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Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Local Geography



General  features


The King’s road or roads
The king’s road was built from the Capitol in ancient times and was part of a network of such roads which bound the kingdom of Brandobia together. In this area it is actually two roads the east road which stretches up beyond the B’paran border and the south road which crosses it at the ruins of the old provincial capital about a days march west of the village of Three Willows  The kings roads are broad wide enough for two large carts to ride abreast  and where in good condition paved with stone sets, In this region very little of the road is still in that sort of condition, but local land holders work to patch it and keep it in a condition where it is better going than cross country even in the foulest of weather, where the minor local roads are not.   



Physical Geography

The country in general
Is hilly rising to the north and east as you might expect as the region is framed in those directions by the western spur and the main Laggosa range and, where it has not been cleared, wooded for the most part and rises to the north and to the east into high mountains. The woods vary greatly in thickness from impenetrable forest to light woods with scattered areas of open heath. The Woods are largely of broad leaved trees ranging form big trees like hornbeam, oak, ash and elm to smaller trees such as mountain ash, and hawthorns and briar in the lighter wooded areas around the heaths. Some evergreens of the same type as Scotch pine on the higher slopes of the spur and main mountain range but there are no classic pine trees. It is fertile country well supplied with both game and with edible forage in season and little troubled by monstrous creatures. Though the natural predator’s bear’s wild dog’s wolves and the like are capable of providing an insurmountable challenge to the foolish traveller.

Climate
The climate here like most of Telene is more temperate than you might expect at similar latitude on earth and the land is well watered both by frequent rains and by a host of nameless streams and rills flowing down to join the river Falax.  Snow is rare except on the high peaks in the deep of winter and seldom more than a significant dusting on the lowlands. It does however rain a lot as the weather all seems to come form the west and the traveller is advised to invest in a horse hair hooded cloak

The River Falax
Is a very fast flowing mountain river which has its source some where around the junction of the western spur with the main Laggosa range no one is sure exactly where as that area is deep uninhabited wilderness and seldom visited by civilised peoples. The river is never very wide but it is generally deep and difficult and dangerous to cross. The best crossings are at Falax Bridge on the king’s road where there is a wide sturdy stone bridge as well as a ford which is more or less passable most of the time. There is another ford north of that by the Sages tower which every one knows about its more passable than the one at Falax Bridge but very narrow as well as being rather difficult to get to as the Sages tower is in rough country well off any thing save a game trail.

Human Geography

Over view
It is fertile country and only its distance from the central regions of both Cosdol, mostly along the coast, and P’Bapar, on the other side of the Laggosa range keep its inhabitants so few.

Population
The people here are largely Bradodobian in origin as the original and  possibly even aboriginal Dreji clans who where here before the coming of the Brandobian empire have completely subsumed into the later comers. The very few identifiable Dreji in the area are migrants from the east who came when this was briefly under the rule of Kalamar and since. Some Kalamarans came with their conquest and  occupation  of the region as did numbers of Felloki who where used as federate auxiliaries by the Kalamarians to police the border between Kalamar & Brandobia whilst it lasted.  More people came form the east after the fracture of Brandobia into its current three kingdoms & even more after the collapse of Kalomarian power in the region now known as the young kingdoms. 


The Demi human population of the area is rather limited, to scattered elven settlements mostly west off the regional map with the usual associated spattering of half elves thought significantly fewer than in the western and  central parts of Cusdol.  There are no resident Halfling, the nearest local Halfling communities are many weeks travel to the south of here though a few halflings do pass through. There are  no known Dwarf or Gnome settlements either though as the Elves tell it and only they live long enough to recall there where a lot of both here in the distant past before the coming of the Brandobians however no trace of this remains beyond the memories of the elves. The region is largely free from Humanoids in its central area despite its sparse population and location on the fringes of civilised lands.

The mountain edges of the  region is however beset by humanoid tribes from the Largossa mountains mostly Orks and Goblins with relatively few Hobgoblins and those of an oddly primitive sort 

Languages 
The dominant local languages are the eastern Brandobian dialect, B'paran the western Kalamarian dialect and Low Elvish thought that is limited to those who are either of elvish stock or who have lots of dealings with elves. Many communities along the Kings road speak as a second language merchants tongue or at least have some understanding of it. The former human dialect is dominant in the west of this region and the latter in the east with the point at which the adventures are being the cross over point where most communities are effectively bilingual even if they use one or the other tongue as their day to day language.

Kingdom of Cosdol

Cosdolan county of Gerive  

The county of Gerive is ruled from the small town of the same name on the western most edge of the region by a half elf noble. The town was only established after the end of the Brandobian Kalamarian wars to replace the former administrative centre which was sacked twice at least during the fighting and stood many miles to the east. Too close to what became the border between the rival kingdoms. Gerive is heavily fortified and was built as a strong point in the defence of the border. Whilst it was never threatened by the Kalamarans who it was built to resist it did survive three sieges during the Brandobian civil war with its then lord remaining stalwartly independent until after the peace at which point he declared for Cosdol as his family had and still has a large degree of Elvish blood.

Fief of the Willows

Fief of the Willows is centred on a small village, called thee willows in low elvish, just to the south of the king’s road. The village itself is little more than a score of very modest buildings clustered around a small but sturdy stone keep built on a low round hill. Beyond the village is a lose ring of farms scattered in amongst rather scrubby woodlands and heath which slowly becomes more hilly towards the B’paran border. The East most of these farms is owned by the Meliac’s family and has for at least four generations.

