02 - Iron Kingdoms W.. - Captain Spud Is Amazing

188 Iron Kingdoms
108.1.141.197
Military: Steelwater Flats is home to a modest
garrison of troops. The city employs about seven
hundred as well watchmen. Additional military units
pass through Steelwater Flats regularly.
Imports: Coal, wheat, lumber, iron
Exports: Livestock, steel, steam engines, textiles
Passengers on a train bound for Steelwater Flats out
of Caspia often spend the last part of their trip trying
to catch a glimpse of the panorama ahead. One of the
marvels of the Iron Kingdoms, the mighty Wyrmwall is
a towering backdrop looming over graceful iron arches
and squat blisters of brick and stone and the lines of
rising steam and smoke tousled by the mountain
winds. This is the city of Steelwater Flats.
The indomitable Cygnaran spirit of progress and
innovation has transformed this former quiet farming
town into the sprawling expanse of iron and smoke
that it is today, handling thousands of tons of trade
goods daily. Estimates say roughly ninety percent of
Caspia’s coal and rock ships through Steelwater. One
side of the city sprawls toward the lake. This was once
a picturesque region, but pollution has tainted the
waters, and the quaint lakeside resort area is now a
slum. The formerly grassy farmland has turned fallow
and been given up as grazing land for livestock. The
other side of the city is riddled by rail lines worming
their way into the city’s heart. The rails are linked by
branch lines, turntables, and sidings that crisscross the
city and cut it into a patchwork of districts, most of
which are filled with motley, tumbledown buildings,
coupled by bridges and tunnels.
One of the newer stations located in the south of
the city belongs to Caspian Rail. Big and wrought with
steel filigree, it is newer and brighter than the dark
and dingy “iron vault” of the Steelwater Rail Station.
This matters little to Steelwater Rail. The majority of
passengers already travel the Market Line between
Bainsmarket and Caspia on Caspian Rail whereas
Steelwater Rail runs the freight lines—mostly coal and
iron—in and out of the Wyrmwall to Ironhead and
Orven with little need for pretty passenger stations.
The proud heart of Steelwater is its commercial
district. Offices, civic buildings and high-class
residences rise just out of reach of the smoke. The
garrisons act as a buffer between this area and
the industrial districts to the east, but a gradual
deterioration toward the lakeside slums to the south
is apparent. If the commercial district is the heart, the
innumerable workshops and factories belonging to the
Steam & Iron Workers Union are the city’s lifeblood.
All manner of mechanikal constructs are found in
and around the stations loading or pulling, grinding
or sorting, and a veritable army of machinists and
mechaniks march to and fro applying their skills and
either bellowing orders or following them as material
is moved between the stations and the factories.
The industrial district clanks and belches smoke
and steam at all hours as iron ore is refined into
steel, cast into gears and pistons, and assembled into
mechanikal marvels of the modern age. Steelwater Flats
is a microcosm of industry and one can see the entire
gamut of mechanikal production one part at a time
by moving from one factory, refinery, or workshop to
another. Local water, wool, and leather are combined
with iron, coal, and other materials delivered by rail to
create everything from textiles to engines.
Noted Persons
Gwynneth Floryce (female Ryn Ari2/Exp2):
Gwynneth represented the Sovereign Coal Alliance’s
interests in some of the mining operations in the
Wyrmwall. The daughter of a senior partner in the
Alliance, Gwynneth came here from Merywyn to act
as a liaison. In truth, she cares little for “this grimy,
banal cesspool of a city” and was always on the lookout
for any excitement. Of late, the lecherous Marquis
Rathbold Halstead has taken doggedly to pursuing
her both in and out of social events. So far, Gwynneth
has played her part as the fox to Halstead’s hound
through propriety and pride, but the Khadoran
invasion of Llael has thrown her world upside down
and put a damper on these games. She has lost
contact with Sovereign Coal and does not know if the
company—or her father—is still in Merywyn. She has
been persuaded not to return north, but she eagerly
seeks any news from home and seeks hirelings to
locate her father.
Lord Mayor Druce Halstead, Earl of Mansgrave
(male Caspian Ari8/Exp4): Lord Halstead has walked
the political tightrope for years now with considerable
skill and aplomb in order to satisfy the city’s industrial
interests. Due to the endless Steelwater Rail and