Caer-Konig
aer-Konig was one of the towns of Ten Towns in Icewind Dale.
Description
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
Geography
Caer-Konig was located on the northern shore of Lac Dinneshere, not far from Caer-Dineval, behind the shadow of the imposing Kelvin's Cairn. The fishing waters of the lake were shared between the two towns, but fishermen nevertheless often squabbled over territory.
The settlement was entirely isolated save for a trail to Caer-Dineval and a ferry that traversed the lake to Easthaven.
Defense
As of the late 15th century DR, the town could muster a mere 27 militia members to its defense.
History
Caer-Konig originated as a mere camp, founded by a group of mountain-climbing travelers from the Moonsea region of northern Faerûn.
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.
Dorim Lugar was the councilman of the town until he was killed over a fish in the Year of the Worm, 1356 DR. His second-in-command, Schermont, became the new councilman after the incident. Schermont was known for his heavy-handed approach to rulership, and he held a particular grudge against Caer-Dineval.
After the war with Akar Kessell and the Battle of Icewind Dale, Caer-Konig was given to the barbarians, although the barbarians later left town for the open tundra.
During the Everlasting Rime, the folks of Caer-Konig made offerings of food to Auril the Frostmaiden.
In the Year of the Warrior Princess, 1489 DR, the town suffered a number of thefts, perpetrated by duergars led by Nildar Sunblight.
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.
Notable Locations
Businesses
- Frozenfar Expeditions - 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.
- 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.
- The Northern Light - 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.
Landmarks
- Market square, located on the eastern side of the city.
- Ruined caer (castle), located on a small hill above the town overlooking the harbor.
“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.”
Knucklehead Trout Scrimshaw
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