Hexpools

Hexpools is an extraordinary sight. Its great limestone walls stand 30' high, and while some 11,000 people live here, the city is larger than most holding three times this number.

Dominating the city are the famed hexpools themselves. There are six of these, arranged in a hexagon pattern around the margins of the city and within its walls. Each is a hexagon of limestone, some 100' from side to side, with 10' high walls with the pool sunk some 30' into the ground. A complex of fountains and aqueducts rings each great pool. Elemental magic draws up great streams of water from underground aquifers and powers the fountains and waterwheels which in turn power the mills of the city.

Most of the water is removed from the city through great ducts to form the headwaters of the Grayflood, but some is forced upward by magical means so that the battlements of the city walls have powered water streams running their full length both in carved channels and in pipes built into the walls. The latter can be accessed through valves, and if the city were to be attacked its defenders can, in effect, use high-powered water cannons to assault attackers getting too close to the formidable walls of the city.

This powerful complex of water magic was built into the city by the mage Farlockend nearly 300 years ago. Statues of the mage can be found in many places in Hexpools, and he is almost a local saint. Mention of his name is always followed by an incantation of "blessings on him!" Farlockend's descendants administer Hexpools as an hereditary aristocratic council. Such is Farlockend's fame and reputation that no matter how inept they become no Hexpooler will rebel against them. To do so, they believe, will ensure that Farlockend's magic will turn against them, perhaps drowning every soul in the city overnight.

The need for these defenses, and the 1,200 troops here, grows monthly as refugees and Sunndi forces, especially dwarves, grow more daring from their bases in the Hollow Highlands and the lands south of the Grayflood. Hexpools' rulers actively seek mercenary bounty hunters to destroy these enemies. About 200 evil mercenaries—a collection of small adventuring groups, some groups of army deserters from central Aerdy, and even a squad of 16 orcs and half-orcs led by a plate-clad orog on a monstrous black stallion—can be found here.