Faltir

Faltir is a prosperous walled salt town in the mountains of The Maltreks and the capital of Ranlis County. Its wealth rests on salt mines and a local trade system shaped by the authority of the Ranlis household.

Overview

Faltir’s salt is abundant enough to shape local food, payment, and taxation. Miners have been paid in kind with salt rather than proper coin, forcing them to sell their wages before buying other necessities. Local taxes on those exchanges were remembered at seven percent, with nobles pressing to raise the rate still higher.

The town’s prosperity sits beside visible hardship. Overworked miners, poor streets, and strict control over food and movement made Faltir one of the sharpest examples of Ranlis authority during the Castle Malthrek crisis. Godwin Ranlis and Comtesse Aveline Ranlis were both tied to that order, though the precise division between household policy, local custom, and Reformist influence remained difficult for outsiders to untangle.

Salt Economy

Salt is the town’s defining resource. Its use reached beyond trade into daily meals, worker rations, and public display. Ranlis processions scattered salt in the road while poorer residents gathered the trampled remnants to wash, filter, dry, and reuse.

During the same crisis, Reformist agents in Faltir were transmuting salt into black powder and passing it toward an underwater vessel below the fortress. The motive was not settled. The act may have served a false-flag operation, an attack on Maiden’s Field, or a deliberate effort to reduce available salt in a region where salt itself was power.

Fortress and Dungeons

Faltir’s fortress held prisoners taken for resistance ranging from complaint to active opposition. Its dungeon cells faced inward toward the fortress, while the prisoner side opened over a dangerous drop toward jagged rocks and the nearby sea.

Aveline Ranlis was found within this dungeon tormenting the changeling Podron. Podron later impersonated Aveline well enough for staff and guards to accept his performance, allowing the party and local allies to subdue remaining Ranlis and Reformist forces without a direct assault.

Food and Parasites

Northcross-labeled fruits and vegetables reached Faltir’s miners. Agnes, a Hicklander contact in the town, prepared food with extreme saltiness, and remained mentally sharp despite the suspected danger of contaminated produce. This raised the possibility that heavy brining or salt preparation could interfere with parasite eggs, though the method remained incomplete, inconsistent, or unproven.

Local Contacts

Agnes served as a Hicklander contact in Faltir and helped connect outside allies to local resistance. Alden, owner of Alden’s Smithy and Wheelworks in nearby Garvind, also operated in the same regional network. Together with Podron and other allies, they helped organize riders and encirclement plans after the Faltir operation.