The history of Gutral Mastekeena

I appologise if I have posted this before, but I went looking for it and could not find it and I thought is would be a shame if I lost this permanently

Gutral Mastekeena

Has stood on the banks of the Great River for centuries beyond the oldest memories, indeed, millennia.  It's line of rulers stands as a long unbroken chain directly to the gods, so it is said.  The Palace of the Immortal Emperor, stands central to the city, is said to contain a room for every year of the empire, over ten thousand rooms, it is said.

•  There are laws in the in the nation that all statues must be no greater than half the height of a principal statue of the Immortal Emperor and that no statue can be anyone other than a reigning king, only one statue of each king is allowed.  

•  The statue of the Immortal Emperor, of which there is only one, may have grown over the years in height as building technology allowed it to an magic evolved to improve it, and to accommodate taller statues of the current king.  

•  There is a rigid Caste System in the Empire.  The Emperor, his King and the King's Children are at the top.  Citizens are next, membership is granted to all those that serve in the military for ten years, not their children.  The next Caste are the Warriors, they are the ones that lose their caste and enter this one.  Next Caste are those that labour, the children of Citizens.  The last Caste is the slaves.  

•  The rights of the various castes are complex.  The ruling Caste is almost immune to all laws, except those of treason, which is loosely defined by the Emperor on a case by case situation.

•  Standard laws of most nations apply to citizens.  But they may only inherit from citizens.  Meaning that only if their children has had ten years military service when they die, will they inherit.  Only Citizens can own land.  Only citizens can purchase land.  Only Citizens may leave the Empire and return as Citizens.  Only citizens may bear arms.

•  Workers are considered owned by Citizens, until children attain citizenship, they are Worker Caste.  They are labourers and may keep the fruits of their labour, they pay taxes, but they can never own anything like a building or land.  This means they rent these things from Citizens or from the Ruling Caste.  They are beholden to a Citizen and they pay them to continue to exist.

•  Slave Caste are the lowest caste.  They are owned by the Ruling Caste exclusively.  They form the bureaucratic labour force and the public works workforce.

•  Any Caste is allowed into the Warrior Caste.  Few want to join the Warrior Caste.  The attrition rate is over fifty percent in the first year of service and fewer than one in four leave the Caste as Citizens, but there are good reasons why people want to enter military service, most urgently so they can inherit and so they are not made Slaves to the Emperor upon their Citizen benefactor's death.  Warrior Caste members are grilled with a training regime that makes them potent warriors and completely loyal to the Emperor alone.  

• The Caste System of Gutral Mastekeena is part of the reason why it has survived millennia, virtually impervious to internal rot and strife as only those completely loyal to the Emperor have the right to bare arms and the right to own land and inherit.  This applies to the Ruling Caste as well.  Upon the death of the current king, of his progeny the Emperor selects the most worthy successor and they are made King.  All other children are made slaves, unless they have attained Citizenship or joined the Warrior Caste.  

• Any Worker Caste who leaves the confines of the Empire, returns as a slave.  Any Citizen who leaves the Empire for longer than a decade must renew their Loyalty Oath or be enslaved.  The Empire has been growing for most of its existence 

The Immortal Emperor is the ruler of the Empire, but all worldly and temporal concerns are handled by the King, who is drawn from the numbers of children of the last king.  The most worthy member is selected by the Emperor and placed on the throne, the rest of the children are released to their lives as citizens or made slaves of the state.  The most worthy then produces as many heirs as they can produce, and those heirs produce as many children as they can produce and so on until the current king dies and the process begins again.  The criteria for selection of the next king are complex, in theory all children and grandchildren are eligible, but in practise the Emperor chooses the most capable.  The Emperor will select a Citizen over all others, next a Warrior and lastly a worker; in theory the Immortal Emperor could select a slave, but this never has happened.  Citizens have had ten years of military service and are by definition devotedly loyal to the Emperor.  (Surviving 5 years involves a ceremony overlooked by the Emperor, and an oath giving service.  Those that reach ten years of service the Oath becomes binding, not all oath givers survive the ceremony.)  while in the past the King has been raised from Merchant Citizens, in practise the king is raised from the most powerful progeny.  The second quality the Emperor looks for is number of progeny birthed and social status of them.  Typically the age of the new king is younger and not older and the average life expectancy of a king is in excess of forty years.  Marriage is not something kings do, indeed only after the a new king is selected do his sibling relatives marry.  Until then, any Slave or Worker can be conscripted into their harem, and any citizen can become a consort upon negotiation.  

The Empire spans almost the length of the tributary of the Great River sits and many of the minor tributaries a month's travel up and down the Great River.  The tributary Mastekeena is many thousand of kilometers long and it is navigatable for most of its length.  Many of its tributaries are navigatable for hundreds of kilometers.  The stated goal of the Empire is to dominate all the lands where the water flows through its Capitol; despite its age and size, it is still many generations from accomplishing this goal.  More than once has there been times when portions of the empire have ceded themselves from the Empire; when it occurs they are not mentioned in the history books.  On occasion the far thinking and planning Emperor sets up nations further than the boarders of the Empire to create means of assuming control of larger tributary nations.  Sometimes, groups of like minded dissidents are exiled far from the Empire sometimes revolts occur and portions of the empire cede from it.  One such rebellion did occur about fifteen hundred years ago.  Since that time, the Emperor has instituted policies that ensure this never happen again, primarily redistributing new lands to new citizens, and enslaving the population and forcing them into the Warrior Caste and redistributing the resulting Citizens far from their home territory.  

The rebellion that caused this draconian policy was not successful.  The slaves and workers in the rebellion were lead by a group of warriors that had yet to become citizens who were from this region, but for every soldier they killed, ten rebels died and when the resulting blood bath was done, the rebellion was over and every defected Warrior caste was executed for treason and all the rest were enslaved to work the mines or labour in more dangerous locales as a lesson to all.  But, not all the people were dealt with in such a clean manner.  Several thousand people escaped the fighting and headed as far away from the Empire as they could.  They were pursued and most of them were captured and killed.  Moreover for another three generations the armies followed the path of the refugees conquering this lands until the Empire had covered half the remaining extent of the navigatable Mastekeena River. One group got away and with that group the remaining heritage of the nation that was destroyed.  They settled over one hundred km further than the furthest point of the navigatable river.  There they grew in the wilderness amongst the bones of an empire that was long dead before the first stone was laid in Gutral Mastekeena.  

