![[Mosstone.png]] #### **Location** **Mosstone** is a rugged frontier town in the western heartlands of Faerûn, lying north of the **Wealdath (the Forest of Tethir)** and east of the **Nelanther Isles**. It rests where old caravan tracks from Amn and Tethyr fray into hunting trails, smugglers’ routes, and half-forgotten roads leading toward the Sword Coast wilderness. Unlike great ports or noble cities, Mosstone exists because it is **hard to reach and harder to remove.** It squats among broken hills, ancient standing stones, and wind-twisted moors where fog clings to the ground long after sunrise. #### **History and Founding** Mosstone began as a fortified camp built by prospectors and mercenary companies seeking control over nearby mineral veins and ancient ruins hidden in the surrounding highlands. The land proved stubborn: mines collapsed, strange creatures emerged from old barrows, and early settlers vanished with unsettling regularity. Those who remained were not dreamers. They were **survivors.** Over time, the camp hardened into a permanent settlement. Watchtowers became walls. Barracks became homes. Shrines rose over sealed tunnels. Mosstone never grew rich—but it endured, feeding on hunting, salvage, caravan escort work, and the steady flow of adventurers drawn by rumours older than maps. #### **Culture and Society** Mosstone is blunt, weathered, and quietly hostile to pretence. Its people are trappers, guides, scavengers, mercenaries, beast-hunters, and ruin-delvers. Everyone knows how to use a blade. Most know how to bury one. Conversation in Mosstone is practical. You are judged by whether you can pull your weight, hold your nerve, and keep your word. Those who boast are either ignored or tested. Despite its harshness, Mosstone is not cruel. The town has a strong code: you defend the walls, you help in a crisis, and you do not endanger the settlement for personal ambition. Break that code, and you are exiled—or worse. #### **Government** Mosstone is governed by a rotating **Stone Council**, composed of veteran captains, long-established locals, and the current commander of the town watch. There is no noble line. Leadership is earned through survival, reputation, and the willingness to make ugly decisions when needed. In times of crisis, the council appoints a **High Warden**, granting them temporary authority over the town’s defence and law. Past Wardens are remembered by the threats they ended—or failed to. #### **Defence and Security** Mosstone is built like a scar: - Thick stone curtain walls - Crude but effective watchtowers - A standing militia drawn from the populace - Rotating mercenary contracts The town maintains large stockpiles of pitch, alchemical fire, ballista bolts, and silvered weapons. No one remembers exactly which threat required which preparation. Only that it was necessary. #### **Landmarks and Notable Sites** - **The Stone Ring** A massive circle of ancient menhirs at the town’s centre, older than any record. It hums faintly in storms. The council meets here when matters concern more than politics. - **The Black Pits** Sealed quarry-mines beneath the eastern wall. Something still moves down there. They are not reopened. - **The Warden’s Hall** A squat fortress-hall housing the council chambers, armouries, and the town’s archive of maps, contracts, and threat reports. - **The Broken Anvil** The largest tavern and hiring hall. Every expedition into the surrounding wilds begins here—or ends. - **The Shrine Row** A line of small, heavily warded shrines to Tempus, Silvanus, Helm, Chauntea, and Kelemvor, tended by whichever priest happens to still be alive. #### **Surrounding Region** Mosstone is ringed by places people only go to if they must: - **The High Moor’s southern scars** – warped lands and roaming horrors - **The Shard Hills** – crystal-veined stone ridges filled with ruins - **The Gloamwood pockets** – dark forest remnants not fully of this age - **Sunken barrows and Netherese fall-sites** scattered across the moors Many of Mosstone’s oldest maps end not in destinations—but warnings. #### **Legends and Quiet Dread** Mosstone is believed to sit atop a convergence of buried sites: druidic circles, Netherese ruins, pre-human tombs, and something no one has ever properly named. Some nights, the standing stones glow faintly. Some mornings, tracks appear that do not match any beast known. And occasionally, someone walks into town from the moor who swears they left years ago. The town keeps records of such arrivals. They do not always match. --- **Mosstone** is not a place people build dreams. It is a place they build **defences.** A frontier scar pressed into the wilderness. A town that exists because something out there keeps trying to come in. And something beneath it has never stopped trying to get out.