Benkend

Benkend is a sizeable village of 2,000 which has tradition ally been an important recruiting-post for mercenaries and soldiers from the Thelwood. Now it is both an important trading post with Rel Deven and a spying station for keeping watch on Rel Deven, the Bonewood, and Almor. It is also a hotbed of intrigue, for within 20 miles there are Naelax, Darmen, Cranden, and two Torquann princes who continually struggle for ascendancy and the right to extract tolls along the roads to and from this busy place.

Prince Quaansheek, one of the Torquann princes whose lands lie southeast of the village, is known to have a magical war banner which his heavy cavalry employ. This gives bonuses to morale and to charging speed for cavalry, and is also said to grant temporary immunity to magical fear.

The course of the roadway to the west of the village is diverted some three miles south of the original route, for a stretch of 12 miles or so. The old roadway is still clearly visible as overgrown tracks, and at intervals along it there are gigantic humanoid footprints, an inch deep and more than a yard in length. These are said to have simply appeared overnight a hundred or so years ago, and some locals say they fill with blood as an omen of dire warning. This happened just before Chelor's abduction by Ivid's armies, and on the night before Chathold was razed to the ground. What form of being made them, and when they will again convey their gruesome warning, is unknown.

Strange and wondrous beasts have been reported stalk ing this old roadway by night, and the track radiates a dim abjuration magic.