Saving the world on a Sunday afternoon
The area around Carlin Howham is fairly pastoral and provincial, with the land largely owned in common by the nearest settlements or various farmers rather than larger landowners or minor nobles.
Sites of known Black Sludge infections have been marked as black triangles on the map.
Carlin Howham is large enough to have a credible amount of bustle; there are two market squares, a crafters/farmers market in the centre and a drovers market to the south-west, and at least a small guild hall for all of the major guilds. The map below shows only the major roads.
The mayor of Carlin Howham oversees a small civil council that carry out the day-to-day running of the town and its surroundings. Villages like Langbaurgh and Foggy Furze aren’t really big enough to support their own civil order, so the local patrols come out of Carlin Howham. Maiden Ery, with its small garrison, has taken over some patrolling in the east of the area (although their primary focus is still the Shift site and environs), and Jack Churchill is sometimes viewed as more of a headman than he possibly should be.
In terms of nobility, however, the area is largely limited to the richer merchants in Carlin Howham, who have no noble blood but plenty of money. There are several gem and precious metal dealers who get their raw materials in the Spears, and several who trade with the Hassani for goods from further east and Cathay.
Considering the relatively small size of the town, there are rumours of a very healthy thieves guild, built on illicit trading and theft. ‘Healthy’ because they’re skilled enough to take enough to support themselves, but not so much so there are claims that the ‘crime wave is out of control’, and that ‘something must be done’.
In terms of modern worship, the ToO and ToJ in CH have clerical orders that oversee the Temples’ link with civil process. The ToJ acts either side of the legally-binding ToO, providing a first line of mediation, followed by a means of rehabilitation if the ToO has had to intervene in between. Both work with the patrol structures and the civilian watch with the intention of preventing the motivators to crime, rather than simply punishing who they manage to find. How successful this is may well be debatable, but it is seen as better than the alternative of scaring people with harsh sentencing.
The main Temples in Carlin Howham are by the very nature of such things inclined to eclectic worship – there is room within them for followers of any deities that exist within the Paths they represent, and services where they are held tend to be all-encompassing. In addition to the main Temples though are smaller shrines found scattered across the town that are dedicated to specific deities, often reflecting the nature of that deity – there is a shrine to Undem the Smith that doubles as a tinkers forge, another to the Little Mother of Doves that has a public dovecot and so on.
The Barony overall follows Justice, and so it is the Temple of Justice in Carlin Howham that has the biggest share of the real estate, but the ancient influence of an altogether different power still shows remnants in the area even now – an inclination towards Balance now believed to be a remnant from the days of the original Shifters.
Carlin Howham is split into several districts:
In general, people live in or near the district where they work – the ‘heavy’ and ‘dirty’ labour districts also tend to have the poorer members of the population.
Foggy Furze is, even according to the locals, a bit of a dump. It’s a quiet, sleepy sort of place that’s slowly being encroached upon by the White Swan; it trades in interesting herbal concoctions, things fished or hunted from the swamp, and largely exists these days as a stop in a real bed before hitting Carlin Howham.
Maiden Ery is a small village. Around the village square and well it boasts a small chapel to a local minor god of Balance and a ‘pub’ converted from someone’s front room, and just over the river a reasonably well-built forge, mostly suited to turning out ploughshares, and a tannery that serves both the herders on the Chalk and the hunters of the Bringewood. These days it also has a small school converted from an old barn, courtesy of some of the researchers up at the Shift site.
The Shift site, originally an archaeological dig, is a place where it is easier to step between planes of reality via a ceremony known only to a few. The site itself is buried deep underground in a ‘temple’ of sorts; on the surface can be found the Eylish embassy, home to ambassadors from one of the other races capable of using the ceremony, and a full complement of Kingdom staff for protecting and maintaining the site.
An unusual feature of the site is a set of signalling towers from the site, through Maiden Ery and back along the road to the Defender garrison at Carlin Howham. These are to make sure that any incidents are reported back to the main garrison in case back-up is required.
