Nestled in a valley in the mountains, living in the shadow of the abandoned castle high up on the cliffs to the east, Biblyon greets you in the sun like a long-lost relative. Homes and buildings crowd in together, huddled against the wilderness. A high wooden wall surrounds the west entrance to the tiny valley. In the mountains beyond the wall, a small waterfall sparkles downward in the (evening sun or morning light).
In Biblyon, rumors are flying about some strange, horrible creature loose in the forests. Farmers have complained of chickens taken whole, of travelers found dead with their eyes and tongues and ears missing, of livestock found sucked free of blood. The night trolls are becoming restless in the winter, but no night troll has ever been like that.
Expected visitors have gone missing, and a farmer in the bar last night claimed to have seen smoke rising from the woods near the old castle.
There have also been stories of strange sights at the old castle. One hunter swore he saw smoke coming from the towers. A farmer says that on a visit to a friend he and his family saw strange red eyes outside the range of his fire. “Halfway between yourself and the Kellies? Wouldn’t that put you near the old castle?” “Why yes, I guess it would.” He crosses himself and mumbles “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph”
It has been a hard winter, but the snows are now melting. The waters of the Old Deer River are flowing at maximum.
Old Deer River falls from just below the castle, winds through town, and then heads southwest to intersect with the Leather Road (and continue further into the Deep Forest). Old Deer River is a light river, more a stream in late summer, but it can grow to decent size in the spring as the snows melt.
The dotted path running from the gates and around the houses are the major roads of Biblyon. There are many more alleys, especially in the Merchant’s Quarter and the Newtown Quarter areas.
Trees on the map generally represent more than on tree. Trees generally only exist in gardens. Most of the trees in the valley have been cut down and used for building or fire wood.
On the north and south sides of the valley, the mountainside rises sharply. The buildings on the south side of town are a hundred feet higher than the buildings near the river. The Library is the tallest building in town.
At the east end of town, a small waterfall tumbles down the cliff face. In the spring, the waterfall (and the river) grow to twice their size. A natural pathway winds up the mountainside towards the castle. At the top of the waterfall, the pathway also goes north and south to many of the farmers’, herders’, and miners’ homes of these parts.
In the graveyard outside of town, it is easy to see when the mass suicide occurred. There is a cluster of about a hundred (121) very simple graves, with wooden crosses and a faded “1911” written on them.
If you want to buy books, writing supplies, and the services of research assistants, there is no better place to go than Biblyon’s Market in their town square. Farmers also set up here.
The Market is sporadically available. Whenever people gather to sell, some people gather to buy. There can be as few as zero or one merchants, or as many as several hundred. There tend to be more on Sundays and around full moons. The Sundays before major holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, Summer, and Harvest, are also big market days.
You’re not likely to find a rare book in the Market, but one or two have been known to slip under the watchful eye of the Tutors. Occasionally bits and pieces from the Castle show up in the market, either as part of a townsfolk’s or farmer’s stall, or having been bartered by a local to a more regular merchant.
Most shops are set up in the merchant’s quarter, though on Market days merchants with portable merchandise are likely to be in Market Square. During the day, the Merchants Quarter is crowded with scholar, farmer, trader, and merchant. During the evening the focus of the crowd is the Fons Tabernus near the river.
The “uphill” area on the south side of the main road is the home of the richer members of town, often merchants who have made money and want to retire to a life of study.
The Downhill area is where most people live in Biblyon. These are the woodcutters, the servants, the waiters and bartenders and waitresses of Biblyon. Farmers who have a “Biblyon home” probably have it in the downhill area.
The town is growing, and houses and businesses are being built outside of the wall.
If there were such a thing as a middle class, they would live Midhill. These are the long-term visiting scholars, the librarians, the upscale farmer-scholar, the tutors that have their own home outside of the House of Tutors. Here, the houses are built with slightly more space and privacy than Downhill, but quite a bit less than Uphill.
The Old Deer River cuts southwest across Highland and intersects with the Leather Road before heading deeper into the Forest. Some merchants and scholars on their way to Black Stag will bypass half of the Leather Road by taking the river. A single passenger trip from Biblyon to the Leather Road will generally run about a shilling, and take two to three days. Passengers will be dropped off at the Old Deer Bridge one hundred and fifty miles east of Black Stag.
Seven tall columns stand atop stone stairs that lead up to the doors of the great library at Biblyon. Shaded by the overhanging roof, amongst the columns, people read, talk, and play board games such as chess and checkers.
A roadside vendor serves the laconic community of scholars. You can smell warm bread and warm beer wafting from the vendor’s carts.
The library of Biblyon is a college, a community of scholars. Within its centuries-old walls lie the ghosts of famous sorcerors and students of natural science.
The old throne of Illustrious Castle is on central display here. The library is run by the Librarians of Biblyon, and protected by the Tutoris Libris.
People still have respect for the dead order. Even the Tutors, who remember what the order became respect what the order originally stood for.
The Head Librarian is a hereditary position, currently held by Leonard Grass III, son of Truman Grass, son of Leonard Grass II. Leonard III has no son, but his daughter Shelia Grass is a fine scholar specializing in textual reconstruction. There is some question as to whether a woman can become a head librarian, but the general consensus is that she can.
Books are shelved by topic. Their catalogue number is a long number containing the date the work was originally catalogued (6 digits), who catalogued it (2 letters), a serial number (2 digits), and the topic number (2 digits and letters).
There are seven digits in the date, because it uses three digits for the year, one letter for the month, and a digit or letter for the day. The month’s letter is the first letter of the month’s name in Latin except for repeats: I for January, F for February, M for March, A for April, Q for May, X for June, V for July, Y for August, S for September, N for November, and D for December. The day starts at one and on the tenth day goes to A.
Thus, the third book about gems catalogued by Leonard Grass III on May 26, 974,would be catalogued as 974QQAO035T.
One of the lesser controversies among the librarians is what to do in the year 1000. The catalogue uses the common year: the number of years since the cataclysm. In 1000 the year will go from three digits to four digits. Most librarians consider this not a big deal, as the easiest way to deal with it is to assume that any catalogue number beginning with a ‘1’ is from 1000 or later (even if the records had not been lost in the Goblin Wars, the Order catalogued no books in the second century). Others feel that this is courting confusion, and that a re-numbering of the catalogue is in order, adding a ‘0’ or an ‘X’ in front of every current catalogue number.
The library’s scholars are the doctors of the area. Patients at the Biblyon sickhouse get the best treatment in the known world, but it is also likely to be experimental and recorded as part of a monograph or book.
Discounts on both rooms and meals can usually be worked out for long-term visitors.
|
House |
Room |
Common Room |
Breakfast |
Lunch |
Dinner |
Beer |
Wine |
|
Barber House |
- |
- |
2 p |
2 p |
2 p |
- |
- |
|
Rabbits Hole |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
2 p |
|
|
Fallen Leaf |
2 s+ |
- |
4 p |
- |
6 p |
3 hp |
3 p |
|
Fons Tabernus |
1 s+ |
3 p |
2 p |
3 p |
3 p |
1 p |
2 p |
|
Amici Doctiloqui |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
3 hp |
3 p |
The Barber House has no rooms, but this public house opens early and serves hot clear soup. It also caters to cutting and fashioning hair. For those who awake early, the Barber House is an important gathering place. The Barber House does not handle surgeries, as this is handled by the Librarians at the Sickhouse.
A good haircut and soup costs 3 pennies throughout the day. Just the soup costs 1 penny, though they don’t advertise it as such.
Fed by the Old Deer River and heated by wood fires, the Bathhouse is a good place to go on a cold morning or a cold afternoon.
A good, hot bath costs 4 pennies. A good, cold bath costs 1 penny. Memberships are also available at twenty-five shillings per year and include access to the steam room.
One of the oldest houses in Biblyon is the home of the intellectual descendants of the revolutionary sorceror Charles Dodgson. Dodgson is known to many as the author of the allegorical series on sorcery, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. The Costumers are known for illusions, spectacle, and these Costumers also hold to Dodgson’s dream of an open community of magical scholars.
The bottom floor of the Guild is the Rabbit’s Hole, the oldest tavern in Biblyon. The Hole is a major gathering place for scholars in Highland. The scholarly houses tend to gather here nightly for beer and Deep Thought. Bring your own food if you desire any, as the Rabbit’s Hole serves only the Guild’s own brew.
On busy nights such as weekends, full moons, and holidays, there are often one or several food stalls set up on the road leading to the Hole starting around evening.
Located smack in the center of the Market Square, the Council House is where most meetings in town are held. The wide windows are kept open in the summer, and shuttered come fall and winter. The town council meets here, and any organization that does not have its own house will also likely meet here if they have any official duties to take care of.
