Points of Light

Let's play I show you mine you show me yours. Here is some brainstorming I did after reading the Dungeoncraft article, what do you think of it? Tell me about your Point of Light that might kick off your first 4E game.

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Tear's Fall

Small town set against a 120' waterfall. The lake at the base of the falls serves as a source for fresh water, food, and fertile soil for farming. The people are for the most part content.
Bakers, Smiths, Pubs, Temples, Farms, it is all normal.

The name comes from an Elven translation for they had a settlement near by many years ago and were the first to live in this valley area. A closer true translation would be "Sadness", not many elves remember where the name comes from but they should. Many tales of romantic love and heroic sacrifice try and take credit for the name, but the truth is a much darker story. A story about to repeat itself if fate doesn't step in and bring forth some brave souls to keep the darkness at bay.

The wood that surrounds the town of Tears Fall is dark and dangerous to that there is no question. Goblins, Giant Spiders, Stirges, and Dark Fey are just the terrors that plague the areas closest to town. The wood is cut seldom for these reasons, if not for the peril a prosperous logging operation might make the town better known and larger, some have tried all have failed. What lurks in the woods doesn't come into the town or farmland much unless the town comes into the woods first.

Three ways leave or enter the town, two are the river. Go far enough north up the river and fighting the current is not so bad a nother small town is about a week away. The river in the other direction goes to the bay wich is over two weeks away but a small city is there to trade with if you are of the mindset to do so. The last is the road, a dark passagway that goes deep into the wood and meets with a main throughfare and a small settlement another week distance. The road is dangerous but still traveled, bandits and robbers are more common then goblins close to the road, but these men are more monster then most goblins are so watch yourself.

Rangers, an order of rangers is the law here. It is a small order though and protecting the road, and patrolling the edges of the wood keep them busy.

Watchmen, "Keepers of Flame" have a station here as well but are assigned mostly to the center of town at night the only three places open after sunset are the temple who's doors never close, the Golden Dragon a pub that probably never sees any gold come through its doors, and the Jail wich houses as head quarters for the watch.

Temple, the church here is modest. Not that the townsfolk are not faithful but the clergymen are content with the modesty. Collections are not heavy handed and treatment for the sick and injured is given free of charge what little they can do that is.

Fishing & Farming, the two ways to make a decent living in town.

The town leader is a very attractive woman and enchantress, she is very tolerant of most races and takes in most who ask for shelter. She has a huge companion who is mute and most mistake for dumb, he must have some giant or ogre blood pumping through his veins to account for his size and strength.

All races are welcome in Tear's Fall, but human is the majority.

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The opening story.

The heroes formed together at a inn in the small settlement down the road from Tears Fall, they won a map and a page of a journal off a mousy looking bard. He said he got it that morning from a drunk warrior in another town, came here on his way to Tears Fall looking for riches but after hearing the tales of what lurks in the woods and the dangers on the road he has had second thoughts on pursuing any intrest in treasure hunting.

The map, has no names of locations on it but anyone familiar with the area would recognize the falls, lake and river going to the bay as the Tears Fall area.

It shows a spot marked in the woods on the other side of town, the writting is in elven. "Death awaits all here, the spider shall feast on thy flesh"
There is a symbol drawn on the map in red ink. A circle with 8 lines coming out of the edges.

The journal page, is written in the human common tongue. It depics a drawing of a man in robes kneeling before a large spider statue.
The page talks about a cult that worshiped a spider god and prayed before a statue the size of a small horse made of pure silver with large eyes filled with small gems as the hundreds of facets.

Not to far of a stretch that someone thought the map and journal entry were related and after this fantastic treasure.

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The rub...after some encounters on the way to Tears Fall the party arrives to town.
They will wake to be the primary suspects in a crime dark and foul since they are the newest strangers to the area.
What crime is this, how will they deal with the accusations, what if anything does this have to do with the quest they are on, and why does a key piece of evidence suggest they are more envolved then they claim.

Sounds like it will be a fun campaign.

Edit: Nevermind, I had read it wrong.

I don't really have a campaign idea yet but I'm really digging this Points of Light concept. When I first heard about it, I instantly thought of the old Ravenloft stuff. I might dig up my old Ravenloft materials and raid them for ideas. I won't keep it as a demi-plane but I'd love to capture the feel of the setting for a 4E Points of Light campaign.

Edit: It also sounds like Midnight would be a really good fit as well.

