Gystri

Island of Tin and Theater

Gystri is both a rocky and rugged island, and the island's sole major settlement, a minor polis known mostly as a mining town. It is situated across a rocky strait from the island of Tornoa, but its destiny has long been tied in orbit of the archipelago's great polis of Krypteia. It hosts many crumbling ravines and other natural hazards, even a glacier nestled in the south valley mostly sheltered from the sun for most of most days. It also has several sometimes-dangerous tin mines which are extremely important to the local bronze trade, and which are or at least were the settlement's whole reason for existing.
Historically before the Daemon Winter, Gystri was relatively impoverished. The then-colony was established and run primarily for the benefit of the family of the tyrants of Krypteia, the kobold Agyr clan, whose iron grip upon most of the Pyrmar's tin trade - and thus the availability of bronze - gave them enormous wealth and influence. Many of the island's residents were little better than serfs, and often turned to drunken violence or "peasant theater" for relief from the pressure of life. This slowly changed due to one particularly successful Gystri expat, an unarmed warrior named Luxan who took part in the events of the Daemon Winter, and who funneled large amounts of treasure from his adventures back home to Madame Beletrin, the guildmother of the theater family that raised him. Beletrin wisely used this windfall to start buying off politicians and the Agyr clan's mercenaries. With the temporary dissolution of Krypteia's government in the wake of the Daemon Winter and the tyrant's death, Beletrin seized control of the mines and port, and thus the island.
Life has since greatly improved in Gystri. The island's tin mines are more productive than ever, but now have greater safety measures - though it is still quite a dangerous profession, especially when monsters appear from below - and pay their miners better. The isle is also well known in the region as home to a flamboyant school of pankration called Luxa, that has produced multiple winners in the wrestling events of the great Agonestrion games. It is also a hotbed of theater in general, and many of the great comedies and tragedies that define the modern Ithean theatrical "canon" got their start on a Gystir stage.
Gystri is not entirely severed from Krypteia's influence. That polis still maintains a naval fort and shipyard in the Kimola bay, making Gystri a key strategic location in the Mesodos seaway and having brought the previous war of the powers to its doorstep. Krypteia's government and merchant elite also remain the largest customers for the island's resources. It is said that an organization with ties to Krypteia's senate watches, and ensures by both corruption and direct force, that no other clients are offered terms more favorable than Krypteia's own contracts.

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Gystir PCs

• Proficiencies: You gain one bonus skill (Acrobatics, Performance, or Survival), and one tool or vehicle proficiency.
• Hardened: As a reaction when you take damage, you can shrug off 1d12 + Con modifier + your level in hit points of damage, to a minimum of 0. Once you use this ability, you can't use it again until you take a short or long rest.
• Boisterous: You can't keep someone from Gystri down. You have advantage on saving throws (other than death saves) to recover from an ongoing condition, such as when failing an initial save gives you a condition that you can then make additional saves against each round or each day to remove.

Type

Town