The town of Devlin’s Dower lies on the Dusk Road, south of the Trielta Hills, in the shadow of the Reaching Wood. To the west lies the Trade Way and, beyond it, the Fields of the Dead. Its farmlands are watered by the Hollow Brook, a slow-moving tributary of the River Reaching. The nearest large settlements are Hardbuckler to the northeast, beyond the hills, and Triel to the southwest. 

The farmlands around Devlin’s Dower are some of the most prosperous in the region, blessed by clear waters, rich soil, fine weather, and general safety. The township is inhabited primarily by Humans and Halflings. 

As a market town, Devlin’s Dower boasts many more industries than just agriculture; there is a mill, a smithy, a falconry, and a brewery among others. Every four years, there is great fete, known as the Journeyman’s Call, in which the sons and daughters of the local farmers are apprenticed to various craftspeople and officials. Some win honour and prestige, destined to become the next Reeve or Hedgewarder; while some are offered training in a valuable craft, apprenticed to a Cartwright, Smith or Balladeer; some are worthy only of ignominious labour, and are left to the Mudlarks and Gongfarmers.

Like many farming communities, the people of Devlin’s Dower worship Chauntea, the Goddess of Agriculture, known colloquially as the ‘Great Mother’. In recent decades, many roadside shrines have come to dot the landscape, and churches of stone and wood have been built in her honour. However, predating the spread of the Chautean church, the people of Devlin’s Dower used to practice a unique folk religion, devoted to the worship of ‘The Widows,’ a group of four enigmatic female deities to whom the people of Devlin’s Dower once attributed their wealth and prosperity.

The town is governed by a loose council of elders, presided over by the wise-woman, Ma Marigold. The Earl of Triel exacts a tithe from the citizens of Devlin’s Dower, in exchange for which the Earl’s Men patrol the wild fringes, defending the farmlands from the threat of bandits, goblins, and worse. The Earl’s representative in town, the Bailiff, is empowered to conscript citizens into make-do militias, should the need arise. When the public stocks won’t do, the Bailiff must also deal with the most serious of crimes, transporting criminals back to Triel for trial and punishment.