The Freemarches

The Freemarches are a semi-defined region immediately west of the Inland Sea.  The northern border is generally agreed to be the Hunter's Realm (included here for simplicity's sake), the eastern border is the Inland Sea, the western border is found at the Trollspine Mountains (although few travel so close to these haunted peaks), while the southern border is generally accepted to be at Hub itself and the unoccupied plains to the south of it.  From east to west, the leisurely Bumble River cuts across the Freemarches, meandering south at the hill country until it vanishes beneath the mountains.  The strip of land along the southern border of the Inland Sea, along the Green Serpent Road to Oakstead and the forest of Greenwood is commonly known as the Eastmarches, while the land south of Hub that supports an elvish population is known as the Southmarches, or the Southern Cantrevs, although this is ethnically and regionally diverse from the deserts of the FAR south.  The Eastmarches are practically fiefs of Greenwood, few raise their own armies with Oakstead so close and a handful of Courtiers keep estates there.  The Southmarches have a scanty population, many strange monsters lurk those lands, yet the tribes that live there are some of the oldest and most enduring in all Alfheim.  Fiercely proud, these southron towns quarrel incessantly, each Cantrev has a king and each king brooks no other king to assert authority over him...yet one and all, these proud city-states bow their heads to the will of the merchant royals further south, the wealthy and powerful elves of the deserts.  For time untold, the princedom of Haida dominated these tribes, but in the modern day it has been supplanted by the princedom of Mellouk, and tensions are high as these haughty usurpers do not yet command the respect their predecessor earned.  One Haida prince is rumored to survive, living as a fugitive in the Freemarches with the last band of his followers.  Unusually, the Freemarches have a mixture of Long-Ears, Short-Ears, and Mer among the populace.  It is, in fact, one of the very few places in Alfheim where Mer commonly have dryland citizenship and live on land, though most are clustered in places like Pike Creek or Redmoor where they can be near the water.  There are more Long-Ears in the northern towns, and more Short-Ears to the south, although Hub is fairly cosmopolitan.

The Freemarches have a history birthed in war.  During the Second Greenspear War, King Eduran Greenspear traveled through the Freemarches to circumvent the Inland Sea and attack Avalon from the west.  He paid respects to every tribe whose lands he traveled through, paid for his supplies with amber, ironwood, and rich furs, and raised towns to commemorate heroes.  At the time, most of the land was tribal, and over half of these tribes were nomadic.  Seeing the influence of the settled peoples, as well as the power of Hub revealed (the tribe at Hub marched ten thousand elves north with Eduran), many of these tribes settled down after the Greenspear Wars and the ensuing Abalone War, in which the Mer invaded.  Local tribes whose numbers had been drastically reduced by conflict and whose stores were full of treasure from Eduran's vaults built powerful Free Towns, fortified against assault.  Over the past two thousand years, the wandering tribes have gradually settled, there are few nomads left, and most of those travel the Blue Serpent Road in caravans peddling their services from town to town.  The region was devastated seven years ago by the Fat-Tongue Plague, which struck like lightning, resisted all medicine, and thankfully faded quickly despite the vast numbers of dead left in its wake.  Three years ago, the plague struck again in another form, as long-quiescent ghoul populations exploded from the sudden abundance of carrion and lack of hunters to keep ghouls away from civilized lands, causing another crisis.

CLIMATE:  Generally mild winters and warm summers are the norm.  Spring and autumn can experience violent seasonal storms off the Inland Sea, but more common are long, soaking rains.

GOVERNMENT: Most Free Towns are governed by a Council made up of citizens, chosen by election.  These Councils are have anywhere between five and fifteen members, some with a principal leader called a Speaker that is essentially a chieftain.  Felt's Stand has a Lord, Hub has its own system of Guildmasters, and Wisp is rumored to be ruled by a coven of witches.  The Horned King, of course, is unchallenged in his own lands, and rules as an absolute monarch.

