Estoleo

[Naraner]

Estoleo

Political Situation

Estoleo is governed by a city council, which is elected once a year.  Members of all important families form the council.  The council decides on laws and taxes, supports the military units (city guards as well as some warships to prevent pirates from plundering too much).  The city council chooses the members for court, customs, and administration.

The city's quarters are ruled by the families.  Each family controls its area and collects money ("protection taxes") from those living in their area.  Some families have a strong mutual dislike and wage their little wars over the years; many families have lost members to the vendettas.  With a family's power, the size of its controlled area grows.  Most families would like to expand at their neighbors' cost.  Most normal people don't care for the families' little wars; it doesn't matter to them to whom they have to pay.  If the claims are too high, people may ask another family for help, which will in many cases be used as the reason for a new family war.  Each family has its own coat of arms, which will be recognized by almost all people from Estoleo (or even the whole of Corua).  These coats of arms can especially be found at district borders and are placed as carvings in door frames, patterns in the cobbles, or paintings on walls.

 

Al-Katras is somewhat untouched by the family rivalries and claims.  Miacapnar has to respond to the council only, and no family chief would dare demand that the prison be under his control.  This is not because of the high walls or guards, but because of the special meaning the prison has.  To avoid open violence, or even open provocation against another family, many families bribe some judges and have the annoying family member incarcerated in Al-Katras.  This won't result in a bloody vendetta, but moves the victim out of the way for some time or cuts a deep hole in the family's finances.  For this reason, Al-Katras has to be independent/neutral and all tries of controlling the prison will fail because of the resistance of various other families.  On the other hand, the neutrality of the prison has also been used to get important family members to a safe place before a vendetta startssued by his own cousins, young Massio spent almost three month in the prison while his family enlarged their quarter by violence.  Massio was somewhat upset, but looking back, it might have saved his lifefour other family members didn't survive the expansion.

 

Important Families

Boghet

Davin Boghet is the chief of the Boghet family, which controls the area around Al-Katras.  The quarter is not very big, neither do important or rich people live here.  Most inhabitants are fishers or simple merchants living at the riverside.  Boghet's coat of arms features the tomato, which decorates the big family house in intricate carvings.  (The chief's shield is blazoned simply Argent, a tomato plant eradicated, flowered, and fructed proper, meaning a white shield with an uprooted tomato plant bearing flowers and fruit, all in their natural colors.  The family also widely uses a red tomato badge and livery colors of red, white, and green.)  Tomatoes are planted around the house as well.  All inns in the quarter will offer at least one meal with tomatoes.

As the taxes collected from fishermen are quite low, Davin Boghet is somewhat jealous if anybody tries using his second money source, Al-Katras.  Boghet doesn't allow anybody to enter the sewers and watches over all contacts the prison guards may have (they get some payment from him as well).  Everything done in Al-Katras, such as smuggling, escapes, treatment, hiring new guards, etc., should be controlled by the Boghet family as far as Davin is concerned.  Most other families respect Davin Boghet's claim on the trade/exchange with Al-Katras, but no one will allow Boghet to take influence on the prison's internal affairs.  If the PC's work against Boghet (i.e., they ignore his claims), they will attract trouble.

 

Lowell's Suggestions for Other Families

The following summary of suggestions for other influential families of Estoleo might prove useful to GM's constructing background details.  It should not be considered to override other information to be provided by Robert in the future.  The families are listed in order of increasing wealth and influence.  Each dominates a particular sector of the Estolean economy, but each also has widespread, and often conflicting, interests in other sectors.

1.  Bassam Al-Said:  Controls the Upper Docks Quarter upstream of Al-Katras; dominates trade in canvas, pitch, and other ship necessities.  Badge:  Fouled anchor (an anchor with a rope tangled around it).  Livery:  blue and white.  Arms:  Azure semé of reef knots argent, an anchor fouled also argent, meaning a blue shield scattered with small white knotted ropes and bearing an anchor with a rope tangled around it in white.  The cousins Bassam (1) and Izzadin (2) Al-Said hate each other but stop short of open vendetta, fearing the curse of the kinslayer.