Named after the founder of the Order, the Dormitory is the oldest House in Biblyon. Residence is by invitation only, and invitations come by way of the head librarian. Scholars throughout the rest of the world will work their contacts trying to get invited to the Vincent. It isn’t just the free lodging but also the prestige of having been invited.
With its sign hanging out front depicting a sheet of paper and a shooting star, “The Fallen Leaf” is emblematic of the town’s zeitgeist. The major public house in Biblyon is home to scholars, farmers, merchants, and anyone else looking to stay the night or grab a meal and a drink. Or, more often, just a drink and a lot of talk.
The Fallen Leaf is not attached to any of the formal houses. It contains a game room for dicing and general betting.
A room at the Fallen Leaf is two shillings plus three pennies per person, up to a maximum of five persons per room. The Leaf has twenty-four rooms.
Humanity spills out of the doors of the wooden building before you like beer foaming out of a mug on a warm day. A sign hanging above the eaves sports a faded fern and the words “Fons Tabernus”. A jug hangs from a hook on the sign, announcing for the street the nature of this house. On one side of the tavern, a furnace blazes white as the blacksmith works into the night. On the other side, several huge tubs stand behind a sign announcing baths for 1 penny. They’re not making much money.
Located in the merchant’s quarter, Fons Tabernus (“Tavern at the River’s Source” in the ancient tongue) is often the liveliest of the houses. While it also contains its share of scholarly disputes, here those disputes still can result in personal combat. The Fons contains the widest variety of regulars of any of the public houses in Biblyon. Farmers traveling to Biblyon for metalwork, blacksmithing, or other supplies and services, will often spend the night in the Fons and head back home the next morning, depending on how far their home is.
Sleeping in the common room in the Fons costs three pennies. Breakfast of sausage, potatoes, and eggs with beer, is another three pennies. The Fons has twenty private rooms, which may be had for one shilling plus two pennies for every extra person, up to a maximum of seven persons per room (there are, however, only four cots per room no matter what).
The Tutoris Libris were an underground organization started during the degeneracy of the Order of Illustration. Their oral history recalls the fear of that time, though others have forgotten. They were founded in 903 by librarians, scholars, and renegade members of the Order who worried about the new direction of the Order of Illustration. In 916, a few years after the Order “committed suicide”, they built their house, the newest building in Biblyon. The House of Tutors was founded to house the Tutors and their allies.
If the characters bring any Tutoris members in on the plan to examine the castle, the tutor is likely to brush it off unless the characters have some sort of reason to believe that their search will find something that other people’s haven’t.
If the party brings one of the older Tutors into their confidence, they’ll be warned:
“If there really is a secret complex, I’d be careful. The Illustrators became quite paranoid and malicious after they retook the castle. There’s no telling what protections they may have laid down.”
If previously broke or itinerant characters bring treasures down from the castle to the town, the townsfolk, especially the Tutoris, will become suspicious. If any of the treasures are identifiable as belonging to the Order, this will almost certainly spark a new expedition by the Tutoris to the castle.
If the characters bring books from the castle to the town, or the Tutoris gains knowledge that they have acquired books in the castle, the Tutoris will consider it a mission to restore those books to their rightful owner: the Library at Biblyon. The Tutors don’t have a library of their own. They consider the Library theirs, or more precisely, they consider themselves as part of the library.
The Tutors have their own boatyard on the pool.
The Tutors are led by a college of seven scholars, one of whom chairs the college for a three year period. Generally, the same small group is voted into the college, and the same smaller group takes turns at chairing the college.
Abacus was the chair of the Tutors when the Order still existed. He was the second chair of the group, and one of the founding members. He’s dead now--his grave is in the cemetery marked “957” for the year he died. He was the leader of the Tutors when the Order “committed suicide”. His notebook, which covers that event, is in the Library. See “The Notebook of Abacus Dome” in the appendix.
Erin Forney was studying the architectural development of the castle. Some of his notes are in his folio in the Library. Three years ago he left to do further research in Crosspoint. He’s stayed in touch with the Tutors since then, and entertains visiting Tutors in Crosspoint.
