Каер Кониг - Caer Konig
"I remember a pair of dwarf lasses in Mirabar - sisters, they were. Couldn't stand each other, and always fightin'. Funny thing was, they were exactly alike! That's Caer-Konig an' Caer-Dineval to a tee. Too busy fightin' over their differences to realize how much they got in common. Ah, well. Every time they fought, I'd be havin' to go an' comfort one or th' other of 'em. The sisters, I mean."Perched precariously between the slopes of Kelvin's Cairn and the waters of Lac Dinneshere is the town of Caer-Konig, its terraced rows of houses climbing up the lake's edge like the steps of an amphitheater. Visitors sailing in on the ferry from Easthaven or Caer-Dineval can just make out the crumbled ruins of the caer that gave the town its name littering the slopes above the last row of houses. Although it's possible to get to Caer-Konig by following the trail along the lakeside, only the most committed caravanners bother to do so. Most people come by way of the ferry, if they come at all - Caer-Konig being considered, as some call it, "the poor man's Caer-Dineval." (Natives of Caer-Konig, naturally, charge their brethren in Caer-Dineval with coining that turn of phrase.) Only two groups visit the town with regularity. The first is adventurers, who use Caer-Konig as a base of operations for excursions into Kelvin's Cairn. The second group is the dwarves of the valley, who, when they have cause to leave their home, generally do so by way of Daledrop, which is closer to Caer-Konig than any other of the ten towns.
The Ruined Caer
After Caer-Dineval was taken back from the orcs, the people of that town decided to set up an outpost farther up the lakeside that could spot any approaching raiders from the north and signal the inhabitants in time for them to fight or flee. They chose a site at the neck of Icewind Pass where the defenders would have the best chance of spotting anyone crossing the open tundra. There, they built a wooden fortress like the castle at Caer-Dineval and named it for their leader who had proposed the project - Caer-Konig. The new stronghold was not like the one at Caer-Dineval in every respect. That one had been constructed by trained workers under the capable hand of a master builder who had been hired for the task. The new one was raised by stout-hearted warriors who put great effort into its construction but did not know how deep to sink the pylons to keep a thirty-foot wall from being bent by the wind, or how to pile loose stones around the wall's base to keep snow runoff from eroding the earthen foundation. Already dilapidated after only a few seasons, the caer offered no protection to its garrison when the next band of orc raiders came down Icewind Pass. The defenders fled to Caer-Dineval, and the orcs razed the useless structure to the ground. Nothing if not proud, the people of Caer-Dineval quickly took back Caer-Konig (much as they had done with their own castle), and before long a new settlement had sprouted at the site of the northern stronghold. The fortress of Caer-Konig has been rebuilt several times since then, always to fall to the depredations of war or weather. It's been over a generation since the last time the caer was raised, and although few people left in town remember a time when the fort still stood, its decrepit state is a sore spot with many of the locals - especially given the contrast with the proud bastion of Caer-Dineval.Rival to Caer-Dineval
Whatever amity might have existed between Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval disappeared with the opening of the ivory trade with the cities of the south. The bounty of Lac Dinneshere, which had always supplied the two towns with more than enough fish to eat, suddenly became a valuable commodity. For generations, the rivalry between Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval has been the stuff of local legend in Ten-Towns, and many meetings of Bryn Shander's council have been taken up by arguments between the towns' speakers over fishing rights or, indeed, anything else that might be construed as a market advantage for one town or the other. All this changed recently with the alliance struck between Alden, the speaker of Caer-Konig, and Crannoc, his counterpart in Caer-Dineval. Hewing to the terms of an old agreement ratified by the council generations ago over the fishing rights on Lac Dinneshere, the speakers of the two towns have joined forces to contain the threat posed by Easthaven's growing fleet of vessels. For the first time that anyone can remember, the fishers of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval observe an uneasy truce, working side by side (if not exactly together) to keep Easthaven's boats off the lake north of the Shander Line - the imaginary line running due east from Bryn Shander that was identified as the farthest extent of Easthaven's waters. Old grudges die hard, however, and the folks of Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval don't exactly have a history of mutual trust. Many people in both towns are dissatisfied by the arrangement, and the residents of Caer-Konig are especially suspicious of Alden's motives in working with Crannoc. Many of the fishers have begun to feel that Alden sold them out, and some think the town should negotiate a new accord with Easthaven. They know that Caer-Konig would have to give up some of its waters, but they hope that by colluding with Easthaven they could draft an agreement that would be far more punishing to Caer-Dineval than it would be to Caer-Konig, which would suit the spiteful townsfolk just fine.Goods and Services
