The Kassiter Party Returns
Kathryn Karnage
The Kassiter party (Pip Estrella, Krabog Boltzen, Hala Stoneward and Lady Fford Cortina-Halewood) returns to the Inn, and Pip Estrella, Tiefling Bard Extrordinaire, grabs a drink, takes a seat right next to the fire, despite it being the middle of summer, and told, to any who would listen, and many who would not, the Tale of Kassiter…
“So, I decided the wider world was ready for me, and it was time to seek fame and, well, fame! After spending a few evenings earning my keep at the Lakeside Inn, making extensive notes in my journal whenever adventurers spoke of their travels. I overheard a couple of dwarves talking about how they wanted to go out and find the Dwarven city of Kassiter, this sounded like a good place for me to start my meteoric rise to fame, so I quickly ingratiated myself with them, and with the addition of the toff fighter, Lady Cortina Fford-Halewood (Or was it Elfsmere Port?) we set off to the south. The balmy summer weather inspired me to don my favourite hat and give voice to a repertoire of travelling songs to keep us amused, and any wildlife and ne’er-do-wells away, a task which I completed with great aplomb.
“A quick stop at Aldalorna, where some halflings were trying to make some music, so I left rapidly, as anyone who has heard halfling “music” would. Then on South.Past the Blightwood, and the Temple of Healing we then decided to camp down under a rocky overhang. Early in the morning we were attacked by a horde of stirges, which we dispatched quickly and efficiently, even if they were to stupid to understand when they were being viciously mocked by myself. I really didn;t understand what that hack, Dramble had been going on about when he was saying they were dangerous; typical over exaggeration, I feel. I do have to say though, Krabog’s cookery is top notch and a good breakfast was had by all.
“Further South (travelling songs speeding our passage, despite the accompaniment on the bagpipes by Karabog - very enthusiastic, and some of the notes were even correct, at least two in the right place!) we spotted fires of what we assumed was Riverglade. A Gnome who introduced herself as Tippletoe challenged us, suspicious at first, but I quickly introduced us all and namedropped other valley folk and had her eating out of my palm. Metaphorically, but one never does know with these folk! After taking tea with the settlement Elders and enticing information about the road ahead, without giving anything away ourselves we bid farewell and made for Entatratashan, which when we get there is covered in rickerty Gnomish scaffolding. An effusive Gnome, Breena, who appears to be quite obsessed with the builder technology gave us a tour of the building and showed us how to work the teleporter and warned us that Taurtaikatanur would be cold, and donned some cold weather gear, So I took out my ostentatious fur coat from my pack and put it on.
“Taurtaikatanur was indeed very cold, and after a quick look outside we went on to Entaurdeshshan. Entaurdeshshan was a much more sensible temperature, so I decided to leave my fur coat with Breena, who decided to stay in the building, and donned my best wide-brimmed hat and set a brisk pace in the direction of the road we could see lead to Kassiter. A few minutes later I had to stop and wait, while my shorter companions caught up, all sweating and complaining about the sun and the heat. This continued for some time, so I lifted their spirits with a number of jaunty Tiefling songs suitable for the climate, and their spirits suitably raised, we set off down the road.
“After a while, we encountered 3 dwarves and their mulecart, a not unlikely thing on the road to a dwarven city, but these were surrounded by several hyenas intent on lunch, and the dwarves appeared to have forgotten to come prepared for desert travel and not really thought through their own protection, so we rushed foreward to lend aid at a great deal of personal danger and peril and quickly slew the hyenas, although not before 2 of the dwarves fell to bites from the filthy creatures. Hala proved her worth by healing them, and there were many invocations of Moridan and his Beard, whom I presume is his partner. Intervening turned out to be an excellent choice, as we now had native guides to the city, and the closer we got, the more obvious it became that this would be essential! Kassiter is big, almost as big as the whole Valley I reckoned, with tightly packed streets bustling with people. Sara, the healthy Dwarf took us to Lilnetti’s Canteen and bought us a drink from the half-orc proprietor (easily the tallest person in there, myself excluded) and offered to show us around the city. Once we were done we asked to be taken to the market so we could purchase maps and a new hat for me, only to be informed there was THREE MARKETS! THREE! Not just one, not even two, but THREE! Count them… THREE!!!
“Again I blessed my foresight in intervening on the road as frankly, I would have been very, very lost on the way to the market without a guide, and it at least prevented us being fleeced as outsiders totally! The songs I am going to write about Kassiter and its markets when I return, there may even be an epic or two in there wanting to escape!
