to the Demon Prince of Undeath, Orcus, leaded by the death priest
Kalarel. The cult seeks to reopen the dimensional rift located in Shadowfell Keep, and
unleash a horde of undead horrors into the mortal world. The old magic seal has so far
frustrated the cult’s intentions. Time, however, is on the side of the cult. Unless the cult
is stopped, the seal will collapse and the passage into the Shadowfell will be opened
anew. If that happens, the cult seeks to establish a foothold, and launch undead
atrocities against the world at large.

Along Kalarel's most trusted followers are Volondra, a female drow assassin; and
Ninaran, a female elf spy that Kalarel has stationed in Winterhaven to keep an eye on
the activities of the town's residents and report to him when newcomers arrive.
 Kobold tribes
There are many kobold tribes in the Nentir Vale, but the most prominent are the
Emberdark, the Greenscale, and the Skull Kickers tribes.

The kobolds of the Emperdark tribe were nearly hunted to extinction by the dwarves of
Hammerfast, but they survived by hiding in the Dawnforge Mountains. Lately, their
numbers have grown. The tribal elders have received signs from mighty Kurtulmak,
exarch of Tiamat, that Calastryx is nearing freedom. The Emberdark kobolds are
gathering a trove to win her favor and become her loyal servitors. So far, their efforts
have yielded modest results, although Emberdark pillagers wearing armor with
shoulder guards shaped like second and third kobold heads (in honor of Calastryx)
have been sighted in the foothills. Whether Calastryx will accept such servants is
unknown.

The kobolds of the Greenscale tribe have long hunted in the wilderness north of
Winterhaven, competing for limited resources against rival tribes and roving bands of
goblins. Their fortunes have risen considerably since the arrival of Vestapalk, whom the
kobolds venerate as their god. Under Vestapalk's protection, the Greenscales now
control much of the hunting grounds along the King's Road, from Winterhaven to Lake
Wintermist. As the tribe's leader and prophet, Tiktag works tirelessly to raise the
standing of the Greenscales. Above all else, he wants to have other races fear him as
they fear Vestapalk.

Before the tribe came under the wing of Vestapalk, Tiktag's divinations were often
muddled and confused. Now when the wyrmpriest tosses his bone fragments, he is
amazed at the clarity and relevance of each divination performed at Vestapalk's
request. These miracles and others have convinced Tiktag that something momentous
will come of his relationship with the green dragon. Though neither would scarcely
admit it, a close bond has formed between Vestapalk and Tiktag; the dragon and
wyrmpriest are seldom encountered apart. Vestapalk even allows Tiktag to ride on his
shoulders, rather than risk danger by traveling overland.

Of the tribes that dwell in the Cloak Wood, the Skull Kickers are the most prominent.
After they were “chosen” by the white dragon Szartharrax, who ate the leaders of the
others tribes, persuading the rest of the kobolds to swear allegiance to the Skull
Kickers tribe, the kobolds of the Cloak Wood have become bolder, and now are
attacking caravans and travelers along the King’s Road.

The Kuldar
Kuldar literally means “axe-cutter,” but the term is used for different kinds of heroes
who fight in Moradin’s name—from those who wade into the fray with axe or hammer,
to those who fire away with bow or wand. The Kuldar includes orders of warriors who
worship Moradin, from the elite Hammers of Moradin to the sacred Soulforged
knighthood.

Some of the fiercest Kuldar come from the Dawnforge monastery, hidden away in the
mountains beyond Hammerfast. These zealous avengers temper both weapons and
souls in astral fire, and they eternally carry out the fight against giants and titans that
has waged since the Dawn War. Their most elite members have perfected divine attack
forms that draw inspiration from the works of Moradin.

The Last Legion

Most know the Last Legion as a mercenary band formed to hunt and exterminate
monsters, though in truth the Last Legion is what remains of the Third Legion of old
Nerath's army. Since the Last Legion formed during the Nerath Empire, it has
undergone many missions, fought for many masters, and drifted from place to place.

The Legion’s numbers change as members perish or retire and new recruits join. At
most, the Last Legion has a couple of hundred members in the main force with agents
scattered across most towns in the Nentir Vale and elsewhere. Recruiters prowl towns
and villages, looking for mercenaries and adventurers first, militia second. They
welcome mages, priests, soldiers, and thieves. Anyone who has a talent that can aid
the Legion is accepted.

The battle-scarred half-elf Captain Rule, whose real name is Elsa Kristoff, took
command three years ago when her predecessor, Ryken Masterson, fell to a poisoned
drow quarrel during an ambush in a ruined city. The Last League is the organization’s
headquarters, and its base is wherever it makes camp. The captain and her officers
occupy a tight cluster of tents at the camp’s center.

The Mages of Saruun

Obsessed with the secrets of the Underdark’s hidden depths, the Mages of Saruun have
established a tentative grasp on an ancient subterranean stronghold, the Seven-
Pillared Hall. In the ordered society they have built, the mages’ rule is law; to break it
means death. The Mages of Saruun oversee their subterranean outpost from an
impregnable tower. Served by animated brass minotaurs and wielding powerful magic
plumbed from the depths of the Underdark, these ambitious arcanists maintain strict
order in their stronghold as they seek influence over and alliance with the races of the
deep frontier.

Thought the order has grown to have at least twelve mages and many acolytes, the
three founding members of the Mages of Saruun are all believed to still be living and
currently exploring the Underdark. They are Hasifir, Niami, and Samazar.

Minions of Queen Stravalla:

The trolls and werewolves of Summerdown Valley venture far and wide in the
Dawnforge Mountains in search of fresh victims and treasure for their queen.
 The Phantom Brigade
For the past nine decades, ghostly warriors have haunted Nerath's forgotten places,
from the ancient halls of Kalton Manor in the Nentir Vale to the ruined palace at the
center of the partially destroyed city of Nera, the former capital of the empire.

At the empire's height, the rulers of Nerath anointed many knightly orders. One of the
most revered was the Knights of the Empire. Consisting mostly of righteous paladins
and noble rangers, the Imperial Knights served as guardians to the emperor and
manifestations of the emperor's will. The best of this order were often called to serve
the emperor directly, becoming protectors of secrets and defenders of the imperial
family.

Many of the knights of this order died during the chaotic time of the collapse of the
empire. Some perished trying to defend the empire and prevent the onrushing disaster.
Others met a more ignoble end. Some mysterious magical effect or unknown curse
turned the dead Imperial Knights into undead guardians. It seems that the knights
continue to try to fulfill the oaths they undertook in life, seeking honor in undeath even
though they were unable to ultimately stop the empire's collapse.

A knight's code prevents Phantom Brigade members from accosting travelers without
provocation. However, this prohibition doesn't preclude a knight from coming into
conflict with adventurers. Bound to an oath sworn centuries ago, a phantom knight
might be forced into a confrontation with adventurers who are attempting to enter a
protected sanctuary or to plunder the empire's lost treasures. Sometimes, offering the
phantom knight a passphrase (or, more rarely, a voucher impressed with the imperial
signet) gains safe passage.

Members of the Imperial Knights' Phantom Brigade appear as they did in life, though
they are ethereal and translucent. They can be recognized by the archaic armor they
wear and by the way the light of the moon passes through them. Each knight wields
the weapon that he or she used in life. The bond between knight and weapon is
powerful, and each ghostly implement bears the symbol of the Threefold Crown of
Nerath, marking each member of the Phantom Brigade as an Imperial Knight.

The Porter's Guild

The Porter’s Guild is in charge of the Upper and Lower Quays in Fallcrest, transporting
goods off of ships above or below the Nentir Falls and then moving them to the other
quay and reloading them onto a new boat.

A surly dwarf pugilist named Barstomun Strongbeard runs the porters’ guild, and he
takes a cut of any wages paid to laborers carrying cargo up or down around the falls.
Barstomun and his thugs are trying to extend their reach by intimidating merchants
who send their goods overland and forcing them to hire guild porters for any cargo
handling in town.
 Ranala's Shadar-kai clan
A clan of shadar-kai who emerged from the Shadowfell Keep a year ago, under the
leadership of Mistress Ranala, a priest devoted to the Raven Queen. Ranala discovered
through her auguries that followers of Tharizdun hid among Mistwatch’s people. They
entered the town to root out the infestation and reveal their presence to Lord Cadmus.
To their surprise, they learned Cadmus was a worshiper, having been seduced by the
wicked god through the forbidden tomes he loved. The confrontation went poorly, and
Ranala’s effort to destroy him failed. She left defeated, her magic stolen, and with
Cadmus more powerful than ever before.

Ranala and her followers withdrew to the outskirts of the town to find a way to recover
the artifact Zaspar had stolen. Instead, they learned that the cultist had already
unlocked its magic and used it to siphon energy from the townsfolk to perform some
unspeakable ritual involving his wife and his ‘child’. The magic from the now-corrupted
relic not only stole life from the people but infected them with a vile disease—when
they died, they rose soon after as undead. Worse, anyone who entered the town risked
being exposed to the blight. The shadar-kai refuse to enter the town and prevent
anyone from leaving. A carrier could pass along the infection to anyone he or she
meets. The shadar-kai encouraged the locals to stay put until a way could be found to
defeat Zaspar. They allow others to enter because if they turned visitors away, word
would surely spread, inviting unwanted attention and risking even greater exposure to
the disease. Thus, the shadar-kai seem like villains, but they are, if anything, pragmatic
protectors sheltering the wider region from the evil growing in Mistwatch.

The Raven Roost bandits

The Raven Roost bandits operate from an old manor house between two major trade
routes, fanning out to prey on travelers passing to Fallcrest, Hammerfast, Harkenwold,
or Thunderspire. Tipped off to the impending appearance of wealthy travelers by
Barton, the smiling proprietor of Fiveleague House, and led by three ambitious shadar-
kai, the bandits forged themselves such a reputation for elaborate and gruesome killing
that the people of the Nentir Vale initially offered them no resistance.

On their home plane, Samminel was a minor warlord, Erzoun was his albino witch, and
Geriesh was his chief spy and assassin. In one of her prophetic auguries, Erzoun
predicted that Samminel would become complacent if he stayed in the Shadowfell,
never advancing or gaining major prestige. Geriesh suggested that only a greater
challenge could alter fate's course and proposed that they leave the Shadowfell to
begin anew. Samminel agreed, and the three located a crossing to the world near the
Keep on the Shadowfell, determined to carve out a bloody new destiny worthy of the
Raven Queen's favor.

Unburdened by frail human compassion, the three shadar-kai quickly gained respect in
outlaw circles. Word of their deeds traveled as fast as the breath that spoke them, and
within weeks of their arrival, the bandit population of the Harken Forest knelt before
the trio, practically begging for leadership and instruction. The shadar-kai were happy
to oblige and quickly molded the outlaws into the most fearsome band of bandits the
region has ever seen.

The River Rats

Beneath the shadow of Fallcrest’s limestone bluffs lies the modest district Lowtown.
Here, amid the hulks of burned out buildings left to rot following the Bloodspear War,
citizens of little wealth scrape out meager existences one day at a time. Honest jobs
have been scarce in recent years, forcing droves of paupers to live off of the streets,
where local thugs call the shots.

The Lower Quays is home to one such gang of miscreants and ruffians—the River Rats.
An odd band of human and halfling poor, the River Rats have long plagued warehouse
owners along the wharf. This incessant targeting has had an increasingly debilitating
effect on the merchant trade in Lowtown. Frustrated traders must calculate whether
they would rather pay exorbitant fees to the Porter’s Guild of the Upper Quays to safely
unload and store their goods, or risk the pilfering hands of the River Rats.

Kelson, proprietor of the Lucky Gnome Taphouse, is the rumored leader of the River
Rats.

The Rockguard Clan

This dwarf clan lives in a small collection of shacks southwest of Hammerfast. The local
equivalent of rustics, they demand a toll of 5 gp or a cask of strong drink from anyone
they catch crossing their territory. If the intruders refuse, the Rockguards trail them
through the wilderness. At night, they attempt to sneak into the travelers' camp and
steal whatever they can grab.

The Rockguards are crude, belligerent, and obnoxious, but they quickly warm up if
given gifts of fine ale or food. If adventurers befriend them in this way, the dwarves
adopt them into the clan. The Rockguards' camp provides a safe place to rest, and the
clan can lead the adventurers to any of the locations on the nearby lands.

The Students of Aurtus

The Students of Aurtus are a loose affiliation of clerics, acolytes, and other worshipers
of Pelor who seek to harness knowledge of the past as a means to make a better future
for all. As members of Pelor’s faithful, they seek to bring light to the world, providing
compassion and aid to those in need. However, they also see Pelor’s influence as an
opportunity to teach the people of the world how they might avoid the mistakes of the
past. Students of Aurtus view the whole of time as a living, constantly evolving tapestry
of events that influence each other in myriad ways. They refer to time and history as
“The Tapestry.” Members of the order refer to themselves as students, though they
might better be called teachers.

Little organizational hierarchy exists in the order since all members are encouraged to
take on challenges as equals. The only title within the order is that of Keeper of the
Living Tome. One member of the order, typically the eldest, is charged with
administering The Living Tome of Pelor, a collection of seven thick books originally
written by Aurtus, a survivor of the Bloodspear War. The Keeper is tasked with further
Aurtus' work. Students can access The Living Tome of Pelor at any time by speaking
with the Keeper at the House of the Sun in Fallcrest.

Members of the order don’t work only with other followers of Pelor. Students seek to
develop personal relationships with clerics of Avandra, since her portfolio includes
change for the better and travel. Students seek out those of her followers who might
provide stories and histories that the Students of Aurtus can use to augment their own
understanding of history. Additionally, Students of Aurtus seek to work with followers of
Ioun, so as to further strengthen their knowledge of the past and prophecies that might
guide them in their endeavors.

Spider Goblins
These goblin clans occupy small, hidden outposts across the Dawnforge Mountains.
Their leaders are masters of primal magic, and the clans train spiders as pack animals
and war beasts. The spider goblins are most noteworthy for the helms they fashion
from the eyes and skin of slain spiders.

Clan Swiftwater
The halfling of Clan Swiftwater carry cargo all the way the Nentir’s river. They’re more
than willing to take passengers for a small fee. Irena Swiftwater is the matriarch of the
clan. She is a sharp merchant who passes herself off as an absent-minded reader of
fortunes and maker of minor charms.

The Tigerclaw barbarians

The Tigerclaw barbarians claim to be direct descendants of the primal spirit Hunter of
Winter. Part human and part hunting cat, the Tigerclaws hold fast to the brutal way of
life that has sustained them beyond the rise and fall of civilizations.

When Hunter of Winter made Hota Swiftstripe, the first Tigerclaw, his kin, the human
chieftain took on the outer aspect of a hunting cat and became the tribe's first
razorclaw shifter. These traits he passed to his children and their descendants. Thus
the shifters of the Tigerclaw can trace their lineage directly back to Hota and the primal
spirit. Shifters form the base of the tribe's Tigerblood caste, which includes the
chieftain, shamans, elite warriors, sabertooth riders, and others who have passed the
caste's initiation rites. They comprise about one-third of the tribe. The remaining two-
thirds are called the Tamed, consisting mainly of human gatherers, artisans, and
warriors eager to prove themselves worthy of the Tigerbloods. When a Tamed has
proven himself or herself worthy, the chieftain invokes the rite of initiation, in which the
candidate hunts and attempts to subdue a wild sabertooth in the manner of Hota
Swiftstripe. Those who tame the sabertooth are elevated to the Tigerblood caste and
mated to a shifter. Henceforth, all their descendants are born Tigerblood.
The Tigerclaw barbarians refuse to submit to any authority beyond their own. When
Nerath's influence expanded, the Tigerclaw were pushed into the icy northern reaches
of the world. But in the decades since Nerath's fall, the barbarians have thrived, forging
their way south into the Nentir Vale and other lands. The Tigerclaw tribe of Chief
Scargash that inhabits the Winterbole Forest has dwelt there for over seventy winters.

Vryloka
Uncounted centuries ago, in a land of mists and dark forests, the noble families of a
now-forgotten kingdom sought a way to increase their lifespan beyond the meager
years allotted to them by their human heritage. One evening, their elders were
approached by a mysterious entity known only as the Red Witch—a scarlet-clad figure
who held the key to their dreams. She offered to them a powerful blood-bonding ritual
that would grant them the vitality of vampires without subjecting them to the taint of
undeath. These human nobles became the first living vampires—blessed with great
power gained at the price of their own vitality. In later centuries, those creatures
became known by the name of the noble family that first forged the pact, the Vrylokas.

By carefully concealing their true nature, the first vrylokas quickly rose to power,
becoming the rulers of their realm. In time, others learned of the dark accord that was
the source of their power. An uprising of the vrylokas' human subjects soon followed,
and their former kingdom was cast down and lost to the mists of time. However, the
living vampires endured.

Over long generations, these deposed nobles managed to insinuate themselves into
the upper classes of other nations, reestablishing their power and prestige. Paying
attention to the lessons of their history, vrylokas go to great lengths to keep their true
nature secret, living elaborately crafted double lives. To the world at large, vrylokas are
known as human nobles who were displaced from distant ancestral homelands. But
even as they are welcomed into the upper circles of their adopted cultures, the
vrylokas maintain their true society in the shadows—a dark court of living vampires
constantly plotting for power against each other and the mortal races.

In the Nentir Vale, a few vryloka noble families live in the Barony of Harkenwold.

The Weeping Skull Tribe

The orcs of the Weeping Skull tribe that wander in the Dawnforge Mountains are clever,
vicious marauders. Their symbol is a skull weeping tears of blood, and it comes from a
strange idol they worship, a rock formation that resembles a skull and that bleeds from
its eye sockets. If this idol were destroyed, the tribe would fall as its religion collapsed.

The White Lantern Consortium

This association of merchants, traders, and explorers is one of the most powerful forces
in the region. The consortium's reach extends far beyond the Nentir Vale. The White
Lantern Consortium has no unifying goal or vision other than the acquisition of profit.
Factions within the group—noble families, merchants, and wealthy adventurers—might
become members for their own reasons. The consortium's symbol is lantern with rays
of light shining from it. Almost all the goods sold and traded in the Vale are brought in
by the White Lantern Consortium. Anyone attempting to assert mercantile power in the
region is likely to receive a visit by members of the group. Membership is by invitation
only, and it usually requires a handsome sum of money or a great deed on the
organization's behalf (membership has its benefits, including discounts on goods and
access to privileged information about the Nentir Vale and other regions).

The consortium was founded by Taleen Quirrelle, an eladrin of Mithrendain (an eladrin
city in the Feywild) who was exiled after her spouse died of poison. The eladrin
authorities couldn't definitively pin the crime on her, but she was exiled nonetheless for
suspected complicity. She departed the city with a great deal of wealth, which she
funneled into starting what was then called the White Lantern Company. Her beauty,
cunning, and business acumen soon attracted other companies until she was able to
form the consortium that exists today. She has a weakness for expensive jewelry and
clothing, and no longer wears the motifs of her people, preferring the more
cosmopolitan style of humans. Whispers sometimes call her the Princess of Poison, for
it is said that anyone who opposes the consortium soon ends up face down in an alley
somewhere.

Among other key members of the consortium are Vinn, a gnome accountant who
oversees the consortium's investments. He came over from the Feywild with Taleen,
and he is the only person who knows her dark origins. And Lord Kelevan, a male human
in his late fifties, who claims to be a lord of a faraway land, and certainly has the
wealth to support the claim. Kelevan is a heavy investor in the White Lantern
Consortium and says he is personally overseeing his investment. He is a common
patron for adventurers and explorers, though his motivations remain hidden. This "lord"
is in fact a former adventurer who lives vicariously through the experiences of others,
constantly pushing them toward more and more dangerous endeavors.

The Winterguard
The Winterguard’s history stretches back to ancient times. During the waning days of
the Kinstrife Wars, the terrible conflict between eladrin, elves and drow, the leaders of
the fabled eladrin realm of Cendriane decided to sequester their most dangerous
prisoners where the criminals could do no further harm. They constructed a prison in a
remote corner of the natural world, in the northernmost region of the Winterbole Forest
in the Nentir Vale, atop a mountain known to the local human tribespeople as Winter’s
Rise, and magically sealed their prisoners away within the prison’s frozen walls. They
also assigned a company of their finest swordmages —powerful wizards who blend
spellcasting with swordsmanship techniques— under the leadership of Ilyara Lathiel, to
guard the distant prison. The mighty archmages of Cendriane granted Commandant
Lathiel immortality as part of her commission, as they required an everlasting guardian
for the prison’s most powerful denizens. Though Lathiel would live forever, she could
never again leave the prison, for the magic that gave her immortality also trapped her
in the prison just as effectively as her charges.
After the fall of Cendriane, the grieving members of the Winterguard remained true to
their original mandate. They refused to abandon their posts until they received orders
to do so from the legitimate rulers of Cendriane. Because their prisoners were far too
dangerous to ever set free, the order renewed its vow that none would ever escape.
Commandant Lathiel quickly realized that predators, the hostile environment, and the
passage of time would eventually take their toll, so she decided to recruit promising
candidates from nearby tribes to replenish the Winterguard’s numbers.

The Winterguard remained largely isolated until the rise of Nerath, when Commandant
Lathiel sent messengers to negotiate an accord with the fledgling empire. In return for
a considerable sum of gold and magical items and knowledge, the order would
incarcerate the empire’s most dangerous criminals—those so powerful that execution
would be an insufficient means of stopping them. The emperors were pleased with the
Winterguard’s services, and allowed its members to operate legally as bounty hunters
within its borders, thus enabling the order to recruit new members from farther afield.
One side effect of the agreement has been the gradual dissemination of the
swordmage’s traditions in the lands of the empire and beyond.

After Nerath disintegrated, the Winterguard endeavored to maintain alliances with the
empire’s myriad successor states, but few could afford to compensate the order for
incarcerating their prisoners. Many of the younger nations lack the means to
apprehend fugitives, especially across newly established borders, so they still permit
members of the Winterguard to operate in their territories. Nowadays, some
settlements are home to at least one of the order’s swordmages.

Today, descendants of the original eladrin swordmages comprise the majority of the
Winterguard’s membership and hold its most important leadership positions, but a
sizable number of members of other races —primarily humans, dwarves, dragonborn
and goliaths—have swelled its ranks.

The Wolf Runners

The Wolf Runners gang targets travelers along the Trade Road between Fallcrest and
Hammerfast. Merchant caravans and farm wagons make particularly tempting targets.
The legend of the Wolf Runners has grown in the time that the gang has been active in
the area, and people as far away as Winterhaven and the Dragondown Coast have
heard about the bandits and their wolves. Sylish Kreed, leader of the Wolf Runners, is a
large man with long, dark hair, which he wears tied back. A wolfish grin brightens his
rugged features, and it grows wider as the situation around him intensifies. Kreed
approaches every raid with good humor and a certain amount of politeness; he tries to
be civil in his dealings with victims. He leaves them short of gold and goods, but alive—
that way he can rob them again at a future date. Kreed is a sore loser, however, and he
won't forget a loss and continues to harbor a deep hatred for the person who got the
better of him, but a victory or two puts him back into his usual calm and cheerful
nature.

