Haymerkate
Haymerkate
Type Town Country The Holy Theocracy of Olympus (Hub border) Setting The Andorf Mountains, by the Senegarte Pass
Haymerkate is a large town set near the Andorf Mountains and the Senegarte Pass, on the trade road that runs through the borderlands of the Holy Theocracy of Olympus and the Hub, close to the mining city of Verra. Its fortunes - like much trade in the region - are said to turn on the whims of the terror dragon Ko Arto.
Economy
Haymerkate grew up on the mines of the surrounding hills. When the Senegarte Pass was opened and the demand for lodging and revelry swelled, its inns and houses of pleasure boomed alongside the mining trade - drawing in a steady stream of merchant caravans, adventuring bands, and, with them, no small number of troublemakers and opportunists. It became a well-known waypoint for those crossing the mountains.
The Gangs & the Rooftop Heroes
With prosperity came organized crime, and the streets of Haymerkate are riddled with gangs and crime families. In recent years an urban legend took root of masked vigilantes who prowl the rooftops by night, fighting the rising crime - variously rumoured to be a grieving adventurer, a vampire with a grudge against the gang chief Ternavikus, or a deranged servant of a death goddess. When the gangs answered by executing twenty-one innocents, one in each district, and threatening to make it a nightly custom, the inns of the city - among them the Poplar - closed their doors in mourning, and the heroes were forced to think again.
Appendix
See Also
Sources & Attribution
- Primary lore: the Drouble backstory (Hebrew), archived privately, and the trade-road geography of
editions/5e-2014/world/countries-of-thelemar.md.