- Hluthvar and immediate surroundings.
(priest) of the House of the Guardian, the local temple of Helm, Maurandyr also used to act as Magistrate, but that role has now moved to Master Opanrael who is heading Mantor’s Library.
Hluthvar is a town that has begun to flourish and grow. It is not yet as big as Arabel, but it is a town that is growing and one senses the air of optimism and adventure when walking the streets.
Inside the walls of the old town the mood is a little more conservative and the old Hluthvar can still be felt, but in the new parts of town there is plenty of things going on. There are adventurers who use the town as a starting point for explorations into the Far Hills and Sunset mountains who are just to the East of the town, and without the heavy shadow of Zhentarim oppression the town has started to grow and expand.
In the streets and in the new parts there is also an increasing presence of merchants from all parts of Faerun, who are either setting up a stall or shop to start selling their wares, or making Hluthvar a stop on the road to rest and stock up on supplies.
Craftsmen and all the services that comes with the growth from a small town to a small City is also flowing into Hluthvar. A lot of people with roots in Cormyr have found their new home here in Hluthvar.
History
In DR 851 on commission of the city leaders in Iriaebor, Hluthvar de Borall and his adventuring party spent two decades clearing the Sunset Vale of many of its worst denizens.
As reward for the party’s success they were allowed to build manors in the Sunset Vale. Iriaebor’s hope was to establish a nation spanning from Cormyr to the Reaching Woods.
Hluthvar had his manor built by the lake and he built a traveler’s inn shortly afterward. The Inn became a popular stopping location for travelers, adventurers, and Caravaners from all over the area. By the time Hluthvar passed away from natural causes in 884 the location by the lake had grown into a small hamlet.
Hluthvar (811-884 DR) was a local warrior-hero, and his statue still stands in at the center of town, in front of the gates to original keep that belonged to Hluthvar years ago. The town that preserves his name stands as the front-line wall against armies that would otherwise sweep down from Darkhold and the Sunset mountains unchecked to raid at will up and down the Vale. In this vigilant stance, Maurandyr (and now Srebor) was financially supported by the Harpers, the Lords Alliance, and other rulers and places in the Vale.
Being on the frontier did not make Hluthvar a welcoming place to visit. Mostly build of stone and slate to resist fires, it could muster a militia of over 70 well-trained and equipped warriors. Groups of them clad in plate mail would be seen practicing with swords and crossbows every day under the watchful eyes of priests.
The temple still hires adventurers to ride wide patrols around the town to keep watch on raiders and monsters coming out of the Far hills and the Sunset mountains. “…Put the dark ones to the sword whenever you can…”, was their standing order, and there is still very strong suspicions towards the Zhentarim and their true motives.
Geography
On the north side of the central market stands the House of the Guardian (with a large buy/sell/trade livery stable and the militia armory North of it), and on the South side stands a wagon wain’s shop and the first inn in town, the Watchful Eye.
The temple used to maintain a stable of milk cows and a chicken house (both easily located by the smell), but this has now moved outside of the city walls. The priests, who always go armed, still stride about like sword captains, giving orders as if the town were at war. After the threat of the Zhentarim has gone, this has now relaxed a bit, but the vigilance is still very high.
Rental space warehouses used to ring and flank these important buildings, they have now moved beyond the inner city walls, and the expansion the city has seen a great deal of structures lying outside the inner city walls. The inner part of the town holds seven covered wells, a few shops, and homes, which used to be the core of Hluthvar.
The wells are set up as small, defensible keeps topped by onagers that can hurl stones at attackers outside the city walls. Every roof and every cellar used to be planted for growing mushrooms or root crops. To discourage drunkenness, there used to be no tavern, and visitors to town who strayed from the inn or local market were viewed as little better than spies. This has relaxed significantly and Hluthvar now boasts a number of taverns, but there is still a lingering distrust of outsiders.
(Hluthvar map A3 with locations)
The people
Most folk in Hluthvar used to work deep in their cellars, delving ever deeper in search of gold, which is plentiful in the rock hereabouts, and perhaps Netherese or other ruins below. Once someone even broke through into an old abandoned dwarven hold, and it’s still provisioned as a safe hold for the townsfolk to retreat to if Hluthvar is overrun.
Places of Interest in Hluthvar
Temples
The House of the Guardian
This temple to Helm resembles a keep. It even used to have a moat and spiked iron fence (which can be electrified by spells in the event of attack), and there are ballistae and armories inside. The uppermost chamber is a stark chancel, the altar being an upright sword, the unblinking eye of Helm glowing on its pommel.
