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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Nov 8, 2020 16:46:19 GMT
Around Midwinter of 1496 DR, on a plot of land outside the eastern wall of Daring Heights and just south of the Swamp Way, work begins on a set of buildings. This isn’t unusual: the area already has a number of trading-posts and similar establishments, mostly related to trade with Port Ffirst.
The site is marked out and a logging camp is set up a couple of miles away in the outskirts of the Feythorn Forest to cut the timber for the buildings. Local workers hired for the project describe their new employers as a rich-looking pair, one of them a middle-aged halfling woman and the other a young human man. Those who’ve been paying attention have picked up that the two of them are from the country of Amn, south of the Sword Coast in Faerûn, and that they're representatives of a company with a long-winded name that’s aiming to trade between Amn and Kantas.
This last detail strikes many Darites as implausible or amusing. Almost all large-scale trade between Faerûn and the Dawnlands of Kantas comes through Port Ffirst nowadays. After funding a long and expensive (not to mention risky) voyage of goods to the growing port town, why take on the extra cost of having to transport the cargo all along the Swamp Way to Daring Heights?
Those who fancy themselves commercial experts doubt whether this new venture will last long, if it has started out with such questionable decision-making. The carpenters and masons just hope this Olem-Whatever Company will stay in business long enough to finish the building work and pay them for their part in it. After that – well, traders come and go in Daring Heights all the time.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Nov 8, 2020 16:47:09 GMT
Of course the work is delayed for a time by the outbreak of illness in Daring Heights that some call the Lassitude, which sends some workers to their sick-beds, some fleeing to Port Ffirst, and three to their graves. But the plague passes, work resumes, and by Greengrass the buildings are complete: a large rectangular warehouse building with part of its roof in a dome, connected to a smaller square office building, and a round tower set a little apart topped with a spiralling dome.
The builders pack up their tools and move on to other jobs, but those working at the logging camp are offered the chance to stay on. It seems that what this trading company is planning to trade - or one of things, anyway - is timber from the forest, so there will be long-term work for those who want it.
Those who stick around are put to work felling trees, cutting them to rough timber, and carting them to the factory - that's what the Amnians are calling the little complex of buildings. They stack the wood in the warehouse building, under strict instructions to leave a large space clear in the centre of the floor, below the dome.
Decorators arrive from the Company's headquarters in Crimmor to put the finishing touches to the interiors. With them comes a middle-aged human who doesn't look or sound Amnian. A Dalelander, some of the workers reckon. He takes up residence in the office building. At the next delivery of wood, the timbermen see that the open space on the warehouse floor is marked out with a large circle.
All around Daring Heights, and even in a few of the more reputable parts of Port Ffirst, notices are posted:
The Olem-Murnelvar Trading Company most cordially invites you to attend a fabulous evening to celebrate the Grand Opening of the Amn-Kantas Import-Export Circle (being a New Means of Conducting Commerce between the Nation of Amn and the Peoples of Kantas) featuring finest Amnian delicacies, Tejarn wines & Crimmor ales, dancing by Esmeltaran’s famous Sune’s Silk Slippers troupe, music by the renowned Daerea Erril & her band, all free of charge, and a dazzling selection of Amnian products, available to purchase for the first time ever on this continent, on 21 Mirtul at the OMTC Factory east of Daring Heights.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Nov 8, 2020 16:47:47 GMT
The news of a trading company transporting goods between continents by teleportation, rather than sea or land, spreads quickly around town in the days after the party at the factory. Merchants in the Four Fair Winds speculate about the costs and savings and debate whether such a thing can ever be profitable. In the Three-headed Ettin, the logging workers are quizzed by their friends about how it's all going to work. Guests at the Gilded Mirror just toast to the prospect of easy access to luxury goods.
Soon the excitement passes and people coming and going by the Swampgate become accustomed to seeing the carts of timber trundling into the OMTC warehouse and coming out empty. No one knows exactly what goes in the other direction, teleported in from Amn, but Gety the local jeweller soon lets it be known that his stock now includes pieces made with fine gems specially imported from Keczulla, the renowned Amnian city of jewels. Other artisans and shopkeepers of Daring Heights follow, boasting new goods available nowhere else in the Dawnlands.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Nov 8, 2020 16:53:31 GMT
(Bonus content: the OMTC teleportation circle, as designed by Jay Pieni!)  ![]()  |
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Nov 8, 2020 16:54:33 GMT
In the summer of 1496, word gets around that Darite merchants visiting the Sunset Spine are from time to time asked, for a fee, to call at a certain house in the mountain village of Galavir. There they collect a box or bag of pearls - those remarkable many-coloured pearls that are found in the lake there - to bring back to the OMTC factory. Few of those pearls appear for sale in Daring Heights, however. The general opinion in the tap-room of the Winds is that the OMTC must be selling them in Amn, where pearls are much prized.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Nov 8, 2020 16:55:50 GMT
The days grow colder. One day Heret gathers the OMTC workers and asks for three 'sturdy and level-headed' volunteers for a little extra work (and extra pay). The Company, he explains, has acquired the old Stoneleaf quarry in the foothills of the Sunset Spine. The volunteers are needed to go and stay there for a few days to put up signs and watch over the area until Heret can come to look the place over himself. A handful put themselves forward and Heret chooses three, who set off the same afternoon.
