Falcon's Hollow
A blunt, sawdust-choked stop on a winding trade route, a festering haven of injustice and cruelty, Falcon’s Hollow rests perilously close to the infamous Darkmoon Wood. The long shadow of Droskar’s Crag casts a shroud of gloom on the desperate souls who call this place home. Many come here to make their fortune cutting darkwood lumber in the lush wood, while others journey to this remote fringe to start over, piecing together their shattered lives on the edge of an untouched wilderness far from the things of man. Persecuted zealots and outcasts flock to Falcon’s Hollow to practice their strange and often deviant rites unfettered by the mores of civilization. Finally, Falcon’s Hollow lures many explorers with the promise of great adventure nearby. The town, its people, and everything in it belong to the corrupt Lumber Consortium, controlled by the de facto leader of the town, the loathsome Thuldrin Kreed. His petty decrees and the consortium’s overpriced goods keep the people of the town prisoner as surely as if Kreed and his goons used manacles and chains.
Home to fewer than 1,500 humans and a smattering of other races, most of the townsfolk care only for the paltry coins paid for their backbreaking work and what simple comforts they can buy. A few, however, understand that what’s bad for one is bad for all, and they struggle endlessly with the Lumber Consortium to improve the lives of their neighbors—and by extension, themselves. The community thrives on a tenacious mix of greed, debauchery, and stubborn self-reliance. As much property of the Lumber Consortium as the buildings, cut timbers, and other assets in the town, the people of Falcon’s Hollow live in abject poverty and unending misery. Those born into Falcon’s Hollow (or those foolish enough to move there willingly—or even unwillingly) face lives filled with anguish and devoid of hope or betterment. The town has always had a surprisingly large population of beggars, tramps, and vagrants, men and women the greedy Lumber Consortium worked into destitution.
Falcon’s Hollow is a logging town through and through. Most buildings have log walls, or are finished with wooden siding. The roofs are covered in wooden shingles. The town is rough-looking for the most part, but some homes feature lovingly wrought ornamentation that shows their owners’ pride: decorative molding, carved cornices, window mullions, and delicate inlays on furniture. Sawmills and lumberyards are the main evidence of the town’s industry, along with dusty, exhausted cutyards filled with stumps. Sawdust invades nearly every home, bed, and meal in the community, like sand in a beach town—but locals claim one gets used to it, and mock those who can’t stand the dust. Around Falcon’s Hollow, the forest flourishes, dark and impenetrable, seemingly eager to claim the lives of those who endlessly assault its borders.
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.......... Important locales in Falcon’s Hollow town limits are listed here ..........
Falcon's Hollow -Location's Map
1) The Cutyard: A bustling place full of lumberjacks and woodcutters hauling logs from the river and turning them into timber.
2) Low Market: Open to everyone in town, the Low Market sells the High Market’s food leftovers (including meats and vegetables just starting to go bad), heavily salted many meats, and other foodstuffs that barely survive their trip to the market. Nothing in the Low Market sells for more than a few gold, and almost everything is worth only coppers.
3) High Market: With access restricted by Boss Teedum’s most loyal “boys,” the High Market consistently serves only those with some amount of influence in the town (Thuldrin Kreed and his lackeys, Vamros Harg, and visiting Lumber Consortium bosses and managers). Kreed holds a lottery once per month to allow in nine lucky residents for up to 3 days. All residents who work for the Lumber Consortium (which is nearly everyone, but excludes such notables as Laurel, Namdrin Quinn, and Lady Cirthana) are automatically entered, as the drawing is done by employee number. The winning residents can bring along up to three family members. The High Market sells meats and vegetables without a hint of rot on them; nicely made clothes of materials other than canvas, cotton, and leather; spices (including a popular vendor who sells only salt); and various items that cost more than 10 gold coins.
4) Ferry Dock: A dock large enough to moor the passenger bearing ferries from elsewhere on the river.
5) Jak’a’Napes: This leaning ramshackle inn located next to the town’s stables offers lodgings and food to the many travelers who pass through Falcon’s Hollow. The owner, a rotund red-faced human named Jak Crimmy, with a single wisp of bright red hair on his otherwise bald head, is a retired bard who sports an easy smile. Jak’s cinnamon-crusted flapjacks are legendary in town, as is his skill at juggling frying pans and his astonishing marksmanship with a heavy crossbow (Jak is a man of many talents).
