Burg in the Embers, Ash
Character: Cindrek is about the only large burg you can find on the plane of Ash that’s been established by humans. It’s rather dull looking, yet the people reflect the nature of Ash itself: Live greatly and then die out. You see, ashes have only so long to live. They start out as embers of a fire, burning fiercely. When the fire goes however, the ashes die out, becoming cold and lifeless. Such is the life of the natives. These people try living life to its fullest, for one day, our flames will all die down.
Ruler: Halowice Emberlast (planar ash genasi magus [she/her] / CN) is the ruler of this town. Few would challenge her, especially since most are busy making the most of their life. Emberlast doesn’t enforce absolute law, as life is too short to be boring. Instead, she tries to make sure nobody gets hurt in their constant revelry.
Description: Cindrek is a fair sized city with a few thousand people in it. The natives are primarily human, more sociable ash genasi and sartarin ruvoka, but other cutters that can survive the plane come here as well. The ash genasi typically sell tools and crafts from their homeplane to travellers, but they sometimes get better results trading with wizards. After all, if you want magical components, where else would you go but the inner planes? That’s my motto. ‘Do it right or don’t do it at all’. The houses here are well reinforced with magically enhanced ash walls, courtesy of Felix the Quick, an old friend of mine (planar ash genasi wizard [he/him] / CG).
Despite the dullness of ash, the planar beasts in these parts are far from tame, and the locals take no chances. The circular city has magical lights illuminating it at all times. As one gets closer to the centre of the city the streets darker and darker, until at the centre there is no lighting at all. There in the town hall, one can find Lady Emberlast.
There are few taxes here, and the people try to help each other out. Unlike many Ashfolk, the cutters here don’t have any strong opinions on outsiders, and allow them to stay as one of their own if they wish, granted that they remain civil.
Militia: The militia here is ready and frequently called upon to protect inhabitants and travellers. There are dozens of patrols around town and at the borders. The typical patrol consists of 5 troopers (planar human or ash genasi fighters / N or CN). The leaders of the patrols are usually equipped with locally-made magical weapons like pole-arms or spears.
Services: Cindrek’s services tend to lie around pleasure, as the localstend to spend most of their time indulging in it. The best tavern one can come to here is The Furnace, a fine establishment run by madame Ferris Coalin (planar ash genasi bard [she/her] / CG). I’m sure Volo would recommend it, if he could endure the plane. The bar caters mostly to ash genasi, though it offers a lively environment, just the opposite of the plane’s drab appearance. There is always a party going on here, and the food and drinks are both palatable and cheap. They’re presumably brought in via a portal, although Ferris keeps quiet on the subject. A good ale goes for about 7 silver while a hearty meal—quite the luxury in Ash—goes for about 1-2 gold pieces. Ferris also provides information. She has access to much choice gossip as many of the burg’s most important men come here to get drunk. Ale has a way of loosening a man’s tongue, and Ferris can be very generous when she thinks she might learn some useful dark.
There are several weapon stores here as well, since you’d have to be barmy to go through the Inner Planes without protection. A smithy of note is The Drake’s Claw, run by Jolren Caviron (planar ash genasi fighter [he/him] / NG). Jolren forges weapons of great quality made from obsidian cinders mined from the heart of the plane. His method of forging these magnificent dark blades remains a mystery, but they’ve saved many a travellers life in a battle. He typically charges 50 gold for a regular longsword, but if you’ve the jink and the time, he can craft a true masterpiece of a weapon [1d8, +2 versus creatures of elemental Ash, user may breath and walk through ash as a native of the plane, suffering no damage]. He rarely makes these weapons and a special price may be demanded, as well as a large sum of gold (2000 minimum).
Finally, there are the services that allow unprotected travellers to walk through the plane unharmed. It’s quite annoying when a spell runs out to leave you for dead on a hostile plane, but the natives make sure it won’t happen to you. For a price. The Dishdashah of Distinction is a shop which sell magical cloaks woven from an unknown dark material, that provide respite from the heat-leeching nature of the plane and also make normal breathing and sight possible. These cloaks go for about 500 gold each (the natives may be kind, but not stupid) and if money is not readily available, the pragmatic ash genasi will allow travellers to survive and pay off the debt by undertaking a service for them, or bartering other items which can be hard to obtain in Ash.
Source: Asmos Kithkin and Jon Winter-Holt, mimir.net