The first building they built was a shrine to the god that they revered, Jard.  The village that they set up they named after the same god, Jarda in hopes that all their actions would be righteous.  The first year of their new life was difficult; they were on the verge of starvation for most of it until they were greeted by a company of forest elves.  The settlers were not familiar with this type of elf and they were cautious, but their hunger outweighed many of their concerns and the elves brought them sustenance.  They quickly became friends and later allies.  The region was the home to a large number of nonhuman tribes including a great many Orc nations.  The Elves sought an alliance.  

The alliance of the Elves and Jardanese grew to include other friendly groups in the area, gnomes, halflings, and a few desperate groups of dwarves over the next few centuries.  The histories of their origins were documented by the elves and preserved without bias and it was because of this that the people knew when traders coming up the river brought news of the expanding Empire. They realised that it was only a matter of time before the empire expanded into their lands, so it was decided that they should begin spreading the word earlier, before the threat was on their verge.  They brought many far thinking nations into the alliance but many others refused and many areas were under the sway of the ancestral enemies the Orcs.  

For centuries the Jadanese nation rose and clashed with its allies and it expanded until it covered a space were at it's narrowest would take two weeks to cross on horseback.  It was this nation that first encountered the Empire.  The battles were feirce.  The Jardanese had planned these battles over the last thousand years, refined them against the Orc nations nearby and had an army that was trained to be superior to the Empire's best soldiers.  For e Empire, it was a rude awakening when they first did battle; they lost.

They did not lose by much.  The battle was close and nearly half the Jardanese fell in battle, but it was worse for the Empire.  The dead numbered over one hundred thousand and the armies were evenly matched in size.  The Empire through its weight upon the offensive and while the Jardanese were never routed as badly, they lost time and time again.  After three years, the war collmunated with one large battle which was a total disaster for both sides.  Ninety percent of the Jardanese army was destroyed and close to seventy percent of the Empire's army too.  The Empire was content with a third of Jarda and began a long process of expansion in other regions, the Immortal Emperor feeling that expansion in this quarter would be easier in a different millennia.  

That was five hundred years ago, and the truth of the matter was that if the Empire waited only a couple centuries, they could have mopped up the entire region quickly and easily; the nascent Jardanese Empire disentergrated into over two dozen smaller nations who fought vendettas against the others.  It was in one of these nations, about two weeks North from Jarda, that set itself up as a potential successor of Jarda. 

The nation decided that it would embrace many of the the opposite traits of Jard and began venerating powerful Demons.  These demons lent the new nation power in exchange for veneration.  Many of the people were consorting with demons and many teiflings were born and they rose to positions of power.    After a century of preparations the cult revealed itself to the populous at large with a temple dedicated to the worship of the elements, but moreover to demon kind as well.  The new nation gained power and it sought to bring down and supplant itself where Jarda was, as the main power in the area.  But Jarda still had friends and although it was much reduced in size, the succession of its territories was peaceful, when called, they answered.  

The battle was a mixed affair.  The Jadanese fought and destroyed the armies of their foes but the towns they happened upon were strangely deserted.  When atleast they took the last stronghold they faced a final army composed of demons and soldiers.  The battle was glorious and final, the foes of Jarda vanquished and from there they entered the Temple.  It was there that the will of Jarda was said to break.  What they found within the walls of the Temple was the entire civilian population, men women and child, sacrificed to bring forth the demon army.  The priests and leaders were killed for their crimes and the temple ransacked.  The journals of soldiers did claim that the Temple could not be raised, nor sanctified, so it was sealed against future use and abandoned.  As a last act the lands around the destroyed nation were given to the leading General, Lord Greysteel and he was made a Duke of Jarda.

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If the players decided to come from this location they would be from the merchant class or the warrior caste, they could be of nobility or a slave caste.  As a slave or Merchant they would select any career to be from, but they would be barred from owning land.  They could be from the nobility rank, and would thus be the son or daughter of either the King or the sons or daughters of the King, and they would know that they stood no chance of being selected as the new king of the land and knowing that they stood a good chance of becoming a slave, if they did not enter the Warrior Caste.  The only way that a slave can escape being a slave for the rest of their life is to join the Warrior Caste.  The Merchant Caste is made from Citizens and their children, the children know that they will become slaves upon the death of their Citizen parent, so although they feel the the push to become citizens, they are least likely to heed the call, unless their parent was also a slave.  

Not all warriors get the Ceremony after five years, some attain the ceremony after reaching 5th level if this occurs before the fifth year, the ceremony with the Emperor occurs at level 12 even if the ten years is not up.  The Emperor places a binding Geas upon all Oathtakers and does not what the takers to be powerful enough to represent a possible threat.  There is a secret to the Oath process, the Emperor does not really want people to swear blindly; blind subservience makes weak leaders.  If the supplicant resists taking the oath, he gives them a difficult quest and modifies the Oath to one that ensures the person will not seek to overthrow the Emperor, and then he sends the personage out on an impossible mission to test their mettle, if they return, they are given citizenship and leadership roles, if they are nobility, he gives them another impossible task and if they succeed before the current king dies, they will be made king.

The Emperor is a Lich.  He gained his power through a mystical ritual powered by a 10th level Wizard spell.  The spell transformed him and sustains him for longer than a normal Lich should be able to go, but he is aware of his mortality and seeks the blessings of the hidden goddess to renew his undead flesh again. He currently has a 10th level spell but research suggests that if he were to discover a more potent secret, he would be able to cast an 11th level spell and it follows that from there he would be able to cast the most potent of spells, the 12th level spell.  His empire's main goal is to acquire that knowledge and thus that power.  In the meantime, he controls the longterm affairs of a nation that he began in his mortal days guided by his long term planning and far reaching powers.  

