Episode fourteen An Urban Interlude

An Urban Interlude

Begins with the Goblin raid on the town of Vayham and continues until it is contemporaneous with the events of session XV above

Part one the gathering storm

Dramatis Personae

Leon – a Brandobian Human Fighter

Quarrel – a Halfling Thief

Location
the Brandobian county town of Vayham in the North West corner of the region 

Town over vies the more detailed map below is cantered around the area ringed in red

Events

(These begin during session XIII of the main story and progress to the end of session XIV this is largely about setting the scene for what follows and to be gin with time passes rapidly with few events)

Vayham is the county town of the Cosdolan County of the same name it was established before the fracturing of Brandobia and the subsequent civil war thought it only grew to its present importance following that when it was chosen by the first king of Cosdol as the seat for one of his more trusted nobles. This noble was charged with consolidating Cosdol’s eastern border with the adjacent rather lawless back country Kalamarian province. A situation which became even more critical when the Kalamarian Empire itself collapsed locally and then even its successor the city state of P’Bapara largely lost what little control of the area due to the actions of humanoids, mostly Orks in the Laggosa mountains to the east. This noble and his descendants largely succeeded in this even expanding their holdings into the abandoned area of the former Kalamarian province and bringing a period of peace and stability which has lasted until the present day.

The town has expanded form the area walled by the first count and the walled area was extended to incorporate this expansion by the present count’s grandfather creating the Newtown, and it was expanding again due to the influence of the Cult of the Coin lord and the growth of beef farming to the east the other side of the M’Alvern stream to the east, which caused the existing beast market to expand to an area outside the east gate,  Where additional stock pens where built and an enterprising gnome built the regions first and so far only commercial slaughter house about twenty years ago.  

Despite the mention of the Gnome the towns population is almost entirely human and of either Brandobian of P’Baparan stock with a mere two extended Halfling families and a scatter of individuals who can legitimately lay claim to some Elven blood, even if none have enough to be half elves, even if a grand parent or great grandparent was. There is no Dwarves resident and very few pass through either as there are no dwarven settlements any where around.

Town ordinances bar half Orks from the town outright and only permit half hobgoblins as employees of reputable citizens.  The town is prosperous, provincial, parochial and peaceful beyond the odd drunken punch up in the beast market between drovers.

 

 

 

General view of old town houses

Leon was between jobs but had no particular problem with that as he still had coin in his pocket from his last job as a mercenary on the northern border of Cosdol and to be frank felt he had earned a bit of rest and recuperation. He found Vayham with its numerous inns and taverns as well as a constant new crowd wanting to listen tom his tales of daring do in the northlands a fine place to do that, not to mention it was a damned site warmer and more clement here than on the somewhat windswept northern frontier.

He had rented a room in a lodging house in the old town behind the market square which he shared with another mercenary soldier and his occasional lady friend and of all things a Halfling clerk from the market administration a strange quiet fellow but apparently quite upright if boring. There where at first at least a couple of empty rooms in the house but as the time passed these filled up. 

 

The house shared by the characters is marked in red

Nyadryn had been in the town since the holder of the fief just over the M’Alvern stream in whose service he had been had sent him effectively single handed to deal with that bandit problem last year, granted they had only been goblins in the end but he had been in the north and had a health respect for those bastard creatures ability to butcher the stupid and the cock sure, he had seen to much of it which is why he was now down south as he still thought of it and working as a carpenters labourer again. Still that had its perks he was sure that the masters youngest daughter was sweet on him.

Quarrel one of the few Halflings in the town and at least on the surface as conventional and unadventurous as the rest of his kinfolk here about. A clan whose only adventurous impulse in living memory was their paternal grandfather moving his family here from the more Halfling dominated lands to the south and east of Cosdol and even then that was to avoid a renewed war with Elador which never happened in the end. 

The house in more detail

Leon was to be honest unemployed but did not see much of an issue with that provided he still had the coin to support himself without working as he much preferred spending time in the tavern telling tales of former adventures to actually doing more. He also thought himself rather above having to do common labour again

All was as described until very recently when a large band of hostile and apparently well organised goblins appeared in the area of the M’Alvern ridge and started raiding the farms and then the villages south of there and east of the M’Alvern stream. The situation escalated and within a few days the land holder found he was unable to defend his small fief and returned to join the refugees in Vayham and to regroup and request assistance form his liege lord the count.

In response to his vassals quite reasonable request the count gathered up the forces he had to hand and rode with them across the M’Alvern crossings to confront the goblins. In retrospect the Count wishes he had called up the counties feudal levies and waited for them to arrive before doing so but convinced that speed was of the essence to catch the raiders and that he had sufficient force to deal the goblins a severe rebuke he attacked straight away. His small army smashed through the goblin force attempting to hold the M’Alvern crossings and when their retreat apparently turned in to a panicked rout gave chase back toward the M’Alvern ridge. This was done without much thought to the possibility of ambush sadly and the goblins had indeed set one which the counts pursuing army ran right into.

