Chapter 11

The city of Coastall was a quintessential port town along the southern coast of Mir. It would be more accurate to say it was the southern coast of Vairhon, which was the name of the piece of the continent of Mir that it sat upon.

When the Dark Lich took over he shattered the continent into four main pieces. The largest was to the west and retained its name, Fallown. Technically, Fallown was the name of the entire continent prior to the Dark Times, and it was broken up using the cardinal directions. The current Fallown was originally broken up into North and West Fallown. What was once East Fallown was split in half.

The northern portion was completely cut off from the rest of the continent and became a haven for the races of Mir that enjoyed living in the cold dim tundra that arose after the shattering. The dwarves of Mir took it upon themselves to build the sunken city of D’Oreizahn.

To call it sunken was a bit of a misnomer, but it was one that had stuck given the fact the city was built at the bottom of a hole in the ground. To most the city became known as Orestown as that was a bit easier on the common tongue.

Vairhon came from the remains of East Fallown and South Fallown. In the wake of King Roderick’s defeat of the Lich and the end of the Dark Times. The Vairh family used their influence and wealth to position themselves as the de facto leaders, while Roderick consolidated his power and established his monarchy. If it wasn’t for the stabilizing guidance of the Vairh it is unclear if things would have gone as smoothly for the new kingdom.

Because of their benefit to the kingdom the Vairh family was given near absolute power over Vairhon in exchange for joining the kingdom and giving fealty to Roderick. The one caveat to the situation was Coastall.

It existed long before the Dark Times and was one of the few cities that remained relatively safe during the reign of the Lich. The main reason for this was its function as Mir’s greatest port city. This was partially due to its position along the coast, but also its access to vast amounts of farmland just outside the city limits.

The vast meadows known as the Green Sea surrounded Coastall on three sides. To its north and east there was ample space for huge swaths of agriculture. To its west was a major delta where the Wild’s River emptied into the Southern Sea.

With its position as an indispensable piece of land, Coastall has always been able to keep its head above water no matter what has happened around it. A major factor in its success has been its unique form of government. Coastall was technically loyal and answered to the Vairh, but was overseen by the Council of Merchants made up of the most successful merchants in Coastall’s harbors.

This made Coastall essentially a city-state that held more property and wealth than any other city in the kingdom and as long as they paid their taxes everyone was happy to let the merchants do their thing. However, this all led to the city being a place of passing.

Those who lived in Coastall were mostly merchant or wealthy farming families who no longer had to work their fields. The majority of Coastall’s population at any given time was people on their way to somewhere else.

All of these facts rushed through Roden’s mind as he got his first look upon the city from atop a massive hill that led down to the last meadow.

Over the course of this last leg of their journey to Coastall, Roden began having flashbacks of his life in Coastall with his mother. He was raised in this city. His father, Rolen, had purchased a plot of land and had built a good sized home on the east side of the city.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

His mother never had to work much and their needs were met. He remembered his father would visit on rare occasions and as strange as it was he recalled missing him as a child when he wasn’t around.

When his fictional memories would get too intense he would shake his head to clear it. Those memories were a constant reminder that this wasn’t his life, but he could completely remove himself from the story. The presence of his fictional mother in Coastall made Roden incredibly uncomfortable.

He didn’t know this woman yet he would undoubtedly have to bring Errrkkkk and Riakon to his home at some point. His mother would kill him if he didn’t stop by… He had just done it again.

It became very clear to him that the longer he was in this world and the more he engaged with his backstory the more he became a part of this world.

His mind was constantly absorbed with the trappings of his life here and found his thoughts of his real home would get pushed aside. Maybe that was a survival mechanism to help him focus on the story at hand or maybe he was just going crazy. Roden wasn’t completely sure which was the case, but figured when in Rome do as the Romans do, except hopefully he didn’t have to kill Caesar.

When the party first walked through the main gates to the city they were greeted by Coastall’s famous Main street. On either side of the cobbled road were shops and food vendors. As they walked along the side of the street they were propositioned by countless people selling street food or trying to entice them to enter their shop to look at their wares.

They were able to make it through the main street without losing too much coin. Neither Errrkkkk nor Roden could pull Riakon away from the roasted gull on a stick, or the fried rice balls, or the stuffed clams.

Even Errrkkkk couldn’t resist the street corn slathered in butter, salt, and a red spicy powder the vendor claimed was a secret recipe. It was the vendor selling fresh lobster rolls that broke Roden.

Sure he had gotten something at each food stand, but once he saw the man whip together that lobster sandwich and his mouth started watering, he had to insist on the small detour. As Roden ate he had an incredible sense of nostalgia as if he had done this very thing.

He hadn’t recognized anything in particular and he still felt as if he was experiencing everything for the first time. Yet, in the back of his mind something tickled at his consciousness. With bellies fuller than they had been in over a week, the men made it to the Adventurer’s Square. A place near the middle of Coastall that held shops and resources an adventurer would need.

Roden knew that the shops in this main square were the franchise style shops. Sure, anyone could buy their most basic healing potions, rations, and other equipment, but if an adventurer didn’t want to settle for the fast food of supplies they had to work their way a little deeper into the city, but that’ll come later. For now, they needed to pop in and register up with the Outpost in the city.

The Outpost was a large semi-replica of the Outpost in the Wilds. It had the same octagonal shape and was at least three stories tall with a large windmill at the top. The large double doors in front were held open, granting access to the main room. That is where the similarities ended.

Where the Outpost in the Wilds was primarily an inn, tavern, and resupply. This Outpost was the DMV of adventuring complete with lines, waiting areas, and contract boards.

The look of utter horror on Riakon and Errrkkkk’s faces was priceless. Roden wasn’t worried. He knew this place forward and backward. He ushered his companions to the proper line, gave the attendant the correct information and in a matter of minutes they all had their badges that identified them as bottom tier adventurers.

“Roden, I could kiss you.”

“Please don’t."

“I am not kidding, I thought I was going to lose my mind waiting in endless lines.”

“Don’t thank me just yet. We’ll have to go back once we have a place to stay and get set up with some contracts.”

The two nonhumans looked at Roden and each put a finger to their nose in the unspoken game of nose-goes.

“Okay okay, I will go back and register our room and set up some contract options.”

Roden had instinctually been leading the group down a side street that led toward the inn he was looking for when he noticed both Riakon and Errrkkkk had stopped in their tracks. When Roden back tracked to see what they were looking at he nearly laughed.

They had looked down a road that had given them a full view of the Coastall Adventure Arena.

Roden knew full well that now that they had seen it, that is where they were going. If there was one thing that drove these two more than anything it was sweet sweet experience points and this was the one campaign he ran with pure experience points.

He had put this arena here in Coastall for that very reason. If he hadn’t there was a one hundred percent chance that these two would’ve pulled a “South Park” and spent session after session killing boars or whatever else they could find in the Wilds. At least with the Arena he could manage them a bit and keep things…

At that thought a cold sweat ran down Roden’s spine. His realization hit him like a ton of bricks. His presence on their team was going to mean their fights in the arena were going to be completely different.

“You good man, cacaw?”

Roden snapped out of his moment of shock, “Yeah I’m good.”

“Great! We want to go check out this arena, cacaw.”

Resigned to his fate, Roden followed his two companions with a fraction of the glee radiating off the others.