City of Avondale, Capital of Oldon

The City of Avondale: the first and largest city in the Kingdom of Oldon is Avondale. It is surrounded by the Riverwood Forrest. The Naram River runs through the whole valley and right through the city. The river empties into Poseidon’s Bay and the bay leads to the Blue Water Ocean. The mountains that border our valley to the east are the Cloud Grasp Mountains because some peaks literally go into the clouds. The mountains that border our valley to the west are called the Break Rock Mountains, because stones / large sections often break off and tumble below making a large sound and shaking the earth. Immediately surrounding the city walls are pastures, fields, a network of dirt roads, and houses that are for the farmers and the people that work for them and support that industry. As you go further out, past the fields and pastures, you will reach the Riverwood Forrest to north, east and west sides. To the south of the city is Poseidon’s Bay. The bay leads out to the ocean through a pass that is large enough for vessels to pass but small enough to be defensible. On the mountains flanking this entrance to our bay are two of the King’s military watch outposts and also a lookout for the Church of Poseidon. (so there are three defensive guard posts in the mountains flanking the entrance to our bay) They can fire down on any ship approaching the harbor as needed and the lookout for Poseidon has a beacon – the beacon is used to signal the city. There are different colors of the beacon which mean different things – like “we are under attach” verses “the Armada is returning”. Thus this bay entrance is well defended (more on this later). There is a large river that leads to this bay. This river is called the Naram River and it runs all the way from the Mountain Pass to the north entrance of the city and right through the middle of the city, within the city walls. This river is wide enough for ships to use it but not too wide that you cannot walk across it using a bridge – it is 600 feet wide at most points in the city. Where it enters the city, the city walls are built over it such that the passage in and out of the city on the river can be gated closed (the gate is large enough for very large vessels to pass through but not as wide as the entire river – it would be too heavy to lift if it was as wide as the river is wide) There is a great port on bay that does great commerce, trading goods from many lands. Ships are constantly coming to port, docking for days for trading, and then moving on to be replaced with another boat. The port is very active and busy and in fact a small town surrounds the docks/port so that most of the shipmen and dock workers and their families simply live in this town rather than within the city walls. This town is not dangerous during the day, in fact you can find the children of the families often at play in the streets and on the docks. But at night, this town tends to have more “dark dealings” and you need to be a little more careful. Bar fights are frequent at night, and the bar areas can get loud and crazy- mostly at night. Children are kept in the homes or the yard of the home or near the church at night. The Docks (and this town) are about a 30-minute walk from the city walls or you can boat down the river in about 10 minutes or up the river (from the port to the town) in about 15 minutes. Of course you can take a horse too and that might be 10 minutes. There are some docks just outside of the city walls along the river bank for docking boats and also some docks within the city walls too. This is a very large river and very active for transportation and trade. Some boats do come down the river from the Mountain Pass, but most trade is done on the Bay and at the port rather than in the middle of the city. In fact, boats that do come down the river mostly pass through the city and then dock at the port rather than within the city. Only certain types of goods are traded directly within the city at the city docks and the merchants and the boats are strictly scrutinized to keep out “undesirable” elements from within the city walls. If a merchant is not well known, or is known to have a troublesome crew, they are not allowed to dock within the city walls and must pass through to the port. Thus, the docks within and just outside the city walls along the river are very clean and safe. Some people live on boats at these docks. Other people keep recreational boats docked here for pleasure use. So some commerce is done at these docks within the city, but because security is tight and the merchants are all well-known and thoroughly vetted, they are safe and have clean boats and respectable crews. If you are looking for contraband or loud and raucous drinking nights, go to the port instead or you may end up spending the night in the city jails.