Layout
The village of hamlet is bisected by the Stented Road. In the center of the town are the largest buildings - the Raindrop Church, townhall, and market building. Directly around these three buildings are a few shops, a tavern, and nice residents. Continuing out the houses get more and more spread out as they are surrounded by farms and large plots of land.
Buildings
1. Market Building
Located in the center of town the market buildings houses many prebuilt stalls, store rooms, and has easy access to the river for loading and unloading trade goods. This is where traders will set up shop on market days.
2. The Raindrop Church
The only church in Hamlet run by Nestesh and Lymmura. The church itself is a quaint stone building with a spire that looks like a lightning bolt striking the top of it. The inside is made of wood and glass. Next to it there is a small house that is the home of the priest and his family.
3. The Swinging Sword
The Singing Sword is a ramshackle two-story tavern. Rusty metal grills cover its small, dirty windows. The tavern’s name is very clearly printed in large, simple letters on both sides of a jutting wooden sign. Atop the sign is a rusting iron sword. Inside is a large, dimly lit, wood-paneled taproom. An open-tread wooden staircase climbs to the upper floor, which is just as dim and darkly paneled as the taproom. The upper floor also has four rooms that can be rented. Across the back of the taproom is a long bar with three copper candle-lanterns hanging over it and a stair leading down to the cellars.
The Swinging Sword is where locals relax, gossip, flirt, tell jests and “war stories” of their working days, and get drunk. It’s not a place for refined dining. A dozen servers work shifts at the Sword; most nights, two cover the ground floor and one waits on guests on the upper floor. The staff at the Sword don’t gossip, but they direct anyone who questions them to other patrons they think might talk about a particular subject. A gift of a drink loosens most tongues. The Sword gets rowdy from time to time, but the staff is ready for ordinary drunken fisticuffs. Behind the bar are three stout and well-used cudgels, and an old cloak used as an improvised stretcher to lug drunks outside (and sometimes thrown over the heads of brawlers so they can be clubbed down).
Prices:
Meal - 3 sp per person (modest)
Room - 5 sp per night (modest)
4. Mother Yalantha's
This three-story, dilapidated boarding house has many balconies and outside staircases. Inside, the place is a warren of narrow, creaky-floored passages that snake around small rooms made of flimsy partition walls. However, the atmosphere is cheerful, if generally noisy
Prices:
Room - 1 sp per night (poor)
5. The Silver Drop
The nicer inn. Normally hosts traveling merchants and bards. Town folk will eat here for special occasions.
Prices:
Room - 8 sp (comfortable)
Food - 5 sp (comfortable)
6. Chansyrl Fine Harness
The pungent smell of tanned and oiled leather fills this crowded workshop, and the walls display leather saddles, reins, yokes, and harnesses for working beasts of all sizes. Stylish leather jackets, longcoats, caps, boots, leggings, bracers, belts, baldrics, and full leather armor are also in stock in all sizes. Owned by its founder’s granddaughter, who oversees a skilled staff of three full-timers and two part-timers, Chansyrl’s is considered the best Hamlet harnessmaker by caravan merchants. For some, it’s the reason they come to Red Larch. Chansyrl’s is a steady supplier for many a settlement up and down the Long Road.
7. Helvur Tarnlar, Clothier
Tarnlar’s is the only place to buy quality clothing for a hundred miles around. The square two-story building stands at the intersection of the Long Road and the Cairn Road. Its signboard is painted with the images of a well-dressed lord and lady, one on each side of the board. Ornate scrollwork iron bars protect the windows. The Tarnlars used to be wagonmakers, but due to competition, the family changed trades two generations ago. The Tarnlars reinvented themselves as vendors of sturdy but fashionable clothing to appeal to the merchants and travelers making use of the Long Road. After all, cloaks and boots wear out just like wagon wheels, and anyone trudging for tendays on the road in raw spring weather or bitter winter cold soon comes to value warm garments very highly indeed. The clothing, boots, and accessories are all fine, warm, and sturdy, even though few Red Larchers can afford to buy them for everyday wear. The Tarnlars live in a comfortable apartment above their garment shop.
8. Lorren's Bakery
This aromatic, tidy building’s ovens and mixing bowls are in use day and night. The bakery has a hanging sign consisting of a carved and painted wooden round loaf the size of a small cart. The bakery always has fresh round loaves and buns for sale. Its specialty is cheese-topped buns with melted mushroom cheese from outlying local farms.
9. Tantur Smithy
Both ends of this soot-stained building are massive stone blocks that rise into tall, wide chimneys. The din of forge hammers rings out late into most nights. Eldras (male Dragonfolk thug) has been Hamlit's blacksmith for a decade and a half and has taken only a handful of days off work in all that time. Eldras and his apprentices —a strapping son and two strong daughters— are skilled smiths who can make almost anything that requires no specialized alloys or treatments. They can temper swords and reinforce armor, and they often repair tools and weapons. The Tanturs rarely emerge from their smithy. They work all day long every day filling endless orders for hasps, hinges, locks, and chains, plus hardware for wagons such as cotter pins, bolt rings, wheel rims, and wheel hubs.
10. Jalessa's Butchers
11. City Storehouse
12. Town Hall
13. Thelorn's Safe Journeys
Three huge sheds stand here in a triangle, surrounded by sturdy wooden wagons at all stages of assembly. The first is a workshop full of busy woodworkers, the second is a storage area for parts such as wheels and axles, and the third houses a dozen finished wagons for sale. The foremost wagonmaker in this region, Thelorn’s is now run by two grandsons of the founder. It is a busy, alwaysbustling place that works day and night (three shifts of workers) because making wagons of top quality takes time. The quality of Thelorn’s wagons is well known throughout the region, with the result that workers here have to toil flat-out to keep up Thelorn’s long-decreed “dozen spare wagons in stock, ready to go.” No one here is interested in gossiping during shift time. There is a no-nonsense, pride-in-craft atmosphere, and many of the workers are experts who can do topnotch work with astonishing speed. Watchful children armed with skillets to bang as alarms guard the sheds every moment of the clock.
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