Welcome to Stormwell!

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"Welcome to Stormwell!" yells the gate guard to the loud wooden wagon's passengers, whom you are among. Looking up your view is obscured by stone as you pass under the portcullis.

Hello all, I am ISD. I'm rather new to D&D 4.0, having only played a few games. However despite being new to the game I find myself trying to create a setting for myself. When it's finished I will try my hand at being a DM for the first time.

The mega-city Stormwell is the central location that I'm building the setting around. The setting is very liquid right now as I have only a few NPC's solidly conceptualized and only a few historical events written down. The setting and world still need name's beyond this city but I'm getting ahead of myself. I am starting this thread and will be adding to it and reading it every few days or so. My hope is that you my fellow D&D fans will help me flesh out this setting and make it a real living world. Listing the books I have will help with this I hope.
PHB, PHB2, FRPG, EPG, MP, AP, MM, MOTP, DCD, DMG.
I will edit this list if/when I purchase new books.

People so far
Lord Mark Holder
(human, unaligned, Patron of the Cloth-mans guild, master of the holder estate)
Lord Orthan Smith
(human, unaligned, elected Magistrate, Patron of the Smith&carpenter guild)
Sir Unan Smith
(human, good, cleric of Bahamut and to a lesser degree Moradin, Kord, and Pelor)
Captain Ruben Dhogm
(dragonborn, fighter, lawful good, leader of the militia)
King Jett
(Genasi, chaotic evil, dictator of The Genasi City)

 

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How should I stat something if I need it to be able to act both as a antagonist and an allied NPC? Also this is a try at stating an NPC and Monster please tell me if I did anything incorrectly. one last thing, what trained skills should a bartender have? Diplomacy and something else?

NPC Doppelganger level 2: skirmishers/warlock/average
Strength: 10/10/10
Constitution: 14/13/14
Dexterity: 10/11/11
Intelligence: 14/16/15
Wisdom: 12/12/12
Charisma: 17/18/18
AC: 16/17/17
Fortitude: 16/13/15
Reflex: 16/16/16
will: 17/18/18
HP: 38/29/34
Initiative: +2/+0/+1
equipment: medium leather armor
Eyebite: Standard Action,Ranged 10, At-will, Arcane, Charm, Implement, Psychic, Target one creature, Attack charisma vs. will, Hit 1d6+4 psychic damage, and you are invisible to target until the start of your next turn.
Basic Melee: Standard Action, Melee 1, At-will, Weapon, Target one creature, Attack strength vs. AC, Hit 1d4+0 Damage, special if invisible to target add 1d4 extra to damage.
Misty Step: When an enemy under your warlock’s Curse is reduced to 0 hit points or fewer, you can immediately teleport 3 squares as a free action.
Warlock’s Curse: one attack per round dose +1d6 damage to a cursed target, curse a creature once per turn as a minor action.
Change Shape: At-will, Polymorph, Minor Action, Personal, Effect alter appearance. Insight vs. Bluff+20

 

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NPC Minotaur level 2 soldier/fighter/average
Strength: 13/14/14
Constitution: 17/18/18
Dexterity: 14/13/14
Intelligence: 10/11/11
Wisdom: 10/10/10
Charisma: 14/14/14
Initiative: +2/+1/+2
Hit Points: 41/34/38
Armor Class: 18/15/17
Fortitude: 17/18/18
Reflex: 16/13/15
Will: 16/14/15
equipment: leather armor, (old school mace).
power: goring charge, encounter, standard action, melee 1, attack d20+4 vs AC, special you must charge as part of the attack, hit 1d6+2 and target is knocked prone.
power: Melee basic with mace, attack d20+4 vs AC, hit 1d8+2

 

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Artifact: large +5 Great-Sword, if you know the sword's name you may wield it even if you are a medium humanoid as if it were a normal sized weapon. If you do not know the sword's name you may still wield it if you can wield a large weapon legally however you only get a +3 bonus off of the weapon. a normal great-sword dose 1d10 this item is large and dose 1d12. indestructible, this item is immune to magical destruction, The great-sword can not be forced to tell someone its name, and it cannot be knocked out of it's owners hands.

This sword is a rather new artifact being just under 600 years old. It was crafted by the powerful sorcerer and evil wizard "VO" as a weapon experiment. It is unknown why but the sword likes good people, and will only tell it's name to a good person who acquired it by honest means. The current owner is the captain of the Stormwell militia, and yes he knows it's name. The sword's name is apparently unspeakable as it is not known and none of it's many owners have revealed it. On top of this being impossible to disarm or destroy this item makes a very effective weapon.

Artifact: The Hive, when thrown this brown orb will spill out magical construct bees, if a creature starts it's turn in this zone they take 1d4 fire damage and 1d4 melee damage. on the turn it is throw the zone is only the square the orb occupies, role a initiative order, every turn on it's turn add 1d4 random adjacent squares to the zone. The bees retreat when no creature has entered their zone for 5 minutes.

