Description
This map shows the possible routes between the town of Avondale and the dwarven city of Dal Skyr. It was produced some years ago by Berino Berryfoot the halfling mapmaker who spent some years in Avondale before moving on to Safeharbour and the court of The First. It is not known how accurate it is but Kesryk the mage places some faith in it.
This small village is prospering despite the drought, in fact it is the very drought itself that is causing its prosperity. With the River Avon at its present low level most barges are unloading thier goods here rather than risking grounding by heading further upstream. This is causing much resentment between the burghers of Avondale and the villagers of Mercer's Crossing. This prosperity is likely to be short lived, there is two little warehouse space in Mercer's Crossing and it lies very close to the dark woods of Grimdell.
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This small fishing comunity lies well off of the beaten tracks. It has no harbour and boats are instead dragged up on to the shallowly sloping shingle beach.
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This moderately sized village owes its existance to its position on the caravan route between Dal Skyr and Avondale. It has a number of cheap taverns and inns which cater for the caravan gurads and a few higher class establishments for the richer merchants. There are also a number of smiths and carpenters that have set up business here to repair carts and fettle horses. Tylormount is a cosmopoliton village with most races settled here apart from elves of course. Giants, dwarves, humans and half-orcs can all be seen going about thier business on the streets. It's best to stay away during the hot season though as the lack of a river means that rubbish and sewage builds up faster than the half-orcs can cart it away.
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This caravan route is very busy, with farmproduce going west to Dal Skyr and weapons, tools, gems and precious metals going east to Avondale. This is a short section of the route that runs all the way from Deephaven in the south-west to Safeharbour in the north-east and is possibly the most heavilly travelled. The track becomes very rutted in the winter despite the best efforts of the chain gangs that repair the track all year round. You can occasionally find these groups, made up of criminals, captured goblins, orcs and bugbears, camped by the trackside guarded by a handfull of grizzled ex-army officers. There is a reward for the capture and return of any chain-gang member that escapes. Elves used to be a common sight in chain-gangs but they were found to be too weak for this heavy and demanding work.
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This narrow winding track leads up though the mountains known by the dwarves as Kagyar's Shyld. It links small mine camps near the summits of the mountains with Dal Skyr and Avondale. This route is for the brave as gangs of maurading orcs and worse hide in the nooks and crannies waiting to ambush any people that might pass by.
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This mine village has grown up near the head of a series of shafts that delve deep into the mountains following a rich silver vein. The village is a ramshackle collection of wooden huts and squat stone buildings. A single tavern, a smithy and two foundries are set beside a heavily polluted stream that has been dammed to provide power and water for the village. Spoil heaps loom large over the outermost villages. The vein is now almost totaly worked out and dwarves are starting to leave the area though a few hopeful souls stay on scavanging the spoil tips and working the last remnants of the lode.
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Some towns have streets paved with gold Dwal Blysrad has streets paved with rust! The rich iron deposits that make up most of the hill side ahve leached out into the soil giving everything a scabby red colouration. Huge pits and gouges have been cut from this hillside and wide cart tracks wind down the hill to a smelting works that belches fumes into the sky. There are very few trees in the valleys here abouts. Those that haven't been cut down to feed the fires have died due to the noxious gases given off by the smelting works.
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Tinvale is a new mine, one of the few in the region that have been found in recent years. The vein is wide but has a lot of quartz with making it dificult to extract economically. So far only a few miners are at work for what is a low value material.
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