Points of Light: Locations

[arscott]

Odds are, no villages would have minorities.

I'd wager just the opposite. Consider the following:

-The empire of Nerath spanned a large area, enough that native populations of all PHB races existed within its borders. The existence of the empire would encourage the migration of various races. The empire collapsed only a century ago, and coupled with the long-lifespans of the non-human races, the continued existence of minority populations in villages is certainly feasible.

-Halflings and Dragonborn are described as at least somewhat nomadic. For those wanderers that settle down, their permanent home is just as likely to be in a human village as anywhere else.

-Teiflings aren't even a separate race, as such. They're just humans living under a family curse. Beyond being generally concentrated in the area that used to be Bael-Turath, there's no reason for them to be segregated from the rest of humanity.

-Eladrin live in the feywild, and the border between the feywild and the world is very thin. It's not a stretch to say that there might be eladrin (or at least half-elves) found in even the most Isolated villages.

And all of that is assuming that the village isn't specifically in any border region close to a different race's settlements. Though proximity wouldn't be as likely to result in migration as it is in our modern world, there's still the possibility.



My points of Light:

The emperor's road stretches from the heart of old Nerath into the shattered desert where once Bael Turath stood, and further into the Jungles of the distant south.

And each hard day's ride, there stands a mission of Pelor*. Those closest to the Nerathi capital are at the center of thriving towns or villages. Further south, some are still tended by devout priests, but others have been abandoned or worse.

No man alive today recalls exactly how far south the road stretches. But if you're to find the golden city and the treasure that it's priest-king cultivates, then you'll be seeing the road's end.

*Probably Pelor. We'll have to see what the pantheon looks like.

 

[hbarsquared]

Kingsbridge.

Not a fantasy point of light, of course. But this small town evokes everything that a "point of light" should be.

 

[Pistonrager]

Oh, and I forgot my one original creation for 4e (it's fluff)

The main sport of the area is Chessaning, which is like a mix of polo and football.

two teams on horse back (3 per team) have hooked sticks and try to hook a wicker spere and put it on a spike. You may use your hooked sticks to hit other players, to a certain degree.

Every 2 years all the local towns have a huge festival (which coincides with the harvest)called Coventry, where each town has several teams that all compete to have one winning team. The winning teams town gets some kind of award and really its just a big get together.

My hometown is the site of the blueberry festival, the US's fifth largest festival (over 1 million ppl a year) and it's a blast if your a local (and drunk for most of it). I thought it would be fun to have something similar in D&D. Possibly a good starting point for an adventure

Oh... that's a good idea... I do like the idea of hooks on sticks to put a wicker ball on a spike... could have some ancient and DARK backgrounds. A troupe of black armor clad blackguards riding thru a battlefield scooping up warriors with wicked hooks to ride back to the battlements to hurl their victims off their hooks and onto the spikes adorming their horrible warmachine.

 

[theskyfullofdust]

I'm developing a PoL town called Rifton, which is on the tip of a great chasm caused by a battle that was the reason Nerath fell apart.

There's a river flowing into it, where a great waterfall cascades into the rift. A mill stands at the mouth, a fishery further along.

A solitary tower stands on a free-standing pinnacle of stone, the only building to survive the last battle. It's going to have a dungeon underneath, of some sort.

The town itself will be spread along both sides of the rift, with bridges crossing it where it is at it's narrowest.

Further away is a forest (with elves); a hilly region where gnolls roam; dwarves in a mountain nearby; dragonborn and halflings are nomadic, while tieflings are mingled in with humans freely (although often distrusted).

That's all I've got sketched out so far.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Only the basic outline, and in need of a proper name but here's my first fairly mundane POL

Riverport
A Baron's Keep just downstream of the fork where two rivers join into a large river. Upstream the rivers continue to split, covering a wide area of the land. Downstream they flow toward the grander parts of civilisation - a big city/harbour/whatever you desire. The local Baron has a small keep and small standing army which patrols the local area keeping it safe for local farmers. But his main income is the river tax on traders taking goods up or down stream.

Riverport is a large town for this part of the world, but far from a great city. This side of the river is fairly safe as it is easy for the Baron's men to patrol. And the land upstream between the forks of the river is also reasonably safe. But the river here is fairly fast, and wide enough that patrolling the other side of it is difficult. The Baron has cleared some of the forest on the far bank to ensure the creatures on the other side can't approach in numbers without being seen, but it's impossible to clear it as far as he'd like.

