Bastion

Bastion is a frontier town in the northern Borderlands, home base of the party in Campaign II. It is ruled by Count Vurnor Leng, who was recently cured of a lingering magical illness by a healing apple retrieved from the Sunless Citadel.

Districts

• The Agora — the market, where the town’s venturers, mongers, and merchants ply their trades.
• Sovereign Square — where the antiquarians and archaics of the Sovereigns keep their traditions; clergy of Ontaar (Fire and Forge), Ouralon (Law and Lore), Kaarak (Death and Decay), and Dolorah (Sun and Sacrifice) all worship openly here, and the iconologist-scholar Corkie Nackle is the closest thing they have to a high priest.
• The shrine row — shrines and clergy of Numilvara, Talavosh, and The Binding Flame.
• Elf Row — where the town’s Lhazaaran residents lived before the roundups.
• Ruff Alley — the rough end of town.
• The garrison — headquarters, barracks, and patrols under Captain Felosiel.
• The Count’s villa, the vault, and the mercenary chapterhouse.

Places

• The Icehouse — the most popular tavern in town, and where the campaign began.
• The mercenary chapterhouse — pays death and disability benefits for registered members (as Snorri Gnosebiter and the late Karakas can attest).
• The Hall of Scrolls — the local repository of magical learning; identifies items, buys spellbooks, and accepts donations of magic items. The mage Thamior works here.
• A local vault, an apothecary (a source of yew extract, for the discerning poisoner), and an alchemist.
• Elf Alley — where the town’s Lhazaaran residents lived before the roundups.

People

• Count Vurnor Leng — ruler of Bastion, holding a tenuous peace with the Lhazaaran elves. His wife is Contessa Leng.
• Lady Kerowyn Hucrele — merchant matriarch; sponsor of the party’s expeditions to the Sunless Citadel after her twin heirs, Sharwyn and Talgen, disappeared there.
• Captain Felosiel — commander of the town guard.
• Corkie Nackle — gnomish iconologist and scholar of Sovereign Square, with a well-known historical interest in lost Caernathi lore.
• Lutgher — master smith and archaist of the forge-sovereign Ontaar; his masterworks go only to those he deems worthy of them.
• Halven Rusk — the Count’s personal physician.
• Corin — a local physician.
• Thamior — mage of the Hall of Scrolls and the Count’s court magician.

Current affairs

• Tensions with the Lhazaaran elves have boiled over: two town guards were attacked in the night (see Session 11), a scandal over guards taking Lhazaaran bribes followed, and the town’s Lhazaarans have since been rounded up or fled. Count Leng’s forces have clashed with Lhazaaran troops in the countryside, with prisoner exchanges ongoing.
• Rumor holds that Lhazaaran forces have established a base in the Shadowmount Forest.
• The festival of Crya — the short “month” at the end of each year, when Dal Quor, the Region of Dreams, draws near — was recently observed with vivid dreams throughout town.

Nearby

• The Sunless Citadel, sunken into a ravine off the Old Road.
• The Ancient Academy, ruins to the north.
• The road south toward Teryk and the border fort of Count Roland Varnel.

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Stub — to expand: where Bastion sits in the Borderlands, its history, demographics, and government; source docs include Session 0\Intro to Bastion and Sunless Citadel.docx and the Bastion NPC/rumor tables.