Longknife Town
Longknife Town
This is a large frontier trading town at the edge of the (very) wild west, where the main industry is logging in the nearby edges of the Great Forest and the Gloamwood (although felling those dark trees is risky business), and acting as the mercantile centre for mining in the mountains west of the Rushwater. Timber and ore are mostly floated down the Glimmerun, and then barged to where it’s used in the other cities. This is daunting work, as those woods are quite wild, and lumber camps and mines are frequently preyed upon by goblinkin and others. Being a frontier town, there’s a generally hard edge to life here, and the people are pretty tough.
Sitting near the headwaters of the Rush River (and on the shores of the Rushwater) gives it a strategic position, relative to the timber (and other) bounty of the edge of the wild. As well as being an alternate route around the Great Forest and it's notoriously fey-cursed Road. These factors have given the town a significant amount of wealth from trade and as a jumping off point for adventurers. The result is that there's surprising architecture and investment in a town this far from more cosmopolitan areas.
The political power in Longknife is spread between the guilds (the Lumber Consortium, the Mining Guild, the Merchants Guild, etc) and the Baron Mayor - Myron Wegrave. Most folk are farmers, tradespeople or lumber workers. Taking most administrative work from the Baron is Reeve Therrin Bule.
The town has a small stone wall around the older center, with some outlying markets as well as a small ring of farms to the south and east. Baron Wegrave maintains a small keep that is integrated in the walls of the town and has a small full time town watch (about 20), and a part-time militia (varies from 50-100 as needed) that sees fairly active duty patroling the roads and the shores of the Rushwater and the Rush River. Myron has negotiated deals with ranger locals based in Crux and Fellby to keep eyes on the roads, the forest, and the mountains.
Map
(map totally lifted/adapted from Dyson Logos original here)
Locations
Generally, the north side of the river is cleaner and wealthier, and the south side of the river is more working class. Generally, closer to the keep is more posh.
Mill Square is the center of town. There are 2 wells here flanking a very old oak. 2 days a week a market is set up here for those merchants and farmers that work close to the town. On the water side of the square is the titular town Mill.
Downmarket is the square where those from the hinterlands come in to trade - furs, timber lots, panned gold, livestock, etc.
Between Mill Square and Downmarket is Merchant Road and Little Merchant Road, which are the locations of the established shops in the town, including Ahern's Emporium, Beryan's Forge, Kersey and Mayne, and Moonlight.
Temple Square is the location of the only formal/consecrated temple in the western Marches. The circular building is the temple itself with internal shrines to the various Archfey. The connected building along the north side of the square is a cloister where the clergy and acolytes.
Docks ward is where (obviously) the docks are with many related warehouses and offices. The docks themselves bridge out to two small rocky islands in the Rushwater. Barges and riverboats moor here for transfering cargo or passengers. There is a long boathouse a little further up the river where riverboats can be pulled out and repaired.
The Southgate is lighter warded, as it faces the less wild South Shire. The East Gate, however, is quite heavily staffed and the watch towers on the NorthEast wall are always on the look out.
Keep and Outer Bailey are the seat of the formal government and power. Baron Wegrave lives in the Keep with his staff and closest retainers. The town guard and militia are stationed in the Bailey. There are barracks (04) and a well in the bailey yard. Reeve Bule's house (05) is in the Outer Bailey, as well as a small jail. The walls here are taller here - about 5m - than the rest of the outer wall, which is usually about 3m high.
Rivers Rest Inn is the higher-end inn of Longknife. It faces on Market Square, but also has an open wall to the river side.
The Hare and the Ass is a rougher, cheaper inn and watering hole that is often a spill-over for traders that did not make it to town for market in time to get a room at the Rivers Rest
The Goblin Hole (02) is a rough tavern in the Docks
The Golden Turnip (01) is an entertainment house of ill-repute, deep in a nearly walled-off neighborhood called Dead Fiddler Square, just north of Downmarket. Dead Fiddler Square is technically the triangular area just north past Little Merchant Road, but it has come to mean everything to the east of the actual square to the city wall.
Behind the Hare and the Ass is the Hoofmarket, where livestock are bought and sold.
Veale House is the (very) humble home of 2 elderly women Erma and Thela Veale, sisters, one blind, the other deaf. They are both respected and avoided, when possible.
Feradul's Tower (03) home to an unpleasant scholar