miasmarak

No. Enc.: 1d4 (1d4)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120' (40')
     Climb/Web: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 1d8+1
Attacks: 1 (bite)
Damage: 1d8, poison
Save: F1
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: VI

Miasmarak are slender, ten-legged spider-like creatures that emit faint incense-like mist from their carapace.  This mist makes those breathing within 10' of one light-headed (save vs. Poison or take  -1 to hit and AC).  Their webs are perfumed traps that entangle the unwary as per the web spell and are laced with the mist (as above) making them risky places to be caught in  Their bite is less potent and slow-acting, a victim must save vs. Poison with a +1 bonus or die after 1d6 turns. 

damned city: the avernine

The Avernine clings to our city like a tattered mantle.  It's a sprawl of crumbling armouries, odious garrisons and cracked roads.   Built on marshland, the Avernine houses soldiers as well as camp followers, criminals, drunks, political exiles and malingerers.  Food shortages are common and the city's patricians buy favour with grain rations for serving troops.  Those too poor, addled or weak to fight become grist for the mill.  Martial law is imposed by militias and armed troops root out entrenched gangs.  Fires caused by marsh gas are frequent enough shouts of 'Fire' are always responded to in force.  Crying wolf is a good way to get lynched.

Life in the Avernine is noisy, jostling for food and status is commonplace.  Thieves are a perennial problem and punished harshly for it.  Poverty is rife, one in three have no home and another one in three are billeted or in barracks.  Brawls are popular as are athletic contests and gambling.  Strength is power, the weak submit or get crushed yet few tyrants survive.  Markets are carefully managed by heavily-armed patrols and inciting food riots is a death sentence.  Patrols have some leeway in identifying inciters.  Owning property in the Avernine is a euphemism for ill-gotten wealth, a shady past or fall from grace.  Ironically many soldiers are eager to do so.

Over time the Avernine has grown like a stain on the marsh despite fires and riots.  Corrupt artisans scavenging from buildings and using shoddy material have inculcated poor repair.  Walls are daubed in cement then decorated with murals and graffiti.  Older buildings have sinister, baroque designs built to withstand siege but theft and poor repair have eroded most.  One exception is the Brazen Keep, largest garrison of the army patrols whose bronze-clad towers seeth with stamped glyphs.  The current commander is whispered to be carving up and slowly eating his predecessor like smoked sausage.  Other landmarks include commemorative pillars studded with the verdigris-coated skulls of enemy generals and kings. 

The marsh on which the Avernine grows is fed by two rivers. The ice-cold, deep-rolling Fiumorte branches, tunnels and rejoins itself.  It yields lost dead to Avernine shores as canny gangs loot patrician funeral barques.  Corrupt Avernine ferrymen demand additional payment halfway, those who can't pay sink or swim.  Those in sight of the oily, oozing Bruciatura have it worse.  It's thick stinking mud sucks at boardwalks and buildings.  When the river ignites, gas explosions and fires spark riots, looting and bloody reprisals. In summer, those near the Bruciatura adopt a siege mentality.

There are five gates into the city proper.  The first, called the Bridge of Smoke crosses the Bruciatura as it leaves the slopes of Animardente.  The second, called the Dead Lock, forms a fortified lock down to Bacino's piers.  Though the Fiumorte has streams throughout the Avernine, this lock sees much commercial use.  The final three are evenly spaced on Riccoferro's walls, at the north, east and south, bolstered by iron portculli and iron-masked patrols interrogating visitors.  They are prosaically named the North, East and South gates.  Around all the gates tenements press closer to form claustrophobic covered alleyways.  Those seeking entry rarely see sunlight until they enter the city.

xantheder

No. Enc.: 2d6 (3d6)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 10' (3')
Swim: 150' (50')
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 1/2 (1d4 hit points)
Attacks: 1 (bite)
Damage: 1d3
Save: F1
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: None

These gaunt yellow fish grow up to 2' long, have spined fins and mouths filled with needle-sharp, backward-pointing teeth.  The xantheder hunts in groups and will attack anything bleeding or flashing brightly in the water.  Xantheder can wriggle onto the shore but suffocate in 1d6+4 rounds unless they return to water deep enough to submerge in.  Xantheder flesh is dry and sulphurous, a taste rarely acquired.  Boiling a xantheder corpse in a pint of acid for an hour totally dissolves the body to make a most potent glue that only affects wood or paper.  On other substances, this glue separates once properly dried, lasting 1d4+1 minutes.  The glue is used by alchemists and scholars alike for book binding.

inns & taverns: the halfway house

Perched halfway up a steep incline, the Halfway House serves an ancient hilltop crossroads.  This tavern is famed for offering last meals to the condemned and redeeming many lost souls.  The locals boast "Even the doomed smile at the Halfway House."  Some soothed souls have gone onto great things, others are quiet pillars of a community.  The House is neat, a whitewashed stone and caulked thatch courtyard amid ramshackle wooden cottages.  The sign is a white horse-head snorting fire - homage to a local legend.
 
The courtyard opens into a working yard, redolent of woodsmoke, straw, manure and yeast.  To the left, a stable for seven horses is tended by a quartet of seemingly identical stableboys in rough-spun livery who charge two silver a night for care, three for care and feed.   To the right a working brewery, where barrels clunk and rumble.  Ahead is a narrow door, surrounded by manicured hops vines.   This opens to a narrow porch. with scarred walls.  Behind a wide taproom runs the length of the building.  Immediately to the left is a T-shaped bar, to the right a spacious seating area with benches and tables set in a U-shape.  In the far left corner a doorway leads into a back room with more seating and a locked door.

A warm brown ale, refreshing and tasting faintly of burnt bread and flowers is served here.  Dark clay two-pint jugs of mild beer, black as tar with a caramel sweetness are sold for five coppers to local labourers.  These are refilled behind the bar and if returned, a copper piece is refunded.  Blackberry and damson liqueur is sold in black clay bottles to those who abhor ale.  Food is simple, a goose confit and bean stew is cheap yet delicious.  More discerning palates enjoy goose liver pate and pork rillaud with smoked sausage and sweet seed loaf

The landlord Pallier is tall, thick-necked and burly, with thinning black hair and squashed nose.  His arms wrestle barrels and people equally well.  His gap-toothed, winning smile warms many hearts. His instinct for spotting those willing to redeem themselves by hard work is keen-edged and well-tested.  A diligent cellarman and cook, his work ethic is infectious.  The bar staff are a colourful bunch, ex-drunk soldiers (Rollo, Berse and Karle), reformed tattooed dancers and washerwomen (Miena, Salla and Neme) and ex-addict healer (Alden) and his quadruplet nephews (the stableboys)   Many locals consider Pallier the best mayor they never had, though never before the current incumbent.

Five rooms are available to rent, these are simple closeted rooms capable of sleeping two in comfort, four at a push with lockable doors (though all the keys fit the locks).  They are basic but comfortable.  Berse and Karle turn a blind eye to four local girls who communally rent one room every week but Pallier throws out anyone who causes trouble.  Berse and Karle delight in dumping certain troublemakers in a horse trough if they cause trouble.

The crossroads at the top of the hill sometimes see use as a place of execution.  Sometimes those deaths are not peaceful affairs, the executed sometimes return to seek revenge. In addition, a local gang intend to expand their turf to include the Halfway House.  So far, the staff have seen off previous attempts but out-of-town help is coming.  The watch breaks up scuffles but withdraw to the temple if undead or magic is involved.  Clearly there are interesting times ahead.