Thonahexus 9
August 31, 2008
May 2008 - Thonahexus thoroughly examines the Kaldoric Succession Crisis.
- Running a Succession Crisis - an article on how a GM could use a succession crisis in his campaign
- Why write this? - Different approaches to the Succession Crisis
- Reactions of other kingdoms - how Kaldor’s throes affect and influence the rest of Hârn
- Analyzing the Kaldoric Succession Crisis: The Prelude - an analysis of the key players and their motives
- Zerula - the first of the Lythian Ports of Call articles
- The Khuzan Diary - a treasure item with a story
edited by Joe Adams
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Tags: game-aides, Kaldor, ThonahexusSetrew
August 30, 2008
Setrew lies in the economic shadow of Olokand and the baron, Wevran Ethasiel, has secretly promised the Sheriff of Meselynshire, Maldan Harabor, his support in any civil war. The baron enjoys playing with fire, but he isn’t trusted by anyone, and Earl Curo has warned him on a number of occasions about his feudal obligations.
by Patrick Nilsson
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Tags: Kaldor, MeselynshireTonot
August 27, 2008
Tonot is the most northerly keep in Kaldor, at the southern terminus of Noron’s Way. Tonot is home to Baron Uthris Pierstel, a warrior renown throughout Kaldor for his love the hunt, although this is having an undesirable effect on his management of his fief.
by J. Patrick McDonald & Patrick Nilsson
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Tags: Kaldor, NephshireHundholt
August 25, 2008
The moot of Fethael Hundred in the Kingdom of Kaldor, Hundholt Manor is a small village on the Silver Way. Along with Getha, Hundholt provides GMs with more information about this sleepy corner of Kaldor.
by Joe Adams
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Tags: Kaldor, NephshireGetha Keep
July 22, 2008
Getha is the largest village in Fethael Hundred. The seat and ancestral home of the Indama clan, this village also provides goods and services to Silver Way caravans and travelers. This article includes two inns and the Baronial Keep as mapped by George Kelln. The details of the village’s Halean temple are included as a separate file. The temple’s regular religious ceremony, the Shesneala, and the Temple’s Feast of Halane are also described. While the personalities and motivations in this article are specific to the temple in Getha, GMs should be able to “re-locate” the temple to other small towns on Hârn (especially eastern Hârn), without too much work.
Whether you are interested in a setting for a caravan as it travels the Silver Way, role-playing adventures at a small fair, or using Getha as a base for your Kaldoric Succession Crisis, this article will give you the scenario and background information that you need.
by Joe Adams
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Tags: Indama, Kaldor, NephshireFethael Hundred Gazetteer
July 21, 2008
Fethael is a small hundred in Nephshire, Kaldor. Home to the Baron of Getha, this small village is a trading town on the edge of the vast, dark Kirsta Forest. This 16 pp. article contains a description of the history, economics, locations, and major personalities in this rural area. Designed from the top down as the backdrop for Joe Adams’ Knights of Kaldor campaign, the Hundred presents a GM with a rich inter-connected area as the setting for adventures or even a campaign. Included in this package is a short essay on the Indama clan. A small but possible integral part of a Kaldoran Succession Crisis, this family is well entrenched in the eastern part of the Kingdom.
by Joe Adams
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Tags: Indama, Kaldor, NephshireKobing Keep
July 18, 2008
Kobing is located in the far south of the Kingdom of Kaldor, and is home to Baron Orsin Firith, Lord Warden of Oselmarch and commander of the Oselmarch Army. The keep and town guard the southern approaches of the kingdom from the ravages of the barbarian nation of the Pagaelin.
Baron Orsin Firith is a powerful noble, with a solid but distant claim to the throne of Kaldor. He rules Kobing firmly, and has petitioned the Crown for the right to establish a stronghold at Oselbridge, where the Genin Trail from Melderyn and Chybisa crossed the Osel River into Kaldor proper. Both petitions have been denied.
