Asineau

🔈 (Ah-zee-noh)

A manorial fishing village on the banks of the Enst, two miles downriver of Auloutte. The village is small, about 50 houses, mostly clustered a hundred feet above the banks of the Enst in a rough line, anchored at one end by a humble temple of the Wyrdling and the other by the manor house. There are three wooden docks, and a sandy beach where small fishing rafts can pull out, just before the banks turn marshy. There is no blacksmith, folks walk the 2.5 miles to Beury if they need a horse shoed or a plow made. About half the inhabitants of Asineau fish, and there are occasional disagreements with the lizardfolk in Ganboa when the catch is small. Much of the farmland is middling, at best, rockier than other parts of the region.

Map and Layout

The Great South Road passes just to the north of the manor house. Four wells supplement the river as water sources. West of the docks, the bank is marshy and rocky; cliffs rise east of the beach. During the spring shad runs, drying racks for fish crowd the beach and the cliff top west of the harbor.

The hill by the mill stands about 25 feet above the village. Its north side is lower, with a gentler slope along the road. The cliffs along the riverbank range from about 5 to 15 feet high.

A few hundred feet outside the village is a small mill and bakehouse. The large stone manor house dates from the early 1600s, and stands alongside the road. There is a stable building attached to it.

The temple to The Wyrdling here is known for a chaotic painting on the wall, and is said to have been standing in this spot for over 500 years. There are two local miracles celebrated in Asineau: the Miracle of the Hopeful Heat and the Miracle of the Guided Wanderers.

Notable Residents

• Lorin Valbert, the lord, recently fled
• Isolde, Lord Valbert’s chief muscle and advisor, departed with her lord
• Connor, Matias and Elbeth, Lorin’s guards and valets
• Susanna Northwoods, his steward and secretary, and the wife of Bertram
• Bertram Northwoods, the stablemaster
• Eleanor, the steward of the temple
• El, an acolyte of the Wyrdling, associated with the temple
• Thierry, a boatbuilder and veteran of the Army of the West
• Jacques, Thierry’s brother, and his husband Ari, fishermen
• Arnold the Miller, a racist miller and baker, although no fan of Lorin’s taxes
• Celia, a young stablehand of 11 or 12, scrawny but not malnourished, known as Sweet Little Hayhead to the horses