| Location | Description |
| Ancient Fort | This large fort used to be the primary training grounds and military holdfast for the old monarchy of Grimland, and also served to overlook the roads leading to Grimburg. Today, a small group of warriors has taken up residence in the fort, pursuing exercise, loyalty, and combat skill as a path towards a positive mindset and spiritual purity. As a result of their lifestyle, the fort is entirely free of gremlins. While not purposefully channeling positive energy or even trying to get rid of the gremlins in the fort, the Order of Linked Rings, as the warriors call themselves, has managed to bring about enough positivity to do exactly that. This is all made even more impressive by the lack of association with any higher powers the organization has. Pretty much all of these warriors are from Gremland and adhere to the local spirituality, meaning there is no real religious aspect to their lifestyle beyond a desire to clear the mind and be more mindful of their relationship to the spiritual and natural worlds. Unfortunately, the Order of Linked Rings does not leave their fort very often and does not seem to have much interest in advertising or recruiting, claiming to only want the best of the best coming to them through destiny and not a recruiting drive. The result is that most people in Gremland assume the Ancient Fort is abandoned, overrun by gremlins like most places in the area. |
| Ancient Watchtower | Overlooking both the Bay Between the Tines and what used to be called the Grimcastle, the Ancient Watchtower used to be an important tool for the old monarchy of Grimland to know what was going on in the kingdom. Sitting at the very top of what is now known as the Infested Ridge, this watchtower is one of the most overrun locations in Gremland. Some schoalrs have theorized that this tower is the epicenter of the gremlin infestation of Gremland. The theory goes that being posted in the watchtower was a dull, boring, and infuriating experience, making it particularly vulnerable to gremlin generation when the loss of anti-gremlin practices ocurred. After the watchtower fell to gremlins, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the old monarchy's outposts fell due to frustrations at the lack of information and communication after losing such a central part of the kingdom's information network. While there are no contemporary accounts to confirm this theory, the level of infestation and rumors of a powerful item lend the theory plausibility. The rumors say that the magic item is a ruby crown known as the Gremlin's Bane that sits at the very top of the Ancient Watchtower. Whoever is able to take the Gemlin's Bane from its resting place will supposedly be able to instantly absorb all of the negative energy from an object, dissipating any gremlins associated with it. While it does not increase the positive energies associated with an object, many people have died in attempts to gain the ability to diminish gremlins at will. |
| Carol's Workshop | Carol is a mage who really cares about rocks and minerals and their potential magical properties. Carol also does not care for the company of other people. Because of this, she has set up her workshop on the northernmost end of the Cliffs of Dobb in order to better study them while being as far from Grimburg as she can get. Carol is interested in the cliffs because they seem to jut straight up from the ground, at odds with the horizontal and diagonal layers of rock more common to the area, and they seem to have eroded much slower than the rest of the rocks in the area despite all local sediments being rather hard and difficult to weather. In investigating the red cliffs, Carol hopes to find ways to magically reinforce armor, walls, and other things that need to stand up to a beating. Unfortunately, Carol has been having some issues in figuring out how to utilize the rocks effectively. |
| Fork River | The only perennial stream in Gremland, all water in the area seems to flow into the Fork River at some point on its way to the Bay Between the Tines. Starting northeast of Gritville, the Fork takes a bit of a meandering path through the land. Every fall, salmon run up the river and provide an important food source for the people of Gremland. At its headwaters, the water is nice and clear, although by the time it empties into the Bay Between the Tines, is has become murky, turbulent, and fetid. Still, it is the only reliable source of fresh water in the area, so many people drink it and use it regardless. |
| Fruitful Forest | A large, dense forest where the canopy is so thick that very little light reaches the forest floor. Oddly, the trees in this forest are predominantyl edible fruit trees, making it a vital resource for the people of Gremland. Many people make their living picking fruits in the forest and preserving them to sell to the rest of the area. Despite its fruitfulness, people still have to be on the lookout for the feral fruit freaks, a group of wild creatures who will chase down fruit foragers and eat everything in their fruit sacks. Most people assume that the fruit trees have something to do with the Temple of the Fruitful Tree, where an order of priests who worship fruit as an expression of their god's values lives. |
