The city of Summugigus, which lies in the far northeast of Shdustu, is the least of the region’s three great cities in population, but the greatest in wealth. This wealth, evident in the tall buildings of shale masonry that fill the central palace district of the broad hill upon which the city lies, is founded in a combination of trade and pottery. Trade is represented through the exchange of goods along the river, with the fur-trapping peoples to the north, the people dwelling on the shores of desert Lake Tumum, the small and strange populations dwelling in the desert lands beyond, and the north-south trade route along Shdustu’s east that carries the products of this city on the first leg of a journey that reaches as far as Crisremon in the west and perhaps much further to the east.
Production, here, is represented primarily through the titular stoneware for which the city is well-known. The hills to the north of the city are riddled with mines and pits that produce clay, a strange whitish powdery material known as kaolin, and a number of valuable fluxes, pigments, alabaster, and in many hidden places, an unknown but presumably great quantity of gold. All of these mineral riches are traced to the great shale-rock hills, where the stone forms banded layers of many colors that, in places where the slopes are steep enough that the earth remains bare, are quite stunning to observe as they race across the hills. It is a most curious feature, one that hints at ancient, steady deposition. I have come to believe that seas once covered much of Shdustu, perhaps much of the entire world, and it seems that in this area the waters were notably calm, home to vast lagoons and reefs. Lady Indili, searching for fossils are always, found the remains of the blocky stone teeth of the strange swimming bat-shaped animals called rays upon the hills and based this claim upon those discoveries. I have no reason to doubt her insights in such matters. The past, it appears, has bestowed a generous legacy upon this place.
Of course, such benefits are accrued only to some. Frigid in winter and baking in summer, Shdustu is hard enough on the farmer or herder. For the miner, it is simply a land of slow, grinding death. I spoke to a priest of the Nikkad who conducted services for many miners and whose eyes were haunted by all he had seen. After taking a census of all active miners on behalf of the prince he discovered that not one person currently serving sentence in the mines of Summugigus had endured more than eight years, and most no more than five, even though the majority had been sentenced to lifelong labor or been assigned the duty after purchase on the auction block. All who labor in the mines are enslaved, whether sentenced to it or purchased, and Summugigus imports more slaves than any other place in Shdustu, though the number abducted to fill the iron mines of the Bahab may collectively be greater. Curiously, because the mines are a bottomless maw for slave labor that can never be filled, the city itself faces a slave shortage. Enslaved servants are very rare, and most domestic tasks are undertaken by youths or elderly relatives instead.
The city itself is, mostly, a pretty one. The buildings are of fine masonry, and they are regularly slaked using lime to provide a white sheen that is not too bright but retains a distinctive feeling of cleanliness. Those Nikkad living within the walls have fine, if compact, houses with extensive gardens. The plants here are simple and hardy, being green with small flowers and little color. Small berries and vegetables are the primary produce, including various sour melons and several oddly shaped types of gourds. None are especially appetizing, but they form a considerable portion of the local cuisine.
The prince possesses a grand palace. Its outer masonry is clad in a layer of tile, produced locally, and washed with lime until it positively gleams white, to the point of being difficult to look at on bright summer days. This fades in the winter, as such treatments are impossible in the cold. Within the confines of the estate, which is bounded by its own wall, there are numerous rooms, all finely furnished and festooned with artwork, jewelry, and other ostentatious displays of wealth. These rooms are all small and compact, with thick walls and few windows, for even a ruler must ward against the cold. Though the city utilizes the tree plantations extensively, the insatiable hunger of the kilns means that firewood remains at a premium here just as elsewhere in Shdustu. The outpouring of the city’s hearths is dwarfed by that of the charcoal burners north of the river. The prince is able to source wood to his hearth, but most others, even many rich merchants, utilize reeds, straw, and waste in home fires to reduce expense. In acknowledgment of these difficulties, the deeply compact construction style of the palace is mirrored by other dwellings in the city.
Lady Indili and I were welcomed by the Prince of Summugigus, an aging Nikkad nobleman named Dashahimun. As is common with rulers who have passed their prime, his mind was dominated by thoughts of legacy and securing the legitimacy of his heirs. He seems to have reasoned that obtaining a positive image in the eyes of the chapter house and the Sanid Empire would cost little and offer considerable prestige even if such ties were superficial and offered no concrete returns. Such political motives are reasonable enough, and he extended kind, if somewhat sluggish, hospitality to us. After he learned of the death of the Obsidian Order dominator at our hands, a story that I did not relate directly but had apparently made its way down river through the gossip network of merchants while we remained in the company of the dryads, he insisted upon holding a celebratory feast and hailed us as heroes of Shdustu for eliminating this scourge.
Such notoriety was not especially welcome. It resulted in a lengthy set of invitations to be feted by every major noble and merchant in the city, each of whom wished to hear the story firsthand. As it would be dangerously impolite to refuse, this necessarily prolonged our stay in the city. These affairs, during which I was often questioned ruthlessly while being obligated to take many swallows of wine, also incurred probes regarding the encounter with the Frost Dragon and though I attempted to deflect such inquiries my mastery of conversation, especially in a foreign language, is limited. Eventually, the truth emerged, something with substantial consequences to follow.
