Blanchedfield

Motto: We hold fast in the shadows of wings.

Emblem: A circle divided in half across the middle. The upper half is crimson red, the lower half is ashen grey. The grey half is broken by the red with a silhouette of a dragon; the silhouette of the dragon is broken by a sword composed of the grey. More advanced depictions will add blood to the blade and a band of gold around the whole image. "Properly", the red should be made of genuine blood, the grey should be made of ash from the soil of Blanchedfield, and the gold band should be made from smelted coins from Fort Triumph, nigh all of which were originally smelted from the hoard that funded its creation.

Stats
TN (Small Town)

Blanchedfield is a tiny holding, its population almost exclusively immigrants, with only a single generation of its own still being raised within its still-loose borders. It is one part settlement, one part frontier colony. Its population is divided into six enclaves--five small clusters of homesteads surrounding Fort Triumph, the residence of the Baron and Baroness, as well as its few churches, eccentric market, and the ambitious, labyrinthine High Library, the Countess' gambit to attract the arcanistically inclined to an otherwise supremely barren territory.

The Baron and Baroness attracted those they could, relying on the force of personality possessed by some of their life's acquaintances to draw in common folk seeking opportunity. Still, such tactics only go so far, and the eccentricities of the Baroness have denied Blanchedfield some of the more pragmatic economic development that might result in steady growth.

It can take as much as a day on foot to reach Fort Triumph from the homesteads, and vice-versa. Often as not, Baron Shantzi himself will ride the long circuit to check on each enclave, with or without an attachment of the vanishingly tiny militia.

Blanchedfield's grey, ashen plains are, at the least, fertile. The staple crops are corn and potatoes, with effort and resources invested in growing beans, and in the warrens beneath Blanchedfield, mushrooms. A major effort has been made to support orchards of fruit trees, primarily apples; they are strategically placed as windbreaks to avert erosion of the topsoil. The lack of surviving natural grasses have made ranching a toilsome affair, and meat can be very hard to come by. The bulk of the farming performed is simply for the sustenance of the residents. Blanchedfield's primary exports are vices: tobacco, flayleaf, and a staggering amount of hard alcohol. These present a good return for the investment in arable soil and labor, but are constrained by a somewhat limited market.

At the insistence of the Baroness, Blanchedfield's primary imports beyond living necessities are almost all academic in nature. While education is more readily available than it would be in most frontier colonies, citizens suffer tax penalties if they fail to demonstrate that their children are being properly educated and screened for magical potential, a contentious policy that has met with friction from some farming families, and even the Baron himself. Still, some idealistic parents are drawn by the notion that a talented child might find the opportunity to develop arcane powers without the investment of a lifetime's wage.

Most of Blanchedfield is an open plain, but sharp eyes can discern an upward slope, cresting in the hill that now provides the foundation for Fort Triumph. Said hill is the former site of the dragon's lair, with its various warrens and chambers now providing space for the High Library. Filia Shantzi, the Baron's sister, has produced a novel cart system that allows a heavy-enough load to roll for miles toward the clustered homesteads, though they still require hauling animals to be drawn up again. Places in the Rolling Guard are assigned as a reward or punishment to members of the fort's militia according to how much they enjoy hurtling at great speed with little control.

Settlements: Corruption -2; Crime +0; Economy +1; Law +0; Lore +6; Society -1
 * The westmost village is Drakeheart. This is the only village Coralily spends any time in, maintaining a small cottage there. The warrens are denser and more intricate under this village, but there are no obvious points of ingress. The greatest number of rumors of odd supernatural phenomena in Blanchedfield arise from here or Fort Triumph.
 * The southmost is Southhold, the smallest village. It is the most peaceful, and is the only location that has seen no notable conflicts.
 * Southeast is Widemaw. This village is built near the point of entry the Baron and Baroness used to infiltrate the Crimson Shadow's warren. Widemaw was hard struck by a black dragon and its entourage, and is still reeling to recover.
 * Northeast is Wideeye. The closest to the swamp, it has the highest concentration of magic-users and former adventurers outside Fort Triumph.
 * North-by-northeast is Slayer's Gate, the first location most travelers will pass through. It has the highest population outside Fort Triumph, owing to a higher concentration of itinerant merchants and their attendants.

