D&D 5E Living Elsir Vale / Red Hand of Doom - Feedback Requested

[aurin777]

A Sandbox of Sandboxes
My goal for the Elsir Vale was to make the whole setting feel like a living, breathing string of settlements as one giant sandbox where PCs could wander from town to town and explore potential adventure hooks that interest them. to do so, I focused primarily on location-based adventures (opposed to event-based adventures) to accomplish this task. Another benefit from this approach is that the PCs will feel more involved, and ultimately responsible, for the Elsir Vale, so the events of the Red Hand of Doom will really pull on the adventurers' heartstrings.

Settlements of the Vale
As I mentioned in the first post, I've compiled a list of my favorite adventures made up from the best-of lists across a number of different publishers to find location-based adventures with the right feel of the Elsir Vale. My next step is to sand off the edges to make the pieces all fit together and then create threads and hooks to tie the settlements throughout the Vale together. The working list of settlements is below:

Brindol - Brindol (from RHoD)
Dauth - Greenest (from Hoard of the Dragon Queen); this town will need more detail so I'll have to do more work here
Dennovar - TBD
Drellin's Ferry - Drellin's Ferry (from RHoD)
Elsircross - Falcon's Hollow (from Towns of the Inner Sea, Hollow's Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King)
Hammerfist Holds - Work in progress. Still pondering this one here. Perhaps some part of Overlook, Bordrin's Watch, Wildsgate from Into the Wilds, and more.
Hillwatch - Town TBD from Vault of Larin Karr
Marthon - Town TBD from Vault of Larin Karr
Nimon Gap - Fairhill (from Crucible of Freya)
Prosser - Town TBD (from Vault of Larin Karr)
Red Rock - Phandelin (from Lost Mines of Phandelver)
Talar - Dagger Rock (from Dungeon Magazine #4)
Terrelton - TBD
Witchcross - TBD

The three I'd like to start getting more detail on most are Hammerfist Holds, Witchcross, and Dauth. I haven't done much exploring in dwarf-focused supplements so that one I'll need to do more research on. For Witchcross, I need a more druid-focused town (perhaps I'll go take a look at Shattered Circle again) to get something there. The Keepers of Eth are a good hook, so I want to make sure it's properly represented. Dauth (Greenest) is very bare bones, so it will need a ton more in terms of NPCs, locations, and hooks, but I may fill that in myself.

 

[aurin777]

Nimon Gap
My plan (where it stands now, anyway) is to have the players travel from Brindol through Talar to Nimon Gap, based on their initial adventure hook. It will be important to a deep, interesting village experience for the PCs in these to towns because I want the players to care when the hobogblin horde burns them to the ground on their march through Drellin's Ferry - Terrelton - Nimon Gap - Talar on their way to Brindol.

The only description we have of Nimon Gap comes from the summary at the beginning of RHoD:

A tiny hamlet located at the place where the Dawn Way descends out of the Nimon Hills, Nimon Gap grew up around a large walled inn known as the Cross-Eyed Beholder. The folk of Nimon Gap grow apples, pears, and chestnuts in orchards sheltered below the hills, while shepherds and goatherds keep their livestock in the heights.

Here's the expanded description of Fairhill from Crucible of Freya, altered / updated to fit with Nimon Gap. I'll go through the changes to people and places in another post.

Overview
The village of Nimon Gap rests on the largest of several gently sloping hills a few miles off of the Dawn Way, the major trade route through the Elsir Vale. Four hundred fifteen souls inhabit the village and surrounding farmland. Nimon Gap’s orchards are fertile and its populace happy, due in large part to Pelor, the god of sun and healing, and St. Deidre, the patron saint of fertility of Nimon Gap. The temple of Pelor is the focal point of the citizens of the village, and Mother Shandril Freyimm , the village priestess, is a devoted follower of the Sun Father. Under Shandril’s guidance, the village’s orchards yield great quantities of apples, pears, and chestnuts, the goats and sheep produce milk, billies, and yews in abundance, and married couples live in joyous harmony with numerous children.

While the village is governed by Speaker Arlen Fairhill, the local magistrate, the true leader of Nimon Gap is Shandril. She disdains, that role, however, and openly supports Arlen as magistrate. There is little political strife in Nimon Gap as Arlen, Shandril, Captain Baran, and the tavern owners all work together to make the small village thrive.

Population
415 (mostly human)

Authority Figures
Arlen Fairhill, Speaker of Nimon Gap; Baran the One-Handed, Captain of the Nimon Gap Watch; Mother Shandril Freyimm, Priestess of Pelor

Important Characters
Lyrelle Paarth, Baran’s lieutenant; Tarnen, proprietor of the Cask and Flagon; Glarian Paarth, proprietor of the Cross-Eyed Cockatrice; Voril Groves, local blacksmith