Who Rules: Lady Rhessajan Ambermantle (NG hf B14), a retired, weathered old woman of rasping voice and great humor, who in her time was an explorer and trader, and who acquired several personal, protective magical items and spells which she still uses.
Who Really Rules: The Lady Rhessajan, supported by three Lord High Advisors, all retired caravan masters: Burdan Hlathiman (LN hm F12); Deep Ulurnan (NE hm T9); and Phantar Naelannon (NG hm F13). They strive to be fair and farsighted, and otherwise do whatever is most profitable for the city and its merchants, consulting with a council of merchants whose meetings they chair.
Population: Estimated (there has never been a census, or any taxes short of stabling and ferry surcharges) at a mere 12,500 in winter, the inhabitants of Scornubel, the Caravan City, can swell to 80,000 at the height of a good summer season. In most years, the actual population for spring and summer is around 50,000.
Major Products: (Trade, moneylending,) wagon repairs, mounts and beasts of burden (trading, breaking, and doctoring), medicines, mutton, wool.
Armed Forces: A watch (police) of 46 mounted, plate-mailed men armed with horsemen.s maces, hand crossbows, lances, long swords, and daggers. The watch is reinforced by several priests and wizards of middling levels, the Red Shields mercenary fighters, and, in times of danger, a mustered local militia of approximately 700 men, of whom 400 will be trained F3s to F5s.
For a plains city, Scornubel is seriously undermanned. However, the merchants and costers moving through the city often bring their own mercenary forces, which are used in times of immediate danger to defend the town. In addition, Scornubel has money and influence enough to call on military aid from other nearby cities in the case of a threatening orc horde, bandit, Amnian raider, or High Moor troll attack (occasionally the city hires one of the above to fight the others).
Notable Mages: Scornubel is a city of transients, where many folk keep their true names and powers hidden under disguises and aliases. Of the few who do make themselves known, the most powerful mages are:
Buldath (LN hm W15), a taciturn caster of spells-for-hire and caravan investor, who buys monster remains from adventurers and peddles them as magical components through agents around the Sword Coast.
Chansrin Aluar (CG hf W9), a sharptongued, gung ho adventuress always ready for a rescue or a fight, who often lends her magical aid to the watch.
Nethmoun Aln (CN hm W12), a reclusive researcher into rare and unusual spells, who buys such spells by offering training or items he has crafted in return. He is said to have some awesome defenses around his ramshackle hut.
Notable Churches:
Scornubel has no permanent temples except the Healing House, temple of Lathander; High Priestess Josura Hlammel (NG hf P14), a kind woman always ready to heal the hurt and hungry of all faiths; 12 priests, 42 followers.
Shrines to almost all of the known gods and cults of Faerun can be found here, most unstaffed and empty except when the faithful come through town.
Notable Rogues' and Thieves' Guilds: None known. Many individual thieves and brigands operate for a night or two here and then (if they are wise) move on, but between the watch and the Red Shields no organized .gray. groups are permitted to operate in Scornubel. unless one considers the mysterious Trail Lords, a pompous band of merchants (*FR0) such a group. Zhentarim, Dragon Cult, and Harper agents are all active in the city, but none have successfully established working bands in Scornubel yet.
Equipment Shops: Partial (poor in winter).
Adventurers' Quarters: Scornubel is largely a city of tents, warehouses, and paddocks; one need never pay for a night unless one wants a bed, stables, food, or all of the above. Adventurers are welcome here as normal folk, not as potential troublemakers, for everyone here is an adventurer of a sort. The available accomodations presently include:
Far Anchor inn, large and fairly new (good/moderate);
Traveler's Rest inn, old and large (good/cheap);
The Dusty Hoof tavern and inn (good/moderate);
The Raging Lion inn and tavern (fair/moderate);
The Fishym & Smoka Inn, known to all as "the Fishsmoke" (fair/cheap);
and the Jaded Unicorn inn and tavern (poor/cheap).
Scornubel has many wild taverns, nightclubs, and festhalls (*FR0).
