The Village of Five Oaks
This
is the largest community within the eastern fringe of the Gnarley Forest, and is
representative of the other villages and town throughout the rest of the vast
wood.
Home to perhaps 100 people, Five Oaks boasts barely as much
cleared ground as Lockswell Manor. Nor is the village surrounded by any
kind of wall, the sheer number of its populace being its best hope of
defense.
The brook that washes through the town is crossed
by a small stone bridge leading onto the village square. Around this small
meadow are poised the mayor's house, the sawmill and the trading post. The
other houses are generally two- or three room cabins. Such artisans as
dwell here keep shops, of an additional room or two, with their houses.
Five Oaks boasts, besides the sawmill, a
carpenter, blacksmith, tanner, leatherworker, innkeeper, livery/dairyman, and
woodcarver among its industrious craftsmen and women.
The sawmill is powered by a waterwheel, and turns
a blade nearly 12 feet in diameter. Boards are sawed for fee or barter,
with barter preferred. Prices throughout the town are reasonable.
The trading post is the most exotic part of
Five Oaks. It exists not so much to serve the local population, though it does
so on a daily basis, but to offer goods from beyond the fringes of the forest to
the elven traders who occasionally emerge from the heart of the Gnarley Forest
to trade their valuable products.
The proprietor, Malco Frump, is an entrepreneur
working for the Free City Merchant and Traders Union.
Consequently, in addition to the usual collection
of flour, bacon, nails, tools, clothing, and the like, Malco keeps a variety of
unusual and valuable goods on hand. His stock includes small amounts of
things otherwise impossible to find in these lands: brilliant feathers from
southern jungles, turquoise and platinum from mines in the East, sea shells, and
salt, as well as ivory and jade carvings.
Malco employs a pair of bodyguards,
4th-level fighters, to guard his treasures. The trading post is a stout
building, with two doors that can be locked and barred.