Ankley

A small, steep coastal village one hex along the left-gate coastal walk from Fort Foothold — "lovely... but so tall": mountainous down to the beach, "10,000 steps to get back up." Founded (or still being built) within the last year by the Reclamation. Good little community, mostly seafood, and possibly some low-level safe adventuring. The GM keeps teasing that anyone could be there — "even Mia's mom."

Session 8

• Chosen as the party's first destination on Orathos — largely because Draak started dragging The Land Boat toward it and nobody stopped him ("Let's visit every single village and town, actually"). The party departed Foothold at ~3 PM on the 27th of mid-spring; it's a 3–4 hour road journey.

Session 9

• Visited in full: ~1,000 people on a terraced cliff, the Thousand Steps running from clifftop to beach, cave-houses behind built facades, allotment farms, surfers and rum bars below, tiny tidal islands offshore — one bearing a sharpened spike of rock that Silithane's hawk went to scout. Named as a joke by Foothold's founders (foot → ankle); even Sir Ronald of Chapston thinks the mayor should change it.
• Geography is politics: the village is split into feuding Eastsiders and Westsiders across the central staircase — two rival inns (the minotaur-run top inn vs. the sand-floored Sand Gets In on the beach), the Sweet Emporium (Wendelin), and Hayley's magic store, the only one in town.
• Bounty board contents: mostly mundane adverts, Vernon Cleave's sellsword card, and one real job — "Wanted dead: Roger Payton and his men" (piracy, looting, raiding; inquire at the Sand Gets In).
• The party's visit ended in infamy: the bard-intimidation incident emptied the top inn, Vernon collected their signet numbers for Foothold, and Lash sleeps at the Sand Gets In while the rest are unhoused. "We never have to come back to Ankley" — Magra. They own 70% of its candy.

Session 10

• Lash's night at the Sand Gets In: free food under duress, Old Margaret's 4-HP herb paste, the Roger Payton lore (one polite beach visit, every gut alarm ringing), and the fire-eyes threat that cost the village its last brave man.
• Vernon Cleave fled his own gate next morning, sword in the dirt; the barman evacuated his family overnight. Per the GM: "you've terrorized the last of the villagers willing to turn."
• The pirate problem is solved, though Ankley doesn't know it yet — Payton's crew was destroyed on Ankley Island; the party plans to route the news through Fort Foothold and Sir Ronald of Chapston rather than show their faces again.
• Watch-trivia confirmed: the village is effectively undefended by design — it sits in the safest corner of the island, with battalions marching the Foothold road every few days.