Nentir Vale

The setting for the beginning of the Safekeepers` adventures.

Summery
Fallcrest lies near the middle of the broad borderland region known as the Nentir Vale. The vale is now mostly empty, with a handful of living villages and towns scattered over this wide area. Abandoned farmsteads, ruined manors, and broken keeps litter the countryside. Bandits, wild animals, and monsters roam freely throughout the vale, threatening anyone who fares more than few miles away from one of the surviving settlements. Travel along the roads or river is usually safe—usually. But every now and then, travelers come to bad ends between towns.

Kiris Dahn
The town of Kiris Dahn, built by human hands, stood strong against invaders for decades after the fall of the empire ofNerath. It had magical stones-created by tiefling artisans-that could kill anyone who attacked the town. The number of stones dwindled until all were spent.

Eight years ago, the citizens of Kiris Dahn abandoned the town when faced with invading goblin hordes. The town had endured a long decline under the rule ofthe Kiris family, and the citizens scattered rather than follow their ruler, Kiris Alkirk. Along with his advisor and seer Treona, Alkirk found a place to live in obscurity. The goblins overran the town and renamed it Gorizbadd. The town quickly fell into ruin, since goblins were far more interested in vandalism than in proper maintenance. A faction of kobolds took over the slums, since the goblins live mostly in what were once residences for the wealthier people of Kiris Dahn. This town is the setting of the adventure HS1 The Slaying Stone.

Fallcrest
Fallcrest stands amid the Moon Hills at the falls of the Nentir River. Here travelers and traders using the old King’s Road that runs north and south, the dwarven Trade Road from the east, and the river all meet. The surrounding ridges shelter several small valleys where farmers and woodsfolk live; few are more than six or seven miles from the town. In general the people outside Fallcrest’s walls earn their living by farming or keeping livestock, and the people inside the walls are artisans, laborers, or merchants. People with no other prospects can make a hard living as porters, carrying cargo from the Lower Quays to the Upper Quays (or vice versa).

Fallcrest imports finished goods from the larger cities downriver and ironwork from the dwarf town of Hammerfast, and exports timber, leather, fruit, and grain. It also trades with the nearby town of Winterhaven.

The surrounding hills hold several marble quarries that once produced a good deal of stone, but the area has little demand for ornamental stone these days, and only a few stonecutters still practice their trade.