Redaxe Tower

Details

Redaxe Island is situated roughly 75 miles east of Tower of the Veils and 50 miles East of the Iron Stacks, making it a valuable way point along the East Crescent Trade Route. This island was mostly uninhabited up until about 100 years ago, with just a few goat herders raising their herds among the tall cedar and pine trees of the island. Then one day a small fleet of ships manned by dwarves showed up at the island. They paid the goat herders a very generous amount for their herds and offered to sail them anywhere with the surrounding island or as far away as Perryn Island. The herders readily accepted what was enough money for them to live in minor luxury for the rest of their lives and departed with the first outbound ship, headed for the mainland.

The dwarves, led by one Kurgen Redaxe, quickly set up a temporary camp using supplies they brought with them and started excavating a mine, digging straight down through the bedrock. The going was slow as the dwarves were very careful with cutting the stone as the excavated material was then dressed and used in the building of a massive tower. Once mine was deep enough to expand out more dwarves were able to work the mines and the quarried stones came faster and faster. Within a couple of years Redaxe Tower was completed and work commenced on building a small, fortified city that included several dockyards, one of which was enclosed inside a building with massive doors and capable of handling all but the tallest of masted ships.

Eventually, and as expected, large iron ore deposits were found and the waiting foundries and smithies the dwarves had built were soon operational, producing steel ingots as well as various steel trade goods, including weapons and armor. Dwarf ships were soon departing Redaxe Island laden with trade goods, departing for foreign markets and returning laden with produce and everyday items. The dwarves are great at working steel but prefer to let others make their cloth and grow their food for them. In addition to ore the mines produce some small amounts of gold and copper.

One exception is that the dwarves have become excellent goat herders. They use the goat’s milk to produce Iron Bite, a fermented drink that somehow has a faint taste of iron to it. It is not a particularly pleasant drink, but it is cheap and potent, and as such the dwarves do a brisk side business selling this drink to the other islands and passing merchant ships. Another is the large underground mushroom farms that the dwarves run in the sections of the mines that have been played out. Dried mushrooms are a staple in the rations that the dwarves stock their ships with. One local species of mushroom that the dwarves discovered is used in the making of Cap’s Delight, a rather delicious and expensive ale that is brewed in small batches and which is highly sought after. Very few bottles make it off the island and those that do are sold at a hefty price.

The Redaxe Trading Company, which runs the Redaxe Trading Fleet, turns a very tidy profit and this is one of if not the richest community in the Crescent League and this wealth has attracted a lot of dwarves who have apprenticed with and later become members of the Redaxe clan. The inhabitants quickly outgrew the small village surrounding village and a proper dwarven city was built in the upper reaches of the mines. The exact population of the island is not known, especially because at any good time a significant number are out trading, but the more learned in the region estimate that at least several thousand dwarves live here, possibly upwards of 5,000.

Very few merchant ships come to Redaxe Island to trade as they know that the dwarves prefer their own merchants, but this is a common replenishing station for ships heading westward. An artificial quay and jetty can handle upwards of a dozen ships at a time, and they are often busy. The dockyards are also a common stop for ships coming in from the west that have suffered damage on their trip or are just in need of maintenance. The dwarven shipwrights are some of the best in all of the surrounding waters.

Redaxe Island is a relatively quiet island, due in large part to the rather large number of dwarves that reside on and under the island. But some local sahuagin tribes occasionally take an interest in the dwarves and for stretches of time large numbers of sahuagin will emerge from the sea and attempt to do some raiding on the village. They are rarely successful, but they are determined and arrive in such sufficient numbers that the fighting can be quite bitter. There are large areas just offshore that are dotted with hundreds of wooden poles. These are reserved for the heads of the sahuagin raiders. They also act as a deterrent for pirates who are generally smart enough to not attack the residents of the island.

The current leader is Tuvala Redaxe, daughter of the founder, Kurgen Redaxe. Kurgen is still alive, but the years of running a company bored him so he returned to his old adventuring life and has not been seen for some years, though somewhat regular letters and small parcels arriving from foreign lands indicate that he is still alive and thriving. Tuvala is a lot like her father and chafes at wishes to be doing something else, but she is good at her job and knows that when her father returns, she can then go off and become the adventurer she wants to be. To that end she has ordered some of the miners to forgo digging for iron and to just dig. She is hoping to establish a connection to the Dark Regions.

NPC Spotlight

Chandrik Dwarf-friend is a minotaur and one foremost baker on the island and the only permanent non-dwarf resident, having arrived one day as a crew member of a merchant ship that had put in for repairs and after he presented some baked goods to the shipwrights word spread about his skill as a baker and soon Kurgen Redaxe himself was personally offering to set him up with a proper bakery and whatever supplies he needed. Standing at nearly 8 feet tall he is an imposing figure that is pretty much impossible to miss, especially when he is helping to unload his baking supplies from the merchant ships, but for those who work with him and have seen him bake, especially when making sweets and his beloved ginger cookies, he has a gracefulness that is completely at odds with his lumbering appearance. While his past is kept mostly secret some suspect that in his youth he was a gladiator or an adventurer as he is often at the forefront of the battle when sahuagin raid the island, but it is his skill as a baker that truly defines who he is, and on the side he runs a small school for ship’s cooks, where he teaches his classes in a mockup of a typical ship’s kitchen. While Chandrik makes a very tidy profit running his bakery and school he cares very little about money and his primary motivation in life is making people happy with his baking, and the dwarves of clan Redaxe are known for their love of great food and supply Chandrik with an endless supply of happiness as they eagerly devour his goods. He is a very friendly and outgoing, for a minotaur, and his kitchen is a happy, relaxed place that reflects his true spirit and while he will gladly engage with anyone in conversation he especially loves talking with sailors and hearing their stories as he sometimes misses his days of sailing the seas. If you have any questions about baking there is no better source than this well-respected baker, and he does have a small collection of cooking books from other lands and on occasion has been persuaded to make some special items for travelers who have been away from their homes for a long time. Chandrik’s most distinguishing features are the fact that he is a minotaur living among thosuands of dwarves, his height which is impressive even by minotaur standards, and the rather large pearl he wears on a necklace that is shaped like one of his ginger cookies and which was given to him by the elven mage Gisela.