Alumnur

A canal city at the end of a Tributary. A cut-throat and powerful city, well known for the performing arts and great culture. It has done well in the recent past, repelling a Locust swarm only a few centuries ago, and mounting a long and successful military campaign against Alunsia, its neighbour across the Kunaan channel.

Pop: 109,000

Ved's Guild
A group of hired break-and-enter specialists that punish Ved's enemies, while he maintains a positive public persona.

"The Blackjacks" Thief's Guild
A semi-retired pirate named Oscario coordinates theft crime with the local gangs and pirates.

Alligator Heads
This group of ruffians have claimed territory in the docks district. They are hostile to strangers, and demand protection from the businesses in their territory. The group gained notoriety when Bastian DeMorgan was among their colours.

Edvard "Ved" Sarkari
Philanthropist extraordinaire. Theater mogul. Impressario. Edvard "Ved" Sarkari's primary occupation is being popular. Married to star thespian/producer elf heartthrob Heila Swaney, Ved is one half of the city's "power couple". Being part of Ved's inner circle, you are privy to a bit of relationship tension. He wants an heir, and she's not ready to lose her fabulous figure. So far, it hasn't affected you in any way.

He is a 5'6" middle-aged half-elven man with dark olive alumnarian skin. He has bright blue eyes topped with luscious yellow eyebrows. His head is adorned with a thin circlet made of a rare dark mithril. It contrasts well with the striking mane of yellow hair arranged into a single fat braid going down to his lower back. His hands are always manicured, so there is a good chance he has never used the ornate rapier holstered on his leather waistguard.

He will get physical if needed, revealing uncanny strength in the process. An eyewitness account retells that he once saw Ved accosted by a burly street thug. Ved lifted the thug up by the collar, said "I think you're going that way, sir" and sent the would-be criminal careening across the alley. The slender impressario wears neither gauntlets of ogre power nor a belt of giant strength, so some speculate he is a vampire. Funny rumor, because you know for a fact that he is definitely not undead.

Ved is not only in the public eye for his contributions to Alumnar culture. He is son of the Alumnarian elf queen, and occasionally attends court. He is noble blood, but not royalty. He was born before his mother married the king. He makes it his business to be well liked, as a way to compete against his royal half-siblings.

He founded his guild as a means to covertly punish his enemies. When someone crosses or insults Ved, he smiles and laughs for the crowd, but the offender is added to the book. That was the early days. There is still a book, but since then, the guild has been more... inclusive when finding targets. There are about ten of you, all together. It's a small close-knit team. The enterprising Ved is currently working out joint efforts with other thieve's guild, so rumors are abuzz internally about what that could entail.

Doctor Decker Algiere
Dr Algiere operates a hospital outside the city gates in a big stone mansion. He achieved heroic status 400 years ago years for his involvement in the defence against the Locust Swarm. The king gifted him with a powerful artifact called the Spyglass of Al'Katala, but it has now gone missing. The doctor contracted vampirism in his defence of the city, which has granted him eternal life and an eternal thirst for blood. For this reason, he and his vampire spawn accept blood as payment for medical services.

Charlotte Guillemot
Charlotte is a classically trained chef that often prepares feasts for the king and his guests. She lives in a mansion in the high-class district. Her family has a proud, distinguished military heritage.

Kavel Duskstar
Kavel Duskstar is an accomplished guild member specializing in reconnaissance and stake-outs. After the mask debacle, Ved put him lead on your next job. He’s alright, though. Not one for much laughter, but he does occasionally laugh, using deep resonating grunts. He is a tiefling man with maroon skin and black ram horns protruding above his eyebrows. When he gets upset, the horns crack, emitting an ember-like glow. For this reason, he avoids bluffing games, preferring dice or daggerfin. He is abnormally tall and skinny for a tiefling, not having enough meat on his bones. Kavel grew up in a common household of Alumnur, a metropolitan city-state known in bard’s tales as the Endless Festival on the Sea.

Surrounded by the spectacle of the abundant theatres, he started out as a playwright, as many do in Alumnur. His plays told tales revealing his dark and brutal, yet clever, sense of humor. When playwriting was unprofitable, he enlisted in the Alumnarian army. With large territories to control across Alunsia and uprisings to quell, the Alumnar military is always hiring. It was easy enough for him to earn a position. He even made officer quickly, possibly attributed to being the only sober one among his peers.

With the army, he travelled north across the Kunan Sea and campaigned to stabilize the Lhondar area. Squalid living conditions on the campaign fostered Kavel’s pragmatic and stoic nature, defining traits of his character today. The fighting climaxed at the Battle of Earthwall against a yuan-ti threat from the northern Alunsia wild. Kavel never liked snakes after that.

