Introduction to Adventure - Starting a game in Haaksen

New player characters starting out in Haaksen would be given the following information:

"Welcome to Haaksen.  It is an independent trade town, in the region of the Sildur Reaches.  The Reaches were named for a time when they were ruled over by a powerful King of the Frost Giants named Sildur.  He came out of the mountains far to the north, between the time of the Old Ones and the coming of Man, from the West.  Sildur was slain by the earlier Westron Knights, before the great baronies of Botts and Na Kram were settled.  Haaksen sits on a trade route, halfway between those two great baronies, but under the protection of neither.  It has grown up with a strong tradition of having an independent Mayor, who funds the local armed militia (the Gold Lions, which consists of some foot knights, many hired men-at-arms, and a number of peasant levy from the surrounding farms).  In return, he is permitted by the guilds of the city to collect taxes.

The Mayor's Mansion, Hardbriar Castle

    The guilds are the real power, and in public, there are two factions - the Trade Guilds (representing artists, smiths, carpenters, jewelers, and so on) and the Merchant Guilds (representing grocers, inn keepers, money exchangers and the grooms).  Behind the scenes, however, there is also the House of Seven Owls (often rumored, but never verified, guild of Thieves), the Guild of Magic and also the Fighter's Guild.  The Church is represented by a number of offices, sanctuaries and buildings belonging to the various factions, but the largest is the Hospital of the Pierced Pelican - run by the Sisters of St. Brigid.

At the heart of the Merchant's Quarter - houses ans businesses facing the open market

  New adventurers to town are directed to a part of the city known as Cold Comfort Lane.  The Lane is a road that passes directly between the Artisan's Quarter of the town, and the Holy Quarter of the town.  As the road passes from the outer wall at the south tip of the town, north into the inner wall (which surrounds the Mayor's Palace, as well as other important noble villas and extremely wealthy or important individuals and businesses), it is flanked on the western side by the daily arrival of beggars, orphans, cripples, widows and the poor - all seeking solace from the Priests, Nuns and Monks who work and live in the Holy Quarter.  In the distance, a few blacks into the quarter, you can make out the seven golden spires of the Hospital, with the gold figurine of a mother Pelican on top of the central one, piercing her breast, to feed her babies.

Looking up at the spires of the Hospital of the Pierced Pelican - they can't be seen from so close

 On the eastern side of the street are tightly packed stone and wooden buildings, with small shops and cafes in the downstairs, and apartments and housing for the artisans and clerks who work these shops upstairs.  All of the shops represent the products of a single, or a small group, of artisans.  As you look deeper into the quarter, the workings of tools, machinery, and laborers are apparent, at each of a hundred different artisan workshops.  Gold smiths, black smiths, leather workers, carvers, cutters, molders, and other makers - all hard at work.  The sounds and smells are amazing, frightening and inviting - all at the same time - and provide a mighty lure for newcomers who have gold and silver to spend.

Edge of the Artisan's Quarter

Halfway between the outer wall and the inner wall, Cold Comfort Lane grows very wide, and an island of buildings appears in the middle.  It is the tower of the Fighter's Guild, 'Traturnis', which opens up to a small courtyard surrounded by benches and shady Pichel trees, which give off a very pungent fruit all year round.  The courtyard is used for duels, sword practice, and a general meeting place for mercenaries and fighters who come to Traturnis looking for work.  At the far end of the courtyard is a large and welcoming tavern - ancient in structure, with mighty walls bulging out with age, but painted freshly red every quarter, and surrounded by comforting walls.  The Inn is home to many, many visitor's rooms, large kitchens and common rooms, and a brewery unparalleled.  There is a stable beyond the inn, and that structure completes the island.  The inn, of course, is the famous Fatted Calf.  This is where most adventurers come to say when in town - the owner, Giles Fairham, has a strict no-questions-asked policy for guest who pay their bills, and most of the factions and nobles in town know that this is where you would come to advertise jobs for adventurers, if you want the best.

The Fatted Calf

 The Fatted Calf has a tradition.  In the largest of the common rooms, known as Bristlecone Hall (named for the Bristlecone wood that is lining the raftered ceilings), every Week's End night finds the room full of musicians, working girls, visitors, pipe smoke, spilled ale, and street entertainers.  In this festival environment, at the ring of the first bell past sundown, the great cavebear fur rugs in the center of the room are drawn back, and mighty trapdoors are opened up.  At this point, boasts of bravado and claims of heroic status start ringing the room, as adventurers - in groups and singly - step forward to brave the Platform.  The Platform is an elevator that is lowered down just past sundown, left down for six whole bells (six hours), and then drawn back up again in the middle of the night, just before the common room is shut down to drink and musicians.  The platform itself is lowered, with whomever is brave enough to show their mettle in braving it (all for the admiration of fighting men, free drinks from rogues, and the love of the working girls).  Those who step forward are lowered hundreds of feet down deep into the earth, down to the bank of a river that runs deep underground, through a vast cave system.  Once they are let down, the room goes crazy with song, drinking, and betting - on who will come back (dead OR alive), and what else might come back up with the adventurers.  This is the Fatted Calf, the home of adventurers in the town of Haaksen.

The town itself is given some detail here.

The immediate countryside, with some known danger spots and adventure sites are given detail here.

The surrounding region of the Sildur Reaches is given detail here.