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Let's Read the Neverwinter Campaign Setting: Netherese
As mentioned several times in this Let’s Read already, Netheril was a human empire who ruled over most of the world around three thousand years before our narrative present.
Their understanding of magic reached levels never seen before or since, but they fell literally overnight when one of their top archmages tried to cast a spell that was supposed to make him into a god but instead irreversibly fucked up Toril’s magic. This caused the vast majority of the flying islands where these archmages lived to plummet to the ground.
One such island managed to avoid this fate when its inhabitants plane-shifted it into the Shadowfell (known as the Plane of Shadow back then). They stayed there until the end of Second Edition, when they started coming back into the world, mutated by their millenia in darkness and with a desire to rebuild their former empire.
These shadow-people are known as Shadovar, but they also consider themselves to be Netherese and the book uses the two terms interchangeably. There’s a group of them hiding in the Neverwinter Wood, led by a mage named Clariburnus Tanthul.
Goals
The Shadovar have a single major goal in this region: to repair the fallen island of Xinlenal.
Xinlenal was the first Netherese flying island ever built, the crowning achievement of the ancient archmage Iolaum, who discovered the technique to making them. Making it fly again would raise the flag of Netherese dominance over the whole region, and it would become their greatest center of power in the entire world.
The key to fixing Xinlenal is to repair its mythallar, a magical engine that looks like a giant crystal sphere and shines like a contained sun. It shattered when the city fell, and Shadovar artificers are hard at work repairing it as the campaign starts. The process requires immense quantities of Residuum, and the easiest way to produce Residuum is to destroy magic items. The older and more powerful, the better.
This means Shadovar agents are scouring the entire region looking for ancient ruins and the magical relics they contain. The ruined cities of Illefarn, the crumbling outposts of Delzoun, even the burial mounds of Uthgardt heroes: all of these are fair game, and anyone who would object to their plundering is an enemy.
Not even these ancient ruins might yield enough residuum for their purposes, though. They’ve started looking at less-old places too. As the campaign starts that’s still mostly consists of clashing with and looting the bodies of Thayan and Ashmadai goons, but they could soon move up to plundering Neverwinter itself.
One of Caliburnus’ secondary goals include discovering the fate of Iolaum. Sure, the wizard lived thousands of years ago and was on Xinlenal when it fell, but surely one of the bestest mages from the bestest magical empire ever wouldn’t let little details like that kill him, would it? Imagine what he could do for the Shadovar cause if he’s brought on-board!
The other secondary goal is to pursue their war with Thay. There’s only room for one world-spanning fascist mage empire in this planet, after all. The Shadovar regularly attack the Thayan base in the Dread Ring, and they’ve also managed to park one of their flying fortresses above the Thayan city of Surcross, which they bombard regularly. In case you don’t remember, that’s one of the possible locations where Valindra might have hidden her soul vessel.
And finally, further down the list, there’s the handling of the Gray Wolf Uthgardt tribe. The Shadovar recruited them into their service with appeals to their “ancient Netherese heritage” and gave them the mission to infiltrate and eventually conquer Helm’s Hold. So far the werewolves have managed to place several agents in the town, who are busy sowing unrest and generally making it ready for a takeover. Their progress is slow but in Caliburnus’ view the tribe’s main purpose is to act as a red herring when people start trying to investigate Netherese activities. In the meantime, Gray Wolf warriors also get used as muscle when the need for it arises.
Player Tie-Ins
The Netherese seems to be the major faction with the most explicit tie-ins to PC backgrounds.
The Scion of Shadow, of course, starts the game in direct conflict with them. They have enough information to begin opposing the faction right away, and especially bold Scions might think to pretend to be loyal in order to infiltrate it.
Their rampant plundering of ancient ruins also places them in direct opposition to the Iliyanbruen Guardian, Heir of Delzoun, and the Uthgardt Barbarian. The book says they are definitely guilty of stealing those eladrin relics, but it’s less definitive about their role in plundering the Uthgardt barrow - that could have been the Thayans depending on what the GM desires. Even so, their control of the Gray Wolves will still make them cross paths with both the Barbarian and the Pack Outcast.
Relationships
The Netherese don’t care about New Neverwinter at all, though that will change a bit when they start targeting the city for its magic items.
