The Fall of Civilization

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.

The year is 2526 by the Sword Calendar. Eleven years after the fall of Arawn the Black, violence erupts between the orcs and the dwarves of Black Gorge. A group of dwarves allied with Clan Orcslayer colludes with some former soldiers from the army in an attempt to wipe out the orcish population.* This fails, which results in a period of increased tension and frequent skirmishing between the dwarves and the orcs, with Fandelose ostensibly neutral, but most of the people taking the dwarves' side.

That October, after a year-long illness, General Argos dies. He is replaced by General Laktesh, who takes the title “Argos”.

The conflict between the orcs and dwarves simmers for two years before the orcs of the gorge ally with a tribe of kobolds, who undermine a section of the city's wall, destroying one of the towers. After an orcish salient penetrates the Lower District but is repelled, the city sues for peace; this badly damages the relationship between the city and the dwarves.

By the time the conflict has been hot for five years, though the dwarves have won more battles than they have lost, the orcs have significantly reduced their numbers. It's an old, familiar problem: the dwarves can win the war, but the orcs will have replaced their losses in a decade and a half, while the dwarves will need a century or more. As usually happens when the natives of the Black Gorge fight, cooler heads finally start to prevail. Clan Firestone gains political ascendancy among the dwarves, and Clan Firestone is for peace.

Clan Firestone manages to negotiate a treaty with the orcs. The terms are punishing and expensive for the dwarves, ceding territorial rights over much of the gorge and many of the best gold claims therein to the orcs, as well as requiring huge payments of gold, weapons and armor.

In the city, new elections for the Bronze Council come, with a largely anti-military slate of representatives being elected. Feeling betrayed by the city's willingness to exit the conflict with the orcs prematurely, the council's advisory representative from the dwarves leaves in a huff. Subsequently, his position is removed from the council.

The next year, early in 2531 SC, sixteen years after the end of the Six-Fingered Hand, the dwarves stop exporting firestone to Fandelose.

Firestone is the primary fuel of the city. There is wood available outside of the walls, but the combination of the danger of being outside the walls and the lack of easy transportation makes replacing all the firestone a harrowing prospect.

Over time, supplies dwindle.

The undermined section of the wall is finally rebuilt by late 2533 SC, but it collapses after only a few weeks. There is a public uproar. Sabotage is suspected. The Bronze Council begins an investigation.

The next spring, a hobgoblin army encamps outside the city gates, demanding a tribute of rice. They fly the scarlet fist banner. Meanwhile, the investigation into the collapse of 2533 has discovered that the problem is lack of funding for the military; they had inadequate money, manpower and material. Corners had been cut to meet budgetary constraints and deadlines. It is a tremendous scandal, especially with a hostile hobgoblin force camped not far from the Breach. In the midst of this crisis, the council pays the hobgoblins' tribute. They withdraw, but return again the next spring- and the Breach is not yet repaired.

Now officially calling itself the Scarlet Fist, the hobgoblin army seems to have grown. Representatives ride up from the plains to demand tribute again, this time in rice and gold, making it clear that this is to become an annual tradition. Without an intact wall, the Bronze Council again accedes.


The council elections in October are hard-fought, with a strong debate between fear of the horrors of war (especially without a complete wall) and a desire that the city stand up to aggressors and defend itself. Many of the veterans of the Fall are now old or dead; the city elects two pro-military and two pro-appeasement representatives. With those from the military and the warforged, the military dominates the agenda. Taxes are raised, money pours into rebuilding the wall, and recruitment increases.

Early in 2536, the new Bronze Council steps up recruitment even further by impressing people into service to protect against the inevitable appearance of the Scarlet Fist. When the hobgoblins appear in the late spring, the military refuses to pay their ransom, attempting to guard the breach in the wall.

This proves disastrous. The new troops are barely trained and unblooded, whereas the Scarlet Fist has had years of experience that has honed it like a knife. The city's soldiers are no match for the brutal hobgoblins, who force their way through and into the city and occupy the northeast corner of the Lower District. It is only the timely intervention of an orcish relief force that hits the Fist from behind that saves the city from a sack. After pressuring the hobgoblins, the orcs withdraw, but the message is clear. The hobgoblins cut their way free of Fandelose; the city pays a smaller than expected ransom, and the Fist withdraws.

Over the next year, political tensions rise as the Bronze Council debates expanding or shrinking the franchise, and demonstrations against the military government become ever larger and more violent. In an attempt to mollify the mob, the franchise is withdrawn from members of the army (but then, they have their own unelected representatives automatically placed on the council, anyway). It isn't enough, and it leads many of the soldiers to stand aside when the crowds finally grab up and depose Argos Laktesh.

But the restoration of civilian government sees the tax burden reduced, the rich rewarded with exemptions and special considerations, the policy of impressment being revoked, and the discharge of many soldiers back to civilian life. In short, the army is emasculated. The number of representatives elected by the people is increased to twelve, and envoys are dispatched to the dwarves with official, sincere, and grave apologies.