We bought some maps of the local area and a very stylised one of the greater world, including Klippica and Dlnmora and several other settlements, we also found out that the caravan takes 3 months to get to Klippica,, which is about 3000km east of Kassiter. Wow, turns out the world is big, I can;t even imagine traveling three months to get anywhere, especially not with such an easy alternative available! I spent some time with an instrument vendor haggling over a nice new metal flute, so much more sonorous than my previous wooden one. I was just looking at a hat at a millinery stall when a dwarf on a horse came galloping through the middle of the market, throwing people all over the place. I was just wondering if this is a common thing when the cries of “Stop, Thief!” rang out from 2 Dwarves of the watch came barrelling after.
“Seeing an easy reward, I gave a short chase and stuck out a metaphorical foot in the form of Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, and the horse soon came to a stop with the rider, giggling manically, slowly sliding off. The watch guards caught up and it was quickly ascertained that the saddlebags were full of stolen silver from the Temple of Morradin. I was a little crestfallen, as temples rarely give out rewards, preferring to take money, but, you win some, you lose some.
“The watch captain took the silver and Hala, as a Cleric of Morradin, to the temple where, apparently, Hala refused a reward, and instead asked to be introduced to some luminaries of the city. I was annoyed briefly with Hala for refusing a reward, but that faded when I realised I was still holding the hat from the millinery stall, having forgotten to replace it during the confusion, and decided that was a fitting reward, the evening was spent back at the canteen, many drinks were consumed, although we paid for few, having saved the silver of Morradin. I roused the room with many old folk songs, although most of the dwarves couldn;t understand the words, they all enjoyed the tunes. When Krabog joined in with his bagpipes, he was approached by the proprietor and led to the “Special VIP room for bagpipers to play to a select audience”, the door was then bolted after he was led outside.
The next morning saw us being introduced to Damukhet, in the upper city, by the priest of Morradin. I was initially interested, as a wealthy patron is a good stepping stone to international fame, but when it quickly became obvious that all the talk was about trade and bloodlines between him and Lady Fford-Halewood, I quickly became bored.
“After that, we took our leave of Kassiter and made our way back through the builder temples with Breena, then back to the Valley with an uneventful journey, while I tried out some of my new songs. I can sing them now, if I wasn’t so parched…”
Kelly Dorset
Field Journal of Halla Stoneward, Valley Militia Medic.
Introductory Notes
A few weeks ago I felt that Moradin was asking more of me. Just a sense; a feeling that I should go and take his favour into the world. These tales returning from outside the Valley with our adventurers intrigue me, and I believe, that with Moradin’s blessing and that of my father Baran, I can help us discover more of what lies outside of the valley.
While on a shift at the Lake Side I have caught wind of a new group forming to leave in a few days. Once off duty, I shall ask if I could be helpful to their venture.
27th day of Bahamut-tide
Today has been a mostly uneventful day.
Although descending the rope beyond the Falls of Ardun was somewhat challenging, we ran into no mishaps. Thank Moradin for his favour, for the rocks were slick with spray from the falls and falling from that high would likely be fatal.
The land beyond the falls is peaceful with the high grass of summer. As per the notes left by previous brave explorers, we made our way to Aldalorna and were greeted warmly by Somoren and her brethren. Sadly we were unable to borrow the horses that are left for Valley visitors to use as the party that left ahead of us still had them. With no news coming from this party, I worry a touch, but have faith that Moradin will be keeping an benevolent eye on them.
Leaving Aldalorna on foot, we headed down river towards the village of Riverglade, passing some key landmarks which we used to ensure our path was correct, such as the Blightwood and the pillars marking the entrance of what we believed to be the Temple of Healing. Although we considered this as a good defensible spot to stop for the night, there was no clear way for us to safely cross the river. I’m glad that everyone agreed with this point and there were no ill-advised heroics.
I was starting to feel a little nervous moving on. We needed to find somewhere to stop which was defensible as we were warned of hostile goblins and denizens of the nearby swamps in these hills, but it wasn’t too long before we found a rocky outcrop around which we could create a simple perimeter and camp underneath. Thankfully the warmer evenings of late Bahamut-tide meant we didn’t need a fire which could attract further attention.
I’ve drawn the morning watch, after Pip and Krabog, so I should get my head down now. Moradin watch over us this evening.
The last day of Bahamut-tide
As all is quiet this morning while I start my watch, I thought I would document some thoughts about the trip ahead and what we may discov [unreadable ink smears]
I’m glad we found a good location to pause for the night and the discipline to set a watch. We were just assaulted by a small number of stirges which we made short work of. A combination of the arms of Lady Cortina and Krabog plus the holy fire of Moradin made short work of them but I shudder to think what could have happened if we were all asleep. The tales of our previous valley-folks encounter with these disgusting creatures raise my hackles.
