There is one in every kingdom: one township that, despite an active and visible history of massive retribution against those that defile old burial grounds, still think that carving out an old barrow-mound to use as a great hall is a fine idea. Billingston is a small village, with a thick wooden palisade that protects the villagers from the prowling creatures of the nearby woods, and a combination of thatch and wooden houses. Their hall was once a barrow, now exacavated and renovated, despite the protestations of some of the nearby farmers – whose families have tilled the land for hundreds of years.
The inhabitants of Billingston, however, scoff at superstition and the idea of their being hunted by the undead, and have extended their casual contempt of these burial grounds to the nearby Billingston Mine, a grandly-titled grave-robbing expedition from three large barrows.
Village Community
Billingston has been on the site for some twenty years – long enough for the original settlers to marry and have children, and for some of their children to begin thinking of having children of their own. Theirs is a pleasant community, which welcomes and celebrates travellers, and maintains a strong bond with a travelling merchant who visits the town unfailingly every week with goods from the other parts of the Kingdom.
On Arrival to Billingston
"The creaking gate of the village shifts slightly in the breeze, but despite the new and sometimes rough-made feel to the palisade, the feeling of safety pervades the village. Within, houses of wood and thatch have been erected in the past decades near to the repaired stone structures of some long-forgotten kingdom. In the centre, beneath a low hill, a door opens into a subterranean hall, and near to the river sits an aging chapel."
The Old, Renewed
It contains a mixture of wooden and stone structures, but the grandest building of all is their town hall, Barrow Hall, an old burial site now excavated and renovated. It is a recent settlement, having gained permission from the kingdom to establish a new settlement some twenty years previously. Farming communities exist nearby, and locals have lived in the area for hundreds of years, but the inhabitants of Billingston are mostly the original settlers and their children, who came here from the cities further to the east.
Barrow Hall. Once the tomb of some long-dead knight, the tunnels were dry and well-dug, and so the forward-thinking people of Billingstons – free of superstition – decided to put it to use rather than let it go to waste on dead people. Three towers lead off from the main hall, and two rooms at the back were once catacombs, but were converted into the lord’s chambers, and guest bedrooms.
Traders Post. Not large enough to warrant a true store or marketplace, Billingston is visited once a week by the same trader, who brings goods into town from the cities to the east, and takes their produce into market. The trader’s name is Gourad Littlebottom.
The Wall Towers. Built of sturdy treetrunks, each of the towers is strong enough to serve as its own fortress, but there is no room for any food or supplies, and so the population of Billingston turned to the Hall for safety.