Post
by Azure Admiral » Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:07 pm
Knob Hill
General Overview
Gently sitting on a steep little hill, the Knob Hill borough benefits from a favourable position compared to the surrounding districts, granting the lucky residents of the highest dwellings a nice view of the Glorathon Bay and the bordering farmlands outside the Capital.
A soft, fresh breeze blows all over this area, refreshing and giving relief to the busy regulars here, even in its narrow alleys.
From the highest palaces it is possible to see airships docking at and setting sail from the nearby Skyport. In recent years, a whole building has been opened to the public. From its marble roof, visitors can take a break and watch the vessels passing over.
There are rumours about some young and brave guy succeeding in hooking the hull of an airship passing guiltily too close to this building, entering the cargo bay and earning free travel to unknown and adventurous destinations.
Cynics argue that there is no way some fool could have possibly survived such a daring activity, but the local city garrison has not issued any statement.
So, seeding unjustified panic for a child’s story is totally worthless, for sure.
Or maybe not?
The Knob Hill buildings are characterized with native Meryathile architecture (see Kaihulu Flats section). The edifices located in the uppermost hill area are built in a mixed style in stone and wood, or exclusively stone for the most luxurious palaces, often exhibiting colonnades and cupolas.
Due to its strategic position, the Knob Hill borough hosts four military towers armed with heavy ballistae, secured and maintained daily by the Royal City Guard. Behind the battlements and loopholes, the guards oversee the busy people bustling in the streets below, keeping watch for robberies or merchants’ disputes, who often happen to ignite a (once) frank commercial negotiation into an excessive burst of personal animosity.
This district is the Capital’s commerce and artisan activities’ heart, and stands as a critical crossroad between the other west city boroughs.
Most dwellings are two to three-storeys and host workshops, small shops and laboratories on the ground floor, run mainly by people of Talikai and Ellyrian ancestries.
Bustling and noisy, the Knob’s streets show a generous range of trading goods, making a trip in this borough one of the richest experiences of colour and exotic fragrances in all Glorathon.
Every small shop and workshop exhibits its sign in exaggerated shapes and colourful tones, usually clasping the herald on high pillars shaped from ivory (acquired from local sea creatures) and pinned vertically to the ground, or sometimes placed high horizontally, linking two dwellings across the street.
Going around the crowded streets, one is often approached by some young courier, running to deliver goods to and from Merìon Square, heading to the other small city markets or even to wealthy private clients. Merchants and shopkeepers shout out with spirit about the features, quality and prices of their products sold, raising their voices over the others.
Food, local spices and equipment are the most common goods available here in quantity, variety and quality to attract many clients who reside outside the Kingdom of Meryath.
In recent years, a small artisan manufacture is growing, specializing in rare wood-carved weapons harvested from the local forests in the Royal Domain. This manufacture aims to satisfy tasteful clientele needs, and to break into a specific market segment, historically a prerogative of artisan traditions of the other Great Caldera Realms.
However, there is some tension on this subject lately. Some master artisan spreads concerns about the woodcutters allowed by Her Majesty to harvest, but then go missing or return home exhibiting strange or unusual behaviours. The manufactures have raised their fears to the Queen’s Council, but as of today no concrete answer or help has been given.
Knob Hill’s Places & Faces
Tahitoa Va’nu’s Free Merchants Guild (34)
Inaugurated in the recent years, the Free Merchants Guild is quickly becoming a point of reference for several Glorathon merchants. The headquarters, located in a three-storey stone building, has wide external windows and several wood inserts and details which adorn the entire structure with style.
One street-front wall shows an ample space with several low-reliefs in emblems carved in stone, each one depicting a type of good or raw material.
At the ground floor, visitors and aspiring new guild members are welcomed. Here, people can view the public list of its members and benefactors, as well as admire several valuable items collected by Tahitoa during his travels.
The second floor is reserved for the guild members and has several halls, mainly set up to store administrative acts, contracts, hold guild briefings and provide rooms as apartments for members of level three and upward.
On the third floor lives Tahitoa Va’nu, who invites high-ranked members to his guest hall to discuss guild or private issues. Besides Tahitoa, all other people have access here only by his personal invitation.
The Free Merchants Guild is an independent entity separate from the Ivory Tower semi-covered organization, and neither of them ever try to bind official contacts each other.