When Heret in due course sets off westward and returns several days later without the three workers, speculation and concern take hold among their fellows. Meanwhile word goes round among the mercenaries and jobbing adventurers of Daring Heights that there is routine security work available for the Olem-Murnelvar Trading Company. A group of ten sign up and set off.
Over the winter there are frequent expeditions to Stoneleaf and word spreads about strange and terrible happenings there. It does not escape notice that not everybody hired to go there returns. When the Company tries to hire local builders to build a wall and gate to prevent people from straying into the quarry, none are willing to risk going there. At one time even Heret himself fails to return from a trip to Stoneleaf and is widely thought dead, but a further expedition brings him back along with two other mercenaries who were rumoured lost; five others make their way back to Daring over the following days. Finally, as winter nears its end, the gossip around town is that whatever horrors were in the quarry have been ended, though at a price - the Grand Master of the Order of the Crimson Fist himself is said to have perished in the battle.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Nov 8, 2020 16:58:51 GMT
By Greengrass of the year 1497 DR the fortunes of the Olem-Murnelvar Trading Company appear to be improving. There are no more dire stories from Stoneleaf. Rather than mercenaries and adventurers, the Company now sends wagons filled with labourers, tools, and materials. New workers are hired, new contracts signed.
The best-preserved buildings in the abandoned village are repaired and refurbished for the quarriers to live in at subsidized rents, and the Company even convinces a Daring Heights shop-keeper to open a grocery and general store there. Notices appear in Daring and Port Ffirst trumpeting the opportunities and rewards open to any enterprising person who chooses to seek them in Stoneleaf. Meanwhile, cart after cart of squared Sunset stone rumbles into the OMTC factory to be teleported to Crimmor.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Jun 19, 2021 17:09:15 GMT
Over the following months frequent travellers on the Stone Road become used to the increased traffic. Indeed, truth be told, many of those travellers on that worn-earth highway are themselves working for the OMTC: taking the thin-layered stone from the quarry to Daring Heights, driving the other way with timber and supplies for the burgeoning Stoneleaf village, or shuttling letters, people, and cash in both directions. The farmers of western Daring and the villagers of Stoneleaf also become accustomed to seeing camp-fires in the distance as most of the OMTC carts and convoys pass the night by the roadside, usually a few hours’ journey from their destination, though some push themselves to cover the whole distance between the two settlements in a single tiring day.
But as the sunny spring of 1498 comes into bloom there’s a new sight on the Stone Road. Some of the carts of stone, timber, and workers no longer travel all the way between Daring and Stoneleaf but pull up in a pleasant spot by the roadside, roughly half-way along the road, unload their contents, and set off back the way they came. People arrive, set up tents, and settle in. They dig a well, lay foundations, saw timber, set stone. Something is being built.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Jul 4, 2021 12:57:25 GMT
Wine flows freely at the opening of the Olem-Murnelvar Inn – all the more so as the celebration takes place during Waukeen’s summer festival of Sornyn. ‘The Olem-Murnelvar Inn’ is its official name but, even before it’s open for business, Stoneleaf villagers and Company workers have taken to calling ‘the Halfway House’ because of its location and purpose as a stopping-point on the way from Daring Heights to Stoneleaf and back.
Both of the bosses, Lasira and Heret, are present for the party. They’ve invited not only Company staff and inhabitants of Stoneleaf but a variety of business contacts from all over the place, including a couple of Galavir elves, a few kobolds from Kundar, even a drow from… well, some hole in the ground or other, presumably. Some fancy-looking folk from Daring too, snooty and rich: seems like Heret, especially, is moving in some upper crust circles lately.
Heret makes a speech. Something about how Sornyn is a time for meetings, for exchanging envoys and making new contacts, and how this new inn will help both strengthen business links between existing partners and facilitate new meetings and new relationships. Something about how Sornyn is for connecting distant locations, and the inn will make journeys between the mountains and the central Dawnlands much easier and safer and encourage even more commerce and prosperity. Something about how Sornyn is for making agreements and beginning new ventures, and how he’s proud of the OMTC’s new venture in establishing this inn, and then a rather awkward joke about how everyone there can make an agreement to have a fun time and enjoy the food and wine.