THE FREE TOWNS:  Each of these is more powerful than one would expect from the word 'town'.  None quite match the grandeur or history of Hub, the Free City, so they refer to themselves as 'Free Towns', but each controls substantial amounts of land, usually used for farming or mining, outside the limits of the town proper.  Before the plague, the three most influential Free Towns were Bluebell, Pike Creek, and Birchbark.  The plague and the ghouls hit Bluebell the hardest of the three, killing six of its nine Council members.  No news came from Bluebell town for a long time, which combined with the loss of most of its merchants attenuated its influence.  It hasn't helped that the famed Carnes'ir mines are producing less than ever before, and there are whispers that the mine will dry up within a few decades.  Pike Creek, too, was devastated by the plague, especially its historically powerful Mer factions, while Birchbark (relatively unscathed) has been heavily occupied with trouble from its northern neighbors and the spreading influence of the Horned King.  Most Free Towns are governed by a Council made up of citizens, chosen by election.  Felt's Stand has a Lord, Hub has its own system of Guildmasters, and Wisp is rumored to be ruled by a coven of witches.

Birchbark: A large, thriving town in the birch forest at the southernmost reaches of the woods that fill the Hunter's Realm (southernmost save for the Gloamwood, which clings to the foothills of the western mountains and extend much further), just east of the Blue Serpent.  It is built high up in the branches of stately birch trees, which form silvery pillars beneath the platforms and treehomes of Birchbark's population.  Known for having a strong tradition of wizards, unusual so far south of Avalon, Birchbark most commonly has a town Wizard instead of a town Sorcerer.  While this isn't unheard of, it is still strange.  Birchbark is a very old town, it existed when Eduran passed through, and it will likely exist until strange events conspire against it...or until the Horned King musters his banners and marches south.  Birchbark has an old rivalry with Whitton, its neighbor to the north.  Both export many of the same sort of goods, and are similarly built, but Birchbark has its wizards and a grand market and considerably more amenities for the wandering traveler or merchant, and so enjoys the upper hand.  There is a famous play about this rivalry, 'Aedelas and Bretheine', which tells a story of two lovers from the feuding towns, whose woodcutting families are on opposite sides.  It ends in tragedy, with the deaths of the two lovers but an agreement for peace between their towns.  It might just also have some subtle Hub-based bigotry towards the smaller towns, but this is a matter of literary debate and thus useless to speculate on unless one is unfortunate enough to be a literary critic.  The plague and the ghouls did not directly cause Birchbark much trouble, although there were still deaths.  The town was shut to outside traffic as soon as the plague hit, and they do not have the extensive farmlands Bluebell has, making it easier to deal with the ghouls when they came.  Birchbark does, however, have its own troubles.  There are rumors that Whitton, Felt's Stand, and Wisp are allying with the Horned King, its southern neighbors have been slow to rebuild, and many fear that the brunt of defending the Freemarches against an assault from the Hunter's Realm will fall on their town.  The ancient Fae has a long memory, they say, and few doubt that he will remember that the Long-Ears of Birchbark knelt to the Short-Ear king who cost him his son.  There are also rumors that the town Wizardess will lose her Council seat for an affair in her youth with one of the Horned King's servants, but such rumors have persisted for decades and she still holds a seat on the Birchbark Council.

