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.
F1. Brookman’s Well: A
small spring at the edge of town that supplies most of Falcon’s Hollow’s fresh
water.
F2. Goose’n’Gander: The
local general store in 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.
F3. 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, Deldrin Baleson, 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 meat 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.
F4. Hollow Tribunal: This
is where the diminutive halfling magistrate Vamros Harg dispenses merchant
licenses, stamps mining and lumber claims, and passes judgement on criminal and
civil cases. Harg is an attractive young halfling fond of finery whose romantic
interests run towards his own gender. 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.
Thuldrin Kreed owns Vamros Harg and the halfling knows and
hates it. Harg was a failed barrister in Carpenden before coming to Falcon’s
Hollow. Kreed supported Harg and put him in power with the understanding that
he could just as easily tear down the magistrate at the first sign of
disobedience. Vamros doesn’t dare oppose Kreed directly, but every chance he
gets he nudges cases away from Kreed’s greedy eye and tries to give people a
fair shake. The halfling is ashamed of his own cowardice, but if a group of
hearty adventurers supported him in opposing Thuldrin Kreed, Harg might just
step up to the challenge and start doling out true justice.
F5. 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 man 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).
F6. 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 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.
F7. 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 nearly 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.
F8. Quinn’s Carnival:
Namdrin Quinn and his companions wow crowds with feats of skill and magic
by night. 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 wood. Some say Quinn the shadowdancer spies for the vengeful fey, who
plan retribution and murder.
Namdrin Quinn: 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, Tessa, he ended his career and established
his carnival of wonders on the edge of town. Namdrin is a sinewy half-elf of
corded muscle and bone, with a long face haunted by loss. His sunken eyes do
not fix on any who attempt to speak with him, instead staring off into a
distant and fading memory of the happiness that once touched his soul.
F9. Roots and
Remedies: Creeping ivy and full window boxes cover the façade of this
rugged-looking, two-story shop bearing the faded sign “Roots and Remedies”.
Owned by the local herbalist and healer, Laurel, the small, mud-tracked shop
smells of burnt earth and spicy incense. Bunches of dried herbs hang from the
ceiling, along with dangling pots, presses, alchemical apparatuses, and
glassware of more arcane purposes. Pouches of rare plants, jars of colored
glass, and all manner of dried, preserved, and jellied animal parts fill high
shelves and tables doing double duty as displays and workspaces. In the shop’s
rear stand a rack of herbs, a table covered in stray powders and measuring
equipment, and a pot that loudly bubbles whenever Laurel has the shop open.
Laurel: The local
herbalist, Laurel is a rail-thin half-Garundi woman with severe-looking
spectacles and hair pulled back tight. A tough woman, Laurel’s income stems as
much from her sale of snake oils and aphrodisiacs as from questionable
cure-alls and bitter teas. As quick to suggest expensive remedies as she is to
remind angry buyers that she is not, in fact, a physician, Laurel does her best
to help those who come to her in need, but her tight income, need to survive,
and pride prevent her from admitting failure.
F10. The Sitting
Duck: Located a little too close to the town’s palisade for many folks’
comfort, the Duck is the local hotspot 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 “lefty-loosy” (two dangerous local recreational activites,
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.
F11. Temple of
Iomedae: Falcon’s Hollow has few clerics. Despite little competition from
other churches and a demonstrated record of concern for the town’s residence,
Lady Cirthana, priestess of Iomedae, continues to struggle to win converts in
the beleaguered town. Few townsfolk trust Cirthana, and most lay their medical
concerns at the feet of Laurel. Most residents of Falcon’s Hollow avoid the
temple of Iomedae as much as possible, as the Lumber Consortium has made itself
clear in denouncing the meddling of the Inheritor in the town’s affairs. Many
other religious sects who fled here from Olfden and larger cities to escape the
Church of Light’s persecution resent the recent arrival of Iomedae’s followers.
Tensions run high among congregations, often resulting in less-than-holy brawls
on the muddy thoroughfares of Worship Way.
Sheriff Baleson’s posse of deputies includes a Greenfire
Circle druid, four burly lumberjacks uncowed by the consortium, and two retired
adventurers (former members of the Azure Guard) hoping to clean up Falcon’s
Hollow.
