Last Notch
Last Notch is a neighboring town to Wynsiph; about two days of travel on foot. It is one of the largest towns in the area, over twice the size of Wynsiph.
Unlike Wynsiph, whose architecture is primarily built from the wood of the nearby forest, Last Notch instead utilizes brick, metal, and stone, and minerals in the majority of their construction.
These materials are much more readily available, and always in supply from the massive quarry that gives this town its prime source of trade income. The metals hold particularly high trade value, and are often shipped to far-away cities in return for some serious money inflow. Excess rocks, stones, and minerals from mining are sent to cities all over, making Last Notch quite the successful trade hub.
Last Notch and Wynsiph are friendly with each other, and many gros have traveled back and forth between the two for years. Wynsiph has provided much of the food (especially vegetation) for Last Notch residents, while any metal and stone you’ll find in Wynsiph likely originated from Last Notch.
The large town’s nova tree, it is rumored, was once two seperate nova seeds: one planted by Nashaw Gumbuckle and the other by Barnabo Punterspud. Neither seed grew much more than sproutling size, until the divided town was unified as Last Notch. Then, it’s said the two crystal trees rapidly grew and merged into one, creating the now-famous nova tree “Arch” that Last Notch has had to this day.
This large town is equally big on Luxhallow Religion. It boasts a large, white-marbled, Luxhallow sanctuary, and has quite the gatherings for prayer at all the “High Times”: sunrise, noon, and sunset. No other religions are practiced in this town, and any that claim to not follow Lux’hallow can expect some less-than-neighborly glances, and many verbal insults thrown their way.
The land outside the city proper is largely barren gravel fields or wide tracks of open plains. Most of this space is taken up by quarry ori farms and rattle cattle wranglers.
Rattle Cattle are only owned by those that can afford to ship in copious amounts of food to the massive animals, since the land of Last Notch is too rocky for farming.The beasts make up for it by being the most effective transporters of the town’s heavy trade goods over long distances. Quarry oris are much cheaper to own, along with effectively traveling much faster as well.
Most of the towns goods can be seen coming and going by way of waggons pulled by teams of quarry oris.
Where does Last Notch get its name?
The town “Last Notch” gets its unusual name from a game of Rock Ladder between Nashaw Gumbuckle and Barnabo Punterspud. The two split the local land with each other during the early days, until they both decided that it wasn’t big enough for the both of them, and one needed to leave.
Nashaw was a great rancher and a great rider, but he wasn’t all too good at depth perception. Banabo knew this, and tricked Nashaw to settle the land on a game of Rock Ladder, which he knew he could beat him at. He explained the game while he offered Nashaw a bottle of his best sap. Nashaw loved sap and took it gratefully, unaware that the drink would impair his ability to play the game further.
This was a game in which gros would lay down a ladder and throw rocks into the spaces between the notches to earn points. The further away the ladder notch was, the more points it would earn.
Sure enough, Nashaw did terrible at the game and couldn’t score 1 point in all the rounds.
Barnabo, smug and gloating, told Nashaw as a form to humiliate him further, that if he could get one “Last Notch” (which was the hole furthest away and most difficult to score) on his next throw, that he’d gladly give up his land and leave.
Nashaw was furious from being tricked, and he drunkenly threw his last rock at his Barnabo in anger. Nashaw’s rock missed when Barnabo ducked, and ricocheted off a metal barrel behind him, shooting off towards the ladder and landing into the last notch.
The both of them shocked, Nashaw just smiled and said, “Last Notch” it is.
NPCs that reside in Last Notch:
"King" Huepoe
Blanca
Tal'baa
Matilda
Dusty
Ash
Barney
Tarmarius
Wenn
Bulbrax
Ernie
NPCs (non player characters) are characters owned by the group. They may be used in any way you like in order to help develop your own characters! While only official NPC art is considered 100% canon, we love seeing where people's interpretations take these characters, and we may use what you come up with to be canon if we like it! So have fun with them!
These NPCs can only be drawn in Last Notch, so make sure your wyngro is officially able to travel there before interacting with them!
(Click on each icon to be taken to a full reference and description to get to know them better!)
Last Notch LOCATIONS
"Grand Gumbuckle Quarry"
Last Notch's largest quarry, right outside of town. Biggest staple of the town and where it gets its wealth. Owned and managed solely by the Gumbuckle family.
Owner:
Tarmarius
One of the largest quarries in the Antovan region, the Grand Gumbuckle Quarry is largely the reason the town was settled at all. The large quantities of stone close to the surface drew in many asspiring wyngrew. The land itself at first divided between the two most determined land owners, before finally falling underneath the governance of a single family: the Gumbuckles.
The quarry is the largest source of income for the town, giving an abundance of building materials and work for any wyngrew willing to wield a chisel or work up a sweat over potentially back-breaking labor. It often takes large teams of quarry oris or rattle cattle-drawn wagons to haul the hard-won goods out of the quarry and onto the road for trade.
The quarry is essentially a crater, taking up the majority of the land to the north of town. It’s mostly raw exposed rock, with nothing growing. During the rare and infrequent rains Last Notch gets, the Quarry does tend to flood in places and must be painstakingly drained before work can resume.
The Gumbuckle family is very protective of their quarry, and has owned it for many generations. This is mainly why the family is wealthier than most town heads. The land has been fