Adric's Hollow

Adric Hollow is a small village of about 400 souls. It is surrounded by farmland, which is, in turn, surrounded by the Forest of Shadows.
The village was established around a tolbfruit grove during a mysterious downtick in threats from the Forest of Shadows, and still exports a few casks of tolb wine every year, but most of its agriculture these days is subsistence farming and aromatics, particularly garlic.
Because it is encircled by hostile forest, Adric's Hollow has taken extraordinary measures to protect its citizens and they are mostly effective. The largest threats they've routinely faced in their part of the forest have been from feral vampires. But to gain access to Adric's Hollow, a vampire has to cross fields of garlic plants and over a running stream, then scale the ash wood pallisade and by that point an archer will probably have shot them with a white oak arrow.
About 10% (43 people, to be precise) of Adric's Hollow's population is trained as soldiers and they specialize in keeping supernatural threats at bay. During the day time, the farming population heads out to work in the communal fields, and then as the sun begins to set, bells are rung to call them back. Once it appears that everyone is back in the town, a head count is taken and if someone is missing, an attempt is made to find them, but even the searchers must be back before sundown. The fields also have a number of small "panic sheds" with carefully maintained salt circles inside just inside just in case someone is trapped outside the gates at sundown. They aren't comfortable, but they do provide a place to survive the night.

Demographics

Mostly humans or part-humans. Most common professions are farmer and soldier (see description).

Government

Village council of elders. Five elders are selected from the village and serve until they retire, die, or the villagers vote to remove them.

Defences

Adric's Hollow is surrounded by a wooden pallisade, and a nearby stream has been diverted and split to function as a "moving moat." It has two gates - an east gate and a west gate, and there are guard towers at regular intervals around the wall. The west gate is used for human traffic, the east gate to take livestock out to pasture.

Type

Village

Population

417

Location under

Blackwood Viscounty

Owner/Ruler

Viscount of Blackwood