Phelzol

Phelzol, also spelled Phelzel, was a city in Semphar in the Hordelands in the mid-to-late 14 century DR.

Geography
Phelzol stood on the eastern shore of the great lake known as Gbor Nor, at the mouth of a river from the Shalhoond forest. Roads led east to Nihawand and southwest along the coast to Semlithol, with a trail southeast to Saaid.

Description
The city of Phelzel was the second-largest in Semphar, about half the size of the capital city, Dhaztanar.

Trade
It was also a major trading city for that nation, rivaling the capital and primarily focusing on lumber from the Shalhoond. It was in Phelzel that lumber was finished, and shipped to other ports on the Gbor Nor.

Thanks to the lumber industry, as well as its location on the lake, Phelzel was also a key site for shipbuilding in the area. The city's shipbuilders constructed many of the small fishing boats and larger merchant vessels that sailed Gbor Nor's waters.

Merchants from Phelzol and elsewhere were known to attend the biannual Leather Market in Duirtanal to purchase leather goods.

Law & Order
Phelzel was nominally under Semphar's Muhjari law, but it was only loosely enforced in the city, with many illegal wine shops and other vices operating almost openly provided they paid their "fees" to local government officials and did not get out of control or cause trouble. These fees permitted the governor and many officials to enjoy much more splendid lifestyles than their official salaries warranted.

Because law was so poorly enforced here, the thieves, con-artists, and sleazy sorts arising in Dhaztanar moved to Semphar to set up shop. Behind barely concealed fronts, a number of thieves guilds operated in the city and in turn their influence reached across Semphar. This in turn drew mercenaries and wizards to the city to work for the thieves, and priests followed to heal any who got hurt.

The nearby ruins of Bhaluin, the Drowned City, also attracted a number of adventurers to Phelzel, and they would always find something to do.

Culture
Phelzol was also known as a place of learning, with scrolls written here being found in the Cave of the Monkey.

History
A flight of dragons passed low over Semphar one night in the, flying westward. Thus, the dwarf smith Baoelakkin sponsored expeditions of human adventurers to search for dragon hoards in the Godswatch Mountains in Semphar's east, for he believed that dwarves had dwelled in those mountains some 10,000 or more years previously and their treasures and might yet remain in those hoards.

Notable Inhabitants

 * Baoelakkin of Phelzol, "The Easternmost Smith of the Dwarves," a dwarf smith of the 1300s DR
 * Halatha and Murbreistra Starnar, sisters and renegade sorceresses from Halruaa, who had a well-defended, monster-filled mansion in Phelzol.
 * Spelargh of Phelzol, a mage who sought the secret of the everbright process.