Some of the business crowd seem impressed and interested, others not so much. Most of the ordinary Company folk and the people from the village, whatever they think of the speech, are happy about the party and the Halfway House. The inn means they can stop overnight on their way to and from Daring: a hot meal, a warm bed, a stable for the horses, and some decent beer will certainly beat having to camp out in the open or sleep in their covered carts by the roadside. And for some of them, especially those with families in Stoneleaf or Daring, it means they don’t have to go all the way at all. They can go as far as the Halfway, exchange wagons with someone coming the other way, and head home again the next day. And as for the party, well, free drinks are free drinks!
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on Mar 6, 2022 10:04:36 GMT
If the carters and couriers of the Stone Road were happy about the new amenities of the Olem-Murnelvar Inn, they were less happy about what happened to the road itself over the following autumn and winter. At any one time there seemed to be several stretches of road being closed off, dug up, and filled in, forcing traffic on bumpy diversions.
The OMTC had of course announced this 'exciting new project' to workers and residents of Stoneleaf at its outset, but after a month or two it was apparent even to casual travellers what was happening: the packed-earth road was being replaced with stone paving. Work crews dug down to create a wide, flat-bottomed trench, filled it with layers of loose unshaped rock, then levelled with a sort of lime powder and topped with snug-fitting blocks of cut stone.
As tendays passed and crews finished their sections and moved on to others, the grumbles of wayfarers became mixed with grudging praise. The paved sections of road were impressive to look at and pleasant to drive on. The ride was smoother and faster, the horses had fewer stumbles and falls. When it rained, the stone-clad surface did not get muddy and treacherous; the rain-water just slid off the gently curved paving into artificial channels on either side of the road and flowed away. The road was noticeably wider too, now that travellers were not tempted to veer towards the middle of the path as they had when the edges of the earthen road just merged into rougher terrain.
By the time spring came, the annoying blockages and diversions were over. Neat, regular stone paved the whole journey from Daring Heights' western gate to the central square of Stoneleaf village, nestled at the foot of the Sunset Spine. The Dawnlands had never seen anything like it – at least not that anyone living there now could remember. The Stone Road lived up to its name in a whole new way. And the Olem-Murnelvar Trading Company made sure that everyone knew who to thank.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on May 19, 2023 13:24:54 GMT
Late in the Melting, news has spread among the villagers and quarrymen of Stoneleaf that the Daring Heights Council are expecting major attacks all over the Dawnlands by squadrons of dragon-riding githyanki (whatever those are). Some dismiss it as the usual rumours of imminent disaster that never seem to come to anything. Many are worried or fearful. Some, especially those who came out here to get away from the seemingly constant threats and conflicts of the central Dawnlands, ask each other why those town people can’t keep their trouble to themselves.
The Company (as pretty much everyone in Stoneleaf calls it now) moves quickly to respond to the news. Notices are posted on walls and the village manager holds a meeting in the square. The Company line: the danger is real, but it can be handled if everyone pitches in and does their bit. Stoneleaf will do what it does best: dig stone. All quarry workers and resources will be diverted to excavate a complex of tunnels and bunkers in the mountainside, big enough to shelter the whole village in impenetrable rock in case of attack. Volunteers from the rest of the village will stock and furbish the complex to be habitable, and as comfortable as they can make it. Company administrative staff will hold a series of village meetings to develop a comprehensive evacuation plan so that everyone knows what to do if the alarm is sounded. Villagers and workers who are fit to fight will be offered training and loaned equipment in case of any skirmishes at the entrance to the bunker.
And, by and large, this is what happens. Not everyone in the village takes part, but most do. Some – mainly from among the minority of villagers who aren’t under direct contract with the Company – disperse into the countryside or set off for Daring Heights (thinking it will be better defended or just hoping to teleport from there to Faerûn). Some complain and quarrel with the Company’s plan, but most go along with it anyway.
The attack comes in the last few days of the Time of Flowers. The bell clangs out from the temporary watchtower on the mountainside above Stoneleaf, quickly joined by the more musical temple bell on the north side of the square, and then the bell recently installed on the roof of the Company office on the south side. Some villagers immediately pick up the baskets and bags that stand ready-packed by the doors of their homes, just as they have done the last few times. Others look out of their windows at the sky to check it’s just another drill. Those with west-facing windows quickly see that it isn’t as a cloud of winged shapes comes into view.
