The Celts: Places

Places: Bailabann

Bailabann is the closest Celtic community to Christian Highland. Ninety miles northeast up the Dowanthal River, this tiny community with its hide-covered halls stands in the rolling foothills near the lightly forested plains west of the High Divide. The trappers of Bailabann trade with Weaving to the southwest and the Dwarves of Hitarn about 60 miles to the south. Dwarven goods are often available in Bailabann, and the Dwarves themselves occasionally travel to the town for trade.

Before you, the hide-covered halls of a busy village cling to the gently-sloping sides of the hills. A stream crosses the valley’s entrance and continues back southwest to the Weaving Wood and Highland. People bustle from house to house along the stepped paths and roads of the hilltown. Other people, fat grizzled old men from the look of them, sit in partial darkness by the halls, smoke rising from the doorways and roofs. Small houses dot the grassy ground.

Because it lies on the other side of the Weaving Wood, the Christians of Weaving are mostly unaware of its existence, though they do know that Celts trade with their outlying farms. Travelers who use Unicorn Pass, such as John Cover of the Weaving Well, know of its existence and will use it as a stopping point in their journeys north or south. Because of the animosity that some folk have toward the Celts, despite their assistance in the Goblin Wars, such travelers rarely speak of the Celtic town.

Bailabann is one of the main routes through which northweed arrives in Highland.

Bailabann is also the last stop of Druids who have been called to risk the Weaving Wood (or, as they call it, croomfrith, which is to say “the bent forest”), to commune with the world ash.

In the Celtic tongue, “Bailabann” means simply “Rivertown”.

Because Bailabann is traveled by so many races, much can be learned in the town.

Brigit’s Springs

In the high hills of the Great Western Mountains, just north of Erventon, is one of the greatest—and simplest—of the Druidic shrines. The triple springs of Bridget are a source of healing and wisdom.

The springs may be reached from the Celtic lands through a winding path that leads southwest up the mountain and to the springs. They may also be reached from Erventon, through an even more winding path that leads past the three pools fed by water falling from the springs above. The springs may also be reached, through a long mountain path, from the Long Lakes.

The pools are in a small, alcove-like enclosed plateau which overlooks the Celtic valley to the east. The springs themselves are on a somewhat larger plateau which looks out to the southeast, east, and northeast, with the snow-covered mountains behind to the west.

Water from the springs pours down in a small waterfall over a cliff to the pools below.

Each of the springs is partially enclosed by a low rock wall. Traditionally, each spring provides different assistance: one for healing, one for fertility, and one for wisdom and inspiration. The water is extremely cold, fed by the snow that trickles through the mountains from the higher peaks. It is a strong mineral water and slightly carbonated.

Each of the rock walls has, if one looks very closely, Elvish characters written that have faded almost to non-existence. They read “courage”, “peace” and “making”. In Elvish, these are courage, rael, and maedra.

There are special ceremonies at Brigit’s spring on Imbolc and when healing is needed. Individual Celts will climb to the springs and tie strips of cloth, or rags of clothing from a sick person, to the pines near the springs, for healing purposes. There will always be some strips hanging from the trees in the upper plateau.

When the wind blows in the mountains, a faint whistle echoes in the clearing below the springs. The Celts say that this is Brigit’s whistle, and it sounds almost like a harpstring as it dies down. The nearby Halflings say that a “young lady of the hills” can be heard singing in the wind. They call the pools the waters of Deirdre.

Brigit’s springs are a pivot of the world, a Chaotic +3 place of power, and mark an endpoint of the ley lines that go to Fomhor Achadh and Dowanthal Peak. The waters will provide assistance according to the faith, motivations, and needs of those using them.

Places: Bridlas

This small town in the foothills of the mountain is the last town on the road to Brigit’s Springs. Within the shrine to Brigit here is a perpetually-burning cauldron of fire. The fire is tended by three priestesses of Brigit.

Places: The Burren

Known as “the barrens” in Anglish and Arlindor’s Ebb to the Elves, this rocky plain, surrounded by low cliffs and rock walls, is avoided by Celts, Halflings, and all civilized folk. Rumors speak of giants as old as the world, and ancient Elven shades in the dark places of the Burren. The Celts say that it was once a great forest of the Druids, like the Weaving Wood, but it was destroyed by the Druids, by something that they summoned, or by something they were fighting.

