Beyond the Wall and other Adventures, the village of Barley

 Population - 120 souls

The Village

With its fairy tale castle and a church adorned with tall spires, its small cottages and outlying crofts, Barley is a picturesque little place being so named because of the large amount of barley grown in the farm land around the village. 

Sitting on the edge of wilderness, to the North of Barley is the mountain region known simply as 'the cold ones' and East and South are hills and untamed forests, wooded plains to the west lead to the sea.  The river Orn meanders westwards past the edge of the village before turning northwest to continue its journey to the sea.  The monastery  of St Vilberie is two miles south of Barley and the village of Thune is 7 miles to the east.

A fairly prosperous and, at first glance, idyllic and peaceful village, Barley would seem a safe place to live but dangers and evil lurk in the wilderness just beyond.

The Manor

Tristrum and Midwinter (both player characters) are the two youngest children from Harold Godwin's first marriage, Godwin owns the Manor and most of the lands around the village.   

Harold Godwin, lord of the manor, has 6 children, 5 by his first wife and 1 by his second and current wife, Tristrum is the 4th youngest and Midwinter the 5th youngest.  (in terms of age and gender, the eldest is Male, second Male, third Female. fourth male,  fifth female, sixth Female).  Godwins first wife became sick during her sixth pregnancy and died as a result (also losing their child). 

Harold Godwins ancestors made their fortune from their farming and their service to the Crown, both of which Harold Godwin continues with today.  Harold is very much a hands on Squire, he tries to be a part of the village and takes a keen and fair interest in the people and running of the village of Barley.

The Manor house is small fortified castle and is situated on a small rise by the river that flows along the edge of the village.   There is a barrack which homes 12 men at arms , a sergeant and a 'grizzled' captain who are retained by Squire Godwin for defence of the manor and to act as a personal guards should Godwin need to travel beyond the village. 

At any one time there will be a further  six retainers at the Manor plus Squire Godwin and his family although there is a chance that Harold Godwin,  his wife or his eldest son may be away on business, should this be the case they would be accompanied by 1d4 + 3 men at arms and the captain.

The  Black Lamb Tavern

Proprietors:   Radcliffe & Beda Everhill

Staff:  apart from Radcliffe & Beda there is 1 barmaid and 1 housekeeper

Number of floors:  The tavern has two floors and a cellar.  The ground floor has four rooms the bar, kitchen, brewing room and living area for the Everhills where they eat and sleep.  The upper floor has rooms for overnight guests.

Seating: Bar has 6 square tables each with 4 chairs and there are seats at the windows for an additional 4 people.  Otherwise its standing room only.

Private rooms: there are no private rooms

Sleeping rooms:  The upper floor has 4 sleeping rooms, all basic and able to accommodate 3 people at a push.

Drink :  Black Lamb Ale, brewed on site 1 copper a pint

                Beda's Strong Ale, brewed on site, 2 coppers a pint

       Abbey Cider, brewed by the monks at the Abbey of St Margareta, 2 coppers a pint

                Strong local barley spirit , 1 copper a small glass

                 Wine local red, 1 silver a bottle when available (usually kept back for paying guests or festival days)

Food : basic menu, usually local mutton or sometimes lamb, on occasions fish from the local river may be available, vegetable broths and soups when no meat or fish available.  Prices are 2 coppers for a stew,  1 silver for roast meats and a pudding, only served to paying guests.

Price:  food and drink as above, rooms are 1 silver per night per room.

Hours:  The Tavern serves food and drinks from midday to late evening, longer hours on market days and festival days.

The black Lamb is at the heart of the village community, everyone in the village will at sometime, for one reason or another, frequent the Black Lamb.   Beda brews the ales and distils a pale golden spirit from local grown barley (from which the village gets its name). Black Lamb ale is quite low in alcohol and is the usual choice of the locals,  Beda's strong ale is her best brew but you don't need much before getting off your chair becomes a problem.  Her spirit is vicious, some locals swear by it, other wont touch it for fear of going blind, drink at your peril.  The Abbey Cider comes from the nearby Abbey and the wine comes from the Godwin manor estate,  Radcliffe usually only sells the wine to people staying at the tavern or on special days such as festival days, the majority of the wine made on the estate is kept for the Godwin's private consumption. 

