Ravengro

Ravengro NG small town Corruption +0; Crime –1; Economy +0; Law +1; Lore +0;

Society +0 Danger +0

Qualities insular, rumormongering citizens

Disadvantages cursed (haunted, –4 Society)

Demographics Government council

Population 311 (281 humans, 12 halflings, 8 elves, 7 dwarves, 3 half-elves)

Detective Viorec's Dossier

Council of Ravengro:

Councilman Vashan Hearthmount- Retired military. He was granted his position in Ravengro by the Palatine of Canterwall for outstanding service. Vashan is the head of Ravengro's council.

Councilman Mirta Straelock- Native of Ravengro. Former owner of the Outward Inn. The voice of the common man in the town.

Councilman Shanda Faravan -A former royal accuser for the courts of Caliphas. She was disgraced and removed from the courts for allowing a guilty man go free.

Councilman Gharon Muricar- Another ex-military officer under Hearthmount's command. He has ties in Tamrivna and Lepidstadt. A gossip and a "mostly harmless" rake.

Sheriff Benjan Caeller- An honest man and a native to Ravengro. He may have some military scout training. He has an odd fascination with the alchemist Jominda Fallenbridge.

Professor Alendru Ghoroven - Teacher and scribe from Tamrivena, he teaches a small class of local children. he worked closley with Prof. Lorrimor in decoding texts.

Father Vauren Grimburrow- A typical Pharasmin Penitence priest, he has several acoltes to do his day to day affairs. He has also been known to drink far too much.


Ravengro at a Glance
Ravengro was founded in 4594 ar to support Harrowstone, a prison built to answer the growing need for a centralized repository for criminals in the county of Tamrivena (now known as Canterwall). Count Eigen Lorres, one of the last counts to rule Tamrivena before the county switched to its current government, was not a well-liked ruler. In an attempt both to bolster his failing reputation and  bring money into Tamrivena’s coffers, he announced the construction of Harrowstone, a prison that would not only house all of the county’s prisoners (thus removing them from being incarcerated locally), but that for a price, would house dangerous prisoners from all over Ustalav. Count Lorres’s plan worked perfectly—not only was the transfer of criminals out of local jails seen as a boon throughout the county, but other counties also responded well to the invitation, se nding caravans of payments to Tamrivena and caravans of prisoners to Ravengro. The town of Ravengro itself was always intended to be little more than support for the prison. Not only would Ravengro provide a place for the prison’s employees to live, but it would also provide all of the supplies needed by the prison—food, water, tools, weapons for the guards, and anything else necessary.

Historians often point to Harrowstone’s unfortunate destruction in the fire of 4661 as one of the trigger
events that eventually led to the entire region’s bloodless uprising in 4670—the prison’s loss, combined with the government’s inability to rebuild the site (or, more likely, its lack of interest in doing so), certainly disenfranchised the citizens of Ravengro, who by the time the region was ready to abandon hereditary rule were all too eager to accept the new democracy. Since that time, while Harrowstone has remained a constant reminder of darker times, the town of Ravengro has recovered remarkably. Today, the town is a quite healthy farming community blessed with fertile fields and orchards. The town’s chief products are wheat, barley, and corn. Because the town is close to the shore of Lake Lias (“The Great Blue Dot”), Ravengrians can supplement their food stores with fish, but fishing is not sustainable as a commercial enterprise.

Despite their success, Ravengro’s citizens are the town’s greatest hindrances to expansion. Insular, they take some time to warm to strangers and often damage new opportunities for trade with their standoffish attitudes. Yet as hesitant as the townsfolk are to talk to strangers, they are all too eager to talk about them. Rumormongering and gossiping are traditional pastimes among the townsfolk, especially when it comes to strangers. Without a steady supply of unusual visitors to town, they’d be limited to whispers about illicit affairs, unwanted pregnancies, and speculations upon their neighbors’ prosperity—the arrival of strangers in town puts folk in an awkward state, in which their desire to avoid contact with possible troublemakers comes into direct conf lict with their curiosity about new faces. As a result, visitors who make plain their intention to stay in town for more than a day typically receive the bulk of Ravengro’s hesitant curiosity.