Might 2  Treasure 3  Influence 3  Territory 2  Sovereignty 3


Bluebell:  A large, once-thriving town, Bluebell was likely hit worst by the plague after Redmoor and Pike Creek.  Controlling vast tracts of surrounding farmland, nestled against the edge of the dense Bluebell Woods, it enjoys fine growing land, a position close to the Blue Serpent Road, a normally temperate climate, and a heroic pedigree.  Bluebell was founded by Aelwin of Bluebell, also known as Aelwin Sprucehead, Aelwin Bluehair, and Aelwin the Outrider.  A simple scout in Eduran's army, who had lied about his age to join the war at all, he was riding close by when the Greenwood king was ambushed by Avalon soldiers under the command of Felleanas, a powerful wizard of Avalon.  Eduran was wounded in the fray, atop a hill of bluebells, and the young outrider dismounted to stand over the King's body, defending it with his own until help arrived.  Aelwin was lamed in the battle, and was commanded to stay behind against his will.  He begged the king to be allowed to come north with him to fight Avalon, but was instead told to remain and found a town, to guard the Freemarches if evil should come to haunt these lands.  Eduran paid handsomely for Treesingers to enliven the bluebells until a town could be built among them, raised Aelwin up as its leader, and continued north.  Aelwin, in turn, gathered the remnants of local tribes and cast-offs from the war to be his people.  Through hard work and harder negotiation, he brought in the Svart tribes, Long-Ear miners independent from Avalon and the northlands, and convinced them to become part of the town rather than insisting that the lands they hadn't used were still theirs by right.  He had a single surviving child in his old age, fierce Hanma, who studied the ways of the Treesingers and became a powerful member of the Brotherhood of the Bough.  She further raised, expanded, and fortified the town, risking expulsion from the Brotherhood for providing her services for free.  Aelwin lived an uncommonly long time, and his daughter longer still, the former living to be a thousand and the latter still sharp-tongued and mobile by the age of 1,243.  Although founded by a hero of Greenwood, Aelwin bore no personal emnity towards Avalon after the war and neither did his daughter, who personally agitated for a pair of heroic Avalonian cataphractoi who slew a fierce manticore that threatened the town to be inducted as Councilors.  Aelwin Bluehair was Speaker of Bluebell in his day, but after his death his daughter put an end to the tradition, and even during the worst times when she practically ran the town herself refused any title but Elder.  Bluebell prospered, to the point where it was arguably second only to Hub...but that was before the plague.  The plague slaughtered many of the town's merchants and farmers, even carving a chunk out of the Town Council.  After that came the ghouls, carrying diseases of their own, which spread among farmers fleeing to the town itself.  For some reason, the ghouls avoided the smaller and more vulnerable town of Redmoor to the east, and descended on Bluebell in vast droves, reducing the Council to three members and nearly decimating the overall population.  New merchants were slow to come, many of them being already settled elsewhere, others fearing that the town's glory days were done forever, especially since news from Bluebell virtually stopped during the ghoul siege.  Bandits and thugs moved in, with much of the town's militia dead, and lawlessness prevailed.  However...in most recent days, there are rumors of change.  A terrifying swordself from the island tribe of the Dinay drove off the bandits and restored order to the town.  The last true Haida and his trading company took a gamble on settling in the town, and others follow after, for the Haida name still retains the last of its old magic.  The Carnes'ir family still operates its famous mines and keeps some of its old connections, although much of its renowned wealth and splendor are gone into the past.  A Storm Sylph has been proclaimed the town Sorceress, and Storm Sylphs are almost a universal symbol of good luck and prosperity.

UPDATE:  Bluebell held its decannual Town Council election, filling four seats.  Nienna Carnes'ir, Idir Haida of the Haida Trading Company, Sariel the Storm Sylph, and Lestari the renowned swordself are now on the Town Council.

Might 3*  Treasure 2  Influence 2**  Territory 2  Sovereignty 3

*Temporary until the alliance with the Gruf Satyr Tribe is formalized
**Goes into effect after the victory parade

Farls: The last Free Town to the south before Hub.  A wealthy, sprawling town built in the midst of rolling, golden fields and small, pleasant hills.  It gets a great deal of wind over the plains, and its famed wheat fields and cattle pastures are watered by many small streams or irrigation ditches.  Farls produces no metal save copper, and very little wood, its thin stands of trees grow tall but are primarily unsuitable for lumber, which can be more easily collected at the riverside woods of Pike's Creek or further north at towns such as Birchbark or Whitton.  Farls is famous for its great windmills, of which there are several.  The largest, the Ruathemill, has many spinning fans and has been fortified into a castle in its own right.  Houses are elevated on high stilts, built into treestands, or formed on the upper portions of the great windmills.  This is more of an architectural trait than one intended for survival, the roads are more open this far south, and there is little place for brigands to hide from the townsfolk.  The raising and modernization of the mills has been the dreamchild of the Ruathe family.  Once poor copper miners, a series of intelligent land-purchases and a tradition of pragmatic and cautious business dealings has elevated them to the most prominent place among the landowners of Farls.  Three separate Ruathes sit on the Farls Council, and Meredreis Ruathe, the family matriarch and Speaker of Farls, is a popularly acclaimed leader.  Her husband, Dalemarik Ruathe, travels frequently to Hub, where he maintains a standing position as a Guildmaster.  This is unusual, and permitted only because Farls was once a satellite town to Hub.  Farls is much more prominent now than in the old days, the economy of the Freemarches being more stable with the establishment of the Free Towns and the modernization of their mills, but Farls still maintains close political ties to Hub and retains the privilege of having a single Guildmaster from Farls to represent the town in Hub's politics.

