Editing Barrowmaze (section)

==Setting==

The Barrowmaze book describes an area of of 11 x 11 6-miles hexes as the Duchy of Aerik. There are three towns ('''Ironguard Motte''', the largest settlement, Class V), '''Bogtown''' and '''Helix''' (Class VI, the town closest to the Barrowmaze, where I'm assuming you guys will start). The Barrows are a half-days walk from Helix, and you guys are likely going to need a guide to get there the first time. In the past I've been pretty lax about leaving mount outside of dungeons, assuming that if reasonable precaution is taken they'll be left alone, for the most part, but the area around the Maze is pretty dangerous, so having mercenaries to watch the horses might not be a bad idea.

There's a class III city -- Greenspire -- about three days' ride away, and several Class II cities within three or four days of that. The nearest Class I city is about a ten to fourteen day ride from Helix. You've got essentially three months before the moors become impassable and the Barrowmaze is no longer accessible.

===Greenspire===
Named for the ancient opaque tower of green, nigh impenetrable glass-like material that rises hundreds of feet above the surrounding plain, Greenspire is a small city of about twenty thousand located at the crossroads of great trading wheel between the Inner Kingdoms and farflung Outer Territories, of which the Duchy of Aerik is but one remote settlement out of tens, or even hundreds. 
*Temples
**The House of Life and Death, where most Greenspirians are laid to rest and their bodies prepared for the journey to the afterworld, located just inside the northern gate on the other side of the city
**Whispering Waters, an ancient stone edifice half in and half out of the river Vela, a place sacred to the eponymous goddess of those waters. "Either one will raise your friend, for a fee. Me, I'd try Vela, if only 'cause there's always a chance the House misfiles some paperwork and decides he needs to be cremated instead of brought back."
***The temple of the Whispering Waters is a low-slung stone building canted at a crazy angle and half-submerged in the wide, slow waters of the River Vela. From where the adventurers stand, Hrothgar is of the opinion that the entire building has been carved from a single piece of granite, by unknown hands, thousands of years in the past. The interior is dark and humid, with algae growing on the walls. The interior floor slopes at a fifteen degree angle towards the river, which occupies the lower half of the building.
**Zortan discovers that the Greenspirans, for the most part, worship a number of different gods. The Whispering Waters temple is devoted to Vela, the local river goddess, and the most important of the local deities. The House of Life and Death, where he buys the second healing potion, seems to be devoted to not one deity in particular but rather the abstraction of the cycle of life. There are a number of other smaller temples throughout the town, either sacred to single deities -- such as Thliul, the patron of good hunting and safe journeys, Tsukan, the goddess of pecuniary prosperity (much beloved in Greenspire) and Naki, the horse-lord -- or devoted to an entire pantheon of gods. In a secluded side street he finds an ancient building of tumbledown stone dedicated to the worship of the Anganach, the old gods of the moor-lands. He is able to purchase a half-dozen vials of holy water from the elderly priest on duty.
*Collegia Arcana (Mage's Guild) and Leera the Lonely
**Located a mere block away from the 'Spire itself, on a quiet side street, the Collegia is an imposing building with a facade of black, non-reflective stone. The Guild's sigil is emblazoned above the entrance, crossed staves in front of a full wineglass. The foyer is large and somber; several groups of men and women in robes are clustered about, murmuring in low voices.
**"Standard Guild price to identify magical items is one thousand gold noturi. If you choose to sell the staff to the Guild after it has been identified, we will pay you an additional one thousand gold noturi on top of your asking price. Should you choose to sell it elsewhere, you will have official Guild papers outlining the powers and peerage of the item." If you choose not to pay -- or to wait -- to have the item identified, the Guild would be willing to pay you five thousand noturi, once we ascertain that it is indeed magical, and not cursed.
*Vendors
**Eber the Bookbinder [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?747735-IC-Labyrinth-Lord-The-Barrowmaze-Campaign&p=18736781#post18736781] and [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?747735-IC-Labyrinth-Lord-The-Barrowmaze-Campaign&p=18737846#post18737846]: There are several booksellers in Greenspire, and a bookbinder located a block away from the Collegia specializes in selling exactly those sorts of things. The owner has a variety of books for sale, from basic leather bound books to those bound in exotic hides, or treated with alchemical preservatives, or protected by various wards.
**Potent philters and enigmatic elixirs: Hrothgar discovers there are several sources for such things within Greenspire. The Guild itself has a small supply of potions, typically those mixed by apprentices and sold to supplement tuition. The dwarf is told such potions are typically sold at slightly less than the standard market rate. There are several apothecaries and alchemists in town that carry the occasional potion, and there are also two independent mages -- Riron the Red and Nala Nine-fingers that make their living casting spells, brewing potions and so forth. Of course, healing potions can always be obtained at the larger temples.
**Three jewelers stand out from the rest. Lady Chetmari, Mibeorth the Miser, and one other: [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?747735-IC-Labyrinth-Lord-The-Barrowmaze-Campaign&p=18725327#post18725327], [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?747735-IC-Labyrinth-Lord-The-Barrowmaze-Campaign&p=18725746#post18725746] and [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?747735-IC-Labyrinth-Lord-The-Barrowmaze-Campaign&p=18727163#post18727163]
**Silver Standard Company: Before leaving the inn Severi made inquiries, and determined that the Silver Standard Company -- upon whom the bank notes are written -- has their main offices in Greenspire. From what the innkeeper says, it is halfway around the city, in a less prosperous section of town. "They're small," he says, "and I only know of them 'cause my brother-in-law used to be a partner, before he got a poisoned spear in the gut from those fucking frogmen they've got out there in the bogs."

===Helix===
It is typical of any small frontier town; the few roads within the village are dirt (or mud, as the case may be), the houses small and rustic. Krothos Ironguard rules over Helix from a small keep with earthen walls on the eastern edge of town.
*Temples
**There is a small temple to St. Ygg in the center of town
*Vendors
**HHR Huffnpuff's
**the moneylender
**Turgen's Trade Goods
**The Axe and Anvil smithy
**The Brazen Stumpet Inn
**The Foul Pheasant, a combination tavern and brothel
**a young elf named Valeron serves as the bowyer
*Other locations of note
**the Mercenary Guild
**the Silver Standard Mercantile Company
**to the north, the tower of Mazzahs the Magnificent is the highest building in town

===Ironwood Motte===
The Motte is a town roughly three times the size of Helix, and while Helix has a certain bucolic charm Ironwood has very little in that regards. It is, quite simply, a city whose primary function is industry. After wandering around for a bit the two companions note the following:

* There are three obvious temples within the city. Two of them are dedicated to the new gods, while the third is a battletemple of Crom. 
* There are four taverns -- The Bloated Halfling, The Leaky Barrel, The Black Dragon and The Half-lit Home -- and two inns -- The Golden Goose and Stella's.
* The Silver Standard Merchant Company has a large warehouse and trading post in the middle of the Merchant District, surrounded by other warehouses of various natures. 
* There is a moneylenders called The Unexpected Gift. It's windows display a variety of necklaces and rings, all looking more expensive than what would otherwise be available in Helix.
* A small castle stands upon a slight rise in roughly the center of the town, surrounded by a wooden palisade of tree trunks sunk into the earth and lashed together. Guards in crimson and gold can be seen patrolling the walls. Groups of two or three guardsmen, wearing the same colors and bearing shields and short blades, can be seen periodically wandering through the streets.