Yartar

This town of 6,000 folk is connected to a fortified bridge and a citadel on the west bank. Yartar is always buzzing. Caravans come and go, and goods are shipped from the caravans to freight barges. The fisherfolk of Yartar scour the Three Rivers for catfish, cold-water crabs, eels, silvertail, and shalass. All these can be bought fresh from stalls in Yartar’s central market.

The Waterbaron is Belleethe Kheldorna, a female paladin dedicated to Tyr. She’s busy rooting out the agents of the Society who infest the Shields of Yartar (town guards) and the merchant council. She’s also grappling with the difficult business of maintaining order in this roaring trade town frequented by adventurers and maverick merchants. Most overland travelers use Yartar’s caravan services. There are places for horse trading, wagon sales, repairs, outfitting, and provisioning. In addition to the services available, Yartar is famous for a temple of Tymora and its Shieldmeet festivities that draws thousands of people.

During the three years between Shieldmeets, Yartar hosts the Hiring Fair. Outcasts, bandits, homeless, isolated landholders, and adventurous Uthgardt gather on the field just north of the town. Here, those who need bodyguards, miners, farmhands, scouts, builders, grooms, guides, and the like try to find employees that suit them.

The Hiring Fair is a time of crime; brawling; buying and selling armor, weapons, and stolen goods; covert exchanges of funds and information; and one or more wizard duels. It’s not unusual for adventuring bands to be formed by ambitious and unattached adventurers, or for wealthy folk to look for adventurers to solve their problems. These tasks are known as "slaying the local dragon," whether that’s what’s actually called for or not.

Except for torches around the edges of the stone hall of the Waterbaron and for signal lights on the river, Yartar is dark at night; by tradition, light lasses are young local girls who know the streets and lead the way.

Yartar is a bubbling cauldron of plots, schemes, cabals, alliances, and under-the-table business arrangements. Everyone in Yartar is after money, power, or both, and they’d like it in as short a time as possible.

Places of Interest:

The Happy Hall of Fortuitous Happenstance: This hall is a temple to Tymora. Built like a fortress of grim, forbidding stone, its arched windows look down on the town from the temple’s own small hillock. Locals often call it Two Hap Fort Hall, or just the Two. Run by High Priestess Velantha Waerdar, the temple has a policy of sponsoring adventuring bands to guard it. The bands are asked to go out and stir things up, aiding those whom the priestess favors, rescuing lost or weakened caravans, and aiding adventuring bands whose luck has run out.