Huntside
So reads the sign posted outside of this small but bustling community, driven into the ground with a rather large stake and built of thick wood, as if expecting trouble for such a simple furnishing. Under the name reads "Keep your Weapons Holstered" in red.
The town looks like it could barely hold a hundred occupants, but those that are there are certainly capable. A small but defensible wall tightly surrounds the town, with a gate at each cardinal direction. These walls are mostly concrete and stone, although some bits seem to have been repaired or reinforced with metal. Each gate is made of thick wood and metal, as stone is a bit heavy for doors. The buildings, few though they are, all seem to be either made of or reinforced with non-flammable materials, though several instead seem to have been reinforced with rubber or more exotic materials instead. Many seem to be made from salvaged materials, and the few that are made from more sturdy bricks have colors that don't quite match, as if they'd been built alongside existing walls and no one had bothered to hide it. On one side of the town is a number of small fields, the largest space thought sustainable with the place's location. The risk is likely still great, but to such an isolated place resources can be scarce if trade slows. A dedicated team of Felyns, (small antropomorphic cats) dutifully maintain them.
Also outside the walls is a small station on the east and west side, including a large platform with a crane and a number of small structures. These are used in the hoisting and butchering of hunts of tremendous size, which are uncommon but not enough to devalue such things.
The fields are noticeable from a distance, but two other things are equally as eye-catching. The first is a great tree, stretching at least fifty meters in height, which dominates the center of town, its broad branches extending over the entire central square. A small wooden building, squat and round, is built around one side of it, acting as the meeting place of a small circle of druids and the temple of the Hunting Ground's patron goddess, known simply for her role: The Huntress. She has been ever mysterious, so much so that few act as her clergy, as no one knows quite what that would entail. As such, there is simply a modest but well-built altar of the finest wood in a prominent place at the heart of the building, against the trunk of the great tree. Behind it on the walls are six plaques: One depicts a perfectly round hill in the forest. One depicts a dead caldera. The third, a floating island over a tower. The fourth an island in the ocean. The fifth, a seemingly out of place mountain in the middle of a desert, and the sixth a shrine in the tundra.
Around the Tree and the Temple is the town bazaar, covering almost half the town and employing a very solid chunk of its population. Three circles of booths and stores surround the Tree. Closest and smallest are the weapon and armor vendors. This is mostly because the town's dedicated artisans have their own permanent shops on the streets proper, so the small vendors are usually temporary, small-time, visiting, or employed by the masters. The second circle is for food and other essentials, and the third is effectively everything else; jewelry to backpacks to books.
But even in front of the enormous spread of the Bazaar, the town hall dominates the landscape. Constructed from the bones of some leviathan, its ribs arcing over into a roof after being covered in the strongest wood, scales, and leathers possible, it is certainly an imposing structure, even if some would call it a bit gaudy or unnecessarily complicated. It is here where Clans and hunting Guilds go and register themselves, and where most official business is conducted. It is easily the most recognizable part of the town, even compared to the size of the Great Tree. On a board outside the town hall itself is a number of bills posted for various monsters seen in the Grounds. Each has a hand-drawn picture. Apparently the idea is to inquire inside if you require more information, want a requisition, or other things the town would care about.
Spoiler: Huntside Mess Hall
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The Huntside Mess Hall is a long, sturdy wood building running north-south with a few bricks for its chimney and such, and a lot of opened windows, which is nice to keep the place a reasonable temperature but the smells have a tendency to make everyone hungry. The staff aren't complaining. It's mostly an open cafeteria, with its cooks stationed on the west side at a number of grills, spits, ovens etc. behind a number of counters. Many are laden with empty plates for the wash, but many are still active.
Because you know what's the best thing about missing breakfast?
You're just in time for brunch!
Most people can't afford to wake up late enough to catch the Huntside Brunch special, which has a rather small window before the lunch menu starts, but that doesn't stop head chef Duzur from making it every day. Or so he claims, in reality he hasn't been doing it that long, he just felt like cooking waffles about a month ago and started doing it since without really telling anyone.
Duzur himself is a very portly blue Seeq of middle age (although it's hard for most people to tell, since he doesn't have a head of hair, he's the same size he's been for years, and his voice is always gravelly due to his face and mouth structure), and that's portly by their standards, which is to say that a human his size would likely not be merrily walking around with a spring in his step. He is doing so now, dressed in his usual attire. Which is to say, he's wearing an apron that was probably white at some point, and not much else besides the minimum to cover his modesty, having apparently subscribed to his race's normal fashion sense coupled with "it's hot in here." It's something most people don't care about. After all, between the Druids and Hector being animals half the time, the felyns wearing what they feel like and nothing else, and the reptiles like Hector not caring about mammalian definitions of modesty, the people are pretty loose about that sort of thing.
