Meet Lord Neverember!

 

Congratulations, Heroes!

The Party has risen to the attention of Lord Protector Dagult Neverember, Lord Protector of Neverwinter. Lord Neverember is very popular with the common folk of Neverwinter, because he has prioritized security and trade during his time as “Lord Protector”. He has cleared the High Road to the south of the notorious Blackdagger bandits, and instituted several reforms within the city. The newly-safe roads have made it easier for the “City of Skilled Hands” to sell their goods more safely and cheaply from Luskan in the north to Triboar in the east, and has made it cheaper for the common folk to buy imported products from those places as well.

But the High Road still isn’t completely safe. Traders are still averse to traveling all the way to and from Waterdeep, because the Mere of Dead Men is too dangerous to stop in at night. Everyone knows that if you stop at night in the Mere to rest, you risk losing members of your caravan to undead creatures, will-o-wisps and other nocturnal dangers. Only the largest caravans can pass through this area, ones with enough spare horses and drivers that they can take shifts driving through that horrible fen.

The City of Leilon used to be a hub of commerce for this reason. Everyone approaching from the south desperately needed rest after their journey past the swamps, and those approaching from the north wanted a chance to be fully rested before that leg of their travel. Unfortunately when the Spellplague occurred, way back in the year 1385, a powerful magical device in the city found its powerful protective energy twisted into an equally powerful destructive force, and the city was completely destroyed. Otherworldly entities were loosed on the area, and the area was unsafe for mortalkind until the twisted artifact was destroyed just a few years ago. If Leilon can be restored to its former status as a safe place along the High Road, it will mean more traders will brave the area, allowing smaller traders to compete with the larger outfitters, increasing the variety and bringing down prices of all sorts of goods in Neverwinter, which will keep The Lord Protector popular with his citizens (and possibly stave off any further coup attempts.) It’s a win-win-win situation.

It is for that reason that the Lord Protector has assembled a Leilon Restoration Council to head up a project to restore the lost city, and establish a safe haven for decent folk traveling between the Metropolitan centers of Waterdeep and Neverwinter.

That, dear DM, is where your players should find themselves at the beginning of the Adventure-in-three-parts that is included as a digital resource with your purchase of the Dungeons and Dragons “Essentials Kit”. Everything in the preceding section is spoiler-free and can be given to your players as a Lore Document Handout if you wish. Everything that follows is intended for you, the DM, and contains all kinds of spoilers for the Adventure, so… Players, go enjoy some other fine D&D content somewhere else for a while (Like this!), this resource is for the other side of the DM screen.

So, here are some FAQs one might expect from the lore document above; things your players might want more info about, or things they might learn with high skill checks.

Is This “Lord Protector” Guy Legit?

Lord Neverember is a complicated figure with a lot of deep lore in the Forgotten Realms setting. He has been portrayed as a shrewd and cunning politician, an extramarital philanderer, and perhaps a usurper of the rightful Throne of Neverwinter. I’m not an expert in the older lore from previous editions of the game, but for our purposes in this adventure, it’s best for Lord Neverember to be generally well-liked and admired by his people, even though he has powerful haters and enemies out there, and he knows it. 

Cast him as soundly on the side of peace and justice and order, and appreciative of the party's accomplishments in the region. He should also be unapproachably powerful, with POWERFUL wards and protections on him as long as he remains in the Temple of Tyr from which he holds court. (That Temple, his base of operations, is called the "Hall of Justice". Yes, just like where Superman and Batman hang out in the old cartoons. Feel free to omit that detail, or call the temple something else entirely if it will be too distracting.) 

Neverember has survived and subverted multiple coups and assassination attempts over the last 15-20 years, so he's not a man to be trifled with. Your players shouldn’t be tempted to test him, and should be encouraged to listen to him with some respect. If your players have chaotic "murderhobo" tendencies or tend to act disrespectfully to Authority Figures, you might choose to have them only meet with lower-level Viziers and Functionaries who will offer them a job (and a good salary) on behalf of the Lord Protector, instead of having them meet the Man Himself. If your players generally behave heroically, meeting this character can be a great moment of nearly-royal recognition for their great achievement in Phandalin.

What’s Neverwinter Like?

Neverwinter is the largest city in the Northern Sword Coast. It's known as "The City of Skilled Hands",  and is the center of the local economy for more than 100 miles in any direction. It is split into northern and southern halves by the Neverwinter River, which runs into the city from the East, and winds around Castle Never to empty into the Sea of Swords in the Harbor on the western side of the city. 

