Citadel Adbar
Citadel Adbar
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Geographical Information
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| Size: xxx • Location: Delzoun |
Societal Information
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| Populace: 14,000 • Dwarf 99%, Other 1% |
| Religion: Temples: x • Shrines: x |
| Imports: x |
| Exports: x |
Political Information
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| Government: x |
| Ruler: King Harbromm |
| Military: The Iron Guard |
This fortress is named for King Adbar, the ancient dwarf who built it over 1,000 years ago during the waning years of ancient Delzoun (the dwarven North kingdom), making this the last shard of the dead dwarven kingdom. Quarried of granite, the Citadel, whose gate tower is visible above the surface, can house up to 60,000 dwarves in comfort; men find its miles and miles of defensive granite corridors, tunnels, and hallways twisting their way under the Ice Mountains too dark, dreary, and cramped.
Contents
People
This dwarven city doesn't welcome visitors. This is not surprising, as most visitors are orcs or monsters seeking the swift death of its citizens. The Citadel is a fortress, perhaps the mightiest castle north of Amn. It has ditches that can be filled with flaming oil, bridges that can be drawn up or swung down into deep pits, concentric rings of walls that can be defended one by one in the event of a powerful besieging army, and so on. The Citadel has withstood over 60 orc horde attacks thus far. Each of these were determined sieges by over 10,000 orcs at a time, and occasionally 10 times that number.
Despite its forbidding ways and remote location, Citadel Adbar is a trading city. Around 14,000 dwarves dwell here, forging and smelting finished work from ores. Their work creates quite a din and clangor, and a permanent cloud of smoke hangs over the city. These factors make a visit to Citadel Adbar very unpleasant for most folk. By and large, only metal traders and the most desperate or daring peddlers go there.
History
x
Government
King Harbromm is noted for his attention to strategy and detail, and he is a master smith. The city's badge is his personal forge mark: an upright, single-bladed hand axe enclosed by a circle of flame inscribed in red on a silver field. He's managed to hold his community together in the face of threats from the orcish tribes.
Defenses
Orcs and prowling crag cats make the land around the Citadel so deadly that it is safer to bring caravans through the Underdark via Mirabar and Mithral Hall. These caravans bring mainly fruit, which the dwarves delight in eating during the winter. Goods made in Citadel Adbar are considered top rank and available only at high prices. The Citadel's sword blades, axe heads, pick heads, and fine armor are used all over the North. Most human smiths in the communities of the North use forge bars (blocks of refined metal) from Citadel Adbar for their work. The dwarven smiths here also make armor and other weapons, and they mine mithral. Adbar armor is still the best dwarven make this side of the Deep Realm. The dwarves' output has dwindled in recent years, however, as the miners grow fewer and orc raids upon the trade-caravans grow fiercer.
The fortress humans see is only the small surface part of an underground dwarven hold known as Adbarrim. The Citadel exists to provide a secure connection with the world above and to keep the smoke, noise, and stench of metalwork out of the dwarven homes. Miles upon miles of chambers, passages, and suites have been carved out of solid granite. Like other dwarven communities in Faerûn, the number of dwarves here has been steadily dwindling.
The king employs human adventurers in patrols outside the walls, and he keeps 200 dwarves on the battlements of the Citadel. Another 1,500 are ready to take up arms if the horn call is sounded through the speaking tubes cut in the Citadel's rock. These tubes also allow dwarves to flee quickly underground by tumbling into them. In a day, Adbar can arm and armor 9,000 dwarven warriors. Harbromm's policy is to safeguard the lives of his folk and to keep inside the Citadel whatever befalls. No army from the Citadel will sally forth to do battle with orcs or to aid other communities.
Places of Interest
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Faction
Citadel Adbar
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Membership
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| Common Descriptors: Dwarven, traditional, rugged |
| Primary Classes: Any (dwarven) |
| Alignments: LN (primary), LG, NG, N, LE, CG |
Locations
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| Citadel Adbar, the Delzoun, the North |
Ranks
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| • Favored: Rank 1. You are not only regarded as a proper citizen of Citadel Adbar, but you have gained King Harbromm's notice. He occasionally asks favors of you, or those of his court seek you out for aid of some kind. • Agent: Rank 3. You have earned the king's confidences. You are considered a distinct member of his court, possibly even bearing a title of some kind. Your loyalty is expected to be to to king and citadel first and foremost. |
“For Adbar! For Harbromm! For the sons of Moradin!”
Citadel Adbar's agents are no shadowy, secretive force. They are proud shield dwarves who wear the red-axe-and-flame of Harbromm proudly. These are dwarves who take great pride in the history and traditions of their people, and they have sworn to keep it alive at all costs.
Overview
Agents of the Citadel can occasionally be found outside of the Citadel proper - they are usually on official business of some sort, even if they are also tending to personal affairs. King Harbromm knows the strengths of his advisors, clan elders, and chief military personnel very well, and is skilled at leveraging their strengths to the Citadel's benefit. To outsiders, the agents of Citadel Adbar seem almost stereotypically dwarven: doughty, sullen, mistrusting of non-dwarves.