Over 20 warrior-priests dwell here, working ceaselessly by spell and training in arms to strengthen Hluthvar as “the wall against the darkness”. They are grim folk, always alert for spies, weaknesses, and ways in which they can deal harm to the forces of Darkhold who they still do not trust.
Shops
Trist’s Saddles and Stables
The owner, Irythimm Trist is a sharp-nosed, watchful man who drives a hard bargain, but avoids all deceit. If you buy a mount or pack animal from him, you’ll get exactly as good a beast as he says you will all-in-all, a rare and precious thing.
Veloth’s Fine Wagons and Repairs
Owned by Uln Veloth who is a man of exaggeration, histrionics, and hand-wringing. He can never do what you want in the scant time you give him. But he always does. His skilled craftspeople grin at his wailing a lot and calmly turn out top-quality wagons, wheels, axles, and overnight repairs. Fees are stiff, and payable up front, but the work is sturdy.
The Scarlett Letter
Well stocked bookshop that used to belong to Randal Greycastle. It has been closed for a while after his death, but has been reopened and is now owned and operated by the Wolfmantle family. It is known for it’s large collection of exotic texts from the southern lands as well as a fine range of novels and other works of fiction.
Other
Mantor’s Library
Mantor’s Library is the most prominent institution in the square, and one of the oldest surviving structures of Hluthvar. The Library’s staff has a seemingly inexhaustible reserve of energy which they devote to curating and expanding the library’s collection of encyclopediae, treatises, and compendiums. Mantor’s Library is funded by donations and the modest fees collected for performing research, transcribing, translating; as well as donations from the city’s wealthier citizenry.
Srebor’s manor
See the map in PDF format with location.
Inns
The Watchful Eye
The Watchful Eye is a cheerless place that serves solid food and watered down beer. It has shutters and a roof and not much else. It’s one virtue is that it’s quiet – almost too quiet, like the calm before a storm. Still, you can definitely fall asleep easily here – if the hard beds does not keep you awake.
Hammer and Forge
Owned by the retired adventurer, Frost Redding, a dwarven fighter who – according to himself, traveled the most of the Sword coast and what lies beneath for the better part of 20 years before deciding to call it a day with his trusted partner Marten Foss, who also lives in town.
Taverns
The Brazen Head
It’s a lively spot, with live music most nights. The building was originally a coach house and the walls are lined with old drawings of patrons who have visited the Tavern in the past. The tavern has a semi-permanent resident – Alen Winter, an half-elf bard who both excels at music as well as drawing.
The Long Hall
This pub has a striking red and white exterior that survived the complete reconstruction of the buildings around it that were razed to the ground about 30 years ago during an assault of an humanoid army.
Other taverns
- The Cobblestone
- The Stag’s Head
- The Minotaur’s horn
Historical notes
Maurandyr
The folk of Hluthvar lived with fear of the Zhentarim for a long time, but Maurandyr was an extraordinary diplomat and leader, who guided Hluthvar through several crisis.
At the end their revered leader, Maurandyr, seemed to be going mad. Several times he fainted, or spoke and acted strangely in public view, and some say these incidents were the result of the strain of command. Others whispered they were signs of the displeasure of Helm or, and this is the dark opinion of most, they were caused by some sort of magical assault from the evil Zhentarim wizards.
Maurandyr died in his bed plagued by fits and seizures while having clearly lost his wits. It was a long and drawn out process, and when he was deemed unfit to rule, a new Patriarch was elected from the ranks of the Helm church – Srebor the Red, a seasoned warrior and adventurer.
The Portal beneath
Beneath Hluthvar there was a portal centuries ago that allowed travel to other planes, and with the right artifacts you could travel between the material plane and several outer planes, and this turned into quite a lucrative business that was a catalyst for the growth of Hluthvar, taking it from a small outpost and turning it into a proper trading town.
The portal turned from a blessing to a curse over time, for as the reputation of Hluthvar grew, so did the knowledge of the portal, and the portal was used to travel to dark and twisted places, and evil sought to travel through the portal.
After a series of attacks that could have ended in the destruction of the town, a group of adventurers from the Harpers sealed the portal, never to be opened again.
See also post #10
Hluthvar – sources
Campaign set in Hluthvar.
Srebor’s Manor – Vandeboren Manor from Dungeon #140
Torsdags Dungeons & Dragons 