Dungeons and Dragons RPG Settlement - City of Kelvin

Settlement Overview - City of Kevlin

• Settlement Type: City
• Location: Mystara, Continent of Brun, The Known World, The Grand Duchy of Karameikos, Barony of Kelvin, Hex Kar(4,5)
• Ruler: Baron Desmond Kelvin II
• Population: 20,000

Kelvin, second-largest city in Karameikos (population 20,000), is built where the rivers Windrush, Hillfollow and Highreach (Wufwolde, Shutturga and Volaga) merge.

Kelvin was designed to be a way-stop for entire caravans and a fortress defending the surrounding territories. It is a large, walled encampment. Inside the walls are a large field for caravans to set up and a secondary wall in which is the city of Kelvin proper; inside the city is a third walled area, the garrison fortress and castle of Baron Kelvin.

Kelvin is situated at the fork of two rivers; there, too, the Duke’s Road forks, continuing along the Windrush and Hillfollow rivers. Kelvin is surrounded by a strong stone wall (and there is also a wooden addition to that wall; this wooden palisade encloses the bare area known locally as “the campgrounds”).

Unique Settlement Laws

• Spell Casting Law: No Occult or Arcane magic may be cast within the city walls, period. Violation is a Class 3 offense (or worse, if the magic results in a greater crime)

Travel Routes

• To Specularum – Distance: 72 miles – Location: – Karameikos, Hex Kar(4,5) to Hex Kar(0,0)

Locations of Note

• The Campgrounds - Several years ago, Baron Desmond Kelvin II walled off a section of land outside the city’s stone walls in order to have a protected ground where traveling trade caravans can be safe overnight.
• Castle Kelvin - Baron Kelvin’s father, the first Baron Kelvin, liked good living, and this is obvious when visitors see his castle. Though it has only one curtain wall, that is sixty feet high and twenty thick, huge and unassailable. The buildings inside are similarly lavish – an enormous, sprawling two-story mansion for the Kelvin family, quarters for the nearly 500-man standing garrison, extensive stables, and a wide array of workshops. The young Baron Kelvin is more spartan in his lifestyle than his father, but sees that Castle Kelvin is an excellent center for his rule – and he feels he’ll grow into it as his barony grows.
• Fishermen Area - This is a small stand of fishermen’s huts outside the city walls; it was here before Kelvin was built, and the Iraladaran fishermen intend that their families be here long after Kelvin has crumbled.
• Kelvin Bridge - This is a good, strong stone bridge spanning a narrow portion of the river Hillfollow.
• Merchant Area - These neighborhoods are primarily mercantile districts, though most of the merchants live in the same buildings in which they have their businesses. Kelvin thrives on the trade passing through the junction of the three rivers here, which is why there is such a disproportionate amount of city devoted to merchant districts.
• Residential Area - This neighborhood is mostly residential.
• Tenement Area - This area, too, is mostly residential, but there are more low-class houses packed more tightly together here than in the residential area.

Game Master Section

Adventure Opportunities
• Under Kelvin: Under about twenty feet of accumulated earth and silt are the remains of the village of Law, the actual historical site which appears in the “Song of Halav.” When building Castle Kelvin, workers stumbled across some of the ruins and ignored them or tore them up for building materials; no one in Kelvin is aware that this city stands on the site of the historic village. If you wish, you can have enough of the old buildings survive down below to constitute a catacombs-type dungeon, filled with the relics of this bygone age . . . and perhaps haunted by the spirits of the warriors of that time.