 

2.  Izzadin Al-Said:  Controls the Lower Docks Quarter downstream of Al-Katras; dominates trade in marine carpentry.  Badge:  Fouled anchor (an anchor with a rope tangled around it).  Livery:  blue and white.  Arms:  Azure semé of reef knots argent, an anchor fouled also argent, meaning a blue shield scattered with small white knotted ropes and bearing an anchor with a rope tangled around it in white.  The cousins Bassam (1) and Izzadin (2) Al-Said hate each other but stop short of open vendetta, fearing the curse of the kinslayer.

 

3.  Suleimah Kuhulein:  Controls the Al-Kuhul Quarter of brewers and distillers; dominates trade in alcoholic beverages and medicines.  Badge:  cluster of grapes.  Livery:  purple and gold.  Arms:  Purpure bezanty, on a pale engrailed Or, three clusters of grapes slipped and leaved proper, meaning a purple shield strewn with gold coins and bearing a gold vertical stripe (| with a sawtooth edge, bearing in turn three clusters of grapes, each showing part of the stem and a few leaves, all in natural colors (i.e., purple and green).  Kuhulein tries to avoid the personal vendetta with Amiralein (11), but is often forced to defend himself.

 

4.  Isha Arav'ein:  Controls the Horse Quarter of horse and camel merchants; dominates trade in horses, camels, and oxen.  Badge:  "The White Stallion," a white stallion rearing.  Livery:  white and black.  Arms:  Sable semé-de-lis argent, a stallion forcené also argent, meaning a black shield scattered with white fleurs-de-lis (stylized lily flowers) and bearing a white stallion rearing for combat.  Arav'ein (4), Hussein (6), and Azzam (8) all hate each other but are usually forced to cooperate on their mutual interests.

 

5.  Davin Boghet:  Controls the Al-Katras Quarter of riverside fishermen and merchants.  Dominates the fish market and smuggling within Al-Katras Prison.  Badge:  tomato.  Livery:  red, white, and green.  Arms:  Argent, a tomato plant eradicated, flowered, and fructed proper, meaning a white shield with an uprooted tomato plant bearing flowers and fruit, all in their natural colors.  Boghet actively works against the Al-Saids (1 and 2) as he would like to control the whole waterfront.

 

6.  Ismail Hussein:  Controls the Blood Quarter of livestock merchants, slaughterhouses, and butchers; dominates trade in cattle, sheep, goats, and meat products.  Badge:  "The Rose Bull," a red bull's face with a white rose on the forehead.  Livery:  red and ermine (white with black spots).  Arms:  Ermine, a bull's face gules charged upon the forehead with a rose argent, meaning a white shield scattered with black spots (representing ermine fur) bearing a bull's face with a white rose on its forehead.  Arav'ein (4), Hussein (6), and Azzam (8) all hate each other but are usually forced to cooperate on their mutual interests.

 

7.  Salah Al-Dib:  Controls the Bread Quarter of grain merchants; dominates trade in grain, flour, and other basic necessities.  Badge:  garb (sheaf of wheat).  Livery:  gold and black.  Arms:  Sable, a chevron engrailed between three garbs Or, meaning a black shield bearing a chevron (^ shape) with a sawtooth edge and three bound sheaves of wheat, all in gold.

 

8.  Imrakh Azzam:  Controls the Spice Quarter of spice merchants; dominates the spice trade and much of the overland transportation.  Badge:  mint leaf.  Livery:  green, white, and gold.  Arms:  Argent semé of mint leaves vert, a wheel Or, meaning a white shield strewn with green mint leaves and bearing a gold wagon wheel (eight spokes).  Arav'ein (4), Hussein (6), and Azzam (8) all hate each other but are usually forced to cooperate on their mutual interests.

 

9.  Izzim Dru'ein:  Controls the Silk Quarter of silk craftsmen and merchants.  Dominates the larger cloth trade.  Badge:  silver butterfly.  Livery:  green and white.  Arms:  Argent, on a bend vert, three butterflies volant of the first, meaning a white shield with a green stripe from upper left to lower right (\ bearing three white butterflies.

 

10.  Daoud Al-Khor:  Controls the Gold Quarter of precious metals smiths and merchants.  Dominates the metals trade.  Badge:  sun-in-splendor.  Livery:  gold and blue.  Arms:  Azure, a chevron inverted, in chief the sun in his splendor Or, meaning a blue shield with a gold inverted chevron (V shape) and the golden sun with rays, figured with a human face.  Has a natural rivalry and vendetta with Amiralein (11).