Might 1  Treasure 3  Influence 3  Territory 3  Sovereignty 3

Felt's Stand: An oddity in the Freemarches, Felt's Stand is a fortress-town well defended against attack from outside forces, a mark of its tragic history.  When Avalon sent troops south in the Second Greenspear War, many of those soldiers were from the tribes outlying Avalon itself, among them the Horned Ones, the people of the Horned King.  The Horned Ones raised a great army, who marched south under Long Feather, the only son and heir to the Horned King.  They never returned.  At the Battle of Hub, Eduran tricked Long Feather and sent him into a desperate retreat northward, followed by the sorcerer Waterlogged and a legion of their own fallen risen again to grotesque unlife.  Felt, a young wizard in Long Feather's army, was put in charge of the rearguard and charged with holding off the undead while Long Feather escaped into the forest.  He used his magic to raise a motte-and-bailey of stone atop a high hill, raised Long Feather's banner atop, and stuffed spare uniforms with reeds and straw and propped them on the battlements to make it seem as if his lord was recuperating inside.  Brave Felt held out for a week against a much older, stronger spellcaster and a legion of the dead, although he died on the sixth night.  Long Feather escaped into the Northern Quarter, but was betrayed and murdered by the Twelve Chieftains.  Only ten of his soldiers are recorded as surviving, forming the origin of the Ten Bloodlines eligible for lordship.  The lord of Felt's Stand, along with a board of his lieutenants, fill the same function as a Council in most towns, except that the lord has the final say in all matters, and his word is backed by the militia.  Most towns have some sort of militia, composed of volunteers who train on certain days of the week, but Felt's Stand takes it a step farther.  All Long-Ear citizens are required to enlist, train, and be ready to defend the town itself if it is in danger.  The Feltguard is composed of those militia members who make a career of their service, and devote their full time to the town's defenses and military readiness.  Since being a member of the militia accords one certain privileges and protections under the law, almost no Short-Ears or Mer dwell in Felt's Stand.  More unusually, they maintain semi-cordial relations with the Horned King.  While he views the ten survivors as failures, they are nonetheless of Horned One blood, and thus poor cousins of his own tribe.  He has proclaimed that Felt's Stand is under his protection, and to interfere with the town would invite his wrath.  In exchange, Felt's Stand provides scouts, trackers, goods that cannot be found in the Hunter's Realm, and a promise of military alliance in the event of open war, although this last is only a rumor, like the rumors that Feltstanders catch elves traveling alone to deliver to the Horned Ones for sport and sustenance.  Most other towns treat Felt's Stand with some caution, and although in many ways they act like a Free Town, not everyone considers them to be one.  Of course, how openly they express these views depends on how far away from the Horned King they are.  The town's primary exports are farm goods, finished metalcrafts, and mercenaries.  Felt's Stand soldiers wear shining bronze, in memory of Long Feather's army, with antlers riveted to the helm, while lesser militiamen and scouts favor leather jerkins and antlered copper caps.  Those working directly for the Horned King have their teeth ritually filed in the same manner that normal Horned Ones do, and are taken to the Hunter's Realm for a brief period of training.  The town itself is sited on the hill where Felt raised his crude fortress, which has been enlarged and improved upon until it has become a squat, brooding castle with high walls of stone surrounding the town itself, with a larger, elfmade hill at one end where the lord's keep rises to command the landscape.  Although it is a strong town, it is not a rich one, being located well to the west of the Blue Serpent Road and isolated from trade by the strange rumors surrounding it.

