Lore
The center of Human trade and civilization, Gondor stands stronger than all. It sits at the base of the H'All Mountain, in the place the All River splits into its final three ends. Gondor acts as the epicenter of all trade within the Human Kingdoms, raw goods are brought up road to the city and refined into finished products by the numerous crafts and foraging guilds in the city. In fact Gondor acts as the largest trading hub between the northern and southern realms, connecting every Human Kingdom within its realm. This central location allowed it to quickly dominate in terms of political power and has become the de facto capital of the various city states of the human realm.
Due to its sheer size the city has been split into smaller divisions. Each division of the city maintains its own political office that reports directly to the crown of Gondor, normally through either a lord, lady, duke, duchess, or mayor. Though some sections of the city, such as Devil's Town, have sprawled out into slums with no real order among its occupants. Those in these offices make up the Council of Gondor. While technically subservient to the current king or queen, the Council has the legal authority to depose the ruling monarch should the Council vote unanimously to do so. This has happened only once in the city's history, during the rule of the Dread King Roberts, who threatened war with the other human settlements in order to form an Empire.
Upper Ward
Home to the richest residents of Gondor, the Upper Ward contains most of the guild headquarters. The Guard's Guild is of particular note as they represent their own political entity in the city. Rich entrepreneurs pay the salaries of a professional guard force, who in turn promise protection for the ward. There have at times been schisms between the two parties. Whenever the guild demands more pay, they will often relax controls at the gate and allow easier travel from the tieflings of Devin Town into the ward. This practice has been called into question as a means of extortion.
Important Characters
Capt. Fremont
Race: Human
Age: 43
Sex: M
Alignment: LE
Capt Fremont is the leader of the Guard's Guild. A handsome older bachelor, he lives relatively well within the Upper Ward, though not close to its richest citizen. He keeps himself within the steady balance his guild maintains and is always eager to exchange coin, but never at too great a risk. So long as the city remains quiet, that is good enough effort for him.
Guard's Guild, Nobles of Gondor, Council of Gondor
Alben
Race: Half-Elf
Age: 52
Sex: M
Alignment: LN
Alben is the headmaster of the Mage's Guild and is responsible for the well being of its members. With this position he is also responsible for finding financing for academic expeditions and admissions.
Professor Artameias
Race: Human
Age: 73
Sex: F
Alignment: NG
Professor Artameias is an elderly woman of poise and sophistication. She is highly respected in the arcane fields and holds her position as teacher within the Mage's Guild in the utmost importance and teaches her students in a firm but fair manner. Though in her silver years, she often leads expeditions for magical artifacts within dungeons and ruins. She has explored nearly every corner of the continent in her pursuit of knowledge. All done in the name of knowledge itself. She remains active in a lesser known guild known only as the Godless Order.
Godless Order, Mage's Guild
Countess Ola Van Gladreg
Race: Human
Age: 36
Sex: F
Alignment: LE
The Countess of Gondor's upperward, Ola Van Gladreg represents the Upper Ward on the Council. One of the Council's younger members, the Countess, does not take her duties very seriously. Her father vacated the position after a particularly scandalous affair with a tabaxi, resulting in her appointment to the position. The Van Gladreg family has funded a majority of the Guard's Guild to maintain this position. And the ranking member of the family normally maintains the income by taking a percentage of the "contraband," the guards receive. She is dark skinned in color and wears the largest pink dresses she can along with pompous amounts of makeup and wigs.
Devil's Town
Without a doubt the most despot of the city, Devil's Town is the "affectionate," name given to the slums of Gondor. Though technically its own district within the city, it maintains no offial order or law. Guard patrols are made only in the most extreme circumstances. More often than not they combine their forces with the army of the Crown to put down riots within the district. Gangs of teiflings and other folk run rampant. Despite this there are good folk trying to build Devil's Town into a proper settlment, above just the slums of Gondor and there has been some push for representation of a the Townies to join the Council of Gondor.
Important Characters
Baroness Sarlara
Race: Tiefling
Age: 23
Sex: F
Algnment: LN
Sarlara is a tiefling with gold skin and dark black horns. Though young, she has big dreams to help change Devil Town for the better. She goes around door by door raising awareness for her campaign. While not technically a Baroness by any means and holding no official title, she hopes that with enough support she'll be able to assume the title for Devil Town and join the Council.
Arcamedes Crane
Race: Gnomrig
Age: 50
Sex: M
Alignment: TN
Arcamedes is a small Gnomrig with a mixture of white and brown feathers. He works in an apothecary store in Devil's Town under the tutelage of a local wizard, though he himself is still merely an apprentice. While his mistress is away he maintains the store and handles all of its affairs. The store being Ichabod's Appraisals.
The potions on sale in Ichabod's Appraisals are sold at a discounted rate and last for aproximately 30 seconds (or one round if the potion lasts less than a minute).