The town itself has a couple of different parts but is fairly simple. The Keep itself with the main square. A single church dedicated to a main deity (I'm using my own pantheon so the church is to all the gods) and smaller shrines/chapels to individual/other deities. The riverside area - with jetties, taverns and various grain/livestock/lumber traders. And a small halfling village with stilt houses on the swampy land between the two rivers - about a mile upstream of the town, been here longer than Riverport, and now has cordial relations and benefits from the Baron's protection.



Still need to work up a suitable threat. Options I'm considering so far are:
1 - a suitably intelligent bandit-like leader (race undecided) that wants to take Riverport in order to secure it's river-tax revenues
2 - a lieutenant to a RHOD-like invasion force commander - taking Riverport in order to cut of trade to another area (where the main invasion is happening)
3 - a traditional 'ruined temple in the wilderness' where some ancient evil/abomination has arisen and corrupted the local tribes. In that I'm tempted to go with those corrupted tribes being elven - quite like the idea of PC races as the bad guys

But always open to ideas.

PS - really like the thread - as a resource for other POLs that I can use as one-off mission destinations in my own campaign I expect it to be invaluable.

 

[Horatio]

Blackstone keep.

Former orc camp, a centre for orc raids over the entire area, close to more civilised places. The closest, most threatened villages of Skom, Whitestream and Willowpen as well as 2 caravan posts gathered their spare gold together and hired a mercenary party, lead by sgt. Sebastian Gray, to clear the threat.

But they were betrayed. Once the mercenaries took off for the orc camp, Skom and Whitestream were attacked by a huge force of orcs, completly burned down, and mercenaries were expected by the orcs, now enclosed between the well guarded camp and two orc raiding parties returning from the villages.

But where there are acts of cruelty and betrayal, there are acts of valor and bravery too. Beatrice Twins, young women from Whitestream, a lone survivor (saved by her not yet discovered arcane powers), rushed to the third village, regardless of her injuries, for help. Somehow she managed to rally the villagers to come to help the mercenaries. But their future, as well as the villagers' looked still pretty grim.

Sebastian Gray was an experienced leader and had a habbit to pre-calculate all possible risks, be it as small as he could imagine. One could say he was crossing the border to paranoia. This time, it saved his life and most of the lives of others. The scouts he usually send each 3 hours to look all around now climbed down the trees and reported the 2 huge clouds of smoke nesting above the area where 2 of the 3 villages were supposed to be.

The preparations were quick. One runner was sent to the third village (later encountered the villagers and joined them). Next, the mercenaries moved from their position north, just between the first village and orc camp and prepared an ambush for the first orc party. The orc got wiped out. After that, they circled around and joined the villagers, at that time fighting the seccond orc raiding party. The battle was won, sadly at the cost of 21 villagers' lives.

Gray's true genius was displayed at the orc camp's siege, where his carefully planned luring tactic led to utter victory over the orcs. The rest of survived villagers and mercenaries decided to settle here, forming a new community.

Now, 2 years later, the orc camp is rebuilded to a well fortified keep overlooking a quickly growing village. Due to its strategic positioning, it quickly became a major point for caravan meeting and the keep's crew keep the large area around it safe. The Gray Warlord (or captain Sebastian Gray) and his spouse Beatrice Twins (known as the Grey Witch) oversee (they refuse the term "rule") all operations and are viewed as firm and benevolent leaders.

Plot hooks:
-not all is black or white: people starts to be missing, a newly formed cult of White eye is suspected to be responsible, but some clues lead to the keep and its leadership. Is white (or should we say Gray) in fact black? Or is the gray cult (of White eye) in fact black?
-gray light: it is said that in twilight, one could reach another world, not so different from this one. And similary, creatures from that world can enter ours. Are the misterious lights in the nearby grove signs of upcoming danger?
-black on white: two years have passed, but the pain of treason is still burning in people's hearts. It has been only a few hours the keep's caretaker found couple of papers in the keep's basement, apparently sent to orcs by the traitor (or by one of the traitors) informing them about the mercenaries and asking for the "agreed payment", and someone has stolen it already. Those papers could lead us to the traitor! Could it be, that he still lives among us? Find the evidence, unlock the mystery.
-shades of gray: the orcs performed awfull rituals here, human sacrifices in the names of their foul god, such teribble things has happened that the negative nergy made the fabric dividing the world from Shadowfell really thin at this place. Now people are starting to feel weak, getting sick, and strange movement can be seen in the shadows. They say sometimes even the shadows them selves are moving. Could we secure the boundaries between the worlds back again?

