The River District occupies the city’s northeastern quadrant and was where most of the city’s merchant class lived, and also the location of a couple of wizard towers. These homes were not as nice as those of the Blacklake nobles, but they were still sturdy and are still mostly standing.

Today’s River District is much more dangerous and hostile than Blacklake. The many guardhouses and security walls here now act as prime ambush spots. It’s protected from the Chasm by the river, but monsters from the wilderness outside can freely wander in. The main source of danger, however, are the Many-Arrows Orcs. Neverember has so far failed to dislodge them, and maintains an uneasy truce punctuated by skirmishes while he thinks of a way to do so.

The Mintarn mercs mostly stay away from the River District, making it a good place for shady deals if one can dodge the orcs. Hot-blooded youngsters also love to go here on dares, despite their parents’ protestations. And while scavengers have long taken all of the most obvious treasure, there’s still some left in secret stashes all over those merchant mansions.

The Fallen Tower

This used to be a wizard’s tower, but it was destroyed during the Spellplague. Some time later, its ruins became a tavern whose main attraction is the nightly haunt showing the deaths of the wizards as they fall from a great height into what is now the tavern’s cookfire at the center of the common room. Charming.

The place was vacant when the orcs found it but it still contained a lot of stored food and drink, so they reopened it for their own use. Lord Neverember and Commander Vansi have declated The Fallen Tower to be neutral ground, and their envoys meet here when they have cause to talk. Non-orcs deemed worthy to share a drink with the Many-Arrows are also allowed to frequent the Tower.

The Cloak Tower

The Cloak Tower was once the headquarters of a mage guild called The Many-Starred Cloaks. It vanished into thin air at the height of the Spellplague and rematerialized six months later at a different address, without its wizards. People who have tried to explore it in the past were turned away or killed by its magical wards and traps, and everyone thought the same would happen to the orcs. However, for some reason, they had absolutely no trouble moving in and making this tower their home.

The Shard of Night

This black stone tower appeared high above the River District during the Spellplague and has floated there ever since. It looks like it was cut off from its base, with an opening at the bottom. It casts no shadow during the day, and when people walk under it their own shadows vanish as well. It does cast a shadow by the light of the moon, and even though no one was ever seen to enter or leave the place, eerie sounds sometimes echo from it.

The tower used to be part of a distant temple of Selûne, but it was cut off and banished to the Shadowfell during a Netherese assault on that temple. After the battle, they found out they could control where the tower appeared in the world, so they sent it to Neverwinter during the Spellplague and left it there until the day when it was needed.

Now it is needed, and they’re using it. The Shard’s enchantments allow it to absorb shadows during the day and use them to power a teleportation circle inside that links it to Xinlenal.

Creatures infused with shadow power, such as the Scion of Shadow, are immune to the absorption effect and still cast shadows while under the Tower. They also feel a comforting pull from it, which might help clue them in to what lies inside.

Impressions

This is the “bad” part of town. I imagine most who live here are either Many-Arrows, allied with them, or sneaky enough to go undetected. I also think envoys who want to go to the Fallen Tower for diplomacy with the orcs might need some sort of token of safe passage, since it’s actually quite far from the district’s borders.

Profit-oriented parties could have some interesting adventures following up on rumors of a big treasure cache still hidden in the River District, but most of the hooks here involve dealing with the Many-Arrows somehow. Raiding the Shard of Night is an interesting way to get to Xinlenal without a long and arduous overland trek into the Woods, but that place is only approachable by “endgame” parties.