The gang includes a number of gray wolves and dire wolves, all of which serve as
companions to the charismatic Kreed. The wolves tolerate the rest of the bandit gang,
but they treat Kreed as though he was the alpha male of their pack. This happens
because Kreed is in fact a lycanthrope, able to shift between wolf, hybrid, and human
form at will. However, for three days every month during the full moon, the curse
overcomes him, and Kreed gives in completely to the wolf inside him. During this
period, he and his pack of wolves leave the gang behind and take to the hills and
forests.

The rest of the gang sets up camp in some remote location and remains there until
Kreed and his pack return. While Kreed is away, the de facto leader of the gang is a
calm, steel-hearted female tiefling named Eveni Redblade. Kreed rescued her from the
clutches of the Dark Drake of the Moon Hills and her loyalty to him is beyond reproach.
To the best of anyone's knowledge, the Wolf Runners have no other lycanthropes in
their ranks.

Woodsinger Clan
The elves of the Woodsinger clan live in the southeastern part of the Harken Forest.
This nomadic tribe consists of a dozen bands, numbering near 200 in total. Each band
shifts from camp to camp every few months. A wise, cautious elfwoman named Eriyel
leads the band currently residing near the Barony of Harkenwold.

Threats to the Nentir Vale

This is a list of endemic monsters species of the Nentir Vale, as well as individuals
worth mentioning due to the dangers the pose to the region.

The Abyssal Plague

Deep in the bowels of the Abyss lies the prison of the evil god Tharizdun. Also called
the Chained God and the Elder Elemental Eye, Tharizdun created the Abyss by piercing
the deepest layers of the Elemental Chaos with a crystal of pure evil, the Heart of the
Abyss. For eons Tharizdun has been imprisoned by the other gods, and he has waited
and watched for opportunities to spread his malevolence throughout the multiverse.

That time has now come. A cult loyal to Tharizdun performed a dark ritual to penetrate
his prison, and though the Chained God could not escape, the essence of his will did, in
the form of a sentient red liquid laced with silver and flecked with gold, known as the
Voidharrow. This essence infects all creatures it touches, filling them with great
strength and Tharizdun’s desire to destroy all of creation. The opening into Tharizdun’s
prison tore through the fabric of space and time, allowing the Voidharrow to seep into
many worlds simultaneously. Among those worlds is the one where the Nentir Vale
exists.

Now the Abyssal plague has ignited a fever that burns throughout the land. Plague
demons of various forms have begun to appear, threatening civilized settlements
across the Nentir Vale. The very touch of a plague demon can pass along a debilitating
disease that can lead to death or even transformation in rare cases. The alien disease
is capable of turning humans and other natural creatures into plague demons. Heroes
and greater beasts are transformed into powerful servants and go on to threaten entire
towns. The lowest form of the Abyssal plague can infect fresh humanoid corpses,
resulting in ferocious hordes of reanimated dead bent on slaying every living creature
in their path. Others give themselves over to the Voidharrow willingly and undergo
similarly terrible transformations, becoming blightwalkers. Only the most powerful
become the Voidharrow’s chosen heralds and exarchs.

All plague demons so far observed share certain physical characteristics. A crimson
crystal substance, either in liquid or solid form, is somehow incorporated into each
plague demon's body. The crimson substance contains strands of silver and flecks of
gold, and it appears as either an oozing liquid or as hard as an armored shell. The
substance might manifest as veins of pulsating liquid crystal running between armored
plates or undulating from cracks in the skin, solid crystal protrusions, or even
crystalline weapons emerging from limbs.

The plague appears to be transmitted to its victims by their consuming the Voidharrow,
or by coming into contact with it or the blood of a carrier. The malevolence of the
plague and its victims is divine in nature. Although the Abyssal plague has appeared
only recently, the phrases invoked by those infected come from a foul, ancient
language. No direct translations can be made of the more complicated phrases, but the
simpler phrases speak of a world of complete darkness, devoid of life, and an insatiable
hunger for destruction that has existed since the beginning of creation, the will of its
victims appears enslaved to that Tharizdun.

The Voidharrow: The Voidharrow began as an alien substance called the Progenitor, the
liquid remnant of evil inhabiting the dead universe that is the Chained God’s prison.
Tharizdun infused this substance with all his hatred and madness and sent it through a
pinhole in his extradimensional prison, starting a plague that crossed all known worlds.

The relationship between the Voidharrow and Tharizdun is more complicated than
mortals can understand. Though the two conscious entities had been entombed
together since creation, their minds were not fully entwined. While Tharizdun
commanded his cultists to set him free, it was the Voidharrow that escaped. Tharizdun
still seeks freedom, but the Voidharrow’s primary goal now is to spread its disease as
far as possible.

Boggle
"Boggle comes and boggle goes,
Steals your rings and stamps your toes.
Turn around the compass rose,
Where it went to, no one knows."

-Fallcrest children's rhyme

Boogles are native from the Feywild, and are common ancestors of goblins and of the
Shadowfell's dimension-hopping banderhobbs, but are as similar to those creatures as
humans are to apes. Boggles are cowards that prefer to stay out of contact with others.
They can speak in halting Common or Goblin, but most communicate with shrieks,
hisses, clicks, and taps understood only by their own kind. Boggles are not particularly
intelligent, but they are cunning and exceptionally devious. Using their dimension-
folding powers, they feed by snatching birds, rabbits, and other small prey by surprise.

Boggles go out of their way to torment or vex people. A boggle might spoil milk, strip
the sheets from beds, tie shoes together, or set stockings aflame. It might disassemble
armor and hide the pieces, or switch new weapons with old, rusty ones. It might pound
at the inside of a closet door, hurl an object against a wall, or grab at sleepers from
beneath their beds. It might even swaddle a wild animal cub like a baby and swap it for
a sleeping infant-then lurk nearby to delight in the parents' horror. Sometimes a boggle
volunteers to act as a humble guide for travelers or explorers, then leads them into an
ambush or a dragon's lair.

Cadaver Collectors
Cadaver collectors are massive, armored constructs built to retrieve corpses from the
battlefield, regardless of the dead ones' alliances. A loaded cadaver collector is a
horrific sight: a 12-foot-tall, 2-ton form with bloody, broken, and decaying bodies
impaled on its spiked plating. Even after a war or a conflict ends, cadaver collectors are
often discovered among the ruins, searching for bodies to gather and masters to serve.
The secret of creating cadaver collectors is thought to be lost, but occasionally a new
one appears, suggesting that someone has rediscovered or reverse-engineered the
process by studying the golem-like creatures.

Old stories say the first collectors appeared in the Nentir Vale with the company of the
human necromancer and conqueror Daelh, whose small but powerful army invaded the
southern borders of the Witchlight Fens hundreds of years ago. No one knows what
happened to Daelh, but eventually the Daggerburg goblins found many of his the
collectors lost in the old ruins of the Fens.

Dragons
In the Nentir Vale setting, there are three main families of dragons:

Catastrophic dragons are mighty embodiments of primordial forces. They are

destructive, but not devoted to evil. The ground warps and explodes violently in their
presence. Earthquake and typhoon dragons are two types of catastrophic dragons.

Chromatic dragons are generally evil, greedy, and predatory, and they’re inclined to
worship Tiamat, whom they regard as their progenitor and patron, although some
exceptions of this rule exist, and some of those good chromatic dragons worship
Bahamut instead. Those "rogue" good chromatic dragons are labelled traitors and
hunted down by followers of Tiamat.