 

[DMMo]

Ildur: "There is nothing that glitters in this house..."

Over in the Plots & Places section of the Boards, I'm developing a PoL homebase on an island chain based on the real-world Faroe Islands. Thread here. Here's a thumbnail sketch:

Ildur is a roughly arrowhead shaped archipelago of 18 upthrust hunks of igneous rock in the middle of precisely nowhere. It is oddly temperate, thanks to the mysterious currents of the Soulsea, and oddly green, thanks in part to the millions of seabirds that carpet the islands in guano each breeding season. Ildur is a moodily beautiful place, each island a giant slice of elaborately tiered basalt, tilted to one side and covered in green, tussocky felt. Streamer clouds, almost mannered in their perfection, encircle the mountains. Rocky cliffs, topped in arêtes and tarns, plunge into the sea, while up from the water jut massive, looming sea stacks. It rains here a lot, and waterfalls flow pretty much continuously. Some days, the only thing one can make out through the mist is the low gleam of the rills, dozens of them, snaking their way down the sides of the mountains.

The coastal village of Tanavik, a small cluster of timber houses with a population of about 70, lies snugly slotted in the hollow of a massive glacial bowl, facing an equally massive ocean channel formed out of an ancient fjord. Hulking mountains shelter the channel, which funnels a roaring surf right up to the village's front edge. In choral reply, waterfalls cascade down from the high escarpment behind the village. Out in the distance loom Karis and Kellingin, the two most iconic sea stacks in the islands, known to the Venidur as "the witch" and "the giant." (As legend has it, dwarves drove the two ne'er-do-wells into the surf just as the sun came up, and they turned to stone.)

The Venidur settled the islands several hundred years ago. Their icon remains the turf-roofed house. With no trees to be found (hard basalt lies too close to the surface of the soil), when the Venidur first arrived they made rock foundations in the shapes of their boats, turned the boats over on top of the rocks and then, to stabilize and insulate these makeshift houses, put sod on the hulls of the boats. All structures of more recent vintage are built out of driftwood.

The very first Venidur sod-roof farmhouse still stands in Tanavik, though it has long since been converted into a claustrophobic tavern and gathering hall known as the Smoke House. Here, more than anywhere, one feels the spirit of Ildur. Though travelers are uncommon, the proprietor, old Ove, is quick to inform those who come that their coin is worthless here. "This is not a place for gold and silver," he says pointedly. "There is nothing that glitters in this house." It is in this ancient farmhouse, beneath its hulking, fire-singed beams, that our saga begins.

 

[eleran]

my campaign setting so far

**Warning long post**


The planet on which Winterheath resides succumbs a few times a year to a total eclipse of the sun in which the entire planet is plunged into darkness for a period lasting several days. These are known as the "Dark Days". During this time outlying peoples flock into towns and cities for protection from the creatures which relish these times as a period of wanton chaos. Areas located near portals to the Underdark are especially burdened during these times, as the monsters which shun the lighted surface world pour forth and cause calamity before retreating below at the advent of the return of the Sun.

There are those who can predict the coming of the Dark Days by scanning the night skies and looking for its portents in the alignment of the stars and other celestial omens. As each eclipse grows closer it becomes easier to predict. What no one has been able to successfully predict is how long any of these Dark periods will last. The longest on record is 10 days and the shortest was about 36 hours.

When the campaign begins it will be the year 3643CR (common reckoning). Antromar Restenford has been Baron of Winterheath for 26 years.


Winterheath is a small, walled town with a population of roughly 1200 residents. It lies alongside the River Sarbrun and on a crossroads. This placement makes Winterheath an important center of trade in the region.

The landscape around Winterheath is dotted with rolling hills on which small farms scratch out their meager existences. Now and then low stone walls or half collapsed pillars jut out of the ground as a reminder of days gone by which have left the collective memories of residents. In some of these areas anachronistic stone buildings can be seen being used as crude barns or as multi-family dwellings. There are signs of a once great city everywhere one looks. These vestigial structures have seemed to weave themselves into the current tapestry of daily life, hiding most of its secrets somewhere deep below ground.

