Rumours

    14/3/1358 DR

    Blanryde Hills

    Old limestone hills with few monsters or humanoids.

    There be that funny ranger man up there, he be pixie-led, you mark my words!

    Rivers (the Churnett, the Oldscutt & the Woldcote)

    Mostly slow-flowing, with currents flowing southwards down the Oldcutt, northwards up the Woldcote, and westwards along the Churnett. All are navigable by small river barges except inside the Shrieken Mire.

    Good fishin' most of the way. Mind you, it ain't as good as what it were when I was a lad, like.

    The Patchwork Hills

    Low hills with excavated agricultural terraces on the north side. Cutter Brook rises from the western hills. Again, there are few reports of humanoids or monsters of any kind here.

    They do say as how them goblin and ore critters wiped theirselves out in a big battle before I was knee-high to a grasshopper, like. Leastways, that's what they say.

    The High Moor

    Largely barren moorland used for grazing by shepherds to the south, around the margins of Milborne and its farmsteads.

    Aye, it be a safe enough place if you keep yer wits about you. Not like Howler's Moor! Why, I could tell you tales about that as would make your hair go white, that I could.

    The Great Rock Dale

    Very craggy, deep fissure, flooded in places, wooded in others. Full of steep declines; it's hard to move safely here. Wholly unsettled, wild land.

    There be all kinds of critters there, they do say. Orcs and goblins and 'obgoblins and all sorts; But they seem to spend their time fighting each other, and they haven't troubled us since the bitewinter, oh, seven years ago or more.

    The Hardlow Woods

    Old, often impenetrable, wild woods. Worgs and other beasts are sometimes a menace on the margins of the woods.

    Worgs! I tell you, I seen one the size of a horse three years back when it got a bit nippy 'round the end of the year, like. No, I tell a lie,'twas the size of a house! Well, all right, I admit 'twasn't me as saw it, but old Jethro, he done told me about it. Made his eyes near pop out of his head, it did!

    The Thornwood

    Extensive woodland. Only the area known as the Blessed Woods is known to be inhabited by humans, though some farmers graze pigs on acorns along Hog Brook.

    You don't want to go there, you mark my words. I can still remember the Scourge, as we calls it round here, when Count Parlfray brought in all them mercenaries to clear out the ores. Killed more of 'em than my dog's killed rats, they did. No sign of the varmints now. But there be darkness and evil in those woods, they do say.

    There be one of them druids in the Thornwood! The old druid--I misremembers his name . . . Darien, was it?--'e gathered his last mistletoe a few years back, like, and now there's this funny female critter runnin' round with a pack o' wolves, they do say. Wolves! I ask you! Owls and ferrets was good enough for old Darien. I don't know what the world's comin' to. Buy me another tankard?

    The Shrieken Mire

    Clogged fenland and marsh. Some people brave the margins to harvest marsh hay and catch small game, but the insects are a real menace in summer and the atmosphere is distinctly unhealthy.

    There used to be them lizard men there, do you remember? Not as we sees anything of them. Mind you, there's the ghost of that swine Artran Shrieken wandering in there, the evil wretch. And they do say as how there's Something Else. Calls herself Queen of the Mire, I hear, but what she--or it--be, I never could hear tell. No one I know'd be stupid enough to risk their lives and souls in the Mire, Gawds help us!

    The Halfcut Hills

    Plain limestone hills, with the keep of Count Parlfray, a major local landowner, nestling into its western margin.

    They do say as how one of the Powers That Be cracked the hills in half and took half away to make his throne, or his castle, or something. Leastways, that's what Old Grizzler says. One of them dwarf Powers with them funny names no one can remember. Not without enough ale inside them, anyway. Buy us another tankard and the name might just come to me...

    The Redwood

    Cultivated woods with many fruit trees and berry vines which yield fine crops in early fall, hence the name.

    Luvverly the Redwood is in the spring when all the flowers are in bloom. 1 done my courtin' there when I was a lad.

    Howler's Moor

    Barren, desolate moorland. Very little shepherding here, though there are some (easy to miss) trails to the north lands which cross the moor.

    Powers protect us, you don't want to go there, you mark my words! There be that terrible black dog, the Hound of the Moors! Its very howl can turn yer blood to ice, and it breathes fire and brimstone, that it does! I've heard as how it ate up a whole horse in a single mouthful, that it did, and ran the rider down and ate him up too. Lummocks, just thinkin' about it makes me go all funny like. Buy me a drink will you? Just medicinal, like. One of them little brandies--no, better make it a large one!