This module describes not only the town, keep and people, but also briefly outlines the Oselmarch Army.
by Dave Debien
Contributing Writers: Chris Van Tighem & Patrick Nilsson
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Tags: Firith, Kaldor, OselshireLove at the Spring Fair
July 16, 2008
In this unusual adventure, our hero will meet a noble lady at a fair in Getha. Only by passing her tests and trying to fulfil her ideal of knighthood will the hero win her love. It can accommodate non-nobles as well, and even a number of heroes.
by Joe Adams
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Tags: Adventures, Indama, Kaldor, NephshireNenda
July 16, 2008
Vemionshire’s only river port lies in Nenda, a sedate town with a distinctively Jarin heritage. It is a trading post for trappers and timbermen, and the occasional fortune seeker bound for the ruins north of the Selene River. Nenda lies in Grimruld Hundred and is considered the “mouth of all Vemionshire” by the locals.
by The Vemionshire Foursome
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Tags: Kaldor, VemionshireThe Salt Route Moves
June 29, 2008
In the first part of this “what-if…” series, I looked at Tashal as the home of the Great Summer Fair, and why I think it needs to establish a port capable of handling ocean-going vessels if it is to keep its pre-eminent position in the economic life of Hârn. Now it’s time to look at the consequences of that necessary decision. The following assumes a port has been established at Tuleme Island, and that you have read An Ocean Port for Kaldor.
Economics 101
In all commerce, the driving factor of the price of goods is cost. Well, it could be argued the driving factor is greed, but let’s assume that greed is simply another cost. Let’s try to itemise the cost of a thing:
- raw material
- labour
- wear
- manufacture
- greed (profit), and
- transportation.
Raw materials are seldom free; there are licensing charges, taxes, bribes, and finder’s fees to pay even before you extract the materials. Then you have to pay the labour charges to mine or harvest the materials, and transport them to a market. There are the tools that have to be bought and replaced (wear) and then even these raw materials are usually transformed in some way (smelting, sawing timber into lumber). Secondary industries take these raw materials and transform them further; grass becomes wool becomes cloth, iron ore becomes pig iron becomes a sword or plough, and so on.
All along the way, people are taking their cut (profits, taxes), and so the cost goes up as time goes on. One of the greatest costs is getting the materials from one place to another. It’s one reason that mines usually incorporate a smelter; it’s far cheaper to smelt on-site than transport all that base ore to another place1. The same for timber; transporting cut lumber means that only the valuable material is moved.
The Salt Route and the Rise of Jedes
If transport is a major factor in cost, reducing the cost of transport can mean greater profits…until a competitor undercuts in order to steal a sale. 
Now, let’s assume you are a merchant in Kanday with a load of salt bound for Tashal. You have several dozen mules, many with heavy bags of salt, and the rest with feed for all those mules, muleteers and guards. All of those animals and people are driving up to cost of getting the salt to market, and hence reducing the amount of profit you, as the salt merchant, can make. But there’s this new port in Kaldor and there’s barge traffic going up and down the Kald River all the time. If only you could get your salt onto a barge heading up to Tashal, think of all the savings you could make! You could put the mules out to pasture (no more feed costs! or less, anyway), you could pay off most of the guards, and probably most of the muleteers, too. You’d save thousands! And get to market just as quickly, or even more quickly.
Well, that’s the logic I’m using anyway.
It strikes me that, with an established port at Tuleme Island, there would be an increased flow of river traffic, because barges, like ships, can carry a lot of cargo with very little in the way of labour required. This reduces the cost of transportation enormously, making for greater potential profits. Salt, and especially wool, are very bulky, but low value products. The more you can move with the fewest people doing the moving, the better.
The Salt Route approaches the Kald River before it turns north and heads for the bridge (and safety) at Tashal. In fact, according to the maps, at it’s closest point, it’s only about 10 miles west of Jedes. That’s not very far; about half a day’s travel for a mule train, perhaps. What-if…
What-if is the name of the game in this series, so what if an enterprising merchant decides to split off from the main caravan and head to Jedes to hail one of those passing barges? Or what if an enterprising Kaldoran barge owner hacks a route through the wilderness and sets up a sign on the Salt route itself, and wait for caravans to come on passed, offering cheap barge transportation for their goods from Jedes. “I’m sure you’ll find it cheaper than continuing on up through the Kath-infested wilderness for another tenday, Master Merchant!”
Pretty quickly (I’d say in no more than five years), the Salt Route would terminate at Jedes and all goods from western Hârn would be barged up to Tashal. Efficient and frequent barge travel along the Kald River could transform the communities all along the river, not just Jedes. But that settlement would see a huge growth.
Exactly what kind of growth would Jedes see? That’s the subject of my next post in this series. Hopefully a bit sooner than I was with this one!
What do you think? Is my vision possible? Or can you see flaws in my argument? Have you got an alternative? Then feel free to post a comment!
- This is something the availability of ridiculously cheap energy in to form of fossil fuels has turned upside down in the modern world. Australian iron ore is transported in enormous ships all the way to Japan and China, and the resulting metal goods are shipped back in other enormous ships [↩]