Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #271

Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #271 

September 29th, 2023 

• Number: 271 

• Name:  Deep Dive on a Site of Interest: The Sinking Lands of the Narrows – Part 5 

• Location: Central Narrows southwest of the City-State of Carasta 

• Population (approx.): 311 (Xynarr and South Ashen Watch) 

• Brief: Having resided in the Feystone Woods of southwest Norgorfel for countless centuries, the Elves have established an effective and comprehensive border consisting of the Watches, mystical guard towers, and the Ranges, Elf-marked trails patrolled by the scouts of the Watches. Most of the Watches focus outward, wary of the Kin of surrounding nations and territories. But due to the nature of the Ashen Expanse, especially the undead who manifest and wander beyond the dead trees, the surrounding Watches must also look inward. 

• Brycaron (Bry) Crimsonspark, 112, female Elf, is an Undead Hunter stationed at South Ashen Watch near the Ashen Expanse. She is very tall and gaunt, with slick-backed white hair. Her eyes are black and deep-set from many sleepless nights. Bry loves to play up the theatrical part of her business and wears a long black cape while hunting. Under that, she wears leather pants and a chain shirt. Her favorite weapon is a mace with protection from the undead built into it. 

• When Bry was only five, a wight slew her mother in front of her. Later, her father became a ghost after bandits killed him. These two things caused Bry to seek an master hunter of the undead and have him train her. Bry had to destroy her father's ghost as one of her first acts as an independent Undead Hunter. Bry has since dedicated herself to ridding the Ashen Expanse of the undead.  

• Bry lives in a small hut in Xynarr, a small village hopefully just far enough away from the Ashen Expanse. She never thought of having a partner because of her gloomy disposition. Then she met Fadi Wildkind, female 115, Elf, and fell in love. Fadi is a potter and makes most of the dinnerware that Xynarr uses. The two live happily together and are thinking of adopting a dog soon. 

• Geography: Like Feystone Watch (#129), South Ashen Watch (location 4 see below) is typical of Elven Watches, consisting of a single great tree magically expanded and reinforced, with platforms at varying heights providing residences, meeting rooms, storage and at the top, lookouts across the lands to the north much like the crow’s nests of ships. The Watch garrison is comprised of the usual complement of ranger/scouts, archers and warriors, druids and seers, plus healers and crafters. They are usually of one or two extended Elven families bringing both positives (years of training together, instinctual knowledge of reactions and seamless teamwork) and negatives (tendencies to overprotectiveness and subject to long-standing feuds). 

• The Watch sits on the west slope of a hillside overlooking the Ashen Expanse about 20 miles to the west. It is also about 20 miles west of north to the Arcane Guild’s Ashen Observatory (#92) but communication between the 2 sites is rare for the Elves of Feystone and the Guilds of the Coast rarely see eye to eye where the Expanse is concerned. The small village of Xynarr, which supports the Watch, sits on the south slope of the hill nearby. Elf-marked trails radiate outward marking areas to avoid and areas safe to travel. Xynarr consists of a cluster of tree houses, fruit trees and gardens surrounded by a thick hedgerow of thorny vines and spine-laden bushes.