The animosity from Lhondar loyalists was a constant but manageable vexation. However, things changed a little. To secure victory at Earthwall, warlord Ertric raised and armed a large militia of Lhondar plebians. The animosity had weapons now. Kavel, in it for coin, rather than king and country, resigned after the war and returned home.

Now, he steals for a living and earns more each month than the life’s saving he accumulated from previous careers. You are going after an ornamental salt carousel. He will give you all the details next time you meet at the base of operation, Ved's opera house.

Bastian DeMorgan
Sandy haired and blue eyed youth Bastian DeGorman spent his adolescence changing families. At the onset of puberty, he was afflicted with uncontrollable rages. In those days, the boy worked at his natural parents' potion confectionery in Alumnur's market district. It was a lucrative operation for the DeGorman family unit. DeGorman's Brew it was called. Bastian worked the store front with his father, while mom toiled among large cauldrons in the basement, fulfilling special orders and inventing new potions. They did well enough to turn a good profit, with plenty left over even after paying off the local gangs for protection. A rage changed all that. The confectionery doesn't exist under that name and Bastian can't see his parents anymore.

Their last day of business ended with an irksome customer. That triggered Bastian. The boy grabbed a potion bottle and smashed it into the customer's face. He grabbed another off the shelf, and another. The savage act lasted about a minute. That was enough time to kill the man.

Snooty and unbearing, that man called himself Scorpion among the underground, and was one of few poison experts in Alumnar. He went missing by his clientele first, and that is why gangsters showed up at the DeGorman household first. "A life pays for a life," the well-dressed gangster said, surrounded by his posse, "or you can wait for your son to be arrested and spend his life in the prison mines." The way this gangster saw things, in Alumnar, poison "experts" such as the Scorpion are a dime a dozen. This boy's fury, on the other hand, was very valuable. He would be trained as an extortionist. His parents were "encouraged" to leave the city. By sundown, they were gone and Bastian started life with his new family, a street gang called the Alligator Heads.

Their territory was the wharf. Among his new brothers and sisters, Bastian collected protection money best he could. When that failed, he smashed kneecaps, broke jaws, snapped necks, shattered teeth, gouged eyeballs. The violence didn't stop with extortion. Uptown gangsters came after the boy, bitter that DeGorman's Brew would no longer payout generous protection money. Bastiandeveloped a danger sense, becoming adept at spotting traps and ambushes. After enough failed attempts to beat him up, no one dared cross the young man. The extortion money was always paid. The violence dried up. But the rages continued, and he turned it against the Alligator Heads. The well-dressed gangster wanting an end to this, sold Bastian for 25gp. Thus, Bastian started his life as body guard for a fat bard.

The man was a travelling entertainer. They visited cities along a sea route connecting Alumnur and Soarlim, stopping in all major cities for work. Fatherly and sympathic to the boy's condition, the bard conjured shadows for the boy to rage on. On the road and between shows, the two had only eachother for company. The bard occasionally called for a stop at the local whorehouse, though.Bastian learned a lot during those visits. During the bard's performances, Bastian's job was to blend in and come to the rescue "if needed". He never found what was meant by that, but his danger sense was always on point.

What Bastian found out later was that the bard was in Ved Sarkari's black book. It must have been VERY bad because there was a skull penned in next to the name. The fat man was either incredibly bold, stupid or uninformed. On the night of his death, he was performing at the Blue Drake Lagoon, a theatre owned by Ved.

The boy detected the assassination attempt mid-show, and leaped on stage, interrupting the performance. He wriggled the fat bard out of the theatre, even out of the city on horseback, evading every poisoned arrow and trap along the way. Unfortunately, the attackers had griffons which are horse eaters. Thus, the valiant escape was foiled. The boy and the fat bard were delivered to Ved. The impressario had taken note of Bastian's danger sense. He was waiting for them on an empty beach, the Nanuk Sea glistening in the moonlight behind him. The assassin took the fat bard into the sea to drown him. It caused a lot of splashing. Meanwhile, as though murder was not being committed behind him, Ved spoke to the boy, "You are known to me, Bastian. The wharf folk still speak of the raging alligator in stories. This night, that was almost a perfect escape. Not everyone in the city owns griffons. But I do." Ved smiled, "I could use a person like you in my employ. The pay is good, and I believe I can help locate your parents. Do we have a deal?" Behind them, the splashng sounds ceased, replaced with gurgles and then stillness.