Darkwall, pop 15,000

The dwarves of the Shadowed Mountains built Darkwall in their early days in the region; it was not so grand or as extensive as their later delvings further to the south as they followed the Star River, a massive deposit of silver that winds it's way through the mountain range like a branching stream.

After the dwarves moved out, humans and others moved in. Darkwall's buildings and streets are cut into a large cliff face of black stone, each stepped back from the other so that the streets of one are the rooftops of the one below. Steps, ramps and one short clockwork funicular railway that runs from the docks to the Crown are the means by which the people move from level to level. The 'High City' is set back somewhat more from the rest of Darkwall, the much larger street (High Avenue) at it's lowest level also containing a greater defensive wall and extensive mosaic decoration.

Homes are cut into the stone and go back into the mountainside up to 60', making homes in Darkwall much larger compared to most places human dwell. Of course many of these are subdivided into smaller homes and stalls. Wooden human structures can be seen throughout the town as well.

Two streams are channeled through the town, providing clean fresh water to the public fountains and bathhouses. It's a surprisingly clean town; the sluices take care of most human waste, and other garbage just gets thrown down one of the varous holes or chutes. This is a primary source of food for some of the underground dwellers, especially since the chutes are used as a means of body disposal as well by criminals.

Darkwall overlooks the Silver River, and there are a series of stone piers and wharves built out into it. The Docks area is very well protected and also the site of the smallest and seediest dwellings. Rockfalls are not uncommon here, and much of the original area has been abandoned by humans. Goblins, half-orcs and the occassional scummy halfling family live in the quasi-ruins. Half-feral former gnome slaves can be seen here as well, wandering the streets in their gangs as they seek to dry-gulch a lone human and haul him off to the cookpots after they strip him of his valuables. Kobolds lair here as well, and make a nuisance of themselves in the higher reaches of the city. They are commonly used as cheap light labor for jobs that humans won't do, such as unsticking the waste removal channels.

There are two major markets in the town, one a couple levels up from the Docks, and one on the High Avenue.

Flowers and decorations are seen in many places; humans reacted to the stark sheer surfaces of the city by carving bas-reliefs, making small gardens, and other ways to beutify the city (at least to human eyes).

The dwarves of course also built back into and down into the mountain. Most people avoid those areas with a few exceptions. The Pool is a small underground lake that serves as Darkwall's emergency water and food supply; the tiny but very, very deep lake swarms with small cave fish and other edible life. Darkwall is possibly the most defensible human settlement known.

Also, there is an ampitheater cut into the the cliff face off to one side; it's used for announcements and entertainments, though part of it collapsed in a minor earthquake years ago and has only been crudely rebuilt.

A large series of manufactured hot springs brings in people who seek it's suppossed medicinal properties.

There are four entrances to the old mine works. The lowest entrance is claimed by kobolds, goblins and other scum. A sort of 'theives market' exists here, as they barter for items stolen from the humans above. If you've lost something, likely it's wound up here. Buying your own stuff back will be expensive.

The main entrance is in the former mining district and still produces a trickle of silver and tin, enough for a couple of companies to be based there. The other two entrances lead back to the oldest portions of the mines, and the cavern systems beyond those. They're dangerous areas, as Things have moved (back) in after the dwarves departed. Sometimes one of them finds it's way up into the city through some of the numerous tunnels, trapdoors or chutes.

The primary 'adventurer's tavern' in the city is the Silver Axe, a multi-level establishment a couple of levels above the docksides. Rowdy river pilots, criminals, and various shifty sorts come to drink and deal every night. Singers, dancing girls and the occassional fight provide entertainment.

Okay...

Paraxis said:

Let's play I show you mine you show me yours. Here is some brainstorming I did after reading the Dungeoncraft article, what do you think of it? Tell me about your Point of Light that might kick off your first 4E game.

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Okay a fine example lets see what I can come up with.

Fort Hope is more of a keep than some fortified fortress, it was founded about thirty years ago to help keep watch on a mountainous passage that passes through the Mhor Holds that links Q'barra to the Talenta Plains.
The former lord left the fort in the hands of a trusted chamberlain who was a former soldier left unable to join the fight by a badly healed leg.
There has been no word from his liege lord who left with a sortie to help fight for his former homeland of Cyre however since two weeks ago there has been word of some dreadful calamity that has struck that nation.

Bereft the chamberlain knows the fort is badly undermanned and is trying to recruit new troops and especially adventuring groups to help solve certain problems in the area his lack of personnel cannot do instead.

