Coldhollow¶

Coldhollow is the frontier town at the edge of the Frostspine and the original sanctuary: no combat, no creature aggression, and full safety within its bounds. It holds the market quarter, the chapel (the respawn point for Coldhollow's region), and the residents with whom players build rapport.

Chartered 1152 SR as the supply town for the Delvings silver-lead mine, around a wayfarers' hearth that "has not gone out in any man's memory." When the mine was sealed in 1187, the town half-emptied — the derelict north edge dates from that exodus. The chapel keeps the founding hearth today.

Layout¶

Place	Room	Notes
Town Square	1007	The heart of town; Rex and his little flock of roosters live here
Square sides	1042–1045	North (town hall), East (market row), South (apothecary), West (watchtower)
Market quarter	1030–1039	Ten shop rooms, off the square's east side
The Shuttered Row	1052–1069	The housing district — eight empty houses for sale, west off Shuttered Lane (Housing)
Chapel	1021	The region's respawn point (Death)
Town gate	1006	The boundary of sanctuary; the trail begins beyond it
The Gate Yard	3605	Bel Harrow's stable, south off the gate — horses for sale, stalls for keeping (Mounts)
West wall & watch office	4000–4005	`UP` from Town Square, West — staffed wall walks, safety gear, road reports, and the smoke-basket platform
The Outwall	4006–4009	Two patrol descents beyond sanctuary converge at the charcoal cut and Expected-Home Shrine

The square spreads to all four sides: the town hall keeps the north side, the market row the east, the apothecary the south along the chapel road, and the watchtower the west by the gate. Named ways (GO HALL, GO MARKET...) never appear in the exits line — the room descriptions point them out.

The market quarter¶

Ten shops form the commercial core. All trade is open: find the appropriate vendor and use SHOP, SELL, or BUY. See Vendors & Economy.

Vendor / service	Offers
Smith	weapons, basic armor, weapon repair
Apothecary	potions, healing supplies
General store	miscellaneous goods
Furrier	hides, light armor, cloaks
Gemcutter	premium buying for gems and jewelry
Locksmith	`OPENBOX` (fee), `REPAIR` lockpicks
Banker	silver handling
Town Hall	records, the registrar, and the public lockers behind the curtain (`GO HALL` at Market Row)
Cleric	blessed goods and services
Innkeeper	lodging and food

Some shop rooms include disposal objects (a well, a barrel, a midden) that destroy anything placed in them, useful for clearing unwanted items.

Residents¶

The townsfolk are persistent social actors; they track rapport with each player and respond to how they are treated.

Rex the Rooster: lives in the town square; a memorial pet, always himself, and the quiet leader of the little flock that gathers around him. See Pets.
Reeb: Rex's shy younger brother, a mahogany Rhode Island Red who never strays far from him.
Ripp: a rescued silver-laced Wyandotte, fiercely protective of Reeb and deferential to old Rex. A companion pet; see Pets.
Rox & Ren: Rex's Buff Orpington egg-brothers, hatched from the same clutch and never once parted. They roam the square and market together — friendly to a gentle hand, but far too quick and too settled to ever be picked up. Ren is the broad, grizzled elder; Rox the bright, restless younger.
The Hedge Witch: a reclusive elemental-lore keeper who can serve as a mentor, teaching an element word once rapport is high enough.
Other mentors: several residents can teach a fixed element word, each with their own personality and rapport requirement.
Captain Ysra Dorn and Pell Flint: the wall captain and bell-runner patrol the west and north walks rather than waiting in one room. They track road returns, gate warnings, and the names of people expected home.
Venn Alder: the watch quartermaster sells whistles, guidefire candles, paired expected-home tokens, and ordinary survival gear from the wall office.
Mara Ash and Hearthwarden Senn Rook: the collier and roving hearthwarden work beyond sanctuary at the charcoal cut and shrine. Senn heals road wounds; both remember returns and trade in current outwall news.

TALK <npc>             start a conversation
TALK <npc> <message>   say something specific
FEED <npc>             offer food — the strongest rapport-builder
LEARN   (STUDYFROM)    ask a mentor here to teach you a word

Building rapport through FEED and TALK is the safest road into magic: a mentor's lesson is risk-free, unlike daring a word above your tier. See Magic → Learning words.