Inevitably there are those who follow the plan and those who don’t. The correlation between people who follow the plan and people who make it safely into the bunker complex is not precise. Some delay, try to save more of their belongings, turn up late carrying more bags that they’re allowed to bring in, but somehow still get inside unharmed – with or without their surplus luggage. Others tarry too long in their houses or move too slowly dragging their belongings across the village and never make it to the mountainside. Some panic and rush to the bunker by whatever route they think will be quickest: sometimes they make it, sometimes they run across the open square at an unlucky moment and get caught in a blast of flame. Some follow the plan to the letter and are thankful they did; others discover in their final moments that no plan is perfect.
One way or another, most of the village makes it into the bolt-hole under the mountain. The entrance is sealed with stone and those inside settle in to wait. One of the big bosses from Daring Heights in there too, the young human. He’s been in Stoneleaf about half a month. Some say that just before the attack they saw him run out of the Company office, armed and armoured, vault onto his glossy back horse and start riding at speed across the square as if to leave the village and go back east, then slow to a stop, dismount, and lead his horse back to the stables. The popular theory is that he somehow got news that the attack was coming and was going to make a run for it, but a few of the witnesses swear that it looked more like he was in a hurry to get to somewhere rather than to get away from here. Either way, nobody knows why he changed his mind, but here he is in the bunker and seems to be doing a competent job at organizing everything and keeping spirits up.
After some hours the young man Heret announces that the githyanki have been defeated. How he knows this is unclear – magic, most people assume. He leads a small scouting party out of the bunker by a concealed secondary exit and, not long after that, the main entrance is opened and the inhabitants of Stoneleaf emerge into the daylight.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on May 19, 2023 18:39:28 GMT
The damage to Stoneleaf is considerable but rebuilding begins immediately and energetically.
A small logging camp is set up on the edge of the forest near Stoneleaf – the one that surrounds the now-abandoned hamlet called the Turning Fields. With the help of a few experienced workers and overseers redeployed from the Company’s Feythorn Forest operation, Stoneleafers cut and cart new timber to replace the charred posts and beams of some buildings, while of course the quarry itself supplies ample blocks to repair the small number of stone structures in the village, and the masons to work them.
Some who fled return. Others who never lived in Stoneleaf before also start to arrive – a few whose farms were burned and have decided to try a different trade, a handful who now consider Daring Heights too dangerous a place to live. In a few months the village is looking more or less as good as before. Indeed the Company takes the opportunity to make a few improvements, expanding its own administrative building, the village shop, and the temple (in thanks to the gods for their protection), and building a new street of workers’ houses.
The festival of Huldark is celebrated with special vigour this year. You see, says the Company, hard work is well rewarded. Plentiful fresh fruit and vegetables and bread and pastries are handed out by Company staff, and a small newly-planted orchard is unveiled. At the height of the festivities Lasira makes a speech announcing that Stoneleaf is finally free of the useless Daffles, who betrayed and abandoned the Dawnlands years ago but still claimed ownership of the quarry and the village land, collecting rent from afar but leaving the honest labourers and clerks of the OMTC to do all the work – but no more, for at least the Company has bought the land from the disgraced ex-mayor and now owns Stoneleaf outright. It is now a Company town, down to the bedrock.
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Post by Heret Velnnarul on May 19, 2023 21:55:18 GMT
Meanwhile, in Daring Heights, word starts to get around that the Olem-Murnelvar Trading Company is turning its attention to the east. It normally has relatively little business in Port Ffirst, but during the summer travellers on the Swamp Way begin to notice more groups and wagons making their way from the OMTC factory toward the coast – and not always coming back again. The word on the docks is that Company people are sometimes to be seen on ships bound for Cape Za’Suul.
At one point a whole caravan of wagons, laden with workers and crates, sets off from the factory, including both Lasira and Heret (hard to miss with his golden breastplate gleaming in the summer sun) and even Gravan Hallowfall, the Company mage who operates the teleportation circle and rarely goes far from the factory. In Port Ffirst the wagons are unloaded onto a ship – specially chartered, says the dockmaster – which sets sail the next day. From then on, Heret seems to be in sole charge of the factory at Daring, and a new wizard, a human woman named Hafrazhe Necrad, is doing Gravan’s old job.
The high society types with whom Heret now socializes (apparently he’s as good as married into the Pierre-Vielle dynasty) and the mercantile community of Daring Heights know first, because he’s eager to tell them; others hear about it later through news and rumour carried over the sea from Za’Suul and Port Alaca. The OMTC is establishing a new trading post, and a new teleportation circle, in K’ul Goran, near Jarvenol. Importing luxury goods from Amn directly to the republic of minotaurs and genasi. And no doubt looking for natural resources to take back the other way, like the Company does with Feythorn timber and Sunset stone from the Kantas mainland. It’s what they do. And if they can afford to set up a whole new operation on the other side of the Sea of Tears, they must do it pretty well.
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