Westguard
A coastal settlement on the western shore of Great Bay, half a day’s walk from Elsher’s Height.
Westguard sits at the point where the flat coastal plain meets the sea, a working town shaped by fishing, trade, and the kind of practical resilience that comes from being close enough to the water to know it cannot always be trusted. It is smaller than Eastguard and quieter — the kind of place that does not often appear on maps drawn by people who have never needed it.
Most travelers arrive from the east, cutting across the coastal plain from Elsher’s Height along a road that passes through Littleshire before straightening out toward the water. Others come by sea.
The town has a dock, a market, and the steady rhythm of a community that has rebuilt itself at least once in living memory.
History
Westguard carries a weight that most of its residents do not discuss openly.
Twelve years ago, the town was quietly occupied by a colony of Mind Flayers operating from a subterranean complex beneath the streets. Through sustained psychic influence, the population was held in a constructed illusion — calm, safe, and entirely unreal. Weeks passed. Perhaps months. The people of Westguard believed they were living in the best days their town had ever seen.
They were not.
The occupation ended when a group of off-world adventurers, arriving through a planar anomaly near Eastguard, traced the source of the disturbance across the bay and descended into the tunnels beneath Great Bay to root it out. The colony was destroyed. The illusion collapsed. The townspeople woke to find time had passed without them.
Most of the tunnels were destroyed during the confrontation. The adventurers eventually departed. One of them stayed — a young rogue named Aemon Cobb, who chose Eastguard over the way home.
The event is remembered in Westguard simply as The Event. Locals do not tend to explain further.
Recent Events
The The Blue Dragon Army raided Westguard not long before the party arrived. Buildings were damaged and morale was low, but the community remained functional.
The party was released from the Blue Dragon Army Camp nearby and made their way into town on foot. They donated four horses to the town’s rebuilding effort. Mayor Harland Penhal received them, issued a written receipt, and managed the practical aftermath of the raid with the kind of steady efficiency that keeps a town from falling apart.
Barrish Stormwrap ferried the party from Westguard’s dock to Eastguard shortly after.
People
Mayor Harland Penhal
Westguard’s mayor of twenty years. Heavyset, bespectacled, and prone to worrying three problems ahead of the one in front of him. Not heroic — but steady, and in a town still recovering from a raid, steady is exactly what is needed. He keeps meticulous records and has already sent at least one rider to Eastguard since the attack. The contents of that message are not known.
Rumors
- Sailors fishing above Great Bay claim they sometimes hear a low resonance through the hull when passing over the old tunnel routes. Most say it is just current. Most.
- A fisherman’s wife insists that once a year, on no particular date, her husband wakes from sleep and does not remember where he is for a full minute before the look passes.
- The rebuilt sections of town are easy to identify. The stone is newer, the lines slightly different. Nobody who was around then talks about why those parts needed rebuilding.
- Aemon Cobb of Eastguard is said to have been here during The Event. He has never confirmed or denied it.
- Mayor Harland Penhal sent a rider to Eastguard the morning after the raid. Nobody knows what the message said.
- The The Blue Dragon Army has already come through once. Whether they return is an open question.