Connects to: 29.14.47, 51.29 and the Duchy of Thring.
Some way out into the desert from the City of Smoke, there are two enormous black buttes standing side by side, with a wall between them and a pair of huge iron gates. For a thousand years, these were known as the Gates of Blood, and it is still believed that their rusty color derives from the blood of the thousands who have died trying to breach the wall. In the time of the Gnawbone Wars, invading armies broke themselves against this wall, yet they knew an even worse fate awaited them if they tried to go around the buttes.
Such defenses are long gone, however, and the gates now have only a ceremonial function. They are presided over by a Thringish exile named Messeren Talbote, one of the three human advisors gathered by the gnolls’ Great Mother. Talbote has given the Gates of Blood the more modern title of the Gates of Official Travel Pass Sanction. All non-gnollish visitors to the City of Smoke must pass through these gates and receive a Travel Pass in order to go unmolested into the city. The Travel Pass is a token fashioned out of a rat skull, and despite Talbote’s best efforts at education the gnolls still refer to them as such, rather than using the correct terminology.
In order to qualify for a rat skull (er, Travel Pass), visitors must prove they have something of value to trade or offer in the City, and they must also divest themselves of all weapons, which become property of the Great Mother. In practice, nobody ever arrives at the gates with weapons to be confiscated, and a cottage industry of armor storage has sprung up on the west side of the gates.
There is another way to gain a Travel Pass, which is by challenging the Keeper of the Gate to single combat. The Keeper of the Gate is selected from the strongest male gnolls. Those who defeat him are considered by ancient law to have gnollish blood and are thus allowed free passage in the City. Few men choose this option, however, for the duel must be fought with flindbars, a form of spiked nunchaku developed by gnolls. Those untrained in the weapon’s use are likely to stab themselves before the enemy can even get to them.
Connection:
- Talbote is unwittingly spying for one of the Great Mother’s fiercest enemies (29.14.47).
Hooks:
- Who were the armies attacking the City of Smoke during the Gnawbone Wars? Did they ever breach the Gates of Blood?
- Why couldn’t they just walk around the Gates? Was there a wall there, or some other danger?
- How exactly does the weapon storage work? Can you really rely on these people to look after your crap while you’re in the City of Smoke? Do any of them offer to smuggle the weapons through to you on the other side?
- Has anyone defeated the Keeper of the Gate and gained free access to the City? What do the gnolls think of him/her?
- Is it true that some people might have gnollish blood, or is that only a myth?
