Perses Castle

Perses Castle is a small castle of the Geroni in the campaign Yeni Dünya ("New World"). After a coup in Avlor Aten, the civil head consul Orpi proposed withdrawing to the castle of one of his allies outside the city, which the plotters did not hold and which lay at most two days away; a company then set out to meet him and the band of adventurers who had saved him halfway.¹²³

Description

The castle stands on artificially raised earth and commands a crossing of several roads among the forests, with a wide view; no village bound to it is seen nearby. Old runes are left bare on its walls, and where they remain whole, no plant or ivy clings to the stone. Its inner keep holds a hall carved into the rock, guarded by wooden doors, with stairs leading both up and down.⁴⁵⁶⁷

Its commander, Leandro, says that he normally keeps only a token force of fifty and that the castle's infirmary is very small.⁸

The refugees

The band reached the castle at dawn on the back of a great automaton, after about half an hour of jolting travel. Before the walls stood carts drawn by small automata or ostrich-like animals, small tents and a makeshift place for the wounded by a pool of water. The crowd looked dirty and wretched, yet their speech and clothes marked them as educated people of high standing.^9101112

In the keep the band met leaders of several cities, most wearing pins numbered one or two and a few three. They had learned the imperial tongue for their work and spoke it for their guests, falling back into the Geroni tongue as the talk grew heated. They believed that about nine cities had suffered a coup on the same night; in some the rulers had been killed or imprisoned, in others no blood was shed. At first they had taken it for an imperial attack, and having learned that it came from within, they did not blame the band.^1314151617

For the debate, most of the crowd was sent out to the courtyard, and those thought to have a vote sat on stools set in a circle while speakers of the imperial tongue whispered translations to their neighbours. The hall was disheartened by the success of the coups. An envoy came with a proclamation in the name of the war-mage Deimos and was sent away, and Deimos himself later spoke there. After the meeting many refugees left to reach their families, see to their property or flee their fear, while most of the officials the band had met went on wishing to avoid war.^{18192021222324}

The gnome engineer Finli stayed behind at the castle to study the runes that keep plants from its walls, and learned to copy one with the help of the chief arcanist of Avlor Aten.²⁵²⁶

Spoiler: Later fateRevealSpoils: Yeni Dünya #28 · Say what you have read

The stranger Klam Ezor later told the band that Perses was under Deimos's control and that the abducted scholar Orson was held there, and urged them to get him out in secret. The band set out for Perses by a road they knew.²⁷²⁸²⁹