The Ritual of Allegiance can be cast by any powerful enough caster by evoking the Emperor's name, but the Royal rituals are always conducted by the emperor himself.  If someone takes the oath and is not honest about keeping it they must make a Constitution Save or die, success, they instead take damage equal to 12d6 damage and are knocked to their knees.  The damage and the deaths fuel the ritual.  If cast by the Emperor, no save is required, the Emperor just knows who is lying.  

The History of Jarda

The history of Jarda

Congratulations, you are the result of a modern Western education that includes a historical account of a a near continuous 6000 years, but the majority mostly only really know for sure about the last two hundred to five hundred years and generally.  For example, Canadians know that new France was lost to the British in 1760 and Columbus discovered America in 1492 and that the war of 1812 was fought between the states and Canada (Britain), but they can't tell you that James Madison was President at the time, the Star Spangled Banner was written then, and which battle Laura Secord was involved in; it was Beaver Dam, the battle of Beaver Dam by the way—I looked it up.  Boring, but which goes to show what our fabulous education system has given us. 

Imagine a society where there is no great education system, reading and writing are not common, education is something you learn at home… how much History do you know?  

Jarda, when the people escaped the great Gutral Mastekeena and established their new nation they named it after the Goddess Jard, goddess of Righteous Actions, and established their new realm.  They had traveled for months and months, years to build their new land far from the shadow of the nation that they had rebelled against, and failed.  The land they settled in was devoid of humans, but there were two Elven Courts, a large community of Gnomes, Dwarves and Halflings.  The humans forged an alliance with these people because they were judged to be good kind people down on their luck.  That was over five hundred years ago, see calendar.

The human population quickly grew in this protected situation, the high fecundity of humans outstripping the low fecundity of demi-humans, but since the people were good and kind they facilitated trade between the different groups and all the nations prospered.

Gutral Mastekeena was forgotten for a time, first because the rebellion was so horrible and their defeat so disheartening and the friendship of the the elves and the others so good, that most of the populous that survived those years did not want to burden their children with the tales and the history.  Some wrote books that told the tale and they went to shelves and were covered in dust.  Some of the other races who understood that history was important kept these stories alive or had libraries where this information was valued.  

About three hundred years ago, Jarda entered a period of romanticism of e past and the greatness of its civilization and they uncovered these books and scrolls of their history and they learned of their past.  Often is the case that when a people become great that they look to their history to establish that greatness has always been there.  Perhaps this is why the Elves and the dwarves kept the history from being lost and forgotten.  When Jarda learned of their humble roots it curbed their hunger for conquest and instead turned their purpose to discovery and exploration. 

It was fate that they were strong and vital when they thirsted for the glories of the past because Gutral Mastekeena had been expanding all that time, and their emperor had remembered the rebellion and hunting those rebels down for the last two centuries.  How the two empires, tha nascent Empire of Jarda and the Eternal Empire of Gutral Masstekeena first made contact is not known, but it is known that the Jardanese Empire abruptly stopped its expansion and began an intensive militarization which lasted nearly fifty years and culminated in three large battles in which the cream of the empire were killed and the advance of Gutral Mastekeena was halted.  Contemporary accounts talk of feilds of dead that remained unburied because the dead outnumbered the wounded and the wounded outnumbered the well.  A pyric victory because the losses were so high that Gutral Mastekeena was forced to abandon many of the gains made in the generations before. 

Those three battles occured about 200 years ago.

From the Diary of Decarabia of the House of the Red Torrent, recovered from the Temple of Elemental Evil by Caeledrim the Bard:

 … in the service to her Great dark Goddess Lloth, Decarabia ventured forth from the deep caverns deep in the ground to do what no Drow had done in recorded history and discovered herself within a small human town built at the behest of the Emperor of Gutral Mastekeena a human wizard at least a thousand years old far to the east.  She and here family worked with the emissary of the Emperor to establish a temple that would, according to her, destabilize the kingdom of Jarda to the south, some three weeks travel, through untamed forests, away.  She estimated that the emperor had spent over a million gold on this venture half of which was in tribute to a hapless demon prince named Zyggtomony.  She contends that the emperor must have betrayed her leaking the location of the temple to his enemies in Jarda, hoping that the king there would overextend himself so that Jarda would fall …

Back to the History of Jarda official cannon.

Adventurers exploring the region to the North of the kingdom encountered a large and peaceful group of affiliated states known as the Gnösh-Kâ Confederacy, a loose enclave of a dozen tribes of Orc that had adopted agriculture and trade.  Seeking allies to help them should Gutral Mastekeena ever come back in force the two lands join together.  At that time the existence of e demon cult on the verge of the confederacy is discovered and Jarda anxious to impress the value of the alliance joins with them to crush it and the temple so that it's evil will not fester upon the world.  Jarda then funds the general of the victorious Jardanese side to build an outpost to keep watch on the Temple and to foster better relations with the Gnösh-Kâ.  The General is raised to nobility and is given the title of Duke, Duke of Greysteel.

The Duke of Greysteel was tireless in his desire to serve his nation, Jarda, and to do this starts many great works that are continued afterwards by his son.  They build the citadel of Greysteel with its town, set the foundations for first Hommlet, Sunnydale, Saltmarsh and Neloar.  They built a series of observation forts near the ruined Temple of Elemental Evil and along the tributary of the Mastekeena River, the Grey Mastekeena, near Hommlet and Nulb and the last outside Saltmarsh.  

The last village Nulb was set to be built by the second Duke of Greysteel and after its founding the entire Greysteel family was ambushed by dissident forces of Gnösh-Kâ slaying the entire family except the Duke's youngest son, who was laid up with an mysterious illness

Hey Phil, D&D

When I started preparing for the group I thought that there could be four possible starting areas and Saltmarsh was one of them.  Saltmarsh is a small village. About the size of Nulb, the village outside the temple of Elemental Evil.  It is a days travel from Hommlet and Greysteel by road and a day by small boat from Nulb.  The big identifiable feature is the marsh outside of the village, and yes it is salty, because the stream that feeds it travels through a salt deposit.  It is on a river and the river is navigable as far as Saltmarsh.  For some reason Jardanese are suspicious of rivers…

The Duke thinks that this superstition should end and in addition to the keep he wants you to build, he wants you to build a harbour and a shipwright.  He wants trade with the outside world!

