Author: chatdemon

(Used with Permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.)

Places of interest in Archer's Bluff

Arrowsong Fletchery
This small but esteemed institution was founded in 503 CY by Wylef Arrowsong, a Wood Elf from the Dreadwood who served in the royal army during the defense of Westgate Barony from the lizardfolk who had sacked Eor County. Originally established as a simple bowyer and fletcher's shop, Wylef soon added a small outbuilding housing a forge (to craft arrowheads rather than import them from the smithies of Cryllor) and an archery range in a clearing behind the buildings. Wylef and his apprentices made a small fortune tutoring other archers who travelled from all over the kingdom, and was eventually invited to join the Royal Fraternity of Archers and Arbalesters, the national guild for archers, fletchers and bowyers.

Upon his passing in 548, the business was inherited by his daughter, Leanna, who had no intention of serving in the army and dedicated her life to the guild and her father's shop. She petitioned the guild to formally recognize Arrowsong Fletchery as an academy of archery, and her wish was granted in 559. For the past 30 years she has trained hundreds of students and made a reputation for herself, her school, and her apprentices as the finest in southwest Keoland, if not in the entire kingdom.

Study at the academy is available year round, and there is generally room for new students at any time (unless the DM wishes to limit PC access for some reason, whereupon the school may be full). Courses last from 2 to 4 weeks for improving or acquiring new skills or feats or advancing a level in a class to 4 to 6 months for gaining an archery based prestige class, to 3 or more years for those youths seeking to make archery or bowcraft their career.

NPCs:
Leanna Arrowsong (CG Female Wood Elf, Fighter 8 / Order of the Bow Initiate 6)
Leanna is an amazing fletcher, and is known throughout southwest Keoland and the Yeomanry as being virtually peerless as an archer. She truly enjoys teaching her craft and is generally friendly to all except those of orcish blood, or those who blatantly advertise the fact they are wizards. Like many of the Elven folk of this area, Leanna holds deep rooted suspicions about wizards, and human wizards in particular, rooted in the chaos and destruction wrought by the Suel as they migrated into the area a millenia ago.
Sylvie Arrowsong (CG Female Wood Elf , Expert (fletcher) 3)
Sylvarra, or Sylvie (as most in town know her) is Leanna's niece, and is originally from Grayhill. She and her brother Orenil came to live with their aunt after their parents were killed in service to the Dreadwalker group. Sylvie is deathly afraid that her brother, an aspiring ranger who is rarely found in town these days, will follow her parents path and join the Dreadwalkers.
Garken Oakhurst (LN Male Flan Human, Commoner 5)
Garken is the stablemaster at the academy, and is loved by all the locals and students for his gruff yet friendly demeanor and his grasp of the local rumormill. It's claimed by some that Garken owns an enchanted mask that lets him speak with the horses, but both he and Leanna deny this. When not working, Garken is usually found at the Grinning Grugach.

The Grinning Grugach
The only tavern in town, "the Grin", as locals call it, is a fairly small, rustic watering hole that serves double duty as town hall for the small village. Owned by a Halfling couple, Lander and Tibitha Brassbutton, the tavern takes its name from a claim Lander makes about having seen a elven maiden in the woods beckoning to him with an unearthly smile when the building was being constructed. The food and drink served are outstandingly average, but the company is friendly and the thick stone walls manage to keep the place cool even on the muggiest days of summer. Since there is no inn in the small town, travellers are usually found sleeping alongside their animals in the stables, which are free to drinking customers of the tavern.
NPCs:
Lander Brassbutton (LG Male Hairfoot, Commoner 9)
Lander is an immigrant from Sterich, having brought his wife here when that country fell to the armies of the giants during the wars. Although he often reminisces about the life he left behind, he truly loves his adopted community, and wouldn't think of leaving. Lander is a friendly and caring man who will go out of his way to help a needy traveller.
Tibitha Brassbutton (NG Female Hairfoot, Commoner 2 / Cleric 5 (Yondalla))
"Tibby" came to the bluff with her husband when their home town was sacked during the wars, and she has found her calling in the small village. Befriending and studying with a local cleric of Yondalla, Kylo Merrimac (who disappeared in 590 after a vocal dispute with Magess Shiara, see below), Tibby now tends the shrine to the goddess that sits beside a large pond near the tavern. Tibby mourns her menton's loss, but is wise enough not to provoke the archmage, so she devotes herself instead to tending the sick and needy in town.

The Magess' Tower
Situated on the rocky bluff which gives the village its name is a dark, moss covered tower of ancient stone, home to the Archmage Shiara Faerlalt, who spends most of her time these days in Cryllor at the temple of the Ruby Scepter, a Jasidan house of worship. Shiara was once a cleric of the Ruby Goddess, and spent her youth stubbornly trying to convince the people of her hometown to construct a Jasidan shrine. Angered by their unwillingness to share in her dream of a temple in their village, Shiara left town shortly before the wars to study magecraft in Cryllor, having recieved what she called "a vision from the holy mother to seek another path to destiny".
Shiara wasnt seen in town again until after the wars, but the locals were afraid to go anywhere near her tower, and she now occasionally visits to get away from the bustle of life in Cryllor. She is distant and arrogant now, and most of the folk in town fear her, especially since the disappearance of Kylo, a local cleric of Yondalla, two years ago.
Shiara refuses to deal with any travellers she hasn't specifically invited, and on the off chance she is found at the grinning grugach, she sits silent and alone.
Shiara Faerlalt (LE Female Suel Human, Cleric 4 (Wee Jas) / Wizard 16+)
More about Shiara in her own "The Story of..." article, coming soon.