Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #202

Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #202 

July 21st, 2023 

• Number: 202 

• Name: Sequential Dive on a Site of Interest: West Rift Ventures of Carasta Part 6: Grand Theft Wagon 

• Location:  Center of the Narrows between the Sleeping Woods and the Furnace 

• Population (approx.): 485 

• Brief: As the site and its work expanded, the camp transitioned from tents to temporary cabins to a semblance of a village, with an initially uninspired name of West Rift, with a mix of wooden and a few stone structures. With permanent buildings came a need for additional workers of more traditional occupations including artisans like blacksmiths, tailors and tinkers and service employees like shopkeepers, cleaners and cooks. The latter provided an opportunity for the Society of the Ebon Fangs (a criminal concern headquartered in Obermarsh to the north) to place an agent in the village. The Guilds established a headquarters featuring apartments, offices, and meeting rooms for notable supervisory personnel. Lastly a private dining hall was built, and a skilled chef was recruited to manage the kitchen. Said chef never arrived, kidnapped by agents of the Ebon Fangs from his wagon (full of cooking gear) midway between Sleeping Woods (#62) and West Rift then replaced by the gregarious and diminutive Jansire Flintfellow. 

• Jansire Flintfellow, 63, Halfling man, is a Thief who works for Sasha Nightbough’s Society of the Ebon Fangs. He is diminutive and has a scar on his right brow. He wears his pale white close-cropped hair close to his face with a pigtail that goes down the back. Jansire's eyes are big and jade colored. His outfit of choice is quilted armor dyed green and brown. He favors long cooking knives (that double as daggers) as weapons. 

• When Sasha learned about this dig, she immediately thought of Jansire and his talents. Once he received word from Sasha, he found out who was hired for the job as a chef for the archaeological team and replaced him. Jansire listens to what everyone says during meals and has talked to most people at the site. No one suspects who he works for; some might even call him a friend. 

• Jansire has worked for Sasha for many years. He is married to Zefsna, 57, Halfling, and they have two children, Osder, 3, and Grada, 1. Zefsna works for Sasha and is currently on a break to take care of the children. Jansire has a very easy-going personality and makes friends easily. Few would suspect him of his devious nature. 

• The cook is quietly learning all he can about day-to-day operations at West Rift, especially the location of notable finds whether ores or relics. The intelligence is delivered to Sasha coded into Jansire’s orders to a specific merchant in Arrowwick for unique food and drink to stock the kitchen. The Ebon Fangs are skilled at the long game and Sasha will not direct them to act until the time is right. 

• Geography: West Rift has slowly evolved to resemble a typical village built at the end of the trail from Sleeping Woods. The original earth berm received a wooden palisade and became the center of town with the headquarters and other Venture dormitories and warehouses within, a reinforced wooden gate facing the world. New permanent structures for businesses and residences encircled those buildings, they in turn encircled by an outer wall of earth and wood.  

• The excavations and the mines, the latter formalized by the Mining Guild as Deep Mining Station 4A, continued to expand. In the depths below the floor of the rift, the magma popped and hissed, tremors shaking the surface as it rose and fell. 

• Next Article: West Rift Ventures Part 7: All Fall Up and Down