The North Watch
The frontier. A scatter of towns and villages that hold because the roads between them stay open, strung along a chain of lakes and rivers.
Click for full size. One hex is two miles.
How it fits together
The water is the spine of the region, and everything sits on it.
Starfall Lake is in the north, against the treeline of the Winterbole. Nenlast is on its north-east shore. At its southern outflow stands Fastormel, and the river that leaves there is the Eel Run, which runs south-west into Lake Wintermist. Harken sits on Lake Wintermist's northern shore, at the eastern foot of the mountains. Out of Lake Wintermist the Sapphire River runs east and south to Fallcrest, on the region's eastern edge.
So Fastormel is not merely on a river. It is on the water that becomes Fallcrest's river, at the point where it leaves the lake — and Nenlast and Fastormel are on the same lake, which is how sixty or seventy undead walked home along the bottom of it.
The Dawnforge Mountains are the whole western edge, running the length of the map. Hammerfast is at their foot in the south-west. Between Hammerfast and Fallcrest lie the Gardbury Downs, with Gardbury Abbey among them.
The Spiderfell is north-west of Fallcrest, between Lake Wintermist and the Barrow Downs, which lie east of it and north of Fallcrest. Broken Spire Keep and Goblintown are inside the Spiderfell and are not marked.
In the south the White Rock River runs west to east below Fallcrest and joins the river running down from it. Snake Creek branches off south-west into the Shrieking Mire, in the bottom corner of the map. The Kalton Wood is south of the White Rock River, and the Sunless Citadel is in a ravine near it.
Roads run Harken–Fallcrest along the south of the Spiderfell, Fastormel–Fallcrest down its eastern side, and Fallcrest–Hammerfast through the Gardbury Downs.
Fallcrest
A frontier city-state on the region's eastern edge, where the Sapphire River comes down from Lake Wintermist and meets the river running south past the White Rock. Governed by the Lord Warden, a pragmatic devotee of Pharasma, through a mix of local militia and alliance with the Riders of the Watch.
Where the campaign began, and where the party keeps coming back to.
| Place | Notes |
|---|---|
| Moonstone Keep | Seat of the Lord Warden |
| The Riders' Chapterhouse | Banner's base |
| Temple of Erastil | Leander's home temple |
| Temple of Pharasma | The Lord Warden's faith; High Priestess Mirene |
| Thornapple's Marvelous Marvels | Thistle's shop, Sparky's lab, and the party's safe |
| Voren's Tower | Warded against the womp womp. Site of the Septarch's abduction |
| Kane Forge | The best smithy in town. The smith is a dwarf out of Hammerfast |
| The standing stones | A grove about fifteen minutes south, off the road. Silver Ravens rendezvous |
The womp womp has hit Fallcrest more than once, leaving portions of the population catatonic for hours. The Lord Warden's response has been to increase patrols, which is about all a city government can do about a psychic weapon fired from several miles underground.
The Iron Circle keeps a camp outside the walls that has looked more permanent every time the party has seen it. The Silver Ravens' read: they are staying for a reason, they are not yet strong enough to take the city, and they are waiting for something.
The party has hired mercenaries out of that camp, drugged them, and fed them to a giant spider.
The Spiderfell
A dark, web-choked forest north-west of Fallcrest, between Lake Wintermist and the Barrow Downs, containing Broken Spire Keep, Goblintown, and the former domain of the Spider Queen Araniax. Neither the keep nor Goblintown is marked on the map.
What it was: an Iron Circle trafficking ground. Caravan travellers taken on the roads and brought here. The valuable ones — spellcasters — went down through the keep and on into the deep. The rest were fed to the spiders, delivered by the goblins in exchange for Araniax's protection.
What it is: contested territory the party is winning. Araniax is dead. The goblins are allies. The keep is theirs by deed. The Iron Circle's forces here were destroyed at the keep gates. Scattered spiders, ettercaps and orc bandits persist as wildlife rather than as a power.
Goblintown is a goblin village built around a giant tree on a hill, ruled by the Goblin King — "Red Hand." The name is the party's and it stuck, as did Hand Solo, the goblin who came to the keep under a not-very-white flag to negotiate.
