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Let's Read Neverwinter: Gauntlgrym, Part 01
This part gives an overview of the fabled lost city of Gauntlgrym,and goes into detail about its “upper” strata.
Historical Errata
There’s another bit I missed when I glossed over the big-ass timeline at the beginning of the book, and now I must correct that here.
The dwarves of Gauntlgrym found the primordial Maegera early in their habitation of the city, but they left her sealed up for a few hundred years before messing with her.
The massive project that bound her into a sort of arcane power generator was a three-way joint project between the dwarves, the mages of Illusk and the elves of Iliyanbruen. As we saw in the post about Shandarar, they were still around for a few centuries after the fall of Netheril, so they took part in this as well. The book describes this as a positive example of what the three peoples can do when they work together, though it outlived their friendship.
Maegera’s power allowed the dwarves of Delzoun to create inumerable wonders, in the form of both potent magical items and marvelous works of infrastructure for their capital and their empire. Gauntlgrym became a big center of trade and even saw numerous human families moving there.
The reason it fell was because of the Orc Marches, a massive region-wide invasion by an army of orcs larger than any seen before or since. By the time this happened, the three peoples were no longer on speaking terms, as each had grown more arrogant and mistrustful over time. They could have banded together to repel the invasion, but each thought they could go it alone. Illusk fell first, and Delzoun was next, and only at the gates of Shandarar was the already-weakened orc army repelled.
Iliyanbruen would end up dismantling anyway when it tried to take the fight to the orcs in Illusk, as we saw earlier. Gauntlgrym was left alone since no one seemed to be coming up from there. Its dwarven and humans refugees scattered all over the Realms, with many of the humans joining Uthgardt tribes on the surface and the dwarves ranging out further to move to their surviving nations.
The empire of Delzoun and its capital of Gauntlgrym are today kinda like the dwarven equivalent of the Roman Empire in that stupid meme. No dwarf living today has ever laid eyes on the lost city, but they think of it regularly and describe it as the height of their civilization.
Gauntlgrym Today
Despite being lost to the surface, Gauntlgrym did not remain static in all these millennia. The orcs were kicked out by mind flayers; the mind flayers by derro; and the derro by duergar. That last one happened fairly recently in historical terms, so the duergar still consider themselves masters of the place. However, they are not the only people living there. There are other groups seeking to control the city, and literal multitudes of ghosts belonging to its original inhabitants.
Let’s take a look at the city from the outside in.
The Great Cavern
Whatever paths to Gauntlgrym exist in your campaign, they will always end here. This is a massive natural cavern filled with alien Underdark vegetation and labyrinthine formations of stone pillars and stalagmites. Small forts and balconies are carved into the walls and around the largest pillars - the remains of former guard posts. The bones of ancient battles litter the floor.
There’s a small lake at the center of the cave, and on one of its walls stands the massive mithral gate that leads into Gauntlgrym proper. It’s nearly impossible to open by mundane or magical means, but a true heir of Delzoun can open it with the slightest push. The cave is filled with your preferred selection of Underdark monsters, and also with two sapient factions.
The first is a group of old Ashmadai who came here with Valindra when she first tried to free the primordial in that Drizzt novel. The tunnels they used filled with magma at the end of that, so they became trapped here. Their first reaction to any strangers they spot is violence, though some of them might be prepared to surrender or betray the rest in exchange for a way back to the surface.
The second faction is the House Xorlarrin expedition, who arrived recently and built a hidden camp. They’re spying on the Ashmadai while looking for a way to open the gates. Their reaction to intruding PCs will be to remain hidden and spy on them as well, waiting to see if they can open the gates. If they can, the drow will follow them covertly, scattering if spotted, and will only attack if the PCs become distracted by some other enemy inside the city.
The Iron Tabernacle
The Iron Tabernacle was Gauntlgrym’s temple district, and was both the city’s physical and spiritual center. Its many temples and shrines were dedicated to Moradin and other good gods, and attended by a sizable contingent of dwarven and human priests. This enormous multi-leveled district was a marvelous sight to behold in its glory days, but now most of it lies ravaged by both time and by duergar impiety. The city’s new occupants have defaced every religious image and statue they could find, and stolen anything of value here, from precious relics to the mithral trim in the walls.
