World

The Serpentine Coast, is a part of the world not too distant from Fallcrest – perhaps about a weeks ride west (~300 miles). The coast is a snaking line of sheltered harbours -  a few hosting small trading and fishing villages - alternating with treacherous rocky cliffs and islands. A trading highway mostly well-kept and occasionally paved with flagstones runs north and south for much of the coast.

Rangers – seen less in the cities, rangers make the best outriders, trail spies, and border watchmen. While the Serpentine Coast is wild, the trade that makes its lifeblood depends on detecting threats to caravans and reacting early. Barons may offer rangers lodgings or free lands in return for securing their borders, riding their forests, and reporting signs of untoward activity.

Warlocks, Wizards and Clerics – Rare and usually known widely by reputation, or living entirely in secret. These wielders of arcane and divine abilities keep to their temples and towers, and are rarely seen by the common folk, who would never go to those places without great trepidation. When they are seen it is the subject of great outcry and interest. Powerful ones can be advisors, agents for rich merchants, lord mayors and war-chiefs; initiates and apprentices doff their robes as they leave the tower, temple or guild and move about in plain clothes to avoid inquisitive eyes.

Towns

Ingerbolt

A hundred and fifty miles north of Tyrephene is the town of Ingerbolt. Its governed by the Dwarven War-chief Blastongard Firehammer, and an entangled network of his offspring and their families.

A small town it is mostly of dwarven kind, but a few men, and halflings make up its 700 or so population. Fully a third of the town is hewn into the rock of the Great Stone Wall, a 100 foot tall cliff that runs for 100 miles along the coast to the north, and veers up to the sou-east joining the Northern Dramorthian mountain range. At the clifftop rises several Eladrin spires, home to scholars, clerics and artisans of the fey wild folk.  They have an uneasy alliance with the dwarves of the cliffs, and do not recognise Firehammer's notional governance, but archly ignore him for the most part.  When the spellplague struck many towers fell, but some were spirited into the Feywild mists to be saved.  Even now the mists from the crags between Ingerbolt & Dramfiggin inland drape these graceful spires in mist.

Dwarven engineers maintain a perilous switchback road that scales the cliff, and exact a reasonable toll from traders bring carts that way. Those on foot pass for free. The alternative is to detour 60 miles west into the foothills of the Dramorthians where the Blackanvil pass allows access to the north again.

Dwarf survivors of some great tragic assault on the city that once stood where Tyrephene now stands are the founders of Ingerbolt and they are a redoubtable lot. The best quality weaponry and armour is made here, from metal supplies hewn from mines up in the Dramorthian foothills.

Dramfiggin

The village of Dramfiggin on the Northern side of the Blackanvil Pass is home to many drarven miners, some of whom will journey down to Ingerbolt to spend their coin on fine Tyrephene ales.  The work here is dangerous and the predations of the goblins & orcs of the Dramorthians press their defences.  Mining of gold, tin, iron and many other metals and precious stones keeps the dwarves of Dramfiggin here at this cold & inhospitable town.

Tyrephene

(TY-re-FEEN) is the hub of the Serpentine Coast, on a perfect natural harbour where the Graybrindle River widens before it flows into the Roamean Sea.

Here the merchant class rules, and the town's most powerful men are the dragonborn Portmaster Gramm Forthwind, the human Mayor Artold Goldscale, and Godwin Pinchcoddle the halfling merchant. There are around 1800 souls in residence and a floating population of merchants, sailors and travellers usually numbering another 500 or so.

The big town has a civility to many parts of it. The Temple of Ioun has a large library and a 100 or so scholarly clerics; and there is also a town hall, records and public libraries. In the financial district the Captain of the Guards Fortian Hardacre runs things with an iron fist, and two mercantile banks do a roaring trade there as a result. Shops and markets, thrive along the vale and the well-to-do also live in the new parts of town up the valley from the financial and administrative heart.

