The Wide World

[Pulpatoon]

North

Near

The Thousand Acre Wood

Guardians Grove
A grove deep in the woods, filled with bushes that produce very sweet berries. These berries are, oddly enough, excellent bait for fish. A massive oak stands alone in the center of the grove, surrounded by three ancient standing stones. Many townsfolk avoid the Grove because it is believed to be home to an easily-offended spirit.

Sealdun
The Old Salt Mountain, still a site for minor mining.

Oxley
A town very much like Herebury—about the same size, about the same economy, a little more religious than lax Herebury.

Coldmill
A small Village North of the Thousand Acre Wood. On the night of the full moon, the residents of the town take on the aspect and appetites of wolves.

Medium

Blacktusk Clan
A long establish enclave of Orcs, led by a mighty warrior-shaman chief. They claim a mountain for their territory, and mine it for gems and minerals, which they trade. There are many improbably theories to account for their unusual adherence to honor and cooperation with their neighbors.
• They are outcasts from larger Orc society for refusing to slay the children of their enemies.
• They are cursed by an Orc god.
• They are dedicated to some great purpose: the preservation of a sacred place, or relic.
• The blood of the gods runs in their veins, and a great savior will be born among them.

Cold Stone
A mountain village that controls many mines rich in minerals, gems, and ore. Despite its wealth, the village is spare, simple, and quiet. The people are insular and suspicious of strangers. Coldmill is known for following an obscure religion referencing The Deep Ones, The Awakened, and the All Giving Father.

Far

Anvil Peak Holdfast
A community in the dwarven lands of the Iron Spine Mountains, where the Kolstrom River splits into the Serene and the Sinann.

[Pulpatoon]

Northeast

Medium

The Emerald Lake
A mist-shrouded lake, good fishing, but home to the hungry Isle of Spirits. The lake is about 25 miles across, and surrounded on three sides by mountains whose rains feed the lake.

The Isle of Spitits
There are many legends about this island:
• The island is alive, and hostile.
• The trees feed on the spirits of the dead.
• The trees burn with white flames on full moon nights.
• King Dynnal II tried to take the island, He led his army across and never returned.
• Only the Faerie folk are safe there, and even they are uneasy.
• The island moves of its own accord.
• The island changes size and shape.
• The island once rammed a fleet of fishing boats until all but one sank.
• The island itself is a Behemoth of the Southron Ocean.
• The island is the burial mound for a restless god.
• A white tree, of bone or stone or ivory, stands at the center of the island and is a source of power sought by fae and power-mad mages.

Far

Andredes, The Northern Wood
A vast forest, with rich mines.

Rullwood
Rullwood, once a small logging community, has grown into a great trading power built on the rich natural resources of Andredes, the Northern Wood. The city is divided into districts, including:
• The Logging District. Home to mills, workshops, and the powerful Logging Guilds.
• The Wizard District. Home to charlatans, con men, and a few actual magicians.
• The Chruchyard. Home to a grand temple, a great necropolis, and several monasteries and nunneries.
• The Market. Home to one of the architectural wonders of the world: an enclosed marketplace larger than most towns.
• The Commons. Here be poor people.
• The Keep. Here be rich.

Lost Delvudür
Once the capital of Dwarven engineering, Delvudür is now a ruin. Here, Dwarven engineers crafted living beings of machinery and magic. Some say the machines became violently unhinged, others that they sought freedom. In either case, when they proved unruly, King Brödsun ordered Delvudür sealed. The Dwarves still hope to one day reclaim such fine technology.

[Pulpatoon]

East

Near

The White Mountains
The Eastern border of the Olfdene. Mining the White Mountains was once a source of wealth for this area, but they have largely been tapped out. In the northern end of the Olfdene, the mountains are vistited by giants who migrate south from the Iron Spine mountains in winter.

Far

The Ruins of Kalamensch
Kalamensh was a vile wizard known for insane magical experiments. The ruins of his tower may yet contain magical artefacts, although few dare to search for them. There are said to be catacombs underneath the ruins, home to the living remains of the wizard’s research.

[Pulpatoon]

South

Near

The Mersc
A swamp between Herebury and New Smithwald. A dangerous place, but there’s good hunting.

Shriek’s Den
A notorious cave deep in the swamps to the south of Herebury. Purported to be haunted.

New Smithwald
The next village over, several miles south on River Road, past the swamps. Recently rebuilt after a fire destroyed most of Old Smithwald.

Medium

Gloomsbridge Monastery
The monastery is dedicated to Wattanae, god of the all-seeing eye. The monks are self-sufficient and isolated from the outside world. They have taken vows of silence, and maintain an ancient oracle.

