Excelsior
A manse of freedom and comfort in the harshness of the Spine of the World, the hamlet of Excelsior Town struggles to remain peaceful and uneventful, outside the affairs of the Silver Marches.
Excelsior Town (Hamlet): Magical; AL LN; 100 gp limit; Assets 975 gp; Population 209; Mixed (humans 89%, Half-Elves 3%, Elves 2%, Dwarves 2%, others 2%).
Authority Figure: Damian Naïlo, LN male half-elf Wiz26/Archmage 5/Netherese Arcanist 1 (Lord of Excelsior).
Important Characters: Celes Cliolaind, CG female half-elf Clr3 of Sune (Member of the Council Laikos Selatarn, N male human Ftr2 (Second of the Militia, Member of the Council Claus Whitem,ane, NG male human War5 (Third of the Militia, Member of the Council Sylaera Moondew, NG female moon elf Drd3 of Angharradh (Keeper of the High Grove, Member of the Council Storn Blackboulder, LN Exp2 (Owner of the Excellent Wares, Spokesperson of the Miners Mela Stonar, NG female human Com6 (Spokesperson).
Divine:
• Sophia; N female Tarterian Dragon Clr20 of Mystra (DIVINE 01, Lady of Excelsior)
• Ren Mystril; LN female human Wiz1/Ftr10/Spellfire Channeler 4 (DIVINE 02, First of the Militia)
• Sion Valkurien; LN female human Wiz7/Loremaster 6 (DIVINE 03, Member of the Council, Chosen of Oghm,a)
• Yuina Silvaria; LG female human Sor9/Celestial Mystic 8 (DIVINE 04, Member of the Council, Lady of the North Wind and Most Bright Crusader of the Platinum Dragon)
• Zarim Mesterel; NE female human Clr10 of Loviatar/Maiden of Pain 8 (DIVINE 05, Highest Whipmistress of Loviatar and Empress of Torment)
• Nauru Hanali; CG female elf Rog2/Rgr7/Initiate of the Bow Order 5 (DIVINE 06, Highest and Most Watchful Princess Huntswoman of Solonor Thelandira)
• Angela Lorean; CG female human Spellthief 13/Shadow Adept 1 (DIVINE 07, Most High Initiate of Moonlight)
• Angelique “Gold Luck” Lorean; CN female human Spellthief 12 (DIVINE 08, Most High and Most Favored Atalara of Tymora)
• Bliss Cerlynsakkamen; LN female half-githzerai Wiz4/Mnk3/Enlightened Fist 3 (DIVINE 09)
• Silvanas Seralen; CG female elf Clr10 of Aerdrie Faenya (DIVINE 10, Greatest Winged Princess Halcyon of Aerdrie Faenya)
• Shaila Baster; CG female human Brd7/Celebrant of Sharess 7 (DIVINE 11, Most Beautiful Mistress of Revelry and Voice of Sharess)
• Solaris; N female “human” (Stats Unknown) (DIVINE 12)
• Sasha Dualen; NG female human Enchantress 10 (DIVINE 13, Grand Exalted Messenger of Peace and Favored of Eldath)
Militia – War3 (2), War2 (2), Bbn1, Ftr1 (2), Mnk1, Rgr1, Sor1, War1 (8).
Others – Clr2 (2), Clr1 (1), Adp2, Adp1, Ari1 (2), Exp1 (5), Com3 (2), Com2 (2), Com1 (152).
Notable Imports – Books, inks, herbs, furniture, paper, glass, glassware
Notable Exports - Gems, precious metals, weapons, armor, furs, livestock
Excelsior Town is a hamlet unlike each other. It would be like any other settlement of its kind if it weren’t for two things. Its location, hidden in the foothills of the Spine of the World, swallows the town in perpetual coldness and chilling winds. And second, the impressive sight of tall and gray Excelsior Tower, the stronghold that houses the great power behind the humble place.
