Daztur
Hero
The map and compilation are now up to date. We've hit 38,000 words which is nearly novel length. Wow!
chutup: love the updates, especially the bit about having the three electors crammed into one body somehow, that fits the setting just perfectly.
Broderick's Grove
Hex 02.07
Perhaps it is the rain that blows off the Ocean of Bitter Regrets, perhaps it is something in the soil, but where Broderick's River (01.08) rises up to meet the mountains there is a stand of great sequoias that rise far above the riverbanks.
Due to the rough terrain in the area, the trees are generally left to stand in silence except for when druids arrive to cut one to replace the didgeridoos that are too old to properly call the leviathans out of their depths.
Hooks:
-Who was Broderick anyway?
-Where do these druids set up their whale-calling didgeridoos? How do they get the tree trunks there? How does one play a didgeridoo made out of the trunk of a redwood tree?
Newhill
Hex 17.07
Note: this post is a lightly edited version of one posted by "drek"
Newhill is so named because at the time of settlement it was, indeed, a new hill -- kicked up out of the earth from the attack that razed the Citadel of the Verlimes (18.07). Newhill overlooks that damned place and the surroundings. Residents of the freehold claim the air atop their hill is a bit sweeter, the spring waters clearer. Sadly, visitors are probably too creeped out by the scenic view of elementals marching about the old Citadel ruins to notice.
It takes a special brand of crazy or desperate to live within spitting distance of a haunted ruin. The forefathers of Newhill's current residents were indeed mostly bandits and refugees with no place else they would be welcome. Over the centuries, the peoples of Newhill have become more or less domesticated, but the freehold still has a reputation for being a haven for the rough, the tough, and the mildly insane.
The freehold itself is surrounded by a wooden pallisade, and contains ought much but the family homes of three merchant families that share dominion over the place:
"Maud" Verlime is a bent over crone, who will talk the ear off of anyone willing to listen. She is the overly proud matriarch of the Verlime Who Remained. She is mother to Regulus Verlime of the Sundail Inn (25.04), her least favorite son. She is mother to six others, grandmother to thrice as many, and lives with a pair of sisters who never married or had children. Etched into a stone laying at the center of their impressive sized home are the names of all the firstborn given up to the elves.
One of Maud's favorite stories, one that she tells over and over to anyone who's ear she can corner, is personally chasing the famed, masked raider Huu Vo Malkus off of her grazing lands some thirty odd years ago. Of course, the detail she often fails to mention is Malkus absconding with the family's herd of ostriches. In the decades since, the Verlime herd has been replenished, and currently grazes in the fields surrounding Newhill.
While the name Verlime is practically a curse word throughout most of the freeholds, in Newhill they retain some of their old role as protectors of the region.
The second powerful family are the Pignoses, who claim some orcish blood-- proudly in fact. They are a physically brutish collection of men and women, but in heart usually fairly gentle folk. Big Sal Pignose is the most accomplished of the lot. She's a successful trader, enough so that she purchased a citizen's charter from the City of Shuttered Windows (29.14). Her kids are spoiled brats and often get into brawls with the younger of the Verlime.
The third family within the palisades are the Stannev, a family of orchid-tenders and honey-harvesters who share a generational devotion to The King in Splendor, Sword that Slays the Night (see the entry above). Their temple, The Everwatching Eye, is the only stone structure in Newhill. Currently Loris Stannev serves as the her priest tending to this shrine, but as she ages (nearly 70 now), three of her nephews currently vie to become the new shrine-tender. The competition between the three isn't entirely friendly, as by tenant the The King in Splendor values open displays of strength.
The Stannev hold a long tradition of alliance with both the Verlime and Pignoses, often being the family that stands in the middle and mediates any conflict between the two clans.
chutup: love the updates, especially the bit about having the three electors crammed into one body somehow, that fits the setting just perfectly.
Broderick's Grove
Hex 02.07
Perhaps it is the rain that blows off the Ocean of Bitter Regrets, perhaps it is something in the soil, but where Broderick's River (01.08) rises up to meet the mountains there is a stand of great sequoias that rise far above the riverbanks.
Due to the rough terrain in the area, the trees are generally left to stand in silence except for when druids arrive to cut one to replace the didgeridoos that are too old to properly call the leviathans out of their depths.
Hooks:
-Who was Broderick anyway?
-Where do these druids set up their whale-calling didgeridoos? How do they get the tree trunks there? How does one play a didgeridoo made out of the trunk of a redwood tree?
Newhill
Hex 17.07
Note: this post is a lightly edited version of one posted by "drek"
Newhill is so named because at the time of settlement it was, indeed, a new hill -- kicked up out of the earth from the attack that razed the Citadel of the Verlimes (18.07). Newhill overlooks that damned place and the surroundings. Residents of the freehold claim the air atop their hill is a bit sweeter, the spring waters clearer. Sadly, visitors are probably too creeped out by the scenic view of elementals marching about the old Citadel ruins to notice.
It takes a special brand of crazy or desperate to live within spitting distance of a haunted ruin. The forefathers of Newhill's current residents were indeed mostly bandits and refugees with no place else they would be welcome. Over the centuries, the peoples of Newhill have become more or less domesticated, but the freehold still has a reputation for being a haven for the rough, the tough, and the mildly insane.
The freehold itself is surrounded by a wooden pallisade, and contains ought much but the family homes of three merchant families that share dominion over the place:
"Maud" Verlime is a bent over crone, who will talk the ear off of anyone willing to listen. She is the overly proud matriarch of the Verlime Who Remained. She is mother to Regulus Verlime of the Sundail Inn (25.04), her least favorite son. She is mother to six others, grandmother to thrice as many, and lives with a pair of sisters who never married or had children. Etched into a stone laying at the center of their impressive sized home are the names of all the firstborn given up to the elves.
One of Maud's favorite stories, one that she tells over and over to anyone who's ear she can corner, is personally chasing the famed, masked raider Huu Vo Malkus off of her grazing lands some thirty odd years ago. Of course, the detail she often fails to mention is Malkus absconding with the family's herd of ostriches. In the decades since, the Verlime herd has been replenished, and currently grazes in the fields surrounding Newhill.
While the name Verlime is practically a curse word throughout most of the freeholds, in Newhill they retain some of their old role as protectors of the region.
The second powerful family are the Pignoses, who claim some orcish blood-- proudly in fact. They are a physically brutish collection of men and women, but in heart usually fairly gentle folk. Big Sal Pignose is the most accomplished of the lot. She's a successful trader, enough so that she purchased a citizen's charter from the City of Shuttered Windows (29.14). Her kids are spoiled brats and often get into brawls with the younger of the Verlime.
The third family within the palisades are the Stannev, a family of orchid-tenders and honey-harvesters who share a generational devotion to The King in Splendor, Sword that Slays the Night (see the entry above). Their temple, The Everwatching Eye, is the only stone structure in Newhill. Currently Loris Stannev serves as the her priest tending to this shrine, but as she ages (nearly 70 now), three of her nephews currently vie to become the new shrine-tender. The competition between the three isn't entirely friendly, as by tenant the The King in Splendor values open displays of strength.
The Stannev hold a long tradition of alliance with both the Verlime and Pignoses, often being the family that stands in the middle and mediates any conflict between the two clans.
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