Goblintown held its own second front during the Iron Circle assault, and its people repaired the keep. It also served as the party's back door when Caldris was refused entry at the front.
Harken
A trade town west-north-west of Fallcrest, on the northern shore of Lake Wintermist and at the eastern foot of the Dawnforges. A waypoint for caravans, smaller and less fortified than Fallcrest, with a steady commercial economy.
- The Hungry Hound Inn — where the party met Andrin, and later Freya
- Andrin's smithy — where he works as a jeweller and gem cutter
The conversation at the Hungry Hound about a missing fiancée put the party on the trail that led to the Dawnforge mines, the Derro portal, and eventually the City of the Glass Pool.
Also where the party bought a donkey, having lost every horse they owned.
Hammerfast
A dwarven trade town south-south-west of Harken, at the foot of the Dawnforge Mountains, known for its smiths and masons. The road east from it runs through the Gardbury Downs to Fallcrest.
The party sold the troll hoard here — the mithril coffer for 1,500 gold, the petrified hand with the ruby for 1,000 — and a substantial part of that funded the keep repairs. Jocelin gained Gilda Stoneheart, a dwarf healer, as a follower. Gorrim Taelwyn, master mason, was recruited through the Forge family.
Brother Ordrik Ironheart, priest of Torag, keeps the Halls of Hammerfast, and is the man Agatha writes to. She has not written since before the Winterbole.
Nenlast
A village on the north-east shore of Starfall Lake, at the edge of the Winterbole Forest, well north of Fallcrest. Fastormel is on the same lake, at its southern outflow.
Besieged and cut off by Gulthias's forces, and down to roughly two weeks of supplies. Mira Ashford put the siege at a week old when she spoke to Agatha on the 27th of Autumn, and it ended by treaty on the 30th, when Caldris dismissed his own army in person and sent sixty or seventy undead walking back along the lake bottom to Fastormel.
Nenlast held. It was never taken. Leander survived, holed up in the inn with the remnant of the town, despite being the enemy's named priority capture target.
Leander's assessment during the siege is the detail that reframes the whole thing:
"Enemy could have taken village at any time. Waiting on something, don't know what."
It was a holding action, not an attempt to reduce the village. Nobody has established what it was holding for.
The people: Elder Callum Marsh, leading by default and barely sleeping, and Bessa the Hunter, the best tracker in the village, running the watch — who lost her husband three nights before the party arrived, dragged away by wolves during an escape attempt.
The neighbours: the Willowhollow Enclave, thirty or forty forest gnomes hidden two miles deeper into the forest. They have secret paths that avoid the patrols, a hidden approach through a drainage culvert, and mapped wolf patrol patterns. They want the siege broken and have no capacity to break it. Nobody ever went to talk to them.
Fastormel
A town north-north-west of Fallcrest, at the southern outflow of Starfall Lake, where the Eel Run begins. Held by Gulthias.
The mist is the first thing anyone notices: fifty to sixty feet high, with a perfectly sharp edge that does not diffuse, dampening sound and setting everyone's hair on end. The town sits outside it. The undead are inside the town. The mist is a boundary, not a shroud, and it looks deliberate.
The garrison: twenty to twenty-five zombies, many of them orcish, plus skeletons, patrolling the streets freely.
The Mist Tower is a white stone tower at the town's centre, rising into the mist. That is Gulthias's seat. The party got as far as approaching it before he walked out to meet them, gave them his terms, and went back inside.
His claim: Fastormel is his domain, he controls the river and the trade routes, and the Lord Warden will acknowledge his authority and cease hostilities. The river in question is the Eel Run, which becomes Fallcrest's own water further down. Banner carried that message to the Lord Warden. What was done about it has never come back to the party.
As of the 32nd of Autumn there is a stone wall going up around the town. He has stopped campaigning and started consolidating. Nobody in Fallcrest has been told.
During the party's fighting retreat out of Fastormel, Jocelin saw a humanoid figure escape through a sewer grate. Not undead. Never identified.
Ruin and Vaelin took stone tablets out of Ioun's temple here, which is what the Iron Circle was chasing them for.
The Winterbole Forest
A vast forest running the whole northern edge of the region, above Starfall Lake, and the domain of the Queen of the Forest, an ancient green dragon. Not a ruler, but her counsel carries enormous weight.