Metallic dragons are in some ways the opposite of the chromatic dragons. Many of
them are devoted to Bahamut and share his ideals of nobility and virtue. Many,
however, fail to live up to those lofty ideals and succumb to a selfishness and
aggression that seems common among all of dragonkind.

Among the known dragons of the Nentir Vale are:

-Actherimos, a young earthquake dragon that is trapped in a ruined monastery in the

Dawnforge Mountains. He and his duergar followers tried to destroy Hammerfast 60
years ago.

-Bitterstrike, a female adult white dragon that controls nearly all the inhabitants of the
Winterbole Forest. She lost her left eye in a battle against Chief Fangstrike of the
Tigerclaw barbarians when she was young, nearly 300 years ago.

-Blightborn, a male young black dragon who destroyed Sunderpeak Temple and now
inhabits its ruins.

-Calastrix, a female young three-headed red dragon who sleeps under a magical effect
in Forgepeak Mountain, but the spell is losing strength and she can awaken anytime
soon. Nearly destroyed Hammerfast 300 years ago, and is considered the most
powerful dragon in the Nentir Vale. Thar, a dragonborn champion of Gruumsh, is
working to bind her to the service of his god before she awakes.

-Cazakk "the Blessed", a male young red dragon worshipper of Tiamat who lives in the
hills near Harkenwold, and wants to convert his "subjects" to his faith by any means
necessary.

-Farallax, a male fledgling white dragon that lives in the Twisting Halls, near Fallcrest.

-Shadowmire, a male adult black dragon and the oldest and currently most powerful
dragon in the Nentir Vale (at least, until Calastrix awaken). He dominates the Witchlight
Fens unchallenged. Shadowmire also knows and understands much of the history of
the Nentir Vale and their more influential inhabitants. He uses this knowledge to his
advantage, manipulating current events wherever possible.

-Szartharrax, a male young white dragon that lives in the Cloak Wood. Although he is
small by the standards of his kind, Szartharrax is far and away the most dangerous
monster in Kobold Hall. Szartharrax has an appetite for gold, and the white dragon has
been demanding tribute from his loyal servants. Fear of the dragon’s anger is driving
the kobolds of the Cloak Wood to attack caravans and launch raids against the nearby
settlements.

-Vestapalk, a male young green dragon that has been chosen by Tharizdun to carry the
Voidharrow and spread the Abyssal Plague to the world. The dragon believes that the
Elder Eye has looked upon him and blessed him for greatness. He is currently searching
for the Voidharrow.
 Drakes
Regardless of whether they're wild or domesticated, the reptilian drakes make fierce
and clever foes. They come in many shapes and sizes, and serve as attack animals for
all types of masters. Players characters such as rangers can domesticate them.

Among its subspecies found in the Nentir Vale are:

Bloodseeker Drake: Bloodseeker drakes are dwarf-sized bipedal reptiles with blood-red
scales and yellow-orange bellies. Like bloodhounds, they're often used to track
fugitives or hunt prey.

Dark Drake: Unlike common drakes, these drakes are actively malicious. An evil
intellect flares within their reptilian brains, and their terrifying abilities are evidenced in
the morning's light by the gruesome, dismembered remains of their kills. Dark drakes
enjoy inflicting torment against individual targets. When facing groups of enemies, the
drakes gang up on one creature at a time, taking it to ground and tearing it apart in a
frenzy to panic its companions. There are two known types of Dark Drakes:

● Coiling adderbrood dark drake: Those drakes are black and as slick as oil, sliding
from hidden burrows to poison their prey with sickle-like fangs before dragging
the paralyzed victims back down to their lightless underground den.
● Hellghost dark drake: The long, black-scaled bodies of those drakes are covered
with faint, wavering flames that intensify whenever the reptile is restrained
against its will.

The Dark Drake of the Moon Hills: A unique, giant dark drake thought to be a just a
fancy tavern story by scholars and veteran rangers. According to legend, The Dark
Drake and its brood emerge only on the blackest of nights, stealing across the moors in
search of humanoid prey. If the Dark Drake of the Moon Hills really exists, it is not only
ancient, but cunning enough to have eluded expert monster hunters and diviners for
decades. Nevertheless, the sinister presence of the brood of lesser dark drakes in the
Moon Hills remains unexplained. Common drakes and felldrakes also throng to the
region, as if in answer to a primal call or the summons of some king drake. And bodies
still turn up on the moor on the darkest nights—moon-white and rigid, as if they died
from sheer terror.

Felldrakes: When devils transformed the decadent human nobles of Bael Turath into
tieflings, the nobles were thrilled with the infernal power inherent in their new forms.
Emulating their infernal masters, the tieflings altered some breeds of drakes in various
ways and bound them to service. Nowadays, most of the felldrakes inhabiting the
Nentir Vale are wild predators. Felldrakes came in four varieties:

● Leaping felldrake: A green-scaled creature capable of quickly jumping out of

danger. Adept at camouflage, leaping felldrakes bide their time amid
bookshelves, rafters, tree branches, and cave walls, waiting for an opportunity
to lunge at a victim. A weak venom in the felldrake's saliva turns the flesh
around a bite wound blue for several hours, making a felldrake a valuable asset
when identifying thieves and burglars who were caught in the act and bitten
before they managed to flee.
 ● Crested felldrakes: Those felldrakes were bred from guard drake stock and
enhanced for agility, speed, and stealth. Like its progenitor, the crested
felldrake is a pack hunter. Its bright orange crest runs from skull to tail, and it
shifts in color from light orange to deep red as the felldrake closes in on its prey
and smells its fear. Many a foe has underestimated the vicious cunning of
crested felldrakes on the hunt; clutches of these creatures have been known to
climb upon one another's backs to reach high places, and stories tell of an
individual creature using its foreclaws to open and close doors.
● Hissing felldrake: A lithe copper-scaled beast that has a frilled neck and a larger
body than the leaping and crested varieties. Turathi beastmasters drew their
inspiration from nagas and cobras, creating a quick, poisonous beast with a
hypnotic dance that entrances its envenomed prey. By refining the leaping
felldrake's weak poison, the tieflings imbued the hissing felldrake with a
corrosive spittle laced with soporific pheromones.
● Tri-horned felldrake: The most aggressive felldrake produced by the tieflings'
breeding program. Tough, territorial, and stubborn, the tri-horned felldrake
claims a piece of ground and considers that place its lair until instructed
otherwise. A tri-horned felldrake can corral lesser felldrakes, who obey the
larger creature through some pecking order among these unnatural reptiles.

Guard drake: A green-scaled reptile that walks on two legs, with an orange crest that
runs down the length of its spine. Living up to their name, these drakes are often kept
as attack or guard animals.

Pseudodragon: A pseudodragon resembles a tiny dragon not much larger than a house
cat, with a venomous stinger at the end of its sinuous tail. These drakes are often kept
as pets or arcane familiars, and are by far the most intelligent drakes, able to
communicate with their masters. With patience and training, some pseudodragons can
grow to be fairly intelligent.

Rage Drake: Rage drakes savagely attack all other creatures they encounter and
become even more ferocious when hurt. Adult rage drakes cannot be domesticated,
but newly hatched rage drakes can be trained to serve as pets, guards, or even
mounts.

