Otari
Diverse lumber town and trade port with a storied past and its fair share of sinister secrets.
Demographics
- 60% Humans ~740
- 8% Halflings ~100
- 7% Half-elves ~95
- 5% Dwarves ~60
- 5% Gnomes ~60
- 3% Half-orcs ~35
- 2% Goblins ~25
- 4% Other ~50
Government
Mayor (Elected Leader)
Industry & Trade
Otari is most known as a lumber town and trade port. Their access to the water has also positioned them as a substantial exporter of fishing. The towns lumber industry is controlled by three large players, Otari Lumber, Chertel Lumber, and Whistedown Cutters.
Guilds and Factions
- Osprey Club
- The Roseguard
History
Though the immense metropolis of Absalom has long dominated the urban scene on Starstone Isle, civilization has always thrived across the island. Otari’s beginning is relatively recent and involved a few false starts along the way. When Belcorra Haruvex arrived in the region in 4230 ar, drawn by a series of sinister visions, the coastal region was practically uninhabited. Here, she
built Gauntlight, the keep surrounding the area, and the sprawling dungeons below the structure—without attracting notice. A group of adventurers known as the Roseguard eventually learned of Belcorra’s villainy and slew her, but at the cost of one of their own: a rogue named Otari Ilvashti.
Having lost both their friend and their taste for adventuring, the three surviving members of the Roseguard decided to retire. They spent much of their savings constructing several buildings and a sizable pier in a sheltered cove south of the site of their final battle. Since their lost friend’s fondest dream had been to settle down in a small seaside village, they named this new village after him.
For some decades, Otari prospered as a fishing village, though its population never grew beyond a hundred or so. The three surviving Roseguard adventurers lived to a ripe old age, ultimately passing away from natural causes—an accomplishment many adventurers never achieve.
With the passing of the last Roseguard, Aesephna Menhemes, in 4290 ar, Otari’s fortunes began to dwindle. Within the span of a few years, its citizens had all drifted elsewhere. Otari lay abandoned for decades before a group of kobolds called the Stonescales moved in. When the kobolds started luring in passing ships during bad weather to ambush their crews and steal
their cargo, it didn’t take long for new adventurers to arrive and vanquish them.
While the adventurers moved on soon thereafter, their backer, Maklanni Menhemes, remained behind. Maklanni, Aesephna’s granddaughter, conceived a plan to revitalize Otari as a lumber town. It already contained dozens of buildings that only needed to be restored, after all, and the Osprey River remained ideal for a mill and lumberyard. However, one setback complicated Maklanni’s plan—the steep slopes and cliffs surrounding Otari made transporting timber to the ocean difficult.
Maklanni’s solution was ingenious—she constructed a wooden flume that allowed for the easy transport of lumber from the woods to her mill, and from there down an astounding loading ramp that extended from the top of the 200-foot-tall cliff to the harbor below. The mill and flume made Maklanni wealthy and revitalized Otari, although it made her an enemy of the Kortos Consortium, which had a stranglehold on the island’s lumber industry. Two other small lumber companies broke from the Kortos Consortium and settled in Otari as well, each paying for use of
Maklanni’s invention.
Today, Otari is a thriving settlement—the largest on the coast between Absalom and Diobel. Maklanni is long dead, but her descendant Oseph carries on the family trade and also serves as the town’s mayor. Unsavory representatives of the Kortos Consortium have secretly infiltrated Otari and seek to undermine the town’s security. However, a far greater threat looms over the city: Belcorra has returned and is preparing to light the baleful fires of Gauntlight once again!
Geography
Otari is located on the Southwestern side of the Sumerset Isles. The small town is just west of Absolam and East of Diobel. Otari is surrounded by diverse ecologies including the ocean to the south, Fogfen Swamp to the North, and Immenwood and the Kortos Mountains to the Northeast. Otari is in the foothills of the Kortos mountains, and it is nestled within many hills and cliffs.
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