Luscious "Lucy/Larry"
Race: Tiefling
Age: 45
Sex: N
Alignment: CE
Luscious is a dark red Tiefling and the owner of the 10th Hell. How they came to be the owner and manager of the establishment isn't entirely known. The 10th Hell exists in one of the more run down parts of Devil's Town, and since its establishment the area of town has only gotten worse. Many have blamed Luscious for this downtrodden time and they are hated even amongst other Tieflings.
The 10th Hell functions as a brothel and inn. Rooms are for some reason more expensive when purchased without company. A room is one gold versus 5 copper when bought along with a companion. The building itself contains some alternate planes, with nothing but a small one room shack existing on the material plane. Once inside, guests meet Luscious who will put their name within their ledger. Behind Luscious is a large open doorway with a lever. The lever controls the door that shifts between different rooms and the number of companions inside. The rooms rotate as if on an invisible track. Guests may describe their ideal bed and companions, but those that refuse the midnight company are given uncomfortable and bare minimum accommodations.
In truth the 10th Hell is run by a Cambion, who has disguised themself as a Tiefling. This Cambion has summoned and enslaved every manner of fiend within the rooms and used illusion magic to keep them appearing as beautiful men or women to those observing the room. Only a Investigation check of DC 15 will reveal the illusions as so. When a player spends the night in a room. Roll form the following chart to determine what they see and what is actually there.
| Number | Illusion | Monster |
|---|
| 1 |
3 Sexy Dwarves |
3 Spined Devils |
| 2 |
1 Gorgeous redhead/blonde |
2 Vampire Spawn (CR3) |
| 3 |
1 Stunningly beautiful High-Elf |
1 Succubus |
| 4 |
4 various tieflings |
4 Mimcs |
Violet Jewel
Race: Tiefling
Age: 97
Sex: F
Alignment: TN
Violet Jewel is an oldwoman and peddler that frequents the Swindler's Alley, though she never seems to run into trouble. She has bright purple skin and thinning white hair, she is barely able to walk and often sits with a large hunch that takes away much of her height. She has old, almost rotten horns. Often she is seen being drawn in a small carriage through the streets of Devil's Down. Her carriage is pulled with an axe-beak bird which she treats lovingly. In the back of her carriage she will tell the fortune of all that ask, and donate. Otherwise she sells doomsday cookies to those passersby.
Small Horn
Race: Tiefling
Age: 9
Sex: M
Alignment: TN
Small Horn is the community nickname given to a particularly troublesome orphan child that frequents Swindler's Alley. He is a small tiefling orphan child with a single horn and ruby red skin. His other horn was torn off and has yet to regain its shape. The remaining horn instead now barely protrudes four inches from his head. Despite an unassuming appearance, he is known well due to his numerous trips into the Upper Ward where he has stolen from several wealthy homes. So far he is the youngest and most wanted on the Guard's Guild bounties, and they have put wanted posters all over the other wards.
Gehenna
Race: Sylvari
Age: 41
Sex: F
Alignment: NE
Gehenna is a Woodland Sylvari whose heart has become as hard as the bark of her skin. Her skin is mostly white, with black cracks within the wood and bright auburn colored leaves for hair, resembling close to a birch tree. A former slave, she was bought by an elderly man to act as a center piece in his garden. Yet fortune seemed to favor her as her new owner fell in love with her instead and gifted all of his worldly belongings to his "beautiful garden." Gondorian laws would not allow her to keep any of this without a long protracted battle. Instead she grabbed whatever would fit in her pockets and ran to Devil’s Town. After finding the largest building she could, she gave the family living there 50 gold pieces and took the house over as her new Inn, in Swindler’s Alley.
The inn itself costs 7cp a night, and is almost always full. Patrons will pay 7 copper to enter the door and then fall asleep wherever they can. Beds are rare on the second floor, thrown asunder with two or three people vying for control. Each morning, soon as the sun rises, Gehenna walks through the crowded building and pushes everyone outside with a broom. The now exhausted crowd lines up in the alley and pays Gehenna again 7 copper for entering.
Fern Village
The village on the southern portion of Gondor provides the city with most of its labor needs. Here slaves captured by traders within the Grande Forest are brought and sold to local guilds for hard labor or privleged families seeking caretakers for their homes. While not provided nearly as much protection from the Guard's Guild as the districts behind the walls, Fern Village is still well taken care of. Most of the buildings within the village border trees of some sort, with the forest itself thinning in timber as one gets closer to the walls. Some of these trees act as the homes of Gnomrig families, who lived in the village long before Gondor was even settled. They contribute mucht to the local economy, and will often setup trinket shops next to slave markets, offering to sell matching trinkets for the new purchases slaves.
The slave population of Gondor remains its most controversial, with many in the city apposing the practice. It persist mostly because of the wealth it brings the different guilds, and the fact that most slaves brought to Gondor are Sylvari. Though other members of the various races have sold themselves into forms of servitude to pay off debts or escape criminal depositions.
Gaakt
Race: Orc
Age: 55
Sex: M
Alignment: TN
Gaakt is a mean orc who has been capturing slaves with the forest for years
Abrisli Undercoat
Race: Dwarf
Age: 76
Sex: F
Alignment: NG
Comments