Hounds of Ill-omen
On dark nights when the fog rises, it is said that the hounds of the old hill clans, who
now rest beneath the barrows of the Gray Downs, can still be seen coursing across the
downs, their ghostly forms pining for their lost masters. The common folk call them the
"hounds of ill omen," because calamity and misfortune follow in the wake of their
fearsome howls. As legend would have it, on nights when the skull-white moon hangs
low and the downs are silent as a corpse's dream, the ghost hounds come forth to hunt
mortals. Who sends the hounds and for what purpose, none can tell; when a hound
tracks its quarry down, it emits a baleful cry before vanishing into the fog. For the one
the hound calls, its hours are numbered. Those the hound has called observe nothing
unusual at first. But soon enough, ill luck nips close at the afflicted one's heels, and as
calamity follows calamity, it soon becomes apparent that a curse is at work. It is said
those who seek solace by petitioning the mercy of the gods, or of the great she-hound
Bregga, have sometimes survived a hound's dire calling. For most, however, death
comes inevitably.

Sometimes a single howl sounds over the downs, louder and longer than any other.
This is the cry of the alpha female, Bregga, calling the pack to her so the hounds can
rouse the shades of their masters slumbering within the barrows. When Bregga's
hounds sound their lonely howls for the hill clans, the spectral apparitions of their dead
masters—cold and black as the grave—rise again from their barrows. Their hateful
presence chills the blood of living mortals. With their hounds restored to their sides,
the hill clan apparitions ride again to war, eternally seeking vengeance against foes
and empires long since crumbled into dust.

It's said that Bregga was the first hound, having lived on the downs since before the hill
clans arrived. According to some legends, she sees the true nature of mortal hearts
and sends her hounds to punish the unjust—in retribution for the sins of Nerath,
perhaps—but no one knows for certain.

Hurly and Burly

North of Winterhaven, a lonely path wends through the foothills of the Cairngorm
Peaks. Flanking this trail are two caves five miles apart, one along the shore of Lake
Wintermist and the other carved into a rocky hill to the west. Although the caves aren't
visible from the trail, local hunters know them well and avoid them, for they are home
to two savage trolls—fraternal twins—that despise one another. Residents of
Winterhaven call the trolls Hurly and Burly, because of their tumultuous history and the
uproar they have caused over the years.

Hurly and Burly are not typical trolls. Their mother, a shaman, casted a ritual upon
them when they were born. The ritual bound their spirits as one, such that the brothers
cannot be killed unless they're in close proximity to one another. Though they
generally keep to themselves, the trolls sometimes encroach upon each other's
territory, leading to arguments and brawls. The brothers walk away from these conflicts
no worse for wear, thanks to their regeneration ability. However, these altercations can
upset them for days, spurring them to take out their frustrations on nearby farmsteads
and passersby.

Lizardfolk
Primitive hunters stalking swamps and jungles, lizardfolk spring out of murky water or
overgrown foliage. They capture prey to eat in great feasts or sacrifice to their
lizardkings. In the Nentir Vale, the Witchlight Fens is the only place where one can find
a lizardfolk tribe.

Over the past hundred years, many lizardfolk tribes have begun worshiping the
powerful black dragon Shadowmire as a living god. His intention to supplant their own
living deity-kings is either lost on them, or seen as proof of his superior intelligence and
power. A loyal chieftain or marsh mystic directs the tribe and interprets the dragon's
commands. Though many tribes follow the dragon, they are not a single organization.
Shadowmire encourages them to remain separate, acting as allies that vie for his
attention and approval. Although many Witchlight lizardfolk tribes obey the dragon,
nonaligned tribes still maintain their own chieftains.

Lizardfolk of the fens reside in abandoned settlements, isolated isles, and hut villages.
They are fiercely territorial, even in dealings with others under Shadowmire's influence.
Sentries and hidden traps guard their encampments, making an effective early warning
system. The three most prominent tribes of Fens are the Brackmarsh tribe, the
Mistkiller tribe and the Crushwater tribe.

Magroth the Mad

Today, history remembers Magroth the First as a shining example by proud humans,
the legendary first emperor of Nerath, who conquered most of the known world within
his lifetime. Some Nerathi descendants worship him as though he were a god, praying
for the mighty emperor’s guidance and protection. Nobody remembers the true history
of Magroth the Mad, a tyrant and a conqueror; cruel, ambitious, filled with delusions of
grandeur and dreams of destiny, and more than a bit insane.

During Magroth’s reign, rumors of necromancy and demon worship were rampant, but
the truth was far worse. Magroth had sold his soul to Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath.
In return for dead warriors to bolster his Shadowfell armies, Orcus made Magroth
immune to all natural weapons, giving him the power to conquer any enemy he would
face. Magroth turned the Nerathi legions against enemies real and imagined, against
his own people, and dedicated the dead to the Demon Prince of Undeath. When his
despotic rule was as his peak, Magroth was killed by the forgotten hero Krondor, ending
his reign of terror at last.

Thanks to the dark pacts he made, however, death was not the end of Emperor
Magroth. Instead, a piece of him was drawn into the Shadowfell where he became the
ruler of a domain of dread, Darani, the city of his death. From this vantage, the old
emperor, now turned into a vampire lich, prepared for his return—and the new empire
he would forge from the ruins of the old.

Now Magroth has made a new deal with Orcus, one that frees him from his eternal
prison for a year and a day. In that time, Magroth must re-establish his ancient
kingdom while also accomplishing a series of terrible tasks for Orcus. To this end,
Magroth’s plans intersect with other threat that is rising in the world: the Abyssal
Plague. He also needs to locate the last of his descendants, as his own blood must be
offered to Orcus in a vile ritual to ensure his freedom. With the help of his faithful death
knight, Kallabar, Magroth now prepares to open the sealed doors of the City of the
Dead, where he intends to complete a ritual to raise an undead horde and restore
Andok Sur to its former glory…
 Mooncalves
Mooncalves are otherworldly monstrosities from the Far Realm that haunt the spaces
between the worlds. Following some little-understood cycle, they enter the natural
world for a period of weeks, lairing atop desolate mountains and lonely hills, often near
settlements where food is abundant. Ringed by mountains and dotted with hills, the
Nentir Vale remains a favorite location for the predatory mooncalves. Sages of Nerath
used to predict with great accuracy the arrival of these horrific beasts, but much of that
knowledge has been lost since Nerath's fall.

A mooncalf combines the body of an immense cephalopod with the wings of a bat. It
has six short tentacles that it uses to grab prey and two long, flailing tentacles that it
uses to attack at a distance. The creature's beak like mouth is located where the
tentacles meet the base of its body. Mooncalves understand Deep Speech but do not
speak it. They can communicate telepathically with each other and with any other
creature within 100 feet. However, only creatures that understand Deep Speech can
fathom a mooncalf's thoughts, which tend to be primal and focused on killing and
eating.

Roughly every eight years, a small group of 2-5 mooncalves, called a grasp, preys upon
a localized area (a few square miles) for a single lunar cycle before returning to the
place they came from. Mooncalves typically hunt at night, resting during the daylight
hours. Although not choosy about prey, mooncalves particularly enjoy the flesh of
humanoids and cattle, making them a true menace to villages and towns. A grasp of
feasting mooncalves can devour an entire settlement and its livestock in a matter of
weeks. Of all the places in the Nentir Vale that attract such creatures, Thunderspire
Mountain might be the mooncalves' favorite haunt.

Oozes
Among the weirdest creatures in the world, the formless oozes wriggle through dank
underground passages. The mindless things attack anything that draws near, then
dissolve the meal with their acidic bodies. Alongside the more common slimes and
gelatinous cubes, the Bloodfire ooze is a unique variant found in the Nentir Vale. Those
oozes Bloodfire oozes are created through horrid rituals offered to the Demon Lords.
The amorphous bloodfire ooze looks like a slithering mass of seething, boiling blood,
which reeks of sulfur. It occasionally extrudes pseudopods and manifests faces twisted
in torment. Bloodfire oozes can appear in the most unlikely places. Some are known to
lurk in the dungeons below the Temple ofYellow Skulls near the Ogrefist Hills, where
demonic rituals were practiced (and possibly still are).