Anyone who can draw out Erin’s friends in the Tutors will also learn that Erin was undergoing a sort of loss of faith. He had begun to feel that his work “meant nothing” and that “with the castle’s innards spread throughout a fifty mile radius, what could he hope to learn?” Erin felt he needed to find something better to do with his life, sooner rather than later. His sojourn in Crosspoint has more to do with his search for meaning than with his scholarly pursuits, which frankly he hasn’t done much of. There’s nothing odd about that: the scholar’s life requires a special kind of dedication.
What really happened is that Eliazu took notice and decided that someone doing a serious study of the castle was not beneficial to the demon’s goals. Eliazu influenced Erin to leave, instilling feelings of despair, futility, and impatience in the scholar, and then feeding those feelings. Erin has no desire to come back to Biblyon, doesn’t really know what to do with his life, but there has to be something better than poring over old books and someone else’s work.
Erin’s notes contain a general map of the first and second floor, an analysis of the movable walls that once existed in the Small Ballroom (room 3 of the first floor), and a lot of geometric doodles. He also outlines the major building sprees in the castle’s history. In 291, the Order built the first portion of the castle and cleared quite a bit of farmland. The sale of wheat, barley, turnips, apples, and other vegetables and fruit, as well as the sale of clerical work, financed the next major revisions of the castle in 485 and in 613. The next major architectural project of the Order was the Library in 615. Construction lasted two decades, though the major portion was finished in five years. They began work on the Dormitory of Vincent in 699, and continued working on it through 723. There is evidence of another major expenditure in the eight-twenties which lasted through the late eight-fifties, though there was apparently some secrecy about what they were building. Diaries from the townsfolk of the time indicate a sharp drop in revenues from barley especially but also from all Order-controlled businesses. Townsfolk alternately blamed it on a string of poor crops, on a land deal in Crosspoint, and on paying off debts from the previous decades. They eventually forgot about it and were pleasantly surprised when book funds began to rise again in the eight-sixties.
See Erin’s Maps in the back of this book.
The current chair is Miller Sartoris, an elderly warrior-scholar specializing in the study of bodies of water and their effects on stone and shore. Miller Sartoris is a fourth level warrior and a third level sorceror.
Any potential Tutor must exhibit a wide array of scholarly knowledge and the ability to act decisively under pressure. Reading and writing is required. If they have a moral code, it tends to be Good or Ordered Good.
In game terms, they will usually either be highly intelligent or have the Scholar specialty, and have an above average agility and charisma. Other specialties that a Tutor might have are the alchemical specialties, Circle Magic and other sorcerous specialties, and Multi-Type. Warriors who intend to lead Tutors into battle will often take the Team Combat specialty.
Warriors tend not to have the specialties that focus on martial combat (such as Weapons Master or Two-Weapon Fighting), instead opting for specialties that further knowledge and appease curiosity. Multi-Typing to Thief to gain spy abilities is not uncommon.
Members of the guard must also learn the Team Combat skill soon after joining the guard. For example:
Albert Elliott, Captain of the Guard: Warrior Level 4, Thief Level 2, Intelligence 16, Wisdom 12, Charisma 14, Strength 10, Agility 13, Endurance 9, Survival Potential 38. Specialties: Scholar, Multi-Type, Team Combat. Moral Code: Ordered Good. Thief Skills (+6 each of four): Disguise (14), Hide (11), Locks & Traps (15), Search (13). Skills (13): Bowyer/Fletcher, Equestrianism, Hunting, Mountaineering, Tactics, Team Combat (2), Languages (Ancient, Frankish), Anatomist, Medicine, Read/Write, Alchemy. Weapon Familiarities (6): bow, longsword, spear, dagger, shortsword, quarterstaff. Age: 33, Height: 5’7”, Weight: 139 lbs. Armor: chain mail, shield, occasionally full helmet.
Albert’s specialty is the study of human anatomy and the interactions between living things and chemicals. He travels often, both alone and with trusted companions, in search of lost knowledge and new knowledge. He is most famous for a field study on the response of the human body to attrition in battle; his treatise has, according to his supporters, the potential to revolutionize field surgery and medicine.
What the Tutoris lack in specialized weapon familiarities they often make up in intelligence of overall battle decisions and in the unique battle devices they devise. The Tutoris wing of the library is filled with scale models of siege engines, battle engines, and other devices which have never been created, and also filled with plans for such engines that have been created, annotated with their results in field tests and true battle deployment.
This house is about as close to a house of prostitution as you’ll find in Biblyon. They sell minds instead of bodies. (Well, sometimes bodies also.) Learned companions are versatile, and may be hired as tutors, nurses, research assistants, secretaries, and escorts.
