After a couple weeks of travel (whether by land or by river, your choice), you arrive in Ghastenhall. Located on an island at the mouth of the Godscar River, Ghastenhall is Talingarde's largest city and main trade port, an ancient, crowded, and untidy city. Untidy in more ways than one: the wealth brought by trade has brought a luxury and an openness of spirit that even the Zealot's years on the throne were unable to exterminate. It is one of the few places in Talingarde where crime is more than an uncommon occurrence, and the great Library of Ghaster and its associated universities produce a freethinking attitude that would be inconceivable in the capital, Matharyn. Even the ravages of the Fire-Axe's army to the north and east don't seem to disturb Ghastenhall much. Summer is already dying. Soon enough, everyone is certain, the barbarians will have to retreat back to their own lands or settle down for the winter. And if they stay south of the Watch Wall, King Markadian will fall on them in the spring and destroy them once and for all. It is to this wealthy, worldly, complacent city you come, bearing dark secrets with you, not least of those a green ceramic vial that may well hold the deaths of thousands within it...
