An Accounting of Kilkretha

The Introduction to An Accounting of Kilkretha

 by 

Lorendol, The Scribe of the King Tem-sata-tan

When Kilkreath was sacked, the King tasked me with recording all I could see in the city both before and after its sacking. I do not doubt that I was given this task as I had twice before seen the city when it was at the peak of its glory as a spy. These are tales for another time. The city of Kilkretha takes approximately a day and a half to walk across, no doubt longer when densely populated by Acretia’s hoard. The city is not tall, few buildings rise above three stories in height and those that do are watch towers, positioned around the edges of the city as to ward off those who would seek to challenge the might of their goddess. The wall, which we have since thrown down, rose to around 30 feet in height, sheer and unscalable. They are simple, with battlements and arrow slits, brutal in their aesthetic. The gates of the city are four, and they face the cardinal directions. They are simple, with large iron doors, each cast with a howling demon upon it. 

Outside the city walls sprawls the semipermanent encampment of the hoard, where those who cannot cram into the walls live. Here little grows, either trampled or consumed. Such it is for almost a mile on all sides of the city. The one other feature found here were the pens of slaves, whom upon our arrival we freed if they were able to go. Such was the squalor of their condition that not one of them appeared to not be possessed of some diseased or abscess. How Acretia fueled her hoard with what is produced by them I do not know. Perhaps there is some fowl magic at play in its sustaining. Once one emerges out of that swath of death, one finds fields of grain and other crops, to which the slaves attend. These fields nearly run up to the city. A strip of bare ground runs between the fields and the walls, so that enemies attacking them can be easily seen.

The inside of the city is dreary and somber. Throughout it, in every district, there are statues of great soldiers or monstrosities from Acretia’s army. Most of the buildings on the outskirts of the city are small huts, made from the mud and clay that can be found around. They are simple, beige things, where the grunts and lowest ranking officials of her hoard make their home. Yet even here statues honoring those of the lowest ranks can be found. As one moves into the city the buildings grow larger, becoming more like boarding houses where many soldiers may stay if they can afford it. There are some markets as one moves inwards as well. Before its leveling, all manner of weapons of war could be found in these stalls and booths. Forges and armories are common throughout the city. From what I could tell, food is not sold in these markets as food was distributed from the temple at the center of the city to best meet the needs of the army and those who ensured its continued ability to fight. 

Moving still closer to the center of the city one begins to find a strange thing that one would not expect: schools. These academies of war contained the material for accomplishing two purposes. The first was the learning of battle tactics, operations, and logistics. Second was the learning of truly brutal forms of magic for the purposes of conquest and the construction of war machines to level her enemies. Many tomes of tactics we took from these schools. We burned all of their foul magic. I will not speak of what was documented in those evil books. Here also were buildings with maps and tables for the planning and coordinating of war. Even matters of agriculture were considered and how one could move armies across great regions while supplying them with crops. 

And this perhaps is the most frightening thing about the city. Acretia and her city Kilketha are brutal and cruel. There is no love for anything but conquest and the rule of force. But all things, the slaves, the squalor outside the walls, the huts within, all of it exists because it facilitates conquest in some sense. If you do not fight, you work. The peoples of the earth will not willingly feed her army, so she enslaves them. Those lost seeking a place to go, a place to have purpose, become part of the hoard that throngs outside her walls, resting only when needed, before setting out to conquer again. Strength and effectiveness are rewarded. She cares for nothing else. If a member of the throng shows value, their commander gives them a hut in the city. If they grow yet more powerful and valuable they move inward. Any member of the hoard, or even a slave forced to work may aspire to become the highest officer of her ranks, so long as they are sufficiently brutal and driven to dominate.

But make no mistake, she is cruel and dementated. There are pits beneath the city in which she has bread monstrous beasts for war. Cross breeds of mortals and whatever might make them stronger, wrathful, bent to conquer. It is best not to speak of such things. The Mages of Irrkengrond, have made some records, no doubt, but I imagine it is a deeply guarded secret. We purged those pits of every living thing within them, though I fear that in the darkest depths we passed over something that ought not be allowed to live. 

The last, and greatest feature is the Temple to Acretia in its center. It is called by those who dwell in the city the House of War and this is how it was before the sacking of the city. The building towers over all else in the city. The whole of its construction is a dark gray stone. It sits atop a porch with 43 steps leading up to it. The building is a large rectangle 200 by 400 meters. Rising out of the center of the build is a high tower, reaching near 600 feet in height.  It is surrounded on all sides by mighty pillars which hold up the roof each with 17 deep grooves scored into them. Each is taller than the height of men (I believe this is roughly 300 feet in height), and two men wide (12 feet). At the base is an image of some animal or mortal being crushed under the pillar. At the top of each, where it meets the roof, is a proud and vicious warrior, or great beast of her army. The roof is triangular in a shape. Across the facade are carved depictions of Acretia’s conquests and destructions.  

When one first enters the temple there is a great hall, roughly 100 feet in length. Spoils of war and depictions of battles cover the walls and the height of the ceiling makes one feel as though one has walked into a pit of despair. The ceiling is painted like the night sky and the room is dark. Light is shed by torches on the walls and it is focused by some system onto a set of thrones at the end of the hall. In the center the greatest, made of gold is Acretia’s. On either side are 4 thrones, for her generals, advisors, and mages. These are made of silver. We sought to plunder them but we could not remove them as some magic held them in place. 

In this hall there are five doors. The first is the entrance through which one enters the building. Two are on the left and right half way through the hall. The last two are in the back wall on either side of the thrones. Time did not allow us to fully explore the temple for we had to destroy the building before its mistress could return, but the door on the left side of the hall led to a large treasury, which was emptied of its riches. The other three doors were sealed and we could not open them. We doubt we have emptied that hold of its riches entirely; we suspect that many a chamber is yet to be explored in that wretched place. When we determined that we could not open the other three doors within that place, orders were given  to burn the temple to the ground. Wood and fuel was piled into the main hall and it was set ablaze. The temple burned for five days. As we watched, sections of the roof caved in and a foul stench began to emerge from the building. We deemed it unsafe to enter. 

There is much more to say in detail about the city. This summary here leaves out a great many details, particularly of its infrastructure, roads, and wells. I will document these in later pages of this report.