There was a watchtower constructed on the hill overlooking the marsh, the river, and the village; it is about 100 years old and has not been lived in for half of that, so it has fallen down.  The villagers think that it is haunted!  

If you use the Tower on the hill your costs will be lower, but you will need to repair the tower.  You can build your keep in the village if you want closer to the workers.  If you use the watchtower you will need to build a better road to it.  Also, where you build your Fort you will need to build your harbour.  Your choice.  

When you got to Jarda, you will need to hire people to build your stuff so tell me who you want to hire.  

When you petition the Stomida priesthood for help, they offer you the services of a planner and architect.  He tells you that the tower will knock off 15k from the price of the construction.  Materials are hard to find and the nearest quarry is a week away, but if you loot the Temple of Elemental Evil of stone, you will save a lot of money.  New stone will cost you about 15k more money.  

You must build a Fort or a Tower and you must also build a harbour and a shipwright to forfill your duties to the Duke.  After that you can build a temple to Stomida.

Let me know what and where you want to build.  

Village 

Fort

Wooden docks

Stone temple

Hey Phil,

The Duke wants you to build a fortification beside the village of Saltmarsh.  Probably hopes that a Halforc will terrorize them into paying their taxes… little does he know.  He also wants you to build a shipwright and a dock for boats, because he thinks that there may be some trade available along the Water way.  You were a sage in your past life and you have seen a map once or twice in your life so you know that the river that the Duke calls Greysteel is actually the Grey Mastekeena River, a small tributary to the very large Mastekeena river basin, that eventually flows into something else thousands of kilometres away.  You have seen writings that there is a city that has a million slaves at the mouth of the Mastekeena River where it flows into a river so large that you can’t see across it.  Sounds like a myth really.  But, even if the city is hundreds of kilometres away and has thousands of people in it, it is bigger than Greysteel, and trade with them would be better than trade with the Duke and his ogre like tax laws.  

You start with the building of the shipwright, for selfish reasons, you get them to build a small fleet of shallow barges perfect for navigating the small creek to Nulb and the Temple of Elemental Evil, perfect for looting the temple stone for building the keep near  the village and building a new temple to Stomida.  The people in Saltmarsh appear to already worship Stomida already.  You’re not sure how, but a number of them appear to be wealthier than they appear according to the tax records.  The local watering hole has brandy that is not from local sources, the clothing appears to be made from cloth of outside origin too.  Odd.

The engineer that you acquired from Jarda let’s you know what you will need in addition to raw materials and sends you to get manpower from Jarda.  The city is especially depleted of labourers as some other groups have been building up a storm in Greysteel other than yourself, but lightning does not wait for the thunder so you make another formal request of the Central Temple, it is the prospect of gold that draws workers away from City contracts to you, but if the City of Jarda really wanted to keep those workers, they would have paid them more.  

Back in Saltmarsh, the construction begins at last with the foundation of The temple and the Fort.  At first things go quickly, but then trouble strikes, the kind of trouble that one gets when they employ a workforce of worshipers of Stomida: pranks.  It may have started when you fed them magical beats that turned their urine blue, or it may have been the foreman who moved the strings for the foundation of the temple to make that very very rude word, but soon the construction stopped altogether due to the plague of pranking.  All is fun and games until the holy work stops getting done.  After that pranking was to be only on rest days, and never on the job site.  To this day, no one has confessed to placing itching powder in the latrine clothes…

Everything goes well everything is built and the fields are growing a plentiful crop, the best in years.  After a particularly good sermon on the holy Dark day of Stomida, one of your parishioners approaches you and tells you that there is something happening down river.  People in the town who have contacts in that part of the river say that the last trading mission sent there has not returned, it is weeks late and that before there were rumours of something big happening that way.

Samo

83, 44, 9, 57, 93, 8 +6

Cavalry veteran Stomida’s Whirling Storm, Human medium d6

Cavalry regular Stomida’s Lashing Wind, Human light d6

x2 Archers regular Stomida’s Hail Slingers, Human light d8

Archers seasoned Stomida’s Lightning, Human  heavy d6

Siege Stomida’s Thunder, 1/2 Orc medium d6 

And a small ship the Prankster d4

Phil has a mod of 2 and an Alignment mod x3

He has a Keep and a Temple of level 1 so attracts 9 artisans 4 are part of the keep and temple.  Carpenter and a priest in the temple, and a captain and a chef in the keep.  He also gets a bonus shipwright.  The population of his village is already 500, and his attraction number is 310.  This number does not exceed the village, so no growth

Hey Moolite, D&D

Hey Moolite,

You fly south intent on finding the tax dodgers of the Duke.  What you find is something bigger.  You find a small group of settlers who have cleared land and ploughed fields, work of a few years.  They have built a rudimentary palisade around the dozen or so houses.  When you arrive they seem elated at your arrival, flying out of the blue sky.  The throw you a banquet and plead with you to stay the night.  

They tell you their story after you have eaten your share of food.  The people of Hommlet have always remembered that there was a town in the woods.  Many of their fathers, mothers, and grandparents have taken them on trips through the woods to this location.  They would tell them that the town was build before people came to Greysteel and was abandoned before then too.  And the stories were that they were to never spend the night inside the old town as it was haunted.  

They told you that they came as children and they picked up baubles and minor treasures and so when they became of age they decided that it would be fun to set out and live here.  There were orchards that bore fruit and there was wild crops in the fields.  There were abandoned houses and castles.  They came and repaired a few of the houses on the edge and cleared land and planted crops and everything was good.  Then about a year ago a group went out and stayed in the ruins looking for more adult treasures so they could afford some supplies from Hommlet.  They never returned.  A week after that the attacks began.  There were many small children at this point and they were afraid that they would not get away, so they built up a palisade and sent a fast woodsman to get aid from Hommlet, and now you have come to fight the undead.  

Do you stay to fight the undead or leave these Tax dodgers to their Fate?

After the brief and undeadly fight, the people of the area hail you as their personal hero.  And they feast to your health for another night, one or two women may have even graced their presence on you late that night.  Yes they were hot!  