Still, the Tabernacle is so vast that some hidden shrines remain untouched and could be reconsecrated by PCs. There’s a text box here detailing the minor boons they can gain from doing so. An extended rest next to the restored shrine takes only three hours instead of six, and has no danger of being interrupted by wandering monsters. And if a member of the party is a non-evil dwarf or a worshiper of Moradin, they might gain the attention of one of the city’s ghosts, who will help them in battle the next time they fight (using a level-appropriate incorporeal undead stat block). Both benefits only happen once.
The Tabernacle is also the hub of Gaunglgrym’s ancient mine rail network. The rails connect directly or indirectly to every other district in the city, and are meant to be traveled by self-propelled mine carts that were used for bulk cargo transport back in the day. They still run according to their ancient schedules and could be commandeered by PCs. A big switching station in the Tabernacle can let them switch carts from one track to another. It’s an easy way to get around this vast city.
Or perhaps not so easy - there are some rules here that might come into play when a fight happens during a cart ride, or when a cart derails during a fight.
Ancient Cemetery
The lowest level of the Tabernacle is a massive collection of crypts, laid out according to a now forgotten scheme or tradition. Some are simple, some very elaborate, but all of them have the names, titles, and lineage of their occupants carved on their stone.
Unlike the upper levels, the crypts are intact. The many, many ghosts who roam the place attack any would-be vandals and thieves en masse, so the duergar stay away from here.
The ghosts will not bother the PCs at first, but will attack as above if they try to damage or steal from the crypts. The group should take care to remain on their best behavior while in this area.
Theme Tie-Ins and Impressions
The PC theme that’s most interested in Gauntlgrym is definitely the Heir of Delzoun. Finding this place is their life’s goal, so if your party includes one or more Heirs Gauntlgrym is going to be a vitally important place for the campaign.
For the Heir and most other characters who might be interested in finding the city, the true treasure here is all the historical and genealogical information contained in the crypt walls. It’s a major archaeological finding all by itself, which is reason enough for Oghma’s Faithful, but it’s even more valuable to the Heir and perhaps even to the Neverwinter Noble. All dwarves, and a lot of human nobles, keep pretty detailed genealogies of their own clans and families and these would be easy to connect to the ones in display here.
If the Noble could prove that their house is older than Neverwinter itself, then they might have an unassailable claim to the throne! And if the Heir’s ancestors are important enough, they might have a strong claim to Gauntlgrym’s throne, or perhaps to that of one of its successor states.
Of course, not everyone would be happy with these findings. There are plenty of dwarven nobles out there who built their prestige on forged lineages, and who would not want the world to discover this fact. And many others who would be more than happy to pull a Beloq and kill the PCs before they can announce their findings to the world, so that they can claim the credit.
The “default” way to arrive at Gauntlgrym is to navigate the river of flame beneath Mount Hotenow, but there could be other paths as well. Maybe they could take a detour through Hotenow’s Shadowfell reflection, or maybe there’s a mystical path similar to Shadowfell Road that takes those who follow it properly to the mithral gates.
In the next post, we dig too greedily and too deep.
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The Coiled Spring
Image source: EveyD on DeviantArt The Coiled Spring is an amulet made of brass. It’s disc shaped and about an inch thick. On its front, there is a relief of a snake eating its own tail, the classic Ouroboros. The inside of the ring formed by the snake is a clear crystal panel, through which can be seen a spring like that of a watch.
That spring can store up to ten Fatigue Points which can be used to enable bursts of extra effort - most often Extra Effort in Combat (p. B357), but also other athletic feats. The stored FP can only be used for those purposes, and is not affected by negative effects that would sap the user’s own FP. In other words, it works just like the Heroic Reserves advantage from GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 20: Slayers, and almost like a power item for martial characters.
The main difference between the Coiled Spring and a normal Power Item is that it hijacks the natural recovery processes of the wearer’s body in order to “wind” itself, and cannot be recharged by the usual methods for power items. While the Spring is not at full capacity, its wearer is unable to recover their own Fatigue Points, and the amulet gains 1 FP every 10 minutes. This is a constant rate - traits which speed up FP recovery for the wearer have no effect on the amulet. The wearer regains their usual ability to rest when the amulet is fully charged, or when it’s removed (which stops the charging process).
While this does mean recharging the Coiled Spring in town is effectively free, it can make dungeon delving more complicated for martial characters, particularly if the GM enforces rules like fatigue costs for fighting a battle (p. B426 or DF Exploits p. 60). Characters who normally can’t use Fatigue Points can wear the Coiled Spring and use it to benefit from the Extra Effort rules in and out of combat, though they can’t recharge it.
