N is for Nachthafen

The small town of Nachthafen—depending on the translation, Night Harbor or Night Port—lies on a tributary of the River Stir in the eastern reaches of the Grand County of Stirland, sometimes also called Sylvania.

Sylvania is synonymous with the dead. These eastern parts of Stirland are haunted by ruins and the undead. For almost a century the major towns of Sylvania have lacked a priest of Morr and not for the attempts of the cult to place a resident priest in the area.

Nachthafen lies on the Old Road from Stirfähre on the River Stir in the north through Pfaffbach. The Old Road passes through Nachthafen passed the ruins of Vanhaldenschlosse and terminating in Templehof, the location of the nearest Temple of Morr in the area.

Nachthafen is the last point on the river than is navigable for trade at the edge of the Haunted Hills. It's location between the ruins of Vanhaldenschlosse and Castle Drakenhof on the steps of the World's Edge Mountains lends a certain reputation of dread and greatly diminishes trade in the town, despite its reputation of great cheeses of goat milk aged in family caves in the Haunted Hills.

The population of less than 300 souls and a militia drilled in fighting undead make do nonetheless. Despite a lack of regular ministries by many cults, the town's people earnestly support their Grave Wardens and honor the proper burial rites of Morr in their own way. A grave robber here is summarily judged by the town leaders. If found guilty, no mercy is given, often resulting in immediate hanging and the body quartered for deterrence.

Editor's Note

I wrote about Vanhaldenschlosse in an A to Z many years ago. I looked for it on the Wayback Machine, but could not find it. I've got a database backup. I can locally restore the blog. I should write that Docker Compose script... soon.

Note, the map below are the gorgeously rendered and intricately detailed work of Andreas Blicher, based upon Alfred Nunez, Jr.’s stellar research and cartography.