Crookbend Station
Crookbend Station is an abandoned river shipping and logistics facility in the Pale. Before the Rotmire Blight, it handled ordinary commercial traffic moving through Faulmoor's river network, including routes connected to Fenmire and the Saltmarshes.
Overview
Crookbend was built for work rather than ceremony. Its surviving structures belong to the practical infrastructure of river trade: loading areas, storage space, access to the water, and the remains of facilities once used to move goods between boats and overland routes.
The station's original importance came from its position within a larger transport network. It was never a sacred site or relic complex, and surviving stories about it concern workers, shipments, routes, and the difficulty of keeping river traffic moving through difficult country.
History
During the spread of the Blight, Crookbend became untenable after a surge or migration of Blighted reached the station.
Most workers fled. Some remained behind and attempted to hold the facility by barricading themselves inside. Those defenses ultimately failed, and the people who stayed were overrun.
Present Day
Crookbend remains abandoned. Evidence of its fall is preserved in the site itself: unfinished work, signs of hurried departure, damaged river infrastructure, makeshift barricades, and the remains of a facility that ceased functioning abruptly rather than being deliberately dismantled.
Its ruin is ordinary in the most unsettling way. Unfinished work, abandoned loading areas, broken equipment, and makeshift barricades preserve the moment when a workplace had to become a refuge and then failed at that too.
The surrounding waterways remain part of the broader hazards of the Pale, where old routes can be difficult to follow and conditions may change faster than surviving maps suggest.