Ninth Moon, The 75th Year of Augrinus, 605th of Empire –
The day after the autumn feast with imported beef, also called The Feast of Good Fortune. The day that Tolby Jemmas arrived with news that the Emperor was dead and the Empire had broken apart. Also the day that the Visitor arrived.
The Imperial City was attacked by an army so vast it spread from horizon to horizon. – Tolby Jemmas
A horde of beasts and orcs and monsters. The walls of the Imperial City, thought impenetrable, were blown apart by magic. – Tolby Jemmas
Permbina, the Viscounties of Tripencense and Lindis, and the Imperial Heartland lie along the way to the Imperial City.
"Eignsburg and Pembina are at war!" – Tolby Jemmas
The normal fare of the townsfolk was made mostly of stout hearty vegetables and barley. Some of the farmers had a small handful of chickens or goats, for some meat and milk and eggs. Finally, fish from the river rounded out the plate.
The winters of Dragonsford are long and bitter. The river freezes over.
Aside from the farms and buildings shown on the town map, the valley is uncleared woods.
Dragonsford has a wooden palisade on its west side.
The Swanstead Estuary flows northwest.
The town has a few rowboats. The water from the estuary to the Autumn sea is navigable but dangerous, with narrow channels and lots of rocks.
The watchtower is a little three-story building with a makeshift bunk room and storage.
The nearest known town is abou 500 miles away, around 15 days travel by horse.
"They say the dwarves live to the east, out over the Eastern Ridge up the Ochre. But no one has ever gone out that way to meet them so I don't know how far it would be. Usually they trade south with the Grand Duchy or Rouge through the Spine, but thats a long long way all around the Empire from here. Those are the closest I know of at least." - Mayor Maltravers
"The silly thing is the Swanstead is a perfectly serviceable river for boats and barges. It's the lifeblood of the Duchy of Chanchester, wide and deep and calm crossing the entire inner steppe. But it goes down the falls through the Spine, just up river of Lake Shade. And nothing is getting over that without being dashed to pieces." - Mayor Maltravers
"They have always said there was a pass to the southeast and through to the Grand Duchy, but I don't know if it has ever been mapped." - Mayor Maltravers
Town Places
Town square
The town hall
The Star God's chapel
The Black Tavern
Old Inn
Smithy and shared stable
The Old North Road
NPCs
-Portly Mayor Maltravers
-Old Constable Valcruz
-The elderly vicar of the chapel
-Tolby Jemmas, a local boy conscripted and become an Imperial legionary-messenger, and his local
family
-Granny Bellows, granny of PC Bertram Bellows
-Bertram’s brother, who has a shop
-Communal horses - Duke Duxley, Old Fell, and Taffy
-The blacksmith’s horse
-Tolby Jemmas’s horse
-Augrinus, the slain Emperor
-Augrinus’s two sons, also slain
-The Visitor – A traveler with fine clothes and rings, but a simple short sword and padded leather armor, who sometimes visits the town. He seems a traveler with no horse or pack, and no one see him arrive or depart. He seems to be able to observe things from a position and distance from which normally seeing and hearing would be impossible.