Fenmire Locations
Fenmire, the most forsaken region of Faulmoor, is a vast expanse of deep bogs, brackish fens, and mist-choked waterways stretching toward the Greymere Sea. The land is half-drowned, characterized by sinking peat, twisted mangroves, and decaying reeds, making travel treacherous. Villages, when they can be built at all, are precariously perched atop raised wooden platforms, stilts, or half-sunken ruins from ages past, a patchwork of resilience against a land that does not welcome habitation.
Fenwatch
“The swamp rises to claim it, the Blight knocks at its gates, but we remain.”
— Lord Garric Harrowden
Fenwatch is the capital of Fenmire and the principal seat of House Harrowden. Built where several navigable waterways meet, the settlement grew from a rough marsh trading post into the region's political and commercial center.
Overview
Fenwatch is built to survive unstable ground rather than conquer it. Much of the town stands on heavy pilings, raised platforms, boardwalks, and rope bridges above waterlogged earth. Treated timber, salvaged stone, drainage works, and improvised flood barriers are common features of construction.
Water routes matter more than streets. Boats, ferries, traders, fishers, smugglers, and laborers move through the same channels, making the town both a point of control and a place where official authority is constantly negotiated.
House Harrowden's strongest structures stand on the firmer ground available around the settlement. Watchtowers, palisades, hired guards, and fortified buildings protect the principal approaches.
History
Fenwatch began as a trading post used by merchants, trappers, laborers, and fortune-seekers moving deeper into the fens.
House Harrowden gradually established control through force, agreements, and command of important supply routes. The discovery of silver at Thornmere Mines transformed both the town and the house, bringing greater wealth, permanent fortifications, and political attention from the rest of Faulmoor.
Present Day
The Rotmire Blight has made Fenwatch more guarded without making it orderly. Suspected exposure can bring exile, detention, or removal from the settlement, while bodies believed to be Blighted are burned outside the inhabited districts.
Daily life is organized around water and scarcity: boardwalks have to hold, boats have to arrive, bodies have to be burned, and every consignment of silver or medicine invites inspection, bargaining, or theft.
Merchants and travelers face inspections, and corruption has grown alongside enforcement. Smuggling remains common because silver, medicine, food, weapons, and passage through the marsh are all increasingly valuable.
Rumors that House Harrowden hoards silver or manipulates scarcity circulate widely, though the true condition of the Thornmere veins is not publicly settled.
Notable Locations
Harrow's Rest
Harrow's Rest is House Harrowden's fortified seat in Fenwatch. Built from imported stone and iron on firmer ground, it stands apart from much of the town's raised timber construction.
The Sunken Stoat
The Sunken Stoat is a dockside tavern known for smugglers, mercenaries, travelers, and those seeking work away from official attention.
The Drowned Market
The Drowned Market is a floating bazaar where traders deal in marsh goods, salvaged materials, herbs, and other difficult-to-source wares.
See Also
Mirefield
“I will not let Mirefield fall.”
— Governor Marla Harrowden
Mirefield is a fortified settlement in Fenmire governed by Marla Harrowden on behalf of House Harrowden. Once an important waypoint on the region's overland routes, it became increasingly isolated after the fall of Gristmere severed its principal connection to the north.
Overview
Mirefield occupies firmer ground than many Fenmire settlements and has long relied on stonework, defensive walls, and controlled approaches.
Before the Blight, roads, ferries, markets, inns, smithies, and regional trade made the town an important stop between other Fenmire settlements. Gristmere's fall changed that pattern. Travel now depends heavily on ferries and island-hopping routes that connect Mirefield with Fenwatch and other surviving communities.
Refugees from Gristmere increased the strain on housing and supplies while also providing labor for fortification, transport, and defense.
History
Mirefield's position and access to stone made it both a trade town and a defensible regional stronghold.
As the Rotmire Blight spread, Governor Marla Harrowden expanded the town's defenses. Old passes were blocked, walls reinforced, watchtowers manned, and militia forces increased.
The destruction of Gristmere isolated Mirefield further and converted what had once been a commercial center into a settlement organized increasingly around survival and defense.
