Post by dee on Apr 7, 2023 20:48:31 GMT
It’s not taken long, but what I hoped would happen, has.
Tales abound regarding the “adventurers” of Daring Heights. A mercenary contingent who seem to effectively take the place of any expeditionary faction, or guard, or even the specialised parts of a substantial army. On leaving the Rift I simply found the largest tavern, asked how to take refuge among their ranks, and was immediately directed to Fort Ettin: a structure built by one Aurelia Archselon, an upstanding member of the Daring Heights Council. All the evidence suggests that Fort Ettin is no mundane structure, but a Mighty Fortress. Legends of that Working then imply an answer to the lack of other local security - Kantas’ adventurers are both powerful, and rich. My mind goes immediately to stories I’ve read of Neverwinter, Waterdeep, or Calimport. Not everyone can mobilise a quarter million in diamonds, but what they choose to do with it is telling: better this than the tyrannical theocracy of Menzoberranzan... the various strains of feudalism across the elemental planes, the chaotic mageocracy of the Courts. That said, Jenna Archselon, presumably Aurelia’s daughter, now runs the citadel. She’s plainly a sorceress with no small amount of draconic heritage. Judging by the hair, the educated guess would be Chromatic, and Red - a breed more commonly found razing castles than administering them. Maybe a hoard rests in her past that explains that family’s abundance of gemstones.
On finding lodgings at the Fort I was immediately welcomed, but also assailed with any number of outlandish tales. Of yet more red dragons accompanied by Githyanki, of a flying city that now rests in Harnash (after a brief tour of destruction), of a wizard hive-mind that governs Gadenthor. My immediate sense is that I’ve traded one kind of peril for another. One asks, then, why the Cartographer has brought me here at all. Possibly because the adventurers of the Dawnlands do seem entirely dedicated to its defence. Should my House or its intercessor attempt to reclaim what I’ve effectively stolen, I can likely rely on them to intervene. I would guess without even knowing why.
The rooms in the Fort are plentiful, well maintained, and cheap, but also communal. A spirit that extends to local living. A more or less unspoken agreement obliges those taking residence to help out. Not with chores, handled by unseen servants, but in other jobs various. In contrast to back home, I was pleased to note not without material reward, or beyond individual capacity. A series of relatively harmless pranks and minor japes have plagued Ettin’s halls of late, and given a predilection for mysteries, I chose to make their unravelling my contribution.
Despite definitely not being a regimented guard of any kind, the Dawnlands seems to reliably deploy its adventurers in fives. Thus Flutter, Mittens, Raine, Snowey. Two Tabaxi, one half-elf, and a singular Kenku. I pass well enough for Drow, and clearly my new companions made that easy assumption: we set straight to business. Our big lead turned out to be that the newly filthy windows had been marred from the outside, taking us to the roof. There, we discovered an invisible interloper, the student of one Wock the Necromancer. Apparently the casualty of a previous pentaverate of adventurers. Something to do with undead sea life? The recent mischief had been a poorly executed form of revenge for his, presumably second, demise. Regardless, after we collectively cornered the poor creature I shot him off the roof and into the moat. We delivered him to Ms. Archselon, and that was that.
My payment? An inch wide ruby with a stunningly perfect focus for a whole swathe of arcana. One I’m used to seeing in the possession of wizards with a bent for martial prowess. The payment for Mittens, a literal child: a Moontouched Shortsword I associate with the more militant branch of Selune’s cult.
Not just quick to accept strangers then, but equally fast to arm them.
I don’t know whether to be reassured or concerned, but either way I’ve found a place to hide for the winter. We’ll see what that season brings in time.
Tales abound regarding the “adventurers” of Daring Heights. A mercenary contingent who seem to effectively take the place of any expeditionary faction, or guard, or even the specialised parts of a substantial army. On leaving the Rift I simply found the largest tavern, asked how to take refuge among their ranks, and was immediately directed to Fort Ettin: a structure built by one Aurelia Archselon, an upstanding member of the Daring Heights Council. All the evidence suggests that Fort Ettin is no mundane structure, but a Mighty Fortress. Legends of that Working then imply an answer to the lack of other local security - Kantas’ adventurers are both powerful, and rich. My mind goes immediately to stories I’ve read of Neverwinter, Waterdeep, or Calimport. Not everyone can mobilise a quarter million in diamonds, but what they choose to do with it is telling: better this than the tyrannical theocracy of Menzoberranzan... the various strains of feudalism across the elemental planes, the chaotic mageocracy of the Courts. That said, Jenna Archselon, presumably Aurelia’s daughter, now runs the citadel. She’s plainly a sorceress with no small amount of draconic heritage. Judging by the hair, the educated guess would be Chromatic, and Red - a breed more commonly found razing castles than administering them. Maybe a hoard rests in her past that explains that family’s abundance of gemstones.
On finding lodgings at the Fort I was immediately welcomed, but also assailed with any number of outlandish tales. Of yet more red dragons accompanied by Githyanki, of a flying city that now rests in Harnash (after a brief tour of destruction), of a wizard hive-mind that governs Gadenthor. My immediate sense is that I’ve traded one kind of peril for another. One asks, then, why the Cartographer has brought me here at all. Possibly because the adventurers of the Dawnlands do seem entirely dedicated to its defence. Should my House or its intercessor attempt to reclaim what I’ve effectively stolen, I can likely rely on them to intervene. I would guess without even knowing why.
The rooms in the Fort are plentiful, well maintained, and cheap, but also communal. A spirit that extends to local living. A more or less unspoken agreement obliges those taking residence to help out. Not with chores, handled by unseen servants, but in other jobs various. In contrast to back home, I was pleased to note not without material reward, or beyond individual capacity. A series of relatively harmless pranks and minor japes have plagued Ettin’s halls of late, and given a predilection for mysteries, I chose to make their unravelling my contribution.
Despite definitely not being a regimented guard of any kind, the Dawnlands seems to reliably deploy its adventurers in fives. Thus Flutter, Mittens, Raine, Snowey. Two Tabaxi, one half-elf, and a singular Kenku. I pass well enough for Drow, and clearly my new companions made that easy assumption: we set straight to business. Our big lead turned out to be that the newly filthy windows had been marred from the outside, taking us to the roof. There, we discovered an invisible interloper, the student of one Wock the Necromancer. Apparently the casualty of a previous pentaverate of adventurers. Something to do with undead sea life? The recent mischief had been a poorly executed form of revenge for his, presumably second, demise. Regardless, after we collectively cornered the poor creature I shot him off the roof and into the moat. We delivered him to Ms. Archselon, and that was that.
My payment? An inch wide ruby with a stunningly perfect focus for a whole swathe of arcana. One I’m used to seeing in the possession of wizards with a bent for martial prowess. The payment for Mittens, a literal child: a Moontouched Shortsword I associate with the more militant branch of Selune’s cult.
Not just quick to accept strangers then, but equally fast to arm them.
I don’t know whether to be reassured or concerned, but either way I’ve found a place to hide for the winter. We’ll see what that season brings in time.