Scholars who know of the Spring speculate that it was originally meant to allow golems and other constructs to surpass their limits. In an adventure, it will most likely be found worn by such a construct, or by an elite warrior who figured out it works just as well for organics. If found in a chest or hoard, though, it will always start out empty.
If the delvers try to sell the Coiled Spring, or if you decide it’s available in shops, its monetary value is twice that of a Power Item of the same capacity. That’s $3400 for the 10 FP version described here, though you could have versions with greater or smaller capacity. Note that you can’t double-dip and use the Coiled Spring as a Power Item.
Variant Springs are possible. Maybe the Flywheel of Faith can power divine magic, the Arcane Array wizardly spells, and the Goddess Gyre druidic ones. The recharging mechanics and all other restrictions are the same. They could allow a construct who can’t normally cast spells or use casting magical items due to a lack of FP to do so.
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Hacking Without a Hacker
NPC hackers waiting for the PCs to arrive at the jackpoint. Illustration by Tom Parkinson Morgan. Whether called a hacker, a decker, or a netrunner, the person who invades computer systems and makes them do things features prominently in the stories most cyberpunk RPGs take inspiration from, and so often ends up being a vitally important archetype in those games. However, they tend to have a very mixed track record when it comes to actually presenting you with a hacking system that’s fun and bug-free.
This means there are many possible reasons for why you might find yourself planning a cyberpunk game but have no cause or wish to use its hacking rules. Maybe none of the players wants to be a hacker, or maybe the group just doesn’t like the rules of the game in question. In those cases, a popular suggestion is to include a NPC hacker, and in this post we’ll discuss a way to do so that keeps the rest of the group reasonably involved in the hacking. Rules are for GURPS, but the concepts can be easily translated to other systems.
Work From Home
The current best practice in games that include hacker PCs is to devise ways to keep the hacker together with the rest of the party, so that they can fully participate in the game even when it’s not hacking time. When your group’s hacker is an NPC, however, the best thing to do is the opposite. Hacker NPCs should always do their thing remotely.
Managing NPCs who constantly accompany the party is a tricky affair. A character who’s much weaker than the party runs the risk of turning the adventure into a video-game-style escort quest, one of the most reviled types of mission in existence. One who is strong enough to protect themselves can end up becoming a GMPC, a label reserved for annoying characters who overshadow the players and make them feel like the support cast of someone else’s story.
All of this is subjective, which makes it even trickier. Your group’s fun will be hurt if they feel either of those scenarios is happening, even if the math is well-balanced.
A remote hacker removes most of the risk. They’re in communication with the group, and they can do the jobs covered by their niche, but any other challenge that can be handled by the PC’s own skills should be, even if it’s technological in nature. And there are things the hacker can only do with on-site support from the PCs, which keeps them involved in the actual hack even if you’re not engaging with those rules.
The exact nature of these support tasks depends on how your specific setting handles computers and hacking. Most games either go the same Retro way of early Shadowrun and CP2020, or a more “Modern” way that uses more recent tropes such as the ones employed by Shadowrun 4th Edition or CP2077. We’ll look at how you can accommodate a remote NPC hacker in both.
The Future of Another Timeline
It’s not immediately obvious to us here in 2023, but the earliest iterations of Shadowrun’s Matrix and CP2020’s NET were based on a pre-Internet model of networked computing. Strip all the futuristic terms from their description and you’ll find out you’re dealing with 80s mainframes. This lies at the root of a lot of things there that can look a bit weird or silly to modern readers1. Here’s a short and approximately correct explanation for how that works:
Mainframes are huge (and hugely expensive) computers that are usually responsible for handling all data processing for an entire company or organization. They were the dominant form of institutional computing from around the 1950s to at least the early 1990s, and never really went away.
A mainframe is operated through remote terminals, which can be in the same building or even off-site. Therefore, it must be ready to receive connections and requests from these terminals. And the way you do that in the 80s is through phone lines and modems. They do have internal security measures to authenticate users and prevent one user from seeing or changing other users’ data, but there is no such thing as a firewall because permanent Internet connections are not yet a thing for mainframes. The most security you can add to the connection step is to keep the numbers for your mainframe’s phone lines unlisted2.
