Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #268

Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #268 

September 26th, 2023 

• Number: 268 

• Name:  Deep Dive on a Site of Interest: The Sinking Lands of the Narrows – Part 2 

• Location: Central Narrows southwest of the City-State of Carasta 

• Population (approx.): 24 (Tutra’s Manor), 40 (Guildhall), 80 (Farmsteads) 

• Brief: The County of the Setting Sun maintains a constant watch on the lands beyond the stone towers marking its border. Border watch, scouting and exploration were traditionally the province of the Setting Sun Legion. With the rise of the City-State of Carasta to the northeast, the associated Guilds have made their presence known to the populace of the County. The Adventurers Guild has influenced young warriors to take a different path than the tradition of joining the Legion and serving the County.  This has led to the rise of successful and larger-than-life adventuring personalities such as Tutra. 

• Tutra, 98, Loxodon (a tall humanoid with elephantine features), is a successful adventure novelist of the County of the Setting Sun. She is seven and a half feet tall and has a distinctive pattern of half-moons on her trunk. Tutra wears unique casual clothes that she has made for her by a famous local designer. She walks with a limp that she received from a fight with a rival. Tutra has studied martial arts through the years and uses it to calm herself before she writes. She has a pet dog, Aiwa, 5, a Basset Hound who accompanies her on her author's tours. 

• Tutra writes novels about her time as an adventurer. She was part of several adventuring companies which explored the Narrows, the Wastelands and points beyond. She also had romances with some members of those companies. Her readers gobble up her books and ask for more. Some books have even become best sellers among Loxodons and other Kin of the County and the surrounding City-States. 

• Tutra and Aiwa live in a small mansion she had specially built for someone her size. She has an assistant, Oriel Riken, 25, male Human, who does the writing that Tutra dictates. Tutra throws fabulous parties that are attended by everyone who is anyone. The parties last a week as people travel to get there and then stay for the actual party. Tutra's family is ashamed of her and wants nothing to do with her because of her outgoing personality. 

• Geography: Tutra’s Manor (location 1 see below) can be found about 5 miles east of the easternmost flag-flying stone tower of the County of the Setting Sun (#128). There is no official road between the two, but most travelers to her manor are familiar with the route. Tutra’s fellow Adventures have blazed a trail that zigzags across the Sinking Lands to the oasis near the center. Her manor serves as both her home and a formal Guildhouse of the Adventurers Guild, Tutra being the Guildmistress.  

• The complex consists of 4 elegantly architected buildings (Tutra’s manor, the Guildhouse, a Guest House and the Grand Hall home to her parties of great renown) in the style of Tulagan (#132) to the southeast within a surrounding protective wall (festooned with wards and enchantments provided by magic-wielding colleagues) upon a low hill. The manor has a well in the central courtyard and is surrounded by about a thousand acres of farmland having attracted a dozen tenant farming families to move outside the borders of the County. Though Tutra does not treat them as vassals, her fellow adventurers do protect the locals as part of their training and in turn the farmers provide produce to the manor.