Mythic Vistas: SpirosBlaak - Property Is Theft!

ooked much longer. These messages have been underscored by a
series of assassinations against highly placed guild members. The
tension between Kirvos and Dreij escalates, and each assembles
mercenary armies in anticipation of the coming war.
Locations of Note
The following are locations of note in Dreij.
The Mint
Hiding behind three towered, cannon-armed curtain walls are the
smelter and minting facilities, located the heart of this fortresslike
complex. Over 300 veteran soldiers stand duty at all times,
guarding the mint’s interior and gates. Each wall contains a single
gatehouse, but none of them are aligned with the others, and only
one can be opened at a time thanks to dwarven ingenuity. All
convoys in and out are similarly protected with paranoid caution.
Most of the mint’s workers are dwarves, while its administrators are
nearly all bakad.
The Guild District
This section of the city, northwest of the mint, is the true realm of
authority in Dreij. Most of the Archduchy’s guilds headquarter
here, and only guild members or those who can prove they are
performing guild business may move through this district’s streets
unmolested by the city guard or soldiers of private armies. Many
of the wealthier guildsmen, including most of the masters and their
lieutenants, also make their homes in the district.
People of Note
The following are people of note in Dreij.
Treasurer (Duke) Xyxal Garlnne’mom
Male bakad 5th-level expert/2nd-level noble.
As has always been the situation in Dreij, Treasurer Garlnne’mom
gained his position by a majority vote of the city’s guildmasters.
Although a very competent (and imaginative) accountant, the
treasurer is easily manipulated, especially by his sister, and
appears not to mind being a figurehead for the guilds so long
as he is allowed to discreetly court his perverse diversions. For
consistency’s sake, the treasurer of Dreij also holds the symbolic
title of duke.
Grand Financier Jatee Garlnne’mom
Female bakad 7th-level expert.
The younger sister and puppeteer of the current treasurer, Jatee
is the Grand-Financier responsible for the timely and proper
fulfillment of the mint’s contracts. The Grand Financier also holds
senior membership in the Guild of Bankers, a combination making
her one of the more powerful individuals in the Archduchy.
Although currently biding her time, the Grand-Financier has
secretly hired mercenaries on the off chance an opportunity to seize
power from SpirosBlaak might present itself. Jatee hopes Dreij’s
economic advantage might convince some of the other duchies to
join her coup should she ever have the opportunity to execute her
plans. For the time being, though, she patiently waits and plots.
The Workers’ Equality Movement
An underground and highly criminal organization (in the eyes of
the guilds, who, in truth, make the laws), the shadowy Workers’
Equality Movement spends its time preaching the right of the
common man to live life as freemen, earning a solid wage for a
day’s work. The group posts notices explaining their goals and
creed under the cover of darkness, but occasionally a radical sect
sabotages a businesses’ machinery, frees a stockade of slaves, or even
Chapter Four: Customs, Communities, and Geography 25
burns the home of a particularly notorious guildsman or foreman.
Such outrageous actions always result in profoundly swi and
brutal retribution upon the city’s many workers.
Halicsvol
None (deserted village)
Symbol: A tapering silver leaf within an
emerald green circle.
Population: None.
Special Population: 2 Archducal infantry
centuries, 25 witchfinders, innumerable
allips, ghosts, spectres, and spirits.
Religions: None.
Imports: None.
Exports: None.
Language: None.
Alignments: Lawful evil, neutral evil, and chaotic evil.
Once a flourishing town thriving on its agricultural and timber trade,
Halicsvol is nothing more than a ghost town. Literally. Twice in its
history, Halicsvol was reduced to burning embers: once during the
cruel invasion of the Witch Lords and again by the kav conquerors of
Kirvos. Aer the town’s second sacking, the survivors complained of
mobs of ghosts haunting the ruins, pleading with the living to restore
their life essence or clawing at anything moving in life-hating rage.
Those citizens, who weren’t driven mad or killed, fled vowing never
to return.
Today, the ruins lie just a short distance east of the road
connecting Kirvos to the south—a roing skeleton of a town
heavily tainted by the darkness of its own demise. The only living
people still here are a garrison of 200 legionnaires who protect the
merchants using the road, a detachment of witchfinders from Vas,
and the occasional wandering humanoid. Otherwise, death and
undeath await careless explorers.
Stories tell of armies of ghosts waging endless bales upon the
overgrown fields about the town, of keening wails rising up from
the ruins terrifying enough to turn one’s hair gray, and of even
worse things. Few adventurers are courageous enough to enter an
entire town of haunts and specters, and even the garrison does not
pursue bandits and other nuisances too closely toward its border.
There are rumors, though, of powerful Faedian shamans sometimes
entering the city to speak with the shades of the past.
Those who study the restless dead oen wonder why Sallous
Yar has not tapped into such an obviously exploitable resource of
undead. Faedian tales suggest an ancient power lay under the area
long before the coming of the gods, long before the time of man,
in fact. Some aribute such a power, if it exists, to the troubles
plaguing the town and eventually leading to its downfall. This
thing, they claim, keeps the Magus of Bones at bay.
Hiltaenos, Warder of Light
Duke Paratros Daelian XXVI
Symbol: A ruddy heraldic shield with a black
tower at its center.
Population: 104,000 (75% human, 5% Rilgoth
human, 4% dwarves, 16% other).
Special Population: 5 Hiltaenos infantry
legions, 3 Hiltaenos cavalry legions, 3
Hiltaenos siege legions, 2 Hiltaenos artillery
legions, 1,500-2,000 mercenaries, 600
Sentinels of the Homeguard, 300-1,000 Sentinels-in-training,
1,000-4,000 legionnaires-in-training of various
duchies, 1,500 house slaves (30% human).