Highland: West Highland

The Leather Road: Hightown

Hightown, some seven miles north of the Leather Road in the foothills of the High Divide, is the center of trading between East and West Highland. Merchants from Crosspoint come across the mountains and sell their trade at Hightown to merchants from the river cities of West Highland. In turn, they purchase leather and other goods from the river merchants. Much of Hightown’s trade is in barter, as merchants trade their goods for goods from their counterparts.

The pass across the mountains is called Hightown Pass. Hightown Pass is the only way across the mountains between West Highland and East Highland without traveling far north and back down again. The pass still rises an easy 3,500 feet above sea level, and Hightown, on the lower western side of the pass, is still 2,000 feet above sea level. Dawn comes late to Hightown: the sun does not rise above the mountains for an hour after it would if the mountains weren’t there.

The center of life in Hightown is the market. Many West Highland merchants never leave West Highland, and many East Highland merchants never go further west than Hightown. Caravans will stock up on the supplies they’ll need to cross the High Divide or to travel the Leather Road, depending on which way they’re going. Hightown is the only choice for such supplies, and they know it. Prices are usually about 20% higher for arms, armor, dry rations, and other traveling supplies. Still, it often is cheaper and easier than carrying enough supplies for a round trip.

Villagers from the surrounding villages will come to sell their crops or wares, and perhaps to pick up a few things themselves but mainly the Hightown market is by merchants for merchants. Occasionally, Knights of one of the northern Orders will send a delegation to purchase or commission supplies.

In almost all cases not involving merchants (and in many cases involving them also), trade occurs without the use of money: barter is the way most trade works in Hightown. An important part of interpersonal relations in Hightown is determining what the other person would want enough to trade for a good deal for what they have.

Hightown is also called “Leathertown” by some East Highlanders, for the abundance of leather goods in the market.

Hightown practically empties during the winter months. The inns close, the market empties. Some inn owners, those who live in their property, will remain, and there are a larger and larger number of “citizens” of the town who remain throughout the year. But for the most part Hightown exists for the market trade and it does not exist when there is no trade.

Fawn River: Aletown

The ale of Aletown, some say, is worth the trip overland from Lowhill or Newhorse to this outpost on the upper river. Fewer actually make the trip, and most of Aletown’s ale makes it down the Fawn River the same way everything else does: through the Fork.

Fawn River: Black Stag

Life in Black Stag, at the edge of the civilized world, is hard but stable. The town is run by the mayor Robert Walsh, who basically inherited the post from his father Robert Sr. The mayor is appointed by a small council of aldermen but once appointed holds the office for life. The mayor and council are advised by the Black Stag Wizard Council that the current Walsh instituted. The mayor appoints and leads the standing army, which also acts as a police force. There is one sheriff, twenty-nine captains, and 174 men-at-arms. Each captain leads a force of six men.

Mayor Walsh looks to the day when the cities and towns of the Fawn River are united under a single command, preferably his own. He is working on “security pacts” with the other towns of the region. Walsh argues that the wealth of West Highland will grow with greater trade, and that trade will grow with greater uniformity of law and with safer travel conditions. He’d like to keep the village of Hightown open year-round, for example, and then possibly re-open Brightwood Crossing to provide aid to caravans and other travelers.

The Black Stag Wizard Council has five sorcerors. The council chair is John Engle, a hard, manipulative man with his own designs on power. Sorcerors are appointed to the Wizard Council on a vote by the Wizard Council, the Town Council, and the Mayor. Two votes are enough to appoint a new sorceror or remove an existing sorceror from the council.

The Bishop of West Highland, John Green, holds little political power in Black Stag but is working at thwarting mayor Walsh’s ambitions as against church teachings regarding kingdoms. Bishop Green maintains a guard of ten to thirty warriors. He has no sorcerors in his guard and will not hire any for religious reasons. He maintains some contacts and even some odd friendships with the free sorcerors of West Highland, however.

Black Stag is at the western end of the leather road, and is the reason for the road’s name. The most coveted product of west Highland is produced in Black Stag from deer and other animals hunted in the forests upriver. The tanners of Black Stag know their worth and guard their processes zealously.

Crystal Waters

Located at the base of the Elfstream, from which the Long Lakes empty into the upper river and strengthen the weaker fork of the Fawn River as it trickles into Aletown and the unknown, Crystal Waters is known for its beautiful waterfalls.

There is some traffic from Newhorse overland to Crystal Waters, but travel through the forest being somewhat dangerous, most folks take the longer trip up the river and down the river, which being such a long trip most folks just give up and don’t take the trip at all.

Fawn River: Fartown

A tiny village a hundred miles northeast of the fork at Fawn River, Fartown is a quiet place. William Dreardon, a merchant and farmer rich by Fartown standards, has little to compare to the merchant-leaders further south. William’s younger brother Tom is in the service of the priesthood in Stone Goblin.

Father Arthur Creidon, a sorceror of small renown, is the only authority figure Fartown has. He keeps his sorcery mostly under wraps, but he’s an eccentric young man to the rest of the town. He has spent time in both Crosspoint and Biblyon before being posted to Fartown. He corresponds with Tom Dreardon of Black Stag on the nature of light, and his spells experiment with light. He has a spell that tints light in a short range, for example, and another that creates a small mirror in the air.

Fartown is known most among connoisseurs of northweed. Many smokers swear by Fartown leaf, assuming that the plant is grown nearby the town. In fact, the tobacco leaf is traded within Fartown by Celtic traders who have traveled to Erventon to acquire the coveted plant.