And this is why both Shadowrun’s and CP2020’s descriptions of their “global nets” are so concerned about splitting them into geographical regions and assigning codes to them and the servers within them. That net is not the Internet, but a world-spanning phone circuit. The first step to hacking into that corporate mainframe is to dial the unlisted number of its modem3.
Old-School Remote Hacking
When you have a PC hacker in these more “retro” games, the number of the target’s modem line might be included with the mission briefing, letting them hack removely. It’s more likely that no number is included, then the hacker has to go in with the group and find an terminal in the target facility through which they could connect.
With a hacker NPC and they have the number, the reason the adventure is happening at all is because the mission objectives have a physical component that must happen at the same time. The typical setup is that you need to steal the physical prototype while the hacker grabs the research files.
If they don’t have the number, then discovering the number becomes one of the physical mission objectives! The place the PCs are infiltrating might not even have any direct relation to the real, final objective, but it could be a place that also uses the same mainframe remotely. The number is going to be written down somewhere in there, either in an official manual, some employee’s personal notes or even a scrap of paper that was carelessly thrown away4. Some non-VR-dungeon hacking of a physical terminal to peek at its configuration might be necessary, which might be resolved by a couple of rolls since dumb terminals are less secure than the mainframe they talk to. Or you might need to find a way to scam the info out of an someone who works there (“social engineering”).
This fact-finding expedition could be a whole adventure in itself, or it might just be an intermediate step in a more complex operation where the group must also infiltrate the final target facility at the same time as the hacker does their thing, as outlined above.
Twenty Minutes From Now
More recent cyberpunk games tend to base their networks on the real-world Internet and the technologies that support it. This means that every individual device attached to a network is effectively a full-feature computer, be it an employee’s workstation, a security camera, or a guard’s smartphone. Different departments have their own private servers and their own internal network that doesn’t necessarily connect to the others or to the outside world.
Less sensitive facilities might allow employees to work remotely from their homes or from other buildings by letting them connect via virtual private networks. These connections to happen over the Internet, but they’re encrypted and protected from general snooping. Realistically, our dastardly hacker would need to steal valid credentials to be able to access a VPN.
On the other extreme, a top-secret secure facility might be air-gapped, which means it’s isolated and sealed in such a way that no signal can enter or leave the building. None of its internal networks are connected to the outside world, and they are not connected to each other either unless this is absolutely necessary. The servers controlling the security system are isolated from the servers housing sensitive data. Each has its own independent set of protections.
This is both realistic according to our contemporary understanding of network security, and an excellent way to make sure PC hackers stick with the group and have plenty to do once inside. Individual hacking attempts tend to be shorter but more numerous, and made against devices that are within the hacker’s immediate reach5. Shadowrun 4th Edition goes deep into this (5th and onwards go back to the retro model), and it’s also more or less how things work in Cyberpunk 2077.
New-School Remote Hacking
In an environment so full of incentives for the hacker to stick with the party, how can you accommodate a remote NPC hacker?
If the target facility has a VPN that contains the data you want, then many of the same “classic” techniques for acquiring those old-school mainframe phone numbers might also work to acquire valid VPN credentials, allowing the NPC to hack the place remotely.
If it doesn’t have a VPN or is completely isolated, then we need to resort to quantum bullshit. Below we’ll see GURPS stats for the bullshit in question, imported directly from Warframe. It’s easily usable in other systems, though.
A datamass. A datamass is a device similar in concept to the causality communicator in Ultra-Tech page 45, but much cheaper. It consists of an armored, briefcase-sized device that incorporates several kinds of data cable plus laser and IR micro-communicators and a small radio (GURPS Ultratech pages 43-44). All of these are connected to a sizable amount of quantum-entangled matter.
Datamasses are made in entangled pairs that allow high-bandwidth communication and data transfer between elements of the pair through any amount of barriers or interference. They have DR 10, HP 8, cost $5000 for the pair, weight 5kg (10 lb) each, and are LC1 (AKA super illegal). They also include an emergency self-destruct switch that melts the internals of both elements of the pair and can be triggered from either side.
In your typical cyberpunk setting, datamasses were first invented as super-secret espionage tools by a major government or computer-focused megacorp, and initially gave them a major leg up in one of the many ongoing cold wars between such entities. The secret of their existence soon leaked, however, and an enterprising independent engineer figured out they were quite easy to make with a properly modified home 3d printer. Yes, even the entangled matter. The plans for a home-baked datamasses were soon made widely available on the Net, and they keep popping up no matter how much effort the corps spend to squash them. That’s why they’re relatively cheap.
