Taundre
“A small village with a big secret.”
Taundre, as it is marked on milestones on the road, is an unremarkable village with sagging stone walls and a sleepy, countryside atmosphere. There is a small market fairground outside the walls, and a single guard lounging by the entrance gate
Taundre, as it is marked on milestones on the road, is an unremarkable village with sagging stone walls and a sleepy, countryside atmosphere. There is a small market fairground outside the walls, and a single guard lounging by the entrance gate
Taundre appears an unremarkable village with sagging stone walls and a sleepy, countryside atmosphere. There is a small market fairground outside the walls, and a single guard lounging by the entrance gate. It contains no temple or any other unusual feature to distinguish itself from dozens of other small country villages. The ordinary appearance is deliberate, for the village is actually the headquarters of perhaps the most far-flung criminal empire in the Borderland Provinces, a group called the Friendly Men.
Friendly Men
The Friendly Men are a powerful, widespread criminal empire with operations across most of the northern and central regions of the Borderland Provinces. Less influential and less powerful than the Wheelwrights of Bard's Gate, the Friendly Men avoid crossing paths with the Wheelwrights other than in Carterscroft and Eastgate, where a certain professional courtesy rules their interactions. Since the Friendly Men use Eastgate only as a way of getting various products onto ships, rather than as a source of revenue, there has been no territorial dispute between the two brotherhoods in that area.
The leaders of the Friendly Men do not live in Taundre itself, although a high-ranking agent of the society remains here at all times to ensure that communications remain open with the rest of the network. The Friendly Men have operations in Vermis and Aixe, as well as Troye, Manas, Alembretia, and Albor Broce. They are developing enterprises in Olaric and Kingston, but so far these efforts have been blocked by accidents, mistakes, and alert law enforcement.
Urban-based operations are mainly focused upon moving and trading goods, for the Friendly Men make a good business simply out of purchasing stolen goods, bringing them hundreds of miles to another city, and then selling them safely. However, the society also maintains protection rackets in large towns and cities, obtains and sells slaves (“indentured serfs”), and is starting to move its way into the usually-legal sale of opium and other such narcotics. Most of these operations are not directly conducted by members of the Friendly Men themselves, who tend to be financiers, traveling merchants, or masterminds. The connections can usually be traced from, as an example, an extortion racket to the Friendlyman behind the operation, since street criminals are prone to tell what they know when captured. However, the Friendly Men generally establish good connections with those in higher offices susceptible to bribery, and it is rare for the top Friendlyman in a city to end up in prison or swinging from a noose.
The current agent of the Friendly Men in Taundre is Moulain Fleece, whose three bodyguards are formidable fighters. Moulain is the village’s assistant mayor. The actual mayor, Norman Gant, is a normal villager who handles the ordinary tasks of running a small, country village. Mayor Gant knows that Moulain and his strange visitors are quite unusual, and probably criminal, but their money maintains the town well, and they do not disturb the peace. Indeed, the one or two times that bandits have tried raiding the nearby countryside, Moulain sent one letter that apparently led to the slaughter of the bandits during he darkness of a single night, their bodies deposited in front of the city gates the following morning.
Religion
One of the “warehouses” in town is actually a temple, its existence suspected by the villagers but not questioned — in the past, citizens have disappeared shortly after asking too many questions. The temple does not proselytize, and for the most part it exists as a joint effort with the Friendly Men. The cleric of Fraz-Urb’luu is a woman named Marian Vientz, who spends most of her time running a small shop near the city gates, selling candy. The temple of Fraz-Urb’luu is the usual meeting place for members of the Friendly Men who do not wish to know each other’s actual names or identities. They wear the traditional masks of Fraz-Urb’uu worshippers, and Marian ensures that the secrecy is properly maintained.
Settlement
Taundre, Village of
Type
Village
Owning Organization
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