Falcon’s Hollow is perhaps better described as a scattered collection of several ramshackle communities rather than a single town. Enclaves of wealthy lumber lords sit comfortably on the Perch, looking down from behind wrought-iron fences and stone watchtowers at numerous ghettos of indigents, downtrodden lumberjacks, firebrand preachers, and desperate settlers. They peer down not only with contempt, but with fear—they’ve seen what happens when the underclass unites, and they’ll pay handsomely to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The poor in turn gaze across their fences with suspicion and distrust, their nights broken by the endless shrieking of the sawmills and the sermons of mad prophets who dream of blood moons and walking trees. The cut yards run day and night, and the saws never stop screaming. Some say the wood drinks the blood and remembers the pain.
A teeming monster-fraught wilderness surrounds the Hollow. Danger lurks just beyond the tree line, and most of Falcon Hollow’s more canny residents realize the settlement will most likely be savaged by some horrid monstrous threat sooner rather than later. The wind sometimes carries strange howls and chittering from the deeper woods—sounds that stir old memories in the hearts of those who still remember the old ways. They speak in hushed tones of ancient things stirring—things better left buried beneath root and ruin. Until that day comes, the lumber-lords continue their heedless ravaging of the wilderness around the town, snatching as much darkwood from the vale as they can, unaware—or uncaring—that such greed will surely draw the notice of a fierce guardian.
Meanwhile, adventurers flock to Falcon’s Hollow, drawn by tales of riches and ancient power, but most vanish into the shadows of Darkmoon Vale, never to be seen again. Even more lose their nerve after their first brush with the unholy terrors lurking in the night and end up slaving away at the cut yards or selling their swords to the lumber lords, who always need more unscrupulous ruffians to keep the rabble in line.
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