Hangman Harbor

SAGA Rules

by Lady Gumdrop

Introduction

Hangman Harbor is a small port town located in Neraka on the eastern coast of Ansalon. Because of its location, it has a variety of different races living there, and an even more diverse group of beings use this little town as their regular port of call. Throughout the next several installments of this article series, the nooks and crannies of Hangman Harbor will be fully explored.

Transcriber's Note: From Farana Silvertreth

Just recently, I received a visit from a person who grew up in the little town of Hangman Harbor. His name was Jollan Selnith, and he claimed to dabble in researching and writing history texts. One of the things that he wanted to do while visiting Palanthas was have one of the famed Aesthetics look over his current project, a history of Hangman Harbor, and make comments about it. As Bertrem didn't have the time to take care of this matter, it fell into my hands. I duly read it and gave my comments back. At the same time, though, I informed him that I wished to make a copy of the texts for the Great Library. He had done a solid job of writing down some of the local lore of Hangman Harbor, and I felt it necessary to add his work to the little we currently have about that port. He agreed in a most sincere way and extended his visit for the time it took me to quickly transcribe his texts. The result is this short work. I have added my own footnotes to this work to help enhance the reader's knowledge of Hangman Harbor. The reader is cautioned to peruse this with a logical mind, as I do not have access to the same research and local lore that Jollan Selnith does. As a result, I cannot verify most of the information within.

The Beginning: Tarkenton*

The continent of Ansalon has not always been what it is today. Due to the influence of the gods and the acts of various mortal beings, the world around us has changed throughout the centuries. One of these changes included the great Cataclysm. Many years after this Cataclysm, long after Istar had sunk below the body of water we call the Blood Sea, a captain and several of his crewmates decided it was time to settle down. These sailors wanted to make a better life for themselves, away from the various vices that plague mortals, so they needed a place a bit away from the rest of the world. At the same time, they still wanted access to the trade opportunities that the world provided. When they stumbled across the location in which Hangman Harbor now resides, they decided to make this place their headquarters.

The location itself was perfect! There were no ogres around the area then, and the minotaurs weren't all that interested in that section of land. The kender were far, far away, and there were some settlements that they could set up trade routes to once they became established. So the people aboard the four ships got the supplies they needed to start a small port and farming community, gathered what families they had, and made landfall. During an evening of celebrations, the place was named Tarkenton, after the captain who came up with the idea to settle in the first place.

Captain Tarken was a solid, respectable man with high morals. He had trained every one of the other sailors with him during some part of their seagoing lives, and he knew their characters well. As such, he felt that he had a strong seed to begin this settlement, and he hoped that his dream of having a good place to live in would come true. However, he had a dark secret to hide. During the days after the gods had left, it was hard to find faith and keep it. At one point during the early days of his life, before he imposed a strict discipline upon himself, he had worked briefly with some minotaur pirates. At that time, it was probably hard to imagine a minotaur deigning to work with a weak human, but Tarken had fallen into their debt while gambling. Instead of losing his life when he couldn't pay his debt, he had agreed to work the worst jobs aboard a minotaur ship for a year. During this year, Tarken saw the worst that the minotaurs had to offer. When his service was done, the minotaurs may have tried to enslave him or kill him, but he knew their treacherous ways well enough to flee when the first opportunity presented itself. After that experience, Tarken swore never to fall prey to his gambling urge again and never to deal with the minotaurs.

So, the settlement of Tarkenton started as a good place to live, though the work was hard and the ships with supplies were few and far between. After several years, it started to grow a little and prosper. However, Captain Tarken found himself faced with a difficult decision that changed the tenor of life in his town.

*This information comes from various sources. Not only has it been passed down within Tarken's family, but I've read several journals of the times. The most amusing and useful journal is that of Hanna Tremaine, the young wife of Tarken's second-in-command. I place the date of Tarkenton's establishment as a town somewhere in the first three hundred years after the Cataclysm. No dates exist in any of the aged journals, unfortunately, and our town records have several gaps in the early years due to various problems, which will be mentioned later in these texts.—JS

I have found no records to help Jollan place the founding of Tarkenton.—FS

Tarken's Quandary

As time passed in the Tarkenton, word spread to the minotaurs about the little settlement. One night, the townspeople had to fight off a group of minotaurs who had every intention of looting the town of what little it possessed. While Tarken had planned for such an eventuality, he either forgot about the tenacity of the minotaurs or chose to ignore it, for after the first such raid, more followed. As months of night raids passed, one of Tarken's fellow captains decided to attempt some diplomacy. During one of the raids, Captain Leren and her first officer snuck out of town and talked to the minotaurs. It took some doing to get the parley set up, but in the end, it succeeded. In return for rights to dock at the town, the minotaurs would not attempt to destroy it. When Leren took news of this agreement to Tarken, he reacted badly. He refused to deal with the minotaurs, and he didn't understand why they would even bother to make such an agreement. He felt strongly that the town was being set up for a fall. Rejecting the offer meant another round of battles with the minotaurs, which depleted the limited resources of the settlement, though.