The Hive is over 800 years old. It was crafted by the sorcerer and wizard "VO" as a doom's day experiment. The Hive was a failure as it's effect was extremely limited. Being such a unique item The Hive has passed hands many times. It has been owned by many wizards who hoped to learn it's secrets. It's last known owner the artificer morgan steel tong was imprisoned for bringing the dangerous artifact into the city of stormwell 200 years ago. 180 years ago it was stolen from a vault and it's current location is unknown. The Hives has no motivations, however it dose not like being dropped.

More item's and item history coming soon.

 

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All Stormwell Artifacts stop working if they are farther then 10 miles from a Stormwell, and if you have one you know in which direction the nearest Stormwell is. The Dragon Mox was one of the three dragons involved in the Stormwell ritual. Five artifacts are known to be of his design. A DD is a stormwell artifact that only tells its holder in which direction they are standing in relation to the nearest stormwell. Although a stormwell artifact has a range of 10 miles there DD effect continues to function outside this range. Cheap DD's are often used in place of compasses which do not work properly in the mountain region.

Stormwell Artifact: Mox's Finger, A gold ring with a blue jade stone set in it. the wearer has the power Summon Lord and the Target of that power receive the power Summoned Lord.
- Power: Summon Lord, encounter, free action, Primary Target a willing Blue Dragon with whom an understanding has been reached, Secondary Target any space big enough for the Primary Target, Effect a dragon teleports into the space and if needed may spend a healing surges.
- Power: Summoned Lord, no action, Trigger an attack or other effect targets the summoner, Effect the dragon is now the target of the attack or effect and may use its own stats to defend.

Mox's Finger was meant to allow the dragon to be in two places at once. If he needed to be available to his servants far away, but could not accompany them because of other projects. He intended to send this ring with them so he could be summoned when there was need. The ring's power is not known outside of the Holder family and the ring is worn by the head of the Holder estate. Outside of the Holder family the ring is thought to be one of the more beautiful DDs (direction detecters).

Stormwell Artifact: Mox's Eye, A 5 by 3 inch, 1 inch thick teardrop shaped blue jade stone on a sting. The individual who had the stone visible on his person has a +10 bluff check and a +5 diplomacy check, however the owner of the stone may not verbally lie when asked a direct question. This dose not stop the owner from telling a half truth.

Mox's Eye was meant to help his spies infiltrate enemy territory. Mox feared his spies could become double agents, so he added a layer of protection against this. The Eye is currently worn by the magistrate of Stormwell and what it dose is common knowledge.

 