Far

The Southron Ocean

Whirlpool
Many ships on the Southron Sea have disappeared due to a great whirlpool South of Tallinmar. It is said that there is a city beneath the whirlpool, populated by denizens of the sea. Or perhaps by the cursed descendants of ancient humans, punished by the gods for attempting a terrible conjuring.

[Pulpatoon]

Southwest

Far

Tallinmar
A sprawling city built on and into the cliffs of the coast of the Southron Ocean. Its harbor is built into a huge cavern. Founded by Sea Elves, ruled by merchants, famed for its market caverns, shipwrights, seafood and apple wine. And the navy's trained giant eels.

[Pulpatoon]

West

Medium

Cormona Manor
Esteban Carmona is a retired sellsword who claims the title and lands of a Baron. His manor is a large stone building, square with a small tower on each corner, protected by Lord Carmona's mercenary band.

Far

The Black Marsh
The Black Marsh is home to reputed to be home to dragons and their foul kin.

Demon’s Descent
In the Black Marsh is a monster warren, marked with a cave mouth in the shape of a monstrous face.

[Pulpatoon]

Northwest

Near

The Lumber Camp
A collection of shacks and tents amidst a field of tree stumps, and a major source of employment in Herebury. Many of the unmarried workers choose to live on the site, in order to gain a few hours work over their peers who travel to and from Herebury.

Medium

Barley’s Bramble
A Halfling enclave, with good relations to the largely ostracized town of Gordul’s Hope.

Gordul’s Hope (Th’ope)
A small town of half-goblins (Halfling-goblin hybrids). They produce clockwork toys and enchanted items, which they trade exclusively through Barley’s Bramble. Gordul’s Hope has a long history of harassment by their neighbors. The town is heavily fortified, and unwelcoming to strangers. The inhabitants are said to be masters of illusion and magical pacification.

[Pulpatoon]

Mobile and far-ranging

Laputa, The Flying Fortress
An ancient castle, older than any extant culture, and known by many names. It ranges across the known world, and possibly beyond. Some say Laputa is the Seat of the Gods or the conveyance of a powerful wizard. The most common story is that it is the domain of the legendary hero Menaequis, cursed, adrift, and undying. At times, delegations of humans in strange attire visit the land below the floating castle.

[Pulpatoon]

The following images represent a general sense of the world around Herebury. These are not necessarily accurate, especially in terms of scale.

Herebury and Stoat are both located in a broad general region, the Olfdene, a valley between the White Mountains and the mumblesomethinghandwave Mountains.

The locations past the Olfdene are so far away that they might as well be myth to the Villagers of Herebury and Stoat.

[Pulpatoon]

Olfdene
A wide valley between the White Mountains and the Longwall, opening up into the Southron plains. Olfdene is populated by humans—there are no native populations of dwarves, elves, halflings, or other folk. Many generations ago, the entire valley was ruled by the then-Imperiral city of Tallinmar. It still bears many of the roads from this Imperial custodianship, and some of the older towns are built on Tallinmar foundations.

Today, the villages of Olfdene are lightly rules by local nobles. Peace generally reigns, due largely to the fact that there isn't much worth fighting over. The land supports a comfortable living for its inhabitants, but has few exports and little strategic value.

The Villages of Olfdene

Crooked Hill
Little more than a trading post for hunters and charcoal burners and other folks who make their homes deep in the Thousand Acre Woods. There are about ten houses, each private residence also providing whatever commercial services they can when folks pass through town. Any of these homes will let out a bed or sell a space at the dinner table. The only dedicated non-residential building in Crooked Hill is the Trader's Shop, which serves a larger population of recluses and individualists who live deeper in the woods.

Odi is the bachelor uncle from one of these houses and a ferrier. He is not trained in metalwork or smithery, but he has an anvil, hammer, and brazier for fitting horses shoes, and, in a pinch, will do other repairs that don't require anything more than heating something up and then banging on it. For anything more involved, people continue on to Oxley, which is not even a half days walk east. Odi is notably unintelligent, surly, and usually hungover.

Oxley
A town very much like Herebury—about the same size, about the same economy, a little more religious than lax Herebury. Once known as Oxcross, Oxley is known for its livestock who graze the fields east of town. It's close proximity to the Thousand Acre wood makes it home to a good number of hunters and trappers, who protect the town and its precious herds from wild animals.

Oxley has been grooming their cattle for generations to yield the best tasting beef in the region. Because of their selective cattle breeding they also have formidable leather working for the cattle's hides when it is led to the slaughter, every hunter and trapper usually sports this expert leather armor, as does many famous and rich hunters throughout the world.

