Novis
Novis is something of an anomaly as far as settlements are concerned. The majority of the buildings present are long abandoned or temporarily inhabited by someone or something looking to find something of value in this place.
The whole of the area is an island adrift in a vast and dark void, with one land bridge connecting it to the rest of the surrounding landscape. The void surrounding the location seems boundless, but stranger still is the passage of time within the local is stunted from the perspective of an outsider. In other words, time passes faster here than in the rest of the outside world. The extent of this phenomena is unknown and thought to be variable.
The main keep and castle ruins are thought to still harbor treasures and curiosities, while some rumors of sinister beings taking up residence there circulate in the adjacent locales.
Government
The keep and castle as well as surrounding buildings are abandoned save for temporary residents such as adventurers, criminals, and other creatures seeking to scavenge or explore the ruins.
The only law here is that of nature and survival. As such, one must take care not to fall prey to other adventurers and opportunists as well as any creatures proving to be hostile.
Defences
While the outer pallisade may be rotten, and the inner curtain crumbling, the enviroment lends itself well to any attempts to secret oneself to lie in wait or escape altogether.
It is believed that traps and other deterents as old as the foundation of Novis keep are within the walls of novis. Further, it would be a prime locatiopn for someone else to set a series of thier own traps to either defend thier stash or catch adventurers unawares.
Infrastructure
The out buildings consist of a variety of small storage buildings and utilitarian structure such as remnants of a mill, farms, or stables.
While the outermost walls are rotten wooden palisades, the innermost curtain is composed of weathered stones standing 20ft tall at its highest and most intact points. The walls and the space beyond them are readily accisible through the ruined gatehouse or one of the many natural sloped breaches born from the deterioration and crumbling of the walls.
Beyond the inner curtain wall lies the keep proper, completely overgrown with vines and lichen. The main double doors are jammed apart by several large blocks of stonework that have fallen from the archway of the portal itself. This renders the doors both always open, and blocked off by a moderately scalable heap of rubble.
A sewer system is present and connected to the keep, dumping a short distance away into a culvert that conventiently funnels the refuse away.
Assets
Novis is rumored to harbor untold wealth and knowledge from a bygone era, though such valuables are believed to be deep within the keep.
The outbuildings and even castle buildings are likely to have remnants of other camps, expiditions, or hideouts.
Some strange flora and fauna are rumored to dwell here, thier existence assumed to be tied to the temporal abnormalities localized to the area.
Location under