Tarken decided to buy some time. He sent back Captain Leren with his answer: If a written agreement signed by the minotaur king could be attained and brought back, then Tarken would allow the minotaurs to dock at the town. He did not care why they wished to dock there. In fact, it seems he had a reason for buying time: He wanted to gain the aid of a former acquaintance.

Using a magical ring, he contacted a mage of dark powers that he had once met while enslaved to the minotaurs. At the time, Tarken had performed a small service to the mage that had ended up saving the mage's life. In return, the mage Gellis had agreed to help Tarken out at some later date. Though dealing with the mage was extremely distasteful to Tarken, he preferred that to losing his life to the scurrilous minotaurs.

Gellis Arrives

The mage Gellis came to Tarkenton within a manner of hours via magic. After listening to Tarken's problems, she suggested something that left an even more bitter taste in Tarken's mouth. Gellis would remain in the town and aid them with the minotaurs, but for a price. The first thing she wanted was her own tower*. She would help quarry the stones for it, and it didn't need to be an elaborate affair. She needed only two floors. The second thing she demanded in return for her aid was a temple to Zeboim. Gellis explained that though the gods were not present in Krynn, if the right kind of temple were to be built, she could use it to set the stage to repel the minotaurs for as long as she lived in the town. She refused to discuss exactly how the temple would help her, however.

Tarken reluctantly agreed, though he told none of his people what little he knew about Gellis's plans. The townspeople set to work instantly, though they wondered at the cause of this activity. Once the temple was done, they started on the tower. Before they could do more than get the stones to the tower's site, a ship full of minotaurs came into sight.

*The few remaining stones of this tower were used to build the current Hall of Justice. Some say that these stones make up the walls of the prison area, which is why some prisoners claim to see the ghost of a human female with a staff made of glowing wood. We occasionally have kender ask to enter the cells so that they can see if a ghost does exist.

The False Goddess

As the ship of minotaurs sailed into the harbor, Gellis quickly set up her stage. Using a magical ring while standing in the shelter of the temple of Zeboim, Gellis created an illusion. She made the skies look dark, the thunder boom, and the seas seem choppy. The sound of a female voice thundered through the area, asking, "How dare you enter the seas of the chosen people of Maelstrom, minotaurs? Leave now or suffer the consequences."*

Knowing that the minotaurs might not leave immediately, Gellis readied her staff. The illusion continued making the waters boil, and wind whipped the sails of the ships. Some of the ships started to turn about, but a few remained. Gellis used the staff to create several waterspouts and directed them to converge upon one ship. The illusionary voice of Zeboim cried out, "Feel my wrath, then, fools!"

The waterspouts came at the ship from three directions, stressing the wooden planks and warping the shape. With an explosion of wood and water, the ship exploded outward. With that image in their minds, the remaining ships started turning about and heading away. Once the ships were well on their way out of the harbor, Gellis allowed the magic to fade away. She turned to Tarken, who was now standing next to her in the temple, and smiled. "I'll be in my room if you need me. Tomorrow, we start work on my tower."

A Sense of Peace

The town prospered after that. The raids from the minotaurs ceased. With hard work from the townsfolk and good thinking on Tarken's part, the town became a stop on the shipping routes of several merchants. Occasionally, they'd lose supplies to minotaur pirates on the seas, but the minotaurs never set foot in Tarkenton for a long span of time.

After Tarken passed away and Gellis vanished into her tower, never to be seen again, a long line of townsfolk took up the mantle of leadership for the community. The leaders not only led their people responsibly, but they also took care to maintain both the temple of Zeboim and Gellis's Tower. However, the importance of both of these tasks lessened with each leader that came along. So, as the population grew and the town needed other things (such as more docks, more warehouses, more farmland, and so on), the leader of the time was less likely to request people to repair these other two "unnecessary" structures.** However, the townsfolk hadn't forgotten that the mage Gellis might still be locked up in her tower. One of the popular stories that parents told their children during these times was about how Gellis would come get them if they misbehaved. Little did they know that Gellis had something to say about the way her tower and the temple of Zeboim were being ignored!