 

11.  Akhat Amiralein:  Controls the Ruby Quarter of jewelers and jewel merchants.  Dominates the lucrative gem and jewel trade and has many other diversified interests.  Badge:  cornucopia (horn of plenty).  Livery:  red and gold.  Arms:  Gules bezanty, a cornucopia Or, meaning a red shield strewn with gold coins and bearing a large horn of plenty, also gold.  Has a natural rivalry and vendetta with Al-Khor (10) and a personal vendetta with Kuhulein (3).

 

The Sewers

Beneath the streets of Estoleo some old sewers still exist that were built several hundred years ago.  Such a sewer leads below Al-Katras into the river.  Some people work in the sewers; their task is to clean narrow passages from time to time and to remove big junk which would block the smaller pipes.

Most sewer pipes are made from carved stone, but sometimes pipes made from clay have also been used.  The ceiling is usually about 1.5 m (5' high and the floor is almost everywhere covered by knee-deep wastewater.  Smaller tubes of 10 cm (4") to 40 cm (15 3/4") in diameter carry more waste to the main system.  As the sewers were built by the Valians several hundred years ago, some places have broken down and are unsound.  The whole sewer system smells terrible beyond belief.

 

The sewers are frequently used by the Boghet family to transport items and messages into the prison.

 

 

 

1.  Abandoned Post:  Here lived a sewer guard some years ago.  The house is empty since the man died and Boghet takes care to have only his trusted sewer guards live in the hut.

 

2.  Entry:  This small hut contains nothing but a hole in the floor and a ladder leading down.  On a board beside the door are a lamp and flint and steel.

 

3.  Sewer Guard:  Here lives the old sewer guard Irom.  The old man has some problems with his left leg and cannot walk normally.  He will be seldom found in the sewers, but Boghet doesn't care about this as he wants only a few people in the sewers.  Irom has known the sewers for years and will gladly tell some old sewer stories ("I remember that winter 15 years ago!  The sewers were blocked and we stood there trying to remove the blockadewith the muddy waters just below our chins!  That was some rush as the sewage finally got away!  Flushed the old Cinopi's hat away!").

 

4.  Small Tube:  From a hole in the wall a smaller tube joins the main tunnel.  The small tube's diameter is 30 cm (12") and in irregular intervals some sewage drips from the tube.

 

5.  Big Cave:  This natural cave was used in the sewer design to collect larger amounts of sewage in case of a blockade.  There is a trapdoor in the ceiling through which the sewage could be removed in the worst case of blockade.

 

6.  Old Flood Gate:  The wall here shows a strange formon each side are three pillars built from bricks.  Nowadays these pillars don't have any meaning, but they were intended to serve as a set of floodgates (the wooden gate was removed long ago).  Other floodgates are not accessible anymore.

 

7.  Broken-In Room:  This room has a dry pavement and can thus be encircled without getting dirty.  About 20 rats live in this room and will defend their territory if threatened.  They will first try to scare any intruder away by high screaming (which may attract other people and/or creatures in the sewers) and then bite.  At the end of the room the ceiling is broken down, blocking the exit.  There is a current showing that the exit is not totally blocked, but digging does no good here as further rocks and earth will come down if other rocks are removed.

 

8.  Alcove:  In this 20 × 30 × 10 cm (8" × 12" × 4") alcove some burnt down candles can be found.  In the about 2 m (6'7") high ceiling there is a passageway leading to a closed entrance to the sewers.  The little room is used as a hiding place and storeroom by the Boghet family.  Here can be found some candles, flint and steel, chalk, and two tin document containers.  Some meters next to the alcove is a small tube leading away from the main tunnel which leads to Al-Katras.  Boghet family members use this alcove as hiding place if they hear someone else in the sewers and try to spy on the intruder.

