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Regions: Beetu, Arnford, Callistor , The Reeks.

The immense Gnatmarsh and the land south of the Celadon and west of the Duntide is under the supervision of Count Romadnen Beremen, a man viewed by many as a spineless bootlicker whose policy on all problems is to hide and hope they go away. While such a weakling produces few admirers, it also produced few enemies, and quite clean boots for the king. So when the provinces were reorganized, Beremen gained an expanded province.

Brackenmoor has never been particularly fertile, making the province the most depressing, penniless region in all of Nyrond. The people here are poor, fearful folk, who are described as downtrodden, despairing, unfriendly to strangers, surly and inhospitable, quick to lie or conceal anything they own or earn, and certainly not mentioning assets when the taxman is around. On the other hand, the taxman comes frequently as Beremen tries to please the king with a high rate of tax payment. Thieves and rogues flourish. Highwaymen are a real hazard.

Brackenmoor's saving grace is its relationship with the Celadon natives. Thanks to Beremen's craven refusal to anger the forest by excess logging, it maintained good relationships with the elves and woodsmen of the forest, even when Archbold's directives instructed a harsher policy. For this reason, most of the forest trade flows through Beetu.

Beetu

Beetu is the captial of the province and residence of Beremen. The population has increased slightly since Lynwerds administration, from 11000 to 12100 as more trade with the Celadon Forest comes to Beetu. Extra revenues from this trade has also eased the tax burden slightly on the local population. Nevertheless, the locals remain distrustful of the toadying Count and continue to conceal all possessions, and avoid the constabulary. Thieves and rogues flourish.

Arnford

Arnford is a fishing and ferry town on the Duntide below Swans Bore. It suffers greatly from the Count's determination to collect as much taxes as possible, and at one point there was a danger of it becoming a ghost town as people went elsewhere to avoid the taxes. Fortunately corruption came to the rescue and the town has regained much of its one-time population, with severe interruptions.

The cycle has now run several times. First, Beremen sends a new head of militia with instructions to increase collections. Those merchants unlucky enough to be in town with goods or locals who have gotten careless about hiding their goods then suffer disaster. The merchants vanish and the locals become even more vigorous smugglers than normal. Therefore, the collection of taxes drops, as does the local economy. The militia realizes the high tax rate is actually causing less coin to be collected, which makes the Count unhappy and annoying, and informally impose a distinctly lower rate, with a percentage for themselves. The merchants return and the local businessmen become open again. Tax collections go back up and everybody is happy, until the head of the militia becomes a little too greedy and decides that Beremen won't notice if he takes a "little" more of the tax money as his share, or Beremen realizes the head of militia is not collecting the full tax rate, and sends a new head of militia to start the whole cycle over again.

In the "normal" times, livestock from the South come to cross on the way to Beetu, Woodwych, and further areas. In exchange come goods from the Celadon Forest among other places. Part of that is plant extract that is used to dye Arnford rolls, a rich cloth that is appreciated all over Nyrond. Beremen's tax policy had all but destroyed the trade, but it has revived under the corrupt tax collectors. Even now it is seriously hampered, and the cost of the cloth has doubled. The fishing industry has also revived, but still suffers from the changes in militia policy.

The single growth industry has been smuggling. While slipping cattle herds across the river without detection is rarely possible, the locals have learned to move or hide just about everything else. Those wanting to avoid city notice can complain about the cost and the lack of comfort, but not about the difficulty of doing so.

Callistor

A ferry town of 4300 on the lower Duntide. Much like Arnford in the North, it handles trade from the South Coast and Gnatmarsh produce. When the Gnatmarsh is deemed especially dangerous, Shantadern and Shinning White in Eventide get increased trade that ends up here. Here too, the 200 militia have learned the advantages of lower tax rates. Indeed, they learned it earlier than Arnford. The chances for smuggling are distinctly greater here and vigorous attempts to collect high taxes even more self-defeating. But, there are the occasional half-hearted efforts to do so anyway.

The Reeks

A wooden stockade fort in the Gnatmarsh that houses 60 militia when it is fully manned. This is only part of the time. Beremen, seeing little revenue from the fort, neglects it. At one point, it was down to less than half its force, with the survivors little more than feral scavengers.

However, rumors that Prince Sewarndt had taken refugee in the Gnatmarsh produced demands by the king, which Beremen carried out by sending out new troops and putting the fort back in fighting trim. Since then it has suffered a number of periods of neglect, interrupted by bounty whenever a new rumor about the missing Prince puts him in the Gnatmarsh. Actual attempts to find the Prince are quite limited as even a glance convinces all concerned that nobody is found in the Gnatmarsh unless they want to be. This suits Beremen just fine as actual evidence that the Prince is located in the marsh would require vigorous action, something Beremen shrinks from.

When the times are good, the fort patrols over 30 miles of the lower Duntide. These patrols are cut back, and even completely abandoned in bad times. Experienced ship captains arrange convoys during these bad periods. Those that take the risk of solitary voyage are sometimes never heard of again.

The militia here are those Beremen has a grudge against, such as too greedy grafters from Arnford, and volunteers who are unwilling to collect Beremen's excessive taxes. By contrast the Reeks is a terrible post, but it is useful work.

Gnatmarsh

The Nesser River would be the preferred means of travel between the Nyr Dyv and Sea of Gearnat if not for the stinking mires known as the Gnatmarsh, a pathetic, blighted land only nominally claimed by the Kingdom of Nyrond. Though as unpleasant as any swamp, the primary bane of would-be travelers is simple: insects. High grasses and reeds hide hatcheries of stinging bugs, both mundane and giant. Completely bloodless corpses are found floating in the reeds from time to time, leaving many to give thanks that the larger varieties are relatively rare. Folk living in or near the marsh are considered base yokels, primarily due to their filthy living conditions and longstanding tendency toward inbreeding. Superstition and poor education leads to widespread ill-feelings towards any non-humans. These folk brave the inconvenience of minor bites and the possibility of complete desanguination to travel the marsh on flat-bottomed boats, fishing, trapping, harvesting and every once in a while, picking the pockets of the bloated dead. Products frequently sold are swamp hay, trapped animals and birds, and great eels. Living conditions are desparate and dangerous.

A coven of witches is said to dwell at the center of the swamp, but their leader, the so-called Weird of Gnatmarsh, has not been seen since her defeat at the hands of the archmage Warnes Starcoat, many years ago.

Locals use small punts, difficult to control and untrustworthy in the hands of the unskilled. Dangers include cunning lizard men using traps, snares, and spears with poison, troglodytes, ogres, alligators, human bandits, half-orc rebels, and other monsters. A green dragon is rumored to live here, as well as a sunken lich's tomb, swamp water elementals controlled by a magic stone, and other wild rumors fly about. But the great many lesser threats are a good deal more real than rumor. It is a disease-ridden, grim place.

[ Gazetteer ]