Riveside

The province of Riveside escaped the shivering plague a decade ago relatively lightly - the folk tell to this day of the soldiers of the baroness that guarded every road and patrolled the wilds slaying those who tried to flee the plague and thus carry it further. While in many other parts of Dhoesone the Baroness is faulted for the brutality of the quarantine the folk of Riveside know full well the suffering she spared them – a dozen villages in the south were depopulated by the deadly plague, the Riveside folk are still wary and any traveler with the slightest illness is best advised to shun the province lest the folk act to ‘protect themselves’.

Currently the folk of Riveside are more afraid of the Giants in Romiene than rumors of the plague still in Bjondrig and constantly clamor for more protection, while the Baroness was not unsympathetic to their fears she could not afford to send aid beyond the troops already sent.

Riveside is noted for gentle hills and relatively fertile soil and since her ascension the Baroness has encouraged more settlement in the province, although her efforts have yet to bear fruit – in part to continuing fears of that the plague will return.

A is the Countess of Riveside.

G, Lord of Garolls Well

E, Lord Heldon

Prominent towns in Riveside are few, Bynd’s Watch the largest town was destroyed by the giants when they marched to the coast and is said to be occupied by bandits and ne’er-do-wells.

Garoll’s Well is a small but thriving town whose economy is based on salt – the natural caves under the town produce a good deal of salt which is sold as far afield as Halskapa, the mines are home to possibly the only temple of Haelyn built beneath the earth – the devout miners carved the temple from the salt about them and it is said to have a rare beauty about it.

Much of the mutton exported from Dhoesone is first preserved with salt from Garoll’s Well and the people are very proud of their role in aiding the rest of the realm.

A further place of note is the Helden Ranch. The Helden family has raised horses for generations on the ranch and a Helden geldings and mares are widely sought by knights as a mount with great stamina. The Helden family only rarely grants use of its stallions as stud and never sell them. More than 300 people live in the village about the ranch and it is quite the center for all things horse-related.

The great monolith

This white sandstone monolith long ago had its inscription polished smooth by the winds. Standing five times a man's height atop a hill overlooking the confluence of 3 rivers, its purpose is long forgotten. An immense feeling of sorrow is felt by all about this monument, phantasms such as the smell of smoke or sounds of weeping or chanting are often present though not in a manner that engenders fear. No undead will approach the monument – nor any other being of the Shadow World. It is said that pixies and sprites dance in around the monolith and surrounding pines. Some say that Erik and Ruornil watch over this place for priests of each often receive visions of places they are needed or threats they may face when they rest near the monolith.

One of the Northbryn’s many tributaries, the Thein, runs west to east in southern Riveside. In most parts the Thein can be forded but a bridge stands near the village of Thormont. At this point the archers of the Baroness were forced to turn back nearly a thousand fleeing villagers anxious to escape the quarantine and thus the shivering plague. The southern bank of the Thein has been covered by poppies since that grim day – one flower for every drop of blood shed it is said.

One particular area near the bridge is home to poppies of a deep, almost black, crimson. Here lord Alaric, a minor scion of Azrai, and his family perished – for the Baroness’s quarantine applied to high and low alike. Although poppies are often worn at funerals in Dhoesone or made into wreaths something about these crimson poppies defies such use by polite society for fear of the corruption they are believed to contain.

Similarly some folk of Dhoesone like to slice poppy bulbs and then smoke the sap that collects along the cut – while this practice is accepted (if frowned upon) by most of the nobility, all three faiths of Dhoesone banned anyone from harvesting these fell poppies for such a purpose out of fear that the taint of Azrai was within them.