Lathleer

Overview

A border city on the Aundair-Thrane line famed for its thermal springs, fine dining, and relaxed, fashion-conscious culture. Houses Orien and Jorasco hold major presence, and warforged are met with curiosity rather than fear.

Party Visit

The party rested at the Amber Rind in Sessions 10 and 11. M.A.77 visited a vineyard outside the city and heard stronger rumors about Jorlanna d’Cannith’s affair and hidden child. Renoir learned that agents of the Black Writ were operating inside Aundair.

The Amber Rind

[!info] The Amber Rind A mid-range inn and tavern on Lathleer’s main thoroughfare — comfortable without being pretentious, popular with merchants, travellers, and locals alike. The kind of place where the food is genuinely good and nobody asks too many questions.

Overview

• Type: Inn & tavern
• Location: Main thoroughfare, central Lathleer
• Price range: Mid-level — a full room and meal won’t break the bank, but it’s a cut above a roadside flophouse
• Clientele: Merchants, Orien couriers, off-duty soldiers, vineyard workers on payday, the occasional travelling scholar

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Description

The Amber Rind takes its name from the waxy golden rinds of the aged cheeses the kitchen is known for — and from the warm amber light that pours through its low windows at dusk, when the place is at its best. Two storeys of pale stone, dark timber beams, and window boxes full of whatever the season allows. The ground floor is a busy open tavern with long communal tables and a roaring hearth in winter. The upper floor has eight private rooms — nothing luxurious, but clean, quiet, and with real beds. The courtyard out back has a small stable and a grape arbour where guests eat in summer.

Food & Drink

The kitchen is the real draw. The cook, a stout halfling named Bessa, has been running it for fifteen years and has a talent for turning local ingredients into something worth talking about.

• House specialties: Slow-braised boar with vineyard-reduction sauce, aged cheese boards with Aundairian honey, roasted root vegetables with herb oil
• Wine: Three house wines from local vineyards — red, white, and a sparkling variety that Bessa guards the supplier of jealously
• Ale: Two local brews on tap; one light, one dark
• Breakfast: Bread, soft cheese, cured meats, poached eggs — included with a room

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Rooms

• 8 private rooms — single and double occupancy
• Clean straw mattresses, wool blankets, a washbasin
• Stabling available for horses in the courtyard — extra copper per night
• Price: ~5sp per room per night including breakfast

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Key NPC — Corvan Theis

Innkeeper — Human male, 48, Aundairian A broad-shouldered, unhurried man with a greying beard and the mild disposition of someone who has seen every type of traveller and stopped being surprised decades ago. Corvan inherited the Amber Rind from his mother and has no intention of changing much about it. He’s warm with regulars, professionally courteous with strangers, and quietly sharp — he notices everything that happens in his common room.

• Has a soft spot for travellers coming out of Thrane — pours a generous first glass
• Dislikes Silver Flame templars and doesn’t hide it especially well
• Knows Mireille Vasant from the House Orien outpost; they have an informal arrangement where she refers travellers his way

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Atmosphere

• Warm, unhurried, faintly smells of woodsmoke and cheese
• Busy in the evenings; quieter at lunch
• A local bard plays on weekends — nothing grand, just a lute and some old Aundairian folk songs
• Horses out back are well looked after; Corvan takes that personally

The Vaulted Archive

[!info] The Vaulted Archive A grand public library in Lathleer, one of the city’s most beloved institutions. Equal parts repository of knowledge and social gathering place.

Overview

• Type: Public library & archive
• Location: Central Lathleer, near the main thermal district
• Access: Open to all — free entry, small fee for private reading rooms
  • Extra free gives +2 bonus on all roles
• Affiliation: University of Wynarn (Aundair) — a satellite collection

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Description

The Vaulted Archive takes its name from the sweeping stone vaulted ceilings of its main hall, built during the height of Galifar’s prosperity and somehow left mostly intact through the Last War. Warm light filters through tall amber-tinted windows, and the smell of old paper and cedar oil hangs in the air permanently. It’s a proper library but not a stuffy one. Lathleer’s relaxed culture has seeped into the building — scholars share tables with merchants, travellers browse the open stacks between baths, and the reading gardens out back are as popular for afternoon wine as they are for study.

Collections

• General Stacks — history, geography, trade, religion across Khorvaire; accessible to all
• Aundairian Law & Commerce — heavily used by merchants passing through on the Orien route
• The Border Collection — a unique local archive of documents, maps and testimonies from the Aundair/Thrane border region spanning the Last War; partially restricted
• Arcane Reference — a modest but solid collection of magical theory, on loan from the University of Wynarn floating towers
• Restricted Vault — accessible only with a letter of introduction from a recognised institution; rumoured to contain pre-Galifar maps and documents of uncertain origin

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Key NPC

Archivist Tomas Velune — the head librarian, a lean man in his late 50s with ink-stained fingers and an extraordinary memory for where everything is. Born in Lathleer during the war, he’s deeply protective of the Border Collection and quietly hostile to anyone who seems too interested in its military records. Aundairian loyalist to the bone.

