The August City of Blind Midshotgatepool
Connects to: 22.18, 23.19, 24.18, 32.32, 39.31 and the City of Shuttered Windows and the Duchy of Thring.
After flowing through the Barrier Range in a canyon that appears to have been blasted through the mountains with magic, the River of Crystal Waters exits into the Keening Sea at the August City of Blind Midshotgatepool. This city bears its name because long ago a band of adventurous Thringmen drove the waker worms from their homes in the river delta and built the five fishing villages named Blindsnake, Midton, Banshot, Pontgate and Sepool. As the villages grew into towns, they became the main outlet of the trade of Thring until it became rather ridiculous to think of them as anything but one city. Still, the rivers of the delta divide the five towns but not as much as the pride of its five lords who each jealously guard their prerogatives.
The five lords of the August City of Blind Midshotgatepool once had dreams of rivaling the Shuttered City itself, but those days are long past and now they squabble for petty prerogatives in their faded halls. Even the common folk of the city care little for their lords as many of them were born on houseboats and the thieves guild (26.20.01) is a greater power than any of the five in any case.
This has been especially the case since the building of the Savage Seat. As the wealth of Blind Midshotgatepool steadily grew the men of the City of Shuttered Windows, grew jealous and fearful of their trade and sent their armada to bring the upstart to heel. The Duke of Thring protested vigorously, but the Thringish army was delayed by the Witch Clans of the Barrier Range staging conveniently-timed ambushes in the Barrier Peaks and they arrived only in time to sign the humiliating Treaty Savage with victorious men of Shuttered.
By the terms of the treaty, only ships beating the flag of the City of Shuttered Windows are allowed to carry trade from the River of Crystal Waters into the Keening Sea and in order to enforce it the men of Shuttered built the Savage Seat in the midst of the vanquished city. It is of a strange construction, seeming to be a vast pile of statues (26.20.06) writhing and interlocking into a tower that grows larger with each moon. If any unauthorized ship is seen leaving the August City into the Keening Sea, the tower sends up a balloon that signals to the Shuttered armada to apprehend it.
With Shuttered having a stranglehold on its trade, Blind Midshotgatepool has grown poor and the locals mainly survive by smuggling, trade up the river with Thring, signing on to work as sailors and oarsmen for their hated hegemons and weaving the bizarre cloth that the city if famous for.
(Earlier summary: “a town riven by division and mad bureaucracy.”)
Subhexes
26.20.01 (The Thieves Guild of Blind Midshotgatepool): in such a fragmented city much of the real power is held by Wortimer the Scrivener.
26.20.02 (The Snake Wall): bureaucratic wrangling has resulted in bottomless pits along the northwest edge of the city.
26.20.03 (The Hall of Five Gates): the only legal way to pass between the five towns.
26.20.04 (The Road Paved Quince): in richer days this road was paved successively in raffrock, granite, marble, silver and gold.
26.20.05 (The Houseboats of the Five Towns): to take advantage of legal loopholes many people in Blind Midshotgatepool live in houseboats.
26.20.06 (The Medusa): there is a medusa within the Tower Savage hard at work producing new building material for the occupiers.
26.20.07 (The Crowfolk of Blind Midshotgatepool): crowfolk are the largest population of non-humans in the city. They like shiny things.
26.20.08 (The King without a Throne): Henry Yaboon has become increasily powerful within the city.
Five founders
The Thringmen who drove away the waker worms were the five founders of the five fishing villages that became Blind Midshotgatepool:
- Pontgate, founded by Shara of Pontgate
- Banshot, founded by Ban the Clever
- Blindsnake
- Midton
- Sepool
Trimueil’s epic poem The Song of Ban and Ulena describes the founding of Blind Midshotgatepool, beginning with the arrival of the five founders on the shores of the Keening Sea and ending with the companions’ tragic death.
Hooks
- If the founders were Thringmen, why did they arrive on the shores of the Keening Sea and where did they arrive from?
Organisations
Connections:
- Ban the Clever, the founder of Banshot played a prominent rule in the downfall of the Maddlows (23.19).
- There is a botanist here who would be willing to pay for samples of the iceplants of the Cavern Out of Time (39.31).
- With Shuttered strangling the August City‘s seaborne trade, caravans have increasingly begun to set off into the Burning Lands, lead by gnollish barn sining the Song of Dust and Flame (32.32).
- The spicy brew known as Ossory Fire fetches a good price here (24.18).
- A levee break has been imperiling trade between here and Thring (22.18).
Hooks:
- What sorts of problems arise from the city still legally being five separate towns? What is unique about each of the five towns?
- Tell me about the powerful local thieves guild!
- How is the Savage Seat built? How do the local smugglers get past it?
The Snake Wall
Hex 26.20.02
Connects to: 27.19.
Nearly two hundred years ago, the five towns that make up this city were growing into each other and it was decided that they should each ratify legislation that would set their borders at precisely contiguous lines. However, the sly officials of Blindsnake snuck in a clause that no-one else saw, making Blindsnake’s borders approximately one yard wider than those of the other four towns. As a result, Blindsnake commands a monopoly on the tariffs levied on those entering and leaving the town. The other four towns were furious about this, and hired a coven of Earth Whisperers (27.19) to destroy Blindsnake’s margin by vanishing the very earth it was built on. The officials of Blindsnake acted quickly to arrest the Earth Whisperers on grounds of ‘making an illegal construction without prior planning permission.‘ The apparently bottomless pits that they made can still be seen along the northwest edge of the town.