One of your players may object to this name, that it isn’t correct Latin. First, you’ll need to determine if their character would have any knowledge of Latin; if so, any character (player or non-player) with knowledge of Biblyon might be able to relate the following:
There is almost an entire row of books dedicated to this topic in the Library. Some use various survived texts to prove that the Latin is correct; others use competing survived texts to show that the Latin is incorrect; some use the same survived texts to show the opposite of what their predecessor showed. It isn’t just that the texts are contradictory; the texts are argued as fact. The question is our interpretation of tenses, grammars, even spellings. The surviving texts are scant, and the complexity of the Ancient tongue high.
And the Ancient texts themselves are also questioned. There was a contingent about fifty years ago who argued that there were several forms of the Ancient tongue, spread across time and class. Some of these also argued that Frankish was a form of the Ancient tongue pre-existing the cataclysm. Now, few will argue that Frankish is not related to Ancient, but most consider it clearly a bastardized form created after the cataclysm fragmented humanity. Regardless, the “fragmented Ancient’ theory has fallen out of favor as it was vulnerable on multiple fronts. Part of their argument was based on Biblical sources, and while the Bible, were it available, would count as a strong argument, there is no known surviving biblical text. These scholars reconstructed the text of “The Tower of Babel”, a popular fable of a first cataclysm of Language predating the cataclysm of water. (Some of these folks also consider our expulsion from Eden as the first cataclysm, but this is getting outside of our topic.) Biblical arguments have fallen out of favor in the last few decades, at least in Biblyon, as it is far too easy to reconstruct competing texts. Biblical reconstruction is its own topic, of course, and well represented in Biblyon.
There is a game room downstairs, as well as a well-stocked library. They specialize in card games and dice games, as well as betting on the results.
The Rectory is open only to other priests, usually travelers from Crosspoint, occasionally travelers from Black Stag or upriver.
The Church is the major church of this area. Father Charles Randall is the head priest. Randall is a scholar, having studied at both Crosspoint and Biblyon. His specialty is in concordances and textual analysis. He studies various remembered texts, especially biblical texts, in hopes of reconstructing the original from its copies. He has two priests directly under his command, and generally from four to ten priests studying at the library who stay at the Rectory.
Most of the merchants work from their homes in the Merchants Quarter. They live on the other side of the river, up the high banks.
Most “professional” service providers, such as surveyors, surgeons, and architects, can be found in the library and in the various private houses.
While costs are almost always given in Crosspoint coinage, equivalents in barter will usually be accepted if the merchant is in need of the item or it can be easily stored and rebartered.
George Barr, the town astrologer, lives up the mountain a ways. He claims to be descended from the last survivor of the Astrologers; whether he is or is not is up to you, but he hasn’t got anything of use from his parents beyond a deep love for the stars. He can provide advice on past problems, present problems, and future plans. George will charge and provide according to his client’s means, but a reading will generally run from several pennies to several shillings. Of course, the more dangerous your possible future, the more important a deep reading becomes. (Whether astrology works is up to you. There’s no reason it shouldn’t, but it should be more vague than the equivalent magic spell.)
His house always smelling of fresh bread, Jam the Baker will take your dough and bake it, or sell you breads, cakes, rolls, flatbreads, whatever you want. Baking several loaves that you bring in will cost a penny. Having a loaf made for you will cost two pennies.
There are two places for baths in Biblyon if you don’t want to head upriver and don’t have a room. The Bathhouse on the south side of the river has hot and cold baths, and its steam rooms are often used as a meeting place for local politicians. The tubs next to the Fons Tabernus have cold baths only, but with the advantage of being next to the bar, allowing you to buy a mug of beer and go clean off. Cold baths are a penny, hot baths are four pennies (and only available at the Bathhouse).
Todd Isherwood is a big man, fitting the blacksmith stereotype well. He is the sole source for horseshoes and other heavy metalwork in the area. He tends to spend most of his time at the Fallen Leaf discussing poetry (of which he has quite a body of work of his own) or at the Fons Tabernus carousing loudly with the other merchants, until he has built up a backlog of orders. Then, his forge runs day and deep into the nights until he has completed his jobs and he returns to the Fallen Leaf. He also spends much time in the Library and in the library of the Learned Companions studying the poetry of the ancient world.
