The Shire of Appleboro

     Today on the blog we will be looking at a place whose existence I proposed on Twitter.

    Appleboro is a quaint little halfling settlement nestled in a small valley. It is a quiet place where the smells of wood smoke, baking, and gardening mingle with honey suckle and apple blossoms. It is a good place where the folk have made a prosperous living from the land. 

    There is a nice inn here called the Willow Bend Inn and Tavern, it is run by a human family who has lived around these parts for a few generations. Halfling burrows are the predominant structures hereabouts and the innkeepers are good enough folk. 

    Sheriff Amelia Lightfoot runs the town. She was elected by her fellow halflings and seems to be a fair upstanding woman with sandy blonde hair, an infectious smile, and a will made of iron as strong as the well worn short sword she carries at her hip. 

    The Willow Bend is the center of the community's prosperity. Jacob Prine and his family have lived in Appleboro his entire life. Jacob is a middle aged human with a pot belly and receding black hair. He is always well dressed and groomed. He has a very sad, distant look in his eyes. Jacob Prine is a man who has had to put his boot on the throat of his hopes and dreams.

    Appleboro sells apples as its name indicates but the price of apples does not buy the kinds of comfort that these folk enjoy.

    It started about one hundred years back when a group of elf adventurers stopped in the village to re-supply. They were flush with gold taken from some ancient tomb and carrying glittering gems, magic weapons, potions, and objects of art. The halflings of Appleboro and their friends the Prines had fallen on hard times when they happened along.

    It was then that a halfling named Nigel Cobwinkle hatched a plan. He and his community made the elves welcome and gave them the finest fare they could imagine and he had the Prines cook them a meal using Sleeping Death mushrooms, a rare sort of mushroom that causes those that consume them to slip into coma and later death. The Sleeping Death mushrooms are said to kill even the hardiest of dwarf. The elves ate and made merry until one by one they expired. 

    Cobwinkle had the merchants carry the elf treasures to the town of Alverton where things are bought and sold from a hundred different lands. They fetched a handsome price and the shire of Appleboro experienced great prosperity.

    Today, the practice has been refined to an art. The folk of Appleboro question visitors and through guile and kindness figure out who might be missed. Those with definite destinations and concerned families are left to go on their way. Those who are wanderers with pouches filled with loot and fine items are served the special meal. A hearty stew of barley, beef, and the special mushrooms cooked with onions, leeks, and carrots. Their personal effects are taken to be sold in Alverton and their bodies are buried out in the apple orchards. 

    That is it for today's introduction to the town and its hospitality. Next time we will dive into the cast of characters who live in the shire and profit from agriculture and murder.