 

9. Big Room:  This room was used as a buffer (as Room 5) but it has no trapdoor in the ceiling.

 

NPC's

Miacapnar:  The official boss (warden) of Al-Katras.  He doesn't care about the families and their vendettas and reports only to the city council.  He is politically neutral and listens in case of doubt to the voice of gold.  Miacapnar is 50 years old and content with his job and career.  He has a good secure income and doesn't have to fear a painful death in a vendetta.  Miacapnar decides on everything in the prison, as from which peasants to buy food, etc., but doesn't really care and orders only in special cases (i.e., if someone has bribed him to buy from another merchant).  Miacapnar knows about Dodocap and some of his activities, but doesn't care about them, as he underestimates Dodocap.  He will only react if the chaos gets too big.

Predoncal:  Miacapnar's assistant is a 46-year-old Mentalist.  His task is to magically enhance security in Al-Katras.  He uses his spells ("Mind Control" and other Open Mentalism) to determine if a new prisoner is capable of spell-casting.  If Predoncal is suspicious, the prisoner has to wear a headband (see above) and will be placed in a magicians' cell (Room 11).  Predoncal is, like Miacapnar, content with his work, as he can get some prisoners for magical experiments and as he has power over prisoners and guards as well.  Predoncal knows about Dodocap's activities, as Miacapnar does, but doesn't feel responsible for intervening as long as Miacapnar doesn't.

"Uncle" Dodocap:  One of the oldest prisoners, he is the unofficial boss of Al-Katras.  As "godfather" of the prison, he demands money and services from other prisoners and controls the black market.  Buying or selling items as well as special treatment are bought under his influence.  He has several bodyguards to enforce his wishes.  Dodocap also pays many of the prison guards on a regular basis.  The main rule Dodocap teaches each new prisoner is to never hurt a guard, as this is the basis for Dodocap's business; he needs a good relationship between guards and prisoners.  Dodocap is convinced that he is the mightiest man in the prison; he believes that he is even more powerful than Miacapnar and even Predoncal.  If he wanted to, he could bring Al-Katras into disrepute by telling some rumors and by mysterious murder.  By that, Miacapnar would get some trouble with the families and the council.  A revolt in the prison would do that as well.  As Miacapnar and Predoncal don't care for Dodocap, he is in fact the most powerful man in the prison's daily life.

[Hornack Lingess]

@ Naraner:

Wo hast du das denn her? Selbst fabriziert?

Hornack

[Naraner]

im Netz gefunden, scheint eine ganze serie zu sein. gib bei Google "Estoleo" ein, kommt ne handvoll ergebnisse. eins von denen war es

Naraner

[Ibla]

Moin,

 

das ist ja sehr interessant, woanders wird noch diskutiert, ob Midgard auf englisch publiziert werden soll und auf dieser Seite läuft schon eine englische Midgard Kampagne in den "Coast States" ... http://205.200.64.249/GC/scrolls/2001/aug/piratecampaign.html

 

:-)

 

mfg Ulf

 

Robert Wenner... den Namen habe ich doch auch schon einmal gehört...?

[Wiszang]

Hi!

 

Also Midgard auf Englisch ist nicht wirklich passend und ob es dann mehr Käufer gibt? Aber der Text zu Estoledo ist nicht schlecht. Bin mal gespannt, wie sehr er sich mit dem QB beißt?

Alles Gute

Wiszang

[Hornack Lingess]

@ Naraner:

Kannst du nächstes Mal bitte entweder den kompletten Link mit angeben oder einfach nur per Link auf den Text verweisen? Könnte sonst Copyright-Probleme geben.

Danke,

Hornack, vorsichtig

[Triton Schaumherz]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Zitat (Ibla @ Juni. 12 2002,22:20)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Moin,

 

das ist ja sehr interessant, woanders wird noch diskutiert, ob Midgard auf englisch publiziert werden soll und auf dieser Seite läuft schon eine englische Midgard Kampagne in den "Coast States" ... http://205.200.64.249/GC/scrolls/2001/aug/piratecampaign.html

 

:-)

 

mfg Ulf

 

Robert Wenner... den Namen habe ich doch auch schon einmal gehört...?<span id='postcolor'>

Das ist doch sicher nichts "offfffffiziell" abgesegnetes - oder?

 

fragt Triton

[DiRi]

Der wahre Gentleman genießt und schweigt ...

 

Ciao,

Dirk.

[Wiszang]

Hi!

 

Aber Dirk! Wer wird denn!

 

Wiszang