Next time our heroes leave the temple and head to Hommlet or out for a breather, there is an official notice for each of the characters with the lands that they now hold title too and the Farmsteads there that they must now manage.
The Mountains to the East of Sunnydale
Awarded to Vistra the Dwarf, because the duke is racist and since she is a dwarf, she must like mountains. There are a few things of interest in this place. First, important to the Duke, possible mines the war machine. There is coal in the Northern reaches, but there are veins of more valuable ores to the south. There is a mysterious road that predates Jarda there too.
The Ford West of Neloar
Awarded to Korin, the lands include not a ford, but a bridge and a road that predates the city of Jarda by lots. The road is thought to be the source of all the orcs entering the fledgling nation some people have set up a settlement a few clicks from the base of this bridge and they need defending. The Duke desires a road to this bridge to push an army through this bottleneck and he needs these people perhaps this will be a future new village.
The Ford East of Neloar
Awarded to Cal
Along the road from Neloar to Hommlet there is a small hamlet along one of the tributaries to that village and the duke wants to pull people away from the village and its recent problems. The land is mostly uncleared, but it is proving to be almost as fertile as Neloar. The duke wants to sap some of the strength of that town away as it is rivaling Greysteel. As such he is assigning an army engineer to this site to encourage growth with a palisade.
The Last Bridge, south of Greysteel on the Road to Jarda
Awarded to Io
This bridge marks the southern most extent of the land grant to Lord Greysteel, the bridge a gift from Jarda and the river itself the Southern border. There is a small settlement on both sides of the bridge. The duke wants to establish rule over both sides of the river and acquire taxes from these people. He hopes that one day his nation will be strong enough to stand against Jarda.
The Northern Cursed Lands.
Awarded to Moo the Paladin. This is the site of the seat of power that created the Temple of Elemental Evil over a hundred years ago. The Temple sacrificed the entire population to the temple in the end and left this town a ghost town, no one settled here as the land is reported to be cursed, but that was a long time ago. The fields are over grown with trees, the orchards still produce fruit and tall buildings loom in the woods. Some infested with ghosts of the previous inhabitants, but most only hold mouldering antiques. A group of youthful farmers have established themselves here hoping to avoid the rule of the duke and his taxes, but word has gotten out and wants this to change. He also thinks that it might be a good place for a village to counter the growing independence of Hommlet. Also, there may be more hidden treasures and relics.
Each area has about two hundred adults and a hundred children, a smith, a mill/brewer, a carpenter and one or two other services dependant to the locale. The people are split of woodsmen and farmers with most of the population doing both. There is an inn at last bridge. There is a small temple to Jarda in the Cursed lands. There is a a mason, and a smelter in the Mountains. There is a furrier and a fisher at the Ford West of Neloar. There is a saw mill and a small garrison at the Ford East of Neloar.
There will be some trouble at each location too:
The Cursed lands have a couple of dangers, undead of the more permanent kind, a minor lich or a vampire sounds like a good choice. There will be wraiths and specters too. Also there should be a few imprisoned devils or demons, bound to the site of a powerful site with old texts about the Temple of Elemental Evil. Maybe a dracolich.
The West Ford with the old road south and the bridge should include a ruin form that previous age. Something very small, something like a way station or an inn with an Ancient booby trap and graffiti that is written in ancient Orcish. Perhaps the inn is located in the arch of the bridge and contains a map of an Ancient and long dead empire. The road appears to be straighter than the average arrow, but according to the map, the road is curved, just over a very long distance. The clues of the map suggest the Capitol is for to the west and there is a regional Capitol to the South and a insignificant town to the North. The Southern City is gone, scooped out and filled with water. The insignificant town is bigger than Jarda and in ruins. See dragon. At the Inn, they retreat from the ruin and discover a Blue Dragon itching to Spark up a conversation.
The Mountain settlement is riskier than it first seems. There is a thriving community but there is a problem, Everytime the miners find a promising vein of mineral, they encounter a small mine that some other creature has mined before them. The one exception is the coal mine, which has its own problems, cave-ins and mine explosions and deadlines that mean no excuse for the people. The played out mines are being worked by a tribe of kobolds. The tribe has been in existence for a few decades and their god, lives on the mountain overlooking the new human settlement, a red Dragon. The kobolds have gained much experience and there are warriors and Sorcerors, not to mention a few Clerics too. They have set up mines and smelters, but give the majority of the wealth to the dragon. There are a lot of kobolds in the area, some of them are more powerful and others much weaker. If they are stealthy they may see the Dragon creating Kobolds out of the earth with blood and fire.
The Last bridge the threat is one that the inhabitants of Jarda have been living in fear of for a thousand years: a military expedition from Gutral Mastekeena. The expeditionary forces are preceded by refugees. First people fanning out running with fear of some unknown threat, strangers coming from distant lands. There are some spies mixed in among them most of the refugees are looking for a stable place to live, but some, those that come later have seen war and they are running. The spies are nearly indistinguishable from the others except they have a different look than the rest, but they say all the right things. They seem to be in better order though and they are better disciplined. They will learn as much about the area and then leave, or they will foment rebellion amongst the locals against the refugees—mostly so that they fight them and weaken themselves, soften themselves up for real conquest.
The East Ford was chosen to pull people from the village of Neloar and make it irrelevant. But just north of the chossen site is a ruin of a town similar to the Cursed Lands near Hommlet, but far older. There is a temple to an ancient power. An ancient temple to Drogath with a portal that leads to the moon of his name, ancient powers hunt those lands, werewolves in packs, night time undead able to roam the dark valleys day and night, creatures killed rise up at night, and towns of fearful humans and demihumans. Dark versions of Faeriekind, treants that kill, foes of darkness. And silent woods. Silent wet woods. No dragons. Demons and devils here are more rabid and cruel, if that is possible, insane, with rot and odd growths.
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