Kymal

Glitzy. Gilded. Grimy. The city of Kymal stands as the grumbling ghost of a gold rush boomtown. These days, it's a haven for gamblers and criminals: a city of gold built atop a mountain of mud.
Over two centuries ago, the discovery of rich gold veins within the Ironseat Ridge sent a rush of eager folk to its base. Kymal began life as their base camp, and over the next century grew into a lively, booming city. Gold and minerals came out of Kymal, and all the pleasures of home followed. Music, theater, sex, food, liquor, drugs, trinkets—if you could want it, you could find it in Kymal. Anything you could spend money on was there, and people spent money like the world was ending. The rich binged anything they could get their hands on to pretend they were important, and poor folk indulged in whatever comfort they could find from their wretched existence in a town where money meant everything.
In time, of course, they veins ran dry. Ten years after Kymal boomed into being, it went bust. The miners packed up and left. Not many of them had struck it rich; in fact, most folk were worse off than they had been before. In the intervening centuries, Kymal has gone through too many cycles of boom and bust to count. New veins of gold or mithral or adamantine have been found in the mountains, and people rush in to claim it. Or a cunning entrepreneur comes up with a scheme to put Kymal on the mao—and it works, for a few years, before the con runs its course and people are right back to where they were before.
Most folk here make a modest living in rural villages surrounding Kymal's city center, or traveling the nearby Foramere Basin for fish, and are trying to build interest as a trade center like Westruun, though without much luck. Kymal's most recent change of fortune, however, has yet to run dry. Some seventy years ago, an entrepreneur from Ank'Harel named Calis Krishtan opened a small casino called the Maiden's Wish. It started something of a gold rush of its own, one that continues to this day.
The city has grown over the past seventy years, becoming a hub of entertainment and games of chance in Tal'Dorei. So great was Calis' revival of Kymal that the Tal'Dorei Council appointed his son and heir to the Maiden's Wish, Jaktur Krishtan, the Margrave of Kymal.

Demographics

63% humans, 24% dwarves, 13% other races

Government

Now entering old age, Margrave Jaktur Krishtan is desperately trying to maintain the boom that his father created, while grooming his son to take over his gambling empire. Krishtan has recently made headlines across Tal'Dorei by relinquishing his position of margrave. It's an open secret that Jaktur Krishtan has never had a head for governance, simply enjoying the lavish, gold-plated life his casinos' profits bring him. He could easily have allowed his advisors to continue running Kymal for him while he continued to throw magnificent galas, make nightly appearances at the Maiden's Wish, and put his stamp of approval on glitzy parades down the city's main street.
Investigators have flocked to Kymal to uncover the truth of Margrave Krishtan's sudden change of heart. All suspect that the truth is a salacious secret, one which would shake Kymal to its foundations. Krishtan himself seems unperturbed. He continues to live large as he always have, his detractors don't disparage him any more than usual, and the public that loves him hasn't changed their tune.
Jaktur's former majordomo, an austere tiefling woman named Khavastsa "Prudence" Almiji, has taken up the mantle of Acting Margrave with quiet satisfaction. It is, after all, the title that she should have had for the past thirty years, and she hopes that the Tal'Dorei Council will see fit to appoint her margrave permanently in very short order.

Defences

The acting margrave commands a force of about one thousand armed guards called the Public Defense. Despite the name, they are most often seen stationed around the casinos owned by ex-Margrave Krishtan, or working as bodyguards for Kymal's politicians and wealthy cardsharps. Gold can buy anything in Kymal, even the personal protection of the Public Defense.

Crime

Kymal is no longer the den of crime it once was, but there is still scum beneath its glitzy and imperfect façade. Small-time cutpurses lurk in the shadows, waiting to make off with the small fortunes won by the casinos' luckiest patrons. The war between the Clasp and the Myriad smolders within Kymal as well, but Acting Margrave Almiji has played her cards carefully and intelligently. Through an intricate web of briges, promises, and threats, she has managed to suppress even the faintest trace of gang violence within her city.
Of course, crime still occurs in Kymal. It's just not public and bloody. The Clasp and Myriad both own casinos in town—named the Wishing Well and the Dragon's Hoard, respectively. Not many know of these casinos' less-than-savory proprietorship. Even those who do fail to realize just how deeply rigged its tables are—or how many pickpockets and swindlers hide in plain sight in their gilded halls.
Moreover, the Clasp and Myriad alike have immense illicit drug operations within Kymal. The Public Defense is technically bound to arrest anyone caught selling or possessing these substances, but the bulk of these arrests fall on small-time crooks working for these criminal organizations, almost never the high-ranking members.

Geography

Kymal is built on the rocky foothills of the Ironseat Ridge. Exploring beyond the glamorous city leads one to nothing but a desolate expanse of boulders and scrub-brush.

Type

City

Population

29,440

Location under

Dividing Plains

Owning Organization

Republic of Tal'Dorei