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

214 Iron Kingdoms
108.1.141.197
the Orgoth keep at Khardov uncovering and studying
their secrets and trying to put them to use for the
Motherland. It is whispered Rolonovik has mastered
the creation of the dreaded Fell Blades—weapons of
incredible power chained to Khador’s fearless Doom
Reaver berserkers.
Posadnik Korab Tishnikov (male Khard Ari5/Ftr7):
Korab Tishnikov is an iron-fisted man accustomed to
living off the sweat and blood of those beneath him.
Before reinventing himself as a kayazy industrialist,
Tishnikov attained the rank of kovnik while serving in
Khador’s notorious 5th Border Legion. Throughout
his military career he distinguished himself as a
brutal sadist who gleefully interrogated Cygnaran
prisoners. Tishnikov is physically a stout man. His face
is distinguished by a carefully trimmed moustache and
cold, dark eyes. In addition to governing Khardov, he
also heads the city’s Veche of twenty-five kayazy, and he
has gathered sensitive blackmail information on each
and every one of them.
Locales of Khardov
Hlebnaya Square: A large marketplace known to
regulars as “Bread Square,” this is where the majority
of the trade takes place in Khardov. When it is
peaceful, Hlebnaya is a thriving site for railroad traders
to sell and barter, for it lies near the Khardov Railway
Station. It is heavily policed by olcheniy who often
oversee the distribution of bread to the lower-class
citizens—the wheat crops surrounding Khardov are so
covered in dust that the cheapest bread is actually gray
in color. Occasionally food shortages occur, and riots
sometimes follow. At such times, the olcheniy prefer to
leave riot containment to the city’s Winter Guard.
House of Urcaen’s Gate: The House is a startling
bone-white structure of painted stone and polished
iron at the edge of the city. The traditionalist, allfemale
Menite caretakers live in a convent inside
the bleak building. Their chief responsibility is the
maintenance of its massive burial grounds—over
7,000 tombs and graves lie within its iron-shod walls.
These wardens take their role as caretakers seriously
and faithfully adhere to the strict tenets of Menoth.
For every three women enrolled one of them has
served as a soldier, so they are more than capable of
defending the grounds. When Khardov’s dismal fog
rolls in, strange wailing can be heard rising from the
cemetery, and some citizens speculate that the women
are just as responsible for keeping visitors out as for
keeping the dead in.
Khardov Station: Khardov’s enormous train
yard is always busy and heavily garrisoned. With the
recent increase of activity through the city, Posadnik
Tishnikov has stationed a handful of snipers to watch
for any dangers to industry that might pass beneath
the noses of the military. Khardov Station contains a
massive distribution center for Blaustavya Shipping &
Rail and Czavyana Trading Post headquarters. Never
finished with the work of bettering the face of the
Motherland, the Khadoran Mechaniks Assembly is
overseeing the construction of a westward rail towards
coastal Skrovenberg.
Lothpool River: The Lothpool River has always
been well traveled, but these days it is overcrowded
with vessels of all sizes. It did not take long before
the constant travel turned the river inky black and
undrinkable without lengthy distillation. So polluted
has the river become that fish caught in the Lothpool
are often salted and used only for a pungent local
chowder called gratya. Of note, when the steamer
Regent Pride recently crashed into the Ironbridge, all
800 aboard went down with it. The immobile rotting
hulk of the Pride and its hundreds of corpses attracted
vicious water beasts, and now the whole area beneath
the Ironbridge serves as a lair for dracodiles.
Mines of Khardov: Numerous tunnels twist and
turn beneath the streets of Khardov, originally cut
from the loam and stone by slaves during the Orgoth
occupation, and they are currently ripe with mineral
saturation from the Lothpool runoff. Over centuries
of continuous operation, many of the original tunnels
and chambers have been excavated. The Orgoth chose
their sites well, and the deeper areas still contain
precious materials.
rumor has it
regarding the mines of khardov, it is rumored that enormous
torture chamBers and reliQuaries are sometimes hidden just
a feW feet Beyond a shaft’s Walls, Waiting to Be opened
and investigated While even darker horrors aWait release
elseWhere. documented discoveries range from enormous
mass graves to Weapon caches filled With savage implements.
indeed, it Was in these mines that greylord investigators
discovered a great numBer of fell Blades. these infamous
Weapons have since Been claimed By the monarchy and
used to create dreaded doom reavers. With tales of neW