| Funeral Bridge | A mossy stone bridge that crosses the Fork River at a point where it is nearly 1,000ft wide. The bridge gets its name by being the bridge that almost everyone crosses to get to the Grand Mausoleum. Due to its size and the only established path the the mausoleum going over it, it is considered an important point in the traditional funeral processions of Gremland. In Gremland folklore, it is said that the point at which the procession crosses the bridge is when the deceased crosses over to the spirit world. Because of this, the bridge is also said to be very haunted. Many people who cross it alone claim to have seen ghosts standing on the bridge, looking wistfully towards the eastrn end of the bridge. |
| Grimburg | Grimburg is the only city in Gremland, with a population of 20,000. This city is an important port for the region, processing most of the goods from Gremland prior to being exported to the rest of the world. While there are many docks, warehouses, and shops to work in, the real backbone of industry in the city is its clothing industry. While the gremlin invasion has certainly made the continuation of this industry difficult, Grimburg continues to produce most of the clothing that people in Gremland and the surrounding areas of the Shattered Mountains wear on a daily basis. Most people are too busy working to make their own clothes, so the industrial might of Grimburg is put towards producing garments to clothe people in the area. The Governor of Grimburg, Poppy Sweetwater, is fairly proud of her city and its garment industry. Additionally, she does her best to support the merchants, traders, and shippers that contribute so much to the City's wealth. Usually, Poppy runs a fairly open and democratic government, although she has no explicit obligations to do so and could tighten her control over the city at any time. Grimburg's wealth as well as Governor Sweetwater's patronage have allowed the fashion industry to explode into full-blown artistry, with opulent fashion shows displaying spectacular outfits that could never be worn in any practical setting. The elites of the city also tend to wear more colorful and elaborate clothes than those in the smaller towns of Gremland, leading to a perception of people from Grimburg being opulent, debaucherous, and shallow. While this is not true of all residents, the perception leads to tension between Grimburg and the rest of Grimland. |
| Gritville | A small town near the headwaters of the Fork River, pretty much everyone in town makes their living by working in the local diamond mine. The diamonds from the Gritville mine have the magical ability revert rotten food to fresh food after being powdered, heat treated, and sprinkled on the rotten food in question. Gritville itself has about 2,000 residents, most of whom are somewhat superstitious, believing that the Old Gritville Mine is haunted after an accident that closed the mine about 100 years ago. Despite this, their governor, Karl Green, is a very serious man who does not believe in things that he cannot see with his own eyes. The gremlin infestation has tested Karl's resolve and made using the mining equipment quite dangerous. Many people don't think the governor is doing enough to keep the miners safe in light of the gremlin infestation. In response, Karl has instituted a curfew and banned gatherings of 5 people or more rather than actually try to solve the issue. These new policies have been highly unfavorable with with the residents of Gritville, but Karl seems to show no signs of stopping any time soon. |
| Gritville Mine | This diamond mine, referred to as the New Mine by the people of Gritville, was opened about 100 years ago after the accident in the Haunted Mine. Most people outside out Gritville don't believe that the Old Mine is actually haunted and thought starting a brand new one was an overreaction to an admittedly tragic accident. Regardless, the New Gritville Mine is just as productive, if not more so, than the old one, and manages to find work for anyone who wants it. The mine is technically owned collectively by the people of Gritville, but in practice this means the governor of the town ends up being just as much in charge of the mine as the town, resulting in a somewhat restrictive atmosphere since Governor Green has instituted his new anti-dissident policies. On the part of the miners, not only are they upset by the unaddressed issue of the gremlins in the mine, but they believe they are owed more of a say in mine policy than Karl Green currently allows, and they feel like they deserve better wages considering how valuable the items they are pulling from the ground are. Not only are the diamonds from the mine able to reverse the rotting process in food after being crushed and heated, but each diamond extracted from the mine is massive, frequently larger than a man's fist. Each of these massive diamonds, if not for their magical properties, could easily be worth a fortune as rough gems for gemcutters. Such consistently large, high-quality diamonds are hard to come by, and the fact that most of them are ground up for their magic is almost a tragedy, in many ways. |