More positively, the Pottery Merchants Consortium of Summugigus arranged to honor the expedition’s fallen. They inscribed a memorial plate bearing the name of all those who had remained loyal, from Erun Nassah down to poor Kundun, to hang in the Temple of the Divines Above the River on the north side of the city and had it formally consecrated in the hope that the Lord of Death might know their deeds and speed their rebirth. This was a gracious and kind act and it is heart-warming to know that the names of those who gave their lives in service to the Dragon Expedition shall be known in Shdustu for centuries to come.
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The prince personally gifted me new clothes, tools, a fine long knife, and a considerable supply of ink, paper, and vellum, asking in return only that I compose a map of the city and its surroundings. I did this, though the work required further prolonged our stay in the city. Restlessness was not a trait I had faced much in the past, but the loss of the others of the expedition and the long stillness endured by spending the winter among the dryads had kindled an eagerness in me to proceed back to Crisremon.
Instead, I did my best to make a proper study of the city while completing this task. Summugigus stretches from east to west along the southern bank of the Mumum River. The mines and kilns, along with the barracks that house the many slave workers, are found on the northern side. The riverbank itself is cleared of structures save for the piers used to load and unload goods and the long gravel ramps used to access the river. The remainder of the banks are taken up by tree plantations, though these are kept cut low in the immediate vicinity of the city so as to avoid obscuring sight lines for defense. Charcoal burners live to the east and west of the city in huts upon the edge of the plantations. They are among the most impoverished of all free Nikkad, for the prince and the potters demand a ruinous share of their production even as the timber harvest is capped by law. A tragic circumstance, one that leads them to sleep next to their fires for warmth. This leaves them soot-coated, laced with terrible burn scars and wracked by deadly coughs.
Within the walls the city is divided into districts, each featuring a temple and market square. When the flow of the hills permits it, the market will be in the west and the temple in the east. The districts are named for the primary goods produced by their artisans: Baker’s, Jeweler’s, Mason’s, Merchant’s, Potter’s, and Weaver’s. The Merchant’s district also holds the prince’s palace, the barracks of the city guard, and other civic buildings. This nomenclature is aspirational, as the overwhelming majority of the city’s residents are not artisans but instead the farmers who work the many irrigated fields and orchards that surround it. Despite this, identification with a craft, often through a relative, and goods manufactured by known masters, especially fire-glazed stoneware and porcelain, are displayed prominently in homes as if they were paintings or tapestries.
Porcelain, which I believe is otherwise produced only in the distant lands of the east, is made in small quantities in Summugigus. It is extremely prized and very fragile, so it is rarely exported. The spider and scorpion motifs used by the local Nikkad potters have little appeal in foreign company in any case, especially compared to the geometric and floral designs that flow from the east. The local porcelain is unique, with slightly variant properties compared to that crafted elsewhere. It is fired using extreme heat using specialized kilns that are carved into the hills north of the river that were, according to legend, fashioned by wizards over a millennium ago. In addition to the glaziers, fire sorcerers are used to increase the heat of the flames. These kilns are not fueled using charcoal, but instead the soft black stone called coal, which is mined in small quantities found in seams to the northwest of the city. The process of manufacture is closely guarded and neither I nor Lady Indili, who each requested to observe under our separate auspices, were allowed to even see the exterior of the site.
As summer, and the appropriate season for travel it brings with it, is very short in northern Shdustu, the initial plan was to spend only a minimal amount of time in Summugigus prior to joining a caravan headed south with the hope of overwintering in Shtusisnu or even, in an idealized conception, Snushgud. This proved impossible as a result of the mapping project set before me, and a series of lengthy discussions demanded of Lady Indili by the chapter house. This city is the center of sorcery in Shdustu due to the contributions of fire and lightning sorcerers to the production of porcelain and glass. Though the details of this discourse were not told to me, I gathered that the chapter house was extremely interested in dissecting every aspect of the encounter with the dragon. The only benefit of this increased focus on those events was that it drastically overshadowed all interest in the time spent among the dryads, a topic I was eager to avoid as many considered their very existence heretical and I had no desire to expose those who had unexpectedly been kind to us.
As summer turned to autumn, I broached the topic of departure with the prince and was politely but firmly rebuffed. He decreed instead, over my protests, that the Dragon Expedition would overwinter in the city under his protection and that during that time I would be free to reconstitute the chronicle for which I was responsible. While it happened that most of my notes assembled prior to betrayal were preserved, I had no way of knowing this at the time and no access to them. It was also requested that I work to update the royal maps using the measurements taken during the journey, for most were nearly a century out of date, including several that placed critical tributaries in of the Mumum River in the incorrect position. The prince promised, in return for this service, that come spring he would dictate a caravan to depart at the earliest opportunity under my direct command, supported by a guard of Silversheen Mercenaries, all paid for directly from his coffers. In every sense save for time this was a very generous offer, and I had no real means to refuse it. As such, I settled into quarters provided by the prince and accepted that I would spend many months as a cartographer once more.
Had events unfolded as the prince wished, and I remain steadfast in my conclusion that his offer was a sincere one, I suspect the return journey would have been peaceful and comparatively safe. It would likely have been considerably faster as well. However, it was not to be. Throughout the year the ongoing conflict between the Sunshtasgus and Mumsassim khanates had greatly intensified, and as the Kharal are, as ever, Shdustu’s true masters, the great reverberations unleashed by this conflict would soon exert a profound influence upon the City of Stoneware. Had the expedition retained its initial strength perhaps this would not have mattered, but as a lone traveler I was doomed to be swept up in the current of greater events.