The Reading Gardens

A walled courtyard behind the main building with shade trees, stone benches and a small fountain. Open until dusk. Wine and light food available from a vendor who operates under an informal arrangement with the library — technically not sanctioned, universally tolerated.

Duskvine Estate

[!info] Duskvine Estate A mid-sized family vineyard on the eastern outskirts of Lathleer, about a 20-minute walk from the city centre. One of the older estates in the region, known for a deep red that locals swear by and travellers take home by the case.

Overview

• Type: Family vineyard & winery
• Location: Eastern outskirts of Lathleer, along the road toward the Thrane border
• Size: Mid-sized — about 40 acres of vine, plus cellars, a farmhouse, and a small tasting room
• Known for: Silverleaf Red — a full-bodied dark wine aged in oak cellars beneath the estate

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Description

The Duskvine Estate sits on a gentle south-facing slope that catches the afternoon sun well into autumn. The vines are old — some of the rootstock predates the Last War — and the estate wears its age like a point of pride. Stone walls, weathered timber, a cellar that goes deeper than it looks. The tasting room is open to travellers most days. It’s modest — a long wooden bar, a few barrels used as tables, dried vine wreaths on the walls. No pretension. The wine does the talking.

The Wine

• Silverleaf Red — the flagship; dark cherry, smoke, a long dry finish. Aged minimum two years in cellar
• Borderland White — a crisp, lighter wine sharper, more mineral
• Estate Brandy — small batch, not always available; the family keeps most of it for themselves

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Key NPC — Sera Vaulen

Vintner — Human female, 55, Aundairian Sera has run the Duskvine since her husband died in the Last War. She is weathered, precise, and quietly formidable. She has strong opinions about wine, weather, and Thrane — in that order. She employs a small crew of farmhands, most of them local.

• Deeply suspicious of anything connected to the Silver Flame
• Has a soft spot for Warforged — one fought alongside her husband and carried news of his death back to her. She never forgot that
• Knows the border road better than most; she’s watched a lot of strange traffic pass by over the years

Cannith Outpost — The Iron Stave

[!info] Cannith Outpost — The Iron Stave A small but busy House Cannith outpost on the western edge of Lathleer, primarily serving as a maintenance and repair station for Warforged travellers passing through the Aundair/Thrane border region.

Overview

• Type: House Cannith service outpost
• Location: Western district, Lathleer
• Primary function: Warforged maintenance, repair, and parts supply
• Secondary function: Cannith goods trade, arcane component sales
• Affiliation: House Cannith — mid-tier outpost, not a full enclave

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Description

The outpost occupies a converted stone workshop — low ceilings, wide doors built to accommodate Warforged frames, the permanent smell of oil, hot metal and arcane resin. From the outside it’s easy to miss: a small Cannith anvil-and-flame sigil above the door is the only signage. Inside it’s cramped but efficient. One main workshop, a small parts storage room, and a private back office. Tools hang in precise order on the walls. Everything has a place. It does steady business. The border road between Thrane and Aundair sees enough Warforged traffic — veterans, labourers, the occasional adventurer — that a maintenance stop here makes sense. Cannith placed it here quietly, without fanfare.

Services

• Basic maintenance — joint lubrication, plating inspection, minor structural repairs
• Component replacement — replacement plates, actuators, sensory components; limited stock but covers most common models
• Arcane diagnostics — basic inspection of internal Cannith systems; can identify faults but not always fix them
• Emergency repairs — battle damage, cracked plating, severed components; costs more, takes longer
• Parts sourcing — can order rarer components from the Fairhaven enclave; 1–2 week lead time

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Key NPC — Josse Varn

Cannith Artificer — Human female, 34, Aundairian Josse runs the outpost alone with one assistant. She’s a competent mid-tier Cannith artificer — no Dragonmark, but sharp instincts and a decade of hands-on Warforged work. She’s matter-of-fact with clients, meticulous with her work, and quietly professional.

• Treats Warforged clients with quiet, professional respect — no condescension, no curiosity-as-objectification

What players know

The party knows Lathleer as a relaxed border city with thermal springs and a strong Cannith presence — the Iron Stave outpost services warforged. At the Amber Rind they heard stronger rumors of Jorlanna d’Cannith’s affair and hidden child, and Renoir learned the Black Writ operates inside Aundair.

Why it matters

Lathleer is the Aundair gateway where the party’s Jorlanna lead deepened and where they first sensed the Black Writ’s shadow.

Campaign history

• Session #10: Crossed into Aundair and rested at the Amber Rind; M.A.77 visited a vineyard and heard Jorlanna rumors; Renoir learned of the Black Writ.
• Session #11: Rested at the Amber Rind again before heading to Delafelden.