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this needed a new section

Story pieced together from the few surviving documents
1000: Mostly chromatic dragons are fighting over vast territorial claims including the future locations of the Stormwell districts. Kobold armies are being raised by dragon masters.
900: An alliance of young dragons organized throughout the plains and mountains regions threaten the survival of older lone dragons. At about the same time two ancient green dragons go to war in the jungle area wiping out many lesser dragons. In response to these threats three adult blue dragons one from each region join a short lived alliance of storm dragons.
875: The storm dragon alliance falls apart but the three blues keep a lucrative trade agreement going though the use of portal rituals.
800: The jungle regions blue is attacked by the southern ancient green's army. To break the sedge the other two blues send a large number of kobold troops though a portal ritual.
700: The blues having reenforced each other in many battles come into a formal alliance.
600: The alliance of an ancient red (mostly goliath army) and an ancient white (mostly goblin army) dragon threatens to destroy them from the mountains region. The blue dragons agree that the use of temporary portal rituals to move thousands of kobold troops is becoming to costly and decide to build a permanent solution.
595: The blues agree upon building the "Ifni di Itpro" (Door of Lightning) and that they should build them in highly defendable locations even at the cost of resources. They also agree upon the addition of item creation in the ritual.
590: Three forts are simultaneously finished in all three region. Their outer walls stood upon the same ground as the outer walls of modern Stormwell. The creation ritual for the Ifni di Itpro is many times longer then first anticipated and includes an unrecorded number of magic items. One kobold healer/priest recored the number in the thousands, however it is uncertain if this was the number of magic items or the number of ingredients for the items.
560: The ancient white and ancient red dragons turn on each other. It is thought that this is close to when the ancient red infiltrated a kobold loyal to him into the mountain fort.
520: The ritual is finish being written and all the components have been gathered. The rituals complexity required it to be written with specific persons named as the casters, and with the same race and approximate age of the participants listed. To power the Ifni di Itpro the blues had located a endless pocket of pure lightning in the elemental chaos. Even with the vast amount of preparations the ritual would still take seven days and would require that the three blue's completely memorize it. The ancient red dragon of the maintain region kills the ancient white and takes over the remainder of her army.
519: The Blues agree that no more preparation is required and begin the ritual at midnight. On the forth day their armies of kobolds are heavily assaulted in the mountain region, by the ancient red's hybrid goliath, goblin and kobold army. On the last night of the ritual after it's completion but before the three blues had fully detach themselves of the power source the ancient red dragon killed the mountain blue. The loss of control caused by one of them being killed backlashed instantly killing the other blues. the red dragon renames the fort's collectively "Kepesk Algbo" (Storm Well) and takes up residence in the plains region.
518: The ancient greens of the jungle region agree to leave stormwell as neutral territory in their war.
499: A human and orc army ravages the southern lands of the plains region heading for Kepesk Algbo. The few living dragons in the area use this as a rallying cry to attack Kepesk Algbo. They are aided by an ancient purple in the mountain regions under-dark sending a mixed Drow and dwarf army. at Kepesk Algbo in the mountains.
498: very few documents exist from the this year but most tell us the fort was now a three part city which changed rulers frequently.
497: a human ruler takes control of the city and orders several events recorded including his coming to rule and the death of the ancient red dragon in his dungeon.
450: a council now rules the city they call Stormwell. a cleric of bahamut writes that their are only three living dragons two greens in the jungles and a purple far underground in the mountains. The half-orc explorer Fred Ox sets out from the mountain Stormwell to be the first person to have walked from one district of stormwell to another without the aid of portals.
400: Fred Ox dies in a farmhouse just two miles short of the plains Stormwell he is over 70 years old. Fred is berried in the second districts catacombs inside the plains city limits.
399: A Genasi army comes close to the plains stormwell but stops and settles sixty miles away.
380: A war breaks out between small orc tribes in the plains. Kobold farmers ask stormwell to intervene in the conflict but receive no aid.
360: Large numbers of dwarfs are forced out of the under-dark by drow in the mountain region. They settle in what would become known as the mining camps.
200: A dragonborn army from the southern plains sacks district 2. Lord albert Holder negotiates a treaty in which the dragonborn army would be given the cities walls of all three districts in exchange for military service. the treaty is now one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in stormwell. The area just inside the walls of Stormwell in each district is one of the most heavily populated areas of each city. It is only populated by dragonborn and boasts the largest structures in stormwell. The only exception in this treaty is the lord holders manner which is part of the plains northern wall.

 

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Locations

Places so far
--Stormwell: The city has three districts connected by the stormwell a gargantuan free standing portal. The districts are thousands of miles from each other and each has a different geological feature.
-district 1: Deep in the mountain region is stormwell district 1. This area is rich in iron, coal, tin, copper, and other mineral resources. Food is supplied to this district thought the stormwell. Exotic foods are imported though the under-dark caravans. Most of stormwell's manufacturing is done here in the Smith&carpenter guild. City Hall is the center piece of this district being the home of the magistrate and meeting place of the city council. This districts outer wall holds about 2/5 of stormwell's dragonborn population and shows a great deal of dwarven construction. Stormwell's bars and beds are located here with Jinn Tavern, Rams Inn, and Orange Tavern being the liveliest.
-district 2: Nestled in a fertile plain district two is the agricultural center of stormwell and has the best animal husbandry. Few manufacturing jobs can be found here, however the Cloth-mans Guild is the largest exception. Kobold and human farmers live outside stormwell in this area, which is constantly threatened by gnolls. Orc tribes live in the south but do not constitute a significant threat. The outer wall of this district houses approximately 2/5 of stormwell's dragonborn population. In district 2 one of the oldest buildings in stormwell the Holder Manner is the only non-dragonborn structure attached to an outer wall.
-district 3: rising above the waterline in the jungle region is this district, which boasts exotic foods and fine lumber. This district is the most expensive and safest to live in. The Reeds is a giant water garden inside this district of stormwell. The two ancient greens that rule this region often buy cloth and manufactured goods from stormwell though the markets in this district. A permit is required to sell goods in this district and can be acquired though city hall in district 1. Airships are a common from of goods transport between the cities of the north and south and this district.
--Genasi City: In the plains region a genasi city sits about 60 miles from stormwell's district 2. The city keeps to itself mostly trading with local farmers and importing stormwell products. The city produces a great many books for export and imports very little.
--Mining camps: above ground in the mountain region dwarf companies have many permanent and temporary mining camps strategically placed to maximize profits. These camps if taken as a single organization boast a total population of over twelve thousand.
--Under-dark: Underground in the mountain region is the under-dark a vast system of interconnecting caverns and tunnels. Moss, mushrooms, and albino fish are just some of the foods grown here and are often exported topside. Drow cities dot the subterranean landscape, while dwarf mining companies have temporary camps placed sporadically.