0807 — The Valley Collaboration

The river valley of the wilds is full of craggy hills, cliffsides of stone that form spires and canyon walls which loom overhead as the land descends towards the water. Humans further shaped this rocky landscape, pulling the stone forth to build their bridges, homes, walls. Some of these stones would find themselves vast distances away, across mountains and oceans.

Some found their resting place much closer to the quarries they came from: the walls of this ancient fortress-town are directly connected to huge slablike pillars of rock left behind by quarrying. To walk a full circuit of the walls involves passing through a total of five rough tunnels in the stone. The central fortress itself overlooks several market plazas and efficiently packed multi leveled dwellings, all constructed of a combination of local stone and brick made from river clay.

This was the first of the abandoned cities of the wilds to be found by prisoners exiled from the Wall of Catage, and the most densely populated. Its proximity to the river and the good repair of the old but sturdy buildings made it attractive to settle and repurpose. A multi-decade effort was made to turn it from a desolate camping place into a functioning town, giving it the distinction of being the first place in the wilds to be called “The Collaboration” by its denizens (“Valley” added when it became clear that this was the new colloquialism for ruined/abandoned cities reclaimed by the prisoners).

When conflict in the Thickets Collaboration (0208) between anarchist and royalist factions came to a head resulting in the expulsion of many royalists, a large number of those expelled moved to the Valley Collaboration and masterminded their own expulsion of anarchists from the town. It now is the main bastion of royalist sentiment in the wilds, and it is typically covered in iconography of the exiled royal family – these range from old battle standards and finery saved by royalist soldiers to homemade flags of canvas daubed with whatever pigment is at hand to crudely painted graffiti directly on the walls of buildings. Images of King’s Dogs are common, as are maroon and gold colors.

The governance of the Valley Collaboration is overseen by Lionel (he/him), styled “the Loyal” by himself and those aligned with him. He claims to have contact with a member of the exiled Lavalle-Fontaine family, though he refuses to divulge which member and where they are located, “lest the villains arrayed against them use that knowledge to doom our good and rightful rulers and the rest of us with them.”

Cooperation with interested parties in Catage and Riccamino allows a flow of trade through the town. At the start of a campaign, it can provide most mundane services of a town as described in The Nightmares Underneath, except for printing. It is particularly known for producing grain and flour (proximity to a working windmill in 0906 is a great boon), and for brick and clay work.

The population is around 600.

Some notable denizens and locations:

Adhira (she/her) is a former worshipper of the nightmares, having been the former priest of the River Temple. Her faith has been shaken, and she cannot yet decide whether a return to priesthood or the destruction of the nightmare is a better revenge on the one who ousted her.

Hare House maintains a lodge here, their biggest foothold. They are lead by Cormac (he/him), an old veteran of the civil war of Catage. The cult offers their magic and hunting expertise to the community for a price, and as a result they have significant sway over Lionel the Loyal and his governance. The lodge itself is one of the few buildings to be wholly new construction, and is lavishly painted and furnished. They are willing to pay a large amount of coin (or perform other servicces) for fine foods, going so far as to outbid or intimidate other wealthy spenders. Unlucky travelers who vanish at night in the hills outside the city are usually blamed on curses and monsters, but a notable number of them are victims of Hare House ritual hunts.

Ambassador Sala (he/him) of Riccamino and his dozen bodyguards rent a building in the city from the governer. His mission is to determine the viability and outcomes possible from arming any given Catagean faction against the others. The ambassador has a 50% chance of being present, away at the Riccaminoan fleet if not. Even when he is absent the building is used by Occult-Futurist spies and scouts for safety and storage.

The local members of the Stokers of the Hearth-Firmament cult are unknowingly host to members of the Adepts of the Flame assassin order.

The module City of Poison fits well into one of the abandoned plazas of the fortress-town, though with some details changed — I adjust the identity of the painter central to it to be the wizard-artist forced long ago to produce magical works of art for the former king Runalt, rather than an artist contemporary to the players time.