But there is a seedy side as well – the wharves, the warehouses and markets nearby, and a whole sector of the city inland from there are not safe at nights. Disreputable inns, tenements built on the cascading precipitous ruins of the ancient city that once stood there, and dark narrow streets are home to all manner of unsavoury types.

Perched on the hillside looking out across the harbour, and also back up the valley is the barracks, mayoral home and offices, and the towns treasury surrounded by stout pallisade and naturally protected by its precipitous access road.

Legend has it that the ancient races that built this town - men and dwarves - had built many subterrenean passages, storerooms and bolt-holes from which to mount defense against marauding armies of fell creatures from the hills. Allegedly these passages wind through many parts of the city.

Brindleford

Inland from Tyrephene lies this vibrant logging town, built on the ruins of a large monastery and temple.  The deep ravines and forests either side provide striking landscapes and jutting statues of old dead gods and heroes live among the pines & mists.  There are several secretive Eladrin enclaves there, said to study or perhaps even still foster the ancient beliefs of those who left the temples.  Merchants and furriers of many races, some not so welcome in civilized Tyrephene, find acceptance among the rough & ready human and dwarves loggers, and frontiersmen.

Carrowvale

This tiny village lies halfway between Montonbury and Tyrephene, on the coastal side of the Main Road, where it serves the farmers of the seaward South Dales.  Nestled in the barrow downs its home to a farrier, blacksmith & clerics serving the rural farming folks.  Also here is a popular guest house on the western side of the village with a magnificent view down over the cliffs of Bewth to the Roman Sea.  Its a favorite of the wealthier merchants of Tyrephene.

Carywyre – Fastogan – Montonbury

This circlet of small towns are strung along the three arms of the crossroads – taking their sustenance from the trade coming up the Serpentine Coast from the south, and the over the Silverstream Pass from the west. Each has a population of around 400, and there are barely 30 miles between each. The countryside between and about for 50 miles in all directions is dotted with small-holders, goat-farmers and a few small villages.

Fastogan is more a fortress than a town, situated on the West Road with soldiers from all the Serpentine Coast seeking training there, in the shadow of the walled Temple of Kord. Fastogan is run along military lines by dwarven Warlord Pentian Cloudbringer, but the ruling vision is that of female half-elf Cleric Emerith Alsinore of the Temple. Fastogan soldiers-in-training try out their mettle conducting sorties against the wild denizens of the Dramorthians.

Carywyre lies to the south in a gentle valley a hundred miles from the coast. It is the southern-most point of the Serpentine coast. A good stopping point for travellers and merchants, with many good inns. A large building near the centre of the town is a lodge of the Jaeger Gild. There is also a weekly market on the common to the south of town.

Two enigmatic towers stand above the Carywyre from the northeast and southeast approaches – their occupants are not known but may be whispered about.

Montonbury is the home of tradesfolk of all kinds – close enough to the traderoutes to take advantage of cheap wood, leather and metals, but not so far south as to be out of reach of the supplies from Tyrephene eighty miles to the North – close enough to drive a cart if drivers took two shifts and started at daybreak. Wheelwrights, coopers, boot-makers, made their shops beside apothecaries, hatters and brewers.

Dravencliffe

Once a mighty fortress town overseeing the Silverstream Pass below it, Dravencliffe is now a huddled group of wary villagers offering the services of a inn, a tavern and a wheelwright to travellers on the treacherous mountain way.  Dominating the village is ancient Dravencliffe Keep, standing amongst the misty forests of the Dramorthian Mountains.  The Baron who occupies it keeps a small guard of soldiers in the village, and taxes the local trade to pay for them. 

Beyond the Borders

There are many many wild tales bought to the Serpentine Coast by traders and adventurers.  Truth is no-one really knows for sure what lies well beyond the borders of these mostly civilized lands.  The marauding creatures and chaos left after the Spellplague have mostly been pushed back by the towns and their guards and civilized ways: but not so outside the borders.  Scholars like the clerics in the temple of Ioun accumulate knowledge and try to sift fact from fiction, comparing reports with fragments of ancient documents and books that were rescued from the disasters wrought by the Spellplague.