Datamass technology is going to be really revolutionary when FTL travel is invented in the distant future, but for now it’s mostly used for its original purpose, and allows teams of plucky street mercs like the PCs to operate at the same level as crack corporate commandos when it comes to high-level espionage. If the PCs are hired to do a hacking mission, they will usually be provided a datamass pair. PCs can also buy their own through the usual illegal channels available to PCs in these games. It should be difficult, but not impossible.
In a setting that has datamasses, hacking missions look a lot like the Warframe “mobile defense” missions these devices come from. The PCs need to sneak into the target facility carrying a datamass, and find a place where to connect it. A direct cable connection to a machine in the target network is best. A wi-fi connection will do in a pinch, but will make everything that follows take longer.
Since the hacker is an NPC, you don’t need to roll anything for the actual hack - you just need to give the PCs a time frame for when it will be done. And then they must stay near the datamass and guard it until that much time has elapsed. If they snuck in, they need to find a way to maintain stealth and divert security attention from their access point. If they’re found out, it turns into a fight, but they still must stay until the hack is done or it will fail. For added Fun(TM), a difficult mission might require the party to do this several times from different access points.
The self-destruct switch is useful for when the hack is done, as it allows the party to leave without having to lug the datamass back out. It can also prevent the hacker from being traced if the device is captured. Or it can be used in a double-cross that leaves the team stranded in enemy territory without network support. Use that last one sparingly!
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Alas, it’s not related to the whole VR Dungeon thing. That’s weird and silly for other reasons. ↩
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The real-world practice of wardialing consisted of dialing every number in a big list or an entire area code looking for accessible modems. ↩
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And you can absolutely go wardialiing there. The Genesis version of Shadowrun even implements it. ↩
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The real world hacking practice of dumpster diving consists in searching a company’s trash for discarded papers with valid passwords and credentials written down on them. ↩
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Anywhere from “directly plugged in” to “in the same local wi-fi network”. ↩
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Let's Read Neverwinter: Mount Hotenow
Mount Hotenow is a huge barely-dormant volcano on the southeast end of the Crags, in Neverwinter Wood. The heat it produces is the reason the region’s rivers never freeze, and therefore it’s at the root of Neverwinter’s prosperity. It was also the cause of its downfall 27 years ago, when a Thayan ritual caused it to erupt.
Even before the cataclysm Mount Hotenow was already the subject of many rumors and legends. It’s an opening to Hell; it’s an opening to the Elemental Chaos; demons live here; giants live here; dragons live here; and so on. The most recent tale is that anyone who enters one of Hotenow’s many caves is fated to die within a year, even if they make it out.
Fire Cultists
Though the original mountain in the middle world is back to its pre-cataclysm state, its reflection on the Shadowfell has been spewing a slow and steady stream of lava since the cataclysm. Some people believe that this shadow eruption could cause one in the middle world if the barriers between planes wear thin enough. Such a state of constant eruption would spell doom for Neverwinter.
Chief among these believers are the many elemental fire creatures that do indeed make Mount Hotenow their home. They’re led by the hunchbacked fire giant Gommoth, who has lived here since he was banished from his clan. The eruption 27 years ago was a major ecstatic experience to him and to every other fire creature who lived here, and since then Gommoth started a cult dedicated to making it happen again.
The ecstatic experience happened because it was Maegera’s near-awakening that caused the eruption, and her power tugged at the elementals’ primordial nature. Gommoth doesn’t know this, but the cult’s latest rising star probably does. This is Qualthus, the shadovar outcast. Remember him? He was banished from Xinlenal after being blamed for the accidental sabotage of their mythallar. True to the general disposition of his former buddies, Qualthus has decided that the best way to remedy this injustice is to cause Mount Hotenow to erupt again and bury Xinlenal in lava.
He’s confident he can do it. After all he’s an arcanist of the Netherese tradition (read: a megalomaniacal asshole). His actual chances are incredibly small, after all it took the full might of the Dread Ring to make it happen the first time. But he could get lucky, since Maegera’s bonds are weakened.
To represent Gommoth, the book suggests using an ogre mercenary stat block with added fire resistance, increased Charisma, and with attacks doing fire damage. You could also level down a standard fire giant stat block to make him fit with the campaign’s level range.
