Faunel
Faunel isn’t much a town on first looking at it. It’s a ruin, overgrown with plants and animal life. Now mind you, that animal life talks back as many residents of the Beastlands themselves do. I wouldn’t suggest trying to build up a real kip here though, it’s a wild place and the town and its residents don’t have any appreciation for construction on their turf. Faunel resembles nothing more than a broken down city, abandoned several thousand years ago. In fact, maybe that’s what it is. If the city were intact, and full, it could probably house around 50,000 people, which gives some idea of the sprawling size of the place. But most of the buildings are at least partially destroyed, and nature has reasserted control over the stonework.
The town can be split broadly into three main areas, each showing a different face of nature reclaiming the city. To the north, in the route through which most visitors to Faunel approach, the terrain is dry and arid, and the wind blows dust through an abandoned desert town. Although many building here are stone, there are quite a large proportion of wooden buildings here as well. In the eastern part of the town, swamp is slowly taking back the buildings, some of which are now at least partially submerged. It’s still warm, but much damper, with a constantly high humidity. Mosquitoes buzz through the air, and all manner of insects and other small creatures scrape a living in the undergrowth. The remainder of Faunel is jungle, with vines and creepers growing on the remaining stonework, and trees pushing their way through roofs.
Most of the humanoids live in the jungle or desert part of the town, though there is a small community of lizard folk that have taken to the swampy areas. But most of the residents of Faunel are animals or beasts of one variety of another, many of them petitioners from the Beastlands, and they tend to live in the area that most suits their temperament and pattern of life.
For most of the population of Faunel, life is simply about survival, and society is a word that they might, possibly, have heard of. Even for the humanoids who have moved there from other places, the major feature of the day is finding food without becoming food yourself. The only real law in Faunel is that killing an intelligent (talking) creature is a capital crime. Still, there are traps to be set and plants to be collected. Meanwhile, not all of the large predators are intelligent, and there are isolated cases of people being killed by alligators in the swamp areas, or tigers in the jungle portion of the town. All of which is fine, as far as the residents are concerned; merely nature working normally.
Most of the humanoid (and a few of the non-humanoid) residents are members of either the Signers or the Wylders. The Signers are based around the Centre of Eternal Dreams. The Signers will tell you that the building (the only completely intact one in Faunel) lies in the exact centre of the town, which just ain’t true. However, it is the centre of its own little encampment as there are rarely less than 150 Signers working or studying in the place. Quite what they work or study on they don’t talk about.
The Wylders base themselves around the gate itself, which is the exact centre of the town. Although a few live in partially renovated buildings, the Wylders mostly live in tents, all individually marked - leading to confusion amongst visitors when they are told to ‘turn left after Tethis the Stag’ since they don’t realise that this means his tent, which they are assumed to be able to recognise. The senior Wylder in Faunel is Istin Laverian, a half-elf ranger, and the closest thing that there is to organisation in the town comes from him and his council of four advisors. Still, they do little more than sit in judgement on those accused of crimes, and direct the affairs of the Wylders in Faunel (and to a lesser extent, everywhere that isn’t the Beastlands). Laverian is one of the most trusted aides of Karleona, the leader of the Wylders, and vigorously pursues her policy of exterminating the Vile Hunt; this task occupies much of his time.
The lack of real organisation from either the Wylders or the Signers mean that people who come to the town are allowed to do pretty much as they wish, provided they don’t upset the residents. Traders find that, with no duties to pay, business can be good, if they bring something that the residents want, so surprisingly Faunel usually has a fairly thriving market in operation, though usually what is sold there is limited to wilderness survival aides.
Home
The Verdant Guild do not have a true headquarters as other sects or factions would recognise the word. The closest they come is Home (Wylders assume that in conversation people can distinguish between the Home of the Wylders and home, where that individual Wylder lives). Home is a large, mostly stone, building that lies on the opposite side to the square to the gate to the Beastlands. It is from here that Laverian directs the Wylders, and it is here that leadership contests amongst the Wylders are carried out. Any Wylder may stay the night in Home, though if they are not simply passing through Faunel it is assumed that they will move out into their own tent at the earliest opportunity (and of course, long standing members have their own tents anyway and would never think of sleeping at Home). They may also receive assistance such as healing here. And on those occasions when Karleona returns to Faunel, it is at Home that she holds court.