Approaching the town from any of the three roads, one will see a guard tower before he ever sees the walls of the town proper. This "tower" is a 2 level structure which houses a small squad of military men who's sole job is to delay obvious threats to town long enough to send a warning that something or someone is intent on doing harm to town. They facilitate this warning by ringing a large bell which is placed in the upper story of the structure, and can be heard rather clearly at the town's gate.

Carrier birds are also available should a note need to be sent to town for any reason. One set of birds is trained to go to the Baron's Keep and the other is trained to fly to the headquarters of the Town Watch. Above the guard tower flies the banner of the Baron with its bright yellow background behind a rather majestic looking griffon. This banner is the symbol of the Restenford family. It also flies at the Baron's Keep and at each of the 3 gates into the town. All of the Town Watch wear this symbol as a standard on their shields and/or armor.

Approaching the town proper one sees that the town is walled by a wooden palisade roughly 12' in height. On the outside of the wall is a ditch and rampart. The ditch is filled with water which is diverted from the river. The rampart is defended by evenly spaced punji sticks which provide a deterrent to any creatures approaching the palisade on foot or mounted. over the ditch at each gate is a wooden bridge, which can be either raised or cut loose and shoved into the ditch during time of crisis. Each gate has a gate house which is a small shack designed merely to keep 3 watchmen out of the weather during inclement days and nights. This scene is replicated at all 3 gates into the town. Once inside the gates, one finds a bustling community with two main roads of cobblestone and many streets and alleys branching off which are dirt and scrabble covered. The center of town is where the 2 roads converge to form a T intersection. At this intersection is the heart of Winterheath, the market district. Here, goods from all over the Kingdom, indeed all over the civilized world are offered for trade, purchase and barter.

On the south side of the market square sits the Flagon and Hearth. This inn is the best quality inn in town and is a very popular establishment for visiting merchants during stopovers. Locals don't spend a lot of coin here because it is quite expensive by common standards. Most of the locals who do frequent this establishment do so in the hopes of being seen as important or of a higher station than they might normally be associated. It is a "status symbol" of sorts for some.

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 Wild's Gate. This rugged town lies along the river just after a waterfall which makes boat travel impossible past this point. 3 more days East is the Easting. This port city lies on the Sea of Storms. It is a major trade hub with other regions of the known lands.

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 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 Antromar 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, Entrobar Restenford, the first to carry the title.

Winterheath is primarily thought of as a human town, although examples of all races can be found here.

Most of the town's Halfling population resides in a quarter known as the Barrio. The Barrio lies in the dock district. Halflings tend to have jobs working the river in way or another. In the Barrio, Halflings are involved in all facets of life. Although the Halflings try to remain autonomous, they owe their safety to the protection of the Baron's men in times of real trouble.

Most Elves within Winterheath are refugees from the forest now known as the [[Spiderhaunt Woods}], formally known as Silkwood.. They have set themselves up as a fairly isolated sub-community just outside the town walls. They operate quite autonomously from the townsfolk at large. However, in times of dire trouble they are welcome to take shelter in town.Eladrin are a fairly recent addition to the residents of Winterheath. 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. When a 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 Spiderhaunt Woods, 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 Spiderhaunt are amazed at the sight of an entire forest seemingly swathed 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.

If your interested there is more here > winterheath.wikispaces.com

 

[Engilbrand]

There are definitely some interesting ideas that people have. It's easy to see how one could move from one area to another as one increases in level.
To answer some questions about my area:
While I have things fleshed out, I thought that I'd leave some things to other DMs to decide on. For mine, the roads leading from the fountain are perfectly straight to each of the towns. While the road isn't necessarily cobbled, wear doesn't seem to persist for long. People lived at the ends of the roads because that's where people had always lived. Plus, each of those areas is within close proximity to something else that they would want easy access to.
The woods within the pentagram, as I said, are not wild. They always seem to be abundant in game and have fruit trees and healing plants within. Whenever someone has tried to plant one of these at home or in the wild, though, they've never been able to grow right and end up tasting strange.
There are freshwater wells in each town that give people quite a bit of good water. There are also people in each town who are given the job of taking numerous empty barrels to the fountain every two weeks and filling them. When they return, the village has quite a bit more water. Each village goes at a different time so that there is no overlap.

