[Settlements] Kings Crossing

[Havard]

This town is featured in MMRPG Episode 18. Does the town have an official placement on the Blackmoor map?

-Havard

[aldarron]

From the name, I might hazard a guess that it's somewhere between Blackmoor and Vestfold.

[Rafael]

I think it's actually featured in more than one episode, but I couldn't recall which one.

I think we had this talk before already at some point, and that somebody official stated
that the town was on the road between Newgate and Vestfold.

[aldarron]

Episode 38 gives more clues. Kings crossing is situated near an undead infested swamp in an area of interest to the Westryn Elves, because it is near a rift with a world of undead in "Westryn lands" which only they know about.

That sounds very much like The Blood Wood. The blood wood is a wood once inhabited by Westryn but now overrun with undead. It's a likely place for this rift. The Blood Wood is not on any map as far as I can see but it is "above" Boggy Bottom and near enough to "influence" Pelham wood.

So North of Boggy Bottom and west of Pelham wood puts the Blood Wood near where the "Faery Road" and "Hell Road" meet. These roads are a little different between maps, but on the d20/4e map it looks like it would fit in the Y between these two roads.

There is a good bit of swamp shown on the DAB map along Trog Lake and in the area where Dave L has Kenville.

So the best fit to me for Kings crossing looks like the North shore of Trog lake/West bank of the Root river where there is plenty of swamp, fairly close to the Blood Wood.

Taking the "crossing" part of the name as a further clue, it would make sense if Kings Crossing is situated on the west bank of the Root river exactly where the Feary road continues after being interrupted by the river. It's attraction as a place for a new town then can be tied to the fact that it is situated at an important river crossing on the road to Kenville and Boggy Bottom.

That still puts it geographically about halfway between Newgate and Vestfold, more or less.

[aldarron]

:roll: Seems we are all slipping up on this one. I failed to notice that in the reems of stuff in the back of episode 37 (yes the one right before 38) there is a complete write up about the town, pages 30-33.

Pity it doesn't make any damn sense.

It says Kings Crossing is at "the juncture of the Ramshead and Newgate roads... founded in 990 and recognized by King Uther in 995 ... on the spot where King Uther crossed the river and surprised the (Afridhi) enemy."

Given that uther was maybe 5 years old in 990, that date is a tad bit impossible. Maybe add 25 years? Leaving that aside...

Okay, the Ramshead and Newgate roads are the Hell and Faery roads - no problem there except the "juncture" occurs at different spots depending on which map you use. Its a safe bet the CG hexmap from the 3.5/d20 Blackmoor was intended. So that puts Kings Crossing on the north shore of Blood Lake. Most of the other maps have the roads meet at this spot also, including Bob Bledsaws map in the FFC. The roads meet just above the unlabeled patch of woods west and north of Boggy Bottom, which must be the Blood Wood. There's plenty of swamp nearby too.

So that's okay so far except the bit about "where King Uther crossed the river" and this "The Key feature of Kings Crossing is the Bridge that spans the river. An engineering wonder built by dwarves...." p31.

There's no way anyone would build a bridge across Blood lake.

Things are further confused in that twice in the text Kings Crossing is called "Kings Port" - which could make sense if its on the north shore of Blood lake and not the Root river.

There's really no solution that fits all the facts given. I see four possibilities:

1. Ignore the date and the brigde and the river references and rename the town Kings Port.

2. Follow the 4e handdrawn map. Unlike all the other maps, the 4e map shows the juncture of the Newgate and Ramshead roads occuring just above the Root. Trouble is, this is almost exactly where other maps put Boggy Bottom, including Bledsaws, map in the FFC. So Boggy Bottom would have to be slid a little further west, closer to the south end of the Long Lake and the Blood wood would then have to be added between the ramshead and newgate roads (which wouldn't really make Boggy Bottom "below" the Blood Wood as it should be).

3. Draw a whole new map lengthening the Root a little and moving Blood Lake a little further west.

4. Ignore the placement at the road juncture and move the town to where I suggested in the previous post. Unfortunetly, I think this gets furtherest from what the game designers intended though.

What do you guys think?

[Havard]

:roll: Seems we are all slipping up on this one. I failed to notice that in the reems of stuff in the back of episode 37 (yes the one right before 38) there is a complete write up about the town, pages 30-33.

Pity it doesn't make any damn sense.

Thanks for following up on this Aldarron!

It says Kings Crossing is at "the juncture of the Ramshead and Newgate roads... founded in 990 and recognized by King Uther in 995 ... on the spot where King Uther crossed the river and surprised the (Afridhi) enemy."

