Setting

[Nina]

I will be placing setting information in this thread.

[Nina]

The setting for our little adventure is the remote village of Havendale and its surroundings..

 

Havendale sits in the Kingdom of Apria, though the cities and the capital of their Kingdom lie far to the south of the Dusky Wood, a vast thick forest which lies several days journey south of Havendale.

 

To the west of the village, the light woods and foothills give way to the majestic West Wall mountains which runs north and south bisecting the the land and forming the kingdoms western border with the lands and nations of the west and the great ocean beyond. Their are many paths, passes and trails through the mountains and it is said that once Dwarves and Elves alike resided in them, though in this age all that are left are the abandoned mines of the dwarfkin who moved to richer lodes in centuries past, and the hidden enclaves of the departed Elves which are said to stand as they once did yet still sit shrouded in dread, empty of all good things. In more recent times (within the last two centuries) the mountains have harbored Dire Wolves and other menacing creatures as well as tribes of Orcs and Goblins. The settlers in the region made war with the orcs for almost a century but the orcs while more numerous could never unite as one and so were beaten back. It has been some fifty odd years since any orc or goblin has been seen in the vicinity of Havendale

 

Many streams and small rivers flow from the mountains and feed the hills and plains with plentiful fresh water. The hills are well suited to the raising of sheep and the woods supply quality lumber for building as well as good grounds for hunting, deer and elk are plentiful, but beware the bears and mountain cats which prey upon them. The flatter lands at the foot of the hills have provide fertile soil for farming. Beyond the hills the land stretches to the east for many leagues eventually becoming sparsely populated plains until you come to the great River which marks the eastern border of the kingdom.

 

The Great River, also called the Tribiron, has its origins in the northern West Wall mountains where it flows fierce and strong eastward for many many miles before turning south thus forming both a northern border of Apria, as well as the eastern. To the north lies the distant Kingdom of Raicaea and beyond Raicaea the cold north. Beyond the eastern River lie other lands and kingdoms.

 

Havendale has warm dry summers, wet springs, and cold snowy winters. none to the extreme. Thunderstorms and lightning are frequent year round but more so in the late spring and duirng the summer. Tornadoes are unknown here. Blizzards are possible in the dead of winter, but seldom deadly.

 

So this is the land in which our adventurers are born and where their journey will begin.

 

Havendale is the largest village in the region with some forty-odd families living within its walls and another two dozen or so on outlying farms of which Havendale would be the place they would take refuge in if need be. While as large as a small town, in keeping with tradition, it maintains the name of village because of its wall. In Apria, towns are never walled like forts. Havendales walls are formidable and well maintained rising a good dozen feet high with the first six being of stone and mortar the rest strong palisades of straight logs bound with iron. Built when the province was a frontier (truthfully it still is) wild dire wolf packs and orcs from the mountains threatened the settlers and many raids were made testing the walls and resolve of the settlers. The village won out. Neither dire wolf nor orc has been seen in the region for more than fifty years.

 

The village is run by council with a spokesman selected each winter to bring grievances to the local lord for a year. The Spokesman at this time and for the last dozen years is Jaspen Miller, whose family has run the village mill since its founding more than a hundred rears ago. There is a single inn, named The White Hart Inn, which serves as town meeting hall, tavern and hostel. There is a blacksmith, tanners, textiles, a baker, a cabinet maker, in short all the things you would find in a larger town are available, merely limited to only one or at most two. There is a village guard made up of half a dozen men and women who make a permanent force and act as police. They have been trained by the local lord and are armed by him with short swords, spears, and armor.

 

The local Lord is a knight whose family was granted fiefdom over this region a century ago. The lord, his name is Sir Cecil Trovare, is the seventh to hold the title. His castle, Castle Trovare,  little more than a single tower with a house and barracks for his troops surrounded by a sturdy stone wall, lies a half days journey to the northeast along one of the small rivers. Sir Cecil commands about twenty men at arms but can call upon the villages to supply the guardsmen he has trained if trouble comes. This has only been done a few times since the orc wars. Cecil and his twenty men at arms are responsible for all of the land north of the Dusky Wood and between the West Wall and the Great River.

[Nina]

Havendale follows the general calendar of most of the kingdom. Days are not named but are counted first thru ninth with the tenth day being Gods-day which is a day of rest, reflection, and worship. Then the process starts over. Every third gods-day is a Feast-day which are named, usually after a god worshiped by those who celebrate or for some major historical event and follow a set order throughout the year. While not called such these periods correspond roughly to our months. The third Feast-day, or month, of each season is a special occasion which generally lasts from two to four days of celebration Ending with a seasonal feast where whole communities celebrate the change of the season form one to another together.

