The closest Jorakk river city to Narr-Rytarr. A town of 3300 Fhokki, who mostly hate wizards and condone slavery. The government is an informal council of big-farmers, whose shot-caller is currently Count Tharnak. During Gothmerr's initial settlement, the Fhokki from Lake Jorakk drove out "The Owl People", who are fowlers that were pushed to the Norr woods.
Gnoles are the most consistent threat, with occasional visits from grevans.
Eight farmers who can defend the most land, so they control the most food, so they have the biggest say in matters. The top four remain the same for decades. The bottom four change from year to year.
Scraggly pines from the outskirts are burned into charcoal, and shipped together with bog iron to bellow-furnaces that are powered by water wheels and slaves.
Two bridges cross the Jorakk river. The south bridge leads to the town's west gate, and to a road that goes to Rork's castle. The north bridge goes to a natural mid-river island that holds workshops for a shipyard of sorts.
Houses in town are typically large enough for 16 people, and are up on stilts, with the space underneath used for workshops.
The person with the highest intelligence stat in the Gothmerr area is Shyash, an old Dejy grandma enslaved at Rork's castle.
A tavern near the east gate is The Tawny Unicorn. The signature drink is a watery white wine. The walls are nearly completely upholstered with ram fleeces and varied sheep horns.
The barkeep is Tornek, a quite old Fhokki man who is unnecessarily abrasive and ornery.
A local physician is a Sil-Karg veteran named Buldaz, who is in no hurry to return to any battlefield in any way. He will overcharge if he knows someone has money, but only ever in slight amounts.
An older Sil-karg woman named Jefine makes a modest living carving figurines. She loves selling ivory chess sets, but can be talked into cheaper undertakings.
A Fhokki named Dhagskor buys up surplus dry food from merchants and resells them at a spruce shack close to the north bridge. Dhagskor does not acknowledge personal space, and also clumsily knocks things over and trips a lot.
Broadswords are a favorite of the locals who are eager to fight duels. Spears are common for self-defense. The journeyman smith Krael is happy to make either on commission, to break up the monotony of cranking out strongboxes and cages. He can make other weapons, but they have a 50% chance of being shoddy.
Because of historic clashes with orcs and troglodytes, there is a tradition of armorsmithing still being practiced in Gothmerr. Two armorers who sell to the public are Kernak and Fona.
Kernak is a a foppish Fhokki with a deep-seated fear of being left alone for any amount of time.
Fona is a an equally fanciful Dejy woman with short-term memory problems.
More skilled armorers live on the big-farmers' manors.
Lockpicks are not manufactured locally and there are no locksmiths. There are quality pickaxes available at Ronska's hardware store. Ronska is terrified of heights and thinks the world is flat. She is 21.
Harnesses, saddles, and oversized brushes are made and sold by a fhokki man named Norro. He stresses that his tack and harness is inhumanly difficult to make. He is never out of bed before 2PM.
A young dejy man named Ardek sells bags of torches and brass mining lanterns. He never feels sympathy for anyone.
An elf woman named Sothilia sells big drums and some other noisemakers. She only wears silver-colored clothes and is allergic to pollen.
Paper, vellum, and papyrus are not made locally. Locals sometimes purchase books to examine moreso than read.
Farmers make major purchases with gold or silver rings. They are frequently left on a single coil of 10. They may trade them for heaps of foreign coins.
