Aratosa

The northernmost city in the City-States Region , Aratosa is the mining capital of the north. Situated against the mountains rising between The Great Plateau and the coastal flats, Aratosa has access to many rich veins of metal which have been mined for generations.

City of Smoke

A mining and smelting town, in the extreme north of the City-states region, Aratosa supplies metals to much of the northern human lands. Over half of the town’s output goes to supply the Mercenary Guild's weapons manufacturing and construction equipment, while the remainder is spread across the City-states’ building needs as well as various small equipment craftsmen (i.e. wagons, farm implements).
Aratosa is nestled up against the foothills that fall away from the cliffs that line the edge of the Great Plateau. While the land surrounding Aratosa is generally poor it is the cliffs that allow the town to survive and flourish. The hills and cliffs are rich in metal of several varieties, many of which are useful to the economy of the City-States, the power of the Mercenary Guild, or even to the arcane uses of the Mages. Selling the metals in various forms provides the towns’ leadership with the riches that enable Aratosa to quietly be one of the better-off communities in the whole region.

The town is consistently covered in a smoky haze (and a soft orange glow at night) from the large smelters operating continuously, and the hiss of hot metal being poured into molds sporadically fills the air. The air at ground level is completely clear, however, as the town has a contract with an air mage who maintains a long-duration “clean air” spell that pushes all of the smoke twelve feet into the sky. Unlike their counterparts to the south, where the metal varieties are less valuable, Aratosans cannot be identified by a constant covering of soot or the smell of sulfur. While their choice of clothing is frequently utilitarian in nature, they do not obviously stand out as miners or smelters when seen outside of the town.

Leadership

Aratosa is unique amongst the City-States in that it does not have a strong noble presence. The wealth of the mines has enabled those astute in business (or lucky in prospecting) to rise to a leadership position within the town. The town is ruled by a council of varying size. The size varies because gaining membership is as simple as living in Aratosa for at least a year and paying a (very high) membership fee - a fee which increases as the size of the council increases. In general the fee is affordable to any fairly effective town businessman, but if the council gets large it becomes more difficult to accrue the wealth required. This structure was designed to limit the size of the council while making it easy to “restock” the council should a large number of members retire or die within a short period of time.
The council membership fee is split evenly between the town’s treasury and the pockets of the existing council, and a council seat is held for the life of the council member. Seats are not inheritable: when a member retires or dies, that seat is not passed on to surviving family members. If two or more prospective members wish to join the council at the same time, the one whose commerce license was purchased earlier (has the lower number) has priority and the second must pay the higher price.

The sole exception to the council fee is the town’s single noble family. The Aratos family founded the town two hundred years ago as a family retreat, and while the original mines fell outside of their domain (thus ensuring that they did not gain much wealth from the eventual booming of the town) they are still honored with a hereditary seat on the council. The nature of the council prevents the current noble, Mishla Toren-Aratos, from exercising much power, but her education under a prominent priest of the Virtues gave her a gift for conciliation. She is often in the middle of faction disagreements, working out compromises that keep the town running smoothly.
The current council consists of fourteen members: Toren-Aratos, seven mine owners, three smelting house heads, two shipping agents, and a single seat held by a retired Mercenary Guild sergeant.

Aratosa Adventure Hooks

Old Aratosa

In the hills above the town, the first iteration of Aratosa sits, a ghost town of old foundations and fallen walls. The town moved further down into the lowlands when it got too big for the valley and when a nearby mine ran out of material. A recent landslide reformed the sides of a couple of hills, and in the process, a tunnel was formed. This new tunnel started spawning strange, ghostly creatures that have started haunting the old ruin. Explorative children that enjoy sneaking up to Old Aratosa have reported seeing these creatures but adults in the town have been disbelieving.
In reality, the newly-formed tunnel bridged the wall of a time-seal on an ancient battlefield from the Dragonscourge. Ghosts from this battlefield have found this hole and escaped; inside the time-seal, an eternal battle rages between the undead and ghostly forces of humans, elves, and dragonkin, no side able to win and neither able to lose.
The magic of the battlefield cannot be dispelled (it is an offshoot of the dangerous magics unleashed during the Dragonscourge) but the spirits can be laid to rest by the removal of the objective of the original battle: a weapon that was wielded by a great dragonkin commander. Removing this focus from the field will break the spirits’ hold on the place, freeing them from their eternal fight.

Bandits: An Inside Job

One of the council members is feeding inside information to a bandit gang that preys upon the shipping south out of Aratosa. In exchange for a cut of the profits, as well as a guarantee that his shipments will be left alone, he acquires lists of shipment contents as well as the guard contingents being hired from the Mercenary Guild. This information allows the bandits to make targeted raids on caravans with minimum risk and maximum profit, while damaging the competitors of the council member and increasing his own profit.
A shipping manager, one without a council seat, has become frustrated with the apparently perfect tactical anticipation of the bandits. He’s made several shipments that have been taken; in the last one a survivor was able to return and explain how the Guild guards were drawn into the forest and slain by an ambush while a second group drove off the wagons. He is down to one last shipment that can save his business, but he’s not sure if he can be confident in the Guild’s abilities. A group of adventurers, with a more flexible mindset and powerful abilities, might be what he’s looking for.