The Kingdom of Oceansend

A walled port on a deep-water beach of the New Alphatian Sea, the largest and best-equipped harbor in Norwold [Alm-Oceansend]. Founded by Thyatians around AC 900, independent since AC 960, it was occupied by the Heldannic Knights during the chaos after Alphatia’s fall and retaken by a coup in AC 1015. It is free again, and braced [Alm-Oceansend] [MMB-Timeline].

Government: independent monarchy.
Ruler: King Olaf Yarrvikson, human male, Fighter 10, who organized the AC 1015 coup against the Knights. He prefers a working fortress to a palace [Alm-Oceansend].
Notable figures: Hermann Adalard, Paladin 9 of Vanya, the former Heldannic Governor-General, now a prisoner; Baron Shebb Woolsey, Thief 17, who rules the vassal city a day to the east; Magist Knolimer Knolin, Mage 17, “an odd fellow” rumored to have helped free that city [Alm-Oceansend].
Population: about 42,000, including 3,500 halflings, 500 dwarves, 200 elves. During the occupation the dwarves withdrew to Kildorkak and the elves to the free forests [Alm-Oceansend].

Geography and defense

Oceansend sits on the coast north of Landfall, backed by evergreen forest on three sides and farmland along the shore. Siege engines line the walls. The Final Range to the west sends goblinoid raiders; wyverns, manticores, griffons, and the odd roc trouble the skies; and the Heldannic Knights are “so near” the borders [Alm-Oceansend]. A friendly dwarven stronghold, Kildorkak, lies in the Final Range [Alm-Oceansend] [Alm-FinalRange].

Economy and faith

Taxed at 20 percent income and 5 percent sales; the coinage is the heart (gp), blade (sp), and wall (cp), and Heldannic coin is refused. The city lives by sea trade, fishing, mining, trapping, and farming [Alm-Oceansend]. There is no state religion; Zirchev blesses the fields, and the black-lion banners of the Vanya priesthood (the occupiers’) now hang defaced [Alm-Oceansend].

The situation in AC 1016

The Heldannic threat is “not yet forgotten.” Compulsory conscription of all adults remains in force, and trade is still recovering from the years of anarchy [Alm-Oceansend].
Thieves released during the liberation, and the Dark Masks guild, leave the public uneasy. The guild is rumored to have had a hand in freeing Woolsey’s vassal city [Alm-Oceansend].
There is treasure in the harbor: sunken ships and lost artifacts turn up in dock work, and undead walk the pre-settlement ruins nearby [Alm-Oceansend].

Running Oceansend as a home base

Oceansend is the grittier start: a hard port just out from under an occupation, full of released thieves, war debts, a guild in the shadows, and a prisoner of state. It gives a low-level party dockside work, ruins and wrecks to plunder, a clear external enemy (the Knights who will come back), and a king who trusts mercenaries because his own coup was one. The fan gazetteer [JTR-Oceansend] adds street-level detail. Seeds are in Campaign: Home Bases.

Continuity note. The Alpha entry calls Oceansend a southern city that “fell and was retaken twice,” implying it is within Ericall’s claims; the Oceansend entry calls it an independent kingdom that was never Alpha’s [Alm-Alpha] [Alm-Oceansend]. This guide follows the Oceansend entry: free, and jealous of it.