"...Coralily, I know we agreed you would run the numbers--but if we can't shore up our exports, we just won't bring anyone in. Have you seen the census papers Ashes wrote up? Our growth is nil. Still, five years later." "Same, same, same as before, my dear Baron, if we are going to be anyone, we don't want to bring just anyone in. And same, same, same as before, we have what we need for what we want."

"I don't understand my mother's fixation on bringing in Sorcerers and Wizards... if there is some wisdom in this I do not see, it has less than a generation left to take before I make changes."

Qualities Resettled Ruins, Eldritch; Spellcasting 5th, Divination and Necromancy 7th

"Father, have you ever felt that the silence on the plains... even in the streets, is... a little eerie?" "The silence sounds like it wishes to drown the crackle of our fire, doesn't it." "Yes--yes, exactly that!" "That is what you hear before the wingbeats you cannot see." "...is there a new story behind that, Father?" "I dearly hope not."

Sending: "For the last--I do mean final--time, this holding is not haunted. Yes, it is built from the spoils of a red dragon's lair." Sending: "Yes, this dragon attracted a cult. Yes, there are warrens running under it. No, it is not cursed. Of course it's quiet, we are young." Sending: "What do you want, an official edict? I may have failed to birth a Sorcereress, but your other daughters have failed to birth a Lady, Mother."

Danger 13

Demographics
Government Magical/Dracocracy

Population 85% Human, 10% Kobolds, 3% Half-Elves, 2% Other

Religion 50% Idinai, 30% Lord Brighteye and the Moonmistress, 10% Linalai, 10% Other

Notable NPCs
Baron Vasil Shantzi, LG

Sometimes mocked for his androgynous, or even feminine appearance and worship of Lord Brighteyes and the Moonmaiden, Vasil is arguably too eager to demonstrate his prowess as proof of right-to-rule. While his ultimate inclinations are sturdily lawful and good, he treats his worship of the Moonmaiden and the amorality of both of his deity's facets as a journey of understanding, and handily bucks the notion of Paladins as fun-hating moralizers. While he does his best to rule nobly and genuinely believes that noble rule is the best path to a better world for all, he cannot wait to pass his duties off to his daughter, and wistfully dreams of returning to a life of adventure, even though his body is growing older than his still-youthful face betrays.

Family: Baroness Coralily Shantzi, TN
 * Coralily Shantzi, wife
 * Ashes Shantzi, daughter
 * Filia Shantzi, sister
 * Korb Shantzi, father (estranged)
 * Liv Shantzi, mother (estranged)
 * Trib Shantzi, brother (estranged)
 * Milo Shantzi, brother (estranged)
 * Trissa Shantzi, sister (estranged, but amiable)

Coralily Shantzi-Ironclutch is one of two identical twins, her sister being Corarose, who vanished in a planar mishap shortly after her twin so soundly showed her up by becoming a noble. The Ironclutch family is almost exclusively Sorcerers, and marriage of anyone who is not is often grounds for disowning. Coralily's saving grace marrying Vasil was their taking of a holding and ascension to nobility, something the Ironclutches have coveted since (they claim) their titles and lands were unjustly stripped centuries ago. Coralily's policies are extremely magocentric, despite Blanchedfield's relatively-poor resources making this impractical. While she was once the entirely-too-adventurous black sheep of the family, noble duty seems to have changed her nature. She tentatively worships Althea, though is not nearly so devoted as her husband is to his deity, nor even so fervent as her daughter in her worship of the Mother of Kobolds.

Family: Filia Shantzi, NG
 * Vasil Shantzi, husband
 * Ashes Shantzi, daughter
 * Mina Ironclutch, mother
 * Mona Ironclutch, sister-mother
 * Corarose Ironclutch, twin sister (missing, thought deceased)
 * Snapdragon Ironclutch, 'twin' sister (disowned, missing, thought deceased)
 * Megaerie Ironclutch, sister-cousin (estranged)
 * Megala Ironclutch, sister-cousin (estranged)
 * Jaxon Kinless, surrogate father (estranged, thought deceased)