Present Day
Mirefield remains functional but heavily militarized. Markets operate under rationing, blacksmiths devote much of their labor to weapons and fortifications, and patrols watch the approaches.
The town increasingly spends its labor on the simple work of remaining a town: smiths make repairs and weapons, ferries keep supply lines alive, displaced people reinforce defenses, and rationing turns ordinary market days into questions of endurance.
Ferries are now a lifeline, carrying supplies and people through routes that are increasingly difficult to keep open.
Concern has also grown over the silence surrounding Weeping Fen. Missing ferrymen and scouts, together with rumors concerning something called the Last God, have deepened anxiety along Mirefield's southern routes.
Notable Locations
Bastion Hall
Bastion Hall serves as Mirefield's military command center and Governor Marla Harrowden's principal seat of authority.
The Anvil & Ash
The Anvil & Ash is a blacksmithing guild whose work has shifted heavily toward arms, armor, repairs, and defensive construction.
The Stone Drake Inn
The Stone Drake is a fortified inn serving soldiers, travelers, ferrymen, and displaced people.
The Drowned Bell
The Drowned Bell is a harbor tavern associated with ferrymen, mercenaries, and the less regulated parts of Mirefield's trade.
Notable People
Marla Harrowden
Marla Harrowden governs Mirefield and directs its defensive preparations on behalf of House Harrowden.
See Also
Gristmere
“The bridges had to burn, lest the Blight cross with them.”
— Lord Garric Harrowden
Gristmere is a ruined marsh settlement in Fenmire, now half-submerged and cut off from the routes it once served. Its fall during the Rotmire Blight disrupted travel toward Mirefield and Weeping Fen and became one of the major causes of the region's present isolation.
Overview
Before its destruction, Gristmere was built around canals, raised walkways, stilted homes, and the movement of trade through difficult wetland.
Much of that structure remains in broken form. Walkways sag into stagnant water, houses lean from failing pilings, and former market spaces lie partly submerged beneath mud and reeds.
The settlement's location still makes it useful to smugglers, scavengers, and travelers willing to cross dangerous ruins rather than take longer routes through the marsh.
History
When the Blight reached Gristmere, House Harrowden attempted quarantine. Barricades and checkpoints were raised along the roads, and people attempting to leave without approval were turned back.
What ruined Gristmere was not only death but disconnection. Burning its bridges limited movement through the town while also cutting other communities away from routes they had depended on for trade and travel.
The containment failed. Once the settlement was considered lost, the bridges connecting Gristmere to the rest of Fenmire were burned.
That decision limited movement through the area but also severed older routes and helped isolate communities farther south.
Present Day
Gristmere remains abandoned and dangerous. Blighted move through the flooded ruins, while the condition of submerged buildings and walkways makes travel hazardous even without them.
A persistent rumor claims that a shipment of silver bound for Mirefield disappeared during the town's final days and remains somewhere within the ruins. Treasure hunters and mercenaries continue to search for it, although no confirmed recovery is publicly known.
Stories of strange lights, voices, and unsettling dreams also circulate among those who camp near Gristmere. Their cause is unknown.
Notable Locations
The Drowned Walkways
The remains of Gristmere's raised streets and bridges form a broken network above and beneath the marsh water.
The Old Market
The former market district is largely submerged, with only portions of stalls and structures still visible above the waterline.
See Also
Bogsend
“We are not the lost. We are the ones who endure.”
— Captain Dain Harthollow
Bogsend is a remote settlement in Fenmire that has developed into an effectively independent refuge beyond the ordinary reach of House Harrowden. Difficult approaches, dependable local resources, and an influx of deserters and refugees have allowed it to survive with unusual autonomy during the Rotmire Blight.
Overview
Bogsend occupies unusually useful ground within the marsh, with access to fresh water, fish, game, forage, and small areas suitable for marsh-grown crops.
There are no reliable roads into the settlement. Footpaths and winding waterways serve as the principal approaches, making Bogsend difficult to reach without local knowledge.
The community relies heavily on barter and local production. Farming, fishing, trapping, hunting, and foraging provide much of what residents need.
