Hero Wars
Issaries, Inc. |
Apple LaneInformation from the classic RuneQuest scenario collected and updated for Hero Wars.All work by Tim Ellis. Further InformationApple Lane charactersTribal Initiation Fan-contributed perspective map of Apple Lane WELCOME TO APPLE LANEThe village of Apple Lane is a nondescript gathering of buildings typical of borderland territories. Several days ride from the nearest large city it sits astride a well used road.
Any travellers (from whom the settlement gets the larger share of its trade) are happy to stop at this rustic outpost, while farmers from the surrounding hills enjoy it's nearly-citified comforts. The Sheriff of Apple Lane has authority in the area; there is no other official security force. Apple orchards, from which the hamlet draws its name, surround it on every side.
The Map shows the village buildings. The descriptions of the individual buildings below contain notes about important people living there, and their statistics. It will be clear from a brief reading that most of the women are all but useless in melee, though some of their magic could help. There are no stats. for children: this is intentional and reflects the general practice among most Sartarites, whereby the strong protect the weak. Unless otherwise noted, all buildings are of stone.
THE SHERIFF'S HOUSE (two stories)A small sign by the front door announces the Sheriff's name, Dronlan Swordsharp, but misspells his title "Sheruff" A stone Cubicle attached to the back serves as the jail. The house was the only one in town ever painted, and now the paint has peeled away from the stone. Even so, the Sheriff is a richer man than most. Oolina is the Sheriff's wife. The couple have three children. The two sons run farms in the valley near Apple Lane. A daughter joined the mercenaries and disappeared years ago.THE SHERIFF'S BARN (one story with small hay mow)The Sheriff keeps horses, cows, pigs, and chickens here, along with tools, farm equipment, a wagon, and an occasional hired hand.ULERIA'S TEMPLE and THE LADIES QUARTERS (two stories)One older woman and two younger ones live here, all tending the needs of their cult. Uleria is the Goddess of Love. Note the discreet his and hers latrines in back.Many of the farmers know Avareen, the elder Priestess, well enough to have a drink and a joke or two with her in the Tin Inn. Highly respected she is an expert in her cult practices. Aileena and Bingoood are her acolytes, less skilled but eager to earn Lunars for the cult. The Temple includes a room where free drinks are served after sundown, a room where drunks may sleep (for a small fee) and several chambers for private worship and lectures with the priestesses. The second story holds the women's living quarters. WEAPONMASTERS GUILD HALL (two stories)Downstairs is a small armoury with a shop, practice rooms, an office, and so on. Two weapon masters live in cramped quarters upstairs.Jarstan Goodaxe is a spry 52. He teaches Close Combat (Great Axe, Broadsword) and Ranged Combat (Throwing Axe) at the usual rates. Navarok One-Hand barely escaped death in battle after loosing his weapon arm. At age 43 he decided to retire and teach, rather than to relearn his skills left handed. Both men keep their horses at the horsemasters' stables. THE TIN INN (two-storied inn, outbuildings, wall, and courtyard; buildings are tin roofed)Bulster the Brewer, famous for his beer and ale, and his wife, Bertha, run this fortified inn. Brightflower, their 13 year old daughter, helps out. Barayo, their son, has been absent for four years since he joined a mercenary band. Bek Leadhead is the hired tavern bouncer and heavy labourer; Bek is the son of a local farmer.Postal and Mineera live in a small building within the walls but outside the inn, and work there as well. Postal is the stable hand, as well as being noted for his skill at carpentry. Mineera gardens and tends the animals. Jeena, employed as a maid by Bulster, is their daughter, as is Vareen, age ten, the "dog girl" (she handles two rough coated ratter dogs, two shambling hounds, and an irritable cow-dog). Pramble, a poet, lives permanently in the Tin Inn. He has a hunched posture and personality, and spends most of his monthly stipend on paper and postage. Occasionally he works as an extra for the inn when he needs money and when trade allows. Squinch, the local scholar also lives at the Tin Inn. See below, Storehouse, for more about him. The Tin Inn is a well-established roadhouse on a frequently travelled route, and almost always has visitors. It is the only tavern for a day's journey beyond; outlying farmers normally congregate at the inn. TEMPLE TO ALL THE DEITIES (two stories, basement, and additional two-storied tower)The basement stores food and equipment, and the caretaker's living quarters. The first floor is one large room, and the upper floor is several smaller rooms. These, and the tower rooms, are rented for celebrations or sacrifices. Locals use them for their seasonal farming ceremonies, and for weekly prayers to less popular deities. Only cults of chaos and evil ever have been denied rental here.No one knows who owns the building. All communication is with a postal station in the distant city. No one ever has robbed the place, or tried, though rumour has it that several guardian spirits occupy the building. The caretaker is a middle aged appearing woman, Kareena, and she has an idiot girl assistant. Kareena knows a powerful healing spell which she will perform for 10 wheels (or more if the needy person has no exact change). Kareena will not perform the spell for less. She can not be harmed by mortals who ask her for healing. Kareena has threatened to kill anyone who abuses or makes fun of her ward, whom she (and everyone else) calls Idiot Girl. HORSEMASTERS GUILD and