You tell them that you will be back as soon as you can, as you have pressing business back in Jarda.  You take flight and arrive in Greysteel a day after the Teleport circle closed, it would be another eight days before it reopened, so you decided to fly to Jarda.  You flew as high as you could fly with your steed so you could see as much as there was to see.  Your survey was as complete as you could make it.  The higher you flew the less detail you could see and if you flew too high, the harder it was to breathe.  The horizon had a gentle curve to it as you rose; the view was exclusively green forest with patches of farmland here and there along the road to Jarda and around Greysteel.  The rivers were narrow ribbons of reflected sunshine and the smudges of smoke showed only the significant settlements of Greysteel, Hommlet and Neloar.  

It took three days to travel by air, what normally took a full fortnight, eighteen days.  Word had preceded you to the city, a city that seemed smaller than when you first went there as an orphan child and smaller now that you had a worldly perspective, of the great feats that your group had accomplished, but only in the circles of the Knights of Jarda.  The regular folk had not heard of you at all.  It appeared that two of your companions had made it to Jarda ahead of you and had acquired engineers and a force of labourers to build their fortifications.  You were able to find some that would swear to work with you as well as they could to repair the castle you had found and you headed off, this time to Greysteel via Teleport Circle.

Your flight from the clearing to Hommlet let you see the direction the road builders needed to follow, that and some local guides lent to you by Sir Gerald.  Half of the workers continued the road and the rest marched through the forest to your lands.  You flew there as promised within a week and returned later with the half of the labourers.  Word of your exploits with the undead spread by the people you saved did much to erase your reputation in Hommlet.  

The investigator you left in the town made a report back to you saying that the old road appeared to head not to Nulb, but to the vanquished Temple of Elemental Evil.  Moreover, many of the buildings appeared to contain summoning circles and some of those buried under hundreds of human skeletons.  The temples seemed to be dedicated to Zuggtomy a Demon Prince.  There also seemed to be a library in the main temple.  Much of the contents had been torched a hundred or more years ago and the rest had suffered from the weather, but he would try to piece together some of the history and who founded the temple.  

You spent much of your days burning the buildings near your castle with the radiant light of Scoria, when you were sure everything was safe you assured that your people would be safer closer to you than where they were.  The walls were nearly completed and the castle was well on the way to completion.  As if to underline that, when they had at last moved in, the undead had become restless again when your investigator uncovered something unexpected.  The ensuing battles lasted much of the next few nights and included some demons that you had fought at the Temple, this time you fought them alone.  

The wall became a priority after that.  When the road had been completed there was a surprise waiting for you, Lord Gerald had amassed a small force of light infantry to join you on the walls.  He said that the Duke was very interested in the work that you were doing for him.  

Even more of a surprise was the contingent of gnomish javelineers who showed up quietly on the end of the road.  They had heard one of their kind had fought off demons and did not want all the glory going to your head.  They were from near the village you came from and they all had equally shitty names.  They were also all dressed in gnome sized plate-mail.   

After a while your village began to grow and fill up with disenfranchised people of Hommlet and Nulb and settlers from Jarda.  Soon your little village was threatening to overflow your walls.  In addition to the shitty gnomes, and the human infantry a number of other troops joined up to fight the fight they always wanted, including a few Knights of Scoria, an order devoted to scouring the land of oath breakers.  

The last development occurred not a few days ago, a hidden vault in the temple to a different Demon Prince, one to a god of spiders.  The vault included a ledger with a letter from the alleged Emperor of some place called Gutral Mastekeena had been a major financial backer of the original town.  The ledger shows that the temple even acquired a massive silver throne as a present to the Demon Queen Zy—. The rest was burnt.  Near that in the vault was a broken Dagger made of black metal.  The vault was more of an entrance to a natural tunnel that went deep into the earth.  

Moolite builds a level 2 castle and a wall,

Elite Archers Bloody Shitty Gnomish

Super Heavy Javelineers 

Seasoned Archers Bloody Useless Human medium longbowmen 

Seasoned Cavalry Shorty’s Shitty Lancers, Human heavy 

Regular Infantry Shorty’s Shit Sticks, human light 

Regular Archers Shorty’s Bad Smell Crossbows, Human light 

Moolite has a mod of 4 and Alignment mod of x1.5.  He has a level 2 keep, so he has a total of 8 artisans, 6 are in the keep.  His keep has a mason, a carpenter, a captain, a priest, a blacksmith, and a sage.  

8+8x4+5x8= 80 families, 400 people

Congratulations, after a year you will have 8 artisans and 80 families.  480 people.  Their income at year end will be 8x2000gp + 80x400 gp or 16000+32000= 48k.  The Duke collects 25% and he gets 60% of that, so you get 4,800 per year.  Nice!

The Carpenter and the Mason add a bonus to all building and repairs of the keep, 5% times the level of their workshop each.  Both are level 1.  The Captain maintains your troops while you are gone, and your Investigator keeps tabs on the area around.  The Blacksmith can make magical weapons, the Priest and the Sage provide a bonus to your character x3 for every extended rest.  Wisdom and intelligence respectfully.  

Hey Korrin D&D

The river from Neloar gains strength and passes between steep banks and becomes a swift river as it passes under the strange bridge.  There is a quarry near the Village of Neloar and you can get stone from there cheaper than other locations, but getting it to your Keep location is a hassle.  You will either need to build a road from Neloar or build a landing zone at the base of the bridge and build machines to lift the stone up to the bridge.  One saves you time, but costs you money, the other is cheaper but will take longer.  If you choose to build the road, the wood you clear for it might be used to build you keep.

Where are you going to build it?  On either side of the road with a hundred foot gap where the road is, on the road with a combination of wood and stone?  Which side of the bridge?  In the centre of the bridge?  

Do you wish to make this a straight fortification or do you wish to this to be more?

The Road heads straight to and through the Orc lands, as does to head off past the Duke’s lands which areas do you wish to explore and what things do you want to know.  

You sent your minion to talk to the Orcs, I remember.