Fawn River: Firetree

Roald Padua was traveling north from Black Stag in the 289th year of the cataclysm when the Lord appeared to him in a flash from the sky, burning a great tree to cinders in minutes. Padua organized a band of followers and founded the village of Firetree at the location of his divine revelation. The burnt stump itself had disappeared, itself miraculous as Padua had marked the location and his marker remained. Legend has it that anyone who finds the burnt stump of the firetree (which usually happens at the first rays of dawn) will be granted one wish. Legends are mixed on whether the wish will be granted benignly or malignantly.

The hereditary mayor of Firetree, John Brussels, has no direct heirs. His nephew, Andrew Brussels, is thus the center of many intrigues, or at least as many intrigues as a town this small can support. The mayor enforces order and creates laws. He also appoints the sheriff and the standing army.

The council of seven controls Firetree monetary policy and pays for the mayor’s soldiers. The councilmembers are elected by the merchant guild of Firetree. The relationship between the council and the mayor is often acrimonious, and political infighting has kept Firetree from growing as much as it could.

Firetree’s law enforcement consists of Sheriff Charles Hunter and six other captains. Sheriff Hunter and each captain lead a patrol of three soldiers.

Fawn River: Fork

Where the Fawn River forks into the Fawn River to Black Stag and the upper river down to Aletown, merchants congregate to barter with northern hunters, furriers, and farmers. Everyone on Crystal Waters or north of the fork with something to trade make their way to Fork.

This was once a small trading stop similar to Hightown, but the merchants recognized its importance and built it up as a full-fledged town. The merchant guilds run the town, and basically leaves everyone alone unless they are adversely affecting trade. Merchants who use Fork for any length of time will find it safest to become a member of a guild. The guild of Merchants Guilds has branches throughout the river communities.

The town’s unsavory appeal is assisted by the number who, having made lucrative trades, return home with little more than they started their journey with. Scams, ruffians, and gambling offer many opportunities for the newly rich to return to their common status.

The town is managed by the High Guildmaster, technically an elected post from among all guilds, but in practice controlled by the Merchant’s Guilds. The election occurs among representatives of each official guild in the Guilds Council.

Fork is a walled town and it guards its borders zealously. No one may carry a weapon or wear armor without a license from the Office of the High Guildmaster or the Guilds Council. In practice, this is the most abused law within Fork. Bribes will speed the granting of a license, and bribes will also allow offenders to avoid arrest, to avoid imprisonment if arrested, and to leave prison early if imprisoned.

Licenses are easiest to acquire for rapiers (10 shillings per month) and short swords (12 shillings per month). Licenses usually take one to six months to acquire. Bribes are most effective when carrying those weapons, or other small weapons such as daggers. Transporters will carry weapons from the town’s gates to storage for retrieval when leaving Fork. Most quality inns will have a transporter on call. Transport will cost 5 to 15 shillings depending on the weapon and the inn.

The High Guildmaster and any member of the Guilds Council may temporarily rescind the prohibition in emergencies.

One of the most powerful guildmasters is “Sparkling” Danny Chaverson, head of the Two Horses Gaming Guild. The Two Horses includes in its ranks nearly half of all gambling houses in Fork, and controls quite a bit of underground trade and other unsavory activities.

Fawn River: Lowhill

The nominal ruler of Lowhill is the Count’s family and their guard, making Lowhill an anomaly in west Highland in supporting, or at least condoning, a noble class. However, power is also concentrated in many competing craft and labor guilds, each charged with protecting its members and taxing its area of influence. Guilds are taxed in turn by the count. Each guild will have a guard of from ten to thirty strongarms.

There are also “noblemen’s guilds” with their own guards: the Society of the Rose, the White Oak, the Burning Sun, and the Quarter Moon Society.

Fishermen have their own guild, as do most other craftworkers, and laborers. There is even a Commoner’s Guild for all who do not have a guild of their own. Their taxes pay the Contessa’s guard, charged with the protection of not only their “guild” but also the Contessa and her female relations.

The current ruling family is Count William Astorbury, his wife the Contessa Maria Cérés-Astorbury, and their children Lord William II and Lady Susan Astorbury.

Life in Lowhill is a dangerous affair, and it is the lucky commoner whose day is not afflicted with some intrigue.

Fawn River: Newhorse

The horse-races of Newhorse in the late summer are one of the major events of west Highland, and make Newhorse the center of the horse-trading season. Long a source of new steeds for trips north and south, the council devised the “horse Olympics” as a means of cementing Newhorse’s status as the number one place to go for quality horses: even when they don’t have the best, the best come to them.

Fawn River: Pike Hole

Pike Hole is the last stop on the journey north to the fork, where those seeking to trade their leather, fur, meat, and other saleable items constantly stream. Pike Hole is also the first place where those who have gained or lost money at the fork stop to guard their gains or lament their losses.

Stone Goblin

Stone Goblin is a small village known most for the stone statue of a night troll in the town square. The story is that the troll was caught there at sunrise and turned to stone after the local farmer (John Smith) tricked it into forgetting the time.

Today, Stone Goblin is the ‘city’ to a number of even smaller villages nearby. Traders who aren’t going all the way upriver will sometimes go overland from Firetree to Stone Goblin to trade their wares to merchants more familiar with the area, or will travel downriver to Stone Goblin and then go overland to Firetree. Neither of these are major sources of visitors, however, as most traders prefer to keep to the river.

Stone Goblin makes a good place to start young adventurers. At the edge of civilization, there are old battlefields in the hills to the northeast, there are Elves up the Elfstream, and completely unknown lands to the west.