Fiefdom of Hillford

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A small, independent Hamlet within the North, Hillford was forgettable. It consisted of a dozen farms surrounding a small municipal square. A small river ran north of the farm, and a road from Blue Harbour to Thistlebottom passed through the square, intersecting a second road down to Ambershire. Because a second, larger route between Blue Harbour and Thistlebottom ran through Ambershire, Hillford only received a handful of travellers per day. In the north of the hamlet was a small granite quarry.

## History

Hillford was founded when an enterprising merchant founded an inn on a secondary route between Blue Harbour and Tucester. The route proved to be unpopular, and the inn floundered until the merchant convinced the Baron of Ambershire to invest in building a granite quarry near his inn. This attracted a small wave of workers and farmers, and a small hamlet sprung to life. The merchant constructed a small manor house off of the road.

Decades later, the grandson of the merchant decided spontaneously to join the priestly order and transferred his manor and land at a token cost to a Mr. Cobbler. Not a year later, the manor was ████████████ in a surprise night ██████. Rumours abounded that Mr. Cobbler was in fact ██████████ or affiliated with ████████████████████████ and that he had been ██████████ by order of ██████████.

The manor laid empty for several years, until the Duke of the North charged Dɐme Linda Westermarck with clearing it of wraiths and appointed her Lady of Hillford Manor.

## Town Square Buildings

* inn/tavern (5 rooms)
* general store / blacksmith
* mill
* jail (3 cells, attached guard barracks and mayoral office)
* chapel
* well
* houses

## Legal

- The blacksmith and inkeep owned their land and pay taxes to the lord.

- The chapel was owned by the Church of Lathander, which, as all churches, did not pay taxes. The priest did not own land.

- There were three individuals who owned the twelve farms and paid taxes to the lord. They collected rent from their tenants.

- The quarry was part of the lord's demesne.

- The farmers' and miners' houses were rented from the lord.

## Economy and Taxes

Hillford's chief exports were grain, potatoes, stone, and granite. Most residents were poor but none were in great poverty.

Roughly ~15 people were too young to work, and ~5 were too old. Of the remaining ~120, ~20 did not contribute to GDP, due to, for example, caring for children.

This left roughly 100 workers who contributed to the GDP. The average labourer earned 1 sp per day, while the average skilled artisan earned 1 gp per day. There are only a handful of skilled workers in Hillford (the blacksmiths and sawmill operators, the steward, the guardsman, the quarry manager), so assume the average person earns 2 sp = 0.2 gp per day (note that due to the seasonal and barter economy, this was often not in cash). This resulted in a yearly GDP of 0.2 x 120 x 365 = **8760 gp**.

The Duke required the Baron of Hillford to pay 15% of GDP in taxes, and to levy soldiers if required. During a levy, taxes were not collected.

## Military

A guardsman was employed permanently to keep order and resolve conflicts, and to serve as an assistant to the lord or mayor.

The lord could expect to levy up to 35 soldiers when needed, although this would effectively halt the town's production and was not sustainable for longer than a couple of months. A levy of 5 soldiers was sustainable indefinitely, but production would still be impacted.

The guardsman had a set of leather armour and a sword. Many adults had some training with a sword, and a handful owned one. Many could furnish padded armour and a club or pike. Overall, a small levy (5-8 soldiers) could be equipped with pikes and padded armour. A larger levy would have some soldiers equipped with the above, but most only with clubs and regular clothes.