They are completely ignorant of the Abolethic Sovereignity. Some of their officials suspect there’s something funky going on beneath Neverwinter and have sent agents to investigate, but they’re only going to bother Caliburnus about this when those agents return with answers. This makes the fact that they’re trying to conquer Helm’s Hold particularly funny.
They see the Ashmadai as nothing more than minions of the Thayans and have no idea the cult has plans of its own. The Thayans of course are their greatest enemies in the region and the Shadovar devote as many resources to fighting them as they do to restoring Xinlenal.
They also have some important links to minor factions, as mentioned above. Their hold over the Gray Wolves means they will have to deal with the other Uthgardt Tribes eventually, and the fey of Iliyanbruen are the primary targets of their relic raids.
Impressions
While the Netherese are a bit less cognizant of the other factions than I expected, their plans are appropriately ambitious and they have a real shot at success barring PC intervention. They also have a bunch of strong ties to several PC themes, so they’re very likely to feature in your campaign.
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Let's Play Hell's Rebels: Devils and other Fiends
My recent adaptation efforts for that Hell’s Rebels campaign had me going on a spelunking expedition about fiend stats in D&D. Here’s what I found out, and what I intend to do about it on this GURPS adaptation.
For our purposes here, “fiend” refers to all of the monsters that originate from the “evil planes” of the D&D universe: demons, devils, daemons, and others. “Fiend” was the only general term left, so we’re using it in this post.
Fiends in D&D
D&D’s fiend situation is one of the most egregious examples of its tendency towards overly-complicated taxonomies1. Every synonym becomes the name of a distinct type of monster with stats that differ from those of the rest.
The real purpose of the divide here seems to be mechanical: in most editions each type has a different lengthy list of weaknesses and resistances that seems calculated to confuse players. Things that are good against devils are bad against demons and vice-versa - if the PCs guess wrong, they’re in trouble. The specifics here change from edition to edition.
Lore-wise, early editions made a big deal out of the fact that devils were Lawful Evil and demons Chaotic Evil. Later ones tried to elaborate on it and find more ways to explain that the two alignments were different at a fundamental cosmic level. Pathfinder really doubles down on that, trying to find additional themes for every fiend type it presents.
Pathfinder 1e, which is what we’re interested in, has this configuration for the mechanical bits:
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Demons are immune to lightning; Devils take normal damage from it.
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Devils are immune to fire; Most demons are merely resistant to it.
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They’re equally resistant to acid and cold.
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They’re both immune to poison.
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They’re resistant to weapon attacks unless the weapon is Good-aligned or made from a special material. For demons, that’s cold iron; for devils, silver. Powerful specimens have resistance that can only be bypassed by weapons fulfilling both the alignment and material requirements.
This is about as complex to describe as it was in previous editions, but it’s actually much easier to completely bypass due to the combinatorial explosion in spells and magical effects available to players compared to AD&D.
After the first couple of levels you can forget about the materials requirement entirely, because you’ll have access to Align Weapon or the Holy enchantment. By the time you’re fighting those stronger fiends, you’ll probably have a +3 weapon in hand, which also bypasses both material requirements. And as for elemental damage types, this is the edition that introduces sonic damage, which damages both demons and devils normally. It also makes it quite easy for a character to swap all of their spells’ damage to sonic2.
Fiends In Dungeon Fantasy
Dungeon Fantasy is a lot simpler. Demon is one of the big monster categories in the game, and all demons come from the area colloquially known as Hell. The specifics are left as an exercise to the GM.
Belonging to the Demon category makes them immune to magic that affects the minds of natural creatures and susceptible to magic that affects spirits in general or demons in particular. They don’t count as “alive” for spells that strictly require living targets but always count as “evil” for spells and abilities that affect evil creatures.
Most notably, they do not have any universal resistances to elemental damage or mundane weapons. Each demon “species”, other than the very weakest ones, does have additional defenses. Most take damage as normal but can only die if a specific condition is met. They also often lack some or all of the weak points of natural creatures, such as blood and vital organs.
Gaming Ballistic’s Nordlond Bestiary does include some demons that are direct adaptations of D&D fiends, but only the most powerful of them (the Balor and Pit Fiend equivalents) have resistances that resemble Pathfinder’s to any degree.