The Tutors do their own bookbinding at the Library, but other scholars will usually bring their books to Martin Consuin in the merchant’s quarter. Martin is quite a collector himself, and has many books in various states of repair. His home smells perpetually of glue and old paper. He will bind papers into books or folios, or re-bind books that need rebinding. A binding job will generally run several shillings, depending on the size of the book and the age of the paper.
Ryan Bower and his sons Ryan and Manon are all skilled bow-makers. Their bows cost 50% to 100% more than the standard cost for a bow but are longer-lasting, better-looking, and can be tailored to the owner. Depending on the quality of the arrows and the care (cost) of the bow’s creation, the range of a Ryan bow can be one to four yards better than the standard bow. Arrows that take advantage of a Ryan bow will generally cost 10% to 40% more than average.
Elder son Ryan is preparing for a trip to Black Stag, to possibly set himself up in business there depending on the competition.
Ryan also has a wife, June Bower, and a daughter, May Bower.
There are a number of brewers in town. The Costumers brew their own beer for the Rabbits Hole, and there are three brewers in the Merchants Quarter who vie for the custom of the various public houses, townsfolk, merchants, and visitors.
John Cainer is an inveterate wanderer. He knows his walking sticks, and can tailor them not only to the client but to the kinds of walking the client does. His carving work is exquisite, and the carpenters are often after him to carve bedposts, table legs, and other similar works, but John prefers only to make canes. A cane from John Cainer will run from 5 pennies to 5 shillings, or even more, depending on what you need.
Thomas Chandler comes from a long line of waxworkers and soapmakers. He will pass his knowledge on to his three sons, who are already apprenticed to him. His candles light the night for Biblyon’s scholars.
Randall Tracher is one of the best clockmakers in the known world. He has apprentices here as well as in Crosspoint, and spends the winter months on the coast. He is obsessed with the mathematics of time and the minutiae of gears and clockwork.
John Ferrel studied sorcery for years before becoming enamored with the making of candies, frostings, and divinities.
He is a second level sorceror and knows the following spells: Enlarge, Guardian, Indestructible Object, Sunlight, and Magic Table. For special occasions, he’ll use Enlarge, Indestructible Object, and Sunlight to assist him in making his creations.
As with the papermakers, and, frankly, everything else in town, there are factions involved with sword-making. Those who use one believe it the best, those who use the other believe it is better. Bladesmithing is a science in Biblyon.
Simon Dover makes blades of all kinds, including for cooking and butchering.
Aldon Grayson’s home is filled with the shimmer of glass and colored glass. Sparkling bulbs hang from his porch ceiling and reflect the sunlight at every opportunity.
There are no guard companies based in Biblyon, but there are occasionally companies from Hightown, Crosspoint, or Black Stag accompanying a merchant or scholar to this remote area. Such companies will generally look for someone to pay them on their return, and will often be available at bargain prices because any money is better than no money when they need to return anyway.
The midwife does not live in the merchant’s quarter but in the general quarter. She has two daughters and one son.
Millicent Vaarlow works in wood and stone, creating statues, busts, and tiles to decorate the houses of Biblyon.
Brandy Forrester learned her trade from her deceased husband, Sam Forrester. She works in both silver and pewter, and makes frames, tableware, pins, hilts, and other finely worked silver or pewter pieces.
Robert Tanner’s home is beneath the wall, next to the river, and across the river from the butcher.
Brickmaker
Brightsmith (metalworker, 14)
Butcher (15)
Carpenters
Cartwright (carts and wagons)
Cheesemaker
Cobbler
Cooper
Dyer (26)
Embroiderer
Fletcher (arrows)
Hatter
Luthier (stringed instruments)
Miller (17)
Papermakers
Perfumemaker
Plasterer
Potter
Roper (ropes and nets)
Smelter (18)
Stoneworker (carving, engraving, and polishing)
Tailors
Undertaker
Vintner
Outside of the town are the farmers, hunters, fishers, and others who provide the town with food, wood, and thread. Many of those outside of town have become infected with the Biblyon disease and also desire to learn, to read the learning of others, and to discuss this learning with colleagues.
The most influential people in Biblyon are the Tutors. After them come the Librarians. These two groups are the driving force behind the town’s continued scholarly bent, and they organize and maintain the town’s defenses. The town’s leadership is made up of the Biblyon Town Council and the Mayor. The Mayer’s man on the council is the Alderman. The Judge is typically appointed by the Order’s leader; since the demise of the Order that task has fallen to the head librarian. The other five members of the council are chosen by a vote of all property owners within the town area.
