Brost - The Mushroom Village

Brost - Tethyr (Village, 3,000 in town and surrounding countryside)

The Mushroom Village, as many to the south call it, is a small trading village with its major trade in mushrooms and tending caravans on the Tethir Road. While most older natives enjoy the idyllic peace and their alliance with the elves of Wealdath, the young are leaving Brost in droves and heading south to the cities. Outsiders see Brost as pleasant and friendly.

Major Products: Mushrooms, peaches, wagons, saddles, local ale and cider.

Places of Note: Druids, Rangers, scouts, wheelwrights, and brewers all share equal status here in Brost, but the largest buildings are temples to Mielikki "Ranger's Refuge" and Silvanus Oakfather "Oakfather's Glen". People of Influence: Local Lore:
 * Oakfather's Glen was once a living oak, but it was petrified centuries ago. Its stone leaves and boughs still provide shade in the surrounding park and glade at the city's center. The druid Acrull Northshield is the ranking priest of the glen, and he is attended by four other druids and a score of lesser attendants.
 * Rangers' Refuge is a manor that serves as the main temple to Mielikki as well as the town hall and central meeting hall for all town business. Within the wall courtyard is an elaborate stone garden with a field of white, blue and black pebbles arranged like a mosaic into Mielikki's simbol; a Kozakuran crafstman made it over 15 years ago in thanks for a ranger having saved his life from brigands.
 * The Whippoorwill is an inn that has recently been repaired and refurbished after a fire destroyed its old site. The food is exceeded only by the fare found in Esmeltaran's finest eateries, but it is of decidedly Northern bent rather than local cuisine; the cook is "Cidden", and he takes great pride in his inn's quiet reputation for quality food and lodgings in this isolated area.
 * The Oakbarrel Tavern is the locals' tavern of choice, though it is friendly enough for caravan travelers. This tavern is attached to the Oakbarrel Brewery, which sells beer and ale to caravans running north or east.
 * Ieval Boralail was elected the mayor of Brost over 10 years ago, and there is no one alive in Brost who can speak ill of him, save his own son. A lesser attendant of Mielikki's temple, he gained the use of the upper level of the Ranger's Refuge for the town offices after the town hall burned down with a number of other buildings in the fires a few years ago. Ieval is one of the primary contacts between the elves of Tethir and the town, and his role here has been favorably noted at court.
 * Kal Boralail is the mayor's youngest child and only son, and his status is all that has kept him from being thrown into the town stocks or jail. He has a mischievous streak that often results in damage to people and places alike, such as placing an eversmoking bottle in a home, then watching as they douse it with water until they realize the joke.
 * Barnas Trufflehunter is Brost's most noted and expensive guide, whether you're going into the foothills of the Small Teeth, the Tejarn Hills, or near Tethir's Edge in search of mushrooms. barnas is friendly to all he meets, but for unknown reasons he cannot abide the company of gold elves or Sune worshipers and will not work for them.
 * Ivas Oakbarrel is one of the richest mercahnts in town, thanks to his successful brewery and his trade agreements with the Thousandheads caravan company in Riatavin, where he ships more than half his annual stocks of Tethir's Shade Ale. He is jealous of some merchants' ties with the elves, and has been ingratiating himself with them to gain the ear of the duke and thus gain better trade deals.

Brost is named for its first settler, a woodsman and hunter named Kehlad Brost, early in the Lions' Dynasty. After years as a hunters' lodge, it became a caravan stop and small forms popped up around it. Isolated and relatively autonomous, Brost is like many self-sufficient small towns farther north, though its isolation is less now with its new, closer ties to the elven duke who represents it at court.

A few years after the fall of the House of Tethyr, Brosts's citizenry briefly considered separating from Tethyr and becoming an Amnian city. While political boundaris were more feasible, Brost was of little true value to Amn, save as another caravan stop. The Council of Six and a number of powerful merchant families rejected the proposal (a rejection that is now considered to be a blessing in disguise), and Brost remains an isolated Tethyrian outpost. Over the past 10 years, some merchants of Brost have cultivated small trade relations with the Elmanesse elves, trading forged metal weapons and some foodstuffs for rare herbs and other elven items from the forest. these relations have served to make Brost a stepping-stone for human-elven relations in Tethyr. Furthermore, the town's location near the Duke of Noromath's stronghold makes it an ideal meeting place for those wishing to meet with Foxfire.