Might 4  Treasure 2  Influence1  Territory 2  Sovereignty 3

Fernie: Nobody goes to Fernie.  It's small.  It's too far west, a journey of days (if not a week, when the roads are bad) off the Blue Serpent Road.  It's too close to the Trollspine Mountains and the Gloamwood to be truly safe.  It has only the barest accomodation for travelers.  It has little culture and a surly, insular population who are nearly always filthy and caked in salt dust from the mines.  Its architecture is mostly deadwood or stone, graceless dwellings that last until another can be built.  The food is miserable.  Its one claim to any sort of importance is the reason for the town's founding in the first place.  Hargonias Strump (not the current head of the Strumps, who is named for his ancestor), a noted traveler renowned for his complete lack of any sense of direction, founded Fernie after discovering a wealth of salt in the valley that now houses Fernie town.  He borrowed money from Hub merchants, and built a mine at the tail of the valley, where he discovered that he had stumbled upon the largest discovered salt mine outside of the southern desert.  The Strump Salt Mines have since prospered, and the Strumps would be one of the wealthiest and best-known families in the Freemarches, if they had not been until very recent years completely eclipsed by the successes of the fantastically wealthy Carnes'irs of Bluebell.  The current family head, and de-facto ruler of Fernie through its Town Council where he holds Speakership, is Hargonias Strump IV.  His heir is his only daughter, Bryophella, a former playmate of the older Carnes'ir daughter.  The Strump estates have a sort of rustic yet palatial feel to them, but few of the family spend much time there.  That involves being in Fernie, after all.  However, because the natives are so insular, they are very patriotic towards their own town, and the Strumps have enduring loyalty from their employees.

Might 1  Treasure 3  Influence 1  Territory 2  Sovereignty 3


Hub:  The Old City, the Grand City, the Free City.  The Gate of the South.  The Jewel of the West.  The Festering Pit.  All of these names and more are used to refer to Hub.  The elves who originally built Hub vanished long ago, either into the surrounding population or into some unknown doom.  The three greatest roads on Alfheim meet here, at the three gates in its smooth, circular walls; the Dust Gate to the south, the Sapphire Gate to the north, and the Emerald Gate to the east.  The Serpent Roads enter here, and abruptly change their course, twisting spiral-pattern around the city until their tails meet at the center, each forming one of the three sides of the Hubtower, cupping its stone apartments, balconies, and other structure within the impervious scales of the Serpent Roads.  At the top is a great beacon that can be seen for miles around.  As the roads spiral inward within the city walls, a maze of connecting streets and alleyways join them, making the city resemble the nest of an insane spider from above.  To make matters more complicated, the houses of Hub are made of flat-topped adobe, many layers high, connected by many bridges and walkways.  This 'Monkey Road' is often faster than transportation at ground level, and can make finding a specific place in Hub very difficult, as the best route will frequently take a visiting elf through several other buildings, up a rooftop, across several bridges, and back down again, multiple times.  The highest rings of houses are built with their backs against the walls, growing lower towards the markets near the center of the city, giving it rather the appearance of a shallow funnel with an upthrust spike (the Hubtower) rather than a hole at the middle.  Hub is renowned as a mercantile center, and it is, almost anything (legal or illegal) can be bought or sold in Hub's markets.  Hub is ruled over by a coalition of guilds.  Their current Lord Mayor, chosen by the Guildmasters, is Lord Rellanthas, who made his fortune in the wine trade.  Each of the Brotherhoods keeps a school and shrine here, but the Brotherhood of the Fangs is by far the smallest and least impressive.  Sincere initiates may be recruited here, but are commonly sent out of the city to one of the larger camps they keep in the wilds for training.  Over the past two thousand years, Hub has worked hard to maintain its reputation for political and financial neutrality.  Although the tribe ruling Hub at the time of the Greenspear Wars was allied with Greenwood, and sent soldiers to aid his cause (as well as a wife), since then they have struggled to avoid seeming to take a side in any conflict that does not directly threaten their interests.  Some merchants of Avalon are still rather cool when speaking to Hubfolk anyway, but since few ever come this far into the sunny south it matters little.  Hub keeps no standing army in the modern age, by a treaty established since the Greenspear Wars, but hires mercenaries from the Freemarches or the Southern Cantrevs as needed.