Luckily Pip and Krabog are cooking up something good smelling to take my mind off it before we head off for the rest of the day.
The First day of Pelor’s Blessing
Yesterday was a long and eventful day. A day filled with amazing wonders; sights I never thought I would see and two perfect demonstrations of the power of the hand of Moradin in all things.
After our breakfast we resumed our journey toward the Builders Tower and Riverglade. Just as we saw the tower ahead of us and smoke rising from fires at Riverglade, we encountered it’s residents. There were a tense few moments between us until Pip broke the tension and I name dropped a few of the Valley residents who I knew had visited Riverglade before. Soon they relaxed and welcomed us to their village and introduced us to Dimble the village’s leader. When we discussed our intention for “exploring”, Dimble mentioned a settlement name I hadn’t heard talk of back in the Valley: Harmenton. Apparently it is a human fishing settlement a day’s travel south of Mataka’s rocks.
Soon we made our way to the Builder’s Tower so we could make our way onto the Builder’s miraculous traveling network. The gnomish engineer Breena who seems to be becoming very accustomed to visitors to Riverglade offered to show us how the tower worked and joined us. She made mention of another visitor to Riverglade, a dark cloaked Elf that she said had come from the Valley, but none of us recognised the description. I find this puzzling.
Breena showed us the way into the tower and how to operate them and then took us to a snow covered mountain in mere moments. To say the power behind these contraptions is miraculous is an understatement. I only hope Moradin will see fit to help me comprehend it with time.
After a few moments looking over a vast lake below us, we decided it was time to move on to our intended destination. After explaining our intention to Breena she decided to accompany us. I did have my misgivings as she hardly looked the sort to be able to look after herself out in the wilds, but she did seem very experienced with using the Builder Towers and I must admit to being somewhat nervous of them.
Happy we’d agreed to take her with us, we travelled to the next tower, the one I believe is called En Ta Ur Desh Shan. While there I took the opportunity for us to fill in a piece of missing knowledge I’d spotted while listening in the Lakeside Inn; there were 2 more locations from here which hadn’t been explored: Tra Orta Ta En An Ur and Desh En Shan En Sen Orta. I’ll let people know at the inn of these names once we’ve returned.
Leaving the tower we found ourselves in the stony ravine as described previously and in scorching heat. Thankfully, Breena opted to stay with the tower while we pushed on ahead toward Kassiter. As we reached the end of the ravine we came across a road running roughly to the South East. A market on the road pointed towards Kassiter, two miles east and a new location called Marett ten miles west of here. Yet another place to explore, but not today.
We started the long walk to Kassiter but it wasn’t long before a plan of Moradin’s was unveiled. Ahead of us on the road was a small group of Dwarves with a Donkey in a panic as four vicious looking animals closed in on them.
Altogether, we rushed to their aid but were unable to get close to prevent the first lunge of the creatures, overwhelming the group. Two of the Dwarves fell under their claws under that first assault, but once engaged they were swiftly dispatched by a combination of Lady Cortina’s ever accurate javelin arm, the talents of Pip, and Moradin’s holy fire.
Once the creatures were slain, Krobog and I worked to stabilise the two fallen Dwarfs and I called upon Moradin’s power to heal them, exhausting me of power for the day. The Dwarves were fish traders, traveling to Kassiter from Marrit, and were Sara, Iden and Mennet. Grateful for our intervention, they accompanied us to Kassiter and offered to show us around.
Kassiter is a wonder. An enormous city built into the cliff walls on the side of a lake so big you can’t see the other side of it. You certainly won’t catch me out in a fishing boat out there. It’s fortified with a large stone wall and wooden gate, and inside is a maze of tight wooden alleyways opening into large market squares. We would have swiftly become lost without the guidance of our new Dwarven friends. With a sufficient force however, it is very defendable!
They led us into the maze of buildings until we came to a cantina called Lilineti's Cantina where we stopped for some food and drink and took the opportunity to learn a little about Kassiter and the trade route it was founded on by the Dwarves and Lilineti, the Half Orc owner of the cantina. We learned of yet more settlements along the trading route including Halabas, Yeruna, Passisaweh and Mahtila.
Feeling refreshed, we decided to sample the enormous markets of Kassiter, primarily to locate some decent maps to help our explorations but people were also tempted to see what was available to buy.
Again the hand of Moradin was seen to place us in the right place at the right time as an uproar started outside. Ducking out from the stall I saw a horse and rider racing through the crowds pursued by a brace of guard calling “Thief!”. Without hesitation I took off after them with Krabog at my side, but we were soon outdistanced by the horse. I despaired when I realised that after the healing of the dwarves earlier that day, my only options were to bring down fire on the thief which seemed not only disproportionate, but extremely dangerous in the crowded marketplace.