What Will I Do in Hell’s Rebels?
If I was starting this project way back in 2017, I’d probably be gearing up to convert every devil that appeared in Hell’s Rebels to GURPS. But since this is 2023, I don’t have to!
I have plenty of first- and third-party Dungeon Fantasy books now, and between them I have more than enough stat blocks available that I can just pick whatever looks closer to the original monster and use that.
This does mean that I’m going to end up ignoring a lot of the default D&D cosmology and lore when picking my monsters. “Demon” and “devil” are once again synonyms - there is no fundamental cosmic difference between them. They all come from the same place. Any differences, if they ever become relevant, are political rather than taxonomical.
We’re also ignoring the difference between Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil because 1) there is no alignment in GURPS DF and 2) it’s a bit nonsensical anyway. In fact, Pathfinder itself is going to get rid of alignment in its upcoming revised second edition, which was motivated by an attempt to rid itself of all remaining ties to the OGL after this January’s brouhaha.
The game’s existing rules should suffice to determine whether something counts as “holy”/”good” or “unholy”/”evil” for game purposes. This is a similar approach to what I hear PF 2.5 is going to take.
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Let's Read Neverwinter: Thayan Encounters
The encounter table includes a lot of undead, and some spellcasters like the Human Transmuter from the MV to act as living Red Wizards. Valindra’s special projects also get some consideration here, and then we move on to the lich herself.
The Neverwinter Nine
These were the renowned bodyguards of Lord Nasher Alagondar a century ago. After their deaths, they were buried in the castle crypts in honor of their exemplary service. Should Valindra manage to animate them as undead, they’d have the stats of a Deathlock Wight from the MV or the stats for a Unhallowed Wight presented in this book (level 7 soldier, 80 hp, claws that immobilize and drain healing surges, auto-damage as an opportunity action on enemies who pass a saving throw). You can also use similar undead monstrosities if you want to.
Members of the Neverwinter Nine get two extra powers in addition to whatever their base stat block gives them. One in Nine is an encounter power that lets the creature teleport and swap places with another of the Nine that’s within 20 squares. And Change Shape lets them take the form of a Medium humanoid they killed during the last encounter, lasting until they use the power again or cancel the transformation.
That last one means the Nine can serve story roles as infiltrators. One might even manage to replace Lord Neverember or another big shot.
Ash Zombie
These are zombies produced by the particular conditions of the eruption disaster area. They leave a trail of ash in their wake and are drawn to “fresh” life, the younger the better.
Any corporeal undead can be converted into the “Ash” equivalent with the addition of the Puff of Ash encounter power. When the creature is first bloodied, this triggers and enemy Fortitude in a Close Burst 2. A hit makes the target grant combat advantage and prevents them from spending healing surges (save ends both).
Lorragauth
Lorragauth was a particularly despicable elder black dragon who died in the process of destroying his own domain, which he started doing because he realized he was dying. If he couldn’t have it, then no one else could!
If Valindra succeeds at reanimating him, he’s going to use the stats for a dracolich from the Monster Vault or the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Either is going to make him a Level 12 Solo Controller and one the most powerful monsters in the entire campaign.
Valinda Shadowmantle
Valindra is much like a typical lich in that she’s extremely arrogant, egotistical and ambitious. She serves Tam because it suits her for now and is a very competent lieutenant, but her arrogance makes her prone to underestimating her opposition.
She has complete confidence that her soul vessel is securely hidden and will never be found by any of her enemies, so she doesn’t fear destruction and fights with seemingly suicidal zeal to protect her plans.
How right she is depends on how the GM wishes to play her. If they want the PCs to defeat her after a single climatic battle, the vessel is right there in her inner sanctum at the Dread Ring. If they want to make her a recurring threat, it’s hidden in the far away Thayan city of Scorrus (which is covered later in the book).
Velindra’s stats shows us she was an eladrin in life, probably a sun elf. She’s a Level 9 Elite Controller with 188 HP. She has a ground speed of 6, a flight speed of 4, and darkvision.
Her basic melee attack is a Vampiric Touch that deals necrotic damage and heals Valindra for the same amount. This will be quite annoying to PCs and greatly increase her staying power. Her basic ranged attack is a Phantom Claw that targets one or two creatures, deals necrotic and psychic damage, and immobilizes (save ends). Each failed saving throw lets her slide the target 2 squares. On a miss, the target is still slowed (save ends).
