Moon Hill (population 5000) is the most prominent town, to which the local farmers bring their crops; a half dozen villages fill the valley, each about one day's walk from Moon Hill. A road runs from Moon Hill to Horizon and another one a much shorter road to Santa Cora, which is about forty miles away. An old druidic ring stands on the south side of town atop a hill, dating back to the Fourth Age, they say. Now it just sits there and druids visit each year, eight times a year, giving gifts to the town government. They cause no one trouble and usually buy some things while they are there, then head to the Moon Wood to the South. Moon Hill sits on the east bank of the Moon River, which eventually flows to the sea. Moon Hill has walls in theory but they're all run down and wouldn't stop anything more determined than a small yappy dog.
An old Fort, Moon Fort, 'guards' the entrance to another valley, full of trees, the Moon Wood. Home to druids and stranger, more dangerous things. The wise don't go there but adventurers are rarely wise. There was a battle with the Orc Lord long ago, and Moon Valley / Moon Hill / The villages all have more half-orcs than is usual for a given part of the Empire; it's just part of life here. No one has seen an orc here for Ages.
Goblins and Kobolds are another question; they come up from the Underworld into the ancient, abandoned mines in the hills and various caves and sometimes form a threat. Dwarves show up every so often, poke around, sometimes die, then give up and leave. An actual caravan comes through twice a year to sell goods in Moon Hill, which then spread to the smaller communities.
Every village has a shrine to the gods; most priests serve the entire pantheon of good gods, especially in small villages and thus are constantly doing ceremonies to many gods. Moon Hill, however, is sacred to Sehanine, goddess of the Moon and of Night and Lovers. Mother Abigail is her chief priestess, but she has two junior priests and two junior priestesses, plus some acolytes, and the full panoply of Sehanine Worship happens, along with the major festivals of the other gods. Moon Hill also has a Temple of the Emperor, devoted to Heinrich I and the other Emperors, which is on the grounds of Baron Alberich Vintner's estate west of town. It has a priest, Reinhard, and several acolytes; you've never been there, as it's mainly used by the Baron's family.
The population of Moon Valley is about half Westerners and half Holy Folk.
This village used to be far larger than it is; abandoned houses and shells of houses dot it. The reason can be found in the abandoned and overgrown vineyard on the sides of Beacon Hill, which used to provide the majority of jobs in the hamlet. The vineyard was abandoned nearly 70 years ago along with the ancient manor house of the Tilney family, Shadewine Hall, atop Beacon Hill overlooking the village, which has been empty ever since the mysterious disappearance of Lady Elane Tilney on her 18th birthday and full inheritance, and the horrible deaths of all the servants. Lights can still sometimes be seen in the windows, and strange music heard in the town below, but the villagers have learned that if they leave the manor on 'Haunted Hill' alone it leaves them alone. None of them will set foot on the hill.
Just outside of town stood Nuthanger Abbey, a partial ruin that in recent years had been rebuilt to serve as a scriptorium for a sage from out of town. Word is that SOMETHING seems to have happened to it, though, a building collapse or some other sort of disaster. Probably the reclusive villagers know more.
These days the chief industry of the villagers is raising and selling rabbits and their fur.
Moon Valley's livestock hub, such as it is. They have more cows and chickens per capita than anyplace else in the valley; rumors that the villagers are closer to them than to their neighbors are surely unfounded. (It doesn't really help that neighboring villagers don't tend to visit very much; thankfully Thomasville is in a mini-valley of its own, so the smell doesn't travel far, but that means it's all concentrated right there in the village...) They have their own slaughterhouse, and are known for their amazing efficiency in making use of every possible part of the animal. Parts is parts!
This town is a small village purposefully built in a remote corner of the valley. Its citizens want nothing more but to live in peace in quiet. What makes this town unique is that its population is entirely of sex golems that want out of the business. Some farm, though they aren't entirely sure they're doing it right since they don't need to eat and can't taste. Some quietly trade in lumber or mining. The money goes mainly to help the upkeep on the village. They don't like to talk about their sex golem past, and let it be known it is impolite to talk of such things there. Rumor is they act as a hub for runaway golems looking for freedom.
The imaginatively named Quarryton is located about as close to the hills as you can get without being legitimately endangered by kobolds, goblins, and underdark incursions.
Village life centers around the limestone quarry, which provides dressed stone for most of Moon Valley's local needs. There's theoretically a marble quarrying site nearby, which would be nice to find and redevelop; the limestone simply isn't high-quality or found in enough quantity to be worth exporting anywhere. The dwarves who periodically poke into the hills above Moon Valley looking to redevelop the mines have looked into this, but haven't come up with anything and before they run off or get killed tend to be more interested in precious metals anyhow; the town population, like that of the valley as a whole, is overwhelmingly human.
Quarryton is a poor village despite providing an essential part of the local economy; the work is back-breaking and body-destroying, the margins low, and middle-aged laborers with bad backs from swinging a pick and bad lungs from sucking in limestone dust have few prospects for further employment.
This version of the page was edited by John at 2020-06-04 06:27:18. View the most recent version.