The most important things to note about the city for future plot purposes are: 

• The city is very well defended by strong walls, and an army of guards and soldiers.
• There are a wide variety of different religions and cultures represented inside. 

The most prominent religious building by far, the "Hall of Justice" where Neverember holds court, is a temple to Tyr, a God of Justice, but there are many other shrines and temples, and even some small druid groves, located within the city's defenses. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and even some more "exotic" races coexist here, for the most part in peace, and with a shared civic pride.

For an unnecessary amount of information about the city (far more than needed for our purposes), you can get this PDF from a very talented creator named Jacob Johnston over at inchoatethoughts.com. Not everything in it will be compatible with our version of the world, though. If you use the map or information from this source, however, note that they will be slightly out of date for our purposes. The walls in the Chasm District have been repaired, and are strong all the way around the city.

What Happened to Leilon?

NOTE: Your players will be able to get all this information from Gallio Elibro in the "House of Thalivar" adventure after they reach Leilon, so it's not important at all to give it to them here, but it's a large part of why they are being approached for this particular job, so if they ask follow-up questions about it, they should be able to get quick answers from anyone involved in the meeting.

About 100 years ago, an event called "The Spellplague" completely broke the way magic worked, and lots of things that were enchanted, ensorcelled, and otherwise powered by spellcraft and magic... broke. One such device, a "Planar Beacon", was being used at the time to paralyze and imprison monstrous entities from other worlds. The Spellplague caused the energy powering this device to reverse direction, instantly freeing all the monsters it had trapped, and turning its paralyzing and incapacitating powers outward, into the surrounding city. The beacon was on top of a tall tower in the center of the city, visible from almost everywhere, and anyone who looked at it was struck powerless. Most of them became food for monsters in fairly short order, and the city was abandoned. The beacon continued to be a danger to anyone entering the city for nearly a century (assuming you are playing in the late 1480s), until several years ago, when Lord Neverember sent a crew with a siege engine to destroy it.

Where is Leilon?

This is one of the first important things to "Fix" in this module. The Area Map included with the Essentials Kit shows Leilon as a dot located directly on the High Road just north of the Mere of Dead Men. This is inaccurate. Leilon is a coastal city, located far closer to the Sea of Swords than the High Road. There are docks, and a barge yard, and the economy of the location is heavily based on fishing, so it makes no sense for the city to be located nearly ten miles inland, as shown on the area map. In our version of the Sword Coast, that dot on the map is one of two locations where an "Exit Ramp" departs from the High Road, turning west, to the actual location of the city, about half a mile inland on a swampy "mud flat" saltwater marsh. That road runs north-to-south through the city, and turns to rejoin the High Road a little way further on. Leilon's "Main Street" basically forms the curvy part of a backward uppercase "D", with the High Road being the straight part.

Our version of Leilon should be very close to where "Leilon Point" is located on this map, just a bit to the south.

Who's on the Leilon Restoration Council?

Grizelda Copperwraught, Merrygold Brightshine, and Valdi Estapaar. Also Hazz Yorrum. 

• Grizelda Copperwraught is the Expedition's primary leader. She is in charge of the actual construction project, with several masons and carpenters under her management, and a few highly skilled artisans like tinkerers and smiths. They are focused on restoring the city's wooden walls, and restoring whatever architecture can be salvaged. 
• Valdi Estaapar is in charge of the fishing crews, who serve the twin roles of feeding the Expedition's workers and their families, and helping the mission to fund itself by exporting any excess seafood. The sea islands in the shallow wetlands are rich with all sorts of fish, mollusks, and crustaceans, including occasional specimens of supernaturally large size. Several fishing crews are working under Ms. Estapaar's guidance and watchful eye.
• Merrygold Brightshine is in charge of the Spiritual Guidance of the Expedition. Many of the expedition members have brought their families along on what may be a long-term project, and many of them intend to settle and live in the city once it is complete. The Church of Lathander has donated some of its faithful to provide childcare, and to oversee the restoration of the Shrine of Lathander in the city. Merrygold is in charge of that part of the operation.
• Hazz Yorrum is not a member of the Council, but is in charge of the contingent of Neverwinter City Guard dispatched to help protect the expedition and keep order there. The guards are expected to deal with random rowdiness among the workers, and discourage banditry and such, but your Party will be almost certainly called on to deal with any larger regional threats, much as they did recently for Phandalin.