St. Rhysus of the Gap

History

This fortress city was founded by an adventuring cleric who went by the ironic name of Sir Rhysus. Sir Rhysus and her companions followed the East Wing River to this point where they encountered two events of great import. First, they found a large fertile valley between two segments of the Star Crash Mountains, a place that seemed specifically created to be ideal farming lands. Second, they encountered an ancient Green Dragon who claimed those lands as a hunting grounds. The companions, by dint of great struggle, difficult sacrifice, and no small amount of deceit and guile, managed to kill the foul wyrm, and claim his treasure. With that treasure, which contained ancient items of great magical power, they founded the city, where "Sir Rhysus" became "Lord Mayor Rhysus". Most of the companions moved on after a few years, in search of new adventures, but Mayor Rhysus remained in the town and continued to lead it for over 50 years. In the end, she faced a magical duel with an Arcanaloth summoned by a necromancer who had traveled to the town, and defeated it only at the cost of her own life. The townsfolk (after tearing the necromancer limb from limb) erected a statue to their founding "Mother" and hero, and changed the town name from Gapton to "St. Rhysus of the Gap" in honor of her sacrifice.

Defenses

The town is a heavily fortified city with 3 concentric dual-curtain stone walls and four labyrinthine gates through them. The wall foundations contain numerous transfer tunnels allowing defenders to travel between the walls even if the gates are breached, and the many passages within the walls allow them to fight from 3 levels of arrow slits and the top parapets in both inward and outward directions. The entire town garrison is housed within the walls themselves, along with large quantities of supplies. Additional tunnels deep in the bedrock beneath the town allow defenders to travel between the walls and the inner keep as well. The inner keep houses, in addition to the castle where the lord mayor resides, emergency quarters for the townsfolk, massive supplies of weapons and armor for defense, and enough magical food sources to keep the entire populace of 75,000 fed indefinitely in the event of a siege. The defensive walls are composed of two solid stone curtain walls 2 feet thick, with 20 feet of rammed earth and structural stone between the curtains. Each wall, therefore, is 24 feet thick in total, and the heights are 40, 50, and 60 feet for the outermost, middle, and innermost wall. The wall foundations are driven 50 feet down into the bedrock (which is only 3-5 feet below the surface where the town rests). The river docks are outside the main walls to the west of the city, and extend 3 miles along the riverbank (which jogs to the west here around the bedrock outcrop on which the town is built). Hordes of goblinoids, orcs, lizardmen, and others have attempted to breach the walls in the 250 years since it's founding, but none have succeeded even in breaching a gate (testament to the powerful magical protections on the solid-stone gates which weigh 400 tons each). As may be guessed from the design of the town, the founders included several tactical and magical experts, who spared no expense to create a true fortress here at the edge of civilized lands to act as a bastion against the great dangers in the lands beyond.

Inner Keep

The inner keep, in addition to it's outer bailey wall, which is built like the city walls, but is 80 feet high and 48 feet thick with emergency housing filling the space between the 4-foot curtain walls, houses a large castle with 6 main floors and 4 towers rising 6 more floors each. The 4 basement levels underlie the entire bailey out to the walls, and allow safe transit between castle and wall during war, in addition to providing space for extensive stores of food and war supplies, as well as additional emergency quarters for the populace. The bailey wall and castle walls are all protected with magical reinforcement against all known attack, and the entire keep is warded against magical transport (with the exception of the teleportation circle, which is kept a state secret and also well designed for defense). The entire keep area is Hallowed (Celestials are not affected) as well, with secondary effects of Courage, Tongues, and Energy Protection (Fire) for all loyal citizens of the city.

Surrounding Region

Outside the city the farmlands continue for many miles, and these days more than 150,000 persons live in small towns and villages around the city. The mountain valley here is over 50 miles wide and runs 100 miles from Southwest to Northeast. That land area is heavily settled with the city near it's Southeast entry. There are some mines now operating in the nearby mountains, and the iron mined here is considered among the best in the region, with trace inclusions of other metals that make it ideal for extremely high strength steels. To the East, a mine has recently encountered a large inclusion of Dovestone, and it is thought that this will bring far more miners to the region soon.

Economy

Economically, the city is mostly an agrarian economy, with some supplementation from mining and trade. The city itself has a treasury thought to still contain hundreds of thousands of gold worth of valuables seized from the dragon hoard by the city founders. That treasure, however, is extremely well defended deep within the central keep, and the greedy are well advised to seek the hoard of an ancient dragon rather than attempt to raid the city treasury.