The Burren are about sixty miles north of Sneem, and about thirty miles wide, roughly circular. The rock of the Burren is used for building in the nearby towns and as far south as Sneem. Most of the rock is harvested from the western cliffs, which are taller and more easily mined than the southern and northern sides. Toward the east side of the Burren, the “cliffs” fade to little more than rock walls that can be easily climbed over.

Very little grows in the Burren. Only small plants and occasional grasses poke through the rocky furrows.

To the Elves, this is once-sacred ground. Arlindorie (UrHIdorea) is “the passing of Arlindor”. Elven poetry speaks of it as “the green receding sea”. The high forest once shared space with the earth in a few remote places. The rocks of Arlindorie was one of these places. This is where Tialnambe and Alveron would walk together with their son in the morning of the world. But, in the days before the cataclysm the high forest retreated, leaving a land of little magic and shadows in wet crevasses. Some creatures that were slower than the forest remained: the grey men, and goblins, and, in some stories, the Halflings of Erventon.

Places: Dungarvin

The largest town near the mining villages of the Burren, as well as the nearest large town on the tobacco road to Erventon, and the largest stopping point on the easiest road around the Burren between the north and south of the Celtic valley, Dungarvin is known for its transients, miners, traders, and travelers. Rougher crowds will stay at the less expensive Golden Fleece (if they stay in a house at all). Merchants and travelers with more money will stay at the Cauldron.

Dungarvin is also a fort town, built during the Goblin Wars against goblins from the west and the south, and still maintained against the giant-kin, though memory of giant incursions is fading among the non-druidical Celts. The fort of Dungarvin is managed by the Fienna and by the Druid in the wooden fort at the walls outside of the town.

The Fienna still mark, with obelisks, the furthest point that the town is allowed to expand: if the town grows too close to the defensive walls, those walls lose their effectiveness.

The town is looking to grow beyond the standing stones, especially in the north and east.

Fomhor achadh

A trace of the morning’s mist still floats, like a thousand rivers, amongst the curved white arcs rising like plants from the grassy ground.

In the harsh afternoon light, the sun casts short, sharp shadows from bone to ground, crisscrossing the fields with white and black like an ossuary chessboard

Another sixty miles north of Bailabann, on the road to Unicorn Pass, is a field of giant’s bones nestled in a small valley against the mountains. Three hundred and fifty years ago, in 1641, the Dwarves of Hitarn and the Celts of the region met the giants on the field of battle. The giants were marching on Hitarn. The Celts could have let them pass, but they did not, and the Dwarves remember that debt.

The bones are bleached and mostly buried, but in several places still extend two yards above ground with tall grasses growing around them. Huge skulls, four feet wide, lie half-buried in the dirt. In barrows and caves surrounding the valley lie the many Dwarves who fell, “buried in battle”, one of the greatest honors of a Dwarven warrior.

The battleground is always misty, and the density of the mist can be very heavy. This is why the Dwarves and Celts chose this as the battleground. The giants were holding to the mountains after crossing the plains. The fog rolling down from the mountain turned the size of the Celts and Dwarves to an advantage, as they could hide within the mist.

Fomhor Achadh was called the Valley of Mists before the battle. The valley of mists is a +1 place of power aligned toward Order. There are ancient, ruined shrines in grottos in the mountains.

Rathnaskilla

A small village in the grasslands between Fomhor Achadh and Fawn River, Rathnaskilla is probably the nearest Celtic village to a Christian town, being about 60 miles from Fartown through light forest. It is 40 miles west of the High Divide. The self-assumed leader of Rathnaskilla is an old Bard named Fingol Twomey, who settled here several decades back to start a family. He has at least one granddaughter, Aoife, who is just coming of age.

Rathnaskilla has a large guest house and while it is not in any sense a trading town it does see Celtic travelers from the Celtic valley heading into Christian Highland.

Places: Sneem

About 60 miles north of Rathnaskilla is the river-town Sneem, the southernmost Celtic ferry-crossing across the Fawn River. The next crossing to the south is at Fartown.