Trostenwald

Trostenwald is a small rural, farming town of prominent breweries and developed fishing trade, governed by the Dwendalian Empire. Located in the Marrow Valley of the Western Wynandir region of Wildemount, the town is kidney-shaped, bordered by the Ustaloch lake from the east side and by the Amber Road from the west. Notably, Trostenwald was the place where the adventuring party who would become the Mighty Nein first met.

Description
Trostenwald is most notable for its unique strain of grain and wheat, which led to a boom in breweries around the turn of the century creating a uniquely sweet ale known commonly as trosts. Of the initial glut of breweries, three brewer families have survived and prospered to this day. The town now primarily exports fish, crops, and ale.

Headed by the Lawmaster Norda, Trostenwald has a contingent of Crownsguard who act as law enforcement for the town, punishing crime, which usually comes in the forms of petty thefts of shipments and burglaries rather than any major conflicts. The Crownsguard are bribed by the three brewing families to pay special attention to their wares. The Myriad has agents in Trostenwald who serve as a link to contraband smuggled in and from the Clovis Concord and north toward Zadash and Rexxentrum, but the town is "too sleepy to become an effective center of criminal activity".

Points of interest

 * Hillsbrook Parchment and Binding: A cross-shaped bookstore boutique selling books primarily on agriculture: farming technique, growing and caring for different types of plants and animals, and tomes specifically dealing with wheat and other grains. There are also a number of books discussing the Menagerie Coast, the Clovis Concord, and the political structure of the city states therein. The shop is run by a man named Sheenah.
 * The Nestled Nook Inn 
 * Post Office: Horseback courier services run postal deliveries along the roads in the Empire, and to areas to the south and west outside of the Empire with approval. Among the couriers is a girl in leather armor with shorter hair and freckles.

Northward
The Northward borders the farm fields and is the town's center of industry that includes the local breweries.


 * Baumbauch Family Brewery
 * Market Area: A small market street where simple wares, vegetables, meats, and handcrafted goods can be purchased.
 * Burnished Bibelots: A general store located on the southern portion of the Northward by where it borders the Lochward on the outskirts of the market street.

Lochward
The Lochward is the most eastern and central district of Trostenwald comprised of residential areas. It borders the Ustaloch on the east side, housing the town's docks and fishing villages. The Lochward has five to six main docks, built ten to thirty feet out into the lake and service the small fishing boats that work there.


 * Rinaldo's house
 * Jacklewere Smiths:
 * The Old Mud Hole Tavern: A small, dark tavern akin to a dive bar containing four tables and smelling of old wet wood, ale, and peanut. The barkeep of this tavern is Vosna.
 * Lochward General: A large wooden barn-like general goods store run by an old woman named Harper Mince. The goods that lined the walls include tools for farming and building, packs of supplies, lumber, iron nails, maps of the empire (7sp), and healer kits (5gp).
 * Natural Remedies - Herbs and Medicinal Things: A small shack that smells strongly of fungi, decorated with strings of dried herbs on the outside and shelves full of pots of plants and fungus inside. The shop sells herbs, incense, medicinal items, and 'performance-enhancing' fungus, which many customers come in for. The store also has basic health potions (60gp). The proprietor of the shop, Simon Earth has a small satchel filled with skein that he was willing to sell (1gp).

Hillward
The Hillward is the southwestern part of Trostenwald that attracts the commerce of the town, houses guild halls, and settles wealthy residents. The safety of the district provided by the Crownsguard barracks.


 * Crownsguard Stockade: A prison and a courthouse in Trostenwald, the center place for the Crownsguard's operations in the town.
 * Warm Dew Bathhouse: A small but well put together bathhouse, visited by Caleb and Nott.A small communal washroom that serves upper-class clientele. The bathhouse is relatively pricey: a single bath cost 5 silver pieces, and two adjoining baths rented for two hours cost 8 silver pieces. The adjoining bath chambers are separated by a low wall, allowing for conversations but preserving privacy. The basins are designed with a hinged desk piece that folds over the water so that books, food, and drinks could safely rest while the guest bathes. Guests are also provided with linens, towels, and a pitcher of cucumber water.

Demographics
Trostenwald has population of about 8,900 as of the year 835 PD. There is a large halfling population in the rural southern region of the empire. While Trostenwald is not the core of halfling society, approximately 15% of the population are halflings, with majority of humans at 66% of the population and the rest are half-elves encompassing 8%.