The River Of Flame
Deep underground, beneath the territory of the fire cultists, there is a river of liquid flame. This isn’t poetic language or a metaphor for magma, but a literal description. The river follows a winding subterranean path, and the important thing for player characters is that it passes by a tunnel that leads directly to Gauntlgrym.
PCs who know where to disembark could take some sort of fireproof boat or submersible through this river, and arrive at the lost city. Their main challenge here besides the hostile environment is Karrundax, the very territorial young red dragon who lairs in the area.
Seekers of the Way
One thing that happens repeatedly in this book is that a theme description in Chapter 2 will give us the impression that the PC in question is the only one doing something, and then a faction or location description further down the line will give us a whole group of NPCs with the same goal, and that’s going to be the first time we hear of these NPCs.
This might be a disconnect between different authors, or it might be a sort of soft “Player’s Guide/Campaign Setting” separation within the same book, since presumably you want PCs to choose a theme without seeing any spoilers about what they’ll encounter during the campaign. Whatever the case, we now run into the group that ties to the Heir of Delzoun, and it’s a genuine Dwarf Fortress expedition!
The Heir’s description actively lied to the player: they’re not one of the last dwarves who are still looking for the lost city. In reality there are so many that after their disparate teams and groups joined together to coordinate their efforts they had to elect a government to keep them organized. Their newly elected leader decided that Mount Hotenow was their best bet, since there were many stories connecting it to Gauntlgrym and a few confirmed Delzoun outposts on its slopes.
This extremely large expedition set out from Neverwinter before the Heir got here, and the litany of setbacks and tragedies they experienced along the way is what gives me that Fun (TM) Dwarf Fortress vibe.
First they bought a letter of safe passage from Neverember in order to pass through Many-Arrows territory unharmed, but the dwarves and orcs just couldn’t resist provoking each other until hostilities broke out.
Then they arrived at the Wood and lost yet more dwarves to eladrin arrows and miscellaneous monsters. Either Shandarar’s guardians were particularly trigger-happy or it was those old rivalries flaring up again.
Then they got to the volcano and lost a bunch more dwarves to Gommoth’s cult.
And now they’re stuck at the river of flame. Can’t forge ahead because no one packed a fireproof submersible, can’t retreat because the survivors aren’t sure they can make it back to Neverwinter alive. To say that morale is low is a massive understatement.
Morale would be even lower if the expedition’s leader, Vandra Hillborn, revealed the terrible secret she’s keeping. Many of the dwarves “lost” to the elementals actually defected to them, and now work together to bring about the volcano’s next eruption. Hillborn believes they cracked under the strain of the trip and went insane, but the truth is even worse: they were intentionally driven insane by the Gauntlgrym mind-flayers through remote telepathy. The flayers believe that a volcanic eruption is just the thing to permanently block access to Gauntlgrym and prevent any meddlers from finding it.
As we already know, the mind flayers are themselves being controlled by the aboleths, so we have a true conspiracy onion here.
Impressions
There are several ways to discover Gauntlgrym’s precise location elsewhere, but the River of Flame under Mount Hotenow appears to be the most viable path to actually go there. The fate of the dwarven expedition is a good blueprint of what an overland journey from Neverwinter to here would involve.
It’s possible to have an entire party of PCs who would be more interested in pursuing this journey than dealing with the other hooks in the setting: not just one or more Heirs of Delzoun but also perhaps one of Oghma’s Faithful who’s really into archaeology, a Dead Rat Deserter who’s after the score of the century, and even a Neverwinter Noble in a campaign where finding Gauntlgrym will give them the popular acclaim they need to take the throne. If there’s an extended detour to deal with the eladrin, then perhaps the Iliyanbruen Guardian can get into the mix too.
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Let's Read Neverwinter: Xinlenal and Related Locations
This post covers the city itself and several nearby locations related to the Gray Wolf Uthgardt, who serve the Netherese.
Content Warning: “Brutal Savages” nonsense
There is a lot of Gray Wolf material in this section, and this is where the mounting inconsistencies in their portrayal start to get in the way. The stuff about them that I read so far gave me the impression of a people who were mostly minding their own business before the Netherese turned their leaders into fascist assholes. Most of the actual tribe members were not happy with the situation: a significant number of them had defected, and those who hadn’t were open to persuasion by a PC like the Pack Outcast.
This section drops most of that and goes all in on the “brutal savages who disdain civilization” cliches, painting the Gray Wolf as being bad guys even before the Netherese got to them. After being co-opted, they got even worse. Anyone who’s still a member of the tribe at this point is either on board with the cruelty or too cowardly to ever stand against it. Even their guardian spirits are disgusted with them.