 

Gods-days are days of rest from work, and of worship. If there is a temple or shrine in your village the Holy-man or woman who attend it will usually hold a worship service for those who visit the shrine. It is expected that those who live within the walls should attend the service but not required. Those outside the walls are welcomed but it is assumed their head of households will offer prayers and such for those who live outside the village proper.

 

Feast Days are basically Gods-days, but it is again expected that all who can will attend the Holy Service and there are feasts held in each home which are attended by intimate and extended families and close friends. If invited to a Feast-day, it is considered an honor very rude to turn down.

 

The Seasonal Feast day of which there are four each year are celebrations the whole community participate in. There are games and ceremonies, such as Coming of Age and Naming ceremonies, dances, gift giving, and are always capped off with a communal feast which will last a whole day. Everyone is expected to participate and most do.

 

The two most important Seasonal Feast Days are the Rising to Summer Feast-day, where spring turns to summer,  usually simple called the Rising Feast-day, and The Falling to Winter Feast-day, where autumn becomes winter, and usually called the Falling Feast-day.

 

These are most important due to the special ceremonies which are conducted during these Feast-days. During the Rising Feast-day the communities celebrate the Coming of Age of the cities, town, and villages children. This is when the young boys and girls of these communities become young men and women. This occurs during their fifteenth year which is counted not from their actual birthday but from  the number of Rising Feast-days they have been alive for.  On a boy or girls fifteenth Rising Feast day they undergo a Ceremony and become men and women in the eyes of the gods and their community.

 

On Falling Feast-days the important ceremony is the True Naming Ceremony or simple Naming Ceremony. True names in this world are very important. Names have power and the knowledge of a True Name gives one power over that person, place, or thing. Everyone has a True name but not everyone knows their True Name or wants to for that matter. On the next Falling Feast-day after a person’s coming of age any person can seek out the villages witch or wiseone and asked to be named. If the witch or wise one sees wisdom in revealing the supplicants true name, they will take them to a remote place of power and will conduct a secret ritual and revel that name to the supplicant. The witch or wiseone can refuse a supplicant and need give no reason. And a supplicant can seek their name at any time even if refused before.

[Nina]

Coins

 

In the villages of the North, most trade is done with barter, but the monies of the kingdom are not unknown, it is just not plentiful, with most households seeing no more than a smattering of copper pennies and one or two of the smaller silver coins of the kingdom or neighboring reams.

 

But Money is much more prevalent in the more populous areas of the kingdom and surrounding realms. The types shapes and value of the various realms coins are numerous to a fault so we shall concentrate here on the coins of Apria, and even then we will only cover the most common that are in use.

 

To begin, unlike some realms the Kingdom of Apria does not itself mint coins, rather is sets the value of coins and the shapes and forms to be used by the cities of the Kingdom which are granted the right to mint coins as they may.

Other realms have their own rules governing such things within their own borders.

 

In Apria any city with a titled lord of the noble rank of Earl/Countess may commission a coin mint. Metals used to mint coins are often alloys but are generally referred to as the metal with the largest percentage in the coins makeup.

 

The most common metals used are Copper, Silver, and Gold. Other metals which are used for special denominations are Bronze, White-gold, and Platinum.

 

The smallest legal coin recognized by the crown is the pick, which is a small copper coin wedged shape the largest is the Gold King which is a large circular gold coin  that is 2 to 2 ½ inches across and must by law contain one full ounce of gold by weight.

 

1 copper pick -  4 picks make a copper penny- 10 pennies make a Silver Deci ( rarely called a deci but most often just called a silver)  – 2 Silver Deci make a Silver Half Crown – 8 Half crowns make one full silver crown ( the number of coins is due to the weight of silver. Half crowns have a low amount of true silver being made mostly of nickel, where as a full crown must contains 75% pure silver) -  10 full silver crowns make 1 gold noble, 20 gold noble make 1 gold royal – 5 gold Royal make 1 gold Crown.

Three rare gold coins are the gold Prince worth 2 gold crown, the Queen worth 6 gold crown and the King worth 10 gold crown.

 

Other coins are the bronze baal worth 50 copper pennies, an over sized coin made of a half-ounce of bronze, The Gold Star, which is a coin made of white gold and of equal worth to a Gold Queen but is smaller in size and weight. And the platinum Visage with is the only coin allowed to bear the images of the kings of Apria. These rare coins are worth more than their weight often commanding 100s of gold queens or even Kings.

 

the most common coins in use are the copper penny, the silver Deci, and the gold noble

 

Spoiler

Haygar had given you 30 gold royals and Gedder paid each of you with an old Gold Prince.