Ridgecrest

• Location: Central Mistone, along the northern edge of the Ire Mountains.
• Realm: Brelin Kingdom
• Population:  2,500 permanent residents with seasonal swells from 3,000 to 7,500 total inhabitants.
  

45% human, 22% halfling, 21% dwarf, 9% gnome, 2% elf, 1% other

• Shrines/Temples to: Lucinda, Goran and Folian S'pae and Prunilla are the most prominent, with lesser monuments to Rofirein, Toran and Vorax being also present. If one looks hard enough...and knows what to look for...one might be able to spot shrines to Branderback, Shadon, Sulterio and Xeen.

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amed for its location on a rounded plateau where the foothills of the Ire Mountains meet the mountains proper, Ridgecrest is little more than a mining camp which has grown in a piecemeal manner over the last several centuries. Its true origin is that of a ranger station set at the beginning of a convenient pass through the Ire Mountains. Faithful of Folian S'pae managed the station, which only consisted of a few tents and no permanent structures. Ridgecrest did not even exist as a point on a map until the discovery of a rich copper mine at the base of the Ire Mountains. There is some disagreement as to when the first camp was established around the mouth of the mine or when it officially grew into a settlement and eventually a town, but it is widely accepted that Ridgecrest began to appear on maps by the year 900, and it was connected up to the main trade road within the next thirty years. As the years passed, two more mines, even richer than the first, were discovered nearby but beyond the immediate vicinity of Ridgecrest, yet still close enough to use the town as a base of operations. Like most of Layonara, Ridgecrest diminished somewhat during the Dark Ages, but it survived in part due to its ability to trade in raw materials that did not depend upon the success of agriculture. Since the end of the Dark Ages, several small farms and a couple of larger ones have sprung up in the shadow of Ridgecrest, their fields irrigated by several small streams that trickle from the mountains.