Awkley Shire - General Geography

Awkley Shire is a remote area along the King's Road near the Eastern border of the Kingdom of Daria. In the years before the Nightshade War the shire was well settled, widely cultivated and was the seat of a great many small farming hamlets. In those days, more than a century ago, the shire was called Kalderas and was under the rule of the Kalderas family. Castle Kalderas and several of the larger villages were destroyed by rampaging swarms of undead during the Nightshade War. After the war the Kingdom of Daria offered land to foreign nobles who might come and resettle these wild regions so long as they swore an oath of fealty to the crown. The Awkleys are just such a foreign family, a powerful Northman Lord and his retinue of soldiers from the Warholds of the Northmen. This foreign Lord swore an oath of fealty to the King of Daria and was then given the Darian name of Awkley. The Awkleys marched into this area and drove monsters and lingering undead out of many of the villages and away from the roads although much of the shire remains dangerous and wild.

The Western Woods

These woodlands form the Northern border of the shire. They are located just across the Falathorn River which runs freezing cold and in a rush most of the year. The Western Woods have been dangerous and wild since before the time of the Kalderas family but they are less dangerous than the endless seeming expanse further North where they turn into Central Pictland and the Whistling Death Forest.

Kettlebee

Kettlebee is a walled settlement of small folk. Five centuries ago this entire area was home to a half dozen farming villages of these peaceful people with names like Kettlebee, Pony and Tankerdfield. Kettlebee is the only settlement which remains and is without a doubt the oldest village in the entire shire. Here in the shire the Gnomes are usually called Halflings. This is just a regional name. The Kettlebee Halflings have never had the military strength to establish a land free of the influence of the Humans who migrated into the area after them and because of this they have grudgingly created their own nitch within the Shire, first under the old Lords - the Kalderas and now under the young Lords - the Awkleys.

Kettlebee is a busy and bustling village of approximately 1,200 souls, mostly Halflings but with a few hundred Humans mixed in. It is surrounded by pleasant rolling farm country for several miles. Kettlebee is a productive community of traders and crafters which produces at least half of the wealth of the entire shire.

The Duke maintains a force of fifty Human militia in Kettlebee to keep order and collect taxes. The Kettlebee have their own defense force of two hundred Halfling Rangers organized under a Halfling Sheriff. The Sheriff reports to a group of elders made up of the heads of various Guilds and presided over by a Master which is elected every ten years.

The Cloakwood

Much of the NE corner of Awkley Shire is covered by the Cloakwood. Near Lake Kalderas in the center of the forest and near the roads the Cloakwood is a Light Woods and in the greater scheme of things acts as a level two monster encounter area. The roads themselves act as a level one encounter area. About a mile or two into the Cloakwood the terrain turns into Deep Forest terrain which counts as a level three monster encounter area and is quite dangerous. Beyond the Shire and further to the NE is the Bitterfrost Spellblight, a circular region of magically created eternal winter where the original Wizards of the Kingdom of Daria trapped the bulk of the Necrogarchy of Leng's undead army in ice during the height of the Nightshade War.

Bealdwick

Bealdwick is the oldest human settlement in the shire. It is constructed in what has sometimes been described as a heap upon a low hill at the SW edge of the Cloakwood where the King's Road, Old Road and East Royd converge. With its long history Bealdwick has numerous stone buildings which still bear evidence of the old days when the Kalderas family still ruled the surrounding lands. It was only within the last ten years when Duke Morgan Awkley came into power that the original coat of arms carved in stone above the Bealdwick gates was removed and replaced with the raven heraldry of the Duke of Awkley.

Bealdwick managed to survive the Nightshade War intact although one old quarter of the original town was burned and the foundations of those old buildings can still be seen amidst the meadows outside the Eastern wall. Over the last thirty years the Awkleys have gone through some trouble to expand and more heavily fortify the town which today has a population of 700 souls. In addition to the human inhabitants between fifty and seventy non-humans dwell within the walls. Most of these are halflings who have resettled for one reason or another away from their relatives in Kettlebee with a few dwarves and sometimes an elf or two thrown in for good measure.