Ustalav Overview

The Immortal Principality of Ustalav lies on the northern shore of Lake Encarthan, a grim bastion of civilization amid the barbarian north, where a harsh landscape and a history rich in tragedies inspire a wary population with skepticism, religious devotion, and superstition. A conglomeration of loosely affiliated counties, each run by feuding nobles vying for power and inf luence, Ustalav is a pitiful shell of its former glory, before it was subjugated to centuries of slavery at the hands of the Whispering Tyrant’s undead armies. While the nation’s upper classes struggle to compete with the very nations that abandoned them to fend for themselves after the Whispering Tyrant’s defeat, the average Ustalavic citizen has it much worse.


Hundreds of years of subjugation and the residual horrors that plague the countryside have left the people of Ustalav suspicious of magic, religion, foreigners, and their fellow citizens. Beyond their eccentric and insular qualities, Ustalavs often have a dour worldview. They resign themselves to lives of suffering, seeing nothing in their people’s history to suggest there is any hope for a better life. Despite the physical and psychological strains upon its populace, Ustalav nevertheless fosters extremely hardy and tenacious stock: men and women who firmly believe that no matter how bad it gets, history shows it could always be worse.

Although Ustalav has little to offer its rural peasants, inhabitants of its many metropolitan cities fare somewhat better, and the centers of learning and culture they provide draw trade and travelers from throughout the Inner Sea region. The capital, Caliphas, stands on the banks of Lake Encarthan, and its fog-shrouded streets host some of the nation’s most esteemed centers of trade and academia. In the north, the city of Karcau boasts a thriving culture of music, theater, and other fine arts, and its opulent architecture rivals the excess of even the most exotic Taldan palace. Meanwhile, Ustalav’s northwestern counties have broken from aristocratic rule and formed their own local, democratic government without nobles, calling themselves the Palatinates and providing a glimmer of hope for the downtrodden people of provincial Ustalav.

Ustalav Superstitions

Fog- Spirits and undead travel in deep fogs, most devout Pharasmins will not leave their homes without special holy symbols to ward off the spirits. In remote areas of the Shudderwood it is thought that fogs carry traveling portals to the 1st, or fairy, realm.

Bats- Not only creatures of disease, they are associated with the religion of Urgathoa, goddess of gluttony, undeath and disease. A common hedge witch's remedy for some diseases is to eat the hair of the bat who bit the patient.

Cabinets of Curiosities- Most families have at least one of the cabinets. Most hold a handful of exotic or unusual items. The wiser families use these cabinets to work around the Silver Standard, buying and selling these ... curiosities.

Mirrors- Mirrors in general are believed to reveal some undead as their true form and so are put on walls opposite doorways, such as in entry halls and bedroom windows. It is believed that these undead cannot stand to see their true selves and will not cross the threshold.

Plague Masks- After the Bleak Breath nearly wiped out the city of Kavapesta in 4249 these masks, and the men that wear them, have spread panic and chaos in any city they are sighted in.

Rat Kings of Calaphas- The movement of Ustalav's capitol from Ardis to Caliphas taxed the limits of an already cramped port city. The overcrowding brought crime and death to the poorer districts. Soon stories of grotesque menaces known only as Rat Kings.

Whippoorwills - Common legends use whippoorwills as messengers of the goddess Pharasma. They are said to snap up spirits like small bugs and are found lingering near the dying or fated.

Coins for the Boatman- If a person is rich or powerful enough to have a tomb or crypt to be interred in, coins are placed on the eye sockets of the body and then the face is covered with some type of cloth. These are believed to be payment to the Boatman of the river Styx.

Elves-Many Ustalavs fear any elf who takes up residence in or around human cities. This fear comes from the long life spans of elves, causing some to believe they are vampires in disguise.