Given that uther was maybe 5 years old in 990, that date is a tad bit impossible. Maybe add 25 years? Leaving that aside...

According to the d20 CS, Uther was born in 985, but in any case, why would it matter what Uther does or says before 1005 (when he becomes Baron)?

As you say, either the year is wrong or the town was founded by an earlier ruler. Sounds more likely that the year should be 1015 and referring to the Battle of Root River.

Okay, the Ramshead and Newgate roads are the Hell and Faery roads - no problem there except the "juncture" occurs at different spots depending on which map you use. Its a safe bet the CG hexmap from the 3.5/d20 Blackmoor was intended. So that puts Kings Crossing on the north shore of Blood Lake. Most of the other maps have the roads meet at this spot also, including Bob Bledsaws map in the FFC. The roads meet just above the unlabeled patch of woods west and north of Boggy Bottom, which must be the Blood Wood. There's plenty of swamp nearby too.

There's really no solution that fits all the facts given. I see four possibilities:

1. Ignore the date and the brigde and the river references and rename the town Kings Port.

Not to keen on this option.

2. Follow the 4e handdrawn map. Unlike all the other maps, the 4e map shows the juncture of the Newgate and Ramshead roads occuring just above the Root. Trouble is, this is almost exactly where other maps put Boggy Bottom, including Bledsaws, map in the FFC. So Boggy Bottom would have to be slid a little further west, closer to the south end of the Long Lake and the Blood wood would then have to be added between the ramshead and newgate roads (which wouldn't really make Boggy Bottom "below" the Blood Wood as it should be).

I assume you mean this map, which also appeared in the 3E CS. It may likely bethe main reason for the confusion.

3. Draw a whole new map lengthening the Root a little and moving Blood Lake a little further west.

4. Ignore the placement at the road juncture and move the town to where I suggested in the previous post. Unfortunetly, I think this gets furtherest from what the game designers intended though.

Drawing a whole new map does not sound very appealing. I think you are on the right track here. Move Kingsbridge to the Faerie Road; either north of the Trog lake (as per your suggestion) or on the Barleycorn River as per Rafe's suggestion.

The town could easily be founded (settled) in 990, but then recognized/renamed in 1015 by King Uther.

-Havard

[aldarron]

1. Ignore the date and the brigde and the river references and rename the town Kings Port.

Not to keen on this option.

I'm kinda liking it more and more. I guess there's no need for the name change. It can still be kings crossing and can still be the place Uther crossed even though the road juncture is on the north shore of the blood lake rather than the root river proper. It makes a certain amount of tactical sense that Uther would have massed his troops on the banks of the Blood lake, where he could be unseen, and crossed the lake in boats to reach the opposite shore of the root river and surprise the Afridhi. (much like Washington crossing the Delaware as I assume it is modeled on).

The only detail that would really have to change, (other than the date, which has to change anyway) is the bridge - that would have to go.

I like the road juncture placement because it puts the new town next to the unlabeled patch of woods that has to be the Blood Wood, which seems important for the involvement of the Westryn and plagueborn in the adventures. Moving KC north may put it too close to Kenville and too far from the wood.

2. Follow the 4e handdrawn map. Unlike all the other maps, the 4e map shows the juncture of the Newgate and Ramshead roads occuring just above the Root. Trouble is, this is almost exactly where other maps put Boggy Bottom, including Bledsaws, map in the FFC. So Boggy Bottom would have to be slid a little further west, closer to the south end of the Long Lake and the Blood wood would then have to be added between the ramshead and newgate roads (which wouldn't really make Boggy Bottom "below" the Blood Wood as it should be).

I assume you mean this map, which also appeared in the 3E CS. It may likely bethe main reason for the confusion.
-Havard

Yeah, that's it. I bet you are right about the confusion - different people looking at different maps when the details about the place were being created.

[Havard]

Moved to the MMRPG forum.

-Havard

[Yaztromo]

Hey! King's Crossing is quite a popular place, for being a village in the middle of the swamp! There are six (18, 37, 38, 76, 78, 89) MMRPG episodes touching it, which is a lot, for any place that is neither Blackmoor City nor Vestfold!

[Yaztromo]

Consider also this (from the MMRPG adventures location thread viewtopic.php?f=91&t=8734):

King's Crossing* A small town in the west of Blackmoor. Nearest town of a reasonable size to Twiggs, presumably on a river crossing
Episodes 18, 37, 38, 76, 78, 89

and this:

Twiggs* frontier settlement near the Westwood
Episode 37

So King's Crossing shouldn't be too far from the Westwood either.