Huckleberry

**Huckleberry** was a small town in Lakay on the Great Steppe Plains.

## Location

Huckleberry was located in the Bronze Hills region of Lakay, on the Great Steppe Plateau. This large continental plateau was several thousand feed above sea level at its lowest, and home to a lot of incredibly deep caves. The Bronze Hills were a series of spectacularly huge granite tors (rocky outcrops), which gained their name from the dramatic orange shadows that were cast on them at sunset.

Huckleberry was located about a mile north of a small freshwater lake, Lake Nocturne. The town was built at a ford of the River Mare. The town as a whole was just under a mile and a half north of Monument Tor, one of the highest rocky mountains of the outlying Bronze Hills.

## Local established Flora and Fauna

### Flora

* Kingsfoil, a herb which looked like silvery foil, and only grew next to the purest freshwater
* Wolfsbane, a purple drooping poisonous flower that grew on acidic and poor soils
* Lupins, purple drooping bell flowers that grew on alkaline moor soils
	+ People often mixed up harmless Lupins and deadly Wolfsbane.
* Yew trees
* Pine trees
* Wild Tobacco
* Cane crop
* Orange, lemon, apple, and pear trees
* Olive trees

### Fauna

* Macaws, which came in shades of green, red, and yellow
* Steppe Monitors, large monitor lizards with bark-textured skin to blend in with leaf litter
* Antelopes and springboks
* Oryxes
* White tail deer
* Elk
* Timber wolves and grey wolves
* Grizzly bears
* Great Jade Kraits, huge green oviparous viper snakes
* Great Partridges, very large turkey-like birds which made drumming-like calls
* Scorpions
* Frogs
* Lynxes
* Coyotes
* Judge Owls, very rare owls
* Bats
* Tree-gliding squirrels
* Madaleäna's Admiral Butterflies, purple and black butterflies
* River beavers
* Black alligators
* Imperial Hawks
* Coral snakes
* Bullwhip snakes, which were sidewinding snakes
* Lesser Gila Dragons, small horned lizards
* Firemoths, bioluminescent moths
* Perch and Roach fish
* Grimpen Catfish, an endemic large species of catfish in the marshy floodplains
* Blue crabs
* Giant weasels

## Historical Overview

There was historically a small amount of Uiyet (Horse Lord) activity in the area where Huckleberry would one day be built. The Uiyets were late native Lakayans who arrived only 20,000 years ago. Due to their preferred methods of horseriding and semi-nomadic society, the Uiyets would have certainly passed through the Hills, but only briefly - the terrain was too rough for horses, and the forests toot thick for riding. There were only a few archaeological finds like arrowheads, leather belts, and horseshoes, but no permanent settlement in the Huckleberry area.

During the first wave of colonial Lusken settlement during the 13th century, Huckleberry was founded as a small farming town at a river ford in a naturally sheltered and bounteous location. Huckleberry persisted through the 20th century, out-of-the-way of the God Wars because it never grew beyond a few thousand in population.

## Connections and Governance in the Collapse Era

In the collapse era (from 0 C) Huckleberry was *administratively* under the Federation of Lakay and the Wolcott Straits. However, in practice, it was a couple hundred miles away from any large population centres. Fort Thunderlord, the capital, was quite far away, and required a winding route up the plateau. Therefore, the town operated fairly independently, with its own sheriff and small permanent garrison of Lakayan Teals.

## Notable Places

 —Kragar to Tenkozo in the Huckleberry Bookstore.

* The Riverside Bookstore, a small bookshop owned by a small white-haired gnome woman
* The Modron Ranches, a collection of farms on the outskirts of town that raised Modron construct livestock
* Huckleberry Cathedral, a huge classical Luskan 13th century church.
* The Last Chance Saloon
* Sal's Butchers
* Rue's Lab
* Luthen's Workshop
* Cristoph's Cabin
* Valentin's Caravan
* The Mayor's Residence
* Tousco's Shack
* The Sheriff's Office

## Notable Inhabitants in the 250s C

 —An inhabitant on the town's unique populace.

* Salvatore McNella, the droll town butcher. As a young man, he was a wrestler, until he ate the best pork chop in his life and changed careers
* Marcus & Markus, near-identical twin orcs. Marcus was the town blacksmith, whilst Marcus was a carpenter.
	+ One was Marcus with a c, as in *fluorescent* or *science*, whilst the other was Markus with a k as in *knowledge* or *knave*.
* Dr. Rue Kituuvi. A reclusive retired chem-scientist from Rakkimar. She helped re-engineer the famous commercial warmth ointment, Cold-B-Gone, and retired to Huckleberry.
* Luthen Fortuno. A Halcyian inventor following in the footsteps of Johnovver Mackenzie, he was fascinated with electricity and clockwork, and provided the town with electric lamps! He also made a living as cathedral groundskeeper.
* Captain Cristoph Broadheart, an illustrious sword duelist. He served in the 10th Datrian Dragoons, same regiment was the famous Mortimer R. Campbell. Cristoph fell into alcoholism after his glory days and was always found drunk on rum in town somewhere.
* Valentin Ščerru. The town's flirtatious palm-reader, fortune-teller, and also resident herbalist. They were the descendant of the Vistu family line known as the *Ščerru* who moved to Huckleberry around the same time as the Brazensows were established.
* Mayor Verehia Imferrante. Noblewoman, capable and smart mayor of the town, and second cousin once removed to Lord Governor of Lakay, Sfelonila Disforza on Sfelonila's father's side.
* Raffaolo Tousco. An ex-pirate captain and musketman, who retired to the town but came out of retirement to lead the local constabulary, second in command to the sheriff, but above the Teals.
* Abbess Deretta. A Maionan priestess in charge of the Cathedral. She oversaw its functions and all its clergy, sent to the town by the Fort Thunderlord Mission of the Sun-Mother.
* Sheriff Lodovika. The town's sheriff and peacekeeper. She was born in Huckleberry, lived her whole life there, and hoped to never leave.
* Victorissimo the Legendary Tailor, an ilustrious tailor, with his workers Umberto and Ugo.
* Sister Benedetta, a local nun.