She has a Profane Fire attack that’s pretty much a fireball that does necrotic and fire damage, and recharges when she’s bloodied. And she retains the Fey Step she had in life.
As minor actions, she can use one of two encounter powers. Shadow Cloak gives her insubstantial and phasing but prevents her from taking standard actions until she ends the whole effect as a free action. And Reanimate lets her bring a dead non-minion ally back into the fight as an undead creature. The creature comes back with HP equal half its bloodied value and gains Resist Necrotic 10 and Vulnerable Radiant 5. The target must have been a living creature before dying - if it was undead already, this doesn’t work.
Impressions
Which of these is the Thayan’s most fearsome weapon depends on how you want to play them. If they’re an insidious and secretive threat in your campaign, then you’ll get a lot of mileage out of the Neverwinter Nine and their ability to replace key people in other organizations. If they’re a more direct and forceful enemy, facing Lorragauth is a distinct possibility in the PCs’ futures.
Either way, Valindra herself is a key player and should likely be there for the final fight. PCs might end up facing her a few times before then, depending on how secure you want her soul vessel to be. Finding it could be a neat series of adventures in itself.
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Let's Read Neverwinter: The Red Wizards of Thay
When Szass Tam the epic lich took over the nation of Thay, he tasked the Red Wizards with building a series of fortresses over powerful sources of necromantic magic all through the Realms. These fortresses would siphon and channel magic energy to him, helping him power a major ritual that would turn him into a god.
The Dread Ring was the fortress built into the Neverwinter Wood. The Thayans’ plan here was to wake up the slumbering primordial Maegera, which would level Neverwinter completely and kill every one of its inhabitants. The power derived from these deaths would then be sent to Tam. The wizards were foiled at the last minute, yet Maegera still woke up a little and caused the eruption which almost destroyed Neverwinter.
Now the Thayans are back. There are little more than frightened whispers about their presence in the region, and no one knows they were responsible for destroying the city thirty years ago, but if left unchecked there’s a good chance they’ll finish the job, one way or another.
Goals and Strategies
The Thayan presence in the region is focused on the ruins of the Dread Ring, where living wizards and undead laborers work tirelessly to rebuild the walls of the fortress and fix its damaged magic circuits. They’re led by a lich named Valindra Shadowmantle, one of Tam’s lieutenants.
Her mission is to either restore the Ring to its old purpose, or to find a new one for it. The first goal is likely impossible - the godhood ritual does not allow for second chances and all of the other fortresses have proved unusable. Valindra has a pretty good idea of how she will reach the second goal, though.
She has discovered why this site was a suitable location for the fortress in the first place! Deep beneath its location is the incredibly ancient tomb of a great black dragon named Lorragauth. Inside rests the beast’s intact skeleton, which emits a great deal of necrotic energy. Valindra thinks it’s possible to animate the skeleton as a dracolich under her control, and she’s “conquered” a local cell of the Cult of the Dragon to aid her in this endeavor.
The Cult of the Dragon are an old Forgotten Realms standby: yet another bunch of evil maniacs intent on ruling the world, but also the only group in the setting who knows how to make dracoliches. Their ritual requires a living dragon, but Valindra is confident her pet cult can change it to work on ancient bones. And if they can’t, she’ll find someone to resurrect the dragon first and then turn it into a dracolich.
The cult, of course, is not happy about this. Its leader, Adimond Kroskas, is being forced to work for Valindra because she stole his Ring of the Dragon, which acts as his symbol of authority and is a powerful magical item in its own right. He can’t call on his own superiors for help because they’ll destroy him for losing the ring. He’s currently maintaining the loyalty of his underlings because he’s promised to get the ring back. While he figures out a way to do it, he and his cult are working to find a way to raise Lorragauth… as slowly as possible.
At the same time, Valindra is still trying to find a way to properly “refuel” the Dread Ring. One of her theories is that it might be possible to drain power directly from Maegera to feed into the fortress. That would require finding a new path to Gauntlgrym (the one they used in the novel has collapsed). If the Netherese manage to fix Xinlenal, though, she might divert her efforts to capturing it in order to use its mythalar engine as that power source.