Boss Payden “Pay Day”
Teedum: Payden, the pug-faced, mash-nosed human thug licking at Thuldrin
Kreed’s boots, has a big bone to pick with Deldrin Baleson. The only reason he
hasn’t tried to break the sheriff’s neck is that Kreed fears turning Deldrin
into a martyr for other Falconers to rally around. “Pay Day” gets his name from
the way he doles out “dues” to anyone who fails to follow “Mista Kreed’s”
commands fast enough. Whenever Kreed ventures onto the streets of Falcon’s
Hollow, Teedum tags along, interposing his beefy frame between the gavel and
those Kreed angers (which is nearly everyone).
Kabran Bloodeye: Kabran
is a short-statured half-orc with blood-red eyes. He lost his nose as
punishment for numerous criminal activities in Augustana, which led him to flee
here. He wears a bronze nosepiece over the ugly crater left in the center of
his face. As he breathes, it whistles disturbingly and leaks blood and mucus
(which Kabran dabs away with a crimson handkerchief). Kabran is the master of
the Redrock Guild, an organized criminal syndicate that poses as a business
club and moneylenders’ union, but most Falconers know its members constitute
some of the vilest flesh-peddlers, sneakthieves, and murderers in town. The
Redrock Guild maintains an uneasy truce with the Lumber Consortium, paying the
large company a percentage of its take in exchange for a little legitimacy and
protection.
Kabran’s most notorious establishment is the Rouge Lady, a
burlesque and gambling hall whose back parlor doubles as an illicit brothel. Of
the half-dozen girls who work at the Rouge Lady, by far the favorite among
visitors and residents alike is the unfortunate young beauty named Ralla
Hebbradan, who peddles her charms to earn enough copper for her and her young
brother Hollin to survive. Few patrons ever catch a glimpse of the infamous
basement of the Rouge Lady, but it is well known that Kabran enjoys flaying his
enemies alive beneath the gambling hall, their screams adding somewhat to the
Lady’s dark atmosphere.
Thuldrin Kreed: More
than a little sadistic and cowardly, Thuldrin Kreed acts the part of town
bully. Unfortunately for Falcon’s Hollow, he also runs the town he bullies.
Often seen surrounded by thugs and murderers made loyal with coin (on the rare
occasions he deigns to leave his palatial house), Thuldrin takes unwholesome
pleasure in causing his fellow man to suffer. Strangely, though, Kreed can’t
stomach pain and misery not caused by himself or his goons – in fact, he
expends a great deal of the Lumber Consortium’s coins trying to protect
lumberjacks and the people of Falcon’s Hollow from marauding monsters and other
threats within the vale. Once he is sure of his employees’ safety, though, he
wastes no time in tormenting and torturing them himself.
Unmistakably foul and cruel-hearted, Kreed uses sometimes
petty but always passive-aggressive tactics against those who stand up to him. Up until recently, he frequently vented his frustration with his underperforming underlings or
demanding bosses on his oft-neglected and now dead son, Jurin. Thuldrin usually forgot he
even had a son until he needed someone weaker than himself to punish. When
surrounded by his hired goons, though, Thuldrin frequently possesses something
resembling a spine, and he has little trouble hiding behind Payden Teedum while
calmly leveling insults or challenges. Of course, Thuldrin controls nearly all
the power in Falcon’s Hollow, so those who truly anger him (with the exception
of the wily sheriff) always suffer for their impudence.
Falcon’s Hollow
NE Small Town
Corruption -1; Crime -6; Economy -1; Law -2; Lore -3; Society +4
Qualities strategic location,
superstitious
Danger +0; Disadvantages plagued
Demographics
Government Council (Lumber Consortium)
Population 1,400 (1,328 humans, 44
halflings, 14 elves, 14 other)
Notable NPCs
Gavel Thuldrin Kreed, leader of the Lumber Consortium; Magistrate Vamros
Harg, town
judge and barrister; Sheriff Deldrin Baleson, sheriff of Darkmoon Vale; Boss Payden “Pay Day”
Teedum, overboss
of the Lumber Consortium
Marketplace
Base Value 880
gp; Purchase Limit 5,000 gp; Spellcasting 2nd
Minor Items 3d4; Medium Items 1d6; Major
Items –
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