Hook:
- Are the bottomless pits really bottomless? If not, what’s down there? If so, do they at least intersect with any other tunnels?
The Hall of Five Gates
Hex 26.20.03
Connects to: 26.20.01.
At the center of the city stands a large wooden hall with five wide gates. This is the only place where one can legally pass from the jurisdiction of one town into another. It is not uncommon to see, for example, a Banshot merchant delivering her goods (always her - for all merchants of the Five Towns are women) to a warehouse, where prospective buyers from Sepool inspect the wares. If they agree to a deal, the merchant will then load up her goods, take them to the Five Gates, move into the jurisdiction of Sepool, then return to the place where she has (physically) just been.
People, goods, animals and buildings are all marked as being under a particular jurisdiction, daubed with one of five colors of paint. Tampering with official paint is punishable by a harsh fine, but this doesn’t often dissuade the thieves’ guild (26.20.01). Nevertheless, Wortimer understands the importance of the system to the city’s economy and does not want to dismantle it completely. For example, as the law currently stands, only a man painted with the yellow of Blindsnake can leave the city at all (26.20.02), which means that he must pass through the Blindsnake gate. On any given night, there is a fair chance to see agents of the Thieves’ Guild hanging around this gate, waiting to pounce on some enemy or traitor who they know is trying to flee the city.
Hooks:
- Why are all the merchants of Blind Midshotgatepool female?
- Who has betrayed the thieves’ guild recently? Are they trapped in the city due to ridiculous regulations?
The Road Paved Quince
Hex 26.20.04
Connects to: 26.20.01 and 26.20.08.
This road is a relic of the time before the war with Shuttered, when the August City was still rich. This minor streetway became the site of a battle of civil one-upmanship. Sepool had it paved in cheap raffrock, but the locals began to complain of the wailing, so Midton decided to go one better and pave it over with good quality granite. Puffed-up Pontgate paved it thrice, this time with marble. Next came Banshot to pave it quadrice, in silver, and lastly rich Blindsnake to pave it quince, in gold.
Not coincidentally, this road ends at the old mansion of the Yaboon family, who for over a century have been known as “wizards of bureaucracy” for their almost supernatural ability to manipulate officials and bend civil ordinances to their own ends. The current owner of the mansion, Dabbon Yaboon, frequently offers his services as a consultant to Wortimer the Scrivener (26.20.01). It is possible that this relationship is the only reason that the thieves have not already stolen the entire road.
Connection:
- Henry Yaboon (26.20.08) is perhaps the most powerful member of this family and he has carved out his own sphere of influence in the city.
Hooks:
- Why does raffrock cause wailing? Where can raffrock be mined, and is it good for anything?
- How do the Yaboons manipulate bureaucracies? Are they a Mountain Clan of the Barrier Range, or just really good at what they do?
The Gnomes at the Hesperite Harpsichord
In Sepool there is an inn called the Hesperite Harpsichord, located conveniently close to the Hall of Five Gates. Currently staying in room fourteen of this establishment are a curious group of gnomes. Few men are able to identify them as the elusive Dust Walkers of hex 23.23. They are in fact a posse of highly trained illusionists and assassins who have been sent on a quest to retrieve a certain jewel that was stolen from the white fountain at 22.25. Just as the sacred waters of the fountain force one to see one’s greatest regrets, the jewel is used to display the greatest sins of others. It was this jewel that was used by the dwarven artisan Hazad Kaldun to create the Diadem of the Third Eye (see 15.24).
This desecration would not go unpunished by the Dust Walkers, who consider the waters and the jewel to be most sacred. This group have already followed the jewel’s trail to the Shuttered City, where they gained a clue from Kaldun. For his sacrilege they have already dealt to him a fate far worse that death, though perhaps he does not yet realise what it is. Now they are in Blind Midshotgatepool, still following the diadem’s trail. Some of them wish to seek out Uriza the Solemn to see what she knows, while others argue that they should continue to investigate Mousey, the last known posessor of the Diadem.
Hooks:
- Where does the name ‘Hesperite Harpsichord’ come from?
- What punishment did the Dust Walkers visit upon Hazad Kaldun?
- Where is the Diadem now?
- What will happen if the jewel is returned to its proper place? (Or perhaps: what will happen if it isn’t?)
The Houseboats of the Five Towns
Hex 26.20.05
Connects to: 26.20.01.
Living within the laws of the Five Towns of Blind Midshotgatepool is a burden and it has only grown worse since the war as taxes on land have replaced taxes on the trade that no longer flows. In order to avoid this many of the poor of the city have taken to living in a dense warren of houseboats that now line the city‘s waterfront. Officially lying within none of the five towns, the inhabitants of the houseboats are free from any laws but those of the thieves guild (26.20.01). However the five lords resent this and seek to make life difficult for these people, so there are some children in this neighborhood who have never set foot on dry ground.
