A small open square just inside Hearthhold's West Gate, where a stone-rimmed pool fed by the Brennan Watercourse runs cool year-round. On the wall above the square, a large slate slab — about six feet by ten — has been painted over for two centuries with the major routes that depart from this gate. Each route shows in a different ink colour and carries a small painted icon (anvil for Iron Kingdoms, ship for Free Cities, hawk for Wild Clans, etc.) so the colour-blind can read it too.
Every walker who has left this city by the western road has stood beside this pool, filled a flask, and looked up at this slab. You are doing what generations of walkers have done. The slab does not know your name and does not care. It only knows where the roads go. — P
The Slab — Routes Painted Here
The King's Road
ROAD · 9 days · hard
The road becomes ash. The walker must carry water and prove they belong on the volcanic approach.
The Salt Road
ROAD · 6 days · moderate
A merchants' road — the walker must contend with toll-stops, opportunistic merchants, and the slow temptation of the cities themselves.
The Wild Clans Trail
TRAIL · 8 days · brutal
Reputation is the gate. The walker must accumulate trust with the Wild Clans across multiple visits before Auresor can be approached.
The Northwall Route
ROAD · 7 days · hard
Cold. The Northwall is contested between Iron Kingdoms patrols and Wild Clans hunters. The walker may be asked to take a side.
The Linden Pilgrimage Trail
TRAIL · 5 days · moderate
A pilgrim's footpath. Midsummer brings the Linden bloom; outside summer the central shrine is quiet and unflowered.
The Brennanford Trail
TRAIL · 3 days · easy
A short and gentle trail. Bren the herbalist sometimes walks part of the way with the walker if she happens to be on it.
The Hollow Notch Trail
TRAIL · 7 days · hard
A clan-mother demands a story before allowing passage through the Notch. The walker must offer something true.
The Ashen Ridge Trail
TRAIL · 6 days · moderate
Wind on the ridge plays havoc with maps. The walker must rely on the Wind-Bent Pine needles for path-finding, or on a hired guide.
The Smoking Spire Road
ROAD · 8 days · hard
The Smoking Spire emits hot mineral gas at unpredictable intervals. The walker must time the final ascent.
The Brewer's Road
ROAD · 5 days · moderate
Nethirae of the Veil has three identical aides; only one is real. The walker must learn to see through illusion before the parley.
The Glyph Road
ROAD · 7 days · hard
The road's old glyphs respond differently to consecrated walkers than to others. Non-consecrated take a longer alternate path.
The Northern Pale Track
TRAIL · 9 days · brutal
The Pale Wood bends light and names. The walker must keep a written name in their pocket and read it aloud at each leg, or risk forgetting their own.
The Salt Flats Mirror Route
TRAIL · 8 days · hard
On the salt flats the walker sees their own reflection in every still pool. Vauthana speaks through these reflections. The walker must learn whose voice is whose.
The Three Springs Valley Road
ROAD · 4 days · easy
The kinder, slower path to Fennick. Good for first-time walkers and for those who want to see the Three Springs before the dragon.
Tessa's Thornroot Errand
TRAIL · 6 days · easy
A six-day round-trip to harvest thornroot for Tessa. The harvest leg asks the walker to tell thornroot from three lookalikes by leaf and root. The journey home is a recovery walk.
Marra's Caldera-Notch Verification
TRAIL · 4 days · moderate
A four-day round-trip to verify the waystone-positions on Marra's working sketch of the Caldera Notch ridge. The walker carries the sketch up, walks the ridge, marks corrections, and brings the sketch home.
Brenhold's Greymarch Iron-Vein
TRAIL · 4 days · moderate
A four-day round-trip east to chip raw high-grade iron from a vein Brenhold knows by colour. The mining leg asks the walker to tell the right grey from three wrong greys in the rockface.
Marra's Lost Scout in the Pellan Reach
TRAIL · 5 days · moderate
A five-day round-trip into the Pellan Reach to find a lost apprentice surveyor (or their journal). The midpoint asks the walker to choose between confronting a band camped at the camp or slipping past them.
Tessa's Old-Vintage Thornroot
TRAIL · 4 days · easy
A four-day round-trip to find Magda's wandering camp and ask whether she still has the twelve-year-old thornroot tincture Tessa once made for her. Magda may give it; she may not. The asking is the test.
Olor's Missing Volume
ROAD · 3 days · easy
A three-day round-trip to a neighbouring village to retrieve a book Olor has been promised before the heirs dispose of the estate. The asking is delicate; the heirs are not booksellers.
Velka's Festival Flour
ROAD · 3 days · easy
A three-day round-trip to a hill-mill for a sack of unfinished-grain flour. The return leg carries the weight -- three stones extra at the shoulder for two days.
Bren's Wednesday-Stew Herbs
TRAIL · 3 days · easy
A three-day round-trip into the Aurespor foothills for a specific herb Bren needs for Wednesday's stew. The walker may forage or buy from the hillside herbalist Ren -- each path has a small cost and a small gift.
Inara's Obsidian Shard
TRAIL · 5 days · hard
A five-day round-trip to a shard-field near the outer ring of a dragon's territory. The walker must approach, gather, and withdraw without provoking. Inara is gentle if the walker fails.
Kestrel's Lost Falcon
TRAIL · 2 days · easy
A two-day round-trip to recall a falcon -- one of the grandmother-line -- to the glove. The midpoint is an animal-handling check at the roosting oak.
Olin's Unidentified Piece
ROAD · 4 days · easy
A four-day round-trip to a farm two days south. The farmer has dug something up. Olin needs the walker to examine it, judge it, and negotiate a buying-price (or walk away). The reward scales with the negotiation.
Vannora's Wild Colt
TRAIL · 3 days · moderate
A three-day round-trip to a clan camp to evaluate a wild-caught colt. The walker must spend a quiet afternoon with the colt and judge its temperament -- an animal-handling check that the clan will respect.
Cleric Sera's Calming Herb
TRAIL · 2 days · easy
A two-day round-trip to the high pasture for a calming herb. The patient will not live the week. The walker carries the urgency in the pack as well as the herb.
Halgar's Verification of Collateral
ROAD · 2 days · easy
A two-day round-trip to a walker's home village to verify the provenance of an heirloom offered as collateral. The neighbours will say what the walker would not.