Hey Korrin, 

The building of your keep took a little longer to set up.  You contacted a crew of engineers that were looking for a challenge and they went with you to your land grant.  While in Jarda you also raised a few eyes at your appearance.  This was the first time that you had been to an actual city, it turns out that Greysteel is not a city!  There were towers over five stories tall and there were more people than trees!  The view from the city walls was also odd, no trees!  It was fields as far as the eyes could see.  But the people did not think this was odd, they did think that you were odd though.  When ever you brought up the subject no one knew what you were or where your people were from.  There was one person who knew something, he said when he was young he traveled far and he saw someone similar to you but they were blue.  He did not elaborate.

You also were able to hire about 100 people to come and help you.  Upon arriving in Neloar, the local merchants you contacted were able to build you a few rafts that would be able to float down the river.  With a few supplies.  You could only put twenty people on the first load with the supplies so you had to arrange for accommodations.  Once you arrived at the site the engineers assessed the situation and told you that they could do what you wanted, but they needed more supplies and it was going to be costly.  

It was nearly a week before all the crews had arrived and they began to clear and survey the site for your keep.  After a month things had started to take shape.  Stone had started arriving from a quarry nearby, and the stumps outnumbered the people ten to one.  

A few months later all the supplies had been gathered and the building was half completed.  The landing at the foot of the bridge included a small square building with a cargo lift from the centre.  The cargo lifted up to the bridge level over 200’ above.  The Engineers chide you for your inaccuracies, saying 208’4.5”, “Every foot above 200’ cost you 10gold in chain and reinforced tackle, so by The Warder, be accurate!”  That’s the other thing, your crew is multiracial, about a third of your crew is Orcish including your carpenter, and your priest; apparently the Gray Warder is revered greatly in Orc lands.  Anyways, things were going good enough that you allowed yourself time to explore.

You allowed yourself a week to explore where the road went away from the bridge.  The road remains straight for as far as you can tell forever.  But you thought, it must lead somewhere.  After about a days traveling you saw the start of a ridge of mountains on your left.  As you continued the next day you encountered a new road built perpendicular to the oldest road.  Interesting you thought.  There were signs of regular traffic too.  Half of the traffic went to the mountains and half away.  The traffic away from the mountains was heavier though, as you could see places where the wheels crossed.  Intrigued at the thought of a relatively close neighbour you investigated, but at night.  

Section accidentally deleted Gah :’( basically you have found Vistra’s land grant and she is building a town and a mining village.  She is smelting ore and building a town too.  She shows you around the town is on a river the flows to map North.  She is building the village to give the orphans from Neloar and the area around the Temple of Elemental Evil a home and a future.  Laudable goals, but you think that they need to learn to stand on their own, still no one else is doing something like this.  

You think if you have the time you could clear a path to allow trade to pass from your Fort to Vistra’s Fort, but it would take a month, and over a year if it were to be for Carts.

It took nearly five months to finish building the keep and you were able to explore the area thoroughly.  The sun was setting on the bridge as you were admiring it with wonder, you often did, from different angles, and you saw something different a shadow marring it’s perfectly smooth surface.  You marked its location carefully and bounded to the river and up to the cargo elevator and ascending too slowly.  In the morning’s light you found the indentation and managed to activate the secret door.  The rom was filled with stale air and the corpse of some unfortunate.  The body fell to dust as you touched it, skin guts and bones.  All that was left was the clothing it wore which was a fine tight weave that you dagger could not penetrate, but was so thin that it did not stop any of the force, you cut your hand with the sharpness of the blade in the cloth.  There was a map made of a similar substance on the table when you moved the map the notation fell away like dust too, but no matter; you could not read the notations, nor the ones that remained.  

Your keep and your fame attracted some notice among the people of Jarda and they wished to join your Cause.  They joined you in traveling from Jarda to Greysteel and the journey to your new place.  The journey is traditionally from Greysteel to Sunnydale, and to Neloar with a camp in the woods halfway, but now there are two changes.  First there is a new road below Sunnydale heading to the mountains and it is well travelled.  And the camp between Sunnydale and Neloar there is a thriving new village.  You did not notice going to Greysteel because you dislike roads and you are faster by yourself, but with the hundred infantry, you had to take the longer route.  You had to go to Jarda because many of your work crew wanted to stay and sent for their families. 

The new village is being set up by your colleague Caeldrim.  He has built a berm around a halfway point between Neloar, Sunnydale, and Hommlet.  The village looks like it might fill the berm and the palisade, maybe spill out of that.  His words of creating to you are calm and reassuring, but he makes no mention of free room and board for the people with you.  You see that the night watchman are all stooped over and still are seven feet tall.  They smell like bugbears.  The day watch is composed of five foot tall Human with masks and black fur around their head.  It is not fooling you.  Maybe it fools the dukes men, but you warn your people not to get rowdy, as you think the watch might be especially brutal.  

When you arrive home, you new home, you are greeted with two unexpected surprises.  First is that you have a sortie crew made of Orcish cavalry and Orcish ballista regiment, both have little experience, but you think that if word gets out there is war with the Orc nation, well you would not attack them anyway now.  The Engineers have decided to join up with you too and you have a group who can fortify any position or build bridges quickly.  

One of your Kobolds has picked up the trade of mason and has started working the local quarry.  As mentioned before you have an Orcish priest and an Orcish carpenter.  You also have your minion who is back as a peaceful representative of the Orcish nation, Gnösh-Kå Confederacy.  

After staying in your keep for a week:

Priest • when you roll wisdom and get less than 12, you may take a 12 instead x3, as you remember wise words he made.

Carpenter • 5% reduction in repairs and builds in keep per level of carpentry shop currently level 1

Mason • 5% reduction (see carpenter) level 1 quarry

Spy • your ambassador is also your spy, he can tell you what is happening around your keep in both the Duchy and the Confederacy.

 You have 72 families, 360 people, not including military assets.  They are farmers, hunters and woodsmen.  They provide food for you and your people.  There are four other artisans in the village not associated with the keep.

8 artisans earn 2000gp/year, 72 peasant families earn 400gp/year.  Total 44,800.  Dukes taxes minus your cut of 40% means you have an income of 4,480gp per year.  

Questions?

Hey Io, D&D

I know that you interested in the wider world of the game, that is why you are the furthest away from the Duchy of Greysteel.  The Duke has guessed that the King of Jarda has not been sending tax collectors his way for decades because the kingdom has weakened as such he is betting that if he sends you as his representative half way to the kingdom, and get you to establish a permanent foothold in the area, he can usurp a large swath of land.  