Far from the Ivory Tower, the Free Guild doesn’t aspire to gather economic wealth to use as political power and influence, but rather aims to achieve a pure excellence in its business. Like the heroes pursuing the cult of the Eternal Glory, the members of the Free Guild are forever searching for a public acknowledgement of their activities, practiced with crystal clear and upstanding ethical behaviour. The members proudly show the results of their work, founding the relationships among affiliates on healthy, productive and honest competition.
To join the Guild, a novice must show both innate relational qualities and a strong inclination to travel and discover new frontiers in order to find new commercial possibilities and resources, while keeping in great respect the traditions and needs of native people.
The rank advancement is only partially accomplished with an economic fee, the main factors are a proven personal economic initiative and exploration. When one member discovers a new good or raw material, a new low relief is carved on the external guild wall, to let citizens officially recognize the right honour and merit to the discoverer.
Guild Ranks
* Novice (level 0)
Advancement Requirements: sign a three-month commercial contract on a good of choice with a counterpart residing in the Glorathon Capital.
Benefits: the novice becomes a Guild member.
* Peddler (level 1)
Advancement Requirements: sign a one-year commercial contract on a good of choice with a counterpart residing in the Royal Domain; deposit 1% of resulting earnings to the Guild.
Benefits: Horse and cart (property); free access to the Guild documents with contracts signed in the Royal Domain, with counterparts list (along with accurate footnotes about their general needs, problems, friends and foes).
* Courier (level 2)
Advancement Requirements: sign a two-year commercial contract on three goods of choice with a counterpart residing in three of the eight Kingdom of Meryath Counties (chosen by the Guild); deposit 1% of resulting earnings to the Guild.
Benefits: Three-wagon caravan (property), one assistant, two guards, free access to the Guild maps showing the Kingdom of Meryath’s discovered locations of rare raw materials, along with Kingdom maps pointing to other possible locations to search for new precious raw materials.
* Merchant (level 3)
Advancement Requirements: sign a three-year commercial contract on a good of choice with a counterpart residing in another Great Caldera Kingdom; deposit 1% of resulting earnings to the Guild; discover a new good/raw material in another Caldera Kingdom.
Benefits: eight-wagon caravan (property), five assistants, eight guards; chance to be introduced in the Osriel main merchants courts, therefore having an opportunity to establish more trading routes (and maybe getting involved in factions’ infighting rivalries), to hopefully strengthen the Free Merchants Guild’s position as a trustworthy trade counterparty across the Great Caldera.
* Explorer (level 4)
Advancement Requirements: discover two new goods/raw materials in the Calidar’s Dread Lands.
Benefits: Seaship (gratuitous loan), ten crew members; assigned complete administration of a guild frontier colony located in a soft spot of the Dread Lands.
* Traveller (level 5)
Advancement Requirements: sign a three-year commercial contract on a good of choice with a counterpart residing in the Soltan Ephemeris; deposit 1% of resulting earnings to the Guild; discover three new goods/raw materials in the Soltan Ephemeris.
Benefits: Skyship (gratuitous loan), fifteen crewmembers; assigned complete administration of a guild frontier colony located in the Soltan Ephemeris.
Tahitoa Va’nu, Founder of Free Merchants Guild
A 45 year old Talikai, Tahitoa is the head, heart and soul of the Free Merchants Guild. He is a tall figure with dark complexion and black hair, with a careful gaze and tasteful fashions. He is never ostentatious except some easy-wear rings, memories of past journeys and encounters. Coming from a wealthy family, his parents and grandfathers were renowned merchants of the realm, well considered and respected.
Tahitoa worked hard to strengthen the family business, channelling most of his wealth to found his own personal Guild, created to satisfy his spirit of tireless exploration, forever searching for travel mates and business partners to share his ideals. His eyes spark bright every time the possibility of a new trade route comes on the horizon, eager to start trusting, long-term relationships with new populations and races. Tahitoa is a benefactor for several artisans fallen in disgrace, becoming a reference and support pillar for many of Glorathon’s small merchant groups and beyond.
All of this inevitably lead to a cold non-relation with the Ivory Tower, which sees a slowing erosion of his member base. Tahitoa has no animosity against them, but for sure the Tower is watching all of his contacts closely.
A member of the Coral Ring (see CAL1, pag. 93), he isn’t aware of being controlled by Her Majesty’s emissaries, which periodically report to the Queen about his activities and interests in the Dread Lands, to monitor -and occasionally prevent- serious incidents which could put the Kingdom of Meryath in danger. Nonetheless, Shardwen herself considers him a valiant, trusted and resourceful subject, potentially a good member for the Red Masque (see CAL1, pag. 94).
