Smoke and dust rise from the chimneys and roads around the walled city. At the eastern gates, crowds queue up to enter. Merchants walk along the line to sell to those waiting in it. You smell warm beer, roasted meat, old vegetables, and the odor of the unwashed masses as you approach the crowds.
Where the Fawn River forks into the Fawn River to Black Stag and the upper river down to Aletown, merchants congregate to barter with northern hunters, furriers, and farmers. Anyone on Crystal Waters or north of the fork with something to trade will make their way to Fork.
This was once a small trading stop similar to Hightown, but the merchants recognized its importance and built it up as a full-fledged town. The merchant and gambling guilds run the town, and (as long as they fill out the proper forms) leave everyone alone unless they are adversely affecting trade. Merchants who use Fork for any length of time will find it safest to become a member of a guild. The Merchants Guild has branches throughout the river communities.
The town’s unsavory appeal is assisted by the number who, having made lucrative trades, return home with little more than they started their journey with. The one that got away is a familiar story in Fork. Scams, ruffians, and gambling offer many opportunities for the newly rich to return to their common status. This is Chicago and Las Vegas combined.
The walls of Fork are twenty to thirty feet high, made of wood and reinforced with stone.
- Entering Fork
- There are two things they’ll need to do to enter Fork through the front gates: wait in line, and dispose of their arms. It generally takes one to three hours to enter Fork during the day (d3 hours), and 20 to 70 minutes to enter at night (d6+1 times ten minutes).
- Fork: Crime
- Crime’s pretty high in Fork, unless you have a bodyguard. Anyone out alone at night, especially in the Southside gambling district, runs the risk of a mugging. The best way to avoid a mugging is to keep to crowds and always travel as a group. On the other hand, pickpockets work the district night and day and prefer crowds.
- Fork: Lodging
- Fork provides a wide variety of lodging opportunities. The best lodging will be on the Southside, especially as it moves towards the Eastside. The Westside provides the cheapest lodging. The rates given here are per person. Bond fees are usually per group, as long as the arms and armor can be carried on one cart. It’s a nice gesture to tip the bondsman twenty percent, but not usually necessary.
- Entertainment
- Most of the entertainment in Fork is in the Southside triangle between the High Road, Meadow Road, and the Southside wall. Meril will consider it his duty to show his friends around the Southside at night. He’ll take them to his favorite gambling houses, clubs, and bars. Alcohol is wine, port wine, and beer. Wine and port wine are preferred.
- Employment
- Employment in House of Lisport: Fork
- Fork: Markets
- Markets in House of Lisport: Fork
- Fork: Outsiders
- The people who choose to live outside of fork all have three things in common: a love of easy money, an eye for a mark, and the hope of a fast buck.
- Fork: Politics
- The most influential organizations in Fork are the gambling guilds. After them come the other merchant guilds.
- Architecture
- Fork’s current wall is the third in its history. It was built several years before the war. Remnants of the previous two walls still exist inside the city, but most of the old walls were removed to help build the current wall.
- The Townsfolk
- Fork is a relatively cosmopolitan place for West Highland, so names can be any style found in Highland. Most common names will be English-style names. The next most common will be Anglicized Celtic names. Then Frankish, and (because of the Schismatic Orders) occasionally a bastardized Greek or Hebrew name. Usually the latter will be a single name rather than a first name and last name.
- Adventures in Fork
- Fork itself can provide many adventures. Characters can be caught up in criminal activities, or track down stolen items, or solve murders. If they’re of a more rakish bent they might run stings or scams, otherwise they might get caught up in a sting or scam.
