The tiny town of Phaendar in Nirmathas has persisted in some form or another for 3 centuries, ever since the construction of its eponymous bridge over the Marideth River made it a minor stopping point on Cheliax’s trade road to what were once the nation’s northern colonies. Over the years, the town’s population has rarely risen above a few hundred souls, and very little has changed even now, despite a war for independence raging just 3 days’ march to the south. Beyond its location as a crossroads between the Nesmian Plains and the Hollow Hills, Phaendar offers little military value. The lack of walls makes it impossible to hold; the flat land allows citizens to see armies approaching a day in advance and flee into the woods; and the river it overlooks is choked with rapids and barely navigable. Only someone wildly overambitious or a tactical genius would find any value in this exposed underbelly of a farm town...