The Northern Light
is Caer-Konig's inn, where visiting traders stay before making the return journey to Easthaven or Bryn Shander, and where adventurers rest between expeditions to Kelvin's Cairn. The inn's name refers to its door lamp, a magical lantern that was enspelled by a visiting wizard decades ago. It glows with a light that slowly shifts from green to red to blue, resembling the iridescent ribbons of color that sometimes dance across the night sky this far north. The inn is kept by two sisters. The younger, Allie, is lithe and charming, and she greets guests, showing them to their rooms. The older, Cori, is stout and scowling; she sees to the inn's provisioning and does all the cooking. Guests often hear the sisters arguing late into the night, Allie accusing Cori of spending the inn's profits on needless luxuries such as goose-feather pallets and expensive spices for her meats and stews, and Cori accusing Allie of not knowing how to run an inn and thinking she can charm people into throwing their money away. After they run out of things to fight about, the sisters go off to their beds, and then get up the next day to do it all over again.Hook, Line, and Sinker
, a tavern on Caer-Konig's market square, is easily the busiest establishment in town. The tavern owes its popularity to the free halfpints that the owner, Eglendar, keeps on a table by the front door. He presses one into the hand of every person who stops by. Eglendar hit on the idea after spending a long time watching most of the town's fishers crawl into a competing dockside tavern at the end of each day, not bothering to walk the extra hundred feet to his building. Now, they come to his place first for the free drink (the hook), and most of them stay to order seconds and thirds (the line - in local parlance, having a "long line" refers to a predilection for hard drinking). The "sinker" part of the tavern's name refers both to the last drink call of the night and - when locals challenge visitors to a good-natured drinking contest - to the last drink that sends a losing contestant under the table.Frozenfar Expeditions
is both a store and a professional organization of sorts. Run by a veteran ranger named Atenas Swift, the shop is the closest thing that Icewind Dale has to the adventurers' guilds that are sometimes found in the large cities of the south. A middle-aged, steely-haired man with skin the color of tanned leather, Atenas is more than capable of leading expeditions up Kelvin's Cairn or down to the Spine of the World, as he often did in his youth. He can boast of having climbed the treacherous slopes of the Reghed Glacier. Now, age is catching up with Atenas; he is starting to feel the cold in his joints and goes out on the mountain less frequently than he once did, preferring to stay by the warmth of a hearth. But he remains a font of knowledge for those who are bent on adventure in Icewind Dale. He readily sells maps and supplies to explorers, and he gives out free advice on how to survive an avalanche, the five mistakes people make when trying to run from a crag cat, how to scale an ice wall with just a fishing rod and a dead yeti, and more such topics. In addition to seeking equipment and advice, adventurers come to the store to see postings left by other explorers in the area. Some of these notices advertise expeditions that are looking for recruits or hirelings who are willing to join existing ventures. Others promise leads that the posters did not have the skill or resources to pursue. Some warn about hazards encountered in the wild. Still others are wills and insurance policies, announcing the poster's expedition plan and expected date of return. If such an individual does not return, Atenas uses his deposit either to hire other adventurers to attempt a rescue or to set the missing person's affairs in order.Speaker of Caer-Konig
Alden Lowell is a craven opportunist, with none of the qualities of a true leader. After contriving to be named speaker of Caer-Konig, he quickly alienated many of his constituents by supporting Crannoc Siever's proposal to enforce the terms of the lake's old fishing charter. Since then, Alden's career has been wedded to Crannoc's. He spends most of his time in council parroting the speaker of Caer-Dineval, and he throws his weight around town by pretending that Crannoc is his staunch ally. In fact, Crannoc regards Alden as a simpering fool, whom he tolerates only because Alden so readily follows his lead. Alden, meanwhile, considers himself the clever one and is convinced that it's he who is using Crannoc. Alden is a coward at heart - a fact that he has not yet had to confront since he is protected, for the time being, by his association with the speaker of Caer-Dineval. Alden is a young man, slight of build with blond hair. He often puffs out his chest when he talks, trying to imitate Crannoc's bearing. When his bravado inevitably crumbles, he visibly deflates, and his speech becomes puerile.The Pirates of the Howling Fiend