| Haunted Mine | Known as the Old Gritville Mine or the Haunted Mine, this ancient mine is the original reason why Gritville exists, and also the cause of the worst tragedy in the town's history. About 100 years ago, the miners are said to have uncovered something terrible, warping the space inside the mine into a series of ever-shifting reality bubbles taken from all over the prime material plane. Ever since that haunting day, the entrance to the mine brings people to an unstable world of pocket dimensions which shift and move around inside of the mountain without disturbing the surface. Each bubble of reality seems to consist of 7 rooms, at most, which can be of pretty much any size and contain pretty much anything. Because of their motion, these pockets of reality maintain only ephemeral connections to each other. While passages and rooms inside the same pocket reality stay consistent, the hallways that leave and connect to another reality bubble will have new, random locations at the end every couple of hours. Some of these bubbles seem fairly similar to what one would expect from a series of mineshafts and excavated ore pockets, some seem to take people to other planets entirely, many appear to be taken from a much more mundane location, and yet more seem to be the awkward fusion of 2 or more unrelated bubbles. Roaming the rooms, hallways, and various pocket dimensions of the Old Gritville Mine are all sorts of creatures. Although it is possible to run into survivors of the original accident, most of them are long dead, usually killed by one of the many horrible creatures from the more exotic reality pockets. Aside from alien horrors, many normal, regular people were also sucked into the mine and a few survived long enough to establish small camps, farms, and even towns in the midst of the broiling chaos of reality bubbles. While rare, these safe havens represent the only thing keeping most who get lost in the Haunted Mine from a painful death at the hands of a terrifying beast. Although returning to the entrance of the Old Gritville Mine is nearly impossible because the pocket dimensions are always shifting around, the few who have returned have come back with riches, magic, and powerful objects beyond imagination. While these brave adventurers come back wealthy beyond compare, they also speak of dangers and horrors that they never wish to see again. It is up to each adventurer who hears of the Old Gritville Mine to decide for themselves if they will challenge it. Many have come back with great success, but most have never been seen again. |
| Ludwig's Hill | This hill is important in the folklore of Gremland as the home of a mythical creature named Ludwig of the Forest. This large quadruped has a long, flexible snout with horns growing out of it which Ludwig uses to thrash the bark off of sick and dieing trees to get at their soft, inner bark. It is also said that Ludwig is as fast as lightning and as strong as an elephant, allowing him to range far and wide from his hill during the day. Folklore also depicts Ludwig of the Forest as a protector of his realm, attacking anyone he sees harming a tree in much the same way he removes bark from trees for his meals. Most people, those of Gremland included, believe that Ludwig is nothing more than folklore, however. The thrashed trees, known as Ludwig Lunches, are usually spaced far apart and cover an almost impossible range. While no one has a better explanation for what is killing trees by thrashing all of the lower bark off, most people assume it is bears or deer getting a bit too overzealous about marking their territory or sharpening their antlers. Ludwig's Hill, however, is notable for having an inordinate number of these destroyed trees, and it is where the greatest number of supposed Ludwig sightings have happened. |
| Ludwig's Nest | As one explores Ludwig's Hill, they may notice that a certain area seems to have many more trees with the bark shredded off than the others. If one wanders enough, they may find a circle of standing logs that have all been stripped of their bark and branches. They are all evenly spaced, surrounding pile of boulders. Clever climbers will be able to get to the top and find a large opening, and then descend into what is actually the entrance to a small cave. Inside this cave, one will find Ludwig of the Forest's nest. Ludwig's Nest is very comfortable, being filled with bark that has been thrashed and shredded so much that is has become soft and puffy. This material is very difficult to produce, but Ludwig seems to have an easy time, and it is very valuable. Most people are not able to make it as easily as Ludwig, making bark fluff one of the most expensive fabric materials in the world despite the raw materials being everywhere. The stuff is also highly flamable, making it somewhat risky to carry in large quantities. Either way, there is enough of the stuff to pay a king's ransom in Ludwig's Nest, so sometimes the odd adventurer will try to find the nest and steal some bedding. |
