Boneshield
The town of Boneshield sits on the Titan Neptune, in the Yahar’gul region of the Skysea. It is built around the bones of some unknown creature, which serve as a natural fortification against insurgents from the nearby Atlas Kingdoms.
The oldest and largest settlement in the valley, it remains a small, isolated village that rarely sees visitors. Far from the heart of the Skysea and the reach of the Ecclesia Solari, its people live close to the land to survive the valley’s dangers and horrors. Boneshield sits on the banks of the Silverbell River and serves as the region’s hub of trade for its mostly human residents. This far out on a Titan’s husk, simple comforts become luxuries: a cup of ice-cold water is prized as a delicacy.
Locations and NPCs of Boneshield
V1. The Green Queen Inn & V2. Stables
The social hub of Boneshield and its most luxurious establishment.
- Alda Farnum (Innkeeper) runs the place with a polite but transactional iron fist.
- Aurelia rents the master suite at a steep price to keep her runaway status quiet.
- Marianna Grey (Stablemistress): a muscular, spry woman with shorn black hair who prefers horses to the “gossiping hens” of town. Keeps a pet Duck. Belongs to the Fold of the Patient Lady.
- Alistair Frey stayed here before, and now lives in town again after giving the Crooked House to the Misfits.
V3. Constable’s Station and Jail
- Doris Squire (Constable): laconic and pragmatic, enforces the law with a steely gaze. In secret she writes poetry.
- Howie Butterman (Deputy): plays the affable “good cop.”
V4. Mayor’s Home
- Mayor Wendel Somerton: an officious, portly man who loves bureaucracy and the power of his office.
V5. Tolliver’s Trading Post
- Baltus Tolliver traveled the realms before founding the largest trading post in the region. He sells everything from staples to rare trinkets, including Atlas artifacts and “Scribes” parchment. He employs a married couple as guards.
V6. Apothecary Shop
Filled with drying herbs and strange elixirs.
- Morgan (Apothecary/Druid) runs the shop. They have lost memories of their own, and recognized Isra at once when she came seeking memory-restoring potions. Morgan is also an eager customer of Riqirith, buying rare herbs from the “Wild Witch of Gul.”
V7. Randall’s Barber Shop
- Randall Graham (Barber-Surgeon) provides haircuts, tooth-pulling, and moonshine. He is charismatic and universally trusted.
V8. Boneshield Schoolhouse
- Finneas Trout (Schoolteacher): a bookish Newcomer trying to bring reason to the superstitious children of Boneshield.
V9. The Founder’s Round & V10. Oak of Bone
The town square centers on a gnarled oak made of calcified bone, grown to resemble an oak tree, leaves and all. It is carved with the names of townsfolk. At its center stands a 10-foot granite statue, “Our Village Founder,” with no name and a featureless, weathered face. No one in town knows who the founder was.
- Old Rusty, the mute and eccentric groundskeeper, tends the square.
V12. Masonry
- Solomon Roderick (Stonemason): a heavyset, scarred man who finds peace in the tenets of the Ecclesia Solari.
V13. Woodshop
- Beatrice Wells (Carpenter): a visionary who sees the Trinity in every grain of wood. With Solomon, she is a primary architect of the town’s new defenses against Atlas scouts.
V14. Bread by Holly & V15. Harga’s Meats
- Holly Aster (Baker) makes the town’s bread while battling a generational curse she fears will claim her life. Scottish accent. Her son, Little Stewart, is a hooligan running with the Tunnel Femurs.
- Her partner, Siv Harga (Butcher): a towering, capable woman of the Fold of the Patient Lady who respects the beasts she slaughters.
V16. The Smithy
- Gerghis (Blacksmith): a quiet, muscular dwarf who fled the Atlas Mines to embrace the Newcomers’ reason. He pulled Isra from the dark of the mines and treats her like a sister.
V17. The Wickery
- Oswick Frey: a wheelchair-bound candlemaker, brother of Alistair Frey, hopelessly in love with the schoolteacher Finneas.
V18. A Stitch in Time
- Thomasin Ardor (Tailor): makes beautiful garments but stays emotionally distant due to childhood trauma.
- Mina (Monty’s ex-wife) lives above the shop and finds Thomasin’s silence comforting. She is often at the Green Queen Inn, watching the door.
V19. The Abandoned Church (Ecclesia Solari)
Once a ruin, now being restored by Westmarch Murdoch (Pilgrim). He preaches the light of the Trinity, surrounded by flocks of Avieres, holy songbirds that roost in the rafters during his sermons.
V20. Oocoo NewsCoo (Post Office)
Outwardly a bustling post office. A number of Oocoo work here; they seem tired, and some have grown sickly.
- Theodora manages the mail and the carrier birds.
V22. Shade Funeral Home & V23. Antique Bookstore
- Mori Shade (Undertaker): respected for grim but necessary work, drawn to the beliefs of the death-ferriers.
- Eleanor Heyling (Antiquarian): a sickly, obsessive book collector raising three nieces and nephews, deeply skeptical of the town’s superstitions.
V24. The Crooked House Estate
The crooked manor on the hill overlooking town. Once feared and abandoned, it was cleared in Session 5 and is now the base of the Boneshield Misfits. Owned by Alistair Frey.
V25. Haunted Clocktower
Attached to the Mayor’s office, the clocktower chimes perfectly on time, except when it strikes at random and heralds a restless spirit.
V26. The Old Py Place
At the end of a narrow lane of abandoned houses stands the Old Py Place, the most decrepit of them. Town children say it is haunted and dare each other to explore it.
V29. Veterinarian Clinic
Monty keeps his private practice here: a sanctuary of logic, steel instruments, and sterile counters. He treats the pets and beasts of Boneshield with strict science, eschewing the magic the rest of the town relies on.
V30. Riqirith’s Hovel
In the woods outside Boneshield lives the “Wild-Witch of Gul,” Riqirith. (She now also keeps the Conservatory at the Crooked House.)