History
Bogsend was once a small and isolated agricultural settlement.
During the first year of the Blight, deserting soldiers and displaced survivors began arriving in greater numbers. Their experience changed the character of the settlement.
Palisades, watchtowers, patrols, stockpiles, and regular drills transformed Bogsend from a hidden village into a guarded survivalist enclave.
Present Day
Bogsend recognizes no formal noble ruler. Authority is informal and closely tied to veteran soldiers and other residents trusted with defense and supplies.
Independence here is not ceremonial. It is measured in stockpiles, patrols, fish traps, palisades, and the willingness to do without anything the settlement cannot make, gather, barter for, or smuggle in.
Smuggling provides access to silver, medicine, and other goods that local production cannot replace. Stories also accuse some Bogsend groups of taking supplies from outside caravans and outposts, while residents describe such acts as necessary for survival.
Outsiders are treated cautiously, and the settlement remains fiercely protective of its independence.
Notable Locations
The Freehold
The Freehold is the principal gathering place for communal decisions and defensive planning.
The Stockade
The Stockade serves as a protected reserve for important supplies.
The Sunken Crossroads
The Sunken Crossroads is associated with the informal trade routes that connect Bogsend to the wider marsh.
See Also
Weeping Fen
“The stone beneath Weeping Fen predates the settlement and was cut with a precision its founders did not possess. That the townspeople reused it is unremarkable. That so much of it was already there is not.”
— Veydrith Serrin, Lucent Endura
Weeping Fen is a fishing settlement in Fenmire built over and partly from much older ruins. Before the Rotmire Blight, rich fishing grounds and regional trade made it one of the marsh's fastest-growing communities. It is now silent, and no regular contact has returned from the settlement.
Overview
Weeping Fen grew around docks, fishing boats, netting racks, smokehouses, markets, and the preservation of fish for trade with Fenwatch, Mirefield, and other settlements.
For years the older stone sat beneath smokehouses, paths, foundations, and market life as part of the town's ordinary fabric. Only after fishing declined and contact ceased did those foundations become something people outside the settlement learned to fear.
As the town expanded, builders uncovered older stone beneath it. Pieces were reused in foundations, walls, paths, and smokehouses. Further excavation revealed smooth masonry, precise carvings, buried steps, and structures whose original purpose was no longer understood.
The ruins became part of ordinary town life long before they became a source of fear.
History
Weeping Fen initially avoided the worst effects of the Blight because of its remote location and limited road access. Refugees from other settlements arrived, and the town's fishing economy helped support the larger population.
Over time, the waters changed. Fish became less plentiful, and some catches showed pale flesh, darkened eyes, unusual growths, or other signs that residents associated with the Blight.
Fishing declined, and residents increasingly relied on hunting, foraging, scavenging, and trade with Mirefield.
Then the traffic stopped.
Present Day
The last known supply mission from Mirefield did not return. Later scouts also failed to come back, and no regular messenger or trading vessel has emerged from Weeping Fen.
The docks are reported silent and the smokehouses dark.
Among those watching the southern waters, stories increasingly repeat the name the Last God. Whether this describes a person, a cult, a title, or something else is not publicly known.
Notable Locations
The Great Smokehouse
The Great Smokehouse was the town's largest fish-curing facility and a major part of its trade economy.
The Tide Market
The Tide Market served fishers, traders, and visiting merchants while the settlement remained active.
The Ruined Steps
The Ruined Steps are part of the older stonework uncovered beneath the town. Their original destination and purpose remain uncertain.
The Drowned Altar
The Drowned Altar is another exposed part of the buried ruins and has become the subject of local superstition.
See Also
Thornmere Mines
“The deeper we go, the stranger the earth becomes.”
— Foreman Vren
Thornmere Mines are the principal silver workings of Fenmire and one of the most strategically important resource sites in Faulmoor. Their discovery transformed House Harrowden from a marginal marsh power into the controller of a resource made even more valuable by the Rotmire Blight.
Overview
The mines lie where the marsh gives way to ground firm enough to support shafts, carts, barracks, storehouses, forges, and defensive works. Reaching them still requires travel through difficult wetland and unreliable approaches.