Gates
As distinguished from the Gate to the Beastlands, Faunel holds a large number of gates. Some rumours hold that the buildings that make up Faunel’s urban sprawl have arrived here from various places, including many prime worlds. Others say simply that Faunel, when originally built by whoever its founders were, was much larger, and those new buildings that are occasionally discovered are merely ones that have been found as the result of alterations in the water level, the death of a mass of creepers or trees, a violent storm or other , natural, phenomena. Either could easily be true, though it is certain that the buildings show many different styles of architecture. Many of the buildings hold portals to a large number of places, mostly Prime worlds. It has been said that outside of the Sigil, and the top layer of the Abyss, Faunel holds more portals than any other place in the Outer Planes. This is probably exaggeration, but it certainly hold more than any other gate town, and might hold more portals to the Prime than anywhere outside of Sigil.
Centre of Eternal Dreams
Run by a gnomish Signer called Alvestin Starn, the Centre is the Outlands counterpart to Dreamhearth, the Signers base of operations on the Beastlands. The Centre, also known as Dreamhome, serves two purposes for the Signers. It is a base for those who are about to enter the Beastlands, a place where they can purchase supplies, get healing, receive tuition on the Beastlands and obtain gate and spell keys. It is also a place where Signers can be trained to hone the skills of their mind.
The Green Market
Lying to the west of the main square, the Green Market is an informal place where traders can bring their goods for sale to anyone who passes by. It takes a special sort of trader to succeed in the Green Market, however, because many of those who purchase items have no real interest in money. Consequently, a barter system operates at the market, and haggling is expected. A trader really has to be good, however, to know whether those five wolf pelts that the Wylder is offering you is worth more or less than the quiver of arrows, pack of iron rations and axe that she wants from you.
The Gate
The most significant of any gate town is, of course, its gate. The one in Faunel lies in a pool in the centre of the town. In theory, passage through it is simple; you enter the pool from the north side, which is actually the only practical way to enter it, thanks to the surrounding terrain, and submerge yourself completely under the water for three seconds - you will then find yourself (dry) on the Beastlands. The key is a leaf from any plant. The reason that it is only simple in theory is because in order to enter the pool you have to pass Wrath.
Wrath is a living statue who constantly guards the gate. Rumours abound as to the original nature of Wrath; most hold that he was once a mortal of some variety. The statue appears to be of a very large human, though that is not held to be any real indication of Wrath’s origins. His transformation into a statue is usually held to be intentional, though some say it was a punishment. The likelihood is that the only person who really has even more than an inkling of the truth is Wrath himself, and he isn’t talking. Two things are certain about him; he is known to have been guarding the gate in Faunel for at least 500 years, and probably longer, and that he always questions those who seek to pass him as to their intentions whilst on the Beastlands. He does not react to the answers that he receives, but those who lie to him, or honestly admit to intending to do something that isn’t approved of (hunt, usually) tend to find that life is very much more difficult on the Beastlands than they had expected. How, or even if, Wrath makes this come about is a matter of mystery. Those who attempt not to answer him, or to sneak past him to the gate, find that he is more than willing to use physical force in order to ensure that things are done the right way. His prowess in combat has come in useful recently, as the Vile Hunt appear to have targeted Wrath as being well worth destroying. Wrath appears to have his own agenda, which whilst it is always for the interests of the Beastlands and for Faunel, do not always coincide with the interests of other residents of those places.
Plots and Rumours
With the increasing activity of the Vile Hunt over the last few years, Faunel has become a more suspicious place. Strangers weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms to begin with, but now they tend to receive suspicion and distrust rather than the indifference which they used to be greeted by. It is almost certain that some of the more recent residents of Faunel are spies for the Vile Hunt, seeking to subvert the operations of the Wylders. In particular, a trader called Takeda, who mostly deals weapons and has been nearly permanently in the Green Market for over a year now, has attracted a great deal of suspicion. So far, no one has had anything to accuse him of.
Meanwhile, it is rumoured that Karleona is about to make one of her visits to Faunel, and that she intends to announce a new offensive against the Vile Hunt. It is also being said that at this time, she intends to forge a new alliance with the Sensates, forgoing the Wylders traditional alliance with the Signers, a rumour which Alvestin Starn is considerably troubled by.
The lizard folk are reporting that they are detecting traces of strange activity in some of the deeper swamps. Their shaman Ssesithek is convinced that one of the Animal Lords of the Beastlands has decided to expand their territory outside that Plane, and the obvious candidate is the Alligator Lord, though the Snake Lord is also possible. If this is true, it suggests that the Lord in question is making a play for power outside the Beastlands, possibly with the intention of becoming a true deity. Unusual declines in some of the swamp animals, and several disappearances in the area, have suggested that anyone getting to close to the truth here is being prevented from disclosing it to others. Laverian, on the other hand, suspects Malarites.