Editing Populated Hexes

=Populated Hexes=


==Places==
*I am from the north," she says, pursing her lips as she examines the map the adventurers possess. "Your map only shows the southern edge, but far to the north of here is a wide expanse of hill country. This here," her fingers follow the River Sarn north, towards the mining camps the adventurers had heard of, "is but the southern tip of what we call the amagquma, the . . ." she searches for the translation. "The barren hills, is probably the best translation. My tribe is -- was, I should say -- nomadic. We traveled east to west, following the moon. There are countless ruins there, amongst the mesas. The remains of a great city, Isendan, can be found near our migration route, and my peoples scavenged what they could from the wreckage. We do not like being indoors, so most of what we found was scattered about, in the open. On our trips to the east we would meet traders who would buy these antiques. For years this was the case, until one year a trader convinced my father, who led our herd, to bring her and her men along with us. These fools ventured into the deeps of Isendan, under the ground, into the tunnels and sewers and hidden places, far from the light of the sun and moon. They loosed something from within the bowels of the earth, something horrible. It is so horrible that I cannot place it in my mind, but it was ravenous, and consumed all of my peoples.
*"This is a deck of txartelak cards, from the kingdom of Slaphe, to the far west. The Men there are not like men here; they spend their days drugged, dreaming of decadence. But they see far in their stupors, and it is said that the folk of Slaphe have the third eye. Txartelak is their game of chance, and in their bordellos and bawdy houses they bet not with gold, or gems, or goods, but with happiness, with a memory, with their own names. We will not play a game, though. I will instead have you draw a card, and will tell you what it means."
* This style is favored by the ronin of the Sable Principality. This particular blade is of unknown provenance, but was likely forged two Cycles ago in the Sablelands.
*paladin Lyed Rismi, of the freehold Fortincan, north of here. Lyed was slain by the dragon Sthenncor, but before she fell managed to allow the escape of those within Reker Keep, before it, too, fell to Sthenncor's foul breath. It is said the dragon claimed the Keep as his own, and dwells there still, curled up in the battlements. This was not Lyed's primary blade, but had been given to her squire mere days before she died.
*The man with the towering hat leers at Newton, exposing teeth stained red by some foul means. "You are interested in the dagger, no? It was forged a Cycle ago by Pangka Hi, of Jukung, in the Umber Principality. With it Hamria Sari of the Barren Plains slew the the Putrid Wyrm, a beast not unlike a dragon but infinitely more foul
*The Ironshard range (north of Rheas Ford) is something of anomaly. Rising steeply from the plains to the south, it's surrounded by lowlands and forest. The terrain is almost impossibly steep, and the land itself difficult to settle. It is nominally claimed by the Scarlet Prince, but outside of the two passes -- the one on the road west towards Junction, and the one of the road north, to Alice -- it is largely unexplored and any resources within unexploited. The bulk of the range has been granted to Lady Arcaphia, the Cerise Baroness, who dwells in a castle along the northern road, although Lady Annemond, the Cochineal Baroness, has been granted the northwest portion. There is rumored to be some tension between the two
*The woods to the north of Alice are a dangerous place, a primeval forest of ancient, toweing trees that hide numerous threats, among the most fearsome being ogres, giants, and strange, moss-covered trolls. The great dragon Valraphgon is supposed to control a great swathe of forest, although he has not been seen since the end of the Fifteenth Cycle.

===Bastion===
*"Welcome to Bastion, then. Lawbreakers and devotees of Chaos are not allowed. Your mercenaries can find a place to sleep in the grange," he points through the gates, to a large stone structure located just to the left, barely visible, "but we strongly suggest they stay out of trouble, or both they and you will be escorted out. You and your companion can likely find a place in the inn, called Leoval's Folly. It's down the street and past the grange a few hundred yards."
**Bastion is a city of stone, with narrow roads and buildings piled atop one another like enormous children's blocks. Even in the twilight the looming mountains can be felt all around. Torches line the main thoroughfares, and the streets are busy, even in the evening's chill. The Folly proves to be a tall, narrow stone building, the door braced by lanterns tinted green. Inside it is hot and crowded; townsfolk jostle with merchants and sellswords for a table. Over the course of the evening the adventurers hear many things of interest. 
**A nearby settlement, Norrogal, was attacked by ogres the previous day. While the town militia managed to fight off the sortie with minimal loss of life -- mostly livestock were taken -- the Baroness is offering a bounty of 25 alcedes per ogre head to anyone willing to go after the brutes.
*"My name is Elhro Arcaphia, and I am the Baroness's seneschal, tasked with the day to day running of the Barony
*The Temple of C'thronun is carved into the very mountain itself, through a winding tunnel that looks as though it has not been worked by the Hands of Man. The Earthspeaker is a gaunt man of middling height, his skin the grey of the stone from which the temple is held. "The Weight of the Mountains has seen fit to bring your friend back to life," he says, "although the warrior is week, and will need time to recover. You may go and see him, though, if you would like."