A palisade, watchtowers, guards, and controlled access surround the principal workings. Security increased sharply after the Blight because silver became vital both as currency and as a material used against Blighted creatures.
Inside, damp shafts and tunnels descend through unstable rock. Flooding, collapses, gas pockets, and poor working conditions make mining dangerous even before the deeper rumors are considered.
History
The discovery of rich silver veins at Thornmere changed Fenmire's political position. Wealth from the mines strengthened House Harrowden, expanded Fenwatch, and made the region important to powers that had previously regarded the marsh as peripheral.
The Blight increased that importance dramatically. Security tightened, movement of silver became more closely controlled, and the mines became a source of both economic leverage and political resentment.
Present Day
Mining continues under heavy guard. Prisoners, debtors, laborers, and people with few alternatives are among those sent underground, and conditions are widely regarded as harsh.
Every ingot therefore carries two costs: the political value silver has acquired above ground and the bodies, debt, danger, and guarded labor required to pull it from below.
Rumors that the most accessible silver veins are failing circulate throughout Fenmire. Some miners claim crews are being pushed into deeper and more dangerous workings in search of new deposits. House Harrowden does not publicly confirm that Thornmere is nearing exhaustion.
Other stories concern tunnels or chambers that miners say were already present before modern excavation, along with old carvings, unexplained voices, and disappearances in the deeper workings. None of these stories establishes the original purpose of anything beneath Thornmere.
Notable Locations
The Deep Veins
The Deep Veins are the lower and more dangerous mine workings associated with the most persistent rumors of collapse, disappearance, and unfamiliar structures.
The Overseer's Post
The Overseer's Post is a fortified control point used to manage workers, security, and movement into the principal shafts.
The Chained Pit
The Chained Pit is a deep shaft whose lower extent is not publicly established.
See Also
The Blasted Hearth
“The damage in the lower halls does not resemble an ordinary fire. Stone has blackened in places and become glasslike in others, yet nearby surfaces remain untouched. Heat was involved. Beyond that, certainty would be premature.”
— Veydrith Serrin, Lucent Endura
The Blasted Hearth is a partially submerged complex of pale stone towers, broken archways, hollow halls, and deep passages on an isolated island in Fenmire. The site was formerly known in older records as the Pale Ruins, a name that survives only as a legacy title.
Overview
The island lies beyond difficult marsh water and shifting approaches, requiring deliberate navigation rather than ordinary travel. Mist, flooded ground, and heavy vegetation obscure much of the exterior.
Much of the unease surrounding the Blasted Hearth comes from contrast: flooded marsh outside, precise stonework within, and damage in the deeper complex that does not behave like the ruin of an ordinary building.
Tall cylindrical halls, massive stone corridors, underground passages, rusted conduits, columned chambers, faintly glowing inlays, and sealed doors have all been reported at the site. Some windowless chambers bear surfaces scorched or glasslike from intense heat or energy.
These features are observable, but their original purpose is not publicly known.
History
The site's age and isolation long made it a destination for pilgrims, mystics, relic-seekers, and explorers.
Before the Blight, worshipers associated with Mystra, the Weavekeeper were especially drawn to the ruins, believing divine presence or revelation could still be encountered there.
The island's difficult approaches limited ordinary settlement and looting. After the Blight, sanctioned travel became rarer still.
Present Day
The Blasted Hearth remains dangerous and only partially explored. Stories describe unnatural stillness, humming stone, strange lights, distant voices, sealed chambers, and relics hidden beneath water and masonry.
Some visitors regard the site as sacred. Others call it cursed. Those interpretations remain matters of belief rather than established explanation.
House Harrowden has shown little public interest in explaining the ruins, which has only encouraged speculation that more is known than has been admitted.
Notable Locations
The Upper Ruins
The visible complex includes pale stone towers, broken archways, overgrown foundations, and halls rising above the marsh water.
The Deep Passages
Underground tunnels and chambers extend beneath the island. Heavy doors, old conduits, columned spaces, and damaged surfaces suggest a complex far larger than the ruins visible above.
See Also
- Fenmire
- House Harrowden
- Mystra