Sunset Brush

The hamlet of Sunset Brush is located in the south western portion of Nalkon, west of the town Woodfare. So called because of the way the sunset shines over and through the nearby trees, sometimes making them look as if they are on fire.
Sunset Brush is a farming hamlet with no more than twelve farms surrounding it. The main place of entertainment in the hamlet is the inn, Mapmaker's Mistake. This inn has only two guest rooms, one with six beds, the other with four. The patrons are mostly nearby farmers and their families, and there isn't much travel through the area. There isn't even a smithy, so the locals have to travel the eight kilometres on a dirt (sometimes mud) road to East Woodfare when they need such services.
The innkeeper, Dougal, is a widower who settled in the area based on his purchase of a map showing that there would be a trade route going through this area, specifically for the trade of wood from the nearby forest. He had a large inheritance that he used to build his dream - the Inn. In his enthusiasm he built where the road was scheduled to go through before there was more than one other settler here. Sadly, the trade never manifested due to changes in nearby politics in Woodfare and rumours of fey in the forest.
Sunset Brush also consists of five other buildings, each with its own large garden that helps support the family living therein. Currently the people are repairing and upgrading the wooden wall around the hamlet so as to protect them better from the occasional monster - ogre, troll, dire wolf, bear, or whatever. This will also help the local farms in giving them a place to flee to when there are known monsters in the area.
The nearby leaders are Karl Svensson, who has eight children aged seven to seventeen, two of whom are fourteen-year-old twins (James and Jayden). James tends to hang around a lot with a nearby girl named Becky. He and Becky are trouble-making pranksters, so their parents spend an inordinate amount of time trying to keep them apart or dealing with the aftermath of their pranks. Each set of parents blames the others' child for the problems.
Becky's parents are Friderik and Geanna Yonder. She had seven siblings, but Robert died recently. Toddler named, Bettina (Tina) called him "Bobert".
Other farms are: Johnsson, Lian, W'val, Frontes, Oram

Demographics

All inhabitants are human.
Innkeeper: 1 man
Innkeeper's daughter, aged 12
Herbalist: 1 woman
Midwife: 1 woman
A retired couple who live next to the Inn
A retired woodsman who lives across from the Inn
A young man who hires himself out as a handyman, as needed by locals.
Miller: 1 male (5 in family, including wife & 3 children)
There is one smith, who has not yet set up his forge (in process of building).
Remaining surrounding population are farmers.

Government

The hamlet is governed by the greater area of Woodfare.
Within hamlet affairs there are general meetings held in the rare occasions they are needed, usually held in the Inn or at the Johnsson farm. Every household gets one vote.

Defences

The wall surrounding the central village is the only real defense. This is being re-enforced and upgraded. There is also the beginnings of a wider wall being built around the whole farming community. With so few people, this will take some time to accomplish, probably years.

Industry & Trade

The inhabitants live in an area with rich soil, so crops have always been good. They raise mostly vegetables and have some orchards. Livestock and grain are for local use only. Trade is taken to the nearby town of Woodfare.

Infrastructure

The roads are all dirt roads. The hamlet has walls that are almost finished. There is one mill, lying outside the walls, built along little fall that is on the local creek.
The main meeting and social place in the hamlet is the Inn, Mapmaker's Mistake.
A local smith is starting to set up across the road and downstream from the mill.
The central hamlet homes are surrounded by a wooden defensive wall. The people are starting to build a wall around the whole community, including the farm lands.

Assets

This is a farming community and trades their fruit and vegetables in the nearby town of Woodfare. Any local trade is conducted at individual homes or at the inn. The local handyman also carries trinkets that he sometimes trades, and has been known to try and set up trades with locals. They mostly find this amusing as it seems unnecessary to them.

History

The hamlet started as a logging camp and a few people built temporary homes creating gardens to make their lives easier. An Inn was built by a young couple who heard that the logging industry was going to become much more and that a wood mill was going to be built here. Slowly farms started to come. Then, the logging went a little too far into the forest and got the attention of local fey. They fey made it difficult, almost impossible, to harvest, and the logging disappeared from the area, and the beginnings of the mill were abandoned, along with the camp. Most of the population left. Because of the good soil some stayed and grew their gardens into proper farms. More people came and a palisade was built around the few houses near the inn. Dougal and his wife lived there for years, surviving off the land around the inn and eventually had a daughter.
Eight years after Dougal built the Inn, a troll came through the area and raided their small livestock pen, destroying what little livestock they had. The raids continued for some months, with local farmers also being raided. Aliya, Dougal's wife, was killed during one of the troll's raids, leaving Dougal and their five-year-old daughter. During the series of raids, three other folks were killed. Dougal and the new farmers in the area hunted and killed the troll. But it was a difficult hunt, killing two of the farmers. Never again, they vowed, would they try to deal with such creatures on their own. Since then they have always sent to Woodfare for help from the king's or town's representatives.
Years have passed, and Serena, Dougal's daughter, is now twelve and helps around the inn when needed. She spends most of her time reading. Yes, she can read! Dougal taught her. So now she does the service of the local farmers' letter writing, leaving Dougal to do the more arduous tasks around the inn and the hamlet in general.

Architecture

All buildings are of wood, except the Inn, which has outer stone walls. Wood is obtained from the nearby forest, and only in groups, as the locals believe there are dangerous creatures living there.

Geography

This is the edge of the plains before the area starts to turn to foothills. The nearby forest has been mostly undisturbed. There is plenty of access to water, as the hamlet and farms lie between two large streams. This is a mixed plain, near a forest. The community was originally going to be part of a logging camp that was to harvest in the nearby forest, but local fey chased away the first people who went into the forest, making it unprofitable to try to develop. However, with rich soil nearby, the farmers stayed and the community has been very slowly growing over the last few years.

Natural Resources

Fruits and vegetables grow well in these soils. Most of the farms grow and sell their vegetables in the nearby town of Woodfare. The nearby virgin woods are rumoured to be full of dangerous creatures, so are avoided, except on their edges.

Maps

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  Sunset Brush

  Map of the hamlet of Sunset Brush. The Mill is just off the map to the north along the creek shown there. Just east of that is where the smith is building his home and smithy, downstream from the mill.

Type

Hamlet

Population

70

Location under

Woodfare