Surrounding by nothing but rocks, Excelsior is a beautiful patch of color in the middle of the grim mountains. The women and children of the town, as well as the clergy have taken it upon themselves to make their town look more beautiful. Combining mighty magic and undying love, Excelsior’s houses are carpeted by a layer of flowers of all kinds of flowers, a sight that has amazed many visitors to tears. Rothé herds graze peacefully right outside the walls of the town, safe from external assaults by the town’s powerful wards. Children play and smile joyfully regardless of the wind and the cold, and men work tirelessly, living their lives more comfortably than they could have possibly imagined in such a wild environment. Initially a simple and ambitious mining settlement, Excelsior is now a place where the youngest generations dreams of accomplishing much greater dreams. With the protection and support of a powerful wizard and his companions behind them, the peaceful, educated folk of Excelsior think they couldn’t ask for a better place to live.
Brief History
The half-elf wizard Damian Naïlo lived in Silverymoon until 1358 DR. The Time of Troubles was a time of great peril and both wonderful and painful events in his life. After watching his best friend (who was at the moment the Avatar of Shar) kill his second best friend, and killing his best friend himself, Damian knew his days in Silverymoon were over. Not even bringing both his friends (Ilya and Maliris Silverstar) back to life changed his mind. He spent his last night in the Gem of the North in the High Palace, in one last night with another close friend, Alustriel Silverhand (unknown to all but Damian and Alustriel, their daughter, Shiallia, was conceived that night).
For his dedicated work protecting the city as a member of the Spellguard (which he joined for 21 years: 1329-1350 DR), Damian had been given a grant over a large portion of land (a move still used by Taern Hornblade to attract people to settle in the Silver Marches). Much to Alustriel’s and Taern’s surprise (and chagrin), he requested a large portion of the foothills of the Spine of the World. This was far from a random move. When Damian left Silverymoon, he traveled to the far north, exploring the lands that “belonged to him”, cleaning them from any important monstrous threat (orcs, trolls, giants and the occasional inopportune wyrm). In Althuriak, 1360 DR, Damian hired a group of 20 tough workers. Together, the wizard and his twenty employees were the founders of Excelsior Town, named after Damian’s grimoire. It is by this time that the first known sightings of Sophia, Damian’s young partner, consort and right hand, appear. Nobody knows where she came from or how they met. When the twenty men Damian hired arrived to the Spine of the World, she was already there, clung to the wizard’s arm with an iron grip.
By then, Damian had already used magic to build a tiny cottage for himself (and Sophia) in a relatively secure and not-yet-perpetually-snowy area (yes, they exist). With his magic and the workers’ effort (enhanced by the salary Damian promised them), they quickly built several small but sturdy homes for themselves and their families (Damian only hired people who were willing to settle down in the mountains with him. He didn’t want people quitting and telling people all over Faerûn of his plans). Using powerful wards and teleportation magic, Damian was able to transport his workers to the numerous mines hidden in the mountain caves without drawing unwanted attention. By Kythorn of that same year, Excelsior Town was already an organized (yet very small, just the way Damian liked it) settlement, with a steady flow of mithral and other valuable metals and gems. The miners’ families moved to the hamlet, and the miners became an independent working force, as long as they gave 90% of their mining to Damian, in exchange for the safety the wizard gave them. The miners didn’t complain. Ten percent was still more than enough to maintain their families. Monthly expeditions to Silverymoon brought supplies to the small hamlet, which was otherwise completely disconnected from the rest of the world (Damian didn’t allow anyone who wasn’t a resident to get close to his town).
It was also in this year when Damian ventured into the lair of the old white dragon Arauthator. Several sightings of the powerful wyrm dangerously close to Excelsior Town forced the wizard to settle things with him. Only his great intelligence and his magic helped Damian as he escaped every single one of Arauthator’s traps and wards. Tired and almost completely out of spells, Damian arrived to the dragon’s main chamber. Arauthator could have dispatched the wizard in an instant, given his state, but the dragon, who’s known for admiring capable foes, not only allowed Damian to live, but also accepted the permanency of Excelsior Town, as long as it didn’t grow any larger. After both human and dragon exchanged their common knowledge of magical traps and wards (Arauthator’s lair is almost impenetrable since that day), Damian returned to his refuge, with plans to build his definite residence: Excelsior Tower.
