Aixe
The city of Aixe is a pleasant sight with its walls whitewashed and its towers fluttering with colorful banners, surrounded by a lake-fed moat 100 feet across. Drawbridges lead over the moats to the city gates, each of which is crowned by a painted portcullis-and-key symbol. On the far side of the moat from the city, buildings cluster near the drawbridges like small villages outside the city walls.
The fortified city of Aixe describes itself as the “Gateway of Foere,” and the rather self-important title has some basis in fact, for it is within the walls of Aixe that the high road from Foere branches into the province’s three main highroads: The Cross Cut, the Estuary Road, and the Royal Vermis Road. Most of the province’s trade with Foere passes through the gates of Aixe going one way or another.
History and People
Aixe is an old city dating back to the Hyperborean era, although it has long outgrown the small area originally enclosed by the Hyperborean walls (now torn down). Its prosperity from trade allowed it to build new walls over a century ago, but the city has again outgrown them and relies upon the open grounds beyond the city to provide needed space for new housing and for assembling caravans.
Originally, the landsgraf of Peridor denied the city any taxes on the lucrative business of providing open space to caravans, but some years ago the mayor-palatine’s guardsmen hauled the current landsgraf’s father from his residence in the city and declared him guilty within the hour. They summarily beheaded him in the city center and placed his head on a pike outside the merchant camp. The city then sent an apologetic letter to the lord-governor claiming that the entire affair had been a case of mistaken identity; they had thought the man was a pig thief named Boden. In order to prevent future cases of mistaken identity, the Peridors now pay the city a share of their profits.
Boden Bristleback, the actual pig thief, was never captured. He escaped the city, despite being grievously wounded, and fled to the Alder Zerin Forest, where a large pack of feral pigs attacked his pursuers. Routed by the porcine assault, the guardsmen were forced to retreat back to the city in disarray: emptyhanded, wounded, and deeply embarrassed. The mayor-palatine died later in a mysterious hunting accident near the Peridor lands, and the Peridor family sent a large basket of overripe pomegranates to the city as a token of their respect.
As far as visitors are concerned, the city of Aixe is pleasantly friendly to foreigners. An entry toll is collected by the governor’s guards at the city gate, a small fee of 1 silver coin per non-citizen entering the city, and since merchants absorb the city’s transaction taxes, visitors who wish to sell gems or other treasure in the city can do so at good prices.
As described, all four of the entrance gates have small “outer cities” on the far side of the drawbridges where buildings have been built to avoid the crowding inside the walls. And within the walls, it is indeed crowded. Half-timber buildings press close against narrow, twisting streets, overshadowing them in many cases with built-out balconies. Caravans and travelers passing through the city must force their way through a pressing crowd of local wagons and citizens. To avoid crowding, many arriving caravans are admitted through the city in the early hours of the morning to begin their journeys before dawn breaks and the city wakes to life.
The crossroad where the four high roads divide toward their respective city gates is a vast market fronted by the Court of the Governor of Aixe and the Hall of the Mayor-Palatine, as well as the city’s guildhall. The city’s guilds are not as powerful as they are in free cities, for they are ultimately subject to laws and decrees of the lord-governor in Vermis. Rather than having much political power in the city, they serve mainly to ensure that the city’s products are of high quality, and that citizens are not cheated. However, there is a constant drumbeat from the guildmasters that Aixe should seek the status of a chartered city under its own government. The overkings have thus far utterly forbidden the lord-governors from granting such a charter, so the efforts of the guilds have had little effect.
As with the other major cities of Aachen, the area within the walls is ruled by a mayor-palatine who reports directly to the lord-governor over the head of the regional governor. Just outside the wall, the situation is a bit complex. The surrounding roads (and the city’s courts) are maintained by the regional governor of Aixe. However, the lands off the roads are part of the feudal system, held by the landsgraf of Peridor. The Peridors maintain two “merchant camps” outside the city walls, wooden-walled palisades where caravans can assemble without trying to do so in the chaotic, crowded streets of the city.
Nearby Adventures
A knight by the name of Jolien Vocard has been assigned by his baron to look into a small difficulty in one of the hamlets on the far reach of the baron’s territory, a place twenty miles from Aixe, called Cledioun Par. Sir Jolien prefers not to leave the city at this time, being greatly enamored of a young lady who has several suitors. Rather than risk his chances with the lady, Sir Jolien wants to hire a few stalwart souls to look into the hamlet’s problems on his behalf. He will pay an acceptable upfront sum of money unless the characters look disreputable, in which case he will pay half upfront and half upon their successful return. He has no idea what the hamlet’s problem is, but he assumes it is something on the order of a rampaging bear or a few goblins.
Cledioun Par has a population of 20 peasants, all from two families that work together, the Cledis and the Pars. They have a square of six ramshackle stone buildings arranged to form a protective courtyard in the center. The leaders of the two families are Tourmic Par and Jen Cledi. When the characters arrive, Tourmic and Jen explain, with considerable embarrassment, that a pack of 6 hoar foxes has dug burrows in the nearby woods, and have been stealing chickens. One of the family members was badly wounded by the breath of one of the foxes, and they decided to send a petition to the baron for help.
The hoar foxes are in a nearby wood. Finding the burrow takes 1d6 hours, but it is more time-consuming than actually difficult. However, the characters face a second danger while they are searching through the woods, for some cobra flowers have taken root in the area as well. The characters have a 25% chance per hour spent searching, of encountering one of the cobra flowers before they find the hoar fox burrows.
The hoar fox burrows have five different exits, and unless the characters split up to guard different exits, the hoar foxes leave their lair to defend it from the outside while the characters gather around whichever burrow-exit they found. The foxes try to attack simultaneously and attempt to retreat from the woods entirely if they suffer losses. If the foxes retreat from the combat, they do not return to the woods, and the characters’ mission is a success. If the characters manage to kill any of the foxes without damaging the pelts, these can be sold in Aixe for an extremely good price.
Settlement
Aixe, City of
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