Bavik
Population: 9,000 (mostly Halflings)
Terrain: Farmland, hills.
Economy: Strong, farmland, and merchants.
Military: Good (militia 300).
Leadership: Lordship.

Bavik is a major farming city in Korovia and has one of the largest marketplaces in Korovia. Its skyline is dotted not by towers, but by grain silos and buildings for selling and trading livestock. The city is known for its good food, great beer and well-trained horses.

During the overthrow of Derek the Deadly, Derek's mercenary army was disbanded but not dispersed. A brief war happened twelve years ago in Bavik when a large number of the mercenary army acting under a (vampire) warlord attacked Bavik and attempted to take control of the then city-state. They were defeated by a "marilith in a bottle" that an adventurer unleashed upon the army. The lords of Bavik swore fealty to Kasiya after the battle was won.

Franciszek (CN human 6th fighter/8th level rogue) is one of the wealthiest merchants in Korovia and has his home in Korovia. He trades in food, horses, tools and weapons. Franciszek pays off the halfling lord of Bavik and so it is the merchant who basically controls the city. The halfling handles the minor details and Franciszek controls anything that affects his ability to make a profit.

The merchant is corrupt and has raised the taxes for the city and has his hands in the coffers. As a result he owns almost every inn and pub in the city and overcharges his competitors. Indeed he owns and operates almost every inn, pub and marketplace within 3 days ride of Bavik.

Halfling and human farmers in the area are getting angry with Franciszek for making such huge profits off of their goods (and not sharing the wealth) and are trying to make a Farmers Guild in order to collectively raise the prices of food. The merchant will have none of this however and so a civil war is brewing between him and the farmers. Other merchants also want to overthrow Franciszek, insisting that he is too controlling of the marketplaces in what is some of Korovia’s most fertile farmland. Otherwise many people in Bavik are happy with Franciszek because he keeps the peace and times are quite profitable for them. It is only the merchants and farmers that are upset.

Franciszek himself lives in a tall castle on a hill just west of the city. He is building more additions to the castle and has hired a group of dwarves to oversee the construction. The current expansion will turn the castle into something more like a palace, but with extensive underground tunnels where he can store grain, weapons and other goods. He already has the largest stables in Korovia and some of the best horses and other fine riding beasts (including a griffon and several mammoths from Loqland).

Franciszek also oversees several very well paid adventuring groups that work for him by searching for exotic goods that he can sell for huge profits. Some people have accused these groups of being nothing more than over paid highwaymen, but those people are now on the run from the law themselves due to circumstantial evidence that they were horse thieves themselves. The general populace of halflings ignores these problems because they don’t want to rock the boat.