Elven Crossing

This settlement of a little over a hundred folk shelters in the trees on the edge of the elven woods where Mistledale ends and the River Ashaba emerges from the forest in its run down from Shadowdale. The Mistle Trail passes through Elven Crossing, which, as its name suggests, is where elves like to cross the river. They either ford it here or go upstream a little way to the Living Bridge. This little-known local landmark is a massive shadowtop partially uprooted in a long-ago spring flood. It toppled across the river but was caught in two other trees and wedged in a horizontal position. It is healthy, and its branches leaf out each year to cloak the huge trunk in a bower that conceals folk using it to cross on foot; it is not wide enough for a wagon to use it.
Elven Crossing itself is a small, shady place of woodcarvers, hunters, and mushroom-pickers. These folk love the forest and augment their incomes by hunting for herbs that grow wild in sun-dappled glades deep in the woods. They react very severely -- usually with a warning arrow shot into the flames -- to folk who light campfires along the Mistle Trail except in a stone hearth. These fire hearths have been built by the folk of the Crossing all along the forest run of the Mistle Trail to prevent forest fires from sweeping their livelihood -- or their community -- away.
Elven Crossing has no inns or taverns, but does have two large pavilions -ne by the riverbank and one at the eastern end of the settlement beside the Mistle Trail - that are set aside for travelers. These have pump wells, privies, hammocks, rough wooden tables and chairs, stone hearths and chimneys, stocks of ready-cut firewood and local folk to watch over them. The "overseers" are viewed by the folk of the Crossing as a necessity since the time one chilled group of wayfarers decided to chop up all the furniture and build a fire to keep warm - and promptly set their pavilion on fire.
Lacking a tavern, locals gather for drinks at Amaratha's Teahouse. Travelers looking for conversation, a bite to eat, and something to drink should go there. They will find that some odd folk live in Elven Crossing - but then, it is an odd place.

Type

Hamlet