| Random ordinary people from the general public (pubgoers, farmers, etc). | |||||
| Roll a d12 for each column. | |||||
| Roll | Alignment | Occupation | Religion | Family-size (surviving) | Vices/preferred-bribe |
| 1 | Lawful Neutral | Fisher | Agnostic | Unmarried | Tobacco |
| 2 | Lawful Neutral | Fisher | Casual Worshipper | Unmarried | Tobacco |
| 3 | Neutral | Woodcutter | Close Follower | Unmarried | Cannabis |
| 4 | Neutral | Woodcutter | Close Follower | Unmarried | Cannabis |
| 5 | Neutral | Woodcutter | Close Follower | 1 kid | Cannabis |
| 6 | Lawful Evil | Shepherd | Close Follower | 1 kid | Liquor |
| 7 | Lawful Evil | Shepherd | Anointed | 2 kids | Liquor |
| 8 | Lawful Evil | Tanner | Anointed | 2 kids | Liquor |
| 9 | Neutral Evil | Tanner | Anointed | 3 kids | Liquor |
| 10 | Chaotic Evil | Bean Farmer | Anointed | 4 kids | Mushrooms |
| 11 | Chaotic Evil | Barge Sailor | Anointed | 5 kids | Mushrooms |
| 12 | Chaotic Evil | Shipwright | Anointed | 5 kids | Mushrooms |
The locals' past practice of capturing random Dejy for slavery has made Gothmerr a place for them to avoid when not travelling with a large armed escort.
Gothmerr has an agreement with Narr-Rytarr, that caravans from Narr-Rytarr may refuge at the residences of the Gothmerr noble families, typically while taking trips to gather and process bog iron to be brought back to Narr-Rytarr. In return, a few dozen conscripts from Narr-Rytarr serve as personal guards for the ruling Gothmerr families.
Generations ago, certain wealthy farmers from Gothmerr would trade slaves with orcs from the nearby forests. The orc tribes that participated in this slave trade are no more, and have been replaced with smaller orc posses that hunt humans for food and leather.
A stone keep with a diverted brook inside its courtyard. A lot of labor goes toward branding slaves, shooting escaped slaves, and impaling caught slaves. The castle grounds include a gibbet, outdoor cages, and a gallows that fits 24 nooses.
There is a general-purpose prison under the castle, whose walls are being pushed in by weathering. The other nobles generally send their death row prisoners to Tharnak's jail (they gave themselves the right to order executions).
Tharnak maintains siege towers and siege machines on the premesis to intimidate other local castles.
A fired brick castle in a backswamp. Foreign caravans are typically entertained and boarded at Rork's estate. There is an orchard and a rudimentary zoo, as well as several free-roaming exotic pets. The servants keep a bear drunk and clean up auk shit.
Rork's guard commander Ukhaal specializes in unconventional pike tactics.
Home of the Thurl big-farmer clan. A log palisade containing a sod tunnel of longhouses, and multiple small barns and smokehouses.
A wooden mansion built outward from a taller rectangular stone tower. In the past it could signal Narr-Rytarr via other towers along the river, but the others have been abandoned and mostly razed.
The Falnorgs are an old clan of slave traders who go out of their way to obstruct literacy. The extended family possesses an overlarge stockpile of weapons and other military material.
Somewhere in the frosty moors to the west, escaped slaves have joined Dejy who've lived in the forest for centuries, and have started a farming community together called Bloomshod. There are some little ways to help them and there have been some big ways to hurt them. The four powerful noble families of Gothmerr routinely pay mercenaries to recon the escapee community, spy on them, and harass them by destroying a few houses or families before a hasty retreat. The Gothmerr nobles' dream is to recapture their escaped slaves and additionally enslave the people who helped them.
A player party could divert or deceive slaver bands, or fortify the new town.
There is a steel vault in the west that launched a boulder apparently into the sun. There are hedgehog angels there who only defend the place and don't seem to need food.
This was meant to be a temple to all the gods. It achieved altars for nine gods before it was destroyed by the fighting of opposing priests. Now it is a ruin, near a spot called The Pit of Hostility.
A natural warren that was converted to an ossuary. At one point it was occupied by the goblin clan 'Gruzniz' who filled it with disgusting traps and torture devices. Mostly they tortured animals.
A secret alliance of dwarfs and fairies killed a few of the goblins, many of the remaining goblins retreated to caves in the Vrykarr mountains. The dwarfs looted the crypt, but did not go too far in. The catacombs were abandoned and later vandalized by grevans.
Far past the traps are lizardman necromancers, who war with the goblin sorcerors that stayed in the catacombs.