Nesmé

Nesmé is a small city located in the savage frontier of northwest Faerûn, situated on the River Surbrin, that is ruled by First Speaker Tessarin Alaurun. It had a permanent population of around 6,000 residents, during high trade season that number usually increased as much as 50%. Lately though, this has not been the norm; because of raids from trolls and the frost giants the population has fallen below 2000 people. Most of Nesmé's economy centers around trade and the city's economic interests have invested heavily in a strong defense of it's community. South and east of the city sit the Evermoors.

The dangerous Lurkwood forest rests in the north, while the plains and hills north and west of Nesmé hold many Uthgardt barbarian tribes. As peace is not common, the military force that guards Nesmé, The Riders, have developed quickly into an effective, veteran force.

The leaders of Nesmé also encourage adventurers to rest and tarry in the area, as long as they are reasonably well-behaved. Those who are not are escorted out by the city's riders. In many ways, it is the perfect location for adventurers to establish a base; with the proximity of numerous monsters and other terrors that daily threaten the community, there is never a want of activity.

In the recent years though, the population off Nesmé has experienced a dramatic fall with an equal dramatic rise in the number of troll and orc attacks. In 1368 DR and 1369 DR a group of adventurers discovered that fog and cloud giants had moved into the Evermoors, driving the former inhabitants, the trolls, out of the moors. It reached an climax in 1370 DR, as an army of Trolls invaded and ruined Nesmé. They were driven out by an army of dwarves from Mithral Hall and Mirabar.

Since then Nesmé has had to rely on its own defenses, as the cities of the Silver Marches have been forced to refocus their forces northward, along the frontier with the newly established Many-Arrows. In the face of repeated giant raids and the threat that the trolls might one day regroup, Nesmé's First Speaker, Tessarin Alaurun has stretched her finances to pay the Riders of Nesmé and maintain a small force of Uthgardt barbarian mercenaries.

With the expenditure of considerable time and resources, Alustriel and Silverymoon decided to have Nesmé rebuilt into a town of both larger and grander proportions. First, the remnant of the Riders and a large detatchment of Knights in Silver drove the trolls deep into the Trollmoors, making the surrounding roads the safest they've been in over a decade. Then, refugees displaced from their homes now lost to the Orcs were encouraged to go to Nesmé to aid in the reconstruction. This had the effect of increasing Nesmé's population to around twice that of what it was before the siege. These people spent the entire winter of 1371 to 1372 building new structures that greatly outshone the old ones in both durability and size and erecting a double wall that surrounds the place, especially fortified and manned on the border of the Evermoors. Contingents of Riders and Knights patrol the streets regularly and the town has never been finer, a startling difference to those who knew the place either before or during the Troll seige.

Galen Firth, leader of the Riders is in charge of day-to-day affairs, taking on the role of Mayor, presumably while Alaurun takes care of the more important issues.