===Shard's Keep===
*The road north follows the pass through the mountains. Ever so often a side-road leads off to the east or west, deeper into the mountains. There are plenty of travelers on the road; merchants, freeholders, guards. At each sideroad the adventurers spy stout round buildings of stone, flying the cerise flag of the Baroness Arcaphia; garrisons of troops to guard the roads. As evening approaches the pass exits the mountains and the companions find there is a large inn at the mouth of the pass: The Shards' Keep, it is called. A stone wall tipped with wood palisade surrounds the building, containing stables, a smithy, and what looks to be a basic general store. A score of wagons are in the yard, accompanied by men-at-arms huddled around campfires.

The party is told the mercenaries are willing to camp in the yard, while they can stay in the inn proper. The interior is wide open and clean; it looks as if it is peopled largely by merchants and travelers.

===Alice===
* Newton learns the land north of the Ironshards, including Alice, is controlled by the Cardinal Baron, who's keep is located in Alice
*The road widens and the woods thin as they travel, with signs of civilization becoming more and more evident. Finally, the party emerges from the trees to behold an enormous clearing, as far as the eye can see, of mostly cultivated fields dotted with houses, copses of fruit trees, and herds of cow and sheep. Ahead of them, barely visible on the horizon, is a smudge that must be Alice, with plumes of smoke rising up into the sky by the hundredfold.

Alice is a frontier town similar to Junction, maybe twice as big, but sprawling. The dwellings on the perimeter are small and rude, some little more than tents, others mud-daubed huts. It is as if the population of Junction doubled overnight, with no places to put the new inhabitants, so they made do with what they could.

It is lucky there has been no rain recently, as the streets are hard-packed dirt. The main road is crowded with traffic, with buildings mostly of wood leaning in above the road. The adventurers have two potential courses of action:
===Jacaar===
*31 miles east of Wolf Keep

===Phiesen===
*78 miles west of Wolf Keep

==People==
*The Rufous Baron, ruler of Junction
*The sage proves to be a small man, barely five feet tall, who dwells in one of the larger, more solid homes in Junction. The walls are stone, the roof timber shingled in slate. His house is cramped and filled with all manner of possessions. "I am Brassan Cen" he says, "of Weld, in the far east. I have moved to Junction recently as my studies focus on the Skeldrene Dynasty, which once ruled the lands west of here, roughly defined by the Basilisk Hills.
*The Baron maintains a large keep east of Junction, on the road to Rhea's Ford, but for most purposes the Seneschal conducts day to day business in Junction itself, in a long, low building with a stone foundation and clapboard siding above. It's big, it's well-made, and it serves multiple purposes: the City Watch operates from it, and they maintain a number of holding cells for short-term prisoners or those to be transferred to the dungeons of the keep; the Baron's tax collectors operate out of here, as does a customs office that oversees trade.

