Uringen
Standing near the Embeth Forest, this strange settlement appears and disappears with the mists. Its travellers are distinctive, with black-and-white garments and unsmiling faces, and the alchemical goods sold are always welcome for their healing and strengthening properties. The people speak a dialect of Skald, and the city itself seems somehow suspended half in and half out of time, perhaps entangled in fey magic or trapped by horological magic.
Buildings in Uringen typically possess steeply pitched roofs, with stone and timber construction. A faint haze lingers in the streets from dozens of chimneys exhaling puffs of smoke in a multitude of colors, with unsmiling citizens easily recognized in their distinctive black-and-white clothing. The main thoroughfares, paved with flat stones, line up like the arms of a compass rose with a large public square at the town’s center. The clock tower stands to the north of this square while a carved stone well makes its centerpiece.
Built upon an ancient fey circle, the clock tower dominates the center of town. Four clock faces, each running a different calculation of time, grace the top of this massive structure. One runs quickly, while its opposing face slowly trudges through its circuit. The third face ticks away a more accurate account, while the fourth moves erratically, sometimes even running backwards. The domed top of this structure opens to the sky, allowing those within a view of the constellations as they f low across the night.
While the unstuck portion of Uringen is outside of the current time stream, the townsfolk maintain a rope perimeter around the missing portion (which looks like an empty, uninhabited field when the town is gone) to prevent any accidents when it returns unexpectedly. It is unclear where in the stream of time the unstuck portion of town goes when it vanishes. Those whisked away with one of the town’s jumps find themselves in a dense forest not unlike the Embeth. However, when someone travels outside the settlement, all the roads circle around to deposit the traveler back in town.
A recent increase in the frequency of vanishings causes worry, as mayor of the unstuck portion of Uringen and primary researcher Lady Aurelia Ogden believes that the settlement draws closer to the First World with each switch. While the settlement remains outside the time stream, the raiding fey cannot reach them, but other, stranger threats menace the settlement when it becomes unstuck. Lurid creatures lurk just outside of view and haunting images plague citizens’ dreams. While humans compose the majority of the population, the two halves of Uringen contain a large number of half-elves, as the citizens are tolerant of outcasts and deeply understand the desire to be left alone. Gnomes find the seemingly random nature of the vanishing settlement exciting, and many make their homes there. Of the gnomes residing in the static portion of town, a few claim to have the ability to walk between the two districts while the unstuck portion is away. Opposed to the ruthless nature of Mather Nithra, about a dozen pixies and grigs make their homes within Uringen as well, helping the community in various ways. Seripan is a female grig who performs three times a week at a tap house called the Oaken Knot Tavern in unstuck Uringen. A pixie named Cerotious, rumored to assist Lady Ogden in her experiments, provides fey insight into the vanishing settlement.