Filia is Vasil's sister, and the only member of either of the Baron and Baroness' families to come to reside in Blanchedfield. She was born with an unfortunate developmental quirk that requires her to regularly imbibe an alchemical tincture that, also unfortunately, causes muscle atrophy. The cost of this tincture was what drove her brother into the field in the first place, and the cause was what prompted his allegiance to Lord Brighteyes and the Moonmaiden. With a mediocre constitution and little magical talent of her own, she has turned to smithing as a means of supporting noble causes, and has in fact personally forged the Baron's equipment, as well as that of the militia. Due to her lackluster strength, she favors softer alloys that must then be aggressively carbonized, producing somewhat more brittle works with little to no sheen. She jokes that this suits Blanchedfield well. Filia is overwhelmingly fond of her niece, but has an icy relationship with her sister-in-law, once even going so far as to accuse her of being a worshiper of Akasha for her "gloomy fixation on secrets." Like her brother, she worships Lord Brighteyes and the Moonmaiden, but also keeps tokens of the Luckmaiden and her daughter.

Family: As Vasil.

Commander Fargo Lorn, LN

The hard-drinking, harder-fighting leader of Blanchedfield's anemic, ash-coated militia, a former cohort of Vasil's. The Baroness is not too fond of him, but respects what he manages to accomplish with limited resources. He greatly fancies the Baron's sister, who fears her history might change that when the long secret finally comes out. He has had a fling with nearly every bachelorette in Fort Triumph, and even a number of the traveling scholars seeking to visit the High Library, often at the behest of Filia's frantic matchmaking. He's quite fond of the Baron's heir, occasionally jesting that her only flaw as a potential leader is having not yet brought down a chromatic dragon or three.

Family: Scarlett Hemmingshax, Sworn of Idinai, LG While she follows a different deity, Scarlett is a protege of the Baron's and a longtime friend of the Shantzi family. She entered Blanchedfield as a stray orphan traveling with the church of Idinai, and promptly found a new home among its faithful, being adopted by the Hemmingshax family within a week of her arrival. The teachings of Idinai drew her interest as a result of her somewhat troubled upbringing on the streets of Arcaniss, and the earnestness of her faith drove the burgeoning clergy of Blanchedfield to take notice. Scarlett leans heavily on her bond with Idinai to overcome what she perceives as physical shortcomings, frequently calling on Idinai's magic and mercies to avoid sleeping, sometimes staying awake more than a week at a time. While she refuses to explain this behavior, Vasil suspects she suffers from nightmares. Scarlett is very good friends with Lady Shantzi, and the two support one another, Ashes being among the few young women outside the clergy to understand the exigencies and fraught ethics faced by the holy in Blanchedfield, and Scarlett being the only personal friend in Blanchedfield that Ashes has managed to maintain through her bouts of magical domination and induced amnesia. Scarlett and Ashes share intermittent sexual intimacy, mostly as a factor of convenience, though Scarlett hopes she can encourage the Lady to open up to the idea of romantic love--albeit not with her. The Baron approves. The Baroness would exile Scarlett given half a chance.
 * Marco Lorn, father (deceased)
 * Helga Lorn, mother (deceased)
 * Timothy Lorn, brother (deceased)
 * Berita Lorn-Deathscathe, sister

Family:
 * Ionnathan Hemmingshax, adoptive father
 * Zoei Hemmingshax, adoptive mother

Siri Merro

A stern, methodical woman, of half-elven ancestry, and a former servant of the Stothguyya family. She left with Cole Stothguyya after his split with the family, and he subsequently sent her to Blanchedfield when the Baron and Baroness were awarded their title. She genuinely cares for the Shantzis, and is perhaps one of Coralily's closest personal friends.

As Blanchedfield's finances have waned, she has successfully kept the Shantzi estate in functional order through efficient delegation to the remaining servants.

Mirabel Merro

Siri's daughter, and one of Coralily's favored students. She has shown a precocious capacity for magic, and began displaying signs of the Fey bloodline at age 10. She is soft-spoken, and the mood-swings brought on by her bloodline's manifestation are disturbing to her as a result. Nevertheless, she serves as faithfully and thoroughly as she can, despite having no formal position on the staff. The Baroness is quite fond of her, and dotes on her openly.

Marketplace
Base Value 1000 gp; Purchase Limit 5000 gp; Spellcasting 5th (Necromancy & Divination +2)

Minor Items 3d4; Medium Items 1d6+1d3; Major Items 1d1

If a buyer rolls a natural one on any Appraise or Diplomacy check made to examine or purchase a locally bought magic item, that item is always cursed.