First Look: Dunstone: Town on the Borderlands

The Duchy of Ashlar is small and constrained. Always, the forces of evil and shadow press inwards upon its borders. If it were not for a stout few, death and darkness would have long ago overwhelmed the land. Dunstone was once Ashlar's northern bulwark. Now, it is a dangerously sleepy and insular place. Wicked humanoids yet lurk in the dark forests and deep valleys of the surrounding hills. Abandoned mines and crumbled ruins stud the surrounds, calling with their siren song to bold adventurers. To the west, lies the time-worn, oft-cursed ruin of the ancient Nameless Monastery. Not all dangers lurk without, though. Folk—both fair and foul—have plans for Dunstone. Change is coming, to the Town on the Borderlands.

Dunstone huddles under the menacing vastness of the nearby Mottled Spire’s granitic bulk. A crumbling 12-foot-high stone wall and an old moss-covered fortress protect the old town. The citadel watches over sagging row houses meandering across a low hill towards the Selka River. Here, surly guardsmen oversee a rickety wooden bridge spanning the river and the path towards the Mottled Spire. In bygone days, monsters crawled out of Gloamhold and down from the Mottled Spire to die against Dunstone’s walls and formidable moat. Now, the moat is nothing more than a grassy slope where pigs graze and children play.

Dunstone is civilisation’s last bastion before the Mottled Spire; its folk are resilient and hardy. Often cut off from the rest of the Duchy of Ashlar during the deep winter, locals trade whispers and gossip amongst themselves. In this tight-knit community, strangers are treated with suspicion until they prove themselves to be honest and hardworking folk like the Dunstonians. The townspeople engage in farming, raising livestock and crafting trade goods. Except for travelling merchants, few from Dunstone travel into the larger world, though an occasional brash youth dares the hardships of the Mottled Spire. All remember the disaster that befell the village of Greystone almost a century ago…

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Citadel on the Wilderlands is a 160-page sourcebook detailing Solonor Island, its settlements, and its people. Patrons at the $5 and up levels get the PDF (which retails for $19.95) and a discount on the physical print edition (which comes in softcover and hardback).

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