Penanggalan
By light of day, penanggalans are virtuous maidens whose clever charm is exceeded
only by their incomparable beauty. They often work as midwives or nursemaids, taking
care to note expecting mothers and young children beyond their employers' walls. But
at midnight, their maidenly heads tear free from their shoulders, her teeth lengthen
into fangs, her bloated entrails serve as motile appendages, and a putrid ichor spews
from the intestinal orifices, causing every living thing they touch to fester with boils
and sores.

The penanggalan hunts in the dark for the sweet blood of innocents. Penanggalans live
to feed and spend a portion of each day hunting for potential victims. They typically
prey on those of pure heart, entangling them with its intestines while it drinks their
blood. If it cannot locate its preferred quarry, the penanggalan preys on the weakest
victim it can find, young innocents that won't be missed, such as youths from poor
urban areas or isolated villages.

In maiden form, a penanggalan tempts and teases suitors, modestly guarding her
chastity until she is alone with the suitor at night. When her amorous victim is most
vulnerable, the penanggalan's head separates from her body's shoulders, and the
monster strikes. Some penanggalans serve intelligent evil creatures as seductresses
and spies. A penanggalan can maintain its humanoid state without feeding for three
days before it goes mad from hunger and devours the first victim it finds.

Peryton
The peryton blends the body and wings of a bird of prey with the head of a stag. This
tenacious, sharp-eyed creature swoops down from mountain peaks, determined to
pluck out the heart of its prey. The peryton's tough wing feathers are typically dark
green, while its blue-black stag's head is crowned by strong black antlers. A male
peryton's light blue chest feathers stand in sharp contrast to the female's drab brown.
Both varieties have dully glowing red-orange eyes and a bizarre shadow—rather than
reflecting the creature's actual form, its shadow appears humanoid. Sages postulate
that the first perytons were elves transformed by some hideous curse, and the bards
whisper that a peryton dines on the hearts of its victims to remind itself of what it once
was.

Perytons are known to roost in the eastern ridges of the Dawnforge Mountains. They
also hunt in the high mountain caves and rocky cliffs of the Cairngorm Peaks and the
Stonemarch in the Nentir Vale's northwestern reaches. Those traveling within any of
the vale's mountain ranges are advised to keep a wary eye on the sky. Established
mountain settlements are especially attractive to perytons as a renewable food source,
and it's not uncommon for a town council or a local noble to dispatch adventurers, city
guards, or other hirelings to eliminate peryton nests, which usually hold two to four of
the creatures. Many adventurers will eagerly accept such a task, because each of the
perytons' eggs can be worth several hundred gold pieces to an interested buyer.

Ragewind
The Nentir Vale is strewn with ancient battlefields where the armies of Nerath once
clashed with orcs, primitive hill folk, and barbarian tribes, and where the tieflings of
Bael Turath fought the dragonborn legions of Arkhosia. Among the ruins of these
bygone conflicts lurk creatures of lingering malice—the spirits of despondent soldiers
whose lives were thrown away for no satisfying purpose. These spirits can muster
enough will to animate their ancient weapons and strike back at the living, whom they
both envy and despise.

A ragewind normally appears as dozens of suspended weapons dancing and clashing

within a dusty whirlwind. It can choose to lie dormant, appearing as nothing more than
a pile of old, discarded weapons until it senses the presence of a living creature, at
which point it rises and attacks. It has no treasure other than the weapons it carries. A
ragewind can speak Common in a shrill voice that sounds like the howling of a bitter
wind, but it seldom bothers to do so.

Rats
Rats are said to be sacred to Torog, the evil god of the Underdark, known as the King
That Crawls. The presence of rats signifies plague, decay, and collapse in decadent
cities.

Scroll Mummy
A scroll mummy, or grisgol, as those constructs are commonly referred, is created from
discarded magic paraphernalia and the essence of a lich. The creature's frame is
crafted from broken magic items, potion vials, and similar materials, then wrapped in
scroll parchments and pages torn from ritual books.

The construct is animated through a process that includes destroying a lich, recovering
its phylactery, and placing that object within the construct before the lich re-forms.
Once the lich's spirit is so contained, it becomes bound to the scroll mummy and
trapped in the service of the construct's creator. When the scroll mummy is destroyed,
the spirit of the lich bound within it is released. The lich's phylactery survives the
destruction of the scroll mummy and can be recovered. Unless the phylactery is
destroyed, the lich re-forms in a maximum of ten days.

The secret of scroll mummy creation is known to a handful of evil mages and priests,
many of whom worship Vecna. It is also known to the Mages of Saruun, who use scroll
mummies to guard their private libraries.

Treants of the Nentir Vale

After the ancient civil war of the treants of the Nentir Vale, those creatures have been
divided into two factions, those who live in the Winterbole Forest, and those who live in
the Harken Forest.

As cold-hearted as their name implies, the coniferous Winterbole treants have little
patience for the proclivities of humanoids or any compassion for their plight. They view
humans, elves, orcs, and other two-legged races as parasites-nuisances to be swatted
down when they come too close. Within their woods lie ancient Arkhosian ruins and
secret Shadowfell crossings, both of which the treants discourage outsiders from
visiting.
Winterbole treants maintain an age-old truce with the white dragon Bitterstrike, though
the naivewhite wyrm considers the wizened tree folk to be little more than vassals. The
treants are content to let the dragon believe what she will as long as she delivers on
her end of the agreement—aiding them against the Harken treants in the Winterbole
treants' next Great March. The Winterbole treants aren’t fond of the dragon’s other
vassals, and sometimes they launch raids against the Tigerclaw barbarians.

The Harken Forest treants are usually found in the company of other fey allies: elves —
especially the druids of the Harken’s Heart—, eladrin, hamadryads, and wood woads—
stern humanoids from the Feywild that look much like dwarf-proportioned trees. Their
leader is Mysteriphal, the oldest living creature in the Nentir Vale, who solemnly vowed
to protect the petrified husk of his once-thriving patron, the archfey Malorunth.

Fire-scarred and rot-cursed, Mysteriphal has forgotten that he once was a kind and
noble treant who would help any genuine and good-hearted being. Years of warring,
destruction, and death have scoured any remnants of goodwill from his soul. Even the
elves are cautious when treading into his domain.

Twig blights
Twig blights can resemble large woody shrubs or small trees with interlocking
branches. These nondescript predators need blood to flourish. They can root in nearly
any soil and take on attributes of native flora, making wooded areas and forests seem
to be attractive nesting grounds. Seedlings grow from an adult twig blight's root
system, with as many as a dozen simultaneously sprouting. Seedlings are weak and
extremely vulnerable in their first few days of growth, but they mature quickly and can
ambush small creatures within a week or two of sprouting.

Twig blight numbers swell dramatically wherever large sources of fresh blood is found.
Usually the blood comes from unwary creatures the twig blights have slaughtered, but
even heavily blood-soaked earth, such as on a battlefield, draws them. As long as the
blood source remains, the blights root themselves in it to feed, dropping seeds to
create more of their kind. When the food source runs out, however, the predatory plant
creatures move on to seek out more fresh blood. If no blood can be found, the deprived
twig blights root themselves in normal soil where they can get sustenance and survive
until they can feed on blood again (usually when a creature comes too close).

Twig blight infestations aren't limited to the surface world. Adventurers have reported
seeing them in dungeons, ruins, and monsters' lairs, where they gorge on the
wreckage of once-living creatures. Such tales have led to the conclusion that twig
blights don't need light to survive; rather, they become increasingly bloodthirsty when
dwelling in the dark.