Possible plot hooks:
Some monsters in the area start to get desperate and decide that they want the water and don't care about the Bountiful Forest. The towns have to do what they can to protect their way of life.
A mysterious man shows up in one of the towns at the same time that the water stops flowing from the fountain. Who is he, and is he connected?
An upstart "Empire" arrives in Moor and starts talking about garrisoning the villages and brining Five Point into the "Empire". The towns don't like this idea.

 

[Chibbot]

Its not very well developed yet, but I've run a few short adventures out of this setting with the available pre-release rules compilation and the DDX pregens, and it is slowing growing.

(I really like the idea of Rifton, I may have to adapt that)

Crystal Peak
The Twin Spineback Mountain Range forms the coastal line between forests to the south, and oceans to the north. A large portion of it is dotted with small mining towns, and a trade road connects each of the towns along the mountains. During the Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons, brave, or reckless, trade caravans travel first west to east, and then back west from east, bringing needed supplies to each of the towns along the route. During the Winter season, frightful weather and massive snowfall shuts down the road (the trade caravans who survive the rest of the year spend the winter enjoying themselves and restocking in the warmer foothills to the west). Once Winter comes, each town along the range lights a large pyre somewhere in or very close to the village, maintaining it throughout the winter with stockpiled supplies, and, if necessary, venturing south out down the mountains into the forest for more supplies. The pyres serve as a notification to the adjacent towns that one is still alive, but the light from one town is visible beyond its first neighbors.

The town of Crystal Peak is situated about halfway to the summit of Grey Mountain, one of the smaller mountains in the range. The elevation of Crystal Peak is about 3 miles. The town is populated roughly 40% by dwarves, 40% by humans, and 20% by other races. There are a few small blacksmiths in town, who primarily work on mining equipment, and there are a few taverns, as well as a large town hall. There is a temple to Amaunator, as well as smaller shrines to both Moradin and Bahamut*.

Crystal Peak has no official ruling council, but operates on an unofficial village council style of leadership, where anyone who has something to say may speak, but there are certain elder, and therefore more highly regarded, members of the town, who's ideas often become the decisions made.

Crystal Peak has no standing militia, but it does have a hearty dwarven constable (probably a level 1 or 2 fighter) who tends to keep the peace.

Roughly one mile out of town is the entrance to the Crystal Peak Mine, a crystal mine, large and growing, from which the town takes it's name. Crystal Peak's neighbor to the east is Stonehaven, a mining town which has a similar population, but with a larger dwarven percentage and more balanced "other" percentage. Stonehaven's mines specialize in metallic ores.

*obviously, this could change once the "official" pantheon is released

Here are the postcard summaries of the two adventures run so far:

1- Kobolds in the Mines!
Yesterday's morning shift of miners went to work and never came back. Last night, the evening shift stayed in town and the constable went out to see what happened. He, too, did not return.
-The adventure was similar to the delve in that it was primarily just slaying kobolds.
-The PCs went out and investigated, finding a variety of kobolds who had dug their way into the mine and laid a few traps. In the end they found a kobold wyrmpriest and handful of dragonshields who were devouts of the young black dragon living in the back room.

2- Monstrous Humanoid Warband
Winter has descended and the trade roads are all but useless, unless an uncommon bout of clear (not warm, just not stormy) weather happens through. The past five days have been fairly clear. Three nights ago, the Stonehave pyre was extinguished.
-A Hobgoblin warpriest/caster had put together a band of hobgoblins and gnolls and was campaigning across the mountain range. They destroyed Stonehaven but for one survivor, who just managed to make it to Crystal Peak in time to hear the gnolls howling outside the city. The PCs put up a mighty defense against two gnoll assault waves, and then decided to venture out of the city to the hobgoblins camp, and took him and his men head on.
-The adventure (intentionally) ended in a TPK, but that little historical event will probably be rewritten for future adventures.

3- Ruins of Stonehaven
This is still in the works. I think that someone in town has a friend or loved one who was in Stonehaven, and the PCs will be sent to investigate, to find out if anyone survived. Stonehaven will now be infested with undead, and be "ruled" by a necromancer or two.
-There will probably be a fight or two along the road, then a couple with undead and the spell casters controlling 'em. Haven't yet come up with a motivation for the casters... maybe use the undead as mining slaves? Not a great reason to animate a town though.