What Cattalinia says tonight.....

Along the northern face of the Falcon mountains, there lies a small town called Tindale. The area surrounding Tindale is known as the Tindale Valley. The town was so named for the mining camps that predated the village, and the most prominent of the mines in the area were set up for the harvesting of tin. The area was also known to be a depository of gold, silver, platinum and gems, though these veins were small, and had been mined out by dwarves, gnomes, goblins and kobolds centuries earlier. Still, now and then, some deep delver made a rare find. It was usually enough to make someone rich, and of course the town prospered. Then the vein would dry up and things would go back to normal. Old wives would tell of legendary mithral and adamantine deposits being discovered, though no person living in Tindale today could remember such a time. While Mithral frequently hides amid deposits of silver, and adamantine amidst iron ore, neither silver nor iron are plentiful enough for anyone to bother prospecting. Today, mining continues, and while the tin is not as plentiful as it once was, the stone in this part of the Falcon Mountains is sought after for sculpting and building. Caravans set out from the Tindale Valley several times each year, hauling the stone to cities, fairs and construction sites for both the kingdom?s fortifications and private contractors.

The town has other forms of commerce as well. Craftsmen from all over have come, over time, to work in Tindale, making use of the valley?s resources. As a result, more demi-humans live among the people of Tindale than almost any other place in Talagon. Elven jewelers, gnomish tinkers, dwarven weaponsmiths and half elves sculpting in pewter have all made their living here, or once did and live here retired amongst old friends. Halflings gather herbs that grow on the mountainsides or serve as cooks in the town?s three inns. Humans of course are plentiful and do the local farming and those non-artistic duties necessary to keeping a town running.

Recently there has been some disturbance in the harmony of Tindale. Miners, herbalists, explorers, prospectors, students and others who spend time in the mountains have gone missing or turned up dead. Since the dead have all been looted, brigands are suspected. However, there has been more than one miner claiming to have seen little red devils in the mines, or a day hiker claiming to have caught glimpses of axe-carrying pig men.

Needless to say, the town has been training a militia to protect itself, and the gossipers in the taverns speculate on what this could all mean. After all, it has been five years since anyone in town has heard of a disruption in the town, with the exception of the occasional stillborn or old timer dying in his or bed. The Tindale Council has agreed to give it a month before asking the king to send knights or rangers to aid them. Others have taken it upon themselves to seek aid without knowledge of the council.