Brigandine

Brigandine is a town in Cenard, southeast of Helmfirth on the banks of the Helmbeck. Ruled by Lady Amelia Cressida, the town maintains a steady trade up and down the river to and from Helmfirth.

In 627, Father Haster of the Church of Helm hired Bolt Blacker and a few of his less-than-legal friends to steal the Astral Pane from Honora VII and the Temple of Lathander. The Temple was beginning to give the Church a run for its money, and Haster had to take steps to remove them. They were paid handsomely for this job, and used that money to start the infamous Hacksaw Gang. The Temple of Lathander was decimated by the loss of their sacred artifact, and never really recovered from it. For a few years, the Hacksaw Gang terrorized the merchants throughout the surrounding countryside, bribing guards to look the other way and occasionally receiving secret donations from Father Haster.

After a while, however, Father Haster grew tired of his debt to a gang of thugs and began to put pressure on the city guard to put an end to the Hacksaw Gang. Tension grew between Bolt and Haster, and the Gang was pushed to more and more violence. Finally Bolt threatened to reveal the entire affair—in return, Haster paid for the entire gang to be arrested, convicted without trial, and hung to a man. In the summer of 630, forty three men lost their lives that day, with varying degrees of guilt, and their families were infuriated.

In 632, the Astral Pane came in contact with the Labyrinth, and undead began rising each night in Brigandine. They were not immediately hostile, but things were unsettling even before Cressida realized that the effects were spreading toward the prison graveyard. Fearing the second rise of the Hacksaw Gang, Cressida called for aid, and Baron Everic of Helmfirth sent the party to assist.

The party uncovered the plot behind the theft of the Astral Pane five years ago, collected enough evidence to convict Father Haster with the help of Bolt's journal and his mother, Nina Blacker, and returned the Astral Pane to Honora.