Tafton's Corners
by Geoff GanderAnother historical tidbit (dredged from my old campaign) was the village of Tafton's Corners. It would be located 2 hexes north of Darokin City (right on the fork in the road), and was named after an obscure general who (depending on which local you talked to) either beat off an orcish attack, put down a rebellion, or made a defiant last stand nearby. The event in question took place "years and years back".
The PCs never explored it (I didn't expect them too, either), but I did draw up a full map of the village (and surrounding region). If people are interested I could scan and share it.
Here is the regional map (the dotted lines are fieldstone walls denoting the boundaries of farms).
And here is a map of the village (with keyed locations!)
One thing I should note about Tafton's Corners is that the farms, temple, monument, and inns were there first, and then, over the years, other businesses located there as traffic grew. This is why it has such a complete range of businesses for a village of its tiny size. One would think that, being only about 15 miles outside of Darokin City, no one would want to stay here, but many regular travellers do. Especially those with business or personal dealings they don't want others to know about. Many an illicit love affair has taken place here.
This is the origin of the Darokin City expression "He went around the corner for a bit" to describe the act of going off to do something that you really don't want anyone knowing about (regardless of whether or not you actually went to Tafton's Corners to do it).
The monument at the crossroads is to General Tafton (the inscribed lettering is barely readable today) - none of the locals have any idea who he was, what he did, or when he lived. Many of the regulars at the taverns are happy to spin a yarn about him, however. Local legend has it that he was either instrumental in halting an orcish invasion about 500 years ago, or helping to put down the Red Duke of Irum. More people believe the former, but he could technically be anything in your own campaigns. If I were to run a campaign now, with everything now written about Darokin, I would probably have General Tafton be one of the early war leaders of the Eastwind Dynasty era, who scored a major victory over some rivals (orcish or otherwise) to make the northern hinterlands around Darokin City safe. If that's the case, the monument would predate everything else in the area.