Tahitoa knows many places, stories and race enclaves from the Dread Lands and the Ephemeris, which he’ll be happy to share with the most ardent and adventurous souls of his Guild.
Unfortunately, he is not willing to explain his ability, or secret, which allows him to find soft spots in the Dread Lands to explore and build his frontier colonies. Both the Ivory Tower and Shardwen are interested in this subject.
Tahitoa Va’nu Adventure hook 1
Following an informal private meeting with unknown people, and assembling hints gathered in the past, Tahitoa now believes that a potentially new resource can be found buried deep in the heart of Deadman’s Woods (See CAL1 Royal Domain, pag. 95).
He and the other guild members are too busy right now to have a tour and investigate, so he’s accepting outside help to conduct a first expedition and confirm his intuitions with proof.
The wood is generally considered a safe place, but almost no one is able to remember the rumours and legends which led the place to bear it name. Neither Tahitoa nor any other Glorathon residents actually know that the woods hide a latent secret involving creatures of the dark lurking among the trees, which will endanger the heroes’ mission and their lives. Depending on what the PCs discover, Tahitoa could gift them with some additional reward, such as a free Guild membership and immediate advancement to the Courier rank (level 2).
Tahitoa Va’nu Adventure hook 2
In recent times, Tahitoa has discovered that some of his long-time counterparts and friends have suddenly cut off all their commercial agreements with the Free Guild, without any explanation or contact.
Having never experienced a similar issue before, Tahitoa is concerned about these events and is willing to investigate: he’s certain they cannot be only coincidences. To not put his friends’ associates in danger, he’s in searching for adventurers without ties to his guild willing to unravel this issue.
The sites subject to investigation are:
* Kharzégy’s laboratory, a tower located in the small city of Kaipuna (Meryath Royal Domain, see CAL1, pag. 95)
* Tajnai-Kati plantation, located in the Taslan Peninsula (Omfall continent, se CAL1, pag. 70)
* Fringe mining complex (large asteroid)
Tahitoa will supply an airship and the necessary crew, plus a group of experienced henchmen who will help, as well as counsel (and control) the heroes in their actions.
Although Tahitoa’s associates are experiencing problems on their way, the heroes will eventually discover a common trace which connect all these events. They’ll discover clues about the mind behind this: could these be hostile acts from the Ivory Tower? A personal vengeance from an old enemy? Or an unfriendly warning from another entity, worried by some of Tahitoa’s unexpected resource findings in his travels?
Embarking and solving this long mission could lead to an excellent monetary reward, plus eventually a free Guild membership and immediate advancement to the Merchant rank (level 3).
Rania Bahira's Personal Devices (35)
The voluptuous, ethnic Narwani Rania runs one of the most peculiar shops in this district, offering a neat variety of personal devices. This over-secured shop-laboratory welcomes visitors in a dim light, showing a wealth of devices sheltered under Araldium showcases, and secured further with protection spells. Outside the front door, Narwani heavy guards stand at the edifice corners to take their blades to unwanted guests.
After years of earning experience across all the realms of the Great Caldera, Rania decided to return home and establish her business in Glorathon. Besides devices bestowed directly by deities, her activities focus on designing and producing personal devices requested by private clients, heroes or government entities.
With an extraordinary relationship capability, she excels in understanding her clients’ needs, and realising the best-quality -and expensive- personalized devices in all the Great Caldera (or so is said by almost all of her customers). Rania drafts the initial idea on the project and provides to its realisation, relying on an extending net of agents and trusted collaborators to gather construction materials, spells, rare ingredients and resources necessary to shape the unique item. She only works on a single project at a time.
Rania makes no secret of her ancestry, and defends with clearness her political vision of the Narwani’s Kamarea claim. She feels at home in Meryath, respects its inhabitants and lives as a part of the community.
However, this crystal clear behaviour is causing deep concerns among the Steel Phalanx (see CAL1, pag. 94), which meticulously oversees all her actions.
Until now, the Phalanx hasn’t found tangible evidence to call for her forced expulsion from the Kingdom, but pretexts are not hard to find, thanks to the “right” hands…
Rania Bahira's Adventure hook
Rania has a major problem right now to solve. On the day the PCs enter the laboratory, they’ll see a slain Talikai laying on the ground, and Rania watching him in tears.
The man was a wealthy and long-time Glorathan client of the shop. Rania just saw him healthy a week ago and they talked about a new device to build.
She was horrified to discover the corpse early in the morning, without any trace of forced entry.