Food is made from whatever the tavern can grow itself or from surplus produce grown locally.  There is a pecking order as far as produce goes, the Godwin's take a potion of whatever the farmers and others on the estate produce, this is as a form of rent, the farmers and peasants then keep what they need and anything left is sold to the tavern and should there be anything left, sold at the monthly market or traded for goods from the other villagers . 

The Black Lamb also has stables and a fair sized garden where they grow most of their food and they keep chickens and pigs both of which end up on the menu on occasion.

The Mill and Bakery

The miller and his wife not only mill the flour for the village but they also bake a quantity of bread each day which they are able to sell as well as the milled flour.  The mill sits on the river bank not too far from the manor house.

The Blacksmiths

The village Blacksmith is Idger, a short stocky powerful, yes surprisingly agile man.   The Smithy is in the centre of the village close to the Tavern and the Carpenter.  The Smithy is constantly busy, dealing with shoeing horse, mending ploughs, tool making, weapon and armour making, indeed if there is any metalwork needed the smithy does it.  To help keep up with the amount of work he gets, Idger employs the services of a young apprentice, a dwarf named Berdan Langhart.

The Carpenters

Garrik Hornbeam is the local carpenter, his workshop is close to the village centre. The carpenters is a bust place, producing a wide variety of wooden goods from boxes and barrels to carts.

The Witches house

The witch Wihnhilda Barkridge has a large house on the edge of the village where she keeps various animals such as pigs, goats and geese along with a few other beasts of strange origin. Two of the player characters, Hazel the witch's prentice and Auden the assistant beast keeper live with her. She is often called to nearby villages in need of her talents as a witch.

The Church

Barley has a beautiful church built at the same time and in the same style as the manor house castle. Everyone in the village is expected to attend a service on saints day, the last day of the week, even the men at arms from the castle attend.

The Curiosity Shop

Freda Barkridge, Wihnhilda the witch sister, runs a shop in the village selling all manner of items that you probably never thought you needed, she also sells various herbs and potions that you probably will need at some point.

Elowen and Hazels Parents Farm.

Run by Taran and Ia, this is primarily a sheep farm but Taran also produces some crops and Ia makes amazing sheep cheese. The Farm is made up of a largish house and several out buildings used to store crops, animals and cheese.

Their sheep are kept on the nearby hills tended to mostly by Elowen.

The Lands around Barley and other things of note

Much of the village and the land around Barley belongs to the Godwin Estate.  Most of the villagers rent their land and cottages from Squire Godwin, this rent is payable by working two to three days a week for the Squire and by a tithe of a percentage of any crops, animals or other produce produced on the land.  Only the Everhills who own the tavern, the miller and Wihnhilda the witch who also own their properties and land, do not have to either work for or hand over produce to the Squire. 

A very quick update tonight, I quickly worked on a map of the village of Barley this afternoon.

I planned to draw my own map of the village but work and other events cost me a lot of time, so in the end I took a leaf out of the brilliant 'Sly Flourish', the Lazy DM, and just used whatever I had to hand, in this case a map from the early (1978?) Judges Guild booklet, Village Book 1.

I added a few bits to the map, the castle (1), the church(2) and the Mill (3).  I chose to use this map for several reasons, firstly, it seemed to be the perfect size for a village of 120 people, given that about 20 lived in the castle and I guessed an average of 4 people a house, so a further 25 buildings worked out well.  Second, there is plenty of open land for growing crops and each house backs out onto open fields so I can imagine each one having its own plot of land.  Thirdly, the river runs just outside the village and fourthly, three buildings in the centre of the village work well for the tavern, blacksmith and carpenter. 

I have added in red a number to each building mentioned in the Village of Barley blog post (read that here)

These are 

1. The Manor House (castle)

2. The Church

3. The Mill and Bakery

4. The Black Lamb Tavern

5. The Blacksmith

6. The Carpenters

7. The Witch's House

8. The Curiosity Shop

9.  The Sheep Farm

I now have a great old school map for my village, there are still details to add to it though but I will update it as I go along.