Mountains gives way and through the crags slip bands of bloody-minded Belkzen orcs. Tamrivena was constructed as a redoubt against the orc hordes, or barbarians should they eve rage from the north. In recent years, however, the town’s reassuring walls have turned cold and foreboding as paranoia creeps among the people.
Although none can say exactly when, at some point within the past 5 years the Wallguard stopped being the city’s well-trained constabulary and changed into an occupying army of overzealously watchful counterspies and enforcers of social standards. While they strictly enforce the letter of the law, the quickness with which they drag suspects to the dungeons of Fort Vhiled causes most citizens to avert their eyes and hurry past their precisely organized patrols. Life and commerce continues in Tamrivena with the people relying on travel and shipping upon the Lamand as well as nearby farms for their livelihoods. However, increasingly strict laws on passage through the town, what goods are permitted for sale, and what constitutes morally appropriate services have stymied many entrepreneurs, with fines levied or shops shuttered as the town’s laws grow ever more restrictive and numerous. And all the while, from vague sources come word of growing criminal syndicates, mysterious saboteurs, and massing orcs in the east, leading the town’s residents to hurry home from their jobs and wonder which of their neighbors might be in league with the unseen but encroaching evils.
Locations in Tamrivena
Although several venues possess increasingly infamous reputations, Tamrivena quietly harbors the just and unjust alike.
Fort Vhiled: The headquarters of the Wallguard, Tamrivena’s military police force, Fort Vhiled guards the north and west entrances to the town—a hidden artery running through the thick western wall connects the fortress proper with these adjoining fortifications. Although the fortress was constructed to defend against orc invasions, its merciless stone towers now seem to turn their scrutiny inward, toward the town’s residents. Alongside barracks and armories for the nearly 200 Wallguard, from the fortress rises the infamous Traitor’s Tower, site of the merciless Captain Balton Rhasrakin’s offices, the Wallguard’s interrogation chambers, and— supposedly—several levels of hidden dungeons and oubliettes where those who oppose Rhasrakin disappear.
Palestone: Home of the Foreguard and its commander Captain Daladmin Quin, Fort Palestone—typically referred to simply as Palestone for its walls of white granite—watches over the southern entrance to Tamrivena. As members of the Foreguard, who are generally less likely to subscribe to the Wallguard’s theories of disguised orc agents and anarchic Kellid cultists, man its walls, travelers find entry through Palestone by far the least invasive way to enter the town and least likely to confront travelers with hours or days of bureaucratic hindrances.
Nathrus Village: The inspections of the Wallguard leave many attempting to travel through Tamrivena stranded, usually on suspicion of criminal intent or mere racial prejudice. Those most regularly affected are the Sczarni— notorious families of Varisian cheats and thieves. Such wanderers denied entry to or expelled from Tamrivena congregate outside the town walls, some simply lingering till their whims carry them on, others committed to ongoing schemes. The fierce but aging Harnin Mirgravos leads the residents of this slum of wagons and shacks. With the aid of his sons Opor and Minnarn, Mirgravos unites his people in a crusade of burglary, blackmail, and vandalism targeting members of the town’s government, which he blames for the disappearance of his daughter Kiaria.
Riverhouse: Beneath the green shingles and bell tower of Tamrivena’s town hall the council of Canterwall meets to direct the fate of the palatinate’s citizens. Over the past years, many have succumbed to Captain Rhasrakin’s constant fearmongering, and fearing orc incursions or the plots of faceless criminal elements have forced the adoption of strict laws proscribing immorality, public privacy, magic, free entry into the city, and any number of other basic rights widely enjoyed elsewhere in the country. While many of the councilors are unsettled by the increasing similarities between their city and a mass prison, the vicious orator Taladda Jhovanki possesses an unsettling skill for recasting criticism as laxity, perfidy, or even treason.
Soldier’s Rest: Unusual among Ustalav’s temples and cathedrals of Pharasma, Soldier’s Rest harbors shrines to Erastil, Gorum, Iomedae, and Torag beneath its spiked onion dome. Father Onmanun Brosheilov served in the Wallguard decades ago before answering Pharasma’s call, and though it is his goddess’s will to stoically endure hardship, he has little patience for the overzealousness of the modern militia and his former subordinate, Captain Rhasrakin.
Rumors in Tamrivena
Although the Wallguard remain attentive for whispers of dissidence and conspiracy, rumors pass swiftly and stealthily among the townsfolk.
Burke and Glass: Over the past 18 months, nine bodies have been discovered at the corner of Burke Way and Glass Street, each an upright citizen with his or her throat neatly cut and bearing the same note pinned to their flesh. Although the Wallguard has tried to suppress rumors about a killer stalking the town and made placebo arrests they claim close the case, the deaths continue. Now, members of the Wallguard maintain nightly vigil at Burke and Glass, and thrice officers have captured otherwise ordinary people dragging corpses to the corner, seemingly in their sleep. In these cases, as in all previous, the corpses come with the same message: “Regards from K.”
Invasion: While the Foreguard, Canterwall’s border militia, defends the region from most orc raiders, Tamrivena’s people endlessly fear a united orc legion capable of overwhelming their guardians and bringing the full brutal battle-lust of Belkzen to their gates. Lending credence to such fears, stories pass among the Wallguard of Foreguard reconnaissance being withheld from Tamrivena’s council, news warning of mustering orc forces under the banner of the Flayed Skull, a monstrous orc warlord with a taste for human f lesh. Why Captain Quin might be withholding vital information from the city’s legions, few can imagine, but rumor has it that Captain Rhaskikan is already preparing his men for the inevitable battle.