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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EarlyBird" data-source="post: 7309128" data-attributes="member: 6899077">[sblock=1.AllFaith's Shrine]On the west side of the Long Road, just south of the inn’s stable yard, stands what looks like a grand stone mansion. Two wide wooden doors painted with the symbols of many gods stand open day and night. Inside is a plain chapel with a stone altar.The Allfaiths Shrine is a wayside shrine used by many faiths and owned by none. Priests shuttle out from Waterdeep in pairs for month-long stays. Each pairing includes priests of two different faiths arranged by Waterdhavian temples. The most frequent combinations are Sune and Selune, Tymora and Lathander, and Tempus and Oghma. The visiting priests dwell in two simple stone rooms at the back of the temple. They bring their own vestments and holy items and take them away again when their duties end.[/sblock][sblock=2.The Swinging Sword]One door north of the Allfaiths Shrine stands the Swinging Sword. The inn is a three-story stone structure, crowned by a steep slate roof that bristles with many chimneys. A signboard juts out over the door, hanging from chains. It’s a ten-foot-long carved wooden scimitar emblazoned with the inn’s name in red paint on both sides. An inn yard with stables and outbuildings lies behind the building.The Swinging Sword is welcoming and luxurious by the area’s rustic standards. Each room boasts a hearth, warm draperies and tapestries, and running water (provided by rooftop cisterns). Now run by the Irkell family from Waterdeep, the inn has become a popular stopover for wayfarers in the Dessarin Valley. The topmost guest floor is given over to dormitories where travelers can “sleep cheap” in rooms shared with up to six guests, but the lower floors are divided into pleasant suites of guest rooms, each with its own garderobe. There’s also a dining room on the ground floor.The Sword has one recurring problem: kitchen fires. The one-story kitchen annex at the back of the inn, currently out of commission, was initially built with poorly drawing chimneys. Right now, cooking is rudimentary and done out in the yard, on grills flanking the bread ovens. The dining room is mainly used for drinking, with “the Helm” (the tavern across the road)currently providing the best meals in town travelers can easily buy.While the Helm at Highsun is the place to hear Red Larchers unwind, the Swinging Sword is the polite social hub and neutral meeting ground of Red Larch.[/sblock][sblock=3.The Helm at HighSun]Right across the Long Road from the Swinging Sword Inn stands a ramshackle two-story tavern. Rusty metal grills cover its small, dirty windows. The tavern’s name is very clearly printed in large, simple letters on both sides of a jutting wooden sign. Atop the sign is a rusting,oversized adornment: a warrior’s bucket helm with two eye slits (actually an upside-down washtub).Inside is a large, dimly lit, wood-paneled taproom. An open-tread wooden staircase climbs to the upper floor, which is just as dim and darkly paneled as the taproom. Across the back of the taproom is a long bar with three copper candle-lanterns hanging over it, and a stairleading down to the cellars.The Helm at Highsun is where locals relax, gossip, flirt, tell jests and “war stories” of their working days, and get drunk. It’s not a place for refined dining. A dozen servers work shifts at the Helm; most nights, two cover the ground floor and one waits on guests on theupper floor. The staff at the Helm don’t gossip, but they direct anyone who questions them to other patrons they think might talk about a particular subject. A gift of a drink loosens most tongues.[/sblock][sblock=4.Mother Yalantha's]This three-story, dilapidated boarding house has many balconies and outside staircases. Inside, the place is a warren of narrow, creaky-floored passages that snake around small rooms made of flimsy partition walls. However, the atmosphere is cheerful, if generally noisy.[/sblock][sblock=5.Thelorn's Safe Journeys]Three huge sheds stand here in a triangle, surrounded by sturdy wooden wagons at all stages of assembly. The first is a workshop full of busy woodworkers, the second is a storage area for parts such as wheels and axles, and the third houses a dozen finished wagons for sale. Theforemost wagonmaker in this region, Thelorn’s is now run by two grandsons of the founder. It is a busy, alwaysbustling place that works day and night (three shifts of workers) because making wagons of top quality takes time. The quality of Thelorn’s wagons is well knownthroughout the region, with the result that workers here have to toil flat-out to keep up Thelorn’s long-decreed “dozen spare wagons in stock, ready to go.”No one here is interested in gossiping during shift time. There is a no-nonsense, pride-in-craft atmosphere, and many of the workers are experts who can do topnotch work with astonishing speed. Watchful children armed with skillets to bang as alarms guard the shedsevery moment of the clock.[/sblock][sblock=6.Chansyrl Fine Harness]The pungent smell of tanned and oiled leather fills this crowded workshop, and the walls display leather saddles, reins, yokes, and harnesses for working beasts of all sizes. Stylish leather jackets, longcoats, caps, boots, leggings, bracers, belts, baldrics, and full leatherarmor are also in stock in all sizes.Owned by its founder’s granddaughter, who oversees a skilled staff of three full-timers and two part-timers, Chansyrl’s is considered the best Red Larch harnessmaker by caravan merchants. For some, it’s the reason they come to Red Larch. Chansyrl’s is a steady supplierfor many a settlement up and down the Long Road.