Travelogue

Immersea

This town of over 600 folk stands at the westernmost tip of the Wyvernwater, at the head of Mistfisher Bay. Immersea is a waystop on Calantar’s Way, where livestock and beasts of burden can be easily watered. The Starwater Road, Immer Trail, and Blister Trail all link up with that paved way here. Immersea is also a fishing village.

Immersea is one of the few places in Cormyr whose citizens seem openly unhappy with their government. They are not unhappy with King Azoun but with his do-nothing, lazy overly cautious local lord, Samtavan Sudacar. Inattention has made Immersea a somewhat free and easy trade town in recent years. Weapons are worn openly by some, Purple Dragons are rarely seen in unifor, though they patrol diligently in plain dress and local noble families finance and provide manpower for much of the work of street-cleaning and keeping order.

Immersea is the ancestral seat of the Wyvernspur noble family the Cormaeril clan, and the Thunderswords.

Landmarks

Immersea is shaped like a fan. Farms surround the town; sheep, cattle, barley and corn are major local products. The most built-up area of the town centers on the waterfront and the arrow-straight Starwater Road running to meet it. An impressive stone statue of King Azoun III is one of the favorite meeting spots in Immersea and is easily found by newcomers. The other good local meeting place is Gaesthund’s Tomb, located at the meeting of the Starwater Road and Immer Street. The resting place of this huge man is marked by a massive boulder that has been much scraped and scarred by the uneasy passage of poorly driven wagons.

Immersea is an important stopover and boasts many rooming houses and provisioning shops. The most popular of its inns are the pricey Immer Inn and the more casual Five Fine Fish. The most prominent local building is Redstone Castle, the lofty castle of the Wyvernspurs. The taller, many-towered pile of High Towers, the Cormaeril family home stands on a lower hill due east of it. The seat of the third noble family Thundersword House, is southwest of the Wyvernspur lands and hence remote from the town proper. It is newer and larger than either of the other castles but dominates only its own small valley surmounting a small knoll at the heart of the wooded basin.

Prosperous farms and close-crowded townhouses are the order of things in Immersea. Growing things are valued— flowering vines are everywhere—and the mists keep everything lush. The wooded height of Spring Hill, where the Immer Stream rises, is just west of Redstone Castle. It is adorned with both a beautiful series of cascades, known as Selûne’s Stairs, and the House of the Lady, a temple to Selûne. West of that height is the wooded eminence of Graveyard Hill, topped by the Wyvernspur Crypt. The hill holds a complex network of catacombs. Brazen adventurers and thieves took to trying to loot the tombs so often that guardian spells and magical devices were installed. Visitors are advised to look upon the crypt gates from afar unless accompanied by a family member.

Places of Interest

The House of the Lady This open-air temple is a clearing that is ringed by an unbroken, circular stone seat graven with many prayers to the goddess. At the center of this ring stands a stepped pyramid whose every stone is carved with a prayer. The pyramid is topped by a large statue of Selûne. The statue depicts the goddess as two backto- back women: a dusky-skinned, whitetressed maiden and a matronly middle-aged woman. The temple is tended by a priestess of Selûne, a middle-aged, kindly woman named Mother Lledew.

Immersea’s shops cater to every possible need of the traveling merchant. All of their shops are useful, unlovely places littered with broken crates, handcarts, and broken crockery. Everyone always seems to be too busy to tidy anything away. Exceptional among local establishments are the following:

Alzael’s Cleaver This local slaughterhouse ends the life of many a cow and ewe and ‘Alzael the Thousandslayer’ and made his name known in Sembia as well as all across Cormyr. Folk now travel to Immersea just to get a wagonload of his aged, smoked hams cured in cherry brandy. A wagonload is enough to last a year and have some to sell to one’s neighbors. Alzael, a beaming giant of a man with a nose that has been broken many times, loves his new-found wealth. Women who think their daughters would make the perfect mate for such a successful man have rapidly become numerous, buit none of the candidates who have shown up yet swing a cleaver to his liking, though, so if you’re a comely wench with a good sharp blade, a keen eye, and a strong arm . . . GAL, your fortune is made!