The fief was reputedly founded by a Knight of the Brandobian order of the founder’s creation just after the end of the Brandobian Kalamarian war whilst the Kingdom of Brandobia was whole. The keep features a prominent chapel to the founder but at the moment no resident priest. The keep itself is impressive but on closer examination most of it outside of the walls and the chapel are in rather poor repair to such an extent that the current lord of the manor dwells in a conventional house just outside the gates of the keep.

Kingdom or City state of P’bapar

A’rakham Manor

An odd arrangement a large very solidly built stone inn standing alone for a scatter of ancillary buildings on the north side of the kings road all of the buildings are notable for being stone built in a region where building in stone is rare, most buildings being either of wood or timber framed with wattle and daub in fill and even more so that the stone used seems mostly to have been reused, much shows signs if working and very carful shaping, even if the stone has now been cut or shaped to a different purpose. The whole site is surrounded by a wide cluster of lumps and bumps of the sort which would excite an archaeologist if such scholars existed in Telene.

According to the inn keeper he holds the title of lord of the manor, but that title exists on the rolls of no kingdom and the name which is certainly spelt in the B’parian style is not a word which is found in either the Brandobian or Kalamarian tongues even in their oldest recorded forms. Nor is it Elvish   unless it has been very much twisted form its original form.

The inn seems to post date the rise of the young kingdoms and the splitting of Brandoibia but there may have been an ancient Brandobian village here about’s and Kalamaran records show that there was defiantly a way station on the road some where near the same site.  Either may account at least for some of the lumps and bumps; however the locals all inn staff says that the lumps and bumps are all natural and in any event best left alone.

To the south of the inn is the domain of the elvish ranger known only as one eye that is almost never seen and is taciturn to the point of silence even then.

To the north the scrubby woods thicken and the heath land disappears as the land becomes the forested foot hills of a spur of the Laggosa range. There are no known settlements amongst these woods and the rumours of the presence of monsters of all kinds. Not to mention very many stories of adventuring or monster hunting parties which set out but where never heard of again.

The lay out of the inn
The majority of the inn and its ancillary buildings lie to the north of the king’s road with only the black smiths come fariers come waggoner’s work shop  and forge to the south of it and a couple of small stone ware houses next to the low walled wagon yard.

To rest of the inn consists of a large stone built building just north of an parallel to the road which is quite the largest stone building which any one has seen outside of a major city. The main inn is three stories in height with in servant’s accommodation in the roof space public rooms and kitchens on the ground floor several common rooms each accommodating six beds on the first floor and a guest’s snug and four single or double rooms. Above that is a floor which contains another six single or double rooms, a fair sized room with a double bed in and some plain but sturdy furniture it as well as another twelve smaller almost cell like rooms with only a single truckle bed in them and little else.

A wing protruding from the back of the western end of the building and also three stories high accommodates the great kitchen on the ground floor another twelve smaller almost cell like rooms with only a single truckle bed in them and little else. With the innkeeper or as he styles himself lord of the manors accommodation being on the top floor of that with the accommodation of his personal servants in the roof space above.

Behind the main Inn building is a yard around the back of it stand form west to east a pair of small low stone sheds which house the inns brew house and under which is built the inns beer store. A small stone house behind that is the dwelling of the brew master and his family  Then comes the great stables a building of two stories with accommodation for twenty horses, a harness makers workshop above and storage for a great deal of tack and the raw materials to make it. There is again accommodation for in servants in the loft.

Then there is the foreigners house where the inn provides accommodation for undesirables like demihumans and the like it contains three ten bedded common rooms and a residents snug where demihumans are encouraged to stay and to socialise away form the humans, particularly if they are half orcs half hobgoblins or the like.  Above that in the roof are a couple of dozen very small rooms like the cell like singles in the main inn but scaled for Halflings and Gnomes however so few come through that they are mostly used as storage space.
 

Village of Etis wall

Just over the Cosdolan B’paran boarder and stands just to the south of the king’s road built around a low knoll, and it is the last settlement on the king’s road west of the Pass. It is a village of some two hundred souls almost all humans with around the same number living in scattered farms with in about a half days travel of the village to the north of the kings road stands the ruined ring of a Kalamarian way station and watch post which according to the people of Etis wall is haunted.  It is noted in Kalamaran records that the watch post was abandoned before it was finished even if to the untrained eye it looks quite like a finished building fallen into ruin.

Falax Bridge

A temple to the Wayfarer built around an old Kalamarian way station at the ford of the River Falax on the Kings road – here the Wayfarers have built a stone bridge as the ford is dangerous due to strong currents at the best of times and completely impassable at times of high flow. The Order here request a toll to keep the bridge in good repair & its current priest would very much like to raise enough coin to also pay for mercenary patrols of the road and to do other work to keep the road open but his faith prevents him for imposing such a toll and voluntary donations will only just pay to keep the bridge maintained & the temple guarded. 

The temple guard consists of about two dozen mostly retired caravan guards about a quarter of who can be mounted at need, this number varies considerably. Guards are always free to take up their old trade or to return to the homes and home lands they left often years before.

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