It's worth noting that anyone of a normal lifestyle would be appalled at the amount of calories (and frankly everything else) this fellow puts in his food, but he'd respond to any hypothetical accusations of serving unhealthy food by saying that if a Hunter can't burn off what he serves, they're not doing their job. And knowing the Hunting Grounds? He's pretty much right. Those who are only merchants tend to stick to the subordinate chef's counters. These other chefs consist of three humans, two Felyns, one other Seeq, an Ogier, a Twi'Lek couple, and an ifrit (his specialty is flame-broiling ), in addition to three halfling boys from town who work their family's stand but help clean up the place after meals. And every last one of them is a bit round, because no matter what Cielnoir sets as a limit for Duzur he always ends up making more food that's needed, and he adamantly refuses to throw away good food. In the end, they don't complain.
Spoiler: Important People and Businesses
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Roran Highwind- Huntside's chief courier. The town has a few dedicated couriers, although none compete with their leader's efficiency. The seven-foot bipedal dragon might not be as fast as a griffin or harpy, but few can match his endurance. He's also a complete workaholic, which means that he has his own staff to cover the actual mail-processing duties when he's out doing deliveries (read: most of the time).
Hector Lon- This fellow runs the only library in town. It's a rather modest little brick building off in a corner but still rather valuable, as who wants to go on a hunt unprepared? He also doubles as one of the few dedicated mages in town. He's also the first to see if you were bitten by any strange animals, as he's a werewolf. Of course, no one's ever seen him as not wolfish, so some debate that label. He doesn't seem to care much.
Reorx- this stout dwarf works the town's main forge, placed just outside the Bazaar circle. It's an open building mostly of reused bones and leathers forming tents, but the forges themselves are all stone. Despite the heat of his work he's never been seen without his steel helmet. He rarely talks, and as he's never told anyone his name people refer to him by the god whose holy symbol his helmet bears. No one is more skilled in arm and armor-craft than he, with any materials.
Hound- this tall, imposing
Yautja acts as the leader of Huntside's hunters, those dedicated both to its defense from roving monsters and continued raids into the Grounds for resources. He is strong and capable as both a leader and a fighter, but he is often irritable with outsiders.
Gearhead- If Reorx can't forge it, it's probably impossible. If it's impossible, ask Gearhead. This tall, barrel-chested ork is named such for his distinct skull, which has a very large portion of its back and left side replaced with a brass cap with several gears sticking out, eternally spinning and clicking. His head was impaled by a Retriever years ago, but he assured his comrades it was a flesh wound and shot it dead before finding himself some replacement parts, ignoring all claims that his brains were splattered over the ground, that gears were not a suitable replacement for brains, and that they have no actual power source keeping them spinning.
Oddly enough he has proven time and time again an extremely competent engineer. Most of the buildings he designs stay standing when build by ordinary architects, and his methods of maintaining guns involves actual tools and logic. The ones he makes though, most people don't bother to really inspect besides asking how to aim, shoot, and keep from exploding. All in all, his stuff is incredibly reliable, as long as you don't think too much about what's going on in that head of his. His workshop is a ramshackle affair covered in every bit of metal imaginable across from Reorx's, and of course painted bright red.
Cielnoir- The Chief and leader of Huntside, he's been largely credited from turning it from a tiny outpost into a functioning community, even if it is still mostly a trade outpost. He's been described as intimidating, shrewd, subtle, and cunning. He has been called a master hunter and unrivaled with a firearm. He has been rumored to have once beaten a pit fiend in poker, and tossed it out on its ass when it accused him of cheating.
He's also been described as an irritatingly cute little winged bunny-man, because he's a
Moogle.
Do not make fun of his pom-pom or his "Kupo." They are very effective ways to get shot. Still, the "fuzzy little leader" as Rory calls him has proven time and again his competence, and defended his title over many challenges. His home and office are in the Town Hall, within the skull of the beast used in its construction.
Huntside is a trading post first and foremost. It's a place people pass through as a stop on their way to the Hunting Grounds, but slowly it developed into a small town built around preparing people for its hazards and the hunting business in general. Although its size is small, there are few places that could be called so incredibly specialized and so well-prepared in that field. But for this reason, its defenses are mostly only to protect against monsters. All are welcome if they follow the rules are the town, which are largely basic logic save for the one on its sign.
Enjoy your stay, and happy hunting.