Adventure Background
Rusthenge is set in western New Thassilon, on Chakikoth Isle. In particular, the adventure focuses on a stretch along the isle’s southern shores—a region known as the Kindred Coast. This area is about a 20-hour trek south of the dangerous ruins of Old Xin-Edasseril, the one-time capital of Runelord Belimarius’s nation.
For ages, Chakikoth Isle was one of several unclaimed islands in the Ironbound Archipelago, a region sandwiched between the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and the frontier of Varisia. The archipelago’s position beyond the borders of any nation’s rule made it an appealing destination for pioneers and settlers to set out for and establish new homes. Life in the Ironbound Archipelago was not easy, but to those who welcomed the challenge, the freedom to live as they wished was too great a draw to resist.
In the year 4606 AR, at the dawn of the Age of Lost Omens, a series of frightening storms scoured many parts of the world, and the pirate city of Riddleport in Varisia was no exception. Weeks after the storms cleared, two siblings, Dartanious and Santwi, took advantage of the chaos and disarray to flee their servitude at the hands of Riddleport’s crime lords. The military-minded Dartanious had been working on a plan to escape and was waiting for an appropriate diversion to put his plan into action. Meanwhile, Santwi had inspired their fellow captives, helping them to feel brave enough to attempt an escape in the chaos the storms left in their wake.
Sailing in two ships they stole from the harbor, the siblings and their combined crews of nearly a hundred followers made their way north across the Shining Sea, eventually making landfall on the southern shore of Chakikoth Isle. Here, far from the cruelties of their hometown, the siblings and their crews started new lives. They founded a village called Osprey Cove, named after the birds that populated the shoreline. For nearly a year, things went well, but by the end of that time, the siblings’ bickering had resulted in a schism. Santwi, a worshipper of Cayden Cailean, wanted to continue developing Osprey Cove into a gentle, commune-style society of fishers and farmers, but Dartanious was a worshipper of Gorum. He increasingly focused on plans to train a navy so that, one day, he could return to Riddleport to strike back at its crime lords. Before the two siblings and their followers came to blows, Dartanious gathered his followers and abandoned Osprey Cove. They traveled up the coast to establish a second village and named it Iron Harbor.
For years, the two villages grew and prospered, slowly augmenting their populations with a trickle of newcomers searching for a place to start new lives. Each town’s leaders were gifted and charismatic, and their villagers were hardworking and loyal, but they rarely mixed. They established their own trade with villages on other islands in the archipelago, secured their own defenses and stores, and when they did think of each other, those thoughts were tainted with bitterness and suspicion. A sort of cold war escalated between the two settlements, a long-lasting feud that would outlive both siblings. Today, Dartanious and Santwi are long dead, but the villages of Osprey Cove and Iron Harbor live on. In honor of their founders, the locals refer to this stretch of Chakikoth’s shoreline as the Kindred Coast, yet their cooperation ends there.
But with the rise of New Thassilon, life has changed for the people of the Kindred Coast. Thankfully, the new ruler of this region, Runelord Belimarius, is more concerned with her disputes with rival Queen Sorshen, power grabs against the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, and opposition from Varisia to the south. So far, she and her armies have not paid much mind to the smaller settlements that already existed in the Ironbound Archipelago when she returned to power in the region. The villagers realize this is mostly because Runelord Belimarius considers these villages to already be part of her domain. And this is how the people of Osprey Cove like it. When Runelord Belimarius and her agents turn their attention to Chakikoth Isle, it is invariably to the notorious ruins of Old Xin-Edasseril at the isle’s heart—a place the citizens of the Kindred Coast have long avoided.
But once a year, a tax collector visits the Kindred Coast to gather dues for the capital of New Xin-Edasseril, located four islands to the northeast. The tithes they demand are light, and while the villagers still rankle at having to pay taxes to anyone, they also realize that the less attention they draw from Runelord Belimarius, the better. To their relief, the tax collectors always seem eager to conduct their business quickly and never even stay the night in town, and so far they have left Osprey Cove and Iron Harbor alone to conduct business as usual.
Still, the leaders of Osprey Cove fear that they’re living on borrowed time, and talk about abandoning the Kindred Coast to seek a new home further abroad has been circulating in town. Until the town can reach a decision, though, the villagers do their best to lie low and not cause a scene, so that they will continue to be beneath the notice of their land’s ancient overlord.