I’m going to report what the book says below, but I personally would completely change it were I to run a Neverwinter campaign.
Xinlenal From the Outside In
As we saw before, Xinlenal wasn’t just a Netherese flying city, it was the first ever built. It fell here in the Wood when Netheril’s magic stopped working. Today, when viewed from the outside, it looks like an out-of-place 60-foot tall plateau jutting up from the ground in an otherwise flat area of the Wood. The structures atop it are hidden from view by the Wood’s vegetation, which grew over it in the two millennia since the city crashed. The Shadovar led by Prince Clariburnus use Xinlenal as their main base of operations in the region, and are hard at work trying to make it fly again.
The Forest of Hides
The Gray Wolf recognize this is the center of Netherese power even though they don’t know what goes on in here. So when they declared war on the Forsworn, they started hanging up the skins of their “traitorous kinfolk” in a clearing outside the plateau. This acts as both a warning to enemies and as a show of support for their new masters.
Ironically, the sheer brutality of this practice has led many rank-and-file Gray Wolf to question their leadership, and the horrible smell of dead werewolf lingering about the place acts as a cover for Forsworn spies and makes it easier for them to scout the plateau.
The act of building the Forest of Hides outraged and horrified many of the primal spirits who used to be friends of the Grey Wolf. If the Pack Outcast, Uthgardt Barbarian, or any other PC who uses primal powers dismantle the Forest of Hides, those spirits will reward them with a daily power named Wrath of the Fallen, which can be activated after an attack hits and makes the target vulnerable 5 to all damage (save ends), including that of the triggering attack. Once the target saves, they take another 10 damage.
Here you see the first instance of what I talked about in the intro paragraphs above. There’s more below.
The City and the Web of Stone
The walls of the plateau are a sheer climb, but they look natural after two millennia of weathering. Some flying monsters even made lairs there. The city at the top looks completely ruined when viewed from the plateau’s edge.
Those moving towards the center will soon spot a massive suspended “web” made of stone looming over the skyline. This acts as a gigantic crane and construction tool used in the Shadovar’s renovation efforts. It can lift whole city blocks for relocation, or remove an equivalent quantity of soil and vegetation to reveal the structures buried beneath. Workers both organic and artificial are constantly swarming all over it.
This web was built by the shadar-kai witch Korvina, who realized she could use residual energy from the city’s old protection rituals to power it. Later she would find out she was actually drawing power from the city’s broken mythallar and delaying its repairs. When her bosses found out about the oopsie, she managed to pin the blame for it on her colleague Qualthus, whose fate we’ll learn in a future post.
The Womb of Stone
Gee, these Netherese sure have a knack for naming things, don’t they?
This building is an ancient construct factory reactivated by the Shadovar. This is where they build all the thaalud constructs they’re using as a workforce. The ones they build today aren’t as powerful as the ones from ancient Netheril (using the thaalud constructor stat block from earlier in this book), but they can do their job just fine.
The Womb of Stone is run and operated by a shade named Ulrukan (stats as a human slaver with shade traits). His left arm and leg are animated prosthetic constructs, which I think is awesome. Ulrukan discovered the problem with the Web of Stone before anyone else, decided to keep it to himself until he could gain something by revealing it, and lost the chance to do so when other people found the issue and reported it immediately. Now that it’s public he’s trying to figure out how to extract some advantage from the fact that he knew it before anyone else did. I don’t think he knows it’s Korvina’s fault, or he’d already be blackmailing her.
Cathedral of Night
This is a ancient building repurposed as a temple to the goddess Shar. The exterior is still ruined and worn, but the interior is very fancy and all done up in onyx and jet. It’s also protected by enchanted hungry shadows, a very interesting hazard that can temporarily remove PCs from play and cause ongoing psychic and necrotic damage to them while they’re gone. This security protects the usual temple treasures and also a portal to the Shadowfell, which is used by the Shadovar to access their supply routes.
Orthinos Eln is the priest in charge of both the temple and the restoration project. He can be found here either meditating or communing with his boss Prince Clariburnus, who leads the faction as a whole.
Xinlenal’s Heart
The city’s mythallar is located at its very center. The tower that houses it was the first building to be completely restored, and a small army of Shadovar artificers is now busy restoring the artifact itself.
