Complete city for DnD 5e: over 40 NPCs, 31 Maps, 11 quests. Welcome to Ararraf!

This city is, like every other setting I have published, very generic and adaptable to all campaigns. It has kept my players busy for a hundred hours of gameplay, and everything the characters will miss is not tied to the city itself, so you can reuse it later. In addition to individual locations and NPCs, around which you can build events related to your campaign, the city of Ararraf has its own series of events and subplots. In the links there is literally everything you need, and in a printer-friendly version: events, place descriptions, NPCs. The maps are already optimized for roll20, in day and night version. The original Dungeondraft files are included. I have the artistic flair of a manhole, so don’t expect mapmaking masterpieces, but they fulfill the purpose.    

Ararraf’s subplots: countesses, tournaments, gnolls, slavers, underwater missions…

Regardless of how you use the city to keep your campaign going, it still has subplots that you can use as a pivot, or as a filler, it’s up to you. There are some storylines, related to the quests:

• One of the most important figures in the city is the Collector. In my campaign I used him as a central figure and point of reference for the party: he was in fact connected to their backstories, and within the city he can be linked to almost all the quests. It will provide the party with a quest that will grant exclusive access to the Dragon’s Tongue.
• Slavers in the city: if the backstories (or aspirations) of one or more of your characters are related in some way to illicit trafficking or its unmasking, in one of the taverns there is a clandestine arena with an entire mission ready, which between espionage and deceptions winds up to the port. If you prefer, just rearrange everything in a building.
• The Dragon’s Tongue, a high-class brothel in the city, features a water nymph, Kalmila, as the central figure. She will offer a quest where the party will have to rescue her companions from a basilisk. In my campaign she gave as a reward a ride aboard his own ship and a Bag of Holding.
• Candle Tournament: it is the central event of the city, the party will have to face a series of dangerous creatures to win a substantial cash prize and an official invitation from Countess Freyny, the noble elf who holds the city council in hand. In order to participate in the tournament, you need to complete some missions on behalf of the city.
• Gnoll Attacks and Monster Leader: In my campaign, players faced a series of gnoll attacks, they were still low level. In case, replace them with the monsters you prefer, the plot does not change: one of the quests consists of fortifying a village to defend it from attacks and, immediately after the Candle tournament, the city is attacked by the gnolls or the monster/s you choose. A hunting quest will follow to eliminate the leader, in my campaign he was a particularly tough gnoll under the psionic influence of an Illithid’s skull.
• Countess Freyny: noble elf with the city council in hand. She will invite the party to an 8-course dinner (also described!) in her castle if they win the tournament. Easily used in your campaign to link future quests, requests, missions and so on.
• Quest on behalf of the city: the half-orc at the head of the guards will offer players numerous missions, the fulfillment of which will allow participation in the tournament: villages bewitched by mermaids, beaches to be cleaned by draconid lizards; a mission entirely underwater among shipwrecks and farms of prized fish, gnolls that devastate villages …

Detailed places in the city

• Candle arena
• School of witchcraft
• Monastery Temple of (God) x2
• Ararraf Archives
• Offices of the guards
• Brothels (x2)
• House of Noble NPC (Freyny)
• House of the Collector
• Poor and luxury brothels
• Taverns (x3): Sailor’s Ass, Hero and Mug, the Broken Axe
• Arcanist
• Ararraf Market (blacksmith, butcher, goldsmith and everything in between)
• Port and harbor
• Master’s office
• Underground arena
• Public bathrooms

Main Ararraf’s NPCs

• Guards – Kor and Belbo, human males, 32 and 28 – serious but courteous
• Secretary – Lavinia, female gnome, 60 – cuddly old lady
• Host – Thethe, female dwarf, 88 – Kind but suspicious
• Commoner – Narvi, female, human, 31 – sad and willing to talk about her father
• Artist – Reda, male elf, 34 – ready to talk about the cult if offered a drink
• Innkeeper – Rither, human male, 39 – Kind and discreet.
• Snooty nobles – Melly, Kurda, Minain; elf, elf, elf, 24
• Grandmother seeking help for grandson – Adriel, Tortuga, female, 137
• Host – Taa, human female, 70 – Doesn’t speak
• Team Guard – Elm, male elf, 33 – Tactically savvy, friendly
• Prostitutes x5
• High level escort x5
• Dragon’s Tongue – Kalmila, water nymph, 39 – provocative, playful, desired
• Archives Receptionist— Kiki, Tabaxi female, 30 – Courteous and warm
• Detached from a minority of your continent – Tabi, human female, 50 – hasty
• Innkeeper – Talmund, male halfling, 60 – Grim and sinister
• Boss – Desmond, human male, 68 – grumpy and bossy
• Guard —Tolas, minotaur, male, 16 – Serious, no humor taken
• Secretary – Talas, tabaxi, female, 18 – Playful but professional, water phobia
• The collector – Shahor, male tiefling, 360 – Ruthless, calculating, dangerous
• Arcanist – Gianni, male goliath, 40 – Honest, good, he would like to make friends with the Collector but he is ghosting him
• Employee – Tolo, human male, 60 – a bit awkward
• Captain of the Guard – Vurk, male half-orc, 33 – Efficient and hasty
• Chief – Korvid, female elf, 78 – helpful but distant
• Regent Countess – Freyny Dafaig, female elf, 143 – austere but gentle
• Apprentice – Preeg, male goblin, 16 – Introverted and calm
• Monastery master – Olbin, male halfling, 67 – calm and hospitable
• Clothes seller – Tolanya, female aaraockra, 28 – flirtatious but WITH STYLE
• Arcanist – Eilprust – female, dwarf, schematic and sadistic
• Captain – Nesto, human male, 34
• Tournament Party Guard – Elm, male elf, 33 – Tactically savvy, friendly, gambling problems
• Haunted Village Host – Alexeia, female elf, 60 – Insensely generous, influenced by mermaids

Artists contribution

Dungeondraft assets

Drawings

• Moonalym – Her own drawings of the Collector and Kalmila, Tongue of the Dragon are included in the downloads!

Download

Ararraf Maps Dungeondraft files Ararraf city: docs [50 pag] in pages/pdf/docx; (ENG) La città di Ararraf: documenti [50 pagine] in pages/pdf/docx, (ITA) Mappe/Maps Here all the D&D material that I homebrewed and published. Would you like to contribute to articles like this with drawings, places and maps made by you? Here’s how to do it!

Terms of use

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. The material provided here and all associated files are published under the following license: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If you’re interested, I have a newsletter: I send a single email a month, and only if there is something new. You can find the subscribing form in the left column of the blog, in each article. If you have the time, leave me a comment below! The next setting will be a much smaller city, but with a particular focus on cooking. Bye!