Glencross sits where four well-worn roads meet at a raised stone circle by the forest edge, ringed by timber-framed houses, a bustling market square, and watchful sentries on the ridge; its life revolves around trade, woodcraft, and the uneasy peace with the Ashenwood that provides both bounty and strange tales.
Where four roads and an old wood decide the fate of strangers.
A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.
Magistrate
A compact man in traveling leathers who wears a brass ring of office and prefers bargains to edicts.
Captain of the Watch
A battle-scarred veteran who patrols with a favored spear and keeps a watchful gaze on all roads.
Master Woodcutter and Guild Organizer
Tall, with knotty hands and an easy smile, often found covered in sawdust.
Ritualist and folk-healer
Draped in rust-colored shawls and carrying carved tokens, she tends to the town's spiritual needs.
Smith and wagon-repairer
Short and barrel-chested with soot-smudged hair and a booming laugh, he runs a cramped forge near the square.
Timber Merchants and Sawhouse
A rickety compound of drying sheds and a busy yard where saws sing and teams of packhorses queue.
Smithy and Repair
A smoky smithy ringed by bellows and anvils where the dwarf Jorik and his apprentice shape scarce iron into lasting tools.
Caravans, traveling merchants, and local guild members
A sprawling inn by the circle with a ground-floor taproom, stables, and private rooms for long-term merchants.
Militia, woodcutters, and low-level laborers
A smaller, rowdier tavern tucked near the palisade favored by journeymen and watchmen.
Economic guild
A well-organized group pushing for expansion of wood-cutting operations often at odds with ritualists and boundary laws.
Religious/folk group
Guardians of tradition who perform rites and lobby the council to respect the Ashenwood's claims.
Merchant association
A pragmatic merchant group coordinating schedules, inns, and pooled protection funds for long roads.
A sturdy wooden gate overlooking the Ashenwood with carved wardstones and a watch platform.
A raised wooden platform in the square where notices, toll prices, and public disputes are declared daily.
A cobbled communal well whose water is said to taste different after certain moons.
A narrow, overgrown path into the woods lined with abandoned wheel tracks and rusted iron fittings.
An unfulfilled pact lies buried under the oldest stone in the circle
Eldon Grover secretly buys saplings from deep in the Ashenwood to guarantee timber supply
A former bandit leader lives among the inns under an assumed name and feeds information to Captain Marla
The Missing Caravans
Caravans vanish between Glencross and Highfen; merchants suspect collusion or a new bandit lord in the forgotten cart trail.
Mark of the Ashenwood
Children marked after a wood-ramble fall ill with dreamlike fever; ritualists need alchemical herbs from deep in the Ashenwood to heal them.
The Iron Pact
Jorik's hoarded ingots have drawn attention from a regional smith who offers coin for them while the guild pressures for unregulated logging to pay for bribes.
Echoes in the Stone
The carved stones sometimes hum and travelers report visions of other roads; investigating reveals a buried cavern with painted maps to lost waystations.
