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House Stel: Urik and the Black Crown

The safest city on Aerun to walk at night. Learn the rules and you'll love it.

Chapter on its way. This chapter downloads from the House Stel relay as soon as you enter the region. Until then, here's a preview from Balic.

Look for the banner: crossed black scimitars on white.

Preview

• Urik stands square-walled on the tan plains of the southwest, beneath a smoking mountain.
• Population: about 20,000 inside the walls, plus more on the plantations.
• House Stel is the war-house: mercenary contracts, fortress-caravans, and the best soldiers on the ring.
• The Code. Urik runs on one enormous written law covering commerce, taxes, holidays, building standards, weddings, funerals, and looking after the elderly. Crime is very rare. Follow the rules and you'll have a lovely stay.
• Shopping: obsidian from the quarries on the Mountain of the Black Crown, the finest pottery on Aerun, leather, chitin, and kank nectar.

In the region

• Urik: the walled city under the smoking mountain. Everything is watched, so everything is safe.
• The Mountain of the Black Crown: the smoking mountain, where Urik's obsidian comes from.
• The Dragon's Bowl: a sunken basin north of Urik.
• Lake Pit: twenty-eight square miles of clean blue water, under guard.
• Yaramuke and the Black Oasis: the ruins of a city, and an oasis whose water you shouldn't drink.
• Hollowstorm: a fishing town on the western promontory, 120 miles up the coast from Urik.

Getting there

150 miles west of Balic by the Ring Road, along the southern run: about a week with a walking caravan.