Trunau
Trunau is a small human farming community located just south of the old Hordeline in the Hold of Belkzen. When the orcs breached this defensive border in 4515 AR,1 the citizens of the town refused to abandon their land, unlike most of the farmers in the surrounding region. They built wooden palisades and ramparts, surrounding the defenses with pits and stakes, and defended the walls of their town with great ferocity. The orc invaders eventually gave up besieging the town and simply started circumventing it. Those few orcs who trade with the inhabitants began naming the settlement Manhome.2 The inhabitants of this town are called 'Trunauans'.3
Every able-bodied citizen of Trunau is tasked with defending the town at a moment's notice and is grimly aware that the town is the lone human outpost in a savage land. Children on their twelfth birthday are presented with a hopeknife and shown precisely which arteries to cut should they or their families be taken alive by the orc hordes.4
Water and food
After defense, the main issues in Trunau are the water and food supplies, as the town must always be prepared for a siege. A rich stream called Hopespring, which is located within the town, supplies the necessary fresh water. The town's many fields grow crops that can be stored for long periods, but the fields can be easily burned, so the town relies heavily on its hunters and trappers—and even counter-raids to steal food and livestock from the orcs themselves. Moreover, recognizing their vulnerability to starvation, the town leaders bought and carried into town the magical siegestone. The huge cauldron-like altar, located in the Longhouse, could produce many gallons of a tasteless porridge to keep Trunau's residents alive in times of trouble.5
Trade
Trunau is far from most established trade routes but still receives merchants from Lastwall and Nirmathas who sell their goods to the isolated town at inflated prices, but also buy valuable salvage the townsfolk find in abandoned settlements. Other visitors include caravans of Varisians attempting to cross the Hold of Belkzen, and Shoanti raiding parties traveling east to prove themselves against the orcs or the horrors of the Skittermounds. Trunau also sends its own caravans to Lastwall, trading valuable information on orc movements to the crusaders of the Castle Everstand in exchange for supplies. The town even maintains trading relationships with a select few orc traders from Urgir, as Grask Uldeth is currently interested in trade and civilization.6
Notable locations
- Trunau's palisade: the deadly palisade that surrounds the lower portion of the town
- Hopespring: a rich stream that provides the town pure water
- Ramblehouse: Trunau's eccentric inn
- Barterstones: an open-air market
- Flame of the Fallen: a great pyre along the cliff at the town's crest
- Commons: a wide amphitheater serving as Trunau's training ground by day and a place of relaxation and celebration by night
- Ivory Hall: the seat of power that serves also as the home of Chief Defender
- Trunau Countinghouse: a bank in Trunau
References
Paizo published a major chapter about Trunau in Towns of the Inner Sea and a poster map of the town in the Giantslayer Poster Map Folio.
For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.
- ↑ . “The Hold of Belkzen” in Skeletons of Scarwall, 60. Paizo Inc., 2008
- ↑ . The Inner Sea World Guide, 49. Paizo Inc., 2011
- ↑ . “Trunau” in Towns of the Inner Sea, 55. Paizo Inc., 2013
- ↑ . “The Hold of Belkzen” in Skeletons of Scarwall, 63. Paizo Inc., 2008
- ↑ . “Trunau” in Towns of the Inner Sea, 57. Paizo Inc., 2013
- ↑ . “Trunau” in Towns of the Inner Sea, 58. Paizo Inc., 2013