Choke's Hunt

Choke is an adult Green Dragon which has its lair in a ruined tower and lodge on the shores of Lake Mirklore. The tower and lodge were built during the early years of the Duchy of Kalderas and were captured by the dragon in the middle of the Kalderas rule. The dragon has managed to fight off or kill all those attempting to remove it from the shire. It is a flightless variety of dragon with a breathe weapon of choking gas. The dragon ranges very nearly as far North as the old road and sometimes crosses the King's Road to the South.

Choke is believed to hibernate most of the year but wakes up to hunt during the summer months. Choke is believed to have a wealthy horde from the items it captured in the hunting lodge and summer home that once belonged to the Duke of Kalderas. At least two full adventuring parties have attempted to confront Choke but have never been heard from again.

Lake Mirklore

A large, deep lake located in the North Western part of the Shire. On the North shore of the lake sit miles of old farmland mostly abandoned on account of the presence of the dragon which inhabits the old Kalderas hunting lodge on the middle of the Eastern shore. On the East shore there are light woods which come right up to the edge of the lake and which surround the old tower and ruins of the hunting lodge to such an extent that they almost conceal them from view. The Southern shore of the lake has open meadows and fields and the silent buildings of long abandoned farms.

All in all Lake Mirklore is a wild place which even orcs, goblins and gnolls avoid and with good reason. Wildlife and monsters of more animal intelligence are fairly common in the area whereas intelligent monsters are not usually present. Anything with any real sense avoids the area on account of the presence of the dragon.

The Old Road

The Old Road connects Kettlebee to Bealdwick but it follows a winding route through woodlands and rough country. Traveling as the crow flies a traveler might walk twenty five miles or thereabouts to cross the distance between the two villages but that journey would take a person through some very dangerous countryside. Following the winding road the journey is roughly forty five miles in length and takes a person, even someone riding a good horse between three and four full days to make the trip. Within ten miles of Kettlebee the Halflings who are members of the Rangers keep the road clear and safe for traveling. Within five miles of Bealdwick the Duke's Royd Watch keeps the road clear for the most part in any direction so long as it is along a road. The patrols of the watch do not venture more than two miles distant from Bealdwick in the woods close to the village.

The Kings Road

The Kings Road is the oldest highway within the Kingdom of Daria. It connects the capital of the city of Damor on the Old Coast of Sorathmar and the ruins of the original capital of the Kingdom of Daria, now a frozen heap of rubble at Old Dessrean. It is the only road which was once cobbled with regular graveled and protected rest stops all along the route within the Kingdom. Up until the Nightshade War it was the principal route connecting the old inland capital and palaces of the King of Daria with the ocean port of Damor to the Southwest. Following the Nightshade War and the creation of the Bitterfrost Spellblight the road from the large village of Snowbend all the way Northeast to Dessrean began to fall into ruin. For most of the century following the creation of the Spellblight the winter was endless and unrelenting and constant layers of snow and ice all but obliterated the cobbles and original bed of the road. Within the last fifty years the magical winter has begun to slowly recede making life in the Duchy of Whispglow, Awkley and Blythe Shire significantly more hospitable and allowing the brave peoples still stubbornly inhabiting the region to reconstruct a dirt and gravel wagon road along the path of the original highway. In the last twenty years many of the cobblestones of the highway have been salvaged and turned into bricks for construction within the Dragonsmarch.

The East Royd

The East Royd and the Kings Road are one in the same as they travel East out of the village of Bealdwick but beyond the devastation of the Bitterburn Forest they diverge at a place called Turley's Wall. There the King's road resumes heading North towards the Ice Gale and the East Royd travels further East in the direction of Candle. The East Royd vanishes roughly ten miles beyond Turley's Wall, disappearing into a muddy wetland within the Eastern edge of the Cloakwood. From that point a traveler must make their own way through the forest if they wish to continue on to the village of Candle. A remnant of the East Royd departs Westerly from Candle but stops only a handful of miles away from the settlement at the blasted remains of an old stone bridge, a construct destroyed during the Nightshade War to slow the advance of the undead forces.