Even so the goblins where not quite able to take full advantage of their coup and the counts army managed to regroup and after a hard fight, involving a number of casualties to gain control of the field driving off the ambushers. However this time the lesson being learned there was no wild pursuit. However as the army was reordering it became apparent that the Counts son and heir had been fatally struck by an arrow. This arrow had punched thought the mail around his neck and slain him outright.  This caused the count to rethink his plans and he ordered his army back to Vayham to plan.

The counts army withdrew back to the town and as they did so they started to be harassed by goblin archers riding on great slavering hounds, which they could not get to grips with and more good men died in the retreat.  Reaching the town near dusk the count’s exhausted force gained it hoped some rest. However even this was shattered as towards mid night a large band of dog mounted goblins arrived before the east gate and driving off the rather thin guard in the outer market burned it and the slaughter house to the ground before making a concerted attack on the gate. This failed as the Counts men rallied form their beds to defend the town and the town levy was called out for the first time in living memory.

Having stirred up the hornets nest good and proper the goblins rode off back over the M’Alvern crossings leaving the fires of burning buildings in the foregte and farmsteads this side of it to light their way home and to mark their nights foul work. 

The next morning the count called up his feudal levy from all around the county and made an announcement such that all men at arms in the town regardless of in whose employ they might be must make them selves available to defend the town. Further the formally strict rules on the bearing of arms within the walls of the town where relaxed and the town militia where expected to take their arms with them to work. As a result just about every shop, inn or tavern in the town has a tell tale stack of spear small shield, padded jack and leather cap to be found in plain view.  There was also an immediate run on swords in the town and every sword smith in town of which there where it being a market town very few sold out and then quickly ran out of steel to make more as orders fairly poured in. Ancient blades which had not seen the light of day let alone use since the Brandobian civil war also put in a strong showing as did various articles of equally antique armour.

In the days and weeks which followed the feudal levy mustered as ordered and more refugees trickled in from the areas along the M’Alvern stream, meat became increasingly expensive and the price of lodgings shot up. The markets became less busy and the beast market robed of the beef cattle from the banks of the M’Alvern stream more or less closed down and the rumors started.  The war however settled down to a stale mate of raid and counter raid across the stream. With the most concerning event being that the landholders in the south of the county where the kings road crossed it had withheld their levy as they too where troubled by goblin raiders.

First shortly after the funeral of the Counts son it became known that the arrow head that killed him was both enchanted and of dwarven workmanship, and that this had been determined by no lesser persons than the chief priests of the True and the Founder who had examined it as it was recovered form the body of the counts son even if the most of the shaft arrow it had been attached to was destroyed, as a result of the fall he took form his horse when struck down and whilst his lifeless body was born away form the fight.  This fragment of fact grew and morphed into a monster, especially after some dwarven coins where recovered from goblin corpses in subsequent skirmishing along the M’Alvern stream. It became known that the Goblins where in the pay of a evil dwarven sorcerer and there was a small riot inside the north gate when the gnomish owner of the abattoir in the foregate, which the goblins had burned, was taken for a dwarf and had to be restored by the town guard and there where casualties on both sides and one rioter killed before order was restored.

After that the suspicion was cast on any one who had any thing of dwarvish work in their possession and much was burned publicly or just hidden if too valuable and any one who defended dwarves or who had been seen in the company of them as Nyadryn had  was likely to get hassle or worse indeed  Nyadryn who had adventured with a dwarf last year and who had come into town with one got into a deal of trouble and had to break some heads after he mentioned that the one dwarf he had known closely was a decent fellow and that those he had heard of in the north where in no way either evil or any friends of goblins. However he soon tired of defending the honour of those not present and kept his opinions to himself.

Both Leon and Nyadryn though they kept to their normal employ made themselves known as fighting men to the authorities and did the occasional duty as a result however their lives did not change significantly otherwise.

Leon a bit of a scoundrel and a rake continued to enjoy the easy life and spend a lot of his time in taverns telling tales of his adventurous life and soldiering life to any who would listen, especially enjoying the eager ears of the increasing number of impressionable young refugees.

Quarrel found that the business of the market office which he was junior clerk in dropped considerably and he spent more of his time twiddling his thumbs as work and working the taverns for coin on the gambling tables in the evenings. There where as a result of the refugees a lot more people in the town without employment and those who still had coin to do so and given the rise of the price of food and of lodgings fewer did whiled away the time drinking and gambling and bemoaning their fate. However Quarrels’ greatest fear was that thing should get so dire that the count should call a levy of the town which would mean his actually being called up to fight, horror. 

A cloud of uneasy expectation hangs over the town