So every now and again he sends out word that there is a valley nearby home to a series of underground caves known as the Khyber Caverns where a suspected group of bandits are laired who have been preying on the few settlements in the area.

However there's more going on than he realises for not only is Q'barra is being infiltrated by the Inspired, there are Valenar raiders and other forces seeking to takeover the colony let alone the native lizardfolk who have grown unruly due to the actions of some of the refugees.

With the last war seemingly come to a pause following the destruction of Cyre, the chamberlain is finding himself beset by the stream of refugees managing to pass through the passage and many of whom have no love for the authority he holds nor the laws that protect the colony.

Into this mess come a number of potential adventurer's some local some former veterans of a war they either no longer support or hide their continued affiliation and how this develops will be up to them.

Winterheath

*my goal here was to not include anything the PCs would not know as residents of the town*


Winterheath is a small town with a population of roughly 1200 residents. It lies alongside the River Sarbrun and at a T crossroads. This placement makes Winterheath an important center of trade in the region. To the west, 5 days ride along Trader's Road and 9 days upstream by river is the town of Herenmar, which lies on the shore of the Northwind Sea, an inland lake. To the east, 3 days ride is the outpost known as Feldon's Keep. This rugged town lies along the river just after a waterfall which makes boat travel impossible past this point. To the South, a week's ride along the King's Road, lies the city of Innisfree, the seat of government, such as it is for this region. The river at this point is a quarter of a mile or so wide. Its current is too swift to make swimming any farther out than a few feet practical. Across the river lies the untamed area known as the Wildlands. People speak of this area in hushed whispers as if saying it aloud would bring the denizens of this barbaric place swooping into town en masse. Some nights during the summer months, great screams and howls can be heard from across the river. At other times sounds even more frightening can be heard. It is a place parents tell their children scary stories about to dissuade them from ever wanting to travel there.

Winterheath is overseen by Baron Restenford and his family, which consists of 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. The Baron is a widower, his wife having died during the birth of their last child. The Baron and his family live in a modest keep located along the river's shore. It is designed to be a place of safety for all in the town during times of trouble. It was built by the Baron's grandfather, the first Restenford to carry the title.

Winterheath is primarily thought of as a human town, although examples of all races can be found here. A Hafling village known as Squatter's Gulch is connected to the town at its southwest corner. Although the halflings try to remain autonomous, they owe their safety to the protection of the Baron's men in times of real trouble. Eladrin are a fairly recent addition to the residents of Winterheath. Little is currently known about them or where they come from, so far they have showed no hostility and have proven themselves to be stalwart and trustworthy citizens. Some townsfolk still give them wide berth because so little is known about them, but the days of outright rudeness and prejudice against them have subsided. Dwarves seem to have always been living in the town. Gone are the people still able to remember when Dwarves first arrived here, but it is surmised that there is a community of them somewhere in the not too distant area. Most of the Dwarven residents know the truth of the matter but few of them are willing to talk about it. Tieflings form an entire subculture within this community. Everyone knows they exist, but none will admit to knowing any. They don't tend to go out in public, at least as far as the public knows. When an obvious tiefling is sighted it often leads to fights, verbal or physical. The townsfolk, in general, do not trust them, and do not want them around. The strange thing about this behavior is that no one can give you a reason why they are held in such low regard.

The climate of Winterheath is temperate, with warm, but not usually hot, summers and very cold winters with a lot of snow. There are weeks at a time where the town literally shuts down because of the overabundance of snow and the vicious stinging cold. Sometimes during the coldest parts of the winter the river freezes over hard enough to allow raiders from the Wildlands to travel across on foot and threaten the good folks of Winterheath and the nearby roads. Although, at the time of this writing, this has not happened in almost a decade.

An area of note near Winterheath is the Silkwood, so named because several years ago it became inhabited by a group of spiders who have slowly increased their domain in the woods making them inhospitable to anyone that doesn't want to become a tasty meal. Any travelling near the Silkwood are amazed at the sight of an entire forest seemingly swathed entirely in spider webs, in some spots the underlying trees are totally imperceptible. Tales have spread thru town of a ruined tower to the southeast of town a couple of days ride. But no road goes there so it is considered much too hazardous of a trip to attempt. Tales mention that the tower is a vestige of a long ago dead civilization. But no one seems to know anything about it's former inhabitants.

