Belguard

**Belguard** is a small town in northwestern Valouria.

## History

Belguard was founded in 980, on the site of a battle between Leon Belmont and a vampire that was lairing in the derelict ruins of a small monastery. Belmont, a Hedgelander, had heard of the existence of the creature and sailed across the Inner Sea the profaned site and slew it. As thanks, King Tobias Lasko ennobled him and his descendants, granting him the parcel of land to found his house.

As he had been a farmer when he lived in the Hedgelands, Leon arranged to have some of his cattle imported to his new home. Bred to have particularly tasty and rich necks, breasts and lower chest cuts, the meat, when braised, made particularly good pot roast dishes. Slowly, Belguard grew as Belmont hired locals from the area as farmhands.

The small village grew exponentially in 1041, when the Ironwood War began. Like most settlements in western Valouria, Belguard straddled the Great Forest. To protect it, and the rest of the Valourian border, King Branden Lasko had large garrisons built to house the Valourian army and appointed local leaders to his war council. Desmond Belmont, family patriarch at the time, was an excellent warrior and even better strategist and received the favor of the king for his efforts.

The Ironwood War ended in 1046 and the Belguardian economy slowed as a result. In order to supplement the economy and save the city from a depression, Desmond began investing more in grapes and wine, and less in the cattle that his ancestors had raised. The move proved fruitful, as the local economy stabilized, and wine turned out to be more of a moneymaker than cattle, as the production and transportation costs were lower.

In 1090, Valouria was gripped by a particularly harsh winter. The Belmonts, whose fortunes were tied to agriculture, were particularly ravaged. They lost their grape crop that year, costing them thousands of gold pieces. The loss of those revenues hurt the Belmonts greatly; though ennobled for a century, they were still seen as outsiders due to their religion and Belguard’s relatively small size and out of the way location. The winter of 1090 almost brought the family to their knees and it was only through the skillful diplomacy of family patriarch Mortimer that the family was able to survive.

Among one of Mortimer’s efforts to preserve the family was to seek out potential marriages for when his toddler son, Richter, grew up. He arranged for Richter to wed a daughter of House Woodcomb of Beaverpoint, who owned and operated a trade consortium. Years later, when the time came, Richter refused, running away rather than marrying the Woodcomb girl and becoming a businessman. This caused major issues for the Belmonts, as it would take years of diplomacy to mend the rift between noble houses that it caused and it forced Richter’s younger sister, Kathryn, to become matriarch of the family when their father died in 1115.

Richter eventually returned from the Hedgelands, a wife and child in tow. His relationship with the rest of his family was frosty initially, but all sides quickly made peace and Kathryn offered her older brother stewardship of the family. In 1133, he gave stewardship of the family to his eldest son, Samson, and answered King Aiden Lasko’s call to arms when Roan’s Rebellion began. While the conflict primarily took place on and in the seas around the Ironforge Islands, Richter led a small militia known as “Richter’s Raiders” that skirmished with forces from Camaro and Matilda, two of the larger Garrison States that were secretly backing the rebellion, in the Great Forest. Using the training he perfected during his adventures while he was away from Valouria, Richter prevented the two nations from poaching Valorua’s greatest natural resource- ironwood trees.

House Belmont’s esteem was raised among Valourian nobility after the conflict ended thanks to the heroics of Richter and the militiamen that were sent to the capital to help put down the uprising. Samson Belmont found himself being invited to Sandpiper’s Bluff far more often to give council to King Aiden’s ministers, or occasionally, the king himself. To further seal this burgeoning influence, he arranged to have his eldest daughter, Laylette, married to one of the sons of House Swiftrain, an influential family in Sandpiper’s Bluff, a marriage that took place in 1145.

## Major Geographic Features

Located on the edge of the Great Forest near the headwaters of the Blue River, Belguard sits on lush and verdant soil. The Belmont family were initially cattle farmer, and while they no longer are active in the field, the outskirts of the town is virtually all farmland operated by peasant farmers. The family transitioned to grapes and vineyards around the end of the Ironwood War, and while it proved to be more of a moneymaker for them, as production and transportation costs were lower, it also tied their fortunes to mother nature, which could be fickle. Belguardian grapes come in red and green varieties, and are known for being particularly juicy and plump. It is said that the red wine from Belguardian grapes are one of the key ingredients for Belmont potroast.

## Important Sites

**Belmont Estate**
The Belmont Estate is the home of House Belmont.

**Alphon's Smithy**
Alphon, who sports freckles and long red hair, owns and operates the blacksmith, along with three apprentices. Tupper, stout with brown hair, works the forge to make common metal items such as horseshoes, nails, simple tools, and the like. Max, who works with Tupper, is pale with short blond hair and a distinctive limp. Harris, who is bald with dark skin, works as an armorer.

**Inn of the Welcome Wench**
Ostler Gundigoot opened the Inn of the Welcome Wench more than twenty years ago. In the old days, he was an
important figure both in the town guard The Inn of the Welcome Wench quickly grew in reputation as a place of great comfort and quality, but one whose patrons should expect to pay well for the excellent service and fine food and lodging. Nowadays, Ostler takes it easy. His heart is weak, and his daughter and wife attempt to shelter him from any great excitement or surprises. Ostler’s daughter, Vesta runs the day-to-day activities of the inn, maintaining the same quality and fair-minded practices that her father established when it first opened. She is exceedingly friendly and warm, making the inn a welcome and homey place for all.

**Inn of the Blazing Sun**
As a counterpoint to the Inn of the Welcome Wench, the Inn of the Blazing Sun is a low-price, low-class tavern. Consisting of only a taproom, it offers no food or lodging. Instead, it serves cheap ale in generous portions. The inn has a well-deserved reputation for being rough. Late nights particularly can be dangerous- drunken customers tend to get into fights, often requiring members of the town guard to break them up.

**Sage Zerosh**
Zerosh Nem is the most learned scholar in Belguard, an expert in most common topics: nature, geography, and history. He has a fairly extensive library of books and scrolls in his house and sells his services to those that need them.

## Important Individuals

Richter Belmont

Aurora Belmont