Might 1  Treasure 6  Influence 5  Territory 4  Sovereignty 3


Pike Creek: Built along the southern banks of the Bumble, Pike Creek is a bit over a day's ride west of the Blue Serpent.  Eduran Greenspear commissioned its founding to commemorate the Auld Pike, a Mer hero of the riverfolk who brought his tribe with him as auxiliaries in Eduran's campaign.  The name is based on a joke, the Auld Pike jested once that 'The Bumble may be a mere creek to Avalon, but tis Pike's Creek, and he will not suffer outsiders to threaten his waters'.  The Mer of the Bumble River take the name as a sign that Eduran was not just bequeathing the town to them, but the entire river.  Consequently, there is little development along the Bumble aside from Pike's Creek, built at one of the best places for fishing, besides Mer hamlets on the islands and on the shores.  Small fishing towns exist, but are close to Pike's Creek and considered a part of their territory.  The Bumble is full of small, grassy islands and little streams rich with aquatic life, while dense stands of trees support a small but thriving trade in lumber.  The problem is that the Fat-Tongue Plague wreaked havoc on the Mer population of the Bumble, while the Short-Ears living on the banks were relatively unscathed.  Many Mer feel like their traditional leadership role in the town is being usurped, their last Council election tipped the scales heavily in favor of the Short-Ears and is the first Council in the town's history not to have a descendant of the Auld Pike among its members.  The hereditary head of the Pike's clan, Megbrob, has agitated for change and claimed that the election was rigged.  Although these claims are not widely believed at this time, Megbrob has considerable influence and charisma even without being a Councilor, and some elves take him very seriously.  Pike Creek itself is a massive town built into a high cliffside on one side of the river, both above and below the water.  There are homes on the other side of the river, but they are generally poorer and less fashionable.  Boats or swimming are essential for getting around, and the Pike Creek Water Market is a thing of beauty, with merchant rafts lit by colored lanterns selling everything from food to minor magic items.

Might 2  Treasure 3  Influence 3  Territory 3, Sovereignty 2


Redmoor: A small town built along the boggy edges of the Inland Sea, north and east of Bluebell.  No road leads directly to Redmoor from the Blue Serpent, but the road connecting the Blue Serpent to Bluebell extends onwards through the woods, over hill and dell through messy, wild country until it reaches the bogs surrounding the town.  Vast numbers of berries are grown in these bogs, and a rich supply of fish is provided by the fresh waters of the Inland Sea, which are shallow and overgrown here.    The town itself is built inside the hollowed roots of great, mangrove-like trees sitting in the swamp, or in the mass of deadwood platforms and boardwalks that keep the town itself out of the water.  Many of the people live outside the township in small coastal hamlets.  After the plague and the ghouls, no news and no representatives came from Redmoor to any of the smaller towns.  Riders sent out reported signs of habitation, but a number of empty farms.  Strangely, a year after the ghouls had gone, the shipments of berries and salt fish resumed, but the town itself remained silent.  In a more populous town, that would be cause for concern, but Redmoor has always been small and isolated.  Redmoor's Council has been dominated for the last three centuries by acid-tongued Sseilani, Speaker of Redmoor.  Redmoor did not have any tradition of having Speakers in its past, but Sseilani supposedly instituted it herself.  Redmoor, along with Pike Creek, is one of the two Free Towns sited at what were originally Mer settlements.

UPDATE: The necromancer Ssaerana, aided by a sorcerer named Mourn, overthrew the Redmoor Town Council and instituted martial law backed by a horde of undead.  The Tome of Black Depths, an eldritch conch shell containing the spells of the long-dead sorcerer Waterlogged, was stolen by a survivor of the Redmoor Town Council, Kokoltum of the Red Bog People Mer, who took it to Bluebell.  Ssaerana has declared war on the nearest town, and sent undead troops led by officers from the Hunter's Realm to Bluebell, where they have been defeated once in battle.

