Harbor Town

South of the Purple Mountains, along the Coast of Tears is Harbor Town. Simply named but growing as fast as a newly hatched clutch of Sahuagin, Harbor Town continues to grow south to accommodate its new citizens. It includes a stone harbor fort, a lighthouse, a port and harbor, a warehouse and merchant district, a bustling shops district, and ever growing rings of houses, inns, taverns, and dealers in wares. Additionally, it is the location of the University at Crux, which sits within the walls of Harbor Town and was built at the same time as the original fort. Harbor Town also boasts the headquarters of The Cartographers Guild. Currently it is approximately half the population of Javelin Hill, but is quickly growing as the passage to Harbor Town is quicker and easier(sometimes) than the ascent and descent to Javelin Hill through the Maw and the Grimm Mountains. 

The name 'Crux' comes from a fantastic presumed geological formation known as The Crux. It is a distinct four ridged high hill that sits on the coast, overlooking the harbor from the south. At the intersection of the four ridges is an ancient paved circle surrounded by a single ring of giant eroded standing stones. The hill appears to have wounds when it rains and long streaks of deep orange flow down its sides. This streaking is attributed to the high iron content of the Crux. The Crux is protected from mining and destruction by the Druids of Primal Circle, an ancient druid order that wanders the eastern coasts.

The stone fort that occupies the northern edge of Harbor Town is the Harbor Fort at Crux. Initially constructed by an industrious group of reaver, pirates, and adventurers, as a safe mooring and harbor along the Coast of Tears, it has been attacked and repaired a dozen times over its lifetime by marauders from both land and sea. It has stood up to them every time and still stands today, looking out over the port and Harbor Town. 

Once a very small and vulnerable independent port, after repeated attacks and nearly falling to a force of Iron Monger Dwarves who claimed an ancient dwarven entrance into the southern Purple Mountains lay under the fort, Imperial help has come at a price. The fort was added on to and shored up by the Imperium when they took over Harbor Town. The Imperium now had a toehold into the Northern Marches, its colonization, and its riches. And a once wild and wooly Marches town now has the decidedly non-Northern Marches feel of an Imperial port of call. And as more and more Imperial travelers and settlers pour into the port, the less it feels like a Northern Marches town.