The Last One Inn, so named because it’s the last Kingdom-owned inn on the trade road before crossing one of the borders, is a friendly sort of place. The beer is cheap but decent, the owner is careful to make sure fights stop before they start, and it’s an interesting melting pot of all the local cultures.
Langbaurgh had to be rebuilt from the ground up during the events of 111/112AE after the invading forces of the Tarantraal razed it to the ground as an object lesson. This had only made the locals fiercely proud of their rebuilt village, and fiercely determined to make sure nothing of the sort ever happens again – to the point that the village forge has now been moved to one side of the central square, and the smith has taken lessons in making weapons and armour.
The only surviving building from before is the chapel to a local minor deity of Order, which reputedly refused to burn and mended itself when attacked.
Garmondsford Bridge has been around for about eighty years, having built up around the ford on the River Ehen that had been tended and tolled by Farmer Garmond. The bridge is much newer, only thirty-five years old, and built to facilitate trade along the South-East Trade Road.
Local industry largely consists of farming, mining, and turning the wood and dead animals that come out of the Bringewood into more useful things, like chairs and coats. The local pub also tends to turn alcohol into mild violence, keeping the carpenter in good trade. A lot of merchants and caravans come through on the way from the south-east and farther east, so a fair number of interesting items and bits of gossip have come through over the years, especially since the addition of Waygate to the Kingdom.
The Hassani from the other side of the mountains sometimes drop in, usually escorting an over-enthusiastic miner or treasure-seeker home, or sometimes their remains after they fall foul of the various creatures in the mountains.
It features, amongst other things, a shrine to Justice (as a general concept) and an expert jewelcrafter. As a consequence of an attack during the events of 111/112AE, the village now has a remarkably thorough and always vigilant watch to make certain that they are never caught by surprise again.
Greenways Outpost is the last stop before diving into Arboria in this part of the world, and as such it has an ‘interesting’ culture. Part Defender barracks, part trading post, part Druidic grove, part diplomatic mission and inevitably swarming with dryads and hamadryads who’ve come to see what the fuss is all about.
Eagles Stoop is a trading outpost and small settlement belonging to the Hassani Eagles, currently the only Hassani legion holding an alliance with the Kingdom. The trading post is largely a matter of convenience – the main lands held by the Eagles are considerably further east, and this acts as a handy stopover point on relatively neutral territory (at present, anyway).
The meander has been gradually forming over the last fifty years, with the swamp only pre-dating by a handful more years. It’s an odd place whose chief inhabitants are the swamp cats, a species of large wildcat capable of slowly traversing the depths of the swamp due to oversized, splayed, hairy paws.
The Seven Stones of Hordron have a great many stories to their name. The problem is that no two people can agree on them – even the number of stones is up for dispute. One thing that is known is that they surround a Durae’el Shift Siphon site.
Going by the full name of Howdontorbrynpenknock Hill, the Hill has been determined by the actions of some of the patrol of 111AE to be a burial mound of sorts. Investigations into its nature are ongoing when time and weather and resources permit.
The Chalk is rolling swathes of grassy hillside and little hidden valleys, primarily occupied by shepherds and their flocks.
Air sprites live on the Chalk. They are a known nuisance, but generally thought of not unkindly by the shepherds who keep the land as while they do take the occasional sheep they’re also quite good about protecting livestock and shepherd alike from predators. It’s considered unlucky to wear red and black on the Chalk, as being attacked by half a dozen determined and confused sprites often offends.
In general, if you want to find the charcoal burners you follow the smell of smoke in the north-west corner of the wood, the lumberjacks tend to stick to camps along the south side of the road, while the hunters and trappers are more solitary and have camps all along the treeline. Normal people tend to keep out of the heart of the Bringewood, and you don’t exactly blame them for it either; there’s something Old about the place that’s unsettling to everyone.
The Spears are relatively young mountains that hold the sources of the river Ehen and the White river, and there are rumours of precious metals and gemstones to be found in the peaks and valleys. The Hassani, clearly of the opinion that good fences make good neighbours, police each of the passes to ensure the security of the mountains.There are also rumours of a dragon, but as the only people who have seen it are two Pathfinders, one of whom is a half-orc, no one really believes them…