The kingdom of Jarda seems to be Aquaphobic, as the kingdom is set up far from the major rivers.  He wants you to take control of the navigable section of a river near to Jarda.  He wants you to build a bridge across the river near where there is a ford.  He would like the bridge to be fortified too.  There is a quarry near by, and you can create stone with your spells, so you have no shortage.  He says that if you build this bridge he will reward you with a chunk of the revenue from all the lands between Greysteel and your bridge, but he will help you build a grand temple to Xeric too.

You could build just a bridge, or a Fort at the ford.  You could also build a bridge and a fort, (like the Twins from Fame of Thrones) the Fort on an island in the middle of the bridge.  Al you have to huger is the know how to build the fort or the bridge.  You can build a Temple to Xeric for Cerasa and a Druid’s Grove to Xeric for yourself too.  

What you choose will affect what happens next.

Oh, there are two small villages on either side of the river along the road.

Hey Io,

The Duke sends a representative with you to the land granted to you.  It is half way to  Jarda, literally.  He lets you know the terms of his grant on the way.  Build the bridge and the Duke will help you build a grand temple to Xeric.  Just one measly little bridge.  You think you remember one of your party members talking about the trip to Greysteel, you took the Teleport circle, because you had money and your family wanted to send you off with style.  You had wanted to go yourself but it had made sense, one gold for a two week trip to be over in a second vs 18 days on the road without a bath and inns that cost 2 gold coins.  It made sense.  Still you were expecting a river like the bridge at Greysteel.  You know 25’ across.  After nine days on the road you stopped with the guide at the edge of the River.  The guide called it The River, but he told Ceraza that it was called the Mastekeena river to some.  He said it was ten times as wide at the mouth.  25’, so 250’— that’s a laugh, no river could be 250’ wide.  Your mouth must have been ajar because the river before you was not 50’ wide, it was 200’ wide at least.  

The Duke wanted a bridge.  A bridge 200’ long.  It was clear, the Duke did not like you.  

The ferry trip took the better part of the day; there was a breeze that was going the same direction as the current, so you could not just sail right across and the barges only worked well in the winter and the late autumn, when the source waters were covered with snow or if there was a summer drought.  A bridge made sense for this area, but it might bankrupt you.

You headed to Jarda on your own, as a hawk for most of it.  The Duke asked you to send workers to Greysteel First so the Jardanese Government was not clued in on his enterprise.  You agreed because you were going to get a temple, and a Grove out of this.  Ceraza went back with the official so that she could beg some concessions from the Duke and you went to hire an expert to see if it were possible.  You hired one and was able to check up on some family while you were in the city.  They did not even know that you were gone, and they thought that you had better get going before the adventure you were seeking got solved be someone else.  Elves!  So spacey sometimes.  You got back to the city with a dwarves engineer who said no problem was too great for him to solve.  Silly boastful dwarf.  

A day to Greysteel, by Teleport Circle, and a week to the river with a troop of workers, about 100 of them, to begin work on the impossible.  When you arrived Caeladrim was waiting for you and he began begging you to come back with him so that you can cast wall of stone a thousand times and build his town for free, he has ideas and wants you to for fill them for free!—he is such a cheapskate.  Denied of his request he takes out his ghastly golden skull and goes invisible and a rush of wind takes him away.  Your dwarves engineer, come up to you, “Not a bad idea that is.  I see this is a bigger job than I first thought, but if I make the soundings and there is a good base of rock round here it may get be possible.”

The next few weeks he takes time making a detailed plan around the river.  He notices that at one time the island in the middle had a fortification, perhaps a thousand years ago.  “Makes you wonder, Eh?”  He thinks that it might make a good base to start the casting of the spells.  He just has to figure out how deep and how larger the pylons need to be.

You spend that time as a river dolphin exploring the area underwater.  One thing you notice is that the water downriver of the island is very deep, over 100’ deep, it is littered with the wrecks of decaying ships.  Turning into yourself and casting breathe water you then spend some time casting Light to illuminate the area.  The beauty of the area is stunning.  The third time there you are greeted by two ambassadors one is a large crocodile like humanoid and the other is an elf with gill slits.  The lizard man appears to understand both of you and translates.  The one is a river Elf and he and his pod have traveled long and far for over several years seeking a new home.  There had legends of this place and were hoping to settle here.  The lizard man says that he has no problem with this but is wary of his passage as an omen of poor tidings.  He says that if you will take them under your protection he will allow the refugees through this section of the river.  You agree.  Besides his family could help you build and tell you about far off places from where he is from.  He is a River Elf and speaks a dialect of River Speech the lizard man calls Warm River Speak.  He says the river is always warm there, and his tribe was from there long ago, and only she the Shaman knows it’s sounds.  

The shaman shows you a part of the ruin you had not investigated yet.  There is a set of stairs that climbs inside the island and up.  You emerge into a chamber and move a stone startling Ceraza.  You decide that you can build the stone parts of the temple here and divert some of the production the Duke is going to send for the temple, below to the grotto; you will make him build two temples!

The best part about meeting the River Elf was being able to become a River Elf as one of your forms, and that meant you could breathe water and cast spells too.  Same for the Lizardman.  That meant that you could build the supports from the last part of the bridge.  The dwarf was also insistent that as many of the bridge’s supports were deep in the mud as they could go, “Better Lassy, that they rest on good living rock.”  This was the way he talked, very patronizing in some way—sure you looked like a human child in age, but you were at least as old as he was.  Taking the time to direct the river to stir up the mud you were able to find more solid ground for the walls of stone to rest on, and in some cases actual stone.  Learning about the river was another fascinating thing, to you it was fascinating, to Korrin, it was probably boring because he could not shoot it.  To you though it was fascinating because of the way the water worked in the river.  The current was strongest closest to the island and there the water was deepest.  

Your engineer first brought it to your attention early one morning before the casting of the spells.  “Lassy, I’ve ben thinkn, you ken the way the bridge has ben designed no boat will be able to go beneath it.  Is that what you want?  If not I might be able to change the plans to allow for boat travel underneath it.  But for ease it will have to be made of wood, so that we can move the bridge up an down.”  

