D&D 5E [FR] Mount Hotenow, Thundertree, and Neverwinter

[Jan van Leyden]

In the current Starter Set the ruins of Thundertree mention a disaster caused by Mount Hotenow, some 30 miles top the north of the village. Can anyone enlighten me what kind of disaster this was?

Is Mount Hotenow a volcano? The Neverwinter Woods between mountain and village as well as Neverwinter - as far away from the mountain as Thundertree - indicate that no regional disaster ocurred. So, was only Thundertree affected? What about homesteads and villages, e.g. along the High Road?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

In the current Starter Set the ruins of Thundertree mention a disaster caused by Mount Hotenow, some 30 miles top the north of the village. Can anyone enlighten me what kind of disaster this was?

Is Mount Hotenow a volcano? The Neverwinter Woods between mountain and village as well as Neverwinter - as far away from the mountain as Thundertree - indicate that no regional disaster ocurred. So, was only Thundertree affected? What about homesteads and villages, e.g. along the High Road?

Volcano. It was a regional disaster and Neverwinter was largely destroyed by it and is still rebuilding. Neverwinter is a major city as well people so they actually wanted to rebuild it. Thundertree was considered too out of the way to bother with.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Volcano. It was a regional disaster and Neverwinter was largely destroyed by it and is still rebuilding. Neverwinter is a major city as well people so they actually wanted to rebuild it. Thundertree was considered too out of the way to bother with.

Strange. Neverwinter had to be rebuilt, but the buildings of Thundertree are mostly intact? Seems the disaster in this area was more like gas poisoning?

And what caused the destruction of Neverwinter, was it a lava stream or rocks thrown at the city? Any divine interference, directing the stuff at Neverwinter?

Guess I might use a plague or something instead of of an eruption.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

What caused it? Yet another horrible R A Salvatore novel.

Basically, some RAS characters stirred up a primordial bound and lumbering beneath the lost city of Gauntlgrym and this caused Mt Hotenow to erupt. Neverwinter was struck by an earthquake, flaming debris, and tonnes of ash and volcanic detritus. (The Blacklake of Blacklake District is filled with this sort of muck and rubbish.) If you have a look at a map of the city of the Neverwinter, you will see a massive chasm that opened up as a result of the earthquake.

The YouTube videos for the Neverwinter MMORPG summarise this information to save you from having to read anything by RAS. I actually showed a couple of them at the beginning of my Neverwinter campaign to give my players a sense of what had happened.

As your questions indicate, not a lot of thought was put into this which is one of the hallmarks of RAS's work. Thundertree was struck by something magical as well and that created the ash zombies which are mentioned both in Lost Mine of Phandelver and the Neverwinter Campaign Setting.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Strange. Neverwinter had to be rebuilt, but the buildings of Thundertree are mostly intact? Seems the disaster in this area was more like gas poisoning?

And what caused the destruction of Neverwinter, was it a lava stream or rocks thrown at the city? Any divine interference, directing the stuff at Neverwinter?

Guess I might use a plague or something instead of of an eruption.

This is pretty much what Neverwinter looked like when the eruption happened but worse.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/a...1314054316-neverwinter-maps-map_evernight.jpg

This is what the city more or less currently looks like

http://www.cartographersguild.com/a...14054281-neverwinter-maps-map_neverwinter.jpg

Thundertree had the advantage of a lava river not going through it.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

What caused it? Yet another horrible R A Salvatore novel.

As your questions indicate, not a lot of thought was put into this which is one of the hallmarks of RAS's work. Thundertree was struck by something magical as well and that created the ash zombies which are mentioned both in Lost Mine of Phandelver and the Neverwinter Campaign Setting.

So as long as Mr. Salvatore isn't hiding in my yard, threatening to unleash some creature of his imagination, I'll just use my own explenation for this local effect. Thanks!

 

[MonsterEnvy]

So as long as Mr. Salvatore isn't hiding in my yard, threatening to unleash some creature of his imagination, I'll just use my own explenation for this local effect. Thanks!

Well the volcano is a pretty good explanation it caused an earthquake as well which is why lots of the buildings are collapsed and the Ash from the Volcano made the ash zombies.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

This is pretty much what Neverwinter looked like when the eruption happened but worse.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/a...1314054316-neverwinter-maps-map_evernight.jpg

This is what the city more or less currently looks like

http://www.cartographersguild.com/a...14054281-neverwinter-maps-map_neverwinter.jpg

Thundertree had the advantage of a lava river not going through it.

That first one is the Shadowfell version of Neverwinter. It really doesn't depict what happened to Neverwinter.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

The YouTube videos for the Neverwinter MMORPG summarise this information to save you from having to read anything by RAS. I actually showed a couple of them at the beginning of my Neverwinter campaign to give my players a sense of what had happened.

Could you link to these, please? I'd love to show them to my players as well.

BTW, I just discovered your blog. It's AWESOME!

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Could you link to these, please? I'd love to show them to my players as well.

BTW, I just discovered your blog. It's AWESOME!

Wow, thanks.

I'll need to sort through the videos tomorrow and then I will post the links.