Dwarves can hold a grudge for centuries, but for the moment, they let it go. Firestone imports into the city resume.

For the next several years, the Bronze Council pursues a policy of compromise and consensus. Hkatha finds himself serving on the council, and the city agrees to pay a light tribute to the Scarlet Fist each year through 2540 SC, during which time it focuses on rebuilding the wall and sealing the Breach.

It is now twenty-five years since Arawn the Black was slain.

Relations between the dwarves, the orcs, and city are damaged all around when an attempt by some members of Clan Orcslayer to frame the orcs for interfering with the firestone trade backfires.**

To everyone's surprise, the Scarlet Fist doesn't show up in the spring- a good thing, since the work on the wall still isn't finished. The hobgoblins still haven't shown up by the October elections. The new year's Bronze Council immediately sets to legislating a reversal of the policies binding many of the city's farmers to their plots. The attempt bogs down in endless debate when the army's reprsentatives refuse to agree. This is met with more massive protests, with the farmers forming a formal association to advocate for them.

The next spring comes, and still there is no Scarlet Fist. Work on the Breach is finally complete, though.

A group of two dozen farmers, protesting what they call their enserfdom, emigrate to Red Bank, and a mass of spontaneous protesters prevents the army from stopping them. The council debates taking action to force them back to the lands they are supposed to be bound to, but again, cannot reach consensus. That winter, food is scarce; the people are hungry, though few starve.

Without outlying farms and villages, famine is a huge threat.

In early spring, the city sends a small army detachment to force the farmers in Red Bank to return and comply with their obligations to the city. The group is devastated before it can even reach the small village when a bullette attacks it. A few of the survivors flee to Red Bank and join them, providing it with a meager milita.

Finally, in the spring of 2543, twenty-eight years after the fall of Arawn, the Scarlet Fist returns. Fandelose agrees to pay them light tribute as long as they leave both the city and Red Bank alone for the year. The hobgoblins agree, providing that the city agrees to make it a five-year deal. Grudgingly, the Bronze Council ratifies the deal. Hkatha, who is part of the negotiating team working on behalf of the city, is startled to learn that the hobgoblin general is the son of Heshwat the Eviscerator, the general from whom Heimall took Throat-Ripper, his magical glaive.

The next year, riots over taxes (raised again) and inflexible conditions for the farmers are met with a military crackdown. The army is put in impossible positions over and over again. In the end, several groups of soldiers disobey orders in order to quash burgeoning violence. A dozen rioters die, leaving the army deeply unpopular and very unhappy about the quality of its (civilian) leadership. Worse yet, the tensions don't subside, but only grow worse when the worst possible compromise is passed into law, and the farmers are formally and legally bound to their plots.

Anti-army sentiment reaches a fever pitch in the city, and the next year, when the October elections return an almost completely anti-army slate of councilors, most of who campaigned together on a promise to try members of the military for the decisions made by their civilian leaders, many of the officers plan a coup. Heimall speaks out against it, but can't prevent it. All he can do is try to direct it to minimize loss of life.

The Bronze Council is dissolved. The city, too, dissolves into chaos. Heimall's military government tries to keep a lid on dissent without using the harsh tactics that the civilian government had used, but after a fire starts that burns down a section of the Bronze District, they are forced to institute curfews and restrict gatherings. This just leads to more unrest and bigger protests, and of course, it is right then that the Scarlet Fist arrives, demanding its tribute. The army is defiant. The riots grow worse; the hobgoblins attack, and the army has to put the riots down forcefully before turning to repel the hobgoblins, who besiege the city from March to July of 2546 before breaking off and leaving.

That October, Heimall holds new elections and leaves the city for parts unknown before the results are tallied. However, he never technically steps down. The elections once again return a rabidly anti-army, pro-war-crimes-trial slate. The army grows ever more worried as the new year approaches, and finally, on New Year's Eve, Otto Heinrickson, Heimall's son, steps up and installs himself as Argos, then annuls the elections.

The next year sees riot after riot, protest after protest. Otto cracks down harshly, but when the Scarlet Fist arrives, he chooses to pay the tribute. The unrest makes any other path too risky, especially when neither the orcs nor the dwarves can be relied upon to assist the city in the event of battle.

By early 2548, the unrest has finally died down. The entire city is exhausted. When the Scarlet Fist arrives, Otto pays them, but refuses the renew the tribute agreement. Everyone knows that next year, there will be conflict.

Of course, just weeks after the Scarlet Fist leaves the area, the Breach collapses again.

This story hour is continued in the Final City.

*This was actually a playtest game for 5e! The colluding dwarves and old soldiers were all pcs.

**Another 5e playtest game, and again, the pcs were directly responsible for all of this.