The river is pretty shallow everywhere except at the island, small boats will be able to pass easily enough, but anything with a decent draft will have to go close to the island.  Placing a stone pier on the upriver portion of the river is easy, but a wood dock would be necessary to avoid altering the underwater grove.  

It takes a lot longer to build the bridge than merely the 200’ would suggest.  200’ is not just two castings of the spell.  Your spell creates 1000 square feet of stone, 6” thick, but it requires some pretty tricky designs to support sections 20 feet wide and long.  With the direction of your engineer you manage to create a stone scaffolding and build thick stone pylons to support the bridge.  You can cast the spell three times per day and an average of two days casting is necessary to create each 10’ section.  The places where the bridge joins up with the shore on either side are easy to build, but the dwarf points out that to secure the end to erosion and spring flooding they will need to make the bridge longer and more substantial.  The locals are good for that, they point at their homes that are far from the edge of the river and just beyond the high river point.  The point is that casting everyday three times a day it takes about three months to build the bridge.  In comparison, the temple takes no time.  

The temple of Xeric is traditionally built on a body of water, or around a large pond that will reflect the light of Xeric at night, but situated on an island allows you to make a more traditional design—an elaborate lighthouse!  There is a tall tower with a focusing mirror and a large crystal focus in the centre with a permanent light spell cast upon it, blue light, the light of Xeric and a light that penetrates the darkness to bring the faithful into harbour.  Like the urban temples this one also contains a reflecting pool in the centre, open to the air. The travellers that will cross the bridge will pay their respects to Xeric on their way across the bridge, and any who dock on the stone pier on the upriver side will pay homage as well, before continuing on.  

The grove on the downriver side of the island, is deep below the surface.  The current carries the silt and mud over its surface and blocks out the suns.  The algae below the surface here illuminate the surroundings in a phosphorescent blue light.  The fish that are attracted to this area reflect colours not present in the light magically.  Ancient wrecks litter the space and provide homes for aquatic fauna.  Skeletons of men lie where they fell, a reminder of mortality.  There is a stone dais rising in shallow broad steps from the murk to the base of the island and a broken stone column sits on a lower step.  Objects the Duke helped buy are littered as offerings to Xeric—tarnished metals, clear gems, and freshwater pearls.  

When your bridge neared completion, after the Temple light was lit and provided a light to guide the lost at sea home, the first travellers arrived.  They were not from Jarda seeking information on who was building on the verge of their lands.  They were not from upriver and they were not from Greysteel; they were from down river.  

The first few were traveling up the river.  They spoke of chilling tales of war downriver.  They were not like the folk of Jarda.  They had a darker complexion and they spoke with a thick accent.  They are men, women and children.  They come in boats and tell of tales of men fighting men.  When questioned more closely, they admit that they have seen no war but the rumour of it had pressed upon them to flee.  It is a few weeks after this that the true refugees begin to trickle in.

First, there are crowded sailing ships, skiffs really. Meant to hold five men and a ton of trade goods but now loaded with people.  One day there was one sail, and then a few days later four, a day later a dozen then again they trickled down to a one or two a day.  These people bring stories.  There is War coming.  A great empire from far down river sees it as a divine quest to conquer the river from Mouth to source.  These are the traders that could easily flee and bring the people that could afford passage here.  Many of the people do not speak Jardanese.

Tales that the river is not one bit inhabited further up the river have stopped their progress that way.  Some have heard of the might of Jarda, others just here that it is a place they can hide.  The rest stay close to the river.  

A welcome respite arrives from an unexpected quarter, a lone boat heading down river towards you from the uncivilized wilds.  The ship lands at the stone pier and another dwarf gets out.  It is Vistra, she says that she has set up her seat of power a week’s journey up river from you.  She says only small boats can make the journey easily, but she is hoping to open her lands for trade.  She tells you that she has opened up her land to resettle and train the orphans from Neloar and the Temple of Elemental Evil.  

Next month things get worse.  Barges, rowing and sailing when they can emerge from around the bend in the river.  They carry wounded and disease infected victims of war.  These people will survive, their wounds are not as severe, but they tell you that there are less here than they left with.  Also there are many children that were pushed aboard the boats so they would not be captured.  

The most able bodied journeyed here beside the river traveling twelve hours a day for over a month, just to keep up with the barges.  

The tales they tell, the ones that you can get a clear translation, on tell you that The Gutral Mastekeena Empire is the aggressor.  They are seeking to control all the waters of the Mastekeena River.  Their attacks are ruthless and what towns they do not burn to the ground with their inhabitants locked in, they enslave and cart away.  

A collaborating story is told as the River Elves that you gave sanctuary to a few months ago, have arrived.  They claim that they passed through these disputed lands on their way here.  The waters stank of blood and ashes, there were bodies in the river, and many of the fighters were moving up river this way.  They also refer to this river as Mastekeena.

A charter of the Knights of Jarda has heard of the refugees at Calisto and has joined the town as defenders.

Dworic Duegarbane captain of the catapults/engineer.  

Swaravan Greenwater leader of the River Elves

Ssskasszzwick. Leader of the Lizardman infantry 

Ceraza Priest of the Xeric’s Temple

Regular light Lizardman Infantry

Regular medium Cavalry the Gray Knights of Jarda

Light River Elf Infantry seasoned

The Trebuchet of Callisto

You have two medium sized temples and the construction of the bridge had attracted artisans and people to the village of Callisto.  

13 artisans, 52 families of farmers, fishermen, and woodsmen.  

The artisans make 2000gp per year, the others make 400, for a total income of 46,800.  The Duke collects taxes, you get 40% and that is 4,680gp/year.  The population of Callisto has grown to 260 people and there are eleven artisan shops built alongside the Temple:

Alchemist	Allows potion making
Blacksmith	Allows magic weapons
Captain	Trains troops
Carpenter	5% bonus/level shop
Chef	Con bonus
Mason	5% bonus/level shop
Priest	Wis bonus
Sage	Int bonus
Scribe	Allows scroll making
Spy	Information gathering
Tailor	Cha bonus