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| Ordotown and the surrounding area. |
East of the Palatine Peninsula, the
Bittersalt Sea extends eight hundred miles along the shores of the Braerosen
Wastes. It is a desolate coastline of
gray-white desert, the legacy of a divine war fought and ended millennia
ago. The life that exists there is rare
and tough. It is not the sort of place one would expect to find a settlement,
but one exists near Deadwater Bay.
Ordotown can be found about a
half-mile inland from the bay. There is no road, just a simple wooden sign near
the beach that indicates the settlement’s general location. Experienced travelers know that the best way
to find Ordotown is to wait until dusk and follow the plumes of smoke rising in
the north. Even then, traveling at night
toward Ordotown through the coastal Wastes can be fatal. Various elementals and undead entities lurk
on the edge of the town, waiting to fall upon the unwary.
The town
itself is a series of gray-white berms that rise and fall into the landscape,
forming streets and habitations. It’s not until one is actually in Ordotown
that one spots improvised chimneys emerging from some of these stony mounds or the
carefully fitted doors and small windows that let meager daylight into the
interior rooms.
No one is
certain how many people call Ordotown home. The populace exists in a constant
state of flux. People come and go, appear and vanish, as they like. Estimates
range from forty to a hundred people at most, although a survey of long-term
residents would probably reveal a much lower number.
Ordotown
does not appear on any official map. It is not a sanctioned settlement or
colony of any government or church. That’s
the way the residents like it. Ordotown is a place where people come to
disappear, for a while, or for a lifetime.
Its origins
are unclear. Some say the settlement was started by shipwrecked pirates. Others
that it was established after the original, fossilized settlement, was
discovered by academics. Some say treasure-hunters were the first to establish
a base, but when they realized there was no treasure to be found they abandoned
the site. Whatever its origins, everyone
agrees that the town was named after the first man buried in its graveyard, a
fellow named Kranen Ordo.
By all
accounts he was a legendary scallywag, thief and fugitive. His burial in the town graveyard seemed to
give the settlement not only a name but a purpose.
In the
forty years of its existence, Ordotown has served as respite and sanctuary for
felons and fugitives, the famous and the infamous, as well as common murderers
and madmen. The aasimar blackguard, Aril Phelar, found brief refuge in Ordotown
before meeting his end in distant Ayath. Azor Ireloom, who murdered the
pirate-queen Iron Jenny, fled to Ordotown, to avoid the murderous wrath of her
crew. Instead, he would be killed by Ara
Nori, the Regicide of Kuln, in a common bar fight. The half-elf sorceress,
Silmera Venteth, spent her final years atop the Lookout, mourning the death of
her lover, the triton hero, Sulak Kirr.
You would
think more people would know about Ordotown, but they don’t. Every once in a
while a bard shows up, poking his nose around, following rumors of an infamous
outpost. The ones who find Ordotown and manage to leave are wise enough not to sing about it.
