A Village

(back from work trips and holiday! Normal rate of posting should resume in the next week)

Bexam is a small village on a major trade route to the west of civilisation. A wide stream trickles past not ten feet from the stone walls around it, and the road runs through the middle, with unguarded gates to the north-east and south-west. Many of the town's 80-or-so inhabitants are expert hunters. The forest nearby, Xam, is overflowing with small animals, which a good portion of the village's families are expert at hunting and skinning.

Bexam is a strange place, so small, and yet rich in so many ways: Argun, the village's headman oversees a prosperous little domain, the furs keep a good standard of living - although one that is earned through hard work. Bexam is also home to a master baker (Crumb) who, as well as selling to the village's inhabitants, is sought after by many larger towns nearby. He refuses to move though, and spends most nights baking and in conversation with hallucinations of his dead wife.

Aric and Cira are twin brothers, now estranged, who serve opposing minor deities in shrines within the village's borders. They each try to sway the villagers to their respective godlings, with little success. Most villagers instead seek advice from Dorse, a hermit who lives alone and sees visions of the town's ancestors.

Dorse and Crumb are both dependent on "Bexam Blue", an addictive moss that grows in secluded parts of the forest. Bexam Blue is a strange organism: it keeps the person who consumes it in excellent health, and has remarkable restorative properties for people suffering from all kinds of diseases and afflictions. A side-effect is that regular users, like the hermit and the baker of Bexam, see (true) visions of the dead at night. If consumed regularly (at least once a day) for five days, someone will have to fight to remain unaddicted to it.

A few villagers secretly harvest the moss and sell it to traders and magicians. Argun disagrees with this, but turns a blind eye so that the village continues to be prosperous.

(rolled from noisms' Random Village Generator)