Thursday, July 28, 2016

Ah Politics!

So D&D has been a bit off my mind lately, and I apologize.
In our last mission, the party came across an intriguing character who seemed to have something they wanted to discuss with them. Curious, they followed him down a few of the rat warrens of Dockside in Lowtown.
It turned out he had been sent by a figure known as 'Goldtooth,' who wanted to know what had happened to his 'cargo'--that pile of sticky black highly-illegal residue currently residing in one of y'all's backpacks.
Two of his buddies decided to join him, and despite their looking extremely formidable, our band of plucky heroes decided to go to work anyway: despite a few serious wounds, they chopped and stabbed their way to victory and captured their leader, the fancy-looking poppinjay known as Pierce Appleleaf (I believe).
As he was nothing but a mercenary and now feared for his life, he told the party everything they wanted to know. I will attempt to post a lot of the more political stuff here (what I can pull from my notes) so that you can combine those with whatever notes you all took.

There is a steam powered lighthouse. The coast is fairly rock with lots of little rocky islets. On the side opposite the lighthouse there is a giant mirror. The light flashes off it every time teh lighthouse turns around, thus acting as a flash of light and a secondary reference.



The lighthouse has gone dark and the scout ships have not come back. Happened two days ago.

The man in charge is the Duke of Milbar.

All three want dominance. The one that is allied with the current king (contrilar) has been so for the last 15 years. They had fought a war with the current king and lost.

The Duke of Contrilar was the one who led the rebellion against the crown, the Duke of Thyne. The current Duke of Thyne is the son of the king who fought the war.

Thyne had been the capitol of the province under teh old empire. The current king's grandfather was teh duek of Thyne and governor of the province. The current duchies were earls under the old empire's government. At the cataclysm, the DUke of Thyne declared himself king and held his province together in the five or so years of chaos after the cataclysm. He recognized the other dukes and through lengthy negotiations, got them to accept him as king.

East Thyne has a strong rivalry with the west. Support James Penrest to be king. Don't trust Eustance to protect them from the desolation.

This is one reason he feels so pressured to send out troops to patrol. To protect the Milbarans.

One reason the lighthouse going dark is suspicious is that there have been rumors of an alliance to support James' claim to the throne.

Dentev is said to favor Penrose over Eustance.

There is talk that Eustance doesn't do his part in maintaining his section of the great west road. Dentev feels he should be sending troops into the desolation, along with the Knights of the Triskelion. James claims he would if he were king.

Eustance wonders if this possibly signals that something could be imminent--an attack, a coup, something.

Ringo Jak-- The bar has been in the family for five generations. At first it was just a saloon serving the shipworkers and farmer. It continued to grow, first to an inn, and then in Ringo's grandfather's day, into an even hall with a stage. He grew wealthy and purchased one of the orchards. Under his management, they began producing sider. By thte time his father took on the business, the well-to-do of the capitol paid platinum to recieve it. Then the cataclysm happened. Ringo's father survived, and once the country was back in order, he started up the cider business again, this time, owning half of the orchards. Now, Ringo is independently wealthy. He has invested in all sorts of ventures and rivals even the king for wealth. However, he keeps it all secret and just enjoys running teh tavern. This has allowed him to pursue his love for music and comedy.

Milbar is resentful because it feels it is sending its young men north to defend primarily Thyne and Contrilar.

Thyne controls everything west, including the Telston Peninsula. It is the most powerful because it controls the bay with its many (?) and the orchards are owned by primarily citizens of Thyne.

Contrilarans are resentful that most of the orchards belong to Thynians and that most money goes to Thyne. They were the ancestral orchards were sold off to southern lords. It was kept legal by making it a monetary transaction, but every Contrilaran knows they were the spoils of war. There is a secret hostility towards 'southerners'.

Contrilar has the smallest population. many spread out farms. Rely on the crown for protection.

Milbar controls everything east. Generate a lot of money from the swamp. Rice is a big export. Also coal / oil / peat. 

The black lotus is grown in the swamps and is being smuggled in order to support Contrilar. The 'Bletters' (the people of the swamps) believe they can then gain their independence from Milbar.

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