Goals and Philosophy
For a long time, Adbarrim-folk have thought of themselves as the last bastion of dwarf-kind in the North, the final home of the shield dwarves. While there are other places that boast small communities of Moradin's children, Citadel Adbar is a proper dwarf-hold, of the kind that once held power across the North in ancient days. These tales of ancient dwarf kingdoms, of long lineages of shield dwarf heroes, and of the glories done in Moradin's name are more than just stories to agents of Citadel Adbar: they are ideals to live up to and goals to achieve once more.
True agents of Citadel Adbar hold to the following tenets:
- Loyalty to Citadel Adbar comes first, for loyalty to the Citadel is loyalty to dwarvenkind in the North.
- It is not slavish obedience that King Harbromm wants, but strong and willful dwarves of noble temperament who wish to do what is best for all of Moradin's children.
- The safety of dwarvenkind is paramount - outside allegiances, personal concerns, and the drive to accumulate personal wealth and power must all fall to the wayside when the lives of dwarves are at stake.
Activities
The tasks given to Harbromm's most trusted vassals are many and varied. Literally anything that might be needful for the survival and prosperity of the Citadel and its folk is fair game, and Harbromm trusts the most delicate and dangerous tasks to his most trusted advisors and agents alone.
Quests undertaken by agents of Citadel Adbar might include the following:
- Leading a fighting force to clear orcish raiders out of the trading routes through the Deep Realm.
- Diplomatic missions to other nations to help acquire new trade.
- Missions into ancient dwarven ruins, to recover lost artifacts and lore of ancient fallen Delzoun.
Perks
Agents of Citadel Adbar in good standing might receive the following benefits:
- A Place to Call Home: Rank 1+. Those in Harbromm's service are ensured basic living quarters so long as they are in Citadel Adbar, equivalent to a Poor Lifestyle expense for free. Those who live more grandly may reduce their lifestyle costs by 2 sp per day. This is upgraded to Modest and 1gp discount per day at Rank 3+, and Comfortable and 2gp at Rank 6+.
- Lore of the Elders: Rank 3+. x
Titles
Some of King Harbromm's agents are given titles in accordance with their role within his court. These titles come with responsibility as well as rewards.
- Iron Guard: Members of the Iron Guard are dedicated warriors. Those trusted enough to hold positions of command must pass muster with King Harbromm directly, however, becoming agents. These war-axe-wielding, plate armor-wearing warriors are very distinctive.
- Iron Guard Second Axe (Rank 1+): Those responsible for commanding smaller units of Iron Guard. Each Second Axe is given a command of twenty dwarves, and they are responsible for the training and maintenance of that unit, and for seeing that the orders of their First Axe is carried out. Unlike other Rank 1 agents, Second Axes are given a salary that ensures they can live Modest lifestyles.
- Iron Guard First Axe (Rank 3+): A small council of lieutenants to the Master of Axes, the First Axes oversee numerous units, with Second Axes as their subordinates. A First Axe is awarded one of the distinctive greataxe +1 wielded by the First Axes of the Iron Guard.
- Iron Guard Master of Axes (Rank 6+): The general of the Iron Guard and the warrior invested by King Harbromm with responsibility for the safety and security of Citadel Adbar as a whole, this appointment of the Master of Axes is always a great honor and a wearying responsibility. The Master of Axes wears a distinctive suit of dwarven plate, given to him for the duration of his service to the Citadel. He also sits on the King's Council.
- Clan Masterwright: Rank 3+. The finest of Citadel Adbar's craftsmen are given great respect and accord by King Harbromm, who takes their advice as part of the so-called Council of Anvils, a political body made up of the finest craft-masters in the Citadel, who speak on behalf of their clans.
- Clan Elder: Rank 8+. Each clan is run by a single dwarven patriarch or matriarch, who oversees the prosperity of their clan's place within the Citadel. Those elders are appointed not by the clans themselves, but by King Harbromm, who chooses the most politically savvy and wisest-seeming of the dwarves of an eligible age and rank within a clan when its previous elder passes away. Clan Elders are supported by the King in a Wealthy Lifestyle within the clanholds of Citadel Adbar, and they have access to the wealth and talents of an entire clan of dwarves within the Citadel.
- Curate: Rank 5+. The priests of the dwarven gods must be politicians as well as holy folk, seeing to the Citadel's proper observances of the needs of the Mordinsamman's theology. The truly gifted - whether for political acumen, dwarven wisdom, or as one of the Called - often rise to the rank of Curate, giving them a seat on the King's Council. There is always one priest of Moradin as a Curate, and anywhere between two and four others at any one time.
- Royal Councilor: Rank 7+. Those who sit on the King's Council come from a variety of backgrounds. There are warriors, adventurers, craftsmen, priests, and many others, all joined in singular purpose: to give the wisest advice they can to King Harbromm as he shepherds dwarf-kind in the North to a future of prosperity.
Important Members
- King Harbromm: King of Citadel Adbar (Rank 10). x
- x: x (Rank x). x
- x: x (Rank x). x
