Slyfeld

Slyfeld is a small village by the Cayden Forest.

Overview
Slyfeld originally was a border town of the Imperium of Fire and Steel, positioned along the Gallows Road that leads between them and the Kingdom of Atharein. The nearby Cayden Forest provided a wealth of lumber to construct the town, as well as a large palisade across the northern entry.

The town's inhabitants include two dozen imperial guards as garrison.

The Reckoning destroyed the imperial capital and isolated Slyfeld from the remnants of the Empire. The town has hastily constructed a palisade to the south in anticipation of new threats from the desert. In the meantime, Mayor Bilben Purewheat has sent emissaries north to negotiate with Atharein.

Locations
The Courthouse is the office and lodgings of the mayor and his treasurer. It is attached to the Town Barracks where the garrison is quartered.

All lumber produced by the town passes through a cluster of mills and workshops, the Greenvale Mill. Nearby, wooden weapons and supplies can be purchased at a small stall with the sign, "Yew Sold Here". Acre General Store is situated on Gallows Road, and also acts as a granary for the town. Nearby, the jovial Ellen Leyney maintains the Cross Blades Inn, the only lodging for travelers.

A secluded shack is home to Finwick's Widgets, a collection of gnomish curiosities. Up on a cliff, a dwarf upholds Hallowvale, the graveyard. The dead in town are buried underneath saplings, which will use the decomposing corpse for nutrition.

Culture
The town holds few traditions, but the most important falls on the new year, Auburn's Day. When dawn breaks, the Auburn Petunias that grow in Hallowvale bloom for this single day. Villagers wear them over their heart, and as the day passes the vibrant red petals fade to a dull grey. At sundown, the town returns to Hallowvale and places the nearly dead flowers on the graves of loved ones, or a shrine to remember those that died elsewhere. The flowers begin to glow a brilliant orange, and they are taken to the river. Tradition holds that the glowing flowers contain the essence of the deceased, and that sending them down the river is not to safeguard passage to the afterlife, but rather to release the burden of their deaths from the living.