the Jester
Legend
After returning to Fandelose, our heroes receive the plaudits and accolades that they deserve, then settle into the long task of trying to keep the city alive.
Without Arawn, nothing can hold the Six-Fingered Hand together. The once monolithic forces of the savage humanoids begin to squabble among themselves, and in a matter of months, they are actively making war on one another.
And there is no place left for them to loot. When winter comes, without food, the Six-Fingered Hand begins to starve.
Within another three years, any hope that the savage races might pull together under a strong leader has been lost. However, so has any hope that there are other surviving outposts of civilization that might be contacted, that might form alliances with Fandelose. If such places exist, there is no way to know; no way to reach them, with the number of rampaging tribes of former Hand soldiers.
***
By this time, most of our heroes are semi- or fully retired. Things are going well enough; there has been no further major attack on the city, and despite the terrible dangers still threatening them, General Argos is making real moves toward a return of civilian rule.
Indeed, four years after the fall of Arawn the Black, General Argos returns power to the Bronze Council, which (in its newly reconstituted form) is to consist of ten members elected by (and generally from) the old nobility, ten appointed by the military (for the next century, the military delegation must include at least one warforged from the Cathedral of War), and twenty elected by people of means. Each member would serve for ten years.
Hkatha has always been a political man. He is the rising star of his noble house, and now he begins to work to extend the franchise to all citizens of the city, succeeding within a year. Meanwhile, the soldiers who fought in the Fall of the Empire, as the war is now being called, are retiring in ever-greater numbers. Some people, including both General Argus and Heimall, try to persuade the city of the need to keep its defenses strong, but with the crisis past, many people simply no longer wish to put their lives on the line on a sometimes daily basis. By the end of the fifth year after Arawn's destruction, the army is only about one-third the size it was during the Fall.
Seven years after the death knight was put down, a well-organized and highly disciplined army of several thousand hobgoblins attacks the city, emerging from the plains to the south without warning. The hobgoblin army besieges the city for several months, and only a valiant defense led by the old heroes manages to repel the hobgoblin assault and break the siege. The hobgoblins fly a banner depicting a scarlet fist, and it is by this sigil that they become known.
The Bronze Council falls into squabbling disagreements about how much money and manpower to devote to the army.
The next winter, food shortages lead to riots. Several square blocks of the city are burnt. A faction of the Bronze Council, led by Bridget Willow, tries to remove the franchise from “the mob”, but when the people hear rumors of it, there is a convulsion of social violence, ending only when General Argos comes out of retirement and seizes control of the city once again.
“I'm too old for this,” he tells Heimall.
***
In the ninth year since the destruction of Arawn the Black, General Argos attempts to reform the Bronze Council. He revises the number of reprsentatives and how they are chosen, giving the people more weight on the council and inviting the dwarves of Black Gorge to send an advisory member. He reduces the length of the term a councilor serves to five years. He restricts the voting franchise, removing it from criminals, those with the blood of any of the Six-Fingered Hand's races, the insane, and the unemployed- a huge number, in the city. He restricts farmers from emigrating for the duration of the famine and the political crisis. Finally, he holds elections and announces that he'll hand power over to the new Bronze Council on New Year's Day.
This goes smoothly. Thanks to his anti-emigration policy, the famine abates by the next summer.
The tenth year after Arawn's death is the time of an awful lesson. A group of emigrants try to found a small town, which they call Kratalos, about 20 miles southeast of Fandelose. All contact with them is lost in but a few weeks. When an expedition goes to see what has become of them, they find a tribe of lizardfolk with grisly trophies. None of the would-be settlers has survived.
It's not the only time that anyone has tried to settle outside of the city- the settlement at Red Bank is a persistent thorn in the side of the authorities- but it is the largest single attempt. Almost two hundred people are lost.
It is an uncomfortable lesson. The world, as it is now, is too dangerous for people to expand. The world is covered in darkness, and only a few- perhaps only one- points of light remain.
Without Arawn, nothing can hold the Six-Fingered Hand together. The once monolithic forces of the savage humanoids begin to squabble among themselves, and in a matter of months, they are actively making war on one another.
And there is no place left for them to loot. When winter comes, without food, the Six-Fingered Hand begins to starve.
Within another three years, any hope that the savage races might pull together under a strong leader has been lost. However, so has any hope that there are other surviving outposts of civilization that might be contacted, that might form alliances with Fandelose. If such places exist, there is no way to know; no way to reach them, with the number of rampaging tribes of former Hand soldiers.
***
By this time, most of our heroes are semi- or fully retired. Things are going well enough; there has been no further major attack on the city, and despite the terrible dangers still threatening them, General Argos is making real moves toward a return of civilian rule.
Indeed, four years after the fall of Arawn the Black, General Argos returns power to the Bronze Council, which (in its newly reconstituted form) is to consist of ten members elected by (and generally from) the old nobility, ten appointed by the military (for the next century, the military delegation must include at least one warforged from the Cathedral of War), and twenty elected by people of means. Each member would serve for ten years.
Hkatha has always been a political man. He is the rising star of his noble house, and now he begins to work to extend the franchise to all citizens of the city, succeeding within a year. Meanwhile, the soldiers who fought in the Fall of the Empire, as the war is now being called, are retiring in ever-greater numbers. Some people, including both General Argus and Heimall, try to persuade the city of the need to keep its defenses strong, but with the crisis past, many people simply no longer wish to put their lives on the line on a sometimes daily basis. By the end of the fifth year after Arawn's destruction, the army is only about one-third the size it was during the Fall.
Seven years after the death knight was put down, a well-organized and highly disciplined army of several thousand hobgoblins attacks the city, emerging from the plains to the south without warning. The hobgoblin army besieges the city for several months, and only a valiant defense led by the old heroes manages to repel the hobgoblin assault and break the siege. The hobgoblins fly a banner depicting a scarlet fist, and it is by this sigil that they become known.
The Bronze Council falls into squabbling disagreements about how much money and manpower to devote to the army.
The next winter, food shortages lead to riots. Several square blocks of the city are burnt. A faction of the Bronze Council, led by Bridget Willow, tries to remove the franchise from “the mob”, but when the people hear rumors of it, there is a convulsion of social violence, ending only when General Argos comes out of retirement and seizes control of the city once again.
“I'm too old for this,” he tells Heimall.
***
In the ninth year since the destruction of Arawn the Black, General Argos attempts to reform the Bronze Council. He revises the number of reprsentatives and how they are chosen, giving the people more weight on the council and inviting the dwarves of Black Gorge to send an advisory member. He reduces the length of the term a councilor serves to five years. He restricts the voting franchise, removing it from criminals, those with the blood of any of the Six-Fingered Hand's races, the insane, and the unemployed- a huge number, in the city. He restricts farmers from emigrating for the duration of the famine and the political crisis. Finally, he holds elections and announces that he'll hand power over to the new Bronze Council on New Year's Day.
This goes smoothly. Thanks to his anti-emigration policy, the famine abates by the next summer.
The tenth year after Arawn's death is the time of an awful lesson. A group of emigrants try to found a small town, which they call Kratalos, about 20 miles southeast of Fandelose. All contact with them is lost in but a few weeks. When an expedition goes to see what has become of them, they find a tribe of lizardfolk with grisly trophies. None of the would-be settlers has survived.
It's not the only time that anyone has tried to settle outside of the city- the settlement at Red Bank is a persistent thorn in the side of the authorities- but it is the largest single attempt. Almost two hundred people are lost.
It is an uncomfortable lesson. The world, as it is now, is too dangerous for people to expand. The world is covered in darkness, and only a few- perhaps only one- points of light remain.