A third goal they’re working towards is building up an undead army. They’ve begun a mass grave-robbing operation in Neverwinter’s cemetery to produce low-level undead to act as laborers and guards, and are sending the surplus back to Thay to aid in their war with Netheril as well. They’re also established an outpost in the crypts beneath Castle Never, where they are attempting to raise an old group of heroes (the Neverwinter Nine) as powerful revenants.
Player Tie-Ins
The Renegade Red Wizard is our theme that’s on a collision course with the Thayans, but others might also find themselves involved. People have started to notice the grave-robbing and might contact someone like Oghma’s Faithful or the Neverwinter Noble to help them solve this mystery.
The Uthgardt Barbarian would also be very interested in this as the Thayans are a very likely suspect in the sacking of their holy burial mound.
Conversely, Oghma’s Faithful might be approached my mysterious but generous patrons who wish to hire them to perform some important magical research…
Oh, we also get full stats for the stolen Ring of Dragons, which might make a cool magic item for the PCs if they manage to acquire it. It’s a Level 7 Rare item. Wearing it gives you the ability to speak, read, and write Draconic, and to communicate telepathically with dragons in your line of sight. It also has two active daily powers. One of them makes your location known to every evil dragon within a day’s travel, which cultists use as a way to summon allies but is likely to backfire for PCs. The other projects sustainable illusion of a dragon of up to Gargantuan size within 40 squares of you. It can make sounds and move, and generally does a convincing job of looking like you summoned an elder dragon bodyguard. However it will pop like a soap bubble if it touches anything or is hit by an attack.
Relationships
New Neverwinter has just started to look into Thayan activities in the region, and the Thayans have begun providing material support to the Sons of Alagondar to thrown them off the trail.
Valindra knows the Abolethic Sovereignity has an operation in the region, but that’s all she knows, and it makes her very angry. She’s begun sending people to investigate.
The Thayans and Netherese are at war all over the Realms, and this area is no exception. A lot of that undead manpower Valindra has been building up is being used in an ongoing battle against the local Netherese operation.
She also has some conflicts with the Many-Arrows Orcs, who occasionally encroach upon the Dread Ring and must be driven off.
And finally, you’ll notice that I did not mention the Ashmadai even once despite Valindra living in their head rent-free over in the Ashmadai entry. That’s how much she thinks of them. They are nothing more than disposable muscle to her.
Impressions
As we’ll see from the encounter table in the next post, the Thayans are clearly set up to be one of the campaign’s final bosses - possibly the final boss if they manage to animate Lorragauth. Valindra is the most powerful faction boss so far even without the dragon, and their backstory does have a nice thematic link to the event that started this whole situation in the first place.
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Let's Read Neverwinter: Ashmadai Encounters
The enemy table for the Ashmadai includes Heroic-tier devils and cambions from several books, and also several humanoid opponents that could be reskinned as cultists. We also get a few new stat blocks for cultists and devils, and for the cult’s leaders.
Seared Devil
Looking like a stinky burned corpse, this devil hurls itself at its victims, driven by envy of their uncooked state. It’s a Level 3 Soldier with 50 HP, speed 5, and Resist 10 Fire. Its basic attack is an Ashen Slam that damages and marks for a turn on a hit. Enemies that ignore the mark are hit by the Choking Ashes power, taking 5 fire damage and getting slowed for a turn.
Branded Zealot
Those who get initiated into the cult are branded with the symbol of Asmodeus. Most of them use this stat block. The typical zealot has a frightful temper and is easily goaded into fights. They’re Level 4 Brutes with 66 HP.
Zealots attack in melee with a Branding Iron that deals fire damage, and at range with a Range 3 Hellfire Chain spell that deals fire damage, pulls 2 squares, and slows for a turn on a hit.
Their special move is named Bow to Your Master, and it lets them do a Hellfire chain attack followed by a Branding Iron attack if the target is adjacent to them. It recharges when neither attack hits. If both of them do, the target falls prone.
Hellfire Warlock
A more discreet cultist, who got infernal warlock powers from deals with Asmodeus. They’re better at concealing their brands and like to infiltrate enemy centers to spy and sabotage them. They’re Level 4 Artillery with 48 HP.