One hundred and fifty years ago, the town of Bogwatch was a thriving trade hub called Highgate as it commanded the top of the only easy ascent up a wide and treacherous ridge which overlooked a fertile river plain below. The town's fortunes changed when a large lake 40 miles upstream and on the upper side of the ridge finally caused the stone to give way and flooded the plain.

What was once a peaceful farmland has since become a sodden bog, swampy and dank. In places, the old trade road southwards from the ridge can be seen cutting across hilly areas that managed to stay somewhat dry after the flood. All trade from the south ceased due to the disaster, leading to a decline in the town's prosperity.

Only about 3000 souls live in Bogwatch now, a far cry from its peak of about 10,000. Many of the buildings in town now lie abandoned and rotting from the humidity that constantly washes up from the swamp at the bottom of the ridge. Its stone walls are still as sturdy as ever, but not manned as well as they used to be. Most of the guards keep a wary eye on the path up the ridge, as occasionally some of the creatures which moved into the swamp make raiding forays against the town.

All of the common races are represented in town (though humans are the most numerous), and even a few goblins eke out a living amongst the abandoned buildings in the section of town closest to the ridge. The towngobs are grudgingly tolerated by the other inhabitants, as they do fight as well as any when the town is threatened from below.

The only farms remaining in the area are nestled among the hills to the north and east of town, and a vast, dark forest looms a mere half-mile to the west of town. Farms dot the edge of the forest and eladrin are occasionally glimpsed moving deeper in the trees -- rarely coming out to trade directly with the farmers themselves.

Several sodden cave systems are known to open up at various spots along the base of the ridge, and three miles to the south --on one of the few remaining spots of high ground-- an old, crumbling watchtower can be seen rising above the everpresent mist and fog near the banks of the river which still winds sluggishly through the marsh.

Trade roads still come into Bogwatch -- one from the west, cutting through a slightly less foreboding portion of the woods, and one which run along the ridge to the east, towards the city of Fairhaven.

Okay, I should be doing other stuff, but this is too much fun for me to say no. I'll try and forget about all the big, thriving city settings I'm always thinking of, and do something new in the "points of light" vein.


Interim is a frontier town established by the small but dynamically opportunistic nation of Krenst upon the recently-discovered continent of Baliath. The whole of northern Baliath--the only region of the continent that has been explored by any living nation--is treeless, punishing desert, but dotted with the ruins and artifacts of dead civilizations, and both great riches and powerful magic can be found by those who dare to brave the wilderness. The exotic fauna of the new continent is largely undocumented, and sometimes dangerous in the extreme, but can be valuable in its own right, especially if captured alive. Inhospitable as Baliath is, at least it's thoroughly unclaimed: So far, no one's seen any proof of surviving native cultures.

Originally intended as a temporary settlement until more familiar building materials could be found or imported, Interim started as a rabble of wagons, shacks, and hastily-erected barricades strewn throughout the red stone ruins of a nameless elder metropolis. The town is partially shaded by the red cliff from which the Old City was quarried, and straddles a precious river, which opens onto a makeshift harbor not far to the north. Finally, the whole Baliath frontier is receiving less support from Krenst than expect, and those building materials haven't quite shown up.

All of this has lead to "Interim" becoming increasingly misnamed with each year. Wagons--and even some ships--have been cannibalized for wood to create homes and shops in some semblance of the Krenst style, while the sand-choked buildings of the Old City have been dug out and reinhabited. New, more formidable walls have been erected around Interim's ever-widening border, cobbled together from both newly-quarried slabs and the tumbled stones of the ruins. Simple watchtowers have been stationed on the walls, and along the river all the way to the harbor, built of old ships' masts and equipped with signal flares and military-grade crossbows.

Those who come to Interim are the best and worst Krenst has to offer: Hardy, adaptable, resourceful, savagely ambitious, and often lawless. Greed, individualism, desperation, and wanderlust drive are the forces that drive them. The exploitation of Baliath is no sure thing, its dangers still too undefined and its rewards too uncertain, and its frontier is dared only by those who see some special opportunity or escape there: The younger sons of magnates and nobles, risking it all to make a name for themselves. Criminals either running from the law or indentured to labor crews. Derelicts and eccentrics with no hope or no place back in Krenst. Crackpots and geniuses with a thousand schemes to build a new kind of society or business or religion, new ways to exploit Baliath or exploit their fellow settlers. Brave or foolhardy scholars who seek to study lost cultures or strange wildlife. Armies of enterprising adventurers willing to do almost anything for enough coin.