Jackar Turnbull is somewhat of a local hero in Oxley, well-known and well loved by the citizenry. He is a forester and hunter with unusual strength, who is said to have stopped a charging bull with his bare hands. Despite claims he has fathered quite a few illegitimate children throughout the area, Jackar lives contentedly with Farea, and their son, Ford.

Coldmill
A small Village North of the Thousand Acre Wood. On the night of the full moon, it is said that the residents of the town take on the aspect and appetites of wolves.

Kegton
A town renowned for its three competing breweries. Within walking distance of a temple devoted to Dagda, the old-ways god of, among other things, music. The temple is attached to a small monastery, currently home to only three aging monks and four ancient nuns. Town and temple both attract a large festival of musicians each Spring.

Cold Stone
A mountain village that controls many mines rich in minerals, gems, and ore. Despite its wealth, the village is spare, simple, and quiet. The people are insular and suspicious of strangers. Coldmill is known for following an obscure religion referencing The Deep Ones, The Awakened, and the All Giving Father.

Lundenfeld
Lundenfeld was previously a lumber camp, the town having been built around the camp to make the woodsmen and lumberyards more convenient. The town still exports most of its lumber throughout the land. The people are hardy and rough, but mostly fair, and treat travelers well unless given reason not to.

Lundenfeld shares a mostly-friendly rivalry with the Herebury’s lumber camp. Irregular festivals of games are held between the lumberjacks from the two towns. Since both lumber camps are primarily occupied by bachelors, the games tend to be rough, crude, and raucous—not a family affair. There are awards for wood chopping, pig-catching, axe throwing, timber climbing, drinking, wrestling, pissing (both distance and quantity), and pie-eating.

Jerram Korlet has been in charge of the lumberyard since his father passed 12 years ago, he is a fair man that gives fair wages but has a tendency to play favorites and can have a mean temper with those he does not know.

Kirkwald
One of the oldest towns in the Olfdene, Kirkwald dabbles in everything—lumber, mining, fishing, and agriculture. It is the financial capitol of Olfdene. If you want a loan bigger than the local lord can provide, this is where you’ll go.

Jack-in-Hassock
This highway man has accrued a romantic legend and reputation as a hero to the working poor. Most stories declare that he is a rebellious son of whichever of Kirkwald’s banking families is most on people’s minds that season. No one has actually seen a cent of this thief’s purported charity to the local poor, but his legend persists.

A common version of the story names the bandit as Jack Stampf, the last of many sons of a faded branch of the Stampf family tree, know that he was driven into the wilds and a life of crime by the loss of his love, Melynde Porter.

The beautiful daughter of a burly porter in the Stampf Goodsyard, Melynde was the a rare casualty of a raid by the Hayle Hayles. When Melynde's father took his anger and grief out on Yoland Stampf, he was in turn beaten and crippled. Seeing the injustice of the Stampf's rule of Kirkwald, Jack turned against his family, killed Yoland in his sleep, gave some small portion of his wealth to the broken porter, and fled into the forest never to be seen in Kirkwald again.

These events, if they took place at all, occurred several generations ago. Variations of the story claim that Jack-in-Hassock is kept alive by a charm or a curse, that he is a ghost who haunts the roads, or that he founded a dynasty of brigands—passing down the name of Kirkwald's most notorious son each generation.

Hayle
A crossroads town, imaginatively named after the founding family, exists primarily due to a feud between the Hayles and the Stampfs, Kirkwald’s most prominent family, that drove the Hayles north, though not very far. Hayle still exists due to the quality of the river boats they build, and their bustling little monthly market mixing small-time mining materials from the east and products from the forest and river to the west.

Almost everyone in Hayle is a Hayle, and they maintain their hatred of the Stampfs out of tradition, even though the feud has cooled off greatly since Hayle-town was founded in the teenage years of Jebben Hayle. At eighty odd years, Jebben is the oldest Hayle in Hayle, and the town’s figurehead leader, though his grandson Pilk competently handles most practical matters for the town. Jebben mostly spends his time sitting by the well in the middle of town, smoking his long pipe and grousing about the Stapmfs to anyone who’ll listen.

Because the town is mostly made up of members of the Hayle family, there is a shortage of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes (although some do regularly wed second and third cousins). For this reason the single men and women of the town are extremely welcoming to visitors. The town's monthly markets promise to bring in outsiders, and it is treated like a festival. Out of habit almost everyone dresses their best and many will even bathe beforehand.

The shortage of fresh blood has also led to Hayle's latest scandal: those in the know say that Delf Hayle recently got Selma Stampf in a family way. Pilk's been busy trying to keep the all but dormant feud from heating up again, and it's almost impossible to get Jebben to speak about anything else.