Contagion-With so many real monsters and threats and so little real knowledge as to their cause, many people believe that any disadvantageous condition is contagious. Thus conditions such as insanity might be infectious, bad luck can rub off on others, dark fates threaten those around them, and efforts to work against the dark powers invite trouble and retribution. Many people incorrectly believe that Ustalavs are untrustworthy of outsiders; the truth is they are untrustworthy of everyone. Even death is viewed by Ustalavs as dangerous to be around for it is believed spirits and powers vie for the escaping soul…if the creature still had one.

“A Test of Blood”-The different regions of Ustalav all have their own regional test, but almost every county has some version of this “test”. Many locals firmly believe that these tests affirm if someone is or isn’t under some form of magical spell or compulsion. Some counties have additional superstitions and home remedies that indicate if someone is diseased or cursed. Depending on how well received a traveler to these counties is determines the difficulty of said tests. “If she floats like a duck…”

Animals-Most animal superstitions have to do with bad luck, such as cats being able to see one’s sins or foxes being red because the first fox was born amid the flames of hell. Thus it is typically considered unlucky to cross paths with or bring harm to such creatures. Many animals are also said to be allies of the dead, with crow eyes being a windows through which the dead can peer and whippoorwills heralding a coming death (finding a dead whippoorwill can be especially bad luck). Dogs, hawks, and horses, however, are the focus of many good superstitions, as their keen sense of smell, sight, or bestial intuition can alert their owners to evil before it strikes. Forge works and the craft of civilization are also said to combat the base savagery of beasts, and so silver and cold-forged iron are used in making many weapons and talismans that gird those forced to travel the wilds.

Fortune Telling- Although most dismiss casting bones, reading tealeaves, and interpreting storm patterns as the diversions of charlatans and the unbalanced, Ustalavs treat spirit boards and Harrow cards with a respectful suspicion. Most believe in these tools’ ability to commune with spirits or divine hints of the future, but also know fearful stories of dreadful powers unleashed by inexpert users. Thus, the common folk tend to avoid such divinations-and magic in general-except for in times of most dire need.

Graves-Just because something’s dead doesn’t mean it’s gone. Ustalavs hold great respect for the dead, and fear their return. Graves, crypts, mausoleums, and headstones are treated as the homes of those interred, and those who defile such places garner the ire of those within. Potter’s fields and grave shrines are often situated at crossroads, so that unquiet spirits become lost on the road rather than terrorizing their home communities. It’s also common for the corpses of the wicked or those who died mysteriously to be wrapped in chains, laden with rocks, or planted vertically or upside down, all to deter the dead from returning. The poor of Ustalav also commonly cremate their dead, and it’s said that a pinch of a loved one’s ashes sprinkled across a threshold or mixed into clay or mortar protects a place from wandering spirits.

Legacy Item III

The Black Sheep's Hilt- Not much is known about the Black Sheep. His name is whispered in dark places, and most law abiding people don't even believe he is real. Any item related to the Black Sheep has carried bad luck for it's owner. The current item is now on loan to House Galdana.

 

Legacy Items II

 The Key to the Minds Eye

Dr. Timothy's Pipe 

 Desna's Remorse

Black Tom's Top Hat

Legacy items

The Key to the Mind"s Eye- An old iron skeleton key hung on a leather thong. While it has no magical aura its owners have never parted with it ... willingly.
Dr. Timothy's Pipe- A long slim wooden pipe, made in the far, far east and used to smoke a mixture of exotic spices and incense. It's mouthpiece is made from worked silver, and the pipe itself is carved from a dark fragrant wood.
Desna's Remorse- A family heirloom past from father to son. A silvered gladius suspected of magical properties. It's pommel is wrapped in a fine black silk and is capped with a moonstone.
Black Tom's Top Hat- A ragged black top hat worn by the notorious Black Tom. Most noted for never falling off his head ... until his head was removed .

Cast of Characters

Detective (tod)
Inspector (don)
Alchemist (travis)
Infiltrator (tony)
Magus (troy/marc)