Biblyon is a growing town, and they are filling the small valley inside their walls. As the world begins to take an interest again in knowledge, more and more people visit the walled library. As more visitors arrive, some stay, and to serve both visitors and new citizens, merchants and other support folks also move in. There is talk of building a second wall to expand the town. Many in the Tutors support this idea: according to Raleigh Adair a second wall would allowed the Order to keep the town during the Goblin Wars. Adair’s theories are hotly debated, as are most theories; fortunately, such debates are no longer settled on the field of battle, but it does mean that there are both supports of and opposition to a second wall. Meanwhile, people are already building outside the town’s wall.
There used to be a minter in town when the Order was still around. People continue to use Order coins, and also use coins from Crosspoint and Black Stag.
The Mayor of Biblyon handles the town’s paperwork. He also appoints one member of the council, known as the Alderman. He can recall and replace the Alderman at any time. The Alderman serves as the liaison between the mayor’s office and the council. The Mayor is also allowed a vote when the council is tied; as the council has seven members, there are rarely ties. Only if one member abstains or is absent does the Mayor have a chance to vote.
The Council appoints a prosecutor to handle any criminal cases that need to be brought before the Judge.
The Alderman serves as the liaison between the Mayor and the council, and is otherwise a full voting member. As a mayoral appointee, the Alderman is usually either a friend of the Mayor or someone to whom the Mayor owes a favor.
Currently appointed by the head librarian, the Judge hears cases and summons juries. The Judge usually appoints a bailiff to find jurors.
There are five other members of the Biblyon Town Council, chosen by property owners in Biblyon. As such, they are usually property owners themselves. There is often a Tutor on the council, sometimes a merchant, and, rarely, a Costumer. Most of the council hails from Midhill and Uphill.
Miller Sartoris usually successfully hand-picks one member of the council (who is usually, but not always, a Tutor).
You should choose and describe the rest of the council to suit any political adventures you wish to put in motion.
Biblyon trades most with Hightown, forty miles south. From there, they trade with Crosspoint and sometimes Black Stag. They can also trade with Black Stag via the Old Deer River. It crosses the Leather Road about one hundred and fifty miles east of Black Stag. This isn’t done as often as it could be, however, because getting your boat back up a hundred and fifty miles of river is not easy, and because the village at Brightwood Crossing has been long abandoned.
Most of the townsfolk live in the Downhill area. Some of the more moneyed members of the townsfolk live in the Uphill area.
Many of the things taken from the castle are in the possession of the townsfolk. If the characters do a search of the town for things found in the castle, they might run across pool balls, chess pieces, coins, and swords.
If they extend their search to the surrounding countryside, they might also find movable walls, kitchen utensils, shovels, rakes, and more implements of destruction. More importantly, they might find the missing (Latin) pieces of the notebook of Abacus Dome, that has been sitting in the attic of a now-dead farmer ever since Abacus threw them from his notes eighty years ago.
Finding these will require networking, talking to people, gaining their confidence.
The townsfolk are generally quite educated. They are proud of their town’s history.
The townsfolk provide cooks, nurses, laborers, laundresses, and other services to the various houses, scholars, and merchants. There are also miners, fishermen, and hunters among the townsfolk, though they also can live outside of town.
The wall bridges the sides of the valley. It stands twelve feet tall and six feet deep, with crenellations extending another four feet up. There are two sets of doors into the town: the main doors on the road, and the doors beneath the bridge where the walls go over the river. The doors to the town are always closed at night. The doors beneath the bridge are not, as they are very difficult to open against the water current.
The houses at the gates are always manned, though sometimes with sleeping guards. The Tutors use the guardhouses to house and train new members as well as the town militia. Townsfolk are generally proud to serve with the Tutors and proud to be part of the town’s militia, but it can sometimes be difficult to find townsfolk to man the guardhouses at night in the depths of Biblyon’s cold winters.
There is also a guard tower at the top of the sides of the valley, one on each side. While the four towers at the gates are manned all of the time, the town’s been getting a little lax about the towers further from town. Unless there is a known or suspected danger, those towers are empty. They usually are manned at night nowadays, with the strange things going on. If there have been night troll sightings, they’ll be manned during the day as well. (The Tutors are well aware that night trolls can come out in the daytime without turning to stone.)