Mills Creek

The town of Mills Creek is situated at the northern shore of Nandaahr, in the middle of the marshes north of the Thaspis sea.

History

The giant mill that gave the town its name was build ages ago by some rich tradesmen after a famine caused by a bug that destroyed most of the wheat crops. In these region the environment and soils are perfect for the cultivation of a plant that, when milled resembles wheat. During the following decade the bug continued to cause famine throughout the northern regions of Nandaahr so the mill was expanded to ginormous proportions and others were build as well. The town got rich - or rather the tradesmen operating the mill and their swordsmen who guarded the slaves working there. Slavery was allready prohibited for quite some time at this point in these lands, but the remote location, the famine and the strongly needed meal from this town causes anyone in a position of power to ignore whatever went on in these lands.
Nowadays, after the big famine long gone, the mills mistress as she calls herself is still filthy rich, just not as rich as her ancestors. Still, she has an iron tight grip on the town, thanks to the countless mercenaries she has hired who keep all eyes on the slaves working in the fields and the townsfolk who are maintaining and repairing the mills. Mills creek and its inhabitants are as poor, filthy and uneducated as they allways have been. The quality of live is pretty bad, the "free" townsfolks are just merely better off than the slaves, though they are mighty proud of being "free" instead of "filthy slaves". Eventhough they pay horendous taxes to the mistress and her mercenaries.

Geography

Mills creek sits on one of the few dry islands in the vast swamp north of the Thaspis sea. The founders have piled up many small hills and placed mills on top of them to increase the wind yield. The first was the big monter of a mill that sits in the center of Mills creek on one of the little artificial hills. Around the edges of the island a sturdy wall shields the fields and settlement in the middle of the island from intruders or curious eyes. The settlement itself is split into a small central fortress where the founders and their decendants live, alongside their army of mercenaries and some servants. Some settlements are scattered around the fortress and even further out, in the fields the pits of the slaves are dug into the ground. To prevent them from escaping the townsfolk dug deep holes in the ground, until they reached the water level and put downward facing spikes into the ground to keep anyone who is inside from climbing out. Small towers were build beside every pit that watch them at night.

Trade

As you might imagine no upright trader wants to do buisiness with heavily armed slavers - but as you also know, as soon as theres profit most tradesmen throw their morals over board (if they ever had some to begin with)... The town has a wide network of connections. None of the bigger tradesmen shows up here or sends his caravans - there are smaller groups that have specialised in picking up goods from less than trustworthy places and smuggle them into the warehouses of the bigger traders. For a cut of the profit of course. The normal way is that one of these groups shows up at the gates of mills creek. The mercenaries load up their carts, escort them to the next cargo handling point, cash in their share and the smugglers hire other mercenaries to avoid being seen with known criminals. Then they show up to the bigger cities in broad daylight and sell their goods at a low price but still for a nice profit. No one sees any slaves or bandits and everyone is happy in the end of the day.

The People

As mentioned, the town consists of the "Master/Mistress of the mill" and their close family who live like royals (more or less), a close circle of various bootlickers who allways try to kill each other in order to get on the masters good side. Apart from the slaves the townsfolk consists more or less evenly of mercenaries of various origins and races, brought to gether by their hunger for gold an lack of morals and of "free" craftsmen - mostly woodelves, that operate and maintain the mills. Originally the founders of the town where humans, but shortly after the foundation a group of woodelves that lived nearby was assimilated into the town because they were great woodworkers and help to optimise the mills. Thus most people have at least a little share of elvish blood.  The slaves in the pits on the other hand are mostly captives from the sourrounding area or bought of slavers at the western shore of Nandaahr.

Type

Town