Seneschal Beorthmac is a large, florid man sporting wild chin whiskers and a habit of breathing through his mouth. He motions the adventurers to sit. "I understand you have questions for me!" he exclaims, after everyone has seated, "what can I do to help?"
*"I am called Micma Ume", the man says, "and am a purveyor of . . . interesting weapons, shall we say. (weapons dealer in Rheas Ford)
*Seek out Pord's contact, one Kirra Lec whom they are supposed to escort north.
*There is also the company -- the Northern Mercantile Exchange -- that Feargus had received a letter of introduction to the previous night. The woman, one Cynza Dalin, gave him directions to an office located off the North Road, behind a Twill's Tavern, and ask for a "Matts".
*Sanke One-eyed, bandit queen of the eastern Zelaia Plains and Ghawla Hills
*The Risen Moon, a tribe of ''cerves'' that roams the eastern Zelaia Plains, led by Hafaha, son of Haki
*Lidded Eye Clan, hobgoblins

==History==
*several Cycles ago, as the Skeldrene were collapsing to the south, a number of clans of beast-men known as mochyn dominated this area of Absalom. Every so often a strong leader would emerge to unite the tribes, but such alliances rarely lasted more than a generation, if that. Called boar-folk by the historians, the mochyn withdrew to the north as the Variagated Princedoms pushed westward and they came into contact with men.
*He sings the old songs as well, those heard throughout the Scarlet Principality: the hard first Nadir of the the Thirteenth Cycle, when Rhea's Ford was but a village, and the first Scarlet Prince held off a warhorde of orcs and goblins almost single-handedly, the Ride to Kesig, an almost mythical land to the south and the Knights who rode off in search of the way there, only to die, one by one, along the way, and the Fall of Zizdul, once the shining city at the edge of the Silver Sea, at the Mouth of the Sarn, slowly collapsing over centuries of decadence and now home to all manner of Chaos-born creatures.

==Organizations==
*There are a number of mining camps spread throughout these hills, run by private mercantile concerns. The largest company, the Red Sky Mining Company, is offering a bounty on beastmen heads. Their main office is here, but they’ve established a semi-permanent camp here,” she indicates hex 72.43 (see northern map)
*The Red Sky Mining Company is the largest mining concern to the north. There are others -- the Crimson Mercantile Exchange has a foothold there as well -- but the Red Sky is the big one
*Feargus is also approached by a woman in robes of red and brown, her hair tied up in a bun, with prim gold and silver earrings winking at him. "I don't know what you are currently engaged in," she says, "but if half of those songs are true the organization I work with might be interested in . . . working with you. Name's Cynza Dalin. I'm a representative of the Northern Mercantile Exchange, based in Alice. We're focused on exploring and developing new sources of revenue streams from the areas to the north of the Principality, and I'm always interested in meeting people that can help facilitate that."

===Religious===
*Before heading off to explore the next hex Telemachus visits the temple of Sarnis. It's just north of town, on the banks of the river. It's largely open to the air and elements, at least the parts that he can see. A large wooden structure -- all roof supported by thick wood posts, with no walls -- is build on the bank. A path of stones leads from there down into the water of the Sarn, worn smooth by water. A half dozen men and women in robes of blue are arranged along the bank, performing some sort of religious ceremony as the sun begins to peak over the eastern horizon
**A tall, saturnine priest awaits him. "I am Muelrid, the right hand of Sarnis"
*Sabeth, the Dancer in the Woods (around Junction)

==Misc==
*A woman nearby points into the sky, filled with familiar constellations. "The Circlet," she says, pointing at a cluster of stars that bears a passing resemblance to a delicate crown. Feargus is somewhat familiar with the night sky, as are most Men, and he knows that the Circlet is crowned by a bright star, reddish in color, called Nerathil, the Lady's Ruby. This star, Feargus can plainly see, is no longer visible atop the Circlet.
*Rhea's Ford, as a major city, is hungry for raw goods in all forms. Ore is the most valuable, but rare woods, furs, and other luxury goods are sought after, as are rare materials used in alchemical and magical compounds. The woods to the north of Alice are said to be a source of throan, an insect secretion that can be dried and purified and used in various potions
*There is most definitely a dragon in the mountains [Ironshard], and it looks as though it has finally attacked a human settlement. Two days ago an itinerant tinker arrived in Bastion, claiming that he had been come across a remote freehold on his route through the secluded valleys that dot the range, only to find the freehold burnt to the ground, the very stone foundations of the buildings melted as if subjected to a great heat. He says he did not investigate much further, but no survivors were evident. The tinker is reported to be staying at the grange for the time being, and has been questioned by the Baroness's men.

==Events/Politics==
*Scarlet Principality is edging towards war with the Azure Principality.