[/sblock][sblock=7.Helvur Tarnlar, Clothier]Tarnlar’s is the only place to buy quality clothing for a hundred miles around. The square two-story building stands at the intersection of the Long Road and the Cairn Road. Its signboard is painted with the images of a well-dressed lord and lady, one on each side of theboard. Ornate scrollwork iron bars protect the windows. The Tarnlars used to be wagonmakers, but due to competition, the family changed trades two generations ago. The Tarnlars reinvented themselves as vendors of sturdy but fashionable clothing to appeal to the merchants and travelers making use of the Long Road. After all, cloaks and boots wear out just like wagon wheels, and anyone trudging for tendays on the road in raw spring weather or bitter winter cold soon comes to value warm garments very highly indeed.The clothing, boots, and accessories are all fine, warm, and sturdy, even though fewRed Larchers can afford to buy them for everyday wear. The Tarnlars live in a comfortable apartment above their garment shop.[/sblock][sblock=8.Lorren's Bakery]This aromatic, tidy building’s ovens and mixing bowls are in use day and night. The bakery has a hanging sign consisting of a carved and painted wooden round loaf the size of a small cart.The bakery always has fresh round loaves and buns for sale. Its specialty is cheese-topped buns with melted mushroom cheese from outlying local farms.[/sblock][sblock=9.Tantur Smithy]Both ends of this soot-stained building are massive stone blocks that rise into tall, wide chimneys. The din of forge hammers rings out late into most nights. Eldras Tantur (male human) has been Red Larch’s blacksmith for a decade and a half and has taken only a handful of days off work in all that time. Eldras and his children—a strapping son and two strong daughters—are skilled smiths who can make almost anything that requires no specialized alloys or treatments. They can temper swords and reinforce armor, and they often repair tools and weapons.The Tanturs rarely emerge from their smithy. They work all day long every day filling endless orders for hasps, hinges, locks, and chains, plus hardware for wagons such as cotter pins, bolt rings, wheel rims, and wheel hubs.[/sblock][sblock=10.Drouth Fine Poultry]This largest of the two Red Larch poultry shops is everbustling thanks to thriving local farms and the endless appetite of communities along the Long Road. Two or three wagonloads of skewered capons in casks of oil depart this establishment daily, to be finished over far offhearths.The one-story building is long, narrow, and nondescript on the outside, but the name of the business is painted above the double entry doors (wide enough for a wagon). Inside, feathers drift in the air. Cages and casks sit at the street end of the building, followed by two brick cooking-hearths, long and bloodstained cutting tables, and a plucking area in the back. Thefeathers are heaped in open handcarts that are taken away for washing and eventual sale as pillow stuffing.[/sblock][sblock=11.Jalessa Ornra, Butcher]Next door to Drouth's Fine Poultry stand four identical single-story stone buildings, running back from the street in a line. The front building has a painted sign of a ham being carved by a cleaver, accompanied by no words. This is the workplace and shop of Jalessa Ornra (female human), Red Larch’s butcher. The second building is her smokehouse, joined to the shop by an underground cold-cellar where meats are stored. The third building often has wash hangingby clothesline outside, and is the home Jalessa shares with the town’s constable, Harburk Tuthmarillar (male human).Red Larch doesn’t have a jail or court. The shop is the closest thing. Harburk employs four trusties, who bunk in the fourth building. The trusties are assistant constables (human guards) who also work for Jalessa as cutters and preservers, brining and salting meat, thensealing it into small kegs for shipment or storage.Harburk and his trusties discuss matters of law enforcement and peacekeeping while butchering.They’ve also been known to hang drunks by their belts from meat hooks to sober up.[/sblock][sblock=12.Dornen FineStone]This plain square building is always coated in a graywhite shroud of rock dust. It’s the business office of the busy Dornen quarry, run by Elak Dornen (male human). The office displays samples of cut stone as well as “raw” samples from the quarry. Records of orders and old employment rolls are neatly sorted in cabinets behind a wooden counter. Dornen is a hard master to some twenty workers, and he insists on keeping careful records.[/sblock][sblock=13.IronHead Arms]Three years ago, an old sellsword and caravan guard by the name of Feng Ironhead decided to settle in Red Larch and open a shop dealing in arms and armor, both new and used. Over a long career of shepherding caravans and pack trains from one end of the North to the other, Ironhead (male half-orc) decided that there was money to be made by keeping guards-for-hireand mercenaries supplied with decent, affordable gear.[/sblock][sblock=14.Mhandyvver's Poultry]This wooden building grew haphazardly for many years, shooting out single-story wings and annexes untidily in all directions. The interior looks like a barn or attic, with exposed beams and posts. Pens with live chickens fill most of the odd corners and halls of the building, leaving only a narrow aisle down to the back, where the Mhandyvvers live. Their rooms are separated from the chicken pens by a workroom with cutting benches and a central hearth.Mhandyvver’s is the less impressive of the two local poulterers, but is a favorite with Red Larchers. Kindly old Minthra “Minny” Mhandyvver (female human) and her three grown children sell chickens live or roasted and preserved in oil, pickled chicken livers, and eggs both fresh and pickled.