Standing at the foot of the Lord’s Gate Citadel, the Black House is guarded by somber members of the Lantern Watch day and night. The Black House was the first structure rebuilt after the fall of Cillamar, and it stands as a reminder of those violent times. An imposing threestory structure with heavy walls, parapets, and battlements, the Black House could easily be mistaken for a garrison, were it not for the constant stream of merchantlords entering and leaving from its heavily reinforced portals.
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The Black House serves two roles. The first is that of a taxing house, where merchants come to pay duties and excises for the privilege of selling their wares in Cillamar. The tax collectors (dressing in the dark robes that give the building its name) also serve as Cillamar’sjudges, hearing citizen disputes in between collecting taxes. Note that any dispute involving a noble is brought before the Patriarch and his guiding council.
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Decisions rendered by the tax collectors are indisputable, save for the intervention of a noble or the Patriarch himself. Convicts are fined on the spot, or, if unable to pay, taken to the Gaol to work off their sentence. Surprisingly few tax collectors are susceptible to bribery, but more importantly, Temas Gogenson (the sergeant of the Lantern Watch that assigns cases to judges) considers himself to be underpaid and is always willing to ensure that a certain case makes it to the “right” judge.
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At the end of every day heavy, ironbound coffers containing the day’s taxes are loaded into a wagon and escorted to the treasure vault reportedly concealed beneath the Citadel. A day’s take can range between 500 gp to 5,000 gp, depending on the season, nearly all of it in cumbersome silver and copper coins, with a spattering of gold and platinum. Needless to say, such a tempting prize is always well guarded by members of both the Lantern Watch and the Magn’gard.
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