Ditsworth

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Ditsworth

Ranger Guildleader of Langenfirth needed barge traffic restored to the city because it was hurting trade and his ability to recruit new students. He eventually found Ditsworth, the owner of a travelling casino. Ditsworth saw running the barges as an opportunity to get away from his shrewish wife Erma. He bought the barges from the widow that owned them and converted them into floating casinos.

Timeline (one version)

305 Ditsworth buys barges to Langenfirth
305 Floating Casinos established

Timeline (another version)

305 AV Ditsworth takes over operation of the Riverhaven-Langenfirth barge. The Floating Casino is created

From Historical Guide to Langenfirth

Langenfirth and the northern woods still remain tenuously connected to the southern cities and provinces. Travel overland is almost impossible since all routes north overgrew once the lake route was discovered. In deep winter the barge is often forced to remain docked until the ice recedes. During those times, Langenfirth is isolated from the south. There the barges have ceased to run while they exchanged hands or underwent repair. Several years before the writing of this history the owners of the river barges had allowed them to fall into disrepair and they ran infrequently and often swamped. Trade from and with the north dwindled and Langenfirth was all but cut off from the south.

The Ranger Guildmaster finally took it upon himself to go stay a bit it Riverhaven. His reasons were two- fold, to find a person who would could manage the barges in a more business-like manner, and to provide training new Rangers were sorely in need of, as they could not come north.

He found Riverhaven full of anxious new Rangers eager for his instruction, but his search for a trustful barge master seemed almost futile. In truth, running the barges costs a great deal of money, and traders would rather paddle a canoe then pay a high barge fee! One night, it is said, while visiting a festival held in the south, he met a man named Ditsworth, the owner of a traveling casino, looking for an opportunity to travel far from his shrewish partner, his wife Erma.

As they chatted, Ditsworth saw the opportunity to use the barges for a profit, and a chance to escape a nagging wife. Ditsworth traveled to Riverhaven and bought the barges from the widow of the previous owner and spent a good penny having them repaired and equipped to be, in reality, floating casinos. While a trader or traveler might not pay good coin to ride the barge, he surmised, they would certainly spend that coin on a chance to win a good stake!

And so, now casino barges ply the route from Langenfirth to Riverhaven and back, carry goods and trade in the hole, and happy gamblers above deck! Once the barges were back in operation, the Ranger Guildmaster returned to his home in Langenfirth, pledging never to leave again.