The restoration process is simple to describe but very hard to execute. It consists of mixing melted glass with large quantities of residuum, carefully pouring the resulting substance over the mythallar, and molding it so that it slowly recovers its original spherical shape. Right now it looks like a partial sphere, already over 100 feet (30 meters!) in diameter.
This is why the Netherese are scouring the region’s many ruins and dungeons for magic items and other ancient enchanted relics, and also why they’re poised to begin raiding Neverwinter. All of that loot is going to get destroyed for its residuum. The Shadovar are burning the legacies of others to rebuild their own.
The central tower is also where their main war room is located, as well as Clariburnus’ quarters and throne room. He can either be found here coordinating the faction’s overall strategy, or somewhere out in the world leading another raid for magic items. He also sometimes brings members of the Gray Wolf leadership here for briefings.
Vellosk
This is the main “settlement” of the Gray Wolf tribe, located in the Wood away from Xinlenal. The quotes are there because they are mostly nomadic, and this is just where a few more permanent structures are built - pack leader’s homes, a feast hall, and some other communal buildings. You can also find a number of tents and lean-tos scattered around the area, belonging to other tribe members who are currently staying there.
The book says the Grey Wolf have the technology to make weapons and tools as sophisticated as that of Neverwinter, but that they have no real culture to speak of beyond an obsession with behaving like D&D’s idea of a wolf pack. It could be that this is what the current leadership thinks, but the way the book phrases it kinda makes me think this is what they were like even before.
Vellosk’s central feature is a sloped pit whose bottom is coated in dry bones, and also contains a totem pole decorated with animal skulls. This is their center of worship, dedicated to Uthgar and the tribe’s guardian spirits. It’s also where ritual combats and duels happen.
One of the permanent structures here is the home of Ormshas, a dark creeper necromancer who is here officially as a Netherese ambassador and in reality as a spy placed to make sure the Grey World remain under control. She has a large group of wraiths under her control, which she uses to uncover secrets and silence dissenters.
The Gray Wolf and the PCs
A lot of the rank-and-file Grey Wolf are very unhappy with the direction the tribe is taking, but they also believe their leaders’ commands are absolute and those leaders have been completely bought the Netherese party line. Many tribe members would rather leave than try to challenge their leaders, but these days those who express a desire to leave are executed on the spot.
PCs such as the Pack Outcast or the Uthgardt Barbarian would have an easier time convincing the Grey Wolf to reject their leadership, but they would still need to challenge those leaders to ritual combat and win (or convince/help a friendly Gray Wolf to do so). Ritual combat is, of course, to the death.
Making a legitimate challenge would also require convincing a majority of the tribe that their leaders are being bamboozled by the Netherese. Just going for the leaders at once is a sure way to get the whole tribe to declare war on you no matter what they think about those leaders, so it’s not a good option for most groups.
Conyberry
Conyberry is a small village at the edge of the Wood that became quite scenic during the Spellplague when a populated slice of Abeir was isekaied there. It gained a new lake, a bunch of floating earthmotes, and a mixed population that learned to live well together after some initial friction.
Unfortunately you don’t get to see that version of it, because the Grey Wolf killed everyone long before the Netherese even got to them. According to the book they believed the people from Abeir to be hostile invaders and the people of Conyberry to be their co-conspirators.
The Gray Wolf used the now empty village as a storage area for a time. No one else went there because everyone (rightly) assumed it had been destroyed after news stopped coming, and when someone did stumble into the place they were killed.
When the Netherese recruited them they started using the village to, in the words of the book, “practice civilized behavior” so that they would blend into the communities they were ordered to infiltrate. Now when outsiders end up there by accident they’re received by a bunch of Gray Wolf in sheep’s clothing eager to test their acting skills. Only after the actors are satisfied, or when they’re found out, do the murder attempts start.
Impressions
Xinlenal itself seems like a good dungeon location. A final battle against Caliburnus in the mythallar chamber would look awesome.
But everything about the description of the Gray Wolf kinda ruins it. The text is filled with the exact set of racist tropes that draw so much criticism to D&D. I’m left with the distinct impression that the Gray Wolf are described as being bad because they’re tribal, in contrast to the “civilized” people they disdain and victimize. Yikes!
That’s definitely something I’d completely rewrite if I ever ran a campaign in this setting. It actually kinda tainted the good memories I had of this book, and made me stop writing new Let’s Read material for it for a while.
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