As we know in happier times the weary traveller could be sure of finding rest and refreshment at the The Slann in Space - the stained but lively heart of the settlement of Linden Way.
And so on to the other amenities provided by the good people of Linden...
As your horse no doubt needs feeding, watering and bedding down for the night, you'll be needing the sevices of Wilfrid Post - owner of The Winning Post - Livery and Stables. Although you'll not get more than two words out of him (he prefers more equine company) Wilfird provides a first rate service. Retired from the racing circuit after his horse Eatbiscuit became overweight, Wilfrid dreams of his glory days and constantly badgers his stable "boy", Thori Ditorri, to be his next jockey!
Thori, as a dwarf, hates horses nearly as much as he hates everything else and even Wilfirid's promises of great riches won't persuade him to get any nearer than he already does to shoe the nasty brutes! Just why Thori came to be in the trade he is in is not clear, although significantly he never mentions home...
Once your horses are fed and watered and you've survived a night at the Slann you'll be needing something to mop your breakfast up with. Tom the Baker keeps the village well fed and sometimes armoured if a batch doesn't come out quite right! Thanks to the indispensable service he provides Tom is accepted and tolerated by the other inhabitants although he does have some very odd ideas about Time and its relative dimensions in Space - engage him in conversation at your peril! Among some of his weirder theories is the idea that it might be possible one day to travel backwards as well as forwards in time! This is nothing, however, compared to his belief that one day mullets, sideburns and moustaches will be the height of fashion...
You'll also be wanting to stock up on provisions before heading down the Ortar highway. In which case you'll need to pay Grunville Longpockets and his wife Gladys at the village stores a visit. Not renowned for his charitable urges, Grunville will cut a hard bargain. The story that he insisted on taking a poor man's mule in part exchange for a new plow still does the rounds in the Slann! Better to hope his wife Gladyss, who is charity itself, is behind the counter. Many ask what she sees in him but when it comes to it - he is pretty much the only one to scratch any kind of a living out of this tough border settlement...
As you came down from the mountains into Linden Way you may have noticed a curious and tumble-down cottage lying in ruins just outside the village. You may even have heard maniacal laughter, wretched sobbing or bitter words muttered through clenched teeth. You were wise not to tarry there as this is the ramshackle abode of Old Barrachus, the insane Illusionist! Even in his younger days Barrachus was seen as being distinctly odd and led a lonely existence at the College in Merlinas. As his powers of illusion grew so did his disillusion with the world of men. He came to view his conjurations as more real than the miserable reality that was his life and retreated into a fantasy world. Increasingly shunned, Barrachus upped sticks and went in search of solitude. Finding utter isolation a little hard on his appetite he moved to the abandoned cottage outside Linden Way where food was a little more available. And there he spends his days, happy in the belief that the moss-covered stones and rotting floorboards that lie all around him are in fact a wondrous palace...
