Velkris

Start-class article · First seen: pre-campaign brief · Last seen: s20
Velkris
the Veiled Gate
Portrait of Velkris.
Location
StatusUnvisited
First seenpre-campaign brief
Last seens20
FactionCouncil of Factors, Order of the Veil

Velkris, the Veiled Gate, is the merchant city at the mouth of the Greywater River, where the Sapphire Sea narrows into the only inland waterway for hundreds of miles (world brief). Five merchant houses, the Council of Factors, rule it from the Silent Hall through debt, contracts and taxes, and the masked Order of the Veil enforces their will (world brief). The party has never reached it, but several threads point there: the forged Duskwatch ledger that The Broker said Silent Intake in Velkris might pay for [21][22], and the route the party chose in session 19 [13].

Velkris, the Veiled Gate
Velkris, the Veiled Gate

Overview

Velkris, the Veiled Gate, guards the mouth of the Greywater River, where the Sapphire Sea narrows into the only waterway leading inland for hundreds of miles (world brief). Its old saying is “Everything has a price. The wise ask who pays it.” (world brief). It has never been conquered: armies that tried found their generals bribed, their supply lines poisoned, their soldiers unpaid, or uprisings funded in their own lands by Velkris gold (world brief). The party has never been there, but the city keeps coming up as the place to sell what the party knows and carries.

Geography and appearance

Stone towers flank the riverbanks, black-sailed patrol ships drift between them, and heavy chains beneath the water rise to block any ship that refuses inspection (world brief). Inland lie the city’s marble warehouses (world brief). The DM confirmed in play that the only way from the ocean into the inland sea is through Velkris, which he called probably one of the richest nations [11]. Duskwatch is its port, a couple of days from Mirestrand and from the city [18]. Mirestrand is a marsh port that Velkris has claimed, almost an extension of it [19].

Inhabitants

Humans are in the minority in larger cities like Velkris [15]. The brief names the five factors who lead its houses: Tor Brask, Lysa Marr, Iven Orlan, Sella Tallow and Elian Vaunt (world brief); the DM confirmed that House Brask is led by a hobgoblin [20]. The party has met none of them. The counterfeiters of Silent Intake, found near the entrance by the Talking Skulls, are the only part of the city’s underworld it has been pointed at [21][22].

Government / control

  • The Council of Factors. Five merchant houses meet in the Silent Hall and decide taxes, trade rights and punishments behind closed marble doors. They rule through debt, contracts, taxes and control of the city’s necessary industries, not by blood or conquest (world brief). House Brask holds private force, House Marr the flesh trade, House Orlan finance, House Tallow refined alchemy and House Vaunt property and prestige (world brief).
  • Taxes. The River Passage Levy on cargo by weight and destination, the Current Tithe for passing under the city’s watch, and the Breathing Tax paid daily on goods stored in its warehouses (world brief). The Treaty of Duskwatch (607 A.I.) is how Velkris came to tax every ship moving inland (world brief).
  • Enforcement. The masked Order of the Veil patrols streets and canals, seeing that taxes are paid, magic is registered and debts are collected; House Brask fills in where the Veil is too slow or too public (world brief).
  • Records and faith. The High Registry decides who owns what and whose claim is recognised. Temples to Myrana, Goddess of Coin and Contracts, double as banks and courts (world brief).
  • Bonded service. Slavery exists, under names such as bonded service, debt labour, indenture and labour recovery; House Marr is its institutional spine, House Brask its enforcement, and the High Registry and House Orlan its paperwork (world brief).

Notable features

  • The Silent Hall. The Council’s meeting chamber.
  • The Grand Exchange. The public market, where almost anything can be bought (world brief).
  • The drowned vaults. Rumoured to hold debtors who could not pay, their names sealed in iron ledgers; others say creditors invented the story to frighten children into paying (world brief).
  • Silent Intake and the Talking Skulls. The counterfeit-document dealers the Broker named, “near the entrance to Velkris” [22].

