Region Arc A — a four-session economic arc
A campaign primer covering one region across four sessions: a place name, a two-sentence geography, a two-sentence political/economic state, and four session sections each with a title, a one-paragraph premise, two named factions, and one merchant NPC spotlight.
Four-session arc · one region · one ledger per session.
The region · where the primer sets
The Quarried Vale
Geography
The Vale is a long inland basin carved by a single river — the Lyr — that runs north out of the Whitebarrows and dies in a marsh where it meets the trade road. Two days hard ride from any port, three days slow-cart from the nearest free city, and ringed by a single ridge that turns the wind back on itself.
The road in follows the Lyr's east bank; the road out follows a saddle on the west where the caravans lose a third of a day. Inside the basin, the villages are strung on the river like beads, and the quarries - the namesake - sit on the ridge-crest to the south, where the slate is so dark it shows the rain.
Political & economic state
Politically the Vale is a march — a tax year, a high sheriff, and a sitting bishop whose see is older than the high sheriff by three generations. The bishop keeps the toll-roads; the sheriff keeps the quarries; the villages keep the granaries; and the three jurisdictions war on each other in writing, not in arms.
Economically the Vale is a labor-and-stone market - copper in the till, slate on the road, and just enough grain moving through to keep the carters honest. Scarce: good iron, salt, and an honest bookseller's apprentice. Plentiful: rough wool, river clay, and a long opinion about the road's condition.
Session 01 · economic premise
A road that prices itself.
The party arrives at the Lyr fords in high summer when the water is low and the toll-keeper is the only bookkeeper for forty miles. The Vale runs on a 60-day tax cycle and the quarries are a week into a strike; the road prices every good the party carries, and the only way past the gate is to learn what each line of the ledger means before the GM names a number.
Factions affected · ledger note
- The Lyr-Toll Keepers' Guild× two-line ledger: passage-tariff + hay-day beam-sitting fee
- Quoin-Tap Smithy× three-line ledger: smith rates the road (no smith, no tariff read)
NPC spotlight · merchant / trader
Old Marget at the ford
Toller, vinegary
MotivationWants: a fair and a name; the road will not move until she has both.
Session 02 · economic premise
The granary summer.
After the road, the party arrives at a granary village the week before the mill-roll. The Vale stores a third of its grain here in a single tithe-barn and pays the miller in kind; the cartel is a one-page letter glued to the village-bell. The party walks in with a cart of iron and walks into a price war they did not know was already running.
Factions affected · ledger note
- The Millers' Combine× four-line ledger: grist-toll + mill-day tithe + the bell-read
- The Tithing Clergy× two-line ledger: tithe-barn audit + lantern-time stipend
NPC spotlight · merchant / trader
The Salthouse's widow
Brisk, ledger-bound
MotivationWants: a buyer, fast, who will not name the audit out loud.
Session 03 · economic premise
Quarries of the Whitebarrows.
Mid-arc the party walks up the saddle into the slate belt, where three quarries run side-by-side and the high sheriff and the bishop square off over the ridge-toll. The Vale is a labor-and-stone market; the quarries are the only ledger with a real margin; and the road-pricing a player learned in session one is now the test the GM applies to every line of the quarry-bid.
Factions affected · ledger note
- The Quarry-Hands Union× three-line ledger: kill-floor wage + dust-allowance + bell-write
- The Bishop-Tithe Office× two-line ledger: ridge-toll + per-stone ledger-page
NPC spotlight · merchant / trader
Quoin-Tap Smithy (bellows-quiet journeyman)
Measured, named-price
MotivationWants: a contract at one price; will not move on it for the bishop or the sheriff.
Session 04 · economic premise
The road out, and the audit at the gate.
On the road out of the Vale, the party meets the high sheriff's ledger-clerk at the saddle - a single bell-ringer who reads the road's a thirty-line invoice at century's end. The four-session arc closes when the party can defend a number from each of sessions 1-3 in the same breath; the room then is what the primer is for, and what the /tables page carries the rest of the way.
Factions affected · ledger note
- The Sheriff's Clerc× three-line ledger: saddle-bell + audit + the four-arc dead-toll
- The Pilgrim-Plate Inn× two-line ledger: potluck-day + per-stop wine-fee
NPC spotlight · merchant / trader
Pilgrim-Plate Inn (young innkeeper)
Curious, traded potluck for road news
MotivationWants: a meal and a name; trades either in exchange for the audit-one-line read.