Home to the four Winterbole Tribes, bound by common ancestry, reverence for the Queen, and resentment of the southlanders who pushed them out of the fertile lowlands over two centuries ago.
| Tribe | Character | Chieftain |
|---|---|---|
| Elk Heart | Traditionalists and mediators; keepers of the Throne; closest to the Queen | Valdris Oakheart |
| Storm Wolf | Raiders; most aggressive; never accepted the exile | Korrath Bloodfang |
| River Crow | Fishers and traders on Starfall Lake; most contact with southlanders | Mira Ashford |
| Shadow Bear | Hunters of the eastern Winterbole; suffering worst | Tormund Gravebane |
Ancestor worship is the centre of their culture. The dead are buried in sacred barrows, and disturbing them is the gravest offence there is. Gulthias has been raising their ancestors. Tormund Gravebane earned his name by personally destroying a dozen of his own.
The party looted a barrow in the Barrow Downs with Thistle Thornapple on one of their first jobs. Nobody at the council raised it. It is still sitting there.
The Throne of Antlers is the tribes' council ground: a sacred clearing about a hundred yards across, dominated by an ancient oak, kept by the Elk Heart.
Where the tribes stand. The council sat two days late — the womp womp flattened the clearing on the 30th — and by then Gulthias had withdrawn his emissary. Valdris delivered the ruling: the tribes will not ally with the Mist Lord, will not oppose him so long as he stays south, and will not aid him. The party are welcome in tribal lands.
That is safe passage and goodwill. It is not allies.
The Azure Leaf Monastery is also in this forest, where Zarah trained under Master Senzan. At least one winter wolf pack ranges here, led by something that talks and that serves the Mist Lord.
The Dawnforge Mountains
The range that forms the region's entire western edge, running north to south the length of it. Harken sits at its eastern foot and Hammerfast at its southern.
Somewhere in it, north of Harken, are the abandoned copper mines — a critical junction in the Iron Circle's trafficking route, and the Circle's own base of operations. The mines are not marked on the map.
The party fought through Brokenskull Orcs and ogres here and captured Dorakor, who gave up the shape of the whole trade. In the orc hoard was a spear that radiates bad vibes, which nobody would carry.
Following the orcs' path they reached a massive underground lake with a large boat waiting on the shore — the crossing point, and the place the toll is paid. They looked at it and withdrew.
The Shrieking Mire
A misty swamp in the far south-west, along Snake Creek where it branches off the White Rock River. Long rumoured to be haunted by a black dragon, and the rumour is correct: Zytherion, a young black dragon, is pacted to Gulthias.
The Ruined Temple of Gozreh is a sunken temple choked with fungal rot and bloodvines. Half-sunken pillars, a decayed altar, and at its centre a circle of standing stones around a partially complete black iron ring.
Gulthias is building it to move undead forces, which is what "from mist to mist the dead shall march" reads like.
The party disrupted the ritual. They did not destroy the ring. It remains incomplete rather than gone, and Zytherion's parting instruction was: do not come back.
Also present in the Mire: Iron Circle patrols, undead, gnoll raiders in the hills who drag away corpses, boggarts, shambling mounds, a leshy, and dangerous flora.
The Sunless Citadel
The ruins of a sunken fortress south of Fallcrest, across the White Rock River near the Kalton Wood.
Where it all started, and where two of the campaign's threats got their first foothold. The party took Stormcaller Blade and the Phoenix Cloak out of it, recovered two of three missing Riders, and let Gulthias out of a sarcophagus under a burning tree.
The Sunken Grove was later taken over by the Deep Dragon, per Bogani, who also noted it can turn incorporeal.
Places we left unfinished
- Gardbury Abbey. In the Gardbury Downs, on the Fallcrest–Hammerfast road, close to Hammerfast. Voren asked the party to check on it. They declined. He was abducted shortly afterwards.
- The far end of the Willowhollow culvert into Nenlast, never used
- The Shadow Bear burial grounds. Mira named protecting them as one of two things that would have proven the party to the tribes. It was never done, and Tormund was never spoken to.
- The underground lake with the boat, and whatever takes payment in people at the far shore