History in the campaign

Session 3: The Lair of Sunset is Nigh and the Death of Cholmondeley

Main article: Session 3

Velkris first comes up as a place to pay for a miracle. Asked whether anyone could raise Cholmondeley, the DM said probably not in the elf village, but possibly in Velkris or Umbrafall. In Velkris, he said, you would have to pay [23][24].

Session 4: The Still Current, the Black Mask, and Hugo’s Pact

Main article: Session 4

The DM described Mirestrand as a town badly affected by Velkris, a marsh port the city had claimed [19]. He noted “the odd masked tax agent from Velkris” who slipped into shops, collected coin and vanished [25]. Hugo’s History check recalled Mirestrand as the place to find a liaison between Umbrafall and Velkris [26]. The wiki reads the collectors as the Order of the Veil, but the DM did not name it.

Session 7: Maelis Falls, Vasquez Captured

Main article: Session 7

The Broker read the shipping papers taken from Maelis’s desk: she had been exporting biogloom toxin through Duskwatch into Velkris [21]. The papers were fakes, he said, but could persuade “the right kind of person”, and the organisation in Velkris that deals in counterfeit documents might reward the party or even hire it as fixers [21]. He named it, Silent Intake: “Look for the Talking Skulls” near the entrance to the city [22].

Session 8: Bruise the Cellmate, the Succubus, and the Quarry Ghosts

Main article: Session 8

In the opening recap, Hugo and Terry recalled what the Broker had told them about the forged papers: the counterfeiters’ organisation in Velkris, Silent Intake, near the entrance by the Talking Skulls [4]. The party’s attention then turned to freeing Vasquez from the Nightwatch jail and to the quarry job.

Session 10: Ruin Joins, the Aurelian Conspiracy, the Plate Armour

Main article: Session 10

Turning down the Broker’s assassination job, the party was asked to let him know if it ever dealt with the business back in Velkris. The Broker said he would go there himself, since the party held information worth paying for, and Velkris is “the city of money” [27]. Hugo answered that the party might go if its business in Eldwythe led that way [28].

Session 14: The Gummy Mummy and Aurelian Eldwythe

Main article: Session 14

Weighing what to do with the young dragon Briochebane, with Aurelian soldiers holding Eldwythe and no way to reach Sevryn, the party noted that the forged documents taken from Maelis’s desk might fetch a good reward if handed in, and that the place to hand them in was Velkris [6].

Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins

Main article: Session 15

Parting from the party, Phil Flowerforge, voiced by the DM, said that he and Briochebane would be heading to Arcanthys or Velkris, “or maybe Wyrmbough” [7]. The dragon and the baker went their own way after the Aurelian ambush.

Session 16: Through the Sewers, Onto the Skiff

Main article: Session 16

Reading Maelis’s shipping manifests again in the sewers, the party learned that most of her cargo had left through Dock 13 in Umbrafall and been landed at Duskwatch, a couple of days from Mirestrand and Velkris [8]. At the sewer mouth the DM offered the choice of turning back for Velkris to follow Maelis’s trail, and Hugo ranked it third after Aurelia and Umbrafall for distance [29][30].

Session 17: New Hands, the Black Mask’s Renegotiation, and the Rimeclaw

Main article: Session 17

Studying the map, Terry noted that the only way in and out of the inland sea from the ocean is through Velkris, and the DM added that it is probably one of the richest nations [11]. Earlier, listing the places a stranded fisherwoman might flee to, Terry joked that in Velkris she would be sold as a slave [10].

Session 18: The Wyrm Falls, the Catfish Escapes, and Mike Dies on the Road

Main article: Session 18

After the patrol killed Mike, the DM said that Aurelia is no easy country for a magic caster, which is why he had suggested another route, to Velkris or perhaps Umbrafall, to gain a little strength first [12]. The party had chosen otherwise at the sewer mouth, when it voted for the White Lantern Shrine [31].

