Cruxtons Crossing. Cruxton's Crossing is a small, sleepy town with about twenty or so buildings in it. The people living here like the great outdoors and are fairly content with things the way they are. There are a couple dwarves who decided to try living in a town, some elves, and a lot of humans. The farmers have houses in town as well as at the main farming fields to the southeast. The elves help out at the farm (mainly by lending advice). There is a main group of elves who live in The Forest of Skara Bra (and yes - after the Bard's Tale program of yesteryear). Their houses are on the ground and not in the trees because these elves feel closer to the earth than the trees. Going back to the farmers - during the early spring until late fall, the farmers take turns going out to the fields and tending the fields. To the north of Cruxton's Crossing is the Brarberry Hamlet. The Hamlet was created by the soldiers who, centuries ago, came to fight the dragon found down at the bottom of The Dragon's Rear. The Dragon's Rear was so named because of what the hole looks like. Enough said. In ages past, a young dragon came to the area and wrecked most of the country side leaving in its wake only barren hills and a few trees. The dragon dug out a hole in the ground and took up residence there. Hundreds of years later, Cruxton's Crossing was established but the dragon did not like this very much and the original town was destroyed. The few people who managed to escape went to the Earth Kingdom's main city and asked for help. A few thousand soldiers and a few hundred mages and priests converged on the area and a terrible battle ensued. The dragon managed to wipe out almost half of the soldiers, mages, and priests but was also gravely wounded itself. Seeing that it could not survive much longer, the dragon cried out for a halt to the battle. It then called for three highest ranking people there to parley a truce. The dragon agreed to not attack again and to help protect the area against invaders and in return, once every ten years or so - to be given five cows to eat. Otherwise, it would rest at the bottom of the pit. A fortress was built (Sir Capulatin's Keep) and the peace held until the first time the dragon awoke to eat. It had been a very hard ten years and there were only about a hundred cows available. So it is easily understood why the farmers didn't want to give up what few cows they had. The original captain and his men, in their keep were asked by the townsfolk to keep the dragon at bay. Needless to say, the dragon was not very pleased, destroyed the keep, burned the town to the ground, killed all of the soldiers, took twenty cows, and returned to it's pit. The towns folk that were left made the journey back to the Earth Kingdom's main city, complained bitterly, more solidiers came, and the dragon explained that if they were so stupid as to forget an agreement forged only ten years ago - that it might be best if the dragon simply kept destroying anything built near him. Luckily, the new captain (Sir Capultain) was a bit brighter, chastized the citizens for what they had done, and agreed with the dragon on all points. The captain also organized the citizens, advertized for and got more people to come out, had carpenters, wood workers, masons, and others come out to rebuild the keep (which they actually decided to move the keep about half a mile away from the old keep), improved the roads, established the hamlet, and helped to rebuild the city. So far, after 300 years, peace has reined. Sir Capultain is buried in the center of the keep. There are occasional run-ins with the local werewolves, nixies and pixies, and the occasional disagreement between various people. During this 300 years of peace, the monastery of Stony Fields was built. The monks came from the main city and were sent out because it was felt that the souls of the people at Cruxton's Crossing were not being looked after. At first, the people at Cruxton's Crossing were reluctant to accept the monks. But when the monks began helping out at the fields and making wine - things settled down. Little do the townsfolk suspect that the monks actually are spying on them because of a rumor that somewhere, under the current houses, there lies a sword that has been sectioned up into three pieces. The base sword, the handle, and a jewel that sits on the top of the sword. It was rumored to cast God's Fire when it was all of one piece and was said to have been wielded by a priest in the past during the first great war. Originally it was thought that the sword was returned to the priests in the main city but since no one could find it there, their reasoning is that it can only be in one place - somewhere in or around Cruxton's Crossing.