As if the heightened tensions between the fishing fleets of Caer-Konig, Caer-Dineval, and Easthaven weren't enough, the lake's waters have recently become even more perilous with the appearance of a band of pirates who sail a ship called the Howling Fiend. They strike indiscriminately, attacking ships from any of the three towns, looting the vessels for food and valuables and then setting them afire, leaving their crews to perish in the flames or drown in the frigid waters. The pirates usually strike before dawn, when the first ships of the day are testing the lake's waters, or at dusk, when the most dedicated or desperate fishers are pushing their luck to make one last catch. Sometimes, when the lake is obscured by mist or snow, the pirates make bold daytime raids on Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval, terrorizing the residents and laying waste to the dockside, and then retreating before the fishers on the lake can respond to the screams of their kin. In truth, the appearance of the pirates is related to the towns' other troubles. The marauders are former residents of Caer-Dineval, fishers who were eager to defend their right to the lake's waters against the encroaching fleet of Easthaven. With the aid of Speaker Crannoc and financial backing from some of the town's businesses, the fishers commissioned a ram for the bow of their ship from Baerick Hammerstone, the dwarf stone carver of Kelvin's Cairn whose "black ice" pieces have become the rage of Ten-Towns. Wanting the ram as much for intimidation as for practical use, the fishers asked Baerick to carve it in the likeness of a terrifying demon. The finished piece bears an obvious likeness to Errtu, the balor demon who has twice terrorized the people of Ten-Towns. The head and torso extend forward from the ship's prow, and the sculpture's mouth is agape in a silent scream - imagery that prompted the fishers to change their ship's name to the Howling Fiend. Equipped with their new ram, the crew began aggressively pushing the fishers of Easthaven away from the central waters of the lake, much to the delight of the northern towns. But constant exposure to such a large quantity of black ice began to affect the Howling Fiend's crew. Their attacks on Easthaven's ships became increasingly vicious, and they began quarreling with other crews from their own town. Crannoc, fearing that their belligerence would endanger his tenuous alliance with Caer-Konig and inflame the speakers of the other towns, tried to rein in the crew to no avail. The tipping point came when a Caer-Dineval boat came to the aid of a foundering Easthaven vessel that had just been rammed by the Howling Fiend, with no other friendly vessels close enough to save its crew. The sailors on the Howling Fiend, enraged, came back around and rammed the second boat just as the Easthaven crew was climbing aboard, sending three of the fishers - including one from Caer-Dineval - to the bottom of the lake. Before more boats came on the scene, the Howling Fiend fled to the far end of the lake, making berth in a hidden cove there. Its crew did not dare to return home, and two days later Speaker Crannoc denounced the attack in a special meeting of the council, declaring the crew of the Howling Fiend to be outlaws. Within a week of the incident, the ship reappeared on Lac Dinneshere's waters, but now as a pirate vessel. The black ice had thoroughly corrupted the crew, granting them unnatural strength and poisoning their minds. Their depredations rank among the most heinous of any outlaws who have ever terrorized Icewind Dale - they loot, murder, and pillage at will. At least one person in Ten-Towns does not consider the pirates' activity on the lake to be an unqualified disaster. Vaelish Gant, a wizard in Bryn Shander, sees the pirate crew as a potential tool for furthering the Arcane Brotherhood's agenda in Icewind Dale. Their ravages have made the towns of Lac Dinneshere more receptive to the wizard's self-serving offers of aid (the better to penetrate the fishing industries of those towns with his own capital and agents). Moreover, if Gant can find a way to exert some control over the pirate crew, he can ensure that the Howling Fiend's attacks serve his purpose by targeting businesses and vessels that don't comply, while leaving the Arcane Brotherhood's operations alone.Derrick the Drownder
Pyrse of Ship Rethnor