The Bitterburn Forest

The Bitterburn Forest is the site where the bulk of the Necromaster's undead host encamped itself at the height of the war. From here many arcane magics too horrible to comprehend were cast forth against the valiant defenders of the Kingdom of Daria. The wizards of Daria for their part returned the favor by blasting, burning and cursing the entire region where the Necromaster was encamped until it turned into this misty, fetid, stinking burned out moonscape known as the Bitterburn Forest.

One of the hold overs from the war, a creation within the laboratories of the Necrogarchy of Leng still hides within the Bitterburn. This is the Displacer Dragon Naxinor whose hunt encompasses most of that area. Naxinor is said to have its lair within the old temple constructed here by the servants of the Necromaster, the old headquarters of the undead army.

Naxinor's Hunt

Naxinor keeps to the permanent mists and fogs enveloping the ruins of the Bitterburn Forest. He is believed to be old enough that he hibernates for at least half of the year but exactly when is a complete mystery, even to the locals. Most people avoid traveling very far down the East Royd from the village of Bealdwick out of a fear for encountering the beast. Those few who risk the journey have reported that the unseasonable winters caused by the Bitterfrost Spellblight return as one marches through the Bitterburn Forest and that the Cloakwood to the East of that place are locked in several feet of snow and freezing cold at all times of the year. Naxinor is not the only dangerous evil along the East Royd where it bisects the Bitterburn Forest. Some mindless types of wandering undead still infect the area and ghouls and worse are known to linger in that place.

The Boglund

The current year is 585 KR (Kingdom Reckoning) but three hundred years before the establishment of the first King of Daria this land was a beautiful and fertile country with a few dangerous woodlands to the North and East but otherwise quiet and peaceful. In those days the Gnomes were the only intelligent humanoids to settle the land. Elves passed through from time to time but their presence in the land had become minimal even in those days. Dwarves would sometimes travel down from the Kingdoms of Mithril to trade with the Gnomes and men dwelt in the far North in the Warholds of the Northmen or across the Sea of Harlots in the ancient human lands of Carthusia and Anorak. In those days there was no swamp in the shire.

It was only after the Elves fought one of their last great battles against the Chaos goddess Shub and her forces deep in the Whistling Death Forest to the North that the wounded and hate filled goddess fled South and through this land. At night she hovered silent and massive, a great tentacled Egg over "the hill" as it was known in those days, one of the most important landmarks in the Shire and she planted some piece of herself deep in that hill before fleeing further South and across the sea.

The evil seed that Shub planted in the hill festered and grew wicked and strong. Over two centuries the Boglunds grew up around the hill and the country changed growing more wild and dangerous with the passing of the years. The Gnomes which dwelt in the villages of Pony and Half Field became twisted, stooped and changed. They turned into the Gupper Halflings which now inhabit the Boglunds and are known to worship the thing in the hill.

Skittern

Skittern is a village of the strange mutant halflings called the Guppers. It is the largest village of the Guppers in the Boglunds. The huts in Skittern are constructed up on poles with scaffolding and ramps connecting each cluster of huts one to the others. Some of the huts are constructed to look like frogs, the mouths of the frogs being the rag covered doors into the huts and the eyes each a window glowing with pale illumination from the fire inside. All of these are constructed to face "The Hill" which is the site where the chaos goddess, Shub, placed a piece of herself, some seed of evil which has grown and festered inside of the hill ever since. The evil inside the hill created the Boglunds and its influence mutated the Guppers changing them over the centuries from the regular sort of Gnomes which still dwell up in Kettlebee into the broad faced, sad eyed, frog mouthed creatures which they are today.

One of the old Pict war chiefs came down out of the Whistling Death Forest during the early years of the Duchy of Kalderas and constructed a temple on top of the hill and evil Pict priests danced naked dances with strange things of chaos under the stars and were joined by the Gupper folk in their vile revelry. The old temple on the hill has ever been a place of evil although the second Duke of Kalderas marched down and burned the place into a ruin hundreds of years ago.

