Mattiverse Next - Session 13

Wydmoor

• The Boys settle in and get a bunch of local info.
  • It has the only university (actually, a college, founded by Gokar the Wise) on the Mainland that offers full curricula in hedge magic (alchemy, bard magic, etc).
  • It is an extremely popular pilgrimage destination, being the most-believed-in candidate for the site of Tragidore.
  • It has one of the largest halfling populations anywhere.
    • Three subpopulations on the outskirts:
      • Southside, mostly ghostwise halfling traders, tanners and other people at the bottom of the raw materials chain.
      • Sigilkenning, largely agri/pastoralist "townies".
      • Hubtown, population roughly 80% transient at any given time, the other 20% sticking around to maintain trader infrastructure. A small percentage of these are "stone-houser" landlords, widely viewed with suspicion and resentment for their strangely sedentary ways.
  • It even had a wildly popular (among halflings, especially) halfling Hadriarch until recently. He is described by this block of text:

    • The city's Hadriarch of many decades was Edi, who passed away in 1514. While beloved by the residents of Wydmoor, other factions within the church considered his treatment of orthodoxy lacking (bordering on heretical). The Western Hadriarchs made sure to raise a traditionalist to the position, and the incoming Hadriarch has made little secret of his desires to return Alexandrianism in Wydmoor back to the fold and works to discredit organizations that flourished under Edi's presence in order to further those gains. This has been received differently by different segments of the community, although the halflings of Wydmoor take a very dim view of the policy change almost universally.

    • After Edi, the church appointed a local halfling from a "stone-houser" family to the Hadriach's second. She is completely loyal to the church, though, and her collaboration has soured her reputation among the other halflings.
  • They also start talking up Dogmoot stuff and lay the groundwork for getting people whipped up over a nerge to break Summer's Fasting.
• The next day, they split up.
  • Beldon and Four head to Southside.
    • They do some carpentry and manage to suitably not-disappoint the locals.
    • Learn things about the nearby swamp and things people do in it for money:
      • Lizardfolk in the North (based around the Wydmoor Swamp Temple). They have a long history of nonaggression with Wydmoor.
      • Orcs in the South. Normally just a low-level threat at the fringes, they have become very organized and ruthless, taking no prisoners and giving no quarter. They seem to particularly target silver.
        • Orc activity has made running trade through tough, so parties needing to get things to the other side have been hiring small groups to run it through like they're running a blockade.
          • Beldon goes half-mast at this.
        • The alchemy school gives
    • Stick around the dive bar after hours and make even more friends singing sad, sad songs.
  • Bobwhite and Banner to Wydmoor College.
    • Bobwhite digs around about cold iron.
      • Fails to turn up anything, but hears about red iron. Gets prices to take back to the rest.
        • 250gp/lb for a weapon, 10gp/ea for a piece of ammo (200gp for a stack).
      • Get the lay of the land of the College.
      • Head to Wydmoor Cathedral, and familiarize themselves with the environs.
      • Meet up with the other brothers after doing some sightseeing.
• Another day!
  • Beldon, Banner and Four all head over to Hubtown. Bobwhite decides to pursue the cold-wrought iron lead for a bit more before joining up.
    • Bobwhite is about to give up when, by a stroke of luck, an alchemy student doing his dissertation on exotic materials happens to hear his question:

      • Once it was believed that cold wrought iron was of special efficacy against fae and fiends. It is largely thought that this is an old wives tale, but some argue that the weakening of magic in the past century might have upset natural properties of the universe.

    • They run into Father Parth, the halfling pastor of the Church of the Open Road in Hubtown. He has been the head of this church for 15 years, was appointed by Edi himself and, especially since the new Hadriach's arrival, has become the de facto pillar of the halfling religious community. He is a native of Wydmoor, and his grandparents were among the first to resettle this area. When the conversation turns to his opinions about the new Hadriarch, he stays politic: "You don't always like your boss".
      • (Four thinks he remembers punching a Parth boy as a youngin')
      • Beldon also spends some time going up and down the drag with his panther, looking for somewhere to race.
• Session ends here with some threads to pick up for next time (racing, cathedral-scouting, raising capital by swamp-running or hunting).