Each of Carpenden's seven fiercely proud neighborhoods, positioned on seven different hills, believes itself the original settlement and the other six mere additions created as the city grew. In years past, fractious disputes between the hills sometimes erupted into vicious street fighting. This forced succeeding governments to station more and more troops in the city simply to keep the peace. Even now, long after Carpendeners have arrived at their own unique way to settle the quarrel, tradition still makes it one of the larger military stations in Andoran.
Narrow cobblestone streets wind their way amid elongated buildings of rosy brick and dark wood. The highest stories sometimes actually lean against each other like old comrades, making rooftops a thrilling playground for the city’s children. Each hill also boasts a full complement of identical public buildings arrayed on the open square at the top. However, only one set gets used during any given year; something determined by the moonmelon festival.
Carpendeners prize the obscure moonmelon, despite the fact that their city earns its reputation as a source of fine wine and other delicacies, not to mention furniture, musical instruments, and other pieces of quality woodworking. With a rind of ghostly silver, the moonmelon quickly ferments on its own once plucked from the vine. Though this makes it almost impossible to preserve, it also gives it an increasingly potent kick before finally becoming inedible. During the hottest days of summer, cartloads of moonmelons pass through Carpenden’s gates—ammunition for a citywide food fight. Over the 5-day festival, everything in town shuts down as the neighborhoods celebrate another year and strategize for the festival’s final day, on which every resident runs riot with overripe moonmelons, squads from each neighborhood barraging each other with pulp and juice to decide which hill gets to claim primacy for the next year. At the end of the festival, the Consul Marshall declares the winner by moving his headquarters to one of the hills. As a sign of their superior status, winning citizens wear red hats for the following month and lord their victory over the other six hills.
Carpendeners love spectacle and usually choose the finest things they can afford. They avoid wearing red, except of course when their hill wins the moonmelon festival, and frequently experience an instinctive dislike for visitors who do. When facing aggressive or demanding people, Carpendeners sometimes blurt out, “Who gave you the red hat?” They also spend a great deal of time musing about genealogy and referencing their own family trees, and often use their own family trees as metaphors. Most Carpendeners claim the ability to trace their ancestry back to the founding of the city, and that the residents of the other hills came from somewhere else.
Carpenden Traits
Only characters from Carpenden may select the traits detailed below.
Carpenden Lobber (Regional): Your regular participation in the moonmelon festival has made you wickedly effective at hurling harmless objects. You gain a +2 trait bonus on attack rolls when throwing items that do not deal normal hit point damage (such as weapons that deal nonlethal damage or items such as tanglefoot bags and thunderstones).
Carpenden Roof Runner (Regional): Your childhood playing atop Carpenden’s buildings has given you a remarkable head for heights. You gain a +2 trait bonus on Acrobatics checks made when you are at least 20 feet above the ground.
Carpenden
Small City standard (democratic government); AL NG
GP Limit 4,000 gp
Demographics
Population 10,600
Type Isolated (96% human, 2% halfling, 1% elf, 1% other)
Authority Figures
Deliah Grange (female human expert), mayor; Jorab Mire (male human fighter), Consul Marshal; Ebzin Frain (male human cleric of Abadar), high priest; Alivanta Torgraso (female human diviner), historian and scholar.