Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #103

Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #103 

April 13th, 2023 

• Number: 103 

• Name: The Waiting Stonefellow 

• Location: On a hillside along the southern border of the Church-State of Earth and Water 

• Population (approx.): 200 (settlement) + 1 special 

• Brief: Years ago, during the numerous battles of the fall of the Ta’arnan Empire, a summoner, in some duress perhaps, gave a simple command to his charge, “Wait here and only here until I return.” The summoned, a rather large solid 15-meter-tall creature composed mostly of stone, plopped on a hummock and, as commanded, waited. The summoner never returned (in fact his spirit is bound to Old Ghost Lake (#66) about 125 miles to the east) and the creature hence never returned whence it came. Later, refugees arriving in the region to join the nascent Church-State encountered the then-named “Stonefellow” and despite being initially afraid, they soon discovered it was harmless being rooted to the spot by ancient magics. Harmless, but not useless. A brave soul summoned the gumption to speak to the Stonefellow and found it had simple wants (sunshine but not rain, pebbles or gems to suck upon and to be scrubbed of moss and bugs) and in return had some skill with stone and metal (breaking and crushing, crudely shaping and bending, but no fine work). And, later, as it became part of the community forming about the Stonefellow, it could defend them by being able to throw large stones a goodly distance (up to 100 meters) with some accuracy. 

• Geography: The Waiting Stonefellow sits upon a hummock on the border of the Church-State of Earth and Water (#29) at the northernmost point of the Afale Maug range. A small settlement, Stonefellow, has grown about it over the past decades. A chapel to the Pala, God of Earth, is prominent, the Stonefellow seen as an unexpected blessing from Pala to the region. Most of the buildings are made of stone, quarried from the hills and trimmed by the Stonefellow. A modicum of religious tension has come to touch Stonefellow, as the creature intensely dislikes water and did throw several stones (fortunately missing) the last Priest of Water to visit the village.