My Ideas about the Town of Luln

What is officially said in Gaz1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos

From the Player's Section of Gaz1

Luln, a town of 5000 citizens, is a ramshackle community of refugees who have fled the Black Eagle Barony and Fort Doom. It's poised between the armies of the Black Eagle Barony and Karameikos, and is a small, struggling community. Its townmaster is Mistress Sascia; she is gradually organising the village into a permanent, fortified community and there is speculation that she is trying to acquire a noble title. 

In  the DM's Section

Luln
Ruler: Mistress Sascia (see her writeup in the "Characters" section).
Population: 5000
Laws: None in addition to the Duke's Law

Notes: Luln, as described earlier, is a farming town halfway between civilisation and the Black Eagle Barony. It is held together, more or less, by the leadership of Mistress Sascia; it's founded on rich soil near a forest teaming with wildlife, and if only the Black Eagle Barony would stop raiding and oppressing it, Luln could turn into a good place to live.

Also from Gaz1:
Mistress Sascia is 12th level Fighter, lawful

The 5th Division has forces at Radlebb Keep (3 hexes/24 miles from Luln). 5th Div Radlebb Guard Battalion - 244 personnel.

Other Sources of Information

Similar to my approach with Penhaligon, I won't do my own map of Luln (there is no town map of Luln in the Gazetteer either), but I shall borrow one from the Vaults of Pandius, in this case a rather nice one by religion (source here)

I also like the overview of the town the same author has described on this page, though I am not sure how much of it to use. Not all of it fits with my own ideas. 

My own ideas

• Luln is a hotbed of intrigue with agents of both the Grand Duke and the Black Eagle trying to outwit each other. 
• There is a hideout of the Iron Ring in the woods nearby. Iron Ring bandits and slavers prey on unwary travellers and townsfolk who wander too far from safety. Slavery is still an institution both in the Empire of Thyatis and in the Black Eagle Barony, as well as further abroad. The Iron Ring have agents within the town. 
• The Fellowship of the White Dove is nominally a resistance group based in Luln with the objective of eventually overthrowing the Black Eagle von Hendriks in favour of someone less insane and evil. However, it has become thoroughly infiltrated by Black Eagle spies so that any activities it attempts are swiftly countered by Black Eagle Barony troops and agents. 
• Randallos is an elf (male E5, al C),  who claims to recruit for the Fellowship of the White Dove and seeks out idealistic kids and young men. He actually works for the Iron Ring and anyone ‘recruited’ will actually be drugged, captured and sold into slavery. 
• Adventurers are ideal for missions into the Black Eagle Barony due to plausible deniability - there should be nothing to tie them to the government of Karameikos or Luln should they be caught. 
• Refugees from Black Eagle Barony started arriving 20 years ago. Before then Luln was primarily Traladaran and only 800 strong. Many of them are former slaves though others have fled the regime for other reasons. 
• Currently there are a lot of unemployed and dispossessed people. While some others are trying to settle down and make a home here. others are looking to move on to somewhere safer or even fight back against the Black Eagle forces. 
• The Luln Street Runners are an informal thieves' guild, really just a street gang. They have no interest in politics or espionage and simply make money by various forms of theft. They are led by Eldarii Lightfinger (human female, T12, al C). 
• Tormius Sevarak (human male, T7, al C) is playing a complex game. He is superficially a merchant who fled Fort Doom after the Baron threatened to seize him and all his assets due to tax discrepancies. He actually passes information about Luln and its traders and economy onto the Black Eagle's spies. But his true loyalty is the Cult of Chaos and he is the leader of a cell of cultists in the town. He and other cultists view the Baron as a melodramatic fool but nonetheless quite a useful ally in bringing Chaos to Karameikos.   
• Access to the sea would be useful, and would open up trade with the Five Shires, Ierendi and the rest of the Known World. An ambitious merchant wants to set up a dock in the Blight Swamp, on the estuary of the Achelos River, 22 miles from Luln itself, in an attempt to get trade around the Black Eagle Barony. The Black Eagle is not going to let this be easy. And the Blight Swamp is not the easiest of places for a construction project. 
• Baelwist the Vigilant (human male, T12, al N) is Mistress Sascia's spymaster but he knows that keeping the enemy spies out of Luln is nearly impossible given the number of refugees. Nonetheless, he does what he can. He knows the Fellowship of the White Dove is not very effective but does not realise how badly it has been undermined.
• Although Luln does not have any soldiers of the Karamekian army garrisoned in the town, it does have a militia of 150 part-time soldiers (all F1) who can be mustered in an emergency by the captain of the town guard, Broston Hardbristle (dwarf male, Dw8, al L). They are not well organised and have a variety of different weapons (spears, hand axes, shortbows and a few two-handed lumber axes) and armour (mostly leather armour, some chain mail, or sometimes just a shield). 
• In the event of a major attack on the town, messengers will be sent to Radlebb Keep with a call for help. Of course this is at least a day's march each way. Agents of the Black Eagle are aware of this and have their own plans, including intercepting any messengers. 
• Daelvar's Company is a band of 7 adventurers who have settled in Luln. Although primarily interested in looting lairs of monsters, they are occasionally hired by the town council to help deal with threats to the town. Daelvar's Company includes:
• Daelvar the Valiant, human male, F6, al L (noble and just, but with an overinflated ego and sometimes a bit full of himself)
• Merriamar, human female, MU6, al N (an escaped slave who has a fierce hatred of the Black Eagle Barony)
• Torsioss the Quester, human male, C7, al L (regularly carries out missions for the Church of Law, dragging the rest of the party with him)
• Perrii the Gnollslayer, human female, F6, al L (planner and strategist, suffers from bouts of melancholia, very accurate with her magical longbow)
• Telthilis Eaglebrow, elf male Elf Ranger 5, al N (owes Perrii and Torsioss a debt of honour after they saved him and his family from Black Eagle forces)
• Gordolla, dwarf female Dwarf Cleric 5, al L (primarily interested in rescuing fellow dwarves from the Black Eagle Barony)
• Zircon, human male, T6, al N (in it for the money, but also secretly fancies Merriamar and wants to impress her)
• There are growing tensions between the humans of Luln and the sylvan folk in the surrounding woods due to the pressure for more food, lumber and living space resulting in the forest being cut back. A few weeks ago centaurs attacked and injured some woodcutters in the woods, chasing them back to town, while a band of sprites caused a hunters's quiver of arrows to turn into long earthworms. The town council would like this to be resolved, preferably peacefully, before it escalates and people get killed.
• There are a series of tunnels underneath the town. They were originally excavated by an alliance of kobolds and wererats but these creatures were supposedly exterminated by adventurers and the town guard over a year ago. However, something inhuman was seen scurrying into one of the tunnel entrances just the other night. 
• A band of ogres has moved into the nearby hills, setting up camp in a ruined hamlet. The Iron Ring are interested in recruiting them as mercenary muscle, with the occasional unsalable captive thrown in as extra food.