Connects to: 26.13, 29.14.15, 29.14.35 and 35.13.
Here, along the waters of the Keening Sea and subject to the laws of the City of Shuttered Windows, lie two small villages.
The smaller of the two is the fishing village of Veerhaven, if it can be called that for it is little mofre than a string of cabins and drying racks strung out along the coast. However, it is richer than any small village in the City’s shadow has any right to be for just off the coast lie the rotting ruins of a score of gilded war barges and, although most of the gold has long since been stripped away, the men of Veerhaven still find bits of gold in the mud. However, each year brings in a smaller haul and the giant snapping turtles are voracious so many of the people of Veerhaven have turned to fishing or even farming.
One of these farmers is actually a Smiling Man and is hiding here from his brethren. The locals take little note of him and think him simple. They, especially the young women, pay far more attention to a young fisherman named Bren. He is a good fisherman and an ever better storyteller who tells many tales of the rocky island that lies several miles off the coast that all Veerhaveners (except Bren, if you believe his tales) avoid out of fear of having their brains collected. Bren has not yet married out of fear of the fate that a wandering seer gave him: that he would die before ever lying with a woman. However, he believes that he has found a way to avoid his fate for he has recently pledged his love to a Hostwick girl and promises that they will marry after his next fishing trip.
The girl is question is Alena, the daughter of the headman of Hostwick, a farming village a few miles north of Veerhaven. She accompanies her father on the flute when he does his duty and beats his elfskin drum to inspire the farmers to greater efforts in the fields. But ever since Alena began making the walk to Veerhaven to see Bren, her songs have grown stranger, with strange lilting melodies that the villagers have never heard before.
The farms of Hostwick lie scattered around a central knot of buildings with no defenses to be seen, for fear of the Doge of the Shuttered keeps reavers and dark beasts at bay, even this far from the City’s walls. Luckily for them, the soil here is rich and there is plenty of food left over even after taxes are collected. The main food crop here is a variety of radish that grows large, white and bloated. It not only fills the soup pot, but its leaves satisfy some of the hungers of the caterpillars of a certain species of moth.
This moth is considered a delicacy by the local and is fed in great quantities to the boys of Hostwick. If the boys develop the proper signs, they are castrated and sold to the Necromantic Office. This trade keeps coppers in the pockets of the villagers, but it makes it difficult for many village girls to find suitable husbands. Some of them marry the folk of Veerhaven or even travel to the City itself in hopes of finding their brothers.
Connection:
- One of the local mindflayers has been conducting experiments on ogres (35.13).
Hooks:
- Whose gilded war barges were sunk here?
- What’s the story with the renegade Smiling Man?
- Are brains really collected in the rocky island off the coast? Is there any connection between that island and Sladdeer (44.17)?
- Will Bren die before his marriage? How will Alena react is he does?
- Where is Alena’s strange music coming from? Any connection between that and the rocky island?
- Why an elfskin drum? Where do you get one of those?
- Why do the radishes grow so large, white and bloated?
- What other hungers do the caterpillars have? What sorts of signs do they develop, why are they castrated and why does the Necromantic Office buy such eunuchs?
- Do the village girls ever get to see their brothers again?