And while Krenst was the first power to gain a foothold on Baliath, it is not the only one. The rival nations of Chamast, Usis, and Powla have all begun to stake their own claims, spurred on by rumors of potent war magics recovered from Baliath's ruins. Their settlements are smaller, but sometimes better supported than Interim, and the way the various groups will interact with each other will depend both on local economic and diplomatic conditions, and on the political situation between the nations themselves. Chamast is Krenst's neighbor, similar in culture and power, and with a long history of hostility. Usis is a larger, more distant country, politically neutral towards Krenst, but culturally alien and often difficult to deal with. The Powla are less a nation than a strangely equitable conquering horde. No one knows what they'd want on an uninhabited continent.

The lost civilizations of Baliath have barely been investigated, so far. Some ambiguous carvings and unusual bones have lead to debate about whether or not they were even human. The scale and craftsmanship of many of their buildings suggest a superior level of magical advancement, as do the powerful artifacts and lingering (if sometimes weirdly malfunctioning) enchantments that have been found in their ruins. Theories abound as to what happened to them--war, plague, and magical cataclysm being the most popular--but little concrete evidence has been found. There are rumors of wraith-like throngs haunting the ruins at night, and fleeting mirages of flawless, intact cities, but they are not widely believed. Baliath seems to have marginally higher magic levels than the expected norm, a phenomenon that some say either results from or has caused its present lack of human inhabitants, or is either the cause or effect of those vanished peoples' arcane development.

The animal life of Baliath tends has a startling tendency towards the large, bizarre, and dangerous, and it's something of a mystery how such a barren environment could sustain it all. Scholars are already investigating the possibility that the wildlife might subsist partially on things such as sand, sunlight, or ambient arcane energy. Krenst is a nation of no great magical achievement, but its alchemists are world-renowned, and it is this industry that drives much of the scholarly and entrepreneurial interest in Baliath's wildlife.

Deities in this world are small things, the word "god" being effectively interchangeable with "spirit" and "demon". They are also beings of a strictly local nature, bound to a certain community, geographical area, or object. The settlers of Interim, therefor, had to leave many of their gods behind, but also carried some with them, anchored to altars and fetishes. These immigrant gods have found Baliath's high-magic environment extremely agreeable, but are generally somewhat unnerved by the apparent lack of local deities.


Okay, so there it is: A theoretically-all-human setting, with high alchemy (making all kinds of quasi-modern conveniences possible, for a price) and low magic (meaning that PC Wizards will be learning more from the ruins they explore than from colleges or purchased scrolls). Clerics and Paladins will have a drastically more personal relationship with their gods, who would themselves be individuals without connections to any pantheon. The setting fits the "points of light" shtick in a slightly different way, has a built-in reason for "adventuring" and even dungeon-delving, accommodates all kinds of magical and (non-sentient) monstrous threats, and includes the possibility of foreign humans as both threats and allies. Exploration, mysteries, political and economic maneuvering, ad hoc communities with weak authority and lots of characters, and plenty of ways both for a DM to drop adventure hooks and for players to find their own way. I'll probably never do anything with it, but it could definitely work.

WayneLigon said:

After the dwarves moved out, humans and others moved in. Darkwall's buildings and streets are cut into a large cliff face of black stone, each stepped back from the other so that the streets of one are the rooftops of the one below. Steps, ramps and one short clockwork funicular railway that runs from the docks to the Crown are the means by which the people move from level to level. The 'High City' is set back somewhat more from the rest of Darkwall, the much larger street (High Avenue) at it's lowest level also containing a greater defensive wall and extensive mosaic decoration.

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Aw, nice environment. I really dig the terraced buildings, funicular, and mosaics. Very cool image.

Paraxis said:

Small town set against a 120' waterfall.

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Please just do not put a cave behind the waterfall. That is probably the cliche I hate most in all my experience. Every D&D waterfall I've seen or encountered has a cave system behind it and walking through the waterfall is the big 'secret' the players need to figure out.

So, if it's a caveless waterfall, that sounds like a nice start.

KingCrab said:

Please just do not put a cave behind the waterfall. That is probably the cliche I hate most in all my experience. Every D&D waterfall I've seen or encountered has a cave system behind it and walking through the waterfall is the big 'secret' the players need to figure out.

So, if it's a caveless waterfall, that sounds like a nice start.

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In most of my small town with large waterfall situations, there's a tiny cave behind the waterfall. It's the basic equivalent of Makeout Point; the place where the teenagers of the village go for a semi-safe spot for their late night liaisons.

-TRRW