New Neverwinter’s hired goons can be represented by a variety of statblocks for characters or usually-playable ancestries extracted from the Monster Manual 2, Monster Vault, and Threats to the Nentir Vale. There’s a table here with entries ranging from level 1 to level 8. It includes a Doppelganger Sneak, every stat block from the [River Rats][1] entry in Threats plus a smattering of humans, gnomes, half-elves and dragonborn.

We also get detailed writeups for Neverember himself and for Soman Galt, and some information on General Sabine, the faction’s third big shot.

Dagult Neverember

As written, Neverember is a somewhat complex villain by D&D standards. He’s ruthless, greedy, arrogant and imperialistic, but he is not evil-aligned. His preferred way of lining his own pockets also tends to be beneficial to his trade partners, and he is sincere in his desire to improve the lives of his subjects even if it’s only so they’ll crown him king. He also behaves like a typical mercantilist aristocrat, which includes a dose of sexism. He treats “intelligent male acquaintances” with respect but “flirts outrageously” with “beautiful female guests”. I strongly suggests removing these traits from his personality if you want him to come off as sympathetic to your players.

If the PCs can stomach his horrible personality, he might end up allied with them against a greater threat, even if only because that greater threat would be worse for the region than him.

If he dies, it will cause a lot of chaos in the city, because like it or not he’s one of the region’s current stabilizing forces. The Thayans, Netherese, and the rebels would immediately feel emboldened by the chaos, and the rebels in particular will immediately turn on anyone who tries to take leadership of the city for themselves (because they want it). If no one else manages to take over, General Sabine will do it and turn the city into a brutal militarized police state. So I guess the PCs should make sure the region is set up to remain stable after his demise before facing the guy.

Neverember is a Level 7 Soldier with 84 HP. Yes, he’s a regular, which means he will have plenty of bodyguards with him. He’s armed with a Longsword whose basic attacks inflict a -2 penalty to hit for a turn, and if an adjacent enemy shifts or targets someone other than him with an attack, he can use Lord’s Rebuke to make a free basic attack against them. He can also Taunt (recharge 4+), an attack vs. Will that targets one enemy and on a hit pulls them 4 squares and makes them grant combat advantage for a turn.

General Sabine

General Sabine doesn’t get a section of her own, but I’m collecting and repeating the scattered information we get about her here. She’s the commander of the mercenary company Lord Neverember hired to act as his army and police force.

The reason he’s using mercenaries is because using his house troops from Waterdeep would make the whole situation look too much like an invasion and occupation by a foreign power. Sabine, however, is perfectly able and willing to command her army like the foreign invasion and occupation force it is. There’s not to much nuance to her character - she’s an uncomplicated brutal authoritarian. She uses the stats for the Human Cavalier from the MM2, making her a Level 7 Soldier (Leader).

I imagine there are lots of complaints about the police brutality inflicted on the citizenry of Neverwinter by the mercenaries, though I guess Neverember manages to keep them at just below the level where he’d care. If Neverember dies suddenly, General Sabine is the most likely character to replace him in the internal power struggle that will follow, and she will turn the city into a violent police state.

Mordai Vell, one of the leaders of the Ashmadai, is trying to recruit Sabine for the cult. As of the campaign’s start, he hasn’t succeeded yet - whether he will or not depends on the wishes of the GM and the events that happen in play.

Soman Galt

The acting mayor of Neverwinter gained his position because of his previous career as a government official. He’s more than a bit scatterbrained but is capable of taking his job seriously and performing it competently.

Neverember thinks of Galt as a useful puppet, and he’s right. However, he’s someone else’s puppet. Rohini, the Prophet of Helm’s Hold, got a hold of the dwarf and turned him into an asset of the Abolethic Sovereignity quite some time ago. As the campaign starts, Galt is under an incredible number of aboleth-crafted post-hypnotic suggestions, and regularly visits Helm’s Hold to receive more. This has him looking less and less healthy as time goes by.

It also means the aboleths are effectively in control of the city’s civil and social policies, and know everything that happens on it. They know which spots on the city wall are less defended, and send their monsters there. They’re going to have an incredible edge when they decide to really invade the surface.

Galt doesn’t actually know any of this, and would probably go insane from trauma and guilt if he learned it. In emergencies, one of the aboleths below can assume direct control of him, switching his alignment from Unaligned to Chaotic Evil and giving him access to extra powers. Once he becomes bloodied, that control becomes stronger and he begins moving as if he was having a seizure.

Galt is a Level 6 Controller with 74 HP. His typical dwarven speed of 5 increases to 7 when he’s bloodied. Being bloodied also activates his aura (5) of Dissonant Gibberish, which inflicts Vulnerable 5 Psychic and a -2 penalty to saves on all enemies inside.

Galt’s basic attack is a Whipping Warhammer that damages and slides the target 1 square. He can Transmute the Unwilling as a ranged attack, dealing psychic damage and slowing (save ends). Even on a miss this still slows for a turn. Once per encounter he can Weave Nightmares in a Close Burst 2, targeting all enemies, dealing heavy psychic damage and dazing (save ends). Also once per encounter he can Twist Space to teleport 3 squares. If he chooses to appear in an enemy’s space with this, they swap positions and the enemy grants combat advantage for a turn.

Impressions

I think Galt is our most pleasant surprise here, in terms of both his lore and his mechanics. As for the other two, Sabine is more dangerous than Dagult if you give her a mount and fix the damage on her MM2 stat block. I think this makes sense, both in-setting and narratively. She’s kind of his Dragon, in TVTropes parlance.