Might 3  Treasure 2  Influence 0  Territory 3  Sovereignty 1


Whitton:  Also known as the gate to the Hunter's Realm, Whitton sits just west of the Blue Serpent near where it enters the dark forests of the Horned King.  It has a longstanding rivalry with Birchbark, its neighbor to the south, as both are built in similar sorts of forest, both are major lumber exporters, and both are close to the Blue Serpent.  Birchbark is larger and more influential, as while elvish merchants might enjoy selling goods to the Horned King, not all of them wish to live so close to his domain.  Whitton, like Birchbark, is a tree-town, built treehouse-style in the branches of sung birch and ash trees.  It is named for the fine-grained white wood that is its main export, and demand for Whitton lumber reaches as far north as Rift, where it is a popular ship-building wood..  Discontent over the rivalry with Birchbark, and proximity to the power of the Hunter's Realm, has led to many whispers that Whitton's Council is considering an alliance with the Horned King.  These rumors are less based on distrust, and more on politics.  Whitton is very close to the Hunter's Realm, and since what passes through Whitton usually passes through the Hunter's Realm as well it is an absolute certainty that the Horned King keeps spies in Whitton to deliver news of what transpires beyond his realm.  Furthermore, envoys from Whitton actually do visit the Horned King at his hall to discuss trade, while he does not permit emissaries from other towns to do so, even Felt's Stand.  Whitton does have two advantages that Birchbark lacks, it gets goods from the northlands beyond the Hunter's Realm well before Birchbark does, mostly rich furs and gems, and it also has a seemingly inexhaustible tin mine.  Unlike Birchbark, which is relatively open from one side, voyaging to Whitton involves leaving the Blue Serpent and traveling through dense forest.  The roads are wide and kept clear by the efforts of Whitton lumberjacks, but every so often there are bandit attacks.

Might 2  Treasure 2  Influence 2  Territory 3  Sovereignty 2


Wisp: Very little is factually known about Wisp, the smallest and most mysterious of the Free Towns.  The rumors, however, have a certain commonality to them which resembles truth.  What is known is that Wisp is built in or atop an ancient ruin in the heart of the most desolate swamps along the Inland Sea, just south of the Hunter's Realm on an isolated spit of land.  It is known that it trades with Whitton alone, the people of that town serving as middlemen.  Wisp sends their wagons to Whitton directly, rather than permitting merchants from outside into their swamps.  Those who go seeking Wisp itself are either lost forever in the swamps, or return raving of strange visions and eerie music in the fog.  It is believed to be ruled by a coven of witches, perhaps some strange breed of Fae, for no known school claims its alumni to dwell there.  Even the vaunted Storm Sylphs have little idea of what the town is like or where exactly it is, fog always seems to obscure it, but captains of ships plying the coast of the Inland Sea report strange stone pillars carved with weird designs rising out of the waters, and the wreckage of great manses and towers half-visible in the mist.

Might ?  Treasure ?  Influence ?  Territory ?  Sovereignty ?

OTHER PLACES:

The Watchtree:  Near the join of the Bumble River and the Inland Sea stands a tree taller than any other in the Freemarches.  Of no known species, yet resembling a vastly oversized maple, it towers over the land, bearing apple-like edible fruits the size of pumpkins that taste faintly like fresh bread dough.  In the autumn, its narrow, hand-shaped leaves turn from their usual rich scarlet to gold, but do not fall, and resume their usual coloration in the spring.  No one remembers when, but at some point in the distant past the great tree was sung into the shape of a massive watchtower.  Its great trunk is riddled with wormlike passages and windows, its branches cup knotty growths sung into ramparts and guardhouses, and buried beneath its roots are great halls and barracks.  While it is indeed a mighty tower, nobody is quite sure what it exists to keep watch FOR.  The most popular theory is that it is a relic of some ancient war with the Inland Sea Mer tribes.  In the Year of Brazen Hooves, 1300 years before the present day (the Year of Black Seeds) a treaty between Bluebell, Farls, and Pike's Creek allowed for a small garrison to occupy the place, but it has stood deserted since the Fat-Tongue Plague.

