The City of Lindwurm

The city of Lindwurm is a semi-mythical city predominately found in the Bohemian Massif. Primarily made from stone with carvings of serpents, wyverns & dragons all around. Also, there are painted reliefs of them faded and damaged with time here & there. Still used, primarily be woodsmen & charcoal burners, and their families, most of the buildings have been repaired using wood. They are a strange bunch and most who encounter them remark that they have a certain serpentine look about them.

Demographics

Mainly inhabited by humans & their families, some Wood Elves & a few Black Elves are found in the city. Their families are found there too, and interbreeding between them are not unheard off, and some Half-Elves are present here & there.

Government

A council of the elders runs the Lindwurm community, and at least one cleric dressed is scaled finery also is a member. They seem follow a law that the community comes first, and murder of another member is the gravest sin. Outsiders are to be treated civilly and sent on their way as quickly as possible. They move their goods by themselves to outside settlements allowing no-one else to ever travel to Lindwurm unless absolutely necessary. Most others are only too happy for this, and that taxes are paid promptly & to the exact amounts without as much as a single complaint. Religion plays a major part and the old ruined temple near the city centre is regularly packed weekly with worshippers. The language they use is strange language that most don't understand and the law prevents any but the worshippers anywhere near the temple.

Defences

There is little in the sense of defences and the locals act like a militia when & where necessary. They know the area inside out & attack from many different angles. Also, they fight with a fanatic fervour like no other.

Industry & Trade

Timber and charcoal is the main order of business in Lindwurm.

Infrastructure

The people of Lindwurm are known for their timber & charcoal, and supplying plenty of these compared to others in the forest. camps are found close to the city and warehouses are found in repurposed old buildings. Old roads have been reopened recently to other settlements allowing for them to trade, and regularly sends nominated individuals to these settlements to arrange for the buying & selling of supplies & timber etc.

Assets

Plenty of timber, timber and timber is the main assets for the locals. They seem to have warehouses spread out throughout the city, and these are filled with timber & charcoal. There are rumours of a few that have passed through that there is a few warehouses near the centre that are rarely accessed. What is mentioned is that there seems to be local stone stored in many of these, and a few rumours persist that there is at least one that is nearly always locked with treasures inside. These though can't be verified at present, though there is the odd warehouse storing foodstuffs, equipment, and odds & ends.

History

It appears that the city had been in service for centuries. The locals are all descended from the first settlers taking in the odd individuals & small groups over the centuries for the injection of fresh blood.
At some stage it fell into ruin and from known history
Ove the centuries strange stories appear saying that something happened and the city started to fall into ruin. A group of local rangers and shamans state that the city was cursed. The curse made the city a target for other tribal groups that believed that something lived below the city and tried to stop it returning. Some talk of an ancient green dragon, others that a snake cult had existed there for decades. None are sure, and both could be right. 
Lindwurm was named when the Germanic tribes started to take over areas to the north, and many of them mentioned that there was still people living in the ruins making it home and supplying timber & related products. Stone used to be supplied too, mined somewhere in or around the city. Like most peoples, they ended up avoiding Lindwurm as there was something wrong with it.
Recent stories are coming out of the area saying that small earthquakes seem to happen in & around the city. No damage seems to be caused and the reason is unknown. Mines & settlements near the city report strange deeply disturbing sounds come up from the ground itself. That, and the odd disappearance.

Points of interest

The city itself acts like one huge point of interest. Parts of Lindwurm that seem to stand out is:

• the Temple. It looks like this is relatively untouched by the forest, and quite stable. Wilt no roof it is open to the elements but is in the process of being rebuilt with stone & wood. It has carvings of serpents & wyverns across the walls, and a statue of a dragon standing o a bed of writhing snakes stands at the end of it.
• Warehouses. A number of buildings near the centre is given over to storage of everything the community needs.
• Housing. Housing is everywhere, literally everywhere.
• Trees and other plants. These grow everywhere and seems to grow fast. They grow on or over buildings in no time, and regularly cut back.
• Cemetery. This is beside & surrounding the temple, and been built up over centuries. The dead seem to be interred on top of each other and it appears almost as a charnel house using offcuts of stone & wood to cover the dead.
• Central House. A central building has stood in some form or another for centuries. People seem to come & go regularly day & night, looking as if they were working in a mine.
• There are no inns or taverns in the city limits, with the only ones being a couple of miles outside on the roads.
• Snakes. Snakes seem to appear everywhere, even in the middle of winter.

Architecture

There are ancient ruined buildings made of local stone. Manu have serpents, wyverns, and dragons painted & carved on them. Also, the locals have rebuilt parts using the stone and plenty of wood. It appears like a mishmash of structures, but there seems to be a tread of draconic design throughout, along with the stone appearing to be worked in a way similar to some ancient ruins in Africa & Asia.

Geography

Hilly and covered in woods, the forest has reclaimed major parts of the city, and is still overgrown despite being regularly cleared.

Climate

Warm a good part of the year getting stormy wet weather regularly.

Natural Resources

Timber, and secretly stone.

"I never want to pass through that city again. Lindwurm, the city of inbreeds, and snakes. Uggh, and the strange sounds emanating from the ground itself, and the shaking. Yet everything seems to be stable.
I was tracking someone, a criminal, from Wein. He escaped to Lindwurm, and I was tasked to track him through the Bohemian Massif to the city. I got far enough to see him being invited into the central building, and watched, and watched, and watched..... He never came out. Those that went in with him, the locals, they did come and go. Sent word back I thought he was killed there. The authorites called me back, and told me to forget about it. Not worth it trying to find him in there."
Ronald Balsiger a ranger & tracker.

Type

City

Location under

Europe