Chalasse’s Fine Clothing The lovely Chalasse is a graceful, soft-spoken woman almost 7 feet tall! Her height has made her a shy outcast, but in truth she’s beautiful She grew up in Suzail and always loves to hear news of what’s happening there. She runs a shop full of fine gowns, sashes, cummerbunds, pantaloons, halfcloaks, gem-bedecked hose, ruffs, slashed-sleeve tunics, and similar garb for the richest and haughtiest folk. She tries to bring in the latest fashions from Sembia and Suzail as swiftly as her buyers can send them, and locals and passing nobles alike are beginning to notice the selection she offers. Chalasse has also begun to deal in secondhand finery because so many Immer women just can’t afford her wares. Some Suzailans bring in their wives’ discards to sell off for a quick handful of coins as they travel through the town, and Chalasse always persuades them to pause a moment to give her news of her childhood home.

Nelzol’s Notions

This sprawling barn (well, former warehouse actually) of a hardware shop deserves mention here because it boasts a huge selection of goods: wagons, closed coaches, sleighs, and even boats stand ready in various corners of the shop. The visitor with coins enough can literally buy a ship to sail across the Wyvernwater to build a house and fill the ship with every last thing needed to do the building! From kettles to ladders, rope to coils of fine wire, kegs of nails to kegs of pitch paint, this is the place that has everything in stock. Want a siege ladder? Several can be found here; name your preferred length. Would you like to arrive in Suzail in a grand coach? Name your preferred color, seating capacity and number of horses to draw it. Would you like a barn erected overnight? A ready-to-be-assembled structure awaits you on its own cart with roof trusses and wall panels preassembled. Simply drive in the support posts, link them with the precut beams, raise the structure, and apply the shingles. With a crew of four or more, it can be done in a day! Nelzol’s isn’t cheap, but it really does seem to have everything needed for building things or going places. It’s a must-see shop.

Taverns The Horn and Spur This is a welcoming, easygoing sort of family drinking house, well lit and clean, with a quiet atmosphere and discreet booths at the back for those who wish to meet for romantic purposes or to talk business. This is a great tavern in which to relax and watch visitors and nobles drop in. Some of the Cormaerils and Thunderswords, come here regularly in their finery to dine and drink. They then go down to the Runner to get drunk and enjoy a good tussle with their own farmhands.

The Mist Runner This sparsely furnished, well-worn dockside establishment is where the fisherfolk come to drink and engage in fisticuffs. The windows no longer have any glass, just shutters, and the tables are nailed securely to the floor to prevent them from being hurled -well, most of the time. Named for the local term for a smuggling ship, this tavern is only safe for those who can defend themselves and know how to avoid having to do so.

Rooming Houses

The House of Nets

Maela’s Rooming House

Nulahh’s Rooming House

Besides its inns, Immersea also has many rooming houses, most offering rates for a three-night stay, a tenday, a two-month “stretch” or a four-month “long stretch.” They’re very much alike and have nothing to either recommend them or cause me to warn visitors away from them. All are large converted houses.

Inns

Five Fine Fish: No longer a true tavern, this wayhouse now serves only its own beer, and that only with meals. The dining room has taken over the former taproom, and rowdy drinkers are encouraged to go elsewhere. The inn sports a menu lacking in surprises and devoted mainly to fried fish in various sauces and roasts in gravy with potatoes and greens.