| Martin's Field | The relatively flat area south of Grimburg without many trees is named after one of the previous kings of Grimland, Martin the Craftsman. It is said that before Martin's reign, the field was a thick forest and Grimburg was a tiny village. Martin made it his mission to make the village into a city when he took the throne, and supposedly turned the forest into a field in the process. Today, the field is used to graze the numerous flocks of sheep whose wool fuels Grimburg's garment industry, as well as other livestock. There are several farms that extend out into Martin's field from Grimburg, but they do not cover much of the field itself. |
| Narrow Bridge | This bridge is the farthest upstream of all the bridges that cross the Fork River, being fairly close to Gritville. The bridge gets its name because it is only wide enough for people to cross single file. This means that anyone trying to get from Gritville to the rest of Gremland by horse or cart must go through the Fruitful Forest and cross the Fork River at Strong Bridge. As a result, Narrow Bridge is much less well-used and doesn't get maintained as often. This wooden bridge has become somewhat unstable and infected with gremlins in recent years, making it somewhat treacherous to cross. |
| Nest of Ferocious Fruit Freaks | There is a particularly massive tree in the Fruitful Forest that seems to shoot up above the surrounding canopy. High up in the branches of this tree are a series of nests made out of woven twigs and leaves. In these nests live the Ferocious Fruit Freaks, a group of reptilian creatures that swing through the tree branches on the search for fruit. Ranging all throughout the Fruitful Forest, the Freaks can be quite hazardous to those who make their living foraging for fruit in the forest. Should the Feral Fruit Freaks happen upon them, they are known to violently steal and eat everything that their victims are carrying. If someone happens to get too close to the nest tree, an army of Fruit Freaks is likely to descend on the intruder to defend their home. Often, foraging parties will pick more fruit than they can eat, bringing the excess fruit to a communal pile in one of the nests which the young, old, and sick are able to take from. |
| Roughton | Roughton, named after the rough bark on the surrounding trees, is a decent-sized village on the southwest edge of the Fruitful Forest. This village boasts a population of nearly 5,000 people, most of whom are either fruit foragers or fruit canners. About half of the town's workers go out into the woods to pick fruit every day, and the other half take that fruit and preserve it in glass jars so it can be shipped all over the world. There is some tension between the two groups of workers based on who gets paid more and who is perceived to have the easier job. The town's governor, Claudia Strongseed, was a fruit forager before an unprecedented string of deaths left her as the only heir to the governor's seat, leading to frequent accusations of favoritism towards the foragers. The canners threaten to revolt any time Claudia makes an unpopular decision, which always causes Claudia to walk her decision back. Foragers are upset because this state of affairs means that things regularly favor the canners, leading to a lot of conlfict between the two groups. Not wanting her own base to turn on her, Claudia has turned a blind eye to violence from the foragers towards the canners, and she does the same for violence going the other way to avoid riots from the canners. The end result is a town shaken by the battles between the two professions. This has of course done nothing but exasperate the gremlin infestation in the town. |
| Salton | This fishing village is the northernmost settlement in Gremland, sitting on the edge of the Salty Pastures. Although only about 3,000 people live here, they are able to pull enough fish from the Bay Between the Tines to supply the rest of Gremland, preserving their catch with sea salt before sending it to the larger world. Most people seem satisfied with their lot in life, and the governor, Bonnie Vine, treats people well. While the gremlin infestation has still come to Salton, the overall contentedness of the population resulted in the town being the lightest hit in Gremland. In addition to fish, Salton also exports a decent amount of beef, although only a handful of people in town are involved in that. Governor Vine owns a herd of nearly 3,000 cattle which she sends out into the Salty Pastures to graze, along with a few hired hands to keep the herd from wandering too far afield and to bring them to the stock yards near Salton during the winter. There have always been rumors that Bonnie is a powerful spellcaster who secretly turns criminals with the death penalty into cows in her herd, but the governor has always dismissed these tales as nonsense. |
