Editing The Little Game (section)

==<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">'''''What you know'''''</div>== 

'''The Vale''' is a village which has a central area called '''Big Hall''', 4 smaller nearby hamlets, and a collection of 20 or so farmsteads surrounded by a forest.   '''Gingal''', '''Dandan''', '''Kubelo''', and '''Jenkins'''.  Each has 5 to 10 buildings.    There are about 500 people in the Vale and PCs will know every single one of them, young and old. 

Hamlets are a market and community center or Long Hall for nearby family farms. They provide locally needed services like surplus storage.  Each Hamlet will have a mill for grinding flour. They will have a blacksmith able to shoe horses, repair and make tools, and tinker pots.  
Each hamlet will have brewing skills for making meads and beers and wines. Hamlet elders oversee much of the "community" activities and do so for a cut of local produce for themselves.

Each of the hamlets has some specialties:

*'''Gingal''' has a lumber mill for planing boards. 
*'''Kubelo''' has a large number of pepper trees and olive trees.  They produce olive oil used locally and with peppercorns, provide one of the profitable exports that benefits the whole vale.
*'''Dandan''' has a lot of fruit trees.  Traded whole the fruits are a staple of local diets.  They also brew various liqueurs for local consumption. They also produce a great deal of jams and jellies and canned fruits.  '''Dandan''' also has a great many beehives and produces honey and meads..
*'''Jenkins''', the largest, has a traveler's Inn and an attached brewery. (The inn is cleverly called the [[Inn at Jenkins]]) The brewery produce a large amount of beer much of which is exported. '''Jenkins''' also has a large structure near the Inn that is used for storage of local produce for export where the elders of Jenkins oversee local provisions for trade and against hardship.  

Farmsteads are miniature hamlets themselves but interact with the various hamlets.  For an idea of an active Farmstead think about Faldor's Farm in the Beleriand series.

Also part of the Vale economy are several families of hunters who specifically hunt for wild game found abundantly in the forests. Foremost among them are the Grieeg family comprised of nearly 20 members.  The Grieeg family has a farmstead near '''Gingal''' that serves as a curing, smoking and drying place for their meats.  The family, like all the hunters, also trade in bone, antlers and other animal byproducts.  The Grieeg family refuses to hunt rats or spiders though the others will.  

The '''Vale''' is surrounded by forest on 3 sides with rolling hills and the beginning of a gorge to the south.  To the west is a range of mountains topped by two great mountains; the Tooth directly west and White Spire to the south of the Tooth.  Vale is a wet region with many creeks and streams all flowing to the gorge which flows south.  The fast growing and renewable pine trees are prized for construction. 

A Village called '''Belwing''' is to the south someplace. Most adults have been there from time to time during their lives.   The Village of '''Blue Rock''' is to the northeast, farther away. Only a few people have been to it in their lives.  The City and castle of '''Arrow''' is near '''Blue Rock''' and the '''Duke of Arrow''' lives there.  The City and Castle of '''Redfoot''' is far to the south and the '''Duke of Redfoot''' lives there.  Only the Village elders have been there and not in the last decade.  

It seems that the Village of '''Vale''' lies on the border of '''Redfoot''' and '''Arrow''' and it is unclear who ultimately has authority over it.  Tax collectors, a yearly occurrence, come from both, and get taxes in kind from the region for both, a situation that the Village Elders have let go for over a decade and is a source of much community argument.  But the elders claim it is easier to pay both a little then to alert either to their prosperity and find them both sending soldiers to claim the village.

Traders travel between these villages and the cities of '''Redfoot''' and '''Arrow''' carry out what amounts to a modest exchanges of staples and a few luxury items.  '''Redfoot''' has glass workers and the trade is practiced in '''Gingal''' as well.  While fabric arts are common in village life rare fabrics like silk can sometime be found in '''Redfoot''' and is carried by traders. The City of '''Arrow''' is rumored to produce weaponry, especially archery equipment, which is prized throughout the land.  Traders from '''Arrow''' often have exotic spices though the Hamlet of '''Kubelo''' has pepper and olive trees nearby that often produce enough to export pepper and both olives and olive oil.

Minstrels come through the vale on occasion and are met with eagerness and suspicion. They know many song and tales and somewhat about the outside world.  But they also create tall tales.

The '''''Inn at Jenkins''''' sometimes has visitors from '''Belwing''' or '''Blue Rock''', rarely from '''Arrow''' or '''Redfoot'''.  It also often serves as a meeting place for the Vale Elders. 
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In many ways, the village of Vale, comprised of its hamlets and farmsteads, is a typical social arrangement for all village life across the world.
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