City of Gold: Lands in Shadow
All gold flows from Kem, thus giving it the name “City of Gold.” No other city—no province or even kingdom, for that matter—can claim a level of wealth comparable to that possessed by Kem, and the infamous financial power known as the Vault based there. Kem’s influence reaches everywhere, from the Crusader States bounding the Desolation in the north to the holdfasts of Blötland in the far south. The City of Gold has lifted many nations up to the heights of power, and cast down into ruins any who crossed them. And so Kem moves on the world stage with unchecked might, an economic force without rival, whose financial influence translates easily into political and even military power.
This installment of the Lands in Shadow series follows other entries that detail the Confederacy of Nine Cities. As the most powerful and influential of the great city-states, Kem’s presence and power cannot be understated, and all fear displeasing the city’s leaders, as well as the Vault, who pulls their strings, lest they court economic ruin.
Buy your copy in PDF at DriveThruRPG today!
Scholars point those curious about the faeries and their ilk to old tomes whose parchment pages hold ancient stories and legends, but the best source of knowledge is the folklore hiding in plain sight. The weary midwife who mops away the tears after losing another beautiful babe to the Goblin King, the portly farmer who scratches his head in wonder over his singing swine, and the stable-boy who keeps an iron nail over his heart lest the pooka get him again—such commoners brim with tales, gossip, and first-hand accounts of the Fair Folk, for they’re the most likely to run across such beings in their day-to-day lives. As outlandish and strange as their customs might be, a traveler would always do well to listen and learn, for the faeries are a tricksy breed, filled with malicious mischief.
Along the southernmost reach of the Crescent Bay, a jumbled city covers a narrow, jagged peninsula, like a scab that just won’t heal right. The city of Pruul was once a shining jewel with great wealth, power, and influence that equaled or even exceeded the other cities of the Confederacy of the Nine, of which it is a member. But the city’s relentless greed and avarice caused it to tear itself apart, as a tiny minority of rich got richer, and the massive majority of the poor got poorer. In the aftermath of bloody riots that brought down the city’s ruling elite, criminals and other unsavory elements filled the power vacuum as the only form of stability and order. Although a hollow shell of its former glory, Pruul, now known as the City of Thieves, serves as a hub for rogues, pirates, brigands, escaped slaves, debtors fleeing their debts, and a variety of other misfits and miscreants.