*I have these words from the journal of a villager.—JS

**As put forth by the leader Letran, "Why do work on those two blasted structures that nobody uses when we have ships waiting to unload in the harbor!"—JS

At the Gaming Table: Gellis's Staff and Ring

Gellis used a staff of water mastery to call forth the waterspouts and a ring of advanced illusion to create the illusions on the day that she scared away the minotaurs.

Staff of Water Mastery

XP Value: 3,000
Steel Piece Value: 6,000
The staff of water mastery has several functions: It acts like a ring of protection +2 {see The Last Tower for the Saga description}, it allows the wielder to breathe water for up to seven days, and it calls forth up to three waterspouts once per week. The waterspouts stand 200 feet high, and they are 80 feet wide at the top, tapering to 10 feet wide at the bottom. The staff's wielder can direct the waterspout at will, even to the point of causing any objects affected by the spout to shoot out at a high speed. Upon impact with a solid object, a jettisoned object suffers 10d12 points of damage {60 damage points}. The waterspouts last for 2d10 rounds {draw two Fate Cards} and have a speed factor of 1. Each waterspout drains a charge from the staff, which has 30 charges after the minotaur incident.

Ring of Advanced Illusion

XP Value: 1,200
Steel Piece Value: 6,000
Much like the spell called advanced illusion, the ring of advanced illusion creates a programmed illusion with visual, audio, olfactory, and thermal components. {It creates an illusion using 40 spell points from the spectramancy school, with the option of making combined spells with the schools of aeromancy (for wind effects), cryomancy (for cold), and pyromancy (for heat), that the user can manipulate as he or she needs to.} Each use of the spell drains one charge from the ring (which has 40 charges left after the minotaur incident).

Gellis Lives?

The next notable event in the history of Hangman Harbor remains mysterious even to this day. Most accounts state that Gellis herself lived in that tower all those years*, and that she had somehow taken students under her wing. Other accounts detail how Gellis was surrounded by an unwholesome troop of shriveled lackeys. Whatever the case may be, all accounts note that Gellis stepped out of her tower one fine spring day and made her presence known. The winds whipped up, the air howled madly, and a booming voice cried out over the town. The exact words are not known, but generally follow the same sentiment: "You have ignored my tower and the temple of Zeboim long enough! Suffer my wrath!"**

After Gellis cried out these words, she summoned forth several waterspouts, which promptly set about destroying several ships at the docks. As this occurred, several robed forms stepped from the tower and surrounded Gellis protectively. Once the ships were destroyed, Gellis once again spoke. "You have suffered but a little for your lack of responsibility. Know this: If you fail to preserve my tower and Zeboim's temple, you will suffer even more! The minotaurs will once again return to this town on the day that you fail me again!"

With that, Gellis and her entourage went back her tower. The cowed townsfolk immediately set about making repairs on the tower and the temple.

The Curse Lives On

Unfortunately, since the memories of humans are shorter than the span of an elf's lifetime, the townsfolk of Tarkenton eventually forgot about Gellis's warning. Several accounts state that Gellis has never been seen again, but her curse still lived on. In fact, one rather dramatic text has an interesting story about the actual series of events that led to the return of the "minotaur plague" to Tarkenton. This text goes on to give a good account of the series of events that led to how Tarkenton became Hangman Harbor.

In 137AC, the town council held a meeting. The leader at the time, a woman named Falada Selene, brought a suggestion to the table. She wished to demolish the temple to make room for another waterfront inn, and she wanted to renovate the tower into something useful for the town. Although Gellis and her curse were brought up, the majority of the council members decided it was a foolish notion to worry about it. So, the council voted to follow Selene's suggestions. According to the account, the moment the Selene uttered the words making the suggestion an order, a gust of wind blew open the door to the council chamber. A misty, horned form stood in the door briefly, then vanished.

The council members muttered, but promptly forgot the omen until the next morning.***

*Most accounts I know of don't indicate that she was an elf. Elves, taken as a whole, are noted for their extreme opposition of Evil in all forms. As a result, I don't see how she could have lived all of that time, unless she had access to some dark arts that I know nothing of. –JS

***I have no records to verify or refute this. However, I don't discount omens--even though the gods were not present in that period of time.—FS

Dark Days Begin

The morning after the Tarkenton council made its fateful decision, things started going wrong. According to all accounts, omens started appearing everywhere. Rows of crows roosted along wash lines. Many farm creatures gave birth prematurely. The sea was choppy, and the sun hid behind dark clouds all day long. The final omen came back with the fisherfolk: One of the men pulled up the remains of a young boy, and no other fish were caught that day. When the local healer looked the corpse over, he found indications that the boy had been killed, possibly by a minotaur weapon like a clabbard.