The warlock’s Hellfire Affinity gives them +2 to defenses against enemies who are taking ongoing fire damage. Both of their basic attacks (a dagger for melee and a Hellfire bolt for ranged combat) damage and inflict ongoing fire damage (save ends).
Once per encounter they can release a Concussive Inferno in a Close Burst 2, targeting enemies. On a hit, this deals fire and force damage, pushes the targets 2 squares, and knocks them prone. On a miss it still deals half damage and pushes 2 squares.
If a creature within 10 squares of the warlock is taking fire damage, they can Ride the Fire as a move action (recharge 5+) and teleport to swap places with them.
Fimbrul Devil
Looks just like a seared devil, but is cold. These things hail from Nessus or Cania, and it is said that someone who survives a fight with them suffers from persistent chills for years afterwards. They’re Level 5 Controllers with 66 HP, Speed 6 with Ice Walk, and Resist 10 to both fire and cold damage.
Their Icy Claws deal cold damage; their Icy Exhalation hits a Close Blast 3, deals cold damage, and slows for a turn. Targets that were already slowed are instead immobilized. Once per encounter they can encase a creature in a Frozen Prison as a ranged attack, which deals cold damage and restrains (save ends). On a miss, the target takes half damage and is immobilized (save ends).
Mordai Vell
The pleasant face of the cult, Mordai Vell is a tiefling aristocrat descended from one of Neverwinter’s minor noble clans that was largely unaffected by the cataclysm. This doesn’t give him a claim to the throne, but does leave him with a lot of inherited wealth. His money and title make him an influent character in the city’s politics, and his public reputation is generally good because he’s almost as charismatic as he thinks he is. He sees Asmodeus not as his master, but as a means to an end.
In addition to the deals and schemes detailed above, Vell is also dealing with a duergar named Nimor Ironvoice who claims to have access to a source of hellthorn, a special metallic alloy that is very easy to enchant with infernal magic. He has people following Ironvoice around for a while now, but the duergar is careful enough to avoid revealing his sources.
When faced in combat, Vell is a Level 6 Lurker with 60 HP and Resist 10 Fire. His basic melee attack is with a rod that damages and pushes 2 squares, but his special powers are the most interesting part about him.
Fiery Corona attacks a Close Burst 2, dealing fire and force damage and inflicting ongoing fire damage. Shrouded in Fire deals 5 automatic fire damage to everyone adjacent to Mordai and lets him become invisible and teleport 5 squares. He remains invisible until he attacks or until the end of his next turn. Using one of these powers recharges the other, so he’s going to alternate them if possible.
Favria
Favria had been enslaved by a far-away band of Asmodeus-worshiping duergar since her birth. She escaped their service, but kept their faith. She made her way to Neverwinter to search for Gauntlgrym, joining up with the local cult and rising to a leadership position mostly through force and intimidation.
If Vell is the pleasant lie, Favria is the harsh reality of Asmodeus worship. Instead of lies and intrigue, she prefers to deal with problems by the direct application of violence. Still, she sees value in his way of doing things, and cooperates by keeping herself and her underlings mostly out of Neverwinter proper. They have a hideout in the ruins of the village of Thundertree.
Unlike Vell, Favria knows exactly what the unholy relic of Asmodeus held by the Thayans is capable of, which is why she is so intent on recovering it. She’s also still looking for Gauntlgrym. She is unaware that it’s currently occupied by Asmodeus-worshiping duergar, and her reaction to that discovery is unpredictable. Will she readily cooperate with her fellows in faith, or will she try to kill them to avenge her suffering at the hands of a similar group?
Favria is a Level 5 Skirmisher with 68 HP. She has Resist 5 to fire and poison, and fights using a pair of custom bladed hand crossbows that can be used in melee or at range. The melee attack deals extra damage if the target grants combat advantage, and the ranged attack fires poisoned bolts that damage and inflict ongoing poison damage (save ends). Dual Assault lets her make one of each attack once per encounter, recharging if neither hits.
Impressions
I did say I wasn’t inclined to make the Ashmadai a major thread but if I still wanted them to have a bit of staying power I’d probably tone down Mordai Vell’s personality.
As written, his demeanor is so Trump-like any players here in 2023 will immediately figure out he’s a bad guy and do their best to gank him early. That might bring some attention from the other factions, but would remove the cult itself as an effective threat.
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