Harrowswick

Even though some of the walls have fallen down over the centuries, the keep Harrowswick was built in can be easily defended from minor threats with a dozen men or less.

The town stays alive through the inn, the blacksmith, light trading, and entertainment. The blacksmith, a dwarf named Hesen Direbrew, is known for his ability to create nails and hinges allows the town to attract more attention than any other stop along the pass. A brothel located in the back of Harrowswick is another popular spot, with customers going to see the whores after getting drunk at the Unlocked Stocks.

The inn's owner is friends with the Explorer's Society, and so a room is kept there that is dedicated to them and kept ready to house someone at a moment's notice. This relationship has come in handy for both sides multiple times.

Harrowswick Keep (after the captain stationed there for decades after its construction) was built fifty years prior to the Summit at Solemnpeak. The border tension between Hazra and Zetia was at an all time high, and the keep acted as an early warning in the case that Zetia broke through the now destroyed Wall of Blair Pass. As a condition of the Summit at Solemnpeak, the wall and the keep were to be destroyed as well as a few defensive structures on Zetias side a century after the Summit was made, as long as all the rules were followed.

At the Summit's Centennial Anniversary party, the keep was blown up by wizards on both sides as entertainment for the royalty and nobility who were a safe distance away. Harrowswick Keep, now half collapsed and walls breached, sat as an empty shell for centuries. That is, until a trader whose name is long forgotten decided to set up a tent in the ruins during inclement weather and sell their goods there while they waited. This sparked a small grassroots restoration effort by traders that came and went over the years, each taking a few pieces of rubble here and there, hiring a smith to reinforce this wall or that. The keep was still in ruins, as the restoration effort would require tens of thousands of gold to fully restore, but it was clean and safe. A decade later the Unlocked Stocks was opened, and soon after a few more permanent residents moved in, using old rooms and a few well hung tarps to create housing. After a while people have come to know Harrowswick as a safe and comfortable spot on the road into Blair Pass.

The architecture of the original structure is a very plain military style, with nothing beautiful about it. The additions to the building made by its inhabitants are very quaint, using peasant "architecture" that is simple but sturdy. Most notably the additions are made with light tan tarps, brightly painted wood, and polished steel, which makes the otherwise gloomy building a much more welcoming place.

Harrowswick rests on a flat area on a hill, with a road passing by its southern side. Lightly wooded hills surround it with the Blair Mountains to the south.