Damian had made sure to forge a strong relation with his town’s inhabitants. He didn’t want to be seen as a distant figure; neither had he wanted to be feared because of his powers. That’s why he always kept a close watch on those he already considered “his people”. He was respected and appreciated by the miners and well-liked by their families, and the children loved him. With that level of trust, Damian was able to leave Excelsior for relatively long periods of time without fear. That’s how, after leaving Sophia and his people building the first level of Excelsior Tower, he left to Mechanus on Eleinth of 1360 DR, from which he returned with a second girl by his side: Ren Mystril.
Damian finished Excelsior Tower all by himself, a project that took several years, and might never end (The underground level grows larger each year). By the end of the next year (1361 DR), he already had five girls living with him. Besides Sophia and Red, he had added Sion, a super-genius girl from the lowest layer of Hell; Yuina, a shining girl from Celestia (who happens to be Damian’s first love, brought back to life by the will of Ilmater and Zarim, a sadistic-masochistic slave Damian met in Graz’zt’s court in Zelatar. Together with his five companions, Damian started working on the development of his town. While respecting his uneasy truce with Arauthator, Damian wanted his town to be more than a mining settlement. Even if he knew the mines would last hundreds, maybe even thousands of years if he controlled the trade the way he had planned it, there had to be additional sources of income. Working alongside the five girls, he motivated the townsfolk to engage in other activities: foraging, herding rothé, fishing, some even tried (with moderate success) to grow crops in the cold lands. The arrival of clerics to Excelsior (the first being a cleric of Sune who escaped an assassination attempt from brigands hired by a Sharran cell) opened the possibility of granting semi-formal education to the town’s children (a task Yuina has devoted herself to). That’s how Excelsior grew: not in size, but in culture and quality of life, at the same time Damian gathered more girls.
By 1365 DR, Damian already had thirteen other girls, as well as his daughter, Sarya (whose mother is the mysterious “fey’ri princess”, Tamari Moondown). While he had protected his town all those years from every threat from outside (dragons, giants and the occasional orc horde), he realized it was useless to keep Excelsior outside the rest of the world. That’s how he opened Excelsior to free trade. However, the term “free trade” doesn’t mean much in such a small hamlet, so things haven’t really changed that much from Excelsior’s early times. The few merchants who can (and dare) to do the trip supply the townsfolk with much-needed food, crafts, manufactured items and spices, and leave with gems and precious metals worth almost twice what they sold (Damian’s doing this to encourage further trading. After several trips by a particular merchant, prices stabilize to their proper amount). At the same time Excelsior Town was “presented” to the world, Damian also presented his greatest pride: his elite team, DIVINE. The thirteen girls, now together under a single banner, work as a semi-independent group performing all kinds of deeds, following no rule but their whims and Damian’s orders, which are absolute.
Visiting Excelsior Town
“Excelsior Town” is a very pretentious name. A VERY pretentious name. More than a town, or even a hamlet, Excelsior is a gathering or houses aligned by the sides of what the Excellents (another name for the town’s inhabitants) call “The Excellent Lane”: a rocky road 30-ft.-wide that goes in a straight line from the town’s walls to the inner wall that protects the place’s most notorious landmark: Excelsior Tower. The strong winds and cold weather keep the place clean and remove the characteristic reek of similar settlements. Also, the harshest qualities of winter in the Spine of the World don’t seem to affect Excelsior as strongly. Most folk name their “greatly powerful wizard patron” as the cause of the phenomenon, but it is hard to believe Damian Naïlo is capable of such powerful magic. An intelligent network of underground pipes designed by Damian and DIVINE 03, Sion, melts water from the high-ice caps by simple friction and distributes clean water to the houses, gardens and the Tower.
All houses are very similar, and only the temples and other “public” establishment settle themselves as distinguishable. However, in such a small place, it’s impossible to get lost. Most houses are surprisingly quaint; their boring stone gray clouded by the effort the Excellent have put into adorning their humble residences. Flowers, plants and simple crafts that somehow resist the ferocious weather are common in every house: anything that might give a little color to their world of shades of gray. Every house has an underground shelter, where villagers can hide during a monster invasion, may it be an orc horde, frost giants or worse.
The Excellent don’t have any particular conceptions regarding adventurers. They treat them just the same way they treat any other visitor: with the appropriate hospitality, until they start asking too much. When asked for a place to stay, they point visitors towards the inn, and they won’t accept outsiders inside their houses, not even when the inn is full.
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