RESIDENCE (one story)One half of the house is a single large room, the guild hall. It is empty and dusty, much to large for the need, built years ago upon dreams of throngs of eager riders, regular meetings, and walls yet to be covered with trophies and bannersThe other half of the building houses Lipiccus and Varaneera, the Horse Masters, a husband and wife team now in their mid-fifties. The couple's children long ago left home, never to return. Lipiccus and Varaneera teach Riding skills, including Horse-Swimming and Diving From High Places. Although both are skilled with weapons they do not teach weapons use from horseback, which is a Weapons skill. STABLE (partial second story)The stable has 80 stalls, for the Horsemasters breed and sell horses as well as train them. They usually have 2-12 horses available, as well as a few mules and donkeys (never more than ten at a time). Half of the stables has a second story, where the five horse handlers live. They are named Halawell, Baltho and Jarein (boys) and Garav and Carvala (girls). All are orphans younger than 15, taken in by the kindly couple.STOREHOUSE (one story)With a unique (and very secure) stone made and pyramid-shaped roof, stone walls and foundation, and a single brass bound and magically-locked door facing the Tin Inn, the storehouse has never been robbed. Within it are tools, foodstuffs, liquor, seeds, cloth, blank parchment and paper, and just about any other common trade good which Squinch thinks he can sell to the villagers, travellers or farmers. He runs, in fact the village's general store. Though he is aloof and artificially worldly, he never intentionally cheats a customer.Squinch's air of snobbery comes from his position as the local sage and merchant. The origin of the title is unknown. The farmers and most travellers go to him for their needs, and he also acts as the buyer for surplus farm crops. For the evaluation of treasures, however, the Sheriff, Bulster, and the Horse and Weaponmasters go to Gringle, as do the more alert travellers. Squinch the Greylord lives in the Tin Inn, where usually he can be found. GRINGLE'S PAWNSHOP (two stories)The second story is much smaller than the first. There is also rumoured to be a basement. A bleak building, the structure has only one window (on the second story) and only two doors. The front (public) door opens into the barren Business Room, where Gringle evaluates goods to be sold and listens to descriptions of something someone wants to purchase.Gringle the Pawnbroker lives here. He worships Issaries, God of Trade, and claims the shop is a temple to the deity. Gringle is rumoured to be a Rune Lord of Issaries, and this seems to be true. The Pawnbroker is widely known for his skill in evaluating goods, and also for his fast talk and skilful purchasing. Gringle loves to haggle. His stock is extensive: if he does not have exactly the item someone wants, he will have something similar. He is an old man, balding, with one eye that twitches. Though proud and aloof he is no Scrooge. He likes to swap war stories in the Tin Inn, and is unfailingly polite except to rude people. He tries to avoid fights, but defends his home like a bear with cubs. Quackjohn is the only person ever to regularly be in Gringle's Pawnshop in other than the Business Room. (Some friends, like the Sheriff, are allowed into the kitchen, dining, and sitting rooms). Quackjohn is a Duck, Gringle's devoted manservant, likeable and chatty. He sings when drunk, is a superb cook, and never questions his masters ways. He has worked with Gringle since they settled in Apple Lane some 37 years before. SMITHY AND ARMOURY (one story)The double doors of this building face the road. There is also a door in the rear. In the daytime all doors are open, to help the draft needed for the forge. Ingots of copper, bronze, tin and lead lay in the smithy on one side, with coal and charcoal on the other. Tools and smithing equipment hang from the walls and near the anvils are cooling casks.Piku Gastapakis and his family are foreigners, from the wandering metalworking tribe known as Third Eye Blue. The name comes from the tribal habit of tattooing a blue iris (a blue circle) of the eye upon the foreheads of master metalworkers to "see the secrets if the metal". Valeeda is Piku's wife, and considered to be the ugliest woman in town, but her goat-meat patties make eaters laugh with joy for hours. A 12-year-old daughter, Yaku, never speaks to males of any age. Wakapo, the son, is 15, and has the tattooed eye upon his forehead. A small, nameless animal without eyes is chained to the bellows, and vigorously pumps that tool until told to stop. At night Piku unchains it and feeds it a goat-meat patty, and leaves it to guard his forge. No one knows what it would do if it got loose. Piku can get and work iron, aluminium, and virgin metals if his price is met, and he can forge almost anything practical. He has little artistic skill, although he knows a song to sing sword pommels into the shape of animal heads. Piku makes weapons and armour as well as tools. SMITH'S LIVING QUARTERS (one story)Piku's house is a simple skin dome, a typical Third Eye Blue dwelling, surrounded by a fence which keeps the goats in. Around that are small crop gardens. No one has ever been invited inside.SURROUNDING AREAOrchards, mainly the apples from which the village takes its name, surround the community for many kilometres, interspersed with farmhouses and pasturage. Migrants and fugitives sometimes camp in the trees. One old trollkin sleeps there regularly and collects fallen branches and twigs, which he sells for firewood in Apple Lane each day. The few coppers he earns then buy a meal at the Tin Inn. The trollkin is old, half blind, missing several teeth and is servile. His name is Shuffle. |