The Bumble River.  A slow, lazy river winding its way from the Inland Sea to some dark, underground stream among the feet of the Trollspine.  The Bumble, as the locals call it, is wide, and while surprisingly deep in some places, it can be quite shallow in others.  Prone to flooding in the spring, the Bumble has many small islands and many smaller streams and offshoots, remnants of historic floods in the past.  The Riverfolk (attempts to call them “Bumblers” went poorly) are the main Mer tribe of the Bumble.  They tend towards a bluish-greenish coloration, long spade-tipped fingers with short webs, and a rather froggy laugh.  Like Inland Sea Mer, their gills are feathery and external, but a bit shorter compared to most.  Of all Mer, they are considered to be the best adapted to land, living on the banks or in shallow-water houses, and endure some contempt from the deepwater tribes for it, although the boggy shore tribes, such as the Red Bog People are somewhat related. The two have banded together before against Pearl Chasers and other Inland Sea Mer raiders.  The Riverfolk were widely considered to be weak and pastoral until the Greenspear Wars, where they were united under the Auld Pike and turned the Bumble into an impassible barrier to Avalon and her allies.

The Trollspine Mountains:  The Trollspine Mountains, known colloquially as the Trollspines or simply the Spines, march along the western border of the Freemarches and down into the Southern Cantrevs, cutting the Freemarches off from the western coastlands.  Although not as tall or as purposely impassible as the Skytooth Mountains shielding Avalon, the Trollspines have an evil reputation, and most settlements are built well east of their shadow.  Trolls haunt the forboding passes, goblins swarm in the dark valleys, and stranger monsters haunt the caverns and wander occasionally down into the Freemarches.  There are even legends of dragons haunting the highest peaks.   The southernmost reaches are the least dangerous, but are home to savage tribes of mountain elves, led by exile kings from the Cantrevs.

The Gloamwood:  A thick woodland clinging to the foothills of the Trollspine Mountains, this wood has an evil reputation of its own, of unnatural animals and weird monsters.  The forest is rumored to have be enchanted, and to ensnare those who wander within it.  Some claim that the trees can speak, and hate all things that walk on two legs.  Others claim that a powerful kingdom of proud, cruel elves once ruled the Gloamwood, but their wicked ways twisted their connection with the land and they fell to madness, poisoning the entire forest with their spite.  Still different rumors claim that an elder terror is entombed in the forest, and that the monsters dwelling there guard its resting place.  Of course, these are stories told by drunks in taverns, and those are about as reputable as can be expected, since no one in their right mind goes there.

The Hunter's Realm:  This section covers the actual details of the Hunter's Realm as it is today rather than its history.  A dark, dense forest fills this land, ranging from forbidding peaks along the foothills of the northern Trollspines to boggy mires in the east near the Inland Sea.  The trees are black, but taller than those in the Gloamwood, allowing a little more light.  There are many tracks off the Blue Serpent Road into the forest, but only those small mercantile towns, inns, and settlements built along the Serpent proper are safe.  Anyone who goes off the roads is fair game for the Horned King and his people, who view the consumption of elf-flesh as a way to increase their personal power and eagerly hunt trespassers.  The number of towns occupied by the Horned Ones, a tribe of Long-Ears who revere the Horned King as a near god, is unknown.  Speculation states that they have tree-towns throughout the woods, that they live underground like trapdoor spiders, or that they crouch in the ruins of the Twelve Tribes.  It's quite likely that all of these are true.  The Antler Keep, the high hall of the Horned King, crouches on a promontory overlooking the Blue Serpent Road, although only an exceptionally foolish traveler would attempt to seek shelter inside.  The following stats are speculation only, on what the Hunter's Realm's stats might be.  Territory 5 represents not only the forest itself, but sections of bleak coastline along the shore of the Great Western Ocean and barrowlands north of the dark forest that the Horned King considers his territory and could send troops to, but which are believed to be unoccupied.

Might: 5  Treasure 3  Influence 4  Territory 5  Sovereignty 4