Southmere & the Deep Wold¶
South of Runmede the barge road follows the Emberrun down the locks, under the willows, and past the fen to Southmere: the last town before the wild, where the mere opens silver and the wold rises dark behind the south gate.
Getting there¶
From Runmede's Barge Docks, go SOUTH along the tow-path. It is about two miles of river road: the locks, the willow reach, the milepost oak, the long stair, and Ferrycut Bend. Mind the stair after dark — footpads work the bottom flights in the hungry seasons.
The road & the fen (levels 4-7)¶
- Fen adders and bog curs hunt the reaches and the fen edge; black fen tuskers wallow in the drowned coppice east of the fen turn.
- Footpads hold the long stair some seasons. They carry coin, and sometimes a lockbox.
- Everything with a hide skins; the netmender in town pays 140 in the hundred, the valley's best rate.
The town¶
Southmere is a sanctuary — no blades inside the stiles.
| Where | Who | Service |
|---|---|---|
| The Mereside Green | the mere crier | all the news, delivered loudly |
| The quay | Quaymaster Dorn | odd jobs (WORK) |
| The Weighhouse | Weighman Copperwick | bank: DEPOSIT / WITHDRAW |
| Market Row | Provisioner Wren | travel gear, rations, lockpicks |
| The Herb Stalls | Herbwife Tarrow | herbs, salves, healing, fenwort tea |
| The Anvil Yard | Branna Ironmantle | full weapon rack, arrows and bolts |
| The Bulrush Armory | Tolm Oakmantle | armor light to plate, shields, quilted jacks |
| The Held Breath | Goodman Pyle | food, drink, CHECK IN to train in the eaves room |
| The Hearthhall | Hearthwarden Essa | healing, the region's rest and waking place, RING BELL deed rite |
| Tallow Lane mews | Posy Underbough | the kennel — see below |
| The Moot Porch | Reeve Serra Vane | BOUNTY board, town law |
| The Netyard | old Harrel | sells fishing gear, buys pelts at 140% |
The kennel¶
Posy Underbough sells the best animal company in the valley, each one one of
a kind: hound pups, kittens, a raven, an otter. SHOP at the mews to meet
them and BUY to adopt — your new companion follows you out the door. Feed and
stroke it to build the bond; buy a withy carrier basket if you want to
carry it stowed. Sold is sold: when a pup finds a home, that pup leaves the listing permanently.
The Deep Wold (levels 10-16)¶
Past the south stile the wold begins, and the reeve's map spends one word on its far end. The principal dangers, in rising order:
- Wold-stalkers (the grey cats of the alders) and iron-elk on Wolfwind Rise — premium pelts both.
- The toll-takers: brigands who price the old track at knifepoint. Woldcutters and blackbow archers on the track; their captain Vess Harrow holds the palisaded steading east of the burned waypost. The reeve's bounty on him is the largest figure on the town's books.
- The Mireback Sink: black-pooled bog, fen-trolls, and at the causeway's end the Mireback itself — a fen-troll of legendary tonnage whose hide would buy a barge. Parties have gone south to price it. The sink keeps a larder.
- Beyond the Sink: the causeway's second arm now runs EAST past the fen-troll's crossing into the Sunfall Shire (levels 10–16) — hedgerow grain-country, the Tallyman's road, and Millharrow market town. The deeper Thawlands, finally on the map.
Escorts¶
Two regulars pay for a steady arm:
- Oska the eel-wife waits at the quay with her baskets —
ESCORTher up the adder-haunted tow-path to Runmede's market green (180 silver). - Gurt the prospector waits on the green with a pack of stakes and unreasonable confidence — walk him into the deep wold to his claim at the burned waypost (400 silver, and the wold will referee).
Omens¶
Southmere watches the sky like it watches the wold. When storms break, comets hang over the Frostspine, or the aurora dances over the north, you will hear about it — on the green, from the crier, for days.