Heibarr

Heibarr is the destination for Razmiran Priests carrying the Rock of Razmir. When the rock is placed in the vault in the undercroft of the Temple of Aroden, it will free the hateful spirits of the town from the magic that binds them there. Razmiran hopes to take advantage of the ensuing chaos to soften targets ahead of his planned invasion of the River Kingdoms.

History and Setting of Heibarr
Heibarr was founded as a trading post in 3756 by Theodric, a priest of Aroden, along a tributary of the Sellen River. As it grew and prospered, it expanded to both sides of the river. Fearing the settlement on the opposite shore would become independent and cause Heibarr to lose trade and taxes, the town’s mayor, Ioseph, ordered the construction of a bridge to span the river without interfering with river traffic. The townsfolk completed the work in 4109 using a combination of hard labor, magic, and clever engineering. The Great Bridge, also called Ioseph's Bridge, became a symbol of and a monument to Heibarr undivided.

Over the next 3 centuries, Heibarr grew into a bustling town with upward of 3,000 people. In 4434, Mayor Aindon, looking for a way to increase revenue, decided to tax travel through the city by river. Below the Great Bridge he built the River Gate to control ships moving through Heibarr. Unrest among travelers grew quickly at the sudden limitation and taxation of their movement, which in turn made the townsfolk unhappy because it disrupted trade. Then came the Black Sisters of Gyronna with their poisoned tongues and whispers of hate. The witches took a people who were already unhappy, whipped them into a fury, and pointed to their neighbors. Before the year was out, the city was at war with itself, and by the end of the following summer, everyone was dead or gone and the River Gate was destroyed.

To the superstitious in the River Kingdoms, the fall of Heibarr is remembered as a lesson of what happens to those who disrupt the River Freedoms. By building the River Gate, Heibarr violated the Third River Freedom, and in doing so brought about the gate’s own destruction—a manifestation of some curse, or perhaps the fate of any city that defies the River Freedoms

In the years after the destruction of Heibarr, a sizable number of looters and bandits went to the town to see what they could steal, but few returned. In 4604, a priestess of Aroden named Cerona led an expedition to reclaim Heibarr. She took her warriors in first to make sure that the city was safe, while the settlers waited in their boats by the Great Bridge for her signal to land. That night, the settlers saw the ghosts of Cerona and her guard standing at the shore. The spirits watched them forlornly, then one by one turned and faded back into the city. Shaken by the experience of seeing their dead leader, the settlers returned home and spread this story. Though two other major attempts have been made to reclaim the town or liberate its valuables in the last century, none have attempted to resettle the lost territory. Some folk remain curious about its history and reputed treasures, and every so often adventurers gather together to explore the dead city, but most of these looters disappear and are never seen again. Those who have come back claim they were able to leave only because they entered during the day and didn’t try to take anything.

For the rare traveler that chooses the expedient road through the city rather than going around, it is generally considered safest to enter at dawn, cross the bridge, and leave on the other side of the river before dusk. Those who come near at night—typically rivermen floating by on the current rather than foot traffic—sometimes see the ghostly shapes of the dead staring back at them from the edge of the city or the river’s shores.

Made of stone and consisting of two gentle arcs over the water with a broad abutment in the middle, the Great Bridge still stands, stretching from the central plaza on the east bank to the temple of Aroden on the western shore. As Heibarr was a place of trade in its day, all the wealth of the city presumably remains there, waiting for someone skilled enough to take it. Of course, most trade goods should have rotted away by now, but coins, gems, and metal valuables might still be worth salvaging. Yet nobody knows if the city’s wealth is cursed, or if it is the city itself that encourages the dead to linger. Poor, ambitious adventurers speculate that someone with access to teleportation magic and a priest of strong faith could repel the undead long enough to reach a storehouse or vault, fill a bag of holding with their loot, and teleport away; of course, any who have that much power and initiative know of easier ways to make money than robbing a dead river town.

Literally thousands of [https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Incorporeal_undead#:~:text=A%20banshee%20is%20an%20incorporeal,encountered%20on%20the%20Material%20Plane. incorporeal undead] roam the city—every person who has died there since Gyronna’s hags appeared has risen again. The dead are quiescent during the day, though they tend to awaken if their remains or haunting places are disturbed. At night, they reenact old fights, reliving the riots and murders that ended the city nearly 300 years ago, though the Great Bridge and other main avenues are sparsely populated even in the hours of darkness. Gyronna’s priests consider it a testament to their power, and some priestesses make a pilgrimage to the edge of the city, leaving copper coins, rusty knives, and other tools of their faith in the hopes that the Angry Hag will bless them with her cunning.