Doors and windows are intact and closed, and Rania’s guards detected nothing strange.
Rania now urges the newly-met heroes to help her privately investigate the tragic event, while the city guards pursue this in their official way. If not, it’s likely that Rania’s reputation and fate will be forever compromised.
Kanemanu's Shrine (lesser) (36)
Since arriving from Meryath’s northern shores, the Talikai Atea has run the little Kanemanu’s Shrine in Knob Hill. His parents were pious followers of this deity, and when Atea grew up they asked for advice from their Divine Patron. The auspices agreed to appoint the young cleric Atea to establish a new shrine in Glorathon, to help Kanemanu’s faith spread in the Capital. Thanks to his hard work and some donations, Atea managed to clear some old shacks near the adjacent borough’s fish-crossing side, and founded the shrine. With his beguiling charm and soft elusive behaviours, he is slowly raising a growing of faithful men and women alike (the latter, mostly).
The shrine is a small but comfortable open space garden, with a colonnade heading into the inner chambers. Here, a visitor can meditate among the garden’s tropical flora and fauna, and have a consultation with Atea about the Great Spirit.
The cleric offers to follow the heroes in their adventures to help raise them as “Lucky Champions of Kanemanu” (as he says). From this, he would gain better visibility for his Faith in the Capital, and hopefully be blessed with more clerical power from his deity.
Furthermore, Atea is searching for heroes to address other Faith concerns.
One month ago, the symbol of the Shrine, a great blue bird of paradise, disappeared from the shrine garden. Events such these are usually read into by the worshippers as bringers of misfortune, which would result in a disastrous disruption of all of Atea’s hard clerical efforts made over the years.
He tried to put a patch on this, secretly evoking an illusionary bird to place in the garden. He knows he’s fooling the believers, but he hopes to bring the blessed animal back to the temple soon.
Now he’s desperately searching for heroes to help investigate this disappearance. The bird raised at every one of Kanemanu’s shrines is fairly unique in its features, so it’s not possible to replace it with another specimen.
The heroes must act quickly and undercover: the situation here could not be as it appears, and more is at stake than an intelligent feathered bird gone missing.
Knob Hill’s Adventure hooks
The Nubeian Fair
Every year on Nubeian the 20th, a fair takes place in the Knob Hill’s centre plaza.
Several merchants come from Caldera’s other realms, dealing in their homeland’s articles and acquiring Meryath’s tropical goods and finest weaponry.
Over five days, the already crowded Knob streets become even more congested thanks to the outsiders, their followings and the curious. The event is sponsored by the official Merchants’ Guild (but almost everyone knows that the Ivory Tower is the real promoter), which aims to grow stronger than the permanent Grand Tulani Bazaar and reach the magnificence of the great Osriel fairs.
Sadly, the fair is plagued by unfortunate accidents and problems:
* This year a new guest will attend the event: the Beastmaster Hektor Porphyrias from Ellyrion. He, along with his pompous caravans, will bring his mighty exotic beasts’ showcase to the Nubeian Fair. Although all the creatures will be registered and all bureaucratic permissions will be given, the Merchant’s Guild is concerned about the overall borough’s security, also considering that some street scoundrel could want to make his great day and get his inexperienced hands on a beast too exotic or bad tempered…
* Starting with pointless quarrelling, year after year, four outsider merchants have grown in hatred of each other, up to the point of planning deviously hostile and murderous acts during the fair as the day of reckoning. Kurdûn the Stonecutter from Araldûr, Aleyselë the rare-wood shaper from Alfdaín, Würtenbur the weaver from Osriel and Huris the alchemist from Caldwen struggle to overpower their sworn enemies, possibly trying to divert accusations and their own responsibilities to the other merchants, or innocents. One (or possibly more) of these NPCs will engage the PCs, asking them to protect their life during the fair or to execute some shady order against the others.
* Even if almost no one will speak about it publicly, rumours say that every Nubeian Fair sees a murder. Hearing whispers in inns or around the markets, the PCs will learn about corpses found in the past years in dark alleys, under the sewer, in Meríon Square and in a residence’s backyard. An old salt, whose daughter was killed during the fair three years ago, will ask the heroes if they would dare to make some investigation, promising to give them his greatest possession, a valuable treasure map, which he found some years ago venturing in the Kingdom. Will the PCs answer his plea for help?
*Many* thanks to Marshall Oppel for joining me as professional Lead Editor in my fictional journeys.
“Don’t ask for loyalty from you airship crew. Die for them instead on the sky battlefield„