The village of Vallington has been your home all your life. The population is less than one thousand people, all leading meager lives in this small haven in the wilderness. The village is on the banks of a small creek, Unter's Creek, that averages about 10-15 feet across. It's wide enough for the Seward family to have built a mill with a water wheel on it, and all the local farmers bring in their grain to him to get it milled into flour and meal.
Beyond the creek, and beyond the farms at the outlying edges of the village, is the Drakewind Forest. The forest provides wood for the carpenters and for families to heat their homes in the winter, but no one goes deeply into it. There are all manner of dangerous beasts in there that sometimes come to harass the village. On the other side of the creek lies a small elf community and further downstream a small shifter community. Their clans had wandered to the village decades ago and while they are part of the village now, they still maintain a bit of their distance. Shifters in particular are definitely strange people, feral and dangerous, making the regular villagers nervous. But all the dealings with them have been fair and forthright, so suspicion has fallen more into habit than true fear.
In the center of the village is the market square. Every week the villagers meet here to barter crops, livestock, and crafted items. There are a few permanent shops also here in the market square: a couple of blacksmiths, carpenter, tailor, butcher, and baker. There is also Bill's Tavern there on the square, owned by Bill Bly. Bill lost an arm and an eye years ago to a hell hound attack which he'll gladly show you and tell you about. Most of the prominent citizens can be found at Bill's nightly, drinking and sharing their woes. The square also boasts a trading post where certain goods can be bought and sold by the Tels family on non-market days. Saran, their daughter, is there most of the time. The last building of note on the market square is the reeve’s mansion. The reeve of the village is Bergrand Othos, Sr., a rotund half-elf in his fifties. He runs the village much to the grumbling of the other citizens, and he comes up with rules and demands that feed his lazy lifestyle. Unfortunately, he has the means to back them up with Thurn at his right hand – a half-orc heavily scarred and tattooed never far away from his greataxe, and Mistress Falsto, a goliath of strange power. Plus, he has a great many thugs that do his bidding. Because of him, there are strange taxes that must be paid, and Bergrand and his cronies never pay for any drinks at the Red Crow, the tavern he makes his de-facto office. Not to mention that the Red Crow is owned by Thasn, Thurn’s father.
Worse for your generation is Bergrand Othos Jr, a self-important young half-elf thug in his own right who also has his gang of ne’er-do-wells. Bullies one and all, they haven’t been much good for anything constructive.
There are two actual temple buildings in the village. A temple of Duath run by Father Terfin, an old man beset by arthritis so bad he can't put on armor any more. And a temple of Dianc run by Mother Yasmin who is mostly overwhelmed by the demands on her by the village. She has an apprentice, Jada, who helps take up the burden. Unfortunately, Jada is young and beautiful and gets distracted easily by the attentions of all the young men of the village.
The village has no militia, no wall, and no real means to defend itself beyond the residents’ personal weapons passed down through the generations. Both of the smiths are better at creating pots and plows than weapons and armor, but they have made some attempts over the years to keep the arms of the village somewhat in repair and stocked. There have been a number of threats to the village over the years. These are mostly strange creatures appearing from the forest. But the worst to harass the village are the roving bands of hungry marauders and bandits. They come almost every year, stealing the harvest, raping and burning for the sheer joy of being malicious. The village tries to defend itself, but the bandits usually move quickly and stealthily in the middle of the night at unexpected times so a defense can't be brought to bear quickly enough. Besides, there is little formal training to be found in the village.
At the times of attack, the Othos family just barricades itself in their mansion with their thugs ready to defend it and their policy to the rest of the village is the same: defend your own.
This year, you and a number of your friends have decided that enough is enough. You will try to figure out when and how the marauders will come and try to deal with them somehow. They can’t have come from too far away. No one travels the roads and haven’t in your lifetime. There were some overgrown roads leading out of the village in two different directions, but they are barely visible anymore. Your parents talked about there being another village further down the creek called Fenton, but there hasn’t been a visitor from or to there in years. So the marauders must be reasonably close, you conclude. It’s only a few weeks until the best time of the harvest, and that’s usually around the time they start their attacks.
Other notable places and people of the village:
Dancing Pig – once the third tavern of the village, it is now abandoned and in ruins.
Viktor Fren – a goliath blacksmith on the market square. He is charismatic and sometimes looked to as a community leader. He spends much time in Bill's tavern.
Brebbo – a gnome cobbler who makes shoes for the community, his shop just down the road from the market square. Old with glasses at the tip of his nose, he also spends time at Bill's tavern.
Old man Hoster - a crazy old coot convinced that he's dead and we're living in the afterlife. He carries around an old book from which he reads nonsense now and then.
The Winton family - halflings Hant and Jant and their kids run the brewery that supplies the taverns.
Werent Bloodhand – a dwarven priest of Nuath, grim and dark. Broody, he lost a leg to bandit attacks and was rescued by the villagers 30 years ago and has stayed ever since trying to foster some teachings of Nuath. He takes the grimmer side of Nuath very seriously, and talks about trying to raise armies to fight Gaal, whom he is convinced is behind the destruction of the world.
Jalain Colento – a dragonborn priest of Concin, he was a refugee who arrived about 60 years ago. He is very old and still fighting the prejudices of the community. He freely talks about the mistakes of his people and tries to teach peace to anyone who will listen. He rarely has enough worshipers to make having a mass worthwhile.
Cofostos – an eladrin wizard, stays aloof and to himself, rarely seen at a tavern or inn, but he can be seen occasionally at the market buying food like everyone else.
Umgra Cynefrid – a fervent woman in her fifties, she is a priestess of Foersyn. She warns that sneaky aberrations are hiding, influencing and corrupting the minds and wills of men. Her paranoia has not helped drawing any worshipers to Foersyn’s faith.
Belin Eagle-Eye – an elf hunter who is a fervent follower of Mielik. He is sort of like a priest, but spends most of his time hunting, taking along young of the village who are willing to learn how to hunt and survive in the wild.
Geoffrey Jurken - human, talented carpenter who makes more basic items like wagons, boards for houses or porches basic tables benches and so on.
Defllyn Smoothhand - elf carpenter who does more finished fancier wood work, finely crafted and decorated.
Godolf - tiefling, runs the tannery, shunned by most everyone, he keeps to himself.
Velki and Selki - gnome sisters run the bakery.
Jakon Blademeat - dwarven butcher, with his wife Blodi and their daughter Nodi.
Gern Stonefinger - dwarven cooper, he smokes constantly and spends much time at Bill's tavern.
Krate Erfling - human male, cantankerous wheelwright, he has a mean streak to him, the kind who thinks it funny to drown a bag of kittens in the stream.
Varg - half-orc who strangely enough is a talented tailor. He is brusque and keeps to himself, but his clothes belie his ancestry
Jagan's Farm - Farmer Jagan has the largest herd of cows in the village and is the main supplier of beef.
Frul's pig farm - Frul is a half-orc, and supplies most of the pork in the village.
Klonfield farm - the Klonfield family is a huge extended family of heavily accented humans, who hold on to their own ancestral language. They are the Seward mill's best customer, growing all sorts of grains.