Notable breweries

 * The Baumbauch House
 * The Husseldorf House
 * The von Brandt House

Background
Trostenwald was settled near 635 PD, but only rose to fame in the early 9th century when the residents discovered that the fertile land surrounding the town could grow grain and wheat unique to the area, leading to a drastic increase in the brewing business. When the initial wave leveled out, three families found themselves at the head of the town's brewing industry. Trostenwald's primary exports are fish, agricultural crops, and ale.

The Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities carnival had set up on the southern bank of the Ustaloch with their first show on the day of Grissen, including Mollymauk Tealeaf who worked there as an entertainer and Yasha who was employed as a security guard.

"Session Zero"
Beauregard, Fjord, and Jester helped to load crates for the Baumbach family and swindled from their employees. They met Demedan Baumbauch during this job, though they came to calling him 'Dimmi-douche'. This house also has the blessing of Starosta Fryda Langer. Jester, Beau, and Fjord helped load and move crates there for the Baumbauch Family Brewery, and gambled with the other workers.

The house of Rinaldo was in the process of being repaired, as this is where Beauregard, Fjord, and Jester had saved Rinaldo's daughter from a giant constrictor snake that had come out of the loch. He had taken a collection of 4 gold pieces, 22 silver pieces, 48 copper pieces from among the other local fisherman as means of rewarding the party for their service for having come and aided when no one else would. A scrawny young man around 14 or 15 with a puffy red afro and pale skin, who lived three houses up, had been helping Rinaldo with various jobs and was using a large heavy butchering knife to carve the skin off the snake and fillet it for meat. The damage sustained to the dwelling included: destroyed furniture and cabinets, its door being ripped off its hinges, and the roof partially collapsed.

Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein
On Sydenstar 16, 835 PD, Beauregard, Fjord, Jester, Nott, and Caleb arrived in the town and met in The Nestled Nook Inn. On the same day, The Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities was visitng Trostenwald. This carnival became the site of a ravenous husk zombie attack when an old man suddenly keeled over and transformed. The new adventuring party, later known as the Mighty Nein, was able to kill the zombie with minimal casualties. However, all of the performers except Yasha were taken into custody for suspicion of wrongdoing. In the Hillsbrook Parchment and Binding found Caleb a book on hoe technique here called Jamison's Hoedown, priced at two silver pieces by Sheenah.

The party, with Fjord's help, came to an arrangement with a boat owner, Noah, and acquired safe passage to Crookedstone island in the center of the Ustaloch in exchange for a bottle of fire whiskey, though he settled for a bottle of cheap wine.

On the passage back to shore, the party (bringing along Kylre's head) tried to buy Noah's silence with six gold pieces, but after seeing Fjord disguised as a Crownsguard he immediately gave up the party in an attempt to absolve himself of any blame, saying that they had taken over his boat and forced him to take them to the island.

Beauregard spent a night learning the Way of the Cobalt Soul from Expositor Dairon and Archivist Zeenoth in one of the many brewery warehouses in town. In the morning, Caleb and Nott first went to Burnished Bibelots, where Caleb returned a book he bought and Nott stole her flask back, then went to the bathhouse. Caleb enjoyed his bath and studied the spell book he had acquired, while Nott stole various things. In the meantime, the rest of the party went to Lochward General, where Jester bought a large map of the Dwendalian Empire, and Beauregard bought a healers kit, to replace the one she had given to Jester as a gift. They then moved on to Natural Remidies, where Mollymauk talked the proprietor into selling himself, Yasha, Fjord and Beauregard each a vial of Skein for 1gp. They also bought one healing potion.

Before leaving town, Jester went to the post office to send a letter to her mother requesting money to be sent to her in Zadash. Delivery from Trostenwald to Nicodranas cost her 5 gold pieces. Meanwhile, Beauregard pretending to be a representative of the Baumbauch family, fraudulently collected 3 parcels from the courier, paying them 1 gold pieces for their delivery. These parcels contained four letters: a shipment ledger from Nogvurot, a smaller shipment ledger from Deastok, a complaint letter from the purveyor of the Rotted Stump in Rexxentrum, and a letter from The Gentleman to Demedan Baumbauch (see the photograph of the letter).

When the Mighty Nein arrived in town, it was as busy and lazy as they remembered. They first visited the Nestled Nook Inn, followed by the stockade to pay off Gustav Fletching's debt that stood at 2,100 gold pieces. They bargained for a lower price, and ended up paying 1,500 gold pieces to set him free. The next morning, Nott tried to buy components for a Tanglefoot bag from Natural Remedies but her disguise was inadequate and she had to leave the store quickly.

Trivia

 * The name Trostenwald loosely translates to "comfort forest" in German.
 * "Trost" meaning comfort (usually in the context of consolation)
 * "Wald" meaning forest