[/sblock][sblock=15.Haeleeya's]Originally from Amn, Haeleeya Hanadroum (female human) operates a bathhouse and dress shop in her large, well-appointed home. Half-barrels planted with aromatic herbs and flowers flank the entrance, and the windows are decorated with flower-filled window boxes. Inside is a tidy roomthat functions as a dressmaker’s shop and fitting room. Beyond two sets of doors are bathing chambers that emanate pleasant smells and warm dampness.Unlike Tarnlar’s down the street, Haeleeya’s caters to local women seeking dresses for special occasions; she makes few garments for men. The bathhouse is a steadier business, since many of the older women of Red Larch visit the baths regularly to trade gossip.[/sblock][sblock=16.Waelvur's WagonWorks]Ilmeth Waelvur (male human) operates a cheaper alternative to Thelorn’s Safe Journeys, making and selling replacement wheels and axles for wagons. The workshop is a cluttered, untidyshed surrounded by dozens of wagons shrouded in worn canvas tarpaulins. A crudely hand-lettered sign over the wide main door proclaims this to be “Waelvur’s WagonWorks.” Ilmeth spends most of his time repairing wagons and making heavy-duty wagons and sledges for the local quarries.Inside, half a dozen wagons stand in various stages of assembly, surrounded by stools, ladders, and benches. Wooden pillars support a loft that is an open latticework of boards, serving as home to some birds and storage for scores of wooden wagon wheels. Ilmeth employshalf a dozen laborers who drink heavily as they work. Everything here is far messier but far cheaper than Thelorn’s.[/sblock][sblock=17.Gaelkur's]This seedy wooden building serves as Red Larch’s used tools and goods shop, its barber, and an unofficial second tavern for locals. Inside is a cluttered shop full of lounging customers—most of them men in no particular hurry to be waited on—with old hair clippings trodden underfoot on the sagging board floor. Marlandro Gaelkur (male human) is the shopkeeper and barber. In addition to providing grooming, he deals in used (and sometimes shady) itemswith no questions asked.[/sblock][sblock=18.Mellikho StoneWorks]A sign set on two posts in a scrap of weedy lawn out front of this small house reads “Mellikho StoneWorks.” The quarry pit begins just behind the house, which serves as the business office and the home of the quarry owner, Albaeri Mellikho (female human). Mellikho herself oversees the work in the quarry, cajoling and cursing the sweating stonecutters here.[/sblock][sblock=19.Luruth's Tannery]This former warehouse reeks with an eye-watering, throat-closing stench that obliterates all other smells within a bowshot of the place. Inside are stretching racks, cutting tables with sharp knives and scraps of tanned hide, a back room of finished leather ready for sale, and six huge, open-topped vats containing various foul-smelling, caustic liquids used in tanning.The proprietor is Ulhro Luruth (male human). He can’t smell a thing, thanks to years of working in tanneries. He and his five loyal, terse assistants live and work here.[/sblock][sblock=20.Bethendur's Storage]Four identical, well-built warehouses stand here in ground covered in raked gravel and cinders. The moment anyone sets foot past the sign that says “Bethendur’s Storage/Rent Space by tenday, month, or year,” a tall, smiling man emerges to meet them. This is Aerego Bethendur (male human). He is assisted by three burly clerks and porters, who are former mercenaries.Aerego asks no questions, so anything can be stored here. Stored items that don’t move or burst out of their containers are left strictly alone, though crates that begin to smell of death are taken out back and opened. If they contain dead bodies (rare, but it happens), Aerego burns them without a word to the constable or anyone else.[/sblock][sblock=21.The Market]This muddy, well-used field is ringed with outhouses and rings of stones that have obviously been used as cook-fires or trash burn sites many times in the past. Once a tenday, it’s crowded with wagons from nearby farms. Farmers drive in from homesteads miles away to sell all manner of in-season produce, cheese, cider and cider vinegar, and last year’s pickled beets in jugs.On the other nine days of the tenday, only one Red Larcher is here, a half-orc named Grund. Grund (male half-orc) is the village simpleton. He ekes out a living by making pickles in vats at the end of the field.[/sblock][sblock=22.Vallivoe's Sundries]Aside from the bewildering profusion of doors, barrels, rotting old furniture, and tools leaning against its outside walls, this building looks like a private home. A small, faded sign on the front door reads “Vallivoe’s Sundries.” Rooms are crammed to the rafters with newwares and used items of all sorts.Endrith Vallivoe (male human) is a retired caravan merchant who sells new and used goods: furniture, lamps, carpets, mirrors, weapons, shields, helms, and a little bit of everything else. Almost anything might be available to buy here, buried under heaps of other stuff, and Vallivoe carries a good running inventory in his head. He’s the only vendor in town selling blank books and parchment.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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