Adventures in the Nentir Vale

The Nentir Vale is the default “Points of Light” setting for Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition. This setting is composed of isolated pockets of civilization surrounded by dark areas of untamed wild. The small communities and even largest cities’ inhabitants are mostly cut off from the world outside their walls. Travel between cities and villages is dangerous, and most people are ignorant about the rest of the world aside from rumor. Bandits, vicious humanoids, and monsters of all kinds inhabit the darkness between settled areas, and those who wish to venture out do so at their own risk.

The World of Nerath

One of the new key conceits about the D&D world is simply this: Civilized folk live in small, isolated points of light scattered across a big, dark, dangerous world. Outside of larger settlements there is very little in the way of authority to deal with raiders and marauders, outbreaks of demon worship, rampaging monsters, deadly hauntings, or similar local problems. Settlements afflicted by troubles can only hope for a band of heroes to arrive and set things right. If there is a kingdom beyond the town’s walls, it’s still largely covered by unexplored forest and desolate hills where evil folk gather. Militia might do a passable job of keeping the lands within a few miles of a settlement free of monsters and bandits, but most of the outlying towns and villages are on their own.

In such a world, adventurers are aberrant. Commoners view them as brave at best, and insane at worst. But such a world is rife with the possibility for adventure, and no true hero will ever lack for a villain to vanquish or a quest to pursue.

The Nentir Vale

When the human empire of Nerath was at its height about three hundred years ago, the Nentir Vale stood as the northernmost extension of that great realm. Would-be settlers navigated the Nentir River through a trackless swamp or forged their way through a thick forest that separated this area from the rest of Nerath. At the end of their journey, they came upon a pocket of rolling grassland and light woods more than a hundred miles wide and ringed by mountains and forests – a frontier area that held both promise and peril for those who braved it.

Several settlements sprang up in the area. Foot paths between these outposts of civilization turned into well-traveled roads, and most of the towns flourished over the next two hundred years or so.

Then, nearly a century ago, chaos and ruin came to the Nentir Vale when an orc horde called Clan Bloodspear swarmed down out of the mountains to the northwest. By this time, the empire of Nerath had begun to crumble, and the hardy souls of the vale got no help from the south.

Before the Bloodspear War was over, much of the Nentir Vale had been ravaged. When the orcs finally withdrew, they left behind a broken and battered land. Now, for the second time in its history, the vale is a destination for those of stout heart and great prowess-adventurers who seek to turn this near-wilderness once again into a place where peaceful folk can forge a life for themselves.

The Vale Today

Though the Nentir Vale is not under immediate threat of another large invasion, the area still has more than its share of monsters, evil gangs, and otherworldly dangers. Most of the communities that sprang up during the vale’s brief heyday are still present, but greatly reduced in population and influence. Between these points of light lie vast tracts of untamed land and ruined outposts dating back to before the Bloodspear War.

Fallcrest

A hub for travel throughout the Nentir Vale, Fallcrest stands at the intersection of the Nentir River and the vale’s two major trade routes. The town guard does a capable job of protecting the populace from raiders that emerge from the surrounding wilderness, but the biggest threats to Fallcrest’s welfare might come from within the town itself.

Hammerfast

Hammerfast was once a necropolis, a collection of tombs where the dwarven lords buried their wealthiest. As the dwarves wealth grew, their burial chambers went from simple stone markings to opulent vaults filled with treasure. Hammerfast went from graveyard to a fortress filled with treasure.

A hundred years ago, when the Bloodspear orc tribe rampaged across the Vale, they battled their way to Hammerfast. The orcs killed all of the priests and warriors guarding Hammerfast. They conquered the necropolis but gained little from their looting. The vaults were guarded by deadly traps and the tribe moved on to easier targets to the west.

In time, the dwarves returned to Hammerfast. The Bloodspear orcs invasion and the fall of the Nerath Empire was hard on the dwarves, like most people across the Vale. They left their broken citadels for the safety of the fortress surrounding Hammerfast.

It has since grown into the largest and most prosperous settlement in all of the Vale.

Today on the streets of Hammerfast you won’t have to look hard to see ghosts of dead dwarves and orcs who died in this place more than a century ago.