All was not lost however, Pip’s athleticism allowed her to get within range to bewitch the rider causing them to fall from their saddle. Without a rider the horse was swiftly brought to rein and the thief apprehended. It was then that we discovered that he had been attempting to make off with the ceremonial silver for one of the temples of Moradin! This was truly his hand at work, ensuring we were here at the right time to assist.
After taking the thief to the watch house, we were introduced to the impressive Captain of the Guard: Khimenti. I would gladly work under her as a Captain I feel. I then took the opportunity to return the pilfered silver to the Temple where we were offered a reward by one of the High priests. I found myself unable to accept a reward for what must surely be the direct influence of Moradin, especially on a day like the last day of Bahamuts-tide, a time devoted to honour, justice and righting wrongs.
Instead I enquired if the Priest was able to grant us an audience in the upper city of Kassiter with someone influential so Lady Cortina could attempt to open some trade negotiations and this was seen as a fair recompense.
Ah, I must note that my head is beginning to ache a little now. Following all the excitement of the day we returned to Lilineti’s cantina where our rooms for the night would be and raised a fair few cups to Moradin and my friends around me. A great night was had with music and singing provided by Pip, and sweet ale and spirits from the bar, but I do find myself wondering if I’ll be able to resist breaking Krobog’s bagpipes if he threatens to get them out again.
Well, the dawn has broken now and I’m sure the climb to the upper city will clear my head for our arrangement with the priest.
The 2nd day of Pelor’s Blessing
We’ve just set up camp back on the Plains after turning through the Builder Towers and travelling north back along the side of the river. We should be back in the valley tomorrow with Moradin’s favour but I alway am feeling the itch to return back here and explore further. The events of the past few days have shown me my instinct to travel from The Valley was right: my faith and arms can be used to help others beyond what I felt was possible.
Our visit into the Upper City yesterday appeared to be fruitful. We were ushered into the presence of Damukhet Sazzarin, a most significant contact within Kassiter for trade relations. It appeared he was aware of the Fford-Halewood family through historical trading relationships and this bodes well for future possibilities between Kassiter and the valley. I do worry about the impact of the Builders and their Towers here though. 2 days to travel a distance of 1800 miles will have a dramatic impact on his business and he doesn’t seem the sort of Dwarf to take that threat kindly.
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Kathryn Karnage
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Rory Cullen
Ed Chivers
Richard Jackson
A worthy tale! Though you clearly got very lucky when dealing with those stirges… ;o)
Kathryn Karnage
A worthy tale! Though you clearly got very lucky when dealing with those stirges… ;o)
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Marek Dalibor
You won’t believe where I have been and who I have been hanging out with! I’ve been outside the Valley! We travelled all the way to the dwarven city of Kassiter, which is the largest city in the world by a long shot. There must be hundreds of thousands of people there, and not a cave or mine in sight – crazy!
“We”, that’s my new friends and I. Firstly, there is Halla, a member of the Valley militia. She loves Moradin and His Beard in equal measure and has a great good deal of interesting and informative things to say about them.
Then there is the Lady Cortina Fford-Halewood, a human noblewoman of great grace. She is lovely and smells of soap and can take out a stirge at 60 feet with her javelin, although she has hardly any beard at all.
And my third friend is Pip. She’s very tall and has many fabulous hats. Her singing is totally entrancing, and she even let me accompany her performance while we were travelling to the gnomish village of Riverglade. We saw no monsters or people or animals on that day.
Everbody loved the breakfast I cooked. I followed your advice and went easy on the grated rat.
When we got close to Kassiter, after having taking two – two! – of those fabulous teleporting devices, we came upon a group of travellers with a donkey being attacked by hyenas. We were quite far away, so I didn’t get there until after the battle had finished, but my taller and faster friends made short work of those beasts.
The travellers were fisherdwarves taking their catch to the markets in Kassiter. It’s very hot in that part of the world, and they cover their fish in salt to stop it from rotting. This dries out the fish completely, removes most of the taste, and makes it rather chewy. I’m going to serve it for the next goat-do that I’ll be asked to cater for.
Kassiter is most amazing, and we discovered
Hold on, mum, I’m going to finish this letter later. Pip has just started singing a lovely composition of hers. It’s a fantastic tune, and the lyrics just speak to my heart. It starts: “hello darkness my old friend”, and it’s just begging for my subtle, supporting bagpipes.
I’ll finish this letter later…