| Strong Bridge | This covered bridge crosses the Fork River just upstream of Roughton and is made of steel beams and wooden planks. This bridge, being the only one between Gritville and Grimburg wide enough to let carts and horses through, sees a lot of merchant and trader caravans come through. The bridge gets its name from being wide and durable enough to handle a near-constant flow of traffic in both directions. While that level of use has not been seen since before the gremlin invasion, there is still a dedicated team of craftsfolk who maintain the bridge and ensure that it has no weaknesses. These people call themselves the Bridge Brigade and they have set up toll booths on the bridge to pay for materials and their own meals. The Bridge Brigade maintains a dormitory for its members on top of the bridge, utilizing a somewhat cramped attic space for the covered bridge for this purpose. |
| Temple of the Fruitful Tree | The Temple of the Fruitful Tree is an ancient temple deep in the Fruitful Forest that has been occupied by the Order of the Bountiful Branch since it was built hundreds of years ago. These mysterious priests spend their days tending a small orchard on the temple grounds and going out into the woods to spread seeds. These priests are teroists, members of a religion which worships the planet Tero itself as their god, referring to the planet as the Great Mother. This religion generally sees the various natural resources people use to survive, build, and find pleasure as gifts from their god and see it as their duty to cultivate and grow these resources to offset those who take without giving anything back. Following this goal, the religion is made up of many orders, each of which maintains a single temple and focuses on a single gift from the Great Mother to grow. The Order of the Bountiful Branch founded the Temple of the Fruitful Tree in order to grow more fruit trees. While they scatter many seeds in the forest as part of their practice, the trees they grow in their temple, closed off to outsiders, are said to bear magical fruits which grant the eater with incredible powers. The order does not accept members who only want personal power, however, so the secrets of their temple orchard remain hidden to the outside world. |
| The Bay Between the Tines | The Fork River empties into the Bay Between the Tines, a massive bay formed millions of years ago by a massive glacier. The bay splits a massive peninsula, the Greatest Fork, and the split begins in Gremland, at the southermost point of the Bay Between the Tines where the Fork River meets salt water. Tides in this bay can be somewhat extreme, with the water receding by up to a mile in the more shallow areas, but the Cliffs of Dobb mark a particularly deep part of the bay where large cargo ships are safe to dock during all tides. Grimburg takes advantage of this as well as the fresh water that the Fork River provides to be the only place in Gremland that can support a freight shipping industry. |
| The Cliffs of Dobb | A series of bright red cliffs that line the Bay Between the Tines for the first several miles of its western coast. These cliffs stand out against the moslty grey rocks of the surrounding Shattered Mountains, and they seem to be made of a rock that is magically resistant to wear and tear. This property has attracted the attention of Carol the Mage, but she has not had much success unlocking the capabilities of the red rocks. Carol is convinced that she just needs to find a way to use the extremely durable rocks and she will be able to make her fortune, and she is probably right. In the mean time, the cliffs are seen as nothing more than a natural oddity by the people of Gremland. |
| The Grand Mausoleum | A massive mausoleum constructed from black stone where almost all native residents of Gremland have their remains interred when they die. This massive building can be seen for miles, standing over 100 feet tall and extending an unknown depth into the ground. While the bottom level has never been found, it has been noted that the farther down into the mausoleum people travel, the more uneasy they feel. Some legends say that if one were to start descending and never turn back, they would eventually find levels full of undead, demons, and eventually they would descend out of the prime material plane entirely and into the cosmic planes of alignment. The veracity of these rumors has never been addressed, however, as the mausoleum seems to automatically rearrange itself so that there is always room for new bodies at the very top of the mausoleum with older and older corpses being moved farther down over time. Given its height, the bodies on the ground floor are often decades old by the time they get there. While many people dread the final climb to the top of the mausoleum for a funeral procession, it is considered the most important part of the ritual, where the casket-bearers show their commitment to the dearly departed. |
| The Great Vault | Sitting on the northeast face of the Infested Ridge is a structure known as the Great Vault. The Great Vault acted as the treasury for the Grimland Monarchy before the gremlin infestation, with only the sitting monarch allowed to know the secret way to get into the vault. Inside are all of the riches of the people who ruled when Gremland was still called Grimland. How much and what form this wealth takes is entirely unknown, allowing treasure hunters through the ages to come up with wil fantasies of what could possibly lay inside. Whatever mechanism kept the vault closed seemed to be incredibly complex, however, as the vault is now entirely overrun with gremlins. Furthermore, since the entirety of the royal family died during the initial gremlin infestation, no one alive knows how to safely get inside. The Great Vault is protected not just by codes and doors, but by deadly traps and magic that only the most accomplished thieves could dare challenge. |
| The Gremlin King's Castle | What used to be known as the Grimcastle is a massive stone building with walls 50 feet tall. The castle stones were quarried from the Cliffs of Dobb, making them bright red and incredibly strong. Today, the castle is known as the Gremlin King's Castle because anyone who spends time in the castle will become the victim of a gigantic gremlin everyone calls the Gremlin King. The Gremlin King is 10 feet tall, several orders of magnitude larger than any other gremlin, and he seems to be associated with the entire castle, never leaving it, only ever using it to trap and torment whatever poor fools go inside. The castle itself is old, large, and constructed as a labyrinth of doors, rooms, and hallways that the Gremlin King is able to manipulate with skill to torment his victims. |
| The Growing Pit | A massive pit out in the Shattered Moutnains which is so deep that it is impossible to see the bottom, leading many to believe that it is bottomless. Nothing that goes down into the pit ever comes out, and the pit grows wider in proportion to the amount of matter that entered it. While most people are entirely unaware of this pit, it may one day become large enough threaten Gremland. |
| The Infested Ridge | This lightly forested ridge in the middle of Gremland used to be called the Forested Ridge, but today it is called the Infested Ridge because it is one of the most gremlin-infested parts of Gremland. Not only does it have some of the most infested buildings in the land on it, but the forest itself seems to be a magnet for negative emotions, causing it to be teeming with gremlins that use sticks rocks, and even entire plants to harass and bother travelers. |
| The Interplanetary Hunting Lodge | This large, stately cabin in the woods appears to be owned by a reclusive aristocrat and their staff of servants, but this is actually a cover for a strange reality. This lodge, along with several others around the world and many more on other worlds, is owned and operated by the Interplanetary League of Exotic Game Hunters and Trappers, an organization spanning the entire Prime Material Plane. The League, as its members insist on calling it, operates these lodges for its paying members to be able to hunt and trap on any planet that supports life. Membership fees are steep, but they are what pays for the lodges, staff, and amenities that members of the League enjoy on their hunting trips. |
| The Salty Pastures | This relatively flat, grassy area gets a lot of salty spray from the Bay Between the Tines, so the only plants that grow in it are salt-tolerant species like saltgrass and saltbush. Regardless, Governor Bonnie Vine send her massive herd of cattle out to the pastures every spring and summer to feed. While the plants are not ideal for the cattle, they seem to survive on them, and Bonnie claims that the plants pre-season the meat, a claim that is dubious at best. Aside from the plants, the cattle, and deer, there is not much else out on this small prairie, making it a fairly calm place, relatively free of gremlins. |
| Wyvern Caves | Out in the Shattered Mountains are nests of massive wyverns, notorious for patrolling Gremland and swooping down to take sheep, cattle, and even people. Nobody knows where all their nests are, but the largest is known to be somewhere in the mountains to the east of the Fruitful Forest. The wyverns are able to fly up to a series of cliffs and crags that are almost impossible to navigate without flight. There, they maintain their nests, raise their young, and feed on whatever prey they have captured most recently. The wyverns of Gremland are notable for being a lustrous black color and being nearly twice the size of wyverns from elsewhere in the world. Their size makes the wyverns particularly dangerous to the people of Gremland and most people view them as a deadly pest. Despite the danger posed, their shiny black scales can be made into exquisite clothing and armor while their bile can be processed into a potion that allows one to see in the dark. |