Halaband’s Inn: Halaband’s is the least-known of Immersea’s inns. It’s a dark, drafty old place of gray-haired servants and fine old wood paneling. Its dining room offers a wider selection of food than the Fish. This is a good thing, because the place is otherwise a sad second to its better-known competitor. Everything’s broken and mended or very well-used, and if you dress warmly or go in the hot days of summer, you can appreciate the comfortable feel of the place. Halaband’s offers suites suitable for large groups of travelers. The inn’s founder, long dead, was an adventurer, and he built this place as a base. One interesting feature of the inn is the array of halfling-sized laundry chutes that slope from each floor to the basements. There’s also a dumbwaiter that takes hot food from the kitchens to each floor. Bells are rung to herald the arrival of the viands—and to drive off the bats that like to ride on the dumbwaiter itself. The staff can recommend local escorts and other locals who provide in-room service performing massages, tending to one’s pedicure or manicure, or dressing one’s hair. Halaband’ provides adequate accommodation, but could be improved.

The Immer Inn The most snobbish and overpriced of Immersea’s inns, the Immer Inn is a place that has to be seen to be believed. It’s a former manor house that’s been “improved”” with gilded columns everywhere and hanging brass pots bristling with ferns. Carved ki-rin wind charms and little plaster trumpet-bearing sprites have been worked into every corner. In short, the place tries to look like a palace. The Immer’s wine cellar is superb, the ales less so, and the kitchens here specialize in inventive things done to fish (trout stuffed with cheese? Why?) and in various seasoned sorts of cheese. Guests each have a personal server who waits on them for three meals daily if they wish to partake of food, and there’s a pair of chambermaids on each floor that one can ring for if any need arises. There are no single rooms at the Immer Inn. All suites have a bath chamber and receiving room linked to a wardrobe off of which opens either one or two bedrooms. Each receiving room has its own fireplace and window. The rooms are very nice and utterly soundproof. With the doors closed, you never know you aren’t alone in a private residence. All this luxury, however, easily costs upward of 30 gp per night. Ouch.

Hilp is located on Calantar’s Way between Immersea to the northeast and Suzail to the southwest. Hilp marks the western terminus of the Way of the Manticore, which runs east to the town of Wheloon and beyond. It is surrounded by farmland and grazing pastures. It is situated just north of Starwater River and just outside the southeastern edge of the King’s Forest. Hilp has many tall, narrow shops with homes above them and these are shingled with slate. Hilp is a market town for the local farmers and has thriving trades in the making of barrels and wagons.

A shrub known as stelk is grown commercially in Hilp as fish bait. A stelk shrub resembles a cluster of brown, fist-sized cabbage heads. Aquatic creatures, from goldfish to dragon turtles, are unable to resist it. A species of freshwater electric eel inhabits the Lake of Dragons that could release an electrical discharge deadly to humans. Any eel eating a head of stelk is unable to use this ability for a week.

Hilp is an fortified town and is defended by the militia. While the town has defensive walls, the buildings kept outgrowing them along the major roads. Hilp was named after its founder, a warrior who killed or drove out the trolls that infested the area. The lord of Hilp is Doon Dzavar, a former merchant. He was not from Cormyr, but during his governance he has earned positive regard from the townspeople and the king. Doon’s herald is the wizard Baldask Delzantar.

Notable Locations

The Slipper Shop

This shop is run by a kindly, elderly, female elf who enjoys talking to her customers about Myth Drannor. She sells perfumes, cosmetics, herbs, pomanders, and medicines. The name of her shop comes from the fact that all her products are sold packed in comfortable, embroidered cloth slippers.

Handiber’s Stelk Farm

This farm is located to the west of Hilp at the edge of the forest and is owned by Handiber, a gruff and dry-humored stelk farmer. He brings his crop into town to sell, and the strong varieties he breeds commanded high prices.

Local nobility include members of the Cormaeril family.

Rumors and Legends

Orncibl Rhommd was a weaver of Hilp who, along with his two apprentices, claimed to have stumbled upon the location of the Crypt of Dragons. The Crypt was a vast subterranean tomb and shrine to the dragon god Null, somewhere within a day’s travel of Hilp, though the exact location is long forgotten. Orncibl said that the tomb contained several mummified dragon corpses laying upon piles of gold and gems. Orncibl’s apprentices were killed by fields of blue energy when they got too close, but Orncibl escaped. Unfortunately, he disappeared before he could reveal the cavern’s whereabouts, and ever since that time, agents of the Cult of the Dragon have searched the region for the entrance to the Crypt.