There are caves under the hill and creatures that call the Boglunds come to the hill to pay homage to the thing that lives down inside of it. The rangers from Kettlebee keep a wary watch on the area and Duke Morgan Awkley would like nothing better than to see the hill finally cleared of whatever dwells within it.

Taverndale

East of "The Hill" and the ruined temple is Taverndale, a town first established by Morgan Awkley's father some fifty years ago. Taverndale was meant to be a means to draw adventurers and mercenaries into the shire while keeping them down in the Boglund where they would be less inclined to turn into bandits and problems for the peaceful farmers living in the main villages. The Awkleys have been on the lookout to increase the size of their militia as well as the strength of the Royd Watch and the Duke is always hoping to clear more of the wild and dangerous parts of the shire so that farming and trade can expand.

Taverndale is built on the premise of, "if you build it, they will come" and so a half dozen taverns, two Inns, a goodly amount of gambling and a trading post was set down as a means to draw the "right sort" into the area, and it has worked for the most part. A half dozen forays have adventured into "The Hill" and at the present time the old temple ruins at the top of the hill and much of the first level are more or less cleared of the worst dangers.

Things have slowed down recently however after two different adventuring companies disappeared trying to press deeper into the dungeon. Taverndale remains a fairly bustling place in the mean time but everyone is hoping that a new adventuring band will gather in Taverndale to finish up dealing with the thing in the hill and haul more loot and treasure out of the underground and into the town.

Abisinor's Hunt

Abisinor is a large and old black dragon that lives in the Southern end of the Boglund. Abisinor came to the Boglund very early in its development when the swamps had not yet expanded far from the immediate few miles surrounding "The Hill". Abisinor dwells in the ruins of the old Gnome village of Half Field, which was once, a very, very long time ago, one of the two largest Gnome settlements in the entire region. Abisinor was attracted to the village because trade with the Dwarves in the Kingdoms of Mithril to the North had made the Gnomes wealthy and they had a large amount of gold and gems stored in the vaults below their city hall. Abisinor killed or drove off the Gnomes and set up his lair in the ruins of the old stone city hall right at the center of the town. Since that time the Boglund has greatly increased in size so that it has grown up and engulfed most of the ruins of the Gnome village leaving a few silent stone structures and walls as all that is left of the place.

Abisinor sleeps most of the year. He is rumored to be active at times in the winter and at other times in the fall but it is hard to say exactly what his habits are. Not even the Guppers will roam into Abisinor's Hunt and it is a wild part of the bog, almost entirely given over to dangerous beasts.

Skittern and Taverndale: Map Key

1. The Temple of the Frog and "The Hill".

The Hill has existed within the borders of what is now Awkley shire from time out of mind. Far back into the earliest history of the surrounding land when only the Gnome folk dwelt here and all the surrounding countryside was good for grazing and the growing of crops, the Hill seemed an important feature. Of old when the Gnome village of Grensteading was constructed at its Eastern base the Hill was used for gatherings, weddings, festivals, and sometimes for burials.

The Hill sits at a crossing of the ley lines. Lines of magical power tied to the turning of the wheel of the year and it has ever been a place of power. This was thousands of years ago when the Elves ruled a Kingdom in the forests just North of the shire with scattered free holds dotting these environs but much of the open fields and fertile country was left to the Gnomes to settle.

Towards the sunset of that first age when the Old Ones had broken through the Elven portals a great battle was fought just fifty leagues from The Hill. Wounded and fleeing from defeat the Chaos goddess Shub, a great and loathsome tentacled fleshy orb floated South bleeding her black blood into the soil. Shub was drawn to the Hill and lingered there briefly, long enough to deposit some dark seed of her own deep into its heart. Afterwards she fled further South over the sea never to be seen again.

What Shub planted into the Hill changed it. Turned it into a brooding dark place full of danger and dread. The climate slowly changed and over the centuries the Gnome village of Grensteading was abandoned and then sunk, forever forgotten beneath the growing murky swamps now known as the Boglunds.