The Homestead, "Sixhomes"
The gathering of small farms where the Caldonanica campaign starts is known locally as 'Sixhomes', a pragmatic name chosen because there are six main farmstead on the land. These six homes are run by just a few families, who work together for their mutual protection, to give them more sway with trading prices and to draw upon each other's aid in times of need.
The family farms in the settlement are:
- The Connoughty Farm (the largest of the farms)
- The Tapley Farm
- The Hudder Farm (also known as the Blarman Farm due to the size of the Blarman family)
- The Wardle Family Farm
- The Hewer Family Farm
- The Langham farm
The Connoughty farm is also home to the Grayson and Wells families, who help run this farm. Assisting at the Tapley farm are the Shenner and Abentoft families - the eldest daughter of the Abentoft family recently married the heir to the Connoughty farm. The Hudder farm is also home to the Blarman family, who now outnumber their hosts.
The Community
The people in the homestead are a close-knit group, they have to be with external threats to their livelihoods. Like any such community, there are frictions between some people who live here, but on the whole any real bad eggs have been fixed long ago. As the homestead comprises less than 150 people, there isn't much room for real enemies, but also it means there is a frank honesty between the people. It's pretty easy to clear disagreements with plain speaking.
There are no real rulers in the group - the families running the farm usually argue through decisions that affect them all, and there's normally a strong willingness to co-operate. The homestead (much like the other homesteads surrounding here) does have a spokesperson, the 'Elder', who represents the homestead when discussing broader local matters with the neighbouring farmsteads. The Elder is trusted to make some decisions during such talks.
Traditionally, the elder is represented by the oldest member of the community, but has occasionally been held by others. The current elder is Brian Tapley, who (as the campaign begins) is starting to look a little frail.
Social
The farms and the farm families follow social rules and conventions that have been continued from a time long before Caldonacian control waned.
As is the custom across much of the north, family names are passed down the male line, and it is common for the grown-up children of the farm families to marry within the homestead or across neighbouring farmsteads. It is also common for the farms families to produce many offspring.
The inheritance of the farms passes to the eldest son of the family, who is groomed from an early age to become the head of their family.
Sixhomes Village Layout
The farms nestle around what was originally a small open-air market area where traders could barter with the farms for produce to sell along the trade caravan routes to the south. These days, the market area has several small buildings, which are communally maintained.
There is a small general trade goods store where goods are bartered with the traders who buy and sell goods between the farmstead and the caravan routes. This 'store' is aimed at those traders, but there are also notices of services that are available through the homestead. Money is not a common sight in the area - the locals will barter services for service and freely exchange goods for other goods.
Alongside the store is a small chapel, shared by the two part-time priests of the village for Danethrae (Sam Gallachin) and Pendaroch (Evan Hewer). The building can hold a dozen or more people if a communal service is required, but generally it's used as a base and office. The real priesting work is done out around the farms.
Across the road from the store is the 'Elder's Hall' which is little more than a small meeting hut used to provide a focus for the village elder's debates or discussions involving the farmstead community. The latest development here is the introduction of the 'barrels'. The locals contribute barrels of their farm-produced beer, and drink communally a couple of times a week (and even more frequently at the end of harvest season). Outsiders are welcome to join in, but a payment is demanded if they're joining in the beer (a couple of copper coins per mug).
One other building is also present, it's the oldest one present in the homestead's market area. It is used as a base for the farmstead defence, which is led by Toby Blarman (who is the organiser, but is now too old and slow to join in actual defence work) and his assistant Gordon Hudder, who is a hunter who seems more interested in teaching stealth skills, attacking enemies with surprise, and tracking prey than out-and-out defence tactics.
The latest addition to the market area was a wooden construction over the old water well that is rumoured to have been in this place since before Caldonacia was founded.
Expansion and New Arrivals
Recent fighting with orcs (and others) from the mountains far to the north has brought a need for collective strength and a companionship with the other local settlement. Along with Ellington Hold, off to the east, Sixhomes has been at the forefront of defences.
To aid this, an active campaign was launched to attract new settlers from Caldonacia, and this has started to bear fruit. With help from Cullum Macready, Sixhomes and Ellington Hold have new inhabitants, and there are works in progress to set up new farms nearby.
New Church
Most prominent of the arrivals in Sixhomes is a new priest, Father Taylor, who is a servant of Pendaroch. His retinue (a wife and child, and two priest assistants) have been sharing lodgings at Wardle farm, and they have been helping construct the two new farmsteads to the south. He has been based in the small chapel in Sixhomes, where the facilities are shared with the acolytes of Danethrae, but he has plans to build a new chapel building in the open space to the north of the existing chapel.
New Craftsmen
A new smithy has been built in town to accommodate a new armourer and weapon maker - both brought in as a response to the orc threat. Local farm hands helped construct their new building in the village centre, which includes a new stone fireplace and forge for metalworking. The building focusses on weapons, but other smithing work is being done here too, helping the blacksmiths of the farms who have been working hard to help with the new farm constructions to the south.
New Farms
It was thought that one new farm would be built close-by, but the numbers of new settlers have changed that plan. The first farm was set up in flat, fertile soil to the south of the Langham and Wardle farms, between the two streams that flow though this area. A second farm was then marked out to the south-east of the Wardle farm, and many local farmhands have helped build the first buildings in these places.
The new southern farm will be operated by a newly-arrived Bradigan family, consisting of the experienced farmer Jeremy Bradigan, his wife Alice, and their eight children, two of whom are old enough to work the land.
The new south-eastern farm will probably be worked by two families, headed by Liam Finnegan and Finlay Mullen.