Important Characters: In a city of transients and eccentric adventurers, few individuals stay around, alive, and important for long. Two unlikely souls who have are:
Obloss, Commissioner of Public Sewers (NG hm F7), a rotund, sweating, and earnest man dedicated to making his chosen home, Scornubel, a better place to live. He has busily worked on roads, sewers, water-cisterns and piping, and the like for eight seasons now, assisted by volunteers from the citizenry when they aren't too busy keeping warm (in winter) or earning their keep (in summer).
Phiraz of the Naturalists (LN hm W6), a watch supporter with his magic, and S: zoology, particularly the monsters of the High Moor region; a recognized expert on otyughs.
Another important inhabitant of Scornubel is the legendary Oebelar. Once a mighty mage, some accident or transformation overtook the Oebelar some years ago--a battle or magical mishap that destroyed his tower in great flashes of blue-white "cold fire". Since that time, the Oebelar has lurked around Scornubel, spying on private meetings, trysts, delicate negotiations, indelicate negotiations, and everything else in between. Many people in Scornubel occasionally feel that they are being watched, but few manage to spot the watcher. When they do, they often wish they hadn't, for all that is left of the Oebelar is a coldly shining eye, a blackened hand and forearm, and his intelligence.
The Oebelar cannot speak, but can signal, gesture, and even write. His eye and hand float silently around Scornubel. sometimes together, sometimes apart. He seems to keep watch over as many events in the city as he can, and has been known to signal the Lady Rhessajan, or leave her notes, when the city's security is endangered.
The Oebelar's remaining forms can be hit and hurt, but seem impervious to all magic. The Oebelar himself cannot be detected by any magical means tried thus far--nor do magical barriers seem to keep him out, or magical sentries warn of his approach. His activities have largely ended Scornubel.s traditional appeal for Sword Coast couples intending to elope, who arrange to meet in Scornubel. Their happy meetings tend to be dampened by the cold and interested hand and eye of the ever-silent Oebelar.
Important Features in Town: Scornubel has no walls or city plan; its most important features are the ferries and ship docks, and Scornubel Hall (which contains quarters for the local Council and visitors, the city's deep wells and emergency granary, and meeting chambers which can be rented when the Council is not in session-and over which Rhessajan shamelessly eavesdrops). The city contains bases of the Thousandheads Trading Coster and many other costers, companies, and priakos (*FR0).
Local Lore: Somewhere beneath one of the darker, racier nightclubs of the city lies the lost crypt of the Wondermen, a lost, long-ago society of mages, perhaps from lost Netheril, who explored the extremes of human magic of their day.
Local lore holds that several of the Wondermen, now liches, guard the crypt, which is full of dancing ioun stones, wands, rods, and stranger treasures, including a huge crystal sphere containing an .eater of magic,. a cloudlike creature that, if released, the legends whisper, will devour all the magic in the world, leaving the Realms bereft of all spells and their effects. (This creature is a Nishruu. A close relative of it, a Hakeashar, appears in *FRE1.)
Scornubel has always been home to some pretty racy nightclubs, dancehalls, and taverns, with wild entertainments of magic, exhibited monsters, acrobatics, and exotic dancing presented for the patrons. There are many tales of monsters that escaped, ate a few unfortunate revelers, and still lurk in the area. Darker legends whisper of monsters with mental or magical powers that came here controlling their human handlers and left with considerably more mentally enslaved subjects, and treasure to boot.
There are also persistent rumors that among the costumed, painted dancers of both sexes who perform in Scornubel are outlaws on the run, adventurers seeking to escape the vengeance of foes, nobles seeking to escape vendettas or parental control, heirs evading the blades of those who would forcefully disinherit them, and so on. Some of these tales are undoubtedly true. On more than one occasion, a tavern has erupted into full-scale battle when a seasoned adventurer in the audience has recognized a nearby performer as a lamia, doppleganger, or other dangerous menace.
Whatever the present level of dangers and intrigue in the Caravan City, one thing is certain: it is never a dull place to visit.
