Haaksen - The Walled Town

The town of Haaksen, population 4800, is shown here.  It is a walled town, with major gates to the southeast and to the north.  It is surrounded by farmland, which is dotted with little farming communities, most consisting of a few farmer's estates, some serf housing, and perhaps a small family church, or a smith.

Detailed hexmap of 2116 - Haaksen

Each small hex on this map is only 1 mile across.

Most of the countryside around Haaksen itself is pretty clear from threats (at least within ten or fifteen miles in all directions).  Within the town, however, is a different story.  And of course, there is always the possibility of discovering something forgotten in the immediate countryside.

Within the town itself, it is structured as a walled trade town.  There is an outer wall, within which are most of the trades and merchants. There is a sharp divide in this outer ring of the town, dividing it clearly into four sections.  Those sections are the Merchant Quarter, to the northwest (just west of the northern road out of town).  There is the Scrivener's Quarter, to the northeast (just east of the northern road out of town).  There is the Holy Quarter, between the Merchant Quarter, and the southeastern road out of town.  And finally, there is the Artisan Quarter, located between the Scrivener's and Holy Quarters.

Image of the Walled Trade Town of Haaksen, showing the concentric walls

The town is built on a high rocky spot of ground, with the highest point, the center of the inner wall, being the site of the Mayoral mansion, Hardbriar Castle.  Also in the inner wall are the homes of extremely important people in the town - lords and wizards; guild heads and notable clergymen.  Outside of the inner wall, in the quarters, are housed primarily businesses and the more important workers of those businesses.  In the Merchant Quarter, there is a thriving market that meets three times a week in force, but always there are some stalls open for business.  In the Scrivener's Quarter there are offices representing the various magic schools, clerks for hire, sages for consultation, book dealers, cartographers and other members plying the trades of the learned classes.  In the Artisan Quarter, there are all manor of artisans - including carpenters, armorers, smiths, clothiers, glass grinders, stone cutters and so forth.  Finally, in the Holy Quarter, the smallest section of the city, there are a number of small churches and buildings dedicated to the workings of various Orders of the Westron Church.  The largest, but far from the only, order represented here is the Hospital of the Pierced Pelican, a healing hospital run by Sisters of St. Brigid.

The walls and chief buildings have a lot of stonework making up their construction, almost everything else is wooden.  There is a thin region of trees, about 200 yards or so across, that completely surrounds the Town, as a reminder to the inhabitants about the vast forests that covered this part of the Sildur Reaches before the arrival of the Westroners.

Interesting adventure sites inside the town itself are:

Hanard Keep - A fortified villa belonging to the Dwarves at the had of the Smithing Guild, located in the Artisan Quarter.  The Keep itself is not too exciting, but there are rumored to be levels and levels of dungeons underneath.  The Dwarves have uncovered entryways to deep goblin infested caverns, and fight a battle to keep the goblins down, and secret, for fear that they will lose their Guild Patent in the city.

Chilaine Tower - An abandoned (?) wizard's tower, also complete with dungeons underneath, at the outer edge of the Scrivener's Quarter, up against the outer wall.

The Fatted Calf - A pub for soldiers and adventurers, located at the gate to the inner wall, from between the Holy Quarter and the Artisan's Quarter.  Once a week, there is a great ceremony where the floor in the back common room of the pub is pulled back, revealing a shaft.  A massive wooden platform is then lowered some 100 feet, down to the banks of a deep underground river and left there for an hour.  It is then raised back up.  Adventurers will volunteer to descend on the platform, to spend a week exploring the underworld, and sometimes they, or worse, will come back up - to be fought (when necessary) by the cheering inhabitants of the pub.

The Catacombs - there is a single graveyard in the city, and it is a walled park attended to by some monks who live in an attached hermitage.  These are of the order of St. Horace, and have taken a vow of silence. Other than tending to the graveyard/park they also have a large aviary where they tend to messenger birds for the use of the citizens of the town.  In the deep earth under the graveyard, however, there is a system of catacombs - tunnels of an inhuman and ancient design crisscross and cover multiple levels underneath the graveyard.  Other than a colony of ghouls that has taken up residence, there are said to be stranger inhabitants.