Shires
Several halfling (Hobbit) communities exist some 20 miles northeast of the road between Cormire and Camlin. The shires cooperate and inter-marry: Goodlund, Deerglen, Tulip, Prettyfoot, and Greenville are mentioned. The shires also occasionally trade goods with the human cities but are mostly self-sufficient.
From campaign notes:
Several days journey north (from Cormire) on the road to Camlin, through intermingled croplands and forest and hills, and then a narrow rutted pathway shoots off to the northeast with a wooden sign painted white with green lettering, “To the Shire of the Wee Folk”.
Another day's journey and the party will emerge from a wooded glade into a vineyard, with grapes turning to raisins on the vine. The druid will be saddened that this decent crop is going to waste – should have been harvested a week ago. Another mile, and a halfling-sized farmhouse will be spotted. It's empty and abandoned, with evidence of a hasty exit – dresser drawers left open, jewelry boxes empty and open, dirty dishes in the kitchen, even a half-evaporated mug of mead on the table.
Another mile and the party enters another woodland area of oaks and maples, broad-leafed trees just beginning to turn yellow and orange in places. All roll d6, non-surprised on a roll of 6. Six halflings are hidden in the trees and bushes here, and will jump out in unison with short bows about 30' away. One, a red-haired bloke (Tristan Goodweather) of about 3'6” in dark brown leather armor, says:
“Hail travelers! What's your business here in the Shire of the Wee Folk?”
“Aye, you've come none too soon. Three of the Eight Families (Tulip, Prettyfoot, and Greenville) have been overrun by these warmongering orcs and ogres. It seems they've taken a recent renewed interest in meals of hobbit-flesh. Our losses number in the hundreds, they attack in the night with forces of 20 or more, striking quickly, capturing as many of us as they can, burning our homes, stealing our mead and wine, and then making off into the hills.”
The last attack was 6 nights ago upon the peaceful Shire of Greenville, and they've been attacking every 5-7 days, so the hobbits are preparing for the worst in the Shire of Goodlund, the nearest to the foothills of the Ozgarns to the East. The scouting party will accompany the party there, a journey of 6 miles.
First, a pass through the Shire of Deerglen, where the hobbits are busy constructing a earthen mound barrier around the village, creating a 5' deep moat with a 5' high mound along its inner rim. Other hobbits can be seen constructing ballistae, and three smiths are hard at work creating weapons out of farm implements.
Shire Goodlund is in the hills and alongside a creek that has been dammed to form a 50' pond. Huts and burrows dot the area, but citizens are nowhere to be seen (everyone's indoors or helping in Deerglen). The only halflings visible are atop 20' narrow tree trunks with tiny platforms mounted. The sounds of a smith hammering steel echo through the otherwise silent village.
The halflings will be quick to offer the party mead, cheese-bread, and prunes. Then the issue of providing defenses will come up. They believe that with the party's help, an ambush outside town may repel the raiders this night, but eventually the root of the problem must be addressed – the recently-discovered 'headquarters' that launches these raids, a cavern 10 miles off teeming with orcs and ogres.
(The party conquered the orcs in a 2003(?) campaign, but they could have returned...)
Location: Map #5