Jester’s Green This village of about 600 merchants stands just north of Suzail. It’s named for an inn that once stood at its center and burned down long ago, killing the innkeeper. The innkeeper was known as the Jester; he was a rogue wizard who defrauded one too many guests with his magic and was destroyed by a meteor swarm hurled by a Red Wizard of Thay traveling in disguise.

The Green, a huge caravan campfield serviced by the inn, survives. It has become the traditional mustering camp of the militia and the marshaling ground for any army called up by Cormyr. It’s bordered by permanent Purple Dragon barracks. Among the barracks, an openair market has been permanently set up for the convenience of the troops. Once a tenday, a horse auction is held on the Green. Breeders bring their stock here so that citizens of Suzail, country folk who can get to the Green without enduring the crowding and prices of Suzail, and the soldiery can all bid on the horses, guaranteeing good prices. If you’ve got something to sell that warriors would want to buy, this is the place to come.

Places of Interest in Jester’s Green

Gambling Houses

The Lucky Dragon This dimly lit establishment rents out chairs at its gaming tables for 1 gp per hour; the time is governed by an intricate water clock that chimes at the top of the hour. Drinks of bad ale and worse wine served in generous clay cups are 4 cp per fill. Bets and the company of a few local lasses who cruise the place seeking to comfort and escort weary gamblers are, of course, extra. Purple Dragons play at half price in the Lucky Dragon.

Shops The stalls in the market change rapidly, but Jester’s Green does have a few shops of interest: The Flame of Love Lutery Lutes and Romantic Trinkets: Yes, this crammed shop does offer lutes, but it also sells love poems for smitten soldiers to send or declaim to their loves as well as scented candles, lingerie, magically preserved flowers, keepsake gifts, “from a secret admirer”” notes, bottles of wine, racy broadsheets, and er, indiscreet romantic pictures. The Maiden Said Maybe, High Ladies in Love, and The Elf Maiden and the Unicorn are a few of the broadsheets for sale. These masterpieces go for 1 sp each. The romantic pictures are priced from 1 sp to 10 gp; most are 6 sp.

The Old Codpiece Arms & Armory

Named for the fearsome protuberance on a fat old suit of armor reputed to have once belonged to Dhalmass the Warrior King, but more likely once the property of the ‘Old Boar’” his stoutest baron, this shop is crammed with arms and armor. Over a dozen complete suits of armor stand among the goods. Secondhand arms and armor are what this shop deals in. Note that the three old dwarves and six retired Purple Dragons who run the place serve as eyes and ears of the war wizards; loose talk among patrons is reported to the authorities.

When you arrive at Jester’s Green, the place is abuzz with activity and you note that there are literally dozens of groups of adventurers arriving, departing and in town. When you inquire about the hubbub, you are reminded that it is the birthday of King Azoun, and the entire capital city of Suzail is abuzz with excitement.

You are fortunate to be near the city at such a time, since there are so few chances to actually interact with royalty and nobility in the manner that this celebration promises. It is customary on Azoun’s birthday for representatives from all the adventuring companies in the kingdom to present themselves to the king in a gesture of fealty. As a rule, Cormyrean society considers adventurers a dubious proposition in the first place.

Lord Partic Thistle, the Registrant General, was the one who came up with the idea of this ceremony in order to try to improve the image of adventuring companies and adventurers in general. This is hardly surprising, since the Registrant General is the noble who is the ultimate overseer in the granting of charters. Each adventuring charter is personally signed and sealed by Lord Thistle. The festivities in Suzail run all day and into the night. If you make haste, you can still arrive in time to partake in te festivities. Now…what does one bring a king for his birthday?