Pyrse Auliff is an agent of Ship Rethnor (see "The Ships of Luskan" under "The Arcane Brotherhood") sent by Vaelish Gant to infiltrate the pirate crew. At least, "Pyrse Auliff " is the name he gave to Derrick the Drownder. After tracking the pirates back to their hideout, Pyrse approached them, pretending to be a disaffected fisher from Caer-Konig who wanted to join their crew. As suspicious as Derrick was due to the influence of the black ice, the captain came within a hair's breadth of slaying the intruder outright. But Pyrse had timed his arrival well, coming to the camp the night after a botched raid on Caer-Dineval had left the crew two men down. One of the other pirates observed that they would need new blood to continue raiding. In the end, Derrick's thirst for pillage won out over his reservations about Pyrse's unexpected arrival. Since then, Pyrse has been working to gain the crew's trust and subtly directing their raids according to instructions he regularly receives from Vaelish Gant through a magical ritual. He has even persuaded Derrick to bolster the pirates' ranks by capturing, rather than sinking, some of the fishing boats they attack, accepting their crews as "volunteers." Pyrse's proximity to the black ice ram on the Howling Fiend is taking its toll, heightening his paranoia and fear of discovery. Pyrse now believes that Vaelish Gant is watching him constantly, making his every move a test of loyalty. The other pirates have noticed that he sometimes makes strange gestures or mumbles to himself when he thinks no one is listening, giving rise to the suspicion that he is simply mad.Creedon the Ferryman
Creedon Connelly is the ferryman of Easthaven and has held that post since old Spiblin drowned a decade ago. Tall, tan, and wiry, with a mop of brown hair hanging in front of his brow, Creedon waits at the docks every day for passengers who need to make the trip across the southern shore of Lac Dinneshere, across the rivers that feed the lake. Few make that trip even in the height of summer, and Creedon waits in vain now that winter has come. He is desperate for coin to support his wife, Sara, and their five small children, but both he and Sara know that the ferry trade just isn't enough. The recent appearance of the pirates has presented Creedon with an unusual opportunity. He guessed the location of their hideout, having used the cove himself in years past to occasionally smuggle people or goods in and out of the towns on Lac Dinneshere. After gathering his courage, Creedon sailed into the hidden cove one night and made the pirates a proposition. He would bring them regular shipments of supplies they were unable to procure, in addition to information on the towns' activities: when and where the pirates would find the richest targets to strike; what resistance they might face; and any plans the townsfolk might formulate to strike back at them. In exchange, the pirates would pay him a fair price and guarantee safety for him and his boat. To his relief, the pirates agreed to his proposition. Moreover, the Luskan agent, Pyrse, made a separate arrangement with Creedon to provide information of particular interest to Vaelish Gant. Pyrse also asked Creedon to filter the information he provides to the pirates based on the wizard's needs. Now Creedon has a growing purse of silver stashed in his mattress at home, even after seeing to his family's welfare. He occasionally feels pangs of conscience when he hears about fishers who have lost their boats - and sometimes their lives - to the pirates, or when he witnesses the aftermath of their raids on Caer-Konig and Caer-Dineval. Creedon consoles himself with the thought that he's only doing what he must to provide for his family, and he imagines that someday he will make up for his complicity by telling Speaker Danneth about the hidden cove... just as soon as the purse in his bed gets a little fatter.Redwaters
The southernmost lake of Icewind Dale is, by many accounts, the most beautiful. Belying its name, the waters of the lake are emerald green in the morning and sparkling silver at twilight. Unlike Maer Dualdon, which is beset by fleets of fishing boats from Targos and Termalaine, or Lac Dinneshere, which is blasted by frigid winds coming off the tundra, Redwaters is a peaceful lake, plied only by a handful of sailboats and a few score coracles that glide across the surface like swans with their young. Redwaters is not without its dangers, though. The most remote of the three lakes, it is visited infrequently by caravans and other traders, so basic supplies can be hard to come by here. Considering how little wealth trickles into the area, sellswords and fortune-seekers rarely visit Redwaters. As a result, the wilds teem with the kinds of monstrous beasts that elsewhere would fall to an adventurer's blade. During the winter, when the lake freezes over, food becomes scarce. Unlike the deeper waters of Maer Dualdon and Lac Dinneshere, Redwaters freezes early and thick, making the fishing season shorter and ice fishing impossible in midwinter. Travelers find that the people of Good Mead and Dougan's Hole guard their provisions jealously - and sometimes aggressively - during these lean months. "Warm as a winter greeting in Redwaters" is common Ten-Towns parlance for an inhospitable welcome. The two towns of Redwaters, Good Mead and Dougan's Hole, are known to be fiercely independent. It is ironic, then, that to most of the other people of Ten-Towns, the two are almost always mentioned in the same breath. "Good Mead and Dougan's Hole" might as well be the name of a single town, as far as residents of the other eight towns are concerned. To the people of Good Mead, this expression is irksome, since they consider themselves quite different from all the other townsfolk. The folk of Dougan's Hole find it downright insulting, because for some reason they always come second.Если вы хотите что то добавить или присоединится к команде редакторов - пишите комментарии
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