West over the Romean Sea

There are common patterns - for example the jaded customes men of Tyrephene port trying to levy goods bought in as personal chests of item often confront some traveller with their pre-judged ideas of the traveller.

"Oh, personal stuff of yours is it?  Well you look to me like just another Eladrin Wizard who has blown in over the Roamean sea with a pile of loot and you can pay up just like the rest of 'em".

North

North of Dramfiggin the road is rough and in places merely a muddy rut.  The way splits at Wildacre Crossing where a small guard post is maintained, and heads north-west to the coast.  Its quickly horseback only by that route, and no merchants carts are seen.  To the north-east the road heads into the mountains, where old stands of larch and mountain fir are shrouded in mist.  Some ancient ruins and temples are said to lie just off these roads, and scholars often visit seeking wisdom.  Eladrin lie lands beyond up through the hills protected by the rocky passes and forests.

It is known that to the North coast it quickly becomes icy cold and travel there is best by ship.  Only a few weeks sail North stories have it that ice floats in the sea, and great monsters lie in wait for the even the most experienced of sailors.  Still fantastic artifacts, and valuable relics of yore have been recovered on journeys there.  The next port to the North is Scarrow - a thriving fishing town and trade port for the brave frontiersmen that track into the frozen lands from there.  Dwarves and others of great constitution and endurance are most of the survivors who come from these lands.  Among them are fighters, smiths and alchemists.

Fully two-thirds of the trade into Tyrephene comes from over the Roamean Sea.  The traders from those ships have other names for the sea, and also tell of amazing islands with strange creatures, enclaves of island dwelling artisans, and cliffs housing cave-dwelling sea dwarves.  These crafters of legend produce  intricate and powerful artifacts, including armour and weaponry, lanterns and fishing hooks, monocles and saddles.  Of course there are bulk goods too - fabrics, dyes, salt, spices and much more.  Sometimes members of strange races arrive on the ships: gnomes, shifters and half-orcs.  Commonly seen among the travellers from over the sea are Eladrin Wizards, and Halfling Rogues.

South

Some of the wildest stories come from the South.  Around 3-4 days ride south of Carywyre the road splits at Drewth and heads south-east to the Desert Plains, and west-south-west following the coast.  The mountains bordering the deserts are said to house grand castles and buildings of the ancients, but also rifts into the Shadowfell and dangerous creatures wrought from other strange places by the power of the Spellplague.  In the deserts, oases and grand river deltas mighty natural and magic creatures roam, or lurk.  Great powers, and fantastic knowledge is said to be found there, as well as the greatest challenges to the hunter are to be found there.  To the folk of the vales of the Coast, all these Warlocks of most races, Tieflings of most callings, elven rangers and stout barbarians are mostly assumed to have come from the south.

Closest to the coast - just a weeks ride or so - but seperated by a dangerous pass and mountain range - is the East.  For burghers and farmers of the Coast, the Shadowfell creatures are crawling all over the mountains, tussling with Goblins and evil elementals for the chance to tear an innocent wayfarer limb from limb. And they may not be far from the truth - certainly most of the real threats to the peace of the Serpentine Coast has in the past come from the Dramorthians in one way or another.  Fighters wanting to show their mettle often sally forth into those peaks, or up through the pass - and only a few return.  Brave clerics often trek there trying to map out those lands and trust to their deity to protect them.  Once through the Silverstream pass there is another day or two of dangerous riding on narrow stony roads, before the way opens out in to the Nentir Vale.

The Underdark

This network of tunnels, natural fissures, caves and underground geological formations exists in places below the Serpentine Coast, usually without the knowledge of its ciitzens.  Before the Spellplague guard posts and fortresses existed to press back the forces of the natural dark - drow, kobolds and others much worse.  However most of these collapsed, and in the area of the trade coast sealed off these dark locations from the upper world.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons for its resurgence.  But in places, especially in some towns, ancient catacombs and subterrenean temples still have portals through to the underdark.