6) Hollow Tribunal: This is where the diminutive halfling Magistrate Vamros Harg dispenses merchant licenses, stamps mining and lumber claims, and passes judgment on criminal and civil cases. Most Falconers enjoy the irony of the Hollow Tribunal’s name, since the justice meted out there is rarely equitable. The fact that Harg is firmly in Gavel Thuldrin’s pocket is well known, but it is rarely uttered in public by those who value their lives.
7) The Sitting Duck: Located a little too close for many folks’ comfort to the town palisade, the Duck is the local hot spot for adventurers, explorers, and other rapscallions looking for excitement. The tavern serves a potent local brew of fermented darkwood leaf that can floor an ogre in a few tankards. Raucous games of “knivesies” and “mig-a-mug-tug” (two dangerous local recreational activities both with a high rate of maiming) often rage late into the night. Many adventurers share tales of Darkmoon Vale, Droskar’s Crag, and other surrounding locations for the price of a mug of ale.
8) Lumber Consortium Headquarters: Once the most impressive building in Falcon’s Hollow, Thuldrin Kreed has allowed the office to fall into disrepair, for the most part, while his own manor house continues to nearl shine in opulence. Kreed only uses this building to host important consortium guests and other official business he wishes to keep out of his private estate. Otherwise, this once-grand and bustling building usually remains empty.
9) Temple of Iomedae : Run by Lady Cirthana. With all the downtrodden to preach to in Falcon’s Hollow, missionaries of Iomedae, Goddess of Valor and Justice, have established a foothold in town.
10) Kreed Manor: Home of the head of the Lumber Consortium, Thuldrin Kreed, is more of a residential fortress rather than a mansion
11) Vade’s Tower: Little more than a two-story shack, this is the home of Sharvaros Vade, a sullen hermit and wizard, and his son.
12) Roots and Remedies: Creeping ivy and full window boxes cover the facade of this rugged-looking, two-story herbalist shop.
13) The Rouge Lady: The silk-veiled parlors in the back of this burlesque and gambling hall doubles as an illegal brothel. Kabran Bloodeye owns this illicit pleasure den, where the unfortunate Ralla peddles her charms to earn enough copper for her and Hollin to survive.
14) Goose’n’Gander: The local general storein Falcon’s Hollow is run by the only gnome resident, Brickasnurd Hildrinsocks, who sells everything from standard amenities such as grain, lamp oil, ink, and mining supplies, to such rare oddities as alchemist’s fire, antitoxin, a petrified pseudodragon, and taxidermy nixies (all the rage this season).
15) Quinn’s Carnival: Half-elf shadowdancer Namdrin Quinn led a band of veteran adventurers who used to venture into the vale with frequency. After a particularly dangerous quest claimed the life of Namdrin’s wife, Tess, the half-elf ended his career and established this carnival of wonders on the edge of town. Quinn and his companions wow crowds with feats of skill and magic by night, but rumor has it that after the tents close Namdrin and his merry band entreat with dark fey, whose anger mounts at the constant lumbering incursions into the vale. Some say the shadowdancer spies for the vengeful fey, who plan retribution and murder.
16) Brookman’s Well: A small spring on the edge of town that supplies most of Falcon’s Hollow’s fresh water.
17) Serila's House: This is the residence of the Gudlinck family. William Gudlinck, a merchants working for the Lumber Consortium, lives her part of the year with his wife and daughter Serila.
18) Asilane’s House (Ruthviren’s Sister): A small shack along the wall in the north part of town. Asilane lives with her 2 year old daughter Tila and her drunken father Edmund.
19) The Graveyard: The Falcon’s Hollow graveyard sits a stone's throw away from the cliffs of the Perch, northeast of town. Large for a town of this size, the graveyard is a testament of how hard and short life is in the Vale.
20) The Iron Anvil: One of the only stone buildings in town this small but well built shop sells all manner of tools for farming and cutting of trees.