Despite all of this, the townsfolk continued to go about their everyday life. That evening, however, the darkest of all days began.

Minotaur ships, which had long ignored that area of the coast, came in that evening in force. The pirates swept through the town, looting and killing all who stood in their path. A few quick-thinking individuals gathered themselves and their loved ones together and headed for Zeboim's abandoned temple. These people waited out the night, hearing the cries of pain and roar of fire as the minotaurs destroyed everything but the temple and the tower. The next morning, the minotaurs were gone.

The survivors of the raid started going through the wreckage. Though some became weak at what they saw and retreated back to the temple, others continued. The account of Talan Risk, one of the younger council members, details what he and the others found. After hours of looking, they determined that the minotaurs killed the old, the very young, and the hardiest fighters. They took the remaining people with them as slaves. As for the town in general, all but the tower and the temple were rubble or fire-darkened ruined.

Dark Days Continue

Over the next several weeks, Talan and the others did their best to survive. The minotaurs didn't return, but Talan used the talents of a young mage to figure out who had done this to them. The mage, Alys Tremain, didn't have extensive skills, for she wasn't of the Robes at this time, but she found out some small things via a scrying device left to her by her grandmother. The minotaurs had been led by one called Kren. He was one of the hardiest pirates on the seas at the time, and certainly one of the most ruthless.*

Talan and the others resolved to continue surviving, somehow hire a ship, and get revenge on this foul minotaur. After three weeks, a merchant ship arrived at the dock, bringing much-needed goods. Though the townsfolk did not have enough to exchange for these goods now, the merchants were good-hearted enough to help them by donating the balance of the goods to help the townsfolk out.** They also offered to have several more ships come out with more supplies. Talan, as the only remaining representative of the town council, wrote up a town decree to enlist hardy individuals for their effort at rebuilding and revenge in return for land ownership. With this he hoped to entice more people out to Tarkenton so that he could begin the next part of his plan.

*I found his name mentioned in a tome about pirates in the Shadow Years, though it mentions his son more than him.—FS

**A "priest" of unknown religion on board the ship begged the merchants to give it all away, but the merchants had to be practical, it seems. Talan writes a little about this priest with no gods, but that's for another account.—JS

A Journey Begins

As the months passed, Talan's plan came to fruition. People had been trickling into the town from places far and away, and now he felt he had enough people and enough ships to capture the pirate Kren and his cronies. Since Talan's adventure can be a book in itself, only the basics are recounted here.

Talan and his crew set out to sea, and after months of searching, he found and captured Kren. He and his crew, which consisted of men and women skilled in the art of war or sailing, killed all of the minotaurs but Kren, his first mate, and the captains of the other pirate ships that Kren commanded. They took these minotaurs back to Tarkenton for a "trial."

Once back in Tarkenton, Talan had the townsfolk erect several gallows in front of the temple of Zeboim. Then, with great showmanship, Talan held an open-air trial for all present to watch. With great fervor, he denounced the actions of Kren and his fellow minotaurs. Those who had worked with him on the ships led each of the lesser pirate captains to the five gibbets, and, with little hesitation, strung them up. After the first five were dead, Talan ordered Kren himself to hang. Before the rope noose went around the minotaur's neck, however, Kren uttered a short curse, saying that this "Hangman Harbor" will never know peace.

Thus, the town once known as Tarkenton first heard its new name: Hangman Harbor.

The Town's New Name

Because little documentation exists on the topic of how Tarkenton's name officially became Hangman Harbor, one can only present various theories for the name. The main theory is that Talan, who was quite unbalanced by this time now that his revenge was finished, started calling the town Hangman Harbor during council meetings. It took less than a year before the rest of the council voted Talan out of the council, though the final "straw" that made the council rid itself of him did not ever become public. However, it's possible that others in the town said this name in front of merchants, who then spread it to the rest of the known world.

Another more solid possibility for this name comes from an event that occurs at seven minutes after the third chime in Gallows Square every day. If one is present in the square, one can see the faint forms of ghostly minotaurs swinging from the gibbets. The tale of this undoubtedly spread far and wide, as you can't help but pass near or through the square when going about your business in Hangman Harbor. Some merchants swear that they can see the ghosts from their ships, if they're docked directly opposite the square!*

Whatever the case, Hangman Harbor is the town's official name now, and it looks like it will not be changing anytime soon.

Endnotes

By Farana Silvertreth

*I have found several accounts in journals and books about ghosts that include this minor haunting, so I believe that the second possibility is the correct one.—FS

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