Session 19: A Penitent Priest, an Unmade Leash, and the Pixie in the Dark

Main article: Session 19

Velkris became the party’s destination. Caelumn put it to a vote and it carried [32], and Hugo set the heading: Velkris first, to redeem the forged shipping ledger, then Gloamhearth to update Sevryn [13]. The DM gave the road home as Eldwythe, Umbrafall and Mirestrand, or a skiff or barge at half a hex a day [14], and later floated a route that avoids Aurelia through Khaldun and Sablemar [33]. He added that humans are a minority in cities like Velkris [15]. Told where they were headed, Father Thomas’s History check recalled it as “the capital of sodomy and sin” [34].

Session 20: The Man Who Was Always Here

Main article: Session 20

Recapping for a new player, Caelumn said the party had given up on Aurelia and was going back through Eldwythe, Umbrafall and Mirestrand to end up in Velkris, where it had something to do with the forged ledger [17].

Status

As of session 23. Unvisited. The forged Duskwatch ledger is still undelivered. The party’s stated route to Velkris ran back through Eldwythe and Umbrafall, but it was drawn off the road in session 21 by the kidnappings at Greysmere. A visit would put it under the Order of the Veil’s registration regime and inside the Council’s commercial reach.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 3, line 1492-1500: Resurrection might be had in Velkris, for pay.
  2. ^ Session 4, line 812-842: Mirestrand is an extension of Velkris; masked Velkris tax agents work its shops.
  3. ^ Session 7, line 736-745: The Broker points the party at Silent Intake near the Talking Skulls entrance.
  4. ^ Session 8, line 37-40: Terry and Hugo recall the Silent Intake pointer in the opening recap.
  5. ^ Session 10, line 1247-1257: The Broker calls Velkris "the city of money" and recommends it for selling what the party knows.
  6. ^ Session 14, line 1632-1633: Hugo and Caelumn note that the forged documents might fetch a reward in Velkris.
  7. ^ Session 15, line 609-611: Phil, voiced by the DM, names Velkris as a place he and Briochebane might go.
  8. ^ Session 16, line 266-280: The shipping manifests, Duskwatch, and the way to Velkris.
  9. ^ Session 16, line 1626-1633: The DM puts turning back for Velkris to follow Maelis's trail among the party's options.
  10. ^ Session 17, line 982: Terry's joke that in Velkris Nessa would be sold as a slave.
  11. ^ Session 17, line 1251-1258: The only way in and out of the inland sea from the ocean is through Velkris, probably one of the richest nations.
  12. ^ Session 18, line 2311: The DM on an alternative route to Velkris.
  13. ^ Session 19, line 271: Velkris set as the party's active destination: redeem the forged Duskwatch ledger ('the shipping order stuff') there, then on to Gloamhearth.
  14. ^ Session 19, line 290-296: DM land route from the Aurelian farmland: Eldwythe -> Umbrafall -> Mirestrand -> Velkris, or a skiff or barge (a skiff makes half a hex per day, s19 L296).
  15. ^ Session 19, line 585: DM world-fact: humans are in the minority in larger cities like Velkris.
  16. ^ Session 19, line 865-870: History check for Father Thomas (rolled 8): Velkris remembered as 'the capital of sodomy and sin'; the DM corrects Terry's 'stabbing capital' to another place.
  17. ^ Session 20, line 47-49: Caelumn's recap of the plan: back through Eldwythe, Umbrafall and Mirestrand to Velkris, to deal with the forged ledger.
  18. ^ Session 16, line 275: Inline citation.
  19. ^ Session 4, line 812-816: Inline citation.
  20. ^ Session 19, line 586-587: Inline citation.
  21. ^ Session 7, line 736: Inline citation.
  22. ^ Session 7, line 745: Inline citation.
  23. ^ Session 3, line 1492: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 3, line 1500: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 4, line 820: Inline citation.
  26. ^ Session 4, line 842: Inline citation.
  27. ^ Session 10, line 1244-1257: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 10, line 1259-1262: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 16, line 1626: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 16, line 1633: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 16, line 1735: Inline citation.
  32. ^ Session 19, line 208-211: Inline citation.
  33. ^ Session 19, line 345: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 19, line 869: Inline citation.