Vampiric Mist
Old legends tell that, long ago, a coven of vampires claimed the marshy expanse
known as the Witchlight Fens as their secluded demesne, wherein was hidden the
phylactery of their dark liege—a powerful lich whose name has been forgotten. One of
the lich's many enemies, a powerful hag, came to the Witchlight Fens in search of the
phylactery and performed a ritual to destroy the vampire coven. The ritual did not yield
the expected results. The vampires' bodies were destroyed, but their evil essence
lingered. The nine vampire lords who led the coven transformed into a single force of
pure hatred and malice called a crimson death mist. The lesser vampires of the coven
were reduced to roaming clouds of mist having an insatiable hunger for life. The hag,
discouraged by the ritual's failure, left the swamp without her prize. The coven itself
did not survive the passage of time, and the vampiric mists scattered throughout the
Witchlight Fens.

Vampiric mists exist beyond the Witchlight Fens. Any vampire that becomes trapped in
gaseous form (usually as a result of losing its sacred resting place) can transform into a
vampiric mist by sheer force of will. In doing so, it gives up its corporeal form and
becomes a more primal creature, with few desires beyond a craving for life and blood.

Playable races
Those are the races than can be found as both heroes and villains.

Bugbears hail from many tribes of goblinoids that live in the region. The most
prominent among those is the Daggerburg tribe that dwells around the Harken Forest.
They also can be found in small numbers in the bigger towns and small villages. Those
who become members of an adventurer's band are normally members of the
Bloodghost Syndicate.

Devas, or Aasimar, as a few scholars call them, are almost nonexistent in Vale.
However, some of them can be seen traveling the Vale from time to time.

Doppelgangers as a whole are few in number, but tend to congregate in small groups
while living among other races. Doppelgangers are much like humans in that they
come in a wide variety of personalities and dispositions.

Dragonborn used to be rare sights in the Vale, with a few of them working as escorts
for merchant caravans that hailed from the southern cities. However, their presence in
the Vale increased when Dythan’s Legion —an army composed of about five hundred
dragonborn— arrived to the region in search of past relics from their old Arkhosian
Empire. Dragonborn are still uncommon in remote towns, working as mercenaries or
bodyguards, but their presence is more numerous in important settlements, such as
Hammerfast or Fallcrest.

Drow are very rare in the surface world, but numerous in the Underdark of the region
as the great drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu is located just below the Nentir Vale. Because of
that, the few drow that chose to abandon the Underdark normally reach the surface
world through the caves that dot the Vale. The major cave connecting the Vale to the
Underdark is the Seven-Pillared-Hall in the Thunderspire Mountain.
Dwarves are common sights in the Vale. Small communities of dwarves live in human
towns, but great dwarven settlements can be found to the east, the most important of
all is the town of Hammerfast.

Genasi are rarely seen in the Vale at all. The few individuals that live in Vale hail from
the Elemental Chaos.

Githzerai are very rare on the Vale, but a few githzerai communities can be found in
the Witchlight Fens.

Gnolls hail from the Blackfang tribe that dwells around the Old Hills. Some gnolls are
civilized enough to oppose their brethren and join an adventurer's band, but those are
rare individuals.

Gnomes are rarely seen in the Vale at all. The few individuals that live in Vale hail from
the Feywild. Svirfneblin are rare sights on the surface, but a few communities of them
exist in the Underdark below the Vale.

Goblins hail from many tribes of goblinoids that live in the region. The most prominent
among those is the Daggerburg tribe that dwells around the Harken Forest. From time
to time, some goblins sell their services as mercenaries or join an adventurer's band.

Goliaths are very rare on the Vale, but are more numerous in the Dawnforge
Mountains. From time to time some goliaths go to the Vale to trade and some of those
chose to join an adventurer’s bands.

Eladrin, or High Elves, as the common people call them, are rarely seen in the Vale at
all. Some of the old manors in the Moon Hills and the nearby parts of the Vale were the
homes of well-off eladrin families during the Nerathi Empire, and recently some eladrin
have come from the Feywild to reclaim them.

Half-elves can be found in small numbers in the bigger towns and small villages, living
as artisans, farmers, herders or woodcutters.

Half-orcs can be found in small numbers in the bigger towns and small villages,
working as bodyguards or mercenaries. Half-orcs often find prejudice because their
ancestry.

Halflings are the second most numerous people in the Vale, like humans can be found
nearly anywhere, though their caravans normally are found near the rivers.

Hamadryads, or just Dryads, are very rare in Vale. Most of them came from the
Feywild, though a few number of them live in the Harken or Winterbole Forest. A few of
those chose to join adventurers' bands from time to time.

Hobgoblins hail from many tribes of goblinoids that live in the region. The most
prominent among those is the Daggerburg tribe that dwells around the Harken Forest.
Because hobgoblins are the most intelligent and civilized of goblinkind, a few of them
suppress or deny their baser urges and embark on adventuring careers.

Humans are the dominant race of the Nentir Vale anywhere outside of the Dawnforge
Mountains, the Harken Forest and the Stonemarch.
Kobolds can hail from many tribes in the Nentir Vale. From time to time, some kobolds
abandon their brethren and join an adventurer's band, but those are rare individuals.

Minotaurs hail from the mountains surrounding the Vale. While they’re rare sights in
the Vale, since the city of Sarhuun Khel is located in the Thunderspire Mountain, some
bands of minotaurs can be seen traveling the Vale from time to time to recover relics
from their old kingdom. Some of those are civilized enough to work as mercenaries or
join an adventurer’s band.

Orcs hail from the Dawnforge mountains or the Stonemarch. The “civilized” orcs live in
the dwarven town of Hammerfast. However their origins, orcs are hated across the
Nentir Vale.

Pixies are rarely seen in the Vale at all. They few individuals that live in Vale hail from
the Feywild. A few of those chose to join adventurers' bands from time to time.

Revenants are almost nonexistent in Vale. However, some of those poor souls are
summoned by the Raven Queen with a mission to fulfil in the Nentir Vale from time to
time.

Shadar-kai are very rare in the Vale. A clan dwells in the Winterbole Forest, and some
came directly from the Shadowfell. A few individuals chose to join adventurers' bands
from time to time.

Shades are rarely seen in the Vale at all. They came directly from the Shadowfell, and
the few individuals that came to the mortal world are adventurers.

Shifters make up the half of the Winterclaw Barbarians along with humans. A few of
those chose to join adventurers' bands from time to time.

Satyrs live among the humanoids of the Winterbole Forest. A few of those chose to
join adventurers' bands from time to time.

Tieflings are uncommon and most likely to be found in Fallcrest and Harkenwold,
living under the thumb of a few merchant families. Some tieflings live in small towns
across the Vale, but those are very rare.

Vryloka (living vampires) are extremely rare in the Vale at all, as there are only few of
those noble families in the Barony of Harkenwold.

Warforged are almost nonexistent in the Vale. A few of them belong to the noble
families of Harkenwold and Fallcrest, or work as mercenaries. More rarely, some of
them still lay dormant across the countryside, relics of the last war of the empire of
Nerath.

Wilden, or Killoren, as some scholars call them, are extremely rare in the Vale. They
are most numerous in the Hinterlands, a land beyond the Dawnforge Mountains, and
individuals or small groups travel to the Vale from time to time.

Wood Elves are rarely seen in human dominated communities, but are more common
in the Harken Forest or the Winterbole Forest. Most of them are members of the
Woodsinger Clan.
Tuathans and Vistani are rare in Vale, but some of them can be seem from time to
time, since there are rifts and natural doors to the Shadowfell and the Feywild in
various locations of the Nentir Vale. Those aren’t races, but tribes. Tuathans are
humans or half-elves with of fey lineage —in the case of half-elves, one of the parents
is an eladrin; while Vistani are traveling gypsies that traverse across the planes.

Members of other races do not exist in the Vale. If you play with one of them, your
character is a traveler from far lands.