Fuall

Roughly fourteen days walk (300 Miles) due North of Darétik along the coast. It lies near to The Wandering River, a river which frequently changes its course. It was once a source of trade and news, however this town has not been heard from by the residents of Darétik for some time. There are beacon/relay towers on the way to this town made of steel and stone, suggesting that they have been here for a very long time. They are roughly sixty feet tall with rotted wooden walkways around the top reachable by metal ladders. It was postulated that the town may have succumbed to a portal which the ice map indicates would be roughly where it should have been, this has now been disproven. Though the Hill Giant had been seen in the vicinity it was not known how much of an impact he had had on the town.

Initial observations of the town as seen from a distance from the top of a nearby tower (roughly a days walk away) suggest that it is a town of A-framed buildings with thatched rooves surrounded by high, stone walls. Otzi seemed to believe that Tomb would know something of this town, though it is not clear why he thought this as Tomb has definitely never been here before. There is a well-worn and slightly overgrown cart track leading up to the main gate into the town and the forest around the circumference has receded away from the walls and has become sparse in it's growth.

Fuall is a fortified town surrounded by a high stone perimeter wall, approximately eighteen feet in height, with a single main gateway. The wall appears to have been constructed of entwined statues of adult human women and human infants with some adult human males nearer to the base, this appearance masks a darker truth. Inside the wall the town is made up of A-framed buildings raised up on stilts and with thatched rooves. The town features a large market square surrounded by numerous shops. Many goods and services are available in the market including a bookseller and a blacksmith. Goods are available here that have been traded from numerous cultures including the Sea Nomads. The majority of people in the town speak common as their first language and gold is readily accepted in all the shops. The market square also features a dais where criminals are chained up on display prior to their execution, a sentence which is also carried out in this location. The town is relatively peaceful and it is patrolled by members of the community who also patrol the circumference of the walls.

Fuall is currently home to an evil cult. The town was ruled over by Queen Karnuta Müd (Deceased), a Mardu-Tarr. She arrived in the town around 15 years ago and took it over. She had since established herself as monarch and object of worship for her people. It was her assertion that men are the cause of all societal ills and that they are a constant and inevitable threat to women. She therefore tried to ensure that all women were safe by removing men from society. Whenever a male child was born they were presented to the queen, who looked upon them invoking her power to turn mortal creatures to stone with her gaze. Most children failed to resist this effect and were subsequently turned to stone, at which point they were added to the structure of the towns defensive wall. Those few who survived the effect were given to the Queen and served her either as scholars or as part of her personal guard. They were also employed in repopulation, being called upon to sire children with members of the populace. The female population of the town were reportedly entirely accepting of this practice. They believed that to be turned to stone was to achieve immortality and that it was a great honour. As such they gladly gave up their sons to this process. It was also a practice within this community that the women of the population also submit themselves to petrification, although in their case it occurred as they entered old age. Criminals were punished by being turned to stone, however, in their case they were subsequently broken up into pieces which they presumably believed denied them the immortality that the cultists craved. Female members of the community were permitted to leave the town only on the condition that they never returned.

The town was ostensibly welcoming of strangers. Access to the town came on the conditions that anyone entering must go blindfolded and must wear bracelets of bells. There was also a strict time limit of a few days on visits. Blindfolds were supplied at the gate and in a choice of colours. They had to be worn at all times unless you were told to remove them by someone in authority or unless you were indoors and told to by the householder. The reason for this was so that no one would accidentally meet the gaze of the Queen and be turned to stone. Visitors were guided around everywhere they went by a resident chosen to be their host. Two bracelets of bells were also provided to each visitor at the gate. These had to be worn at all times, the punishment for removing them within the city limits was death. The reason for these was so that visitors were easy to track and could not elude their hosts. Visitors would be treated well and would be given a place to stay and they would be fed by their host. They would, however, be subjected to frequent reminders of their status and the consequences of their defiance of the rules. The Queen herself was the only resident of the town who wore bells, her bells were of a distinct and different pitch to those worn by visitors and they served to announce her presence. All reflective surfaces had been removed from sight and all metallic surfaces had to be blackened around the town, this was to prevent the Queen from seeing her own reflection and succumbing to her own power.

Within the populace there is a traditional ceremony where girls have their hair ritualistically braided when they reach a certain age. This is an event that is treated with much anticipation by the participants.

There is a secret tunnel which runs under the walls of the town. The tunnel follows the course of an underground stream which flows under the town on its way to the sea, this stream is the source of the towns fresh water. The tunnel can therefore be accessed via the well that stands in the market square at the centre of town. The tunnel is of good height and even underfoot but it is only very dimly lit by phosphorescent mosses and glowworms (the lighting is not enough to see by except for those with Darkvision). There is a large waterfall of about 30' drop shortly after the well entrance with a deep plunge pool at its base. The waterfall can be safely jumped from by someone with sufficient agility. A colony of bats have made their home in the tunnels. This entrance to the town was until recently guarded by a Basilisk, this creature has since been killed by a party seeking to escape from the town. The outer entrance to the tunnel is in a clump of bushes on the side of a beach some 6 hours walk from the walls of Fuall. It was alleged by one of the Sons of Karnuta Müd that this tunnel was used by the Queen and by her Sons on a regular basis to get in and out of the town in order to bring in things from the outside without the knowledge of the general populace. This can safely be considered to have been a lie as there was no apparent way to navigate the waterfall on the return journey, especially not while carrying goods.

It is unknown what will become of the town or what changes are likely to take place following the mysterious disappearance of their Queen Karnuta Müd who simply vanished one night and has never returned.