Harlows Post

Harlows Post is a small trading town at the crossroads between Ashport and Hardstone. At some point, the apostrophe was dropped from the name.

Overview
Harlow Post was founded shortly after Karus-Abhel collapsed by a Brician merchant named Harlow. Harlow hired many men and built a dirt road from where his camp was all the way to Hardstone. This allowed land trade to flow from the west, making Harlows Post fairly prosperous. Harlow himself laid the ground work for many fortifications, including a keep, but he never survived to see them completed.

His daughters and grandchildren would go on to become aristocratic rulers of the town for a time, before Harlow's last known descendant died almost a century ago. Since that time, the people have elected their own councilors and mayor.

The town has grown several times since it was founded. At first, a stone wall was planned, but the town grew too quickly for that to be effective. Instead, that was abandoned and a proposed set of earthworks and wooden walls was instead erected. This was effective for a while, as the town was able to expand by moving the earthworks further away from the Dwarf Road.

Since the arrival of Andari soldiers, Harlows Post and specifically Harlow's Keep have been occupied. The soldiers have been tasked with keeping the land trade route between Arthandor and Ashport secure. The soldiers are sometimes at odds with the town guard over who is exactly in jurisdiction over what. This has caused some animosity between the townsfolk and the soldiers, but overall the people are happy to have the extra protection against bandits from the south, especially against the Black Band.

The soil is rich in the area and has allowed for Harlows Post to be one of the most northern wine growing towns on Aureon. This is at odds with what is typically made in the Crucible; mead and beer are the staples. This wine trade makes Harlows Post unique and has made a few of its farmers and merchants handsomely wealthy.

A system of water filled caves beneath Harlows Post provides ample water for the entire community, a sort of natural cistern. The caves have not been thoroughly explored, however, and rumors of monsters crawling out of the wells at night persist despite little evidence to support those stories.