Friday, June 12, 2015

My Realms: Nesme in 1491 Part 2

Most of the citizens of Nesme have lived within it’s walls their whole lives and are used to the hardships and horrors of the Trollmoors. Less than 200 hundred new citizens have immigrated to the city since its liberation from Duke Tiago of House Do'Urdern, but anyone who comes to the brink of the Trollmoors is either prepared for its labors or fleeing something. Either way, it makes for hardy folk who are prepared to stake their own claim in life and defend it until the end.

Nesme is known for breeding horses, mining iron, and exporting high quality steel arms and armor. While trade to and from the city has been slow to develop, the market is growing stronger and is helping to remind the Silver Marches that Nesme didn't fall. A stronger focus on agriculture has also been cultivated, and large sections of the city have been demolished and are being used to grow fruit, vegetables, and timber within the safety of the city's walls.

Much of the economic development is being overseen by Hugo Applerunner, a halfling with unusually small feet, quick hands and a quicker mind. Hugo is tall and trim for a halfling with blonde hair and gray eyes. Applerunner is a former companion of Kurtis Strong, who urged him to settle in Nesme and vouched for him to the Small Council. Hugo is a master negotiator and owns and operates the largest mercantile caravan operating within the region, The Half Moon Trading Company. He runs the caravan with his long time lover, Theta Zulquention, an elven transmuter. She is quiet, preferring to let Hugo be the face of their operation, but her instincts have been invaluable to their success. Theta is petite for an elf, with long flowing blue hair and light green eyes, she is cool and distant most of the time. Their caravan master is Sekhmehet, a dragonborn who has worked for the Half Moon for over five years. He is shrewd, competent and careful with brownish-orange scales and a jagged scar over his left eye. He has been promised full partnership in the Half Moon at the end of his current contract.

Aside from constant peril from trolls, bog blokes and bandits, the city faces two internal threats. The first is due to such large sections of Nesme being abandoned and involves groups claiming territory to run criminal operations ranging from smuggling, prostitution, slaving, and racketeering. While, Nesme cannot afford a full-time city watch and continue to pay the Riders, they have a strong volunteer unit, that is largely maintained by “Captain” Kurtis Strong, a former adventurer and renowned bounty hunter who settled in Nesme over a decade ago. Kurtis is close to 40, with thick, powerful arms, a long mane of jet black hair, a full beard, and the inability to remain quiet. Kurtis oversees, coordinates, and trains the citizens’ watch and has proven quite effective at it. He has been invited to the Small Council, but adamantly refuses.

The second internal threat is more subtle and complex. Soon after the city's liberation, Mordent Kane, a powerful wizard moved into and took over a there large uninhabited section of city . Kane, makes it clear to anyone who approaches his domain, that he only wants to conduct experiments in private and has no use for anyone’s company. He did agree to meet with Speaker Wilcot and First Rider DuMont and an agreement was reached that, that essentially allows Kane to lease his portion of the city on an annual basis. Aside, from aiding the city fend off a small force of cold giants, that has been the extent of his interactions thus far. Many wonder how the wizard manages without any apparent supplies coming in or going out of his section of the city. Several foolish interlopers have tried to infiltrate his domain and found themselves in one of “Captain” Strong’s cells, with minor injuries and no memory of how they got there. While Strong is dubious about Kane, he knows better than most that his victims could have met a far worse fate. Of course, rumors and stories abound about Kane and many of the city's misfortunes are blamed upon the mage. Mordent, himself is tall, imposing figure with long black hair and beard, streaked with silver. His eyes are deep, set and almost black, he usually wears a deep green robe with several charms worn around his neck or on his fingers and is never seen with out his staff, a gnarly length of ash, close to six feet in length. Mordent is a Conjurer and former member of the Arcane Brotherhood who lost prominence and fled Luskan and the Brotherhood for good. He is content to conduct his research and be left alone.

While the Trollmoors are rife with danger, Nesme’s newest external threat has only arrived on it’s borders in the last six tendays. A half-giant sorceress, that the locals know as the Trollmother, has spent the last two moons enchanting and organizing the local trolls that haunt the bog outside the city. The Trollmother is over twelve feet tall and has dyed her skin and hair green. She wields a small willow tree as a staff and seems to have total control of the nearly forty trolls and sixty blog blokes that serve her. Only one witness has seen her and lived, a Rider of Nesme named Colin Quent, whose patrol was ambushed by the Trollmother leading a force of ten blog blokes and five trolls. She left Quent alive so he could deliver a message to Speaker Wilcot, whom she knew by name. “Nesme is dead, realize this and your people may leave, ignore this and my wrath will be worse than anything those puny drow could conceive of delivering to your people. You have three moons to abandon this place.” Four days after Quent delivered the message, he was found dead in his barracks.

The Small Council is very concerned about the Trollmother, but has lost two more patrols searching for any further information about her. While the Council takes the threat seriously, they are not considering abandoning the city and have begun preparing the citizens for attack. Adventurer’s are being sought to bolster the defense and a bounty of fifty gold has been offered for the Trollmother’s head. Mordent Kane has even been notified of the situation and been made aware that his services may be required.

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