Eliada

Settlement Type: Ruins

Terraine: Grasslands

Population: Varies

Description:

If you travel west through the Kingdom of Kalada, taking the Great Western Road, you will eventually pass through the abandoned village of Eliada.  The village lies in ruins. Its small houses have been worn away by time and elements, leaving moldering timbers and malformed stones dotting the place. Yards and the village common are overgrown.  Only the village graveyard is kept in a good state, maintained by troupes of ghouls that travel the area.

Eliada was abandoned over three hundred years ago. To this day, no one knows why the villagers left or what happened to them.  Investigative records from the time suggest the villagers vanished mid-activity. Tables still had breakfasts on them. Freshly washed laundry was left to moulder in baskets. There were tankards of undrunk ale sitting on the bar of the village pub.

Attempts were made to repopulate the village, but they never stuck. Prospective settlers reported feeling as if they were being watched all the time. Some went mad. Most left, moving as far away from Eliada as possible.

Today, most of the village lies neglected and forlorn, except for the graveyard, a small temple to the Devourer and a shrine to the Warmother.

An ancient, wizened barbarian lurks in the tall grasses around Eliada, warning travelers not to stop overnight in the village, not unless they want to vanish as well. Or possibly meet a worse fate.

Experienced travelers plan on passing through the ruins as quickly as possible, and making camp out of sight of the stony bones of its houses.