The High Road: Biblyon
Known throughout Highland as a seditious home of sorcerors and schismatic knights, the “Babylon of Books” takes that name with pride. The Order of Illustration built Illustrious Castle overlooking the valley in the year of the cataclysm 291, as a place to preserve the lost knowledge of the Ancients. The Order searched the destroyed world for ancient books, for people who remembered stories their great grandparents told of the pre-cataclysmic world, and for pre-cataclysmic artifacts.
In 615, the Order founded the library in the valley; by 699 interest in the order’s scholarship had risen enough to justify building a great Dormitory to house visiting scholars. Somewhere along the line, the people of the town took the derogatory name that others assigned to them and made it the name of their town: Biblyon.
After the Goblin Wars, the Order fell to power squabbling. To protect the library, the librarians founded the Tutoris Libris, a secret order of adventuring scholars to keep the town safe, and to continue what the Order had given up on: searching out lost knowledge. When the Order committed suicide in 911, the Tutors no longer needed secrecy; they built the House of Tutors in Biblyon in 916, and to this day are known to search the ends of the known world for lost knowledge of the ancients.
You can find more detail about the Babylon of books in the Gods & Monsters adventure Illustrious Castle at http://www.godsmonsters.com/Haunted/.
The High Road: Weaving
| Town Population: | 183 |
| Nearby Population: | 1,995 |
| Government: | Town Council |
| Economic Base: | Farming |
A tiny town in north-central West Highland, Weaving is a small way station on the High Road between Hightown and Fork. Weaving is known for its rich farmland and exports grain and vegetables to the towns along the Fawn River as well as the towns along the High Divide.
Among connoisseurs of northweed, Weaving is known for Weaving weed. Though smokers assume the plant is grown throughout the north, the tobacco is grown in Erventon, and traded through Celtic traders and other travelers who go through Erventon. Though few know it, there is much trade between the Celts and Weaving through Bailabann up the Dowanthal river.
The Weaving Well
A round, stone well sits to the right of a wide door on a two-story building. The sign out front announces “The Weaving Well” in both letters and signs. The stable doors are off to the left, and you can both smell and hear the horses inside. Smoke rises from the chimney and you can smell the warm scent of baking bread.
Townsfolk and a few merchants mingle outside by the well. Men move in and out of the crowd, through the swinging doors of the inn and also from the street.
Weaving’s only full inn gets its name from the Wells family and from the well out front. This moderately-sized tavern and inn is the major meeting place along the High Road. Everyone who takes the High Road makes sure to go past the Weaving Wood and stay in Weaving at the Well. The Well has a central common room just beyond the main entrance which is also where the tavern operates. When the tavern closes for the night, the tables are moved aside and travelers may bring their bedrolls out. There are also several rooms ringing the common area on both the first and second floors.
| Common room | 3p |
| Room | 12-20p |
| Breakfast | 3p |
| Lunch | 3-5p |
| Dinner | 3-6p |
| Beer | 1p |
| Wine | 3p |
The Weaving Well is run by an ex-pirate named John Cover, who married into it.
A wiry old man, with a neatly-trimmed beard and a gold earring in his left ear, greets you as you walk in. He has just stepped out from the kitchen on your right and sits at a table with some other people. He would be out of place here even without the earring, but the townsfolk take little notice of him.
“Johnny Cover” is a derogatory name in Pirate’s Cove, though the people of West Highland don’t know this. John came here twenty years ago and cleared some farmland north of the High Road. While he gave up most of his old ways, he spent much time at the Well. Initially shunned for his strange looks and ways, his gregarious manner and tall tales slowly gained him acceptance, to the point that he eventually married the widowed Mary Flanders, now Mary Cover.
The Well comes to Mary through her father, Brian Wells. Her first husband, Kevin Flanders, disappeared in 972, probably lost in the wood, only a year after they married. They had no children.
John Cover came to Weaving by way of Unicorn Pass and through the Celtic lands. He speaks Celtic and Frankish as well as Anglish (his native tongue), but he does not read or write.
John and Mary have four children. Their twin girls Amelie and Lillian are fifteen years old and give their family and the town good-natured trouble. Their nineteen-year-old son Brian and their eighteen year old son Cory assist in the stables and other chores at the inn, while the twins stay in the kitchen and cook. Early in the evening, John will direct them, but later he’ll be in the bar with the guests.
On rare occasions, old friends of John from his pirate days or his travels through the Celtic lands have been known to visit.
Weaving Weed
As the main stop for Anglish-speaking traders from Bailabann, a decent amount of northweed travels through Weaving, and the people of Weaving smoke quite a bit more than towns south of the High Road. While smoking is forbidden by custom inside the Weaving Well, a smoker looking for conversation can almost always find someone out front of the tavern. “Taking a drink at the well” has become synonymous in the area for having a conversational smoking break.
Dowanthal Peak
Dowanthal Peak is a low mountain or tall hill north of where the High Road turns west toward Weaving. The steep rocky outcrop juts fifteen hundred feet into the air and is the marker travelers use to know that they are near Weaving. Dowanthal Peak’s south and east face are in the Weaving Wood and nearly unreachable from the road because of this.
Dowanthal Peak is seven miles east and three miles north of Weaving.
Dowanthal Peak rises out of the forest before you. The tall rock’s craggy and bare face stands as an eternal marker: here, and no further, is the edge of civilization. Soon the High Road will circle west toward Weaving. Already, the wood grows thicker and deeper. A canopy of leaves and branches forms above you. Shafts of light shine through the trees, illuminating dust in golden sparkles against the forest green.
Dowanthal Peak was once an Underground outpost of the Sakmat.
Dowanthal River
Dowanthal River comes down from the north, and flows around the west side of Dowanthal Peak. It runs right through the south part of town (Riverside). It weaves quite a bit, and in fact travelers cross it three times on the High Road.
Weaving River
Weaving River comes out of the Weaving Wood. The Weaving River comes down from the mountains before going through Weaving Wood. It is a mighty river during the spring when the snowmelt fills it. It often overflows its banks and changes course.
The Weaving Wood
Four miles east of Weaving is the west edge of the Weaving Wood, a thick, impassable forest of oak and ash intermixed with hawthorn and ringed by yew. The High Road passes through the southwest edge of the Weaving Wood, and locals will warn that the wood remembers the ax that cuts it. Few are foolish enough to chop within its borders. Legends abound of those who “angered the wood” and later disappeared while on the road. Years ago Aidan Collins became lost in the wood and returned a pale reflection of his old self; he retired to a cottage outside of town, cleared all the trees around it, and never leaves.
Townsfolk do not speak of the strange lights that sometime appear on the road, but will encourage anyone who does to ignore the corpse-lights of the Weaving Wood. The wood is rumored to have been the home of Druids long ago. Perhaps four hundred years ago (“or was it fourteen hundred?”) an army of Christians destroyed their temple and all of the Druids there. But the Druids with their dying breath cursed the Christian army, and the army itself never left the forest. Their ghosts still haunt the thick wood.
During the Goblin Wars, an army of goblins entered the wood in search of the legendary Druid treasure within. They never came out, and now their ghosts join the long-lost Christian army to tempt travelers into the unknown dangers of the Weaving Wood.
After the curse, travelers began to use other routes to Fawn River, resulting in the other Old Road, more and more southerly towns on the river, and ultimately the Leather Road and Black Stag. Those travelers who still travel the Old Road know that once Dowanthal Peak comes into view, do not stop until you come to the Weaving Well.