The Withered Yard: the gated graveyard (levels 5–10)¶

Off Shuttered Lane (the derelict north edge), behind a rusted lychgate and a mossy wall, lies the town's abandoned burial yard, and the town's abandoned buried. Three mortal routes lead in, none of them polite:

Climb the wall at the slump (a Climbing check).
Pick the lychgate: a stiff lock, worth meaningful Lockwork.
Open it magically: 3172 Whisperkey, the working that argues with tumblers.

Inside are restless skeletons and grave ghouls (the ghouls carry tarnished crypt keys), and — drifting between the stones — pale shades. Shades are ethereal: mundane steel passes straight through them. Bring virtue — any enchanted weapon, holy metal, or a blessing from Father Hollis in the chapel next door (BLESS <weapon>, 30 silver, half an hour — see Law & Honest Work for the town's other services). The undead never bleed, so rely on direct damage rather than attrition.

At the head of mausoleum row a locked stone crypt descends to an old barrow, and the barrow has a tenant: a crowned barrow-wight, king of something older than the town. It guards a white orichalcum shortsword — blessed metal that flares white fire against the dead and never needs a chapel's permission.

The Undercroft: the drains beneath Shuttered Lane (levels 0–1)¶

Before the gate, before the graveyard, there is the gentlest hunt in the realm — and it is right under your feet. Off Shuttered Lane, a collapsed cellar opens onto the old drains dug in the mine-supply years to carry off the meltwater, long forgotten and long since claimed by rats. From the Town Square, walk to the derelict north edge and simply go DOWN — no lock, no climb, and the walls' pale drain-moss gives light enough to see by, so no lantern is needed.

The drains are a small warren of nine chambers, lit and forgiving, stocked with easy prey for a brand-new character:

giant sewer rats and grey plague-rats — levels 1–2, low on health and slow to hurt you: ideal first kills, especially for a new fighter learning the sword. KILL RAT, and mind your recovery.
the warren mother: a bigger rat (level 2) at the bricked-off dead end. She is not aggressive: she won't start the fight, so you pick your moment. A steady hand takes her single-handed for a tidy reward.

Every rat is skinnable — SKIN the kill and sell the pelt at the Coldhollow furrier — and the whole run pairs naturally with the Finding Your Feet orientation tasks (TASKS) and HELP NEW. When the rats come easily, you're ready for the trail.

The Gate Yard: Bel Harrow's stable¶

South off the Sagging Town Gate, tucked against the inside of the wall, is a long yard of churned slush and twelve chalk-marked stalls. Bel Harrow the hostler has kept it thirty years — short with people, patient with animals, and unwilling to sell you more horse than you can ride.

A shaggy moor pony goes for 600 silver and a long-legged grey courser for 2,200; oats, a currycomb and a riding blanket are on the shelf besides. ASK BEL ABOUT HORSES for her opinion, or STABLE to leave your animal in her care while you go somewhere it cannot follow. See Mounts.

The west wall and Expected-Home Shrine¶

UP from Town Square, West enters the working wall above the sagging gate. The watch is a small civic system rather than a decorative guard post: a duty board records gates, patrols, weather, and who is expected home; the bell wire links the wall; the watch office loans and sells survival gear; and Captain Ysra's people actually circulate through the rooms.

Two ways descend beyond the wall, one by the smoke basket and one by the gate ditch. Both cross the sanctuary line and meet at an abandoned charcoal cut. North of it, the Expected-Home Shrine keeps soot-written names for missing travelers who have not been declared dead. It is a recovery node and a social place maintained by Mara Ash, Hearthwarden Senn Rook, and the patrols — but it is outside town protection.

The Ring: the dueling floor by the creek¶

South off the Frozen Creek Crossing on the trail east of the gate, a birchstand hides a floor of stamped earth. Maud Kettle keeps the gate with a ledger, a bell, and a whetstone; consenting duelists settle their business on her floor while the gallery watches from sanctuary ground, and roars when a bout is decided. She will explain the whole institution herself: ASK MAUD ABOUT RULES. See Duels & PvP for the system.

Getting to the trail¶

Head out from Town Square toward the town gate, then onto the Frostspine Trail (The Frostspine). The gate marks the edge of sanctuary: step through and the wilderness, and its creatures — begin.