Tal'Dorei Campaign Guide PDF

44 Chapter 2: Gazetteer of tal’Dorei

to the East. The city is nestled in the sticky depths of the

K’Tawl Swamp, and the lingering stink of marsh water

and sulfur mingles with the humidity and the ever-pres-

ent buzz of insects to produce an air of misery around

Stilben’s outer districts. Pushed out of the cozy heart of

Stilben, the city’s poor and disenfranchised citizens—dis-

paragingly nicknamed “muckdwellers”—struggle to eke

out a living in the K’Tawl’s murky waters.

Central Stilben houses most of the city’s businesses,

residences, and attractions. As a fairly sizable trade hub,

those living in the heart of the city like to present a clean,

“civilized” view of their city. The cross-continental Silvercut

Roadway leads from Stilben all the way to Emon, and its

robust trade of rare goods, textiles, and spices has given rise

to a formidable merchant ruling class. Though Margrave

Wendle Truss is Stilben’s ruler in name, it is the guilds that

hold true power. Their vast wealth and sizable “protection”

force has forced the bombastic-yet-ineffectual Margrave to

acquiesce to the will of guilds in order to maintain peace, as

well as to preserve own station, within the city.

Order is kept by the the Waterwatch, Stilben’s official

constabulary, but corruption is becoming more and more

common within their ranks. The Clasp has learned that a

flash of coin forgives many faults, and the famous ring of

criminals has been allowed to flourish within Stilben for

decades, sometimes working with the guilds to protect mutual

interests, such as smuggling contraband goods and narcotics

along the Silvercut Roadway. The Clasp’s foreign rivals, the

Myriad, have recently established a lair within Stilben as well,

and are undercutting the Clasp’s operations. The Myriad is

less scrupulous than the Clasp, and has introduced a growing

slave trade between eastern Tal’Dorei and Wildemount.

stilben aDventures

lost beloW

For low-level characters: A Stilben guild known as the

Relic Seekers partnered with the Clasp to smuggle a

hoard of stolen Syngornian artifacts through the heart

of the K’Tawl Swamp to the port of Stilben. The Clasp

smugglers were last seen paying off a bridge guard in

western swamp, but two weeks have passed since their last

contact. They should have arrived by now. The PCs may

be approached by one of several contacts: an agent of the

Relic Seekers, a rival guild called the Bronzesmiths, or

one of the Clasp, seeking to hire them as mercenaries to

find the relics. Their first contact: a bridge guard the cou-

riers bribed, a huge, half-mad tiefling named L’Arkhelle.

strife in the sh aDoWs

For mid-level characters: The Clasp doesn’t like it when the

Myriad edges in on their turf, like they have been in Stil-

ben for the past five years. Their conflict has been secret

and self-contained until now, but something is about

to snap. Everyone can feel it. While staying in Stilben,

the PCs are witness to a bloody skirmish between Clasp

and Myriad on the streets in broad daylight. The party is

caught up in the struggle and are marked as conspirators

in the conflict by the now furious Waterwatch. The party

now has to clear their name, when representatives of both

factions begin to contact the party with generous offers of

membership to aid in destroying the opposition.

reMnant risinG

For high-level characters: When business is good, it’s easy

for even darker elements to pass undetected, and business

in Stilben has been very good indeed. A sect of Remnants

called the Punctured Eye has assassinated and “replaced”

top guild leaders within Stilben. They believe a power-

ful artifact of the Whispered One sits deep in the vaults

of one of Stilben’s unwitting guilds, and are intent on

recovering it by infiltrating, corrupting, and crushing the

guilds one-by-one. The PCs are contacted by an ally—a

Clasp agent, a friend in the Waterwatch, or a Silvercut

trader—who has discovered the corpse of Artenn Gitelle,

the human leader of the Relic Seekers guild, buried in the

swamp, even though “Artenn” is alive and well.

Summit Peaks

The spire-like mountains of the Summit Peaks stand tall

and odd, like rocky spikes reaching to the sky. The Summit

Peaks stand out so aggressively against the surrounding

fields and swamp that they are the guiding landmark of the

eastern coast, a welcome sight to any ship’s crew making

their way to shore. The mountain valleys recess into swamp-

like gorges, housing all manner of giantkin and creatures

migrating from the K’Tawl. As the mountains rise higher,

strong winds blow across the battered rock, leaving

strangely smooth peaks that harbor griffin lairs, harpy dens,

and convocations of giant eagles hunting the lower lands.

Zephrah

Village • Population: 410

(75% Half-elf, 10% Human, 10% Halfling, 5% Tiefling)

High atop a mountain aerie within the Summit Peaks

sits Zephrah, the tribal home of the Air Ashari people,

keeping vigil over a gate into the Elemental Plane of Air.

Vox MaChina

The citizens of Stilben do not know that some of

Exandria’s greatest heroes, Vox Machina, first met in

their humble city and went on their first adventure in

the muck of the K’Tawl Swamp. Back then, even the

exalted Vox Machina were just dime-a-dozen adven-

turers, quickly forgotten by Stilben’s haughty elite.

One dwarf named Heinrich Runescribe, a junior

member of the Alabaster Lyceum’s revered Lore-

keeper Society, practically worships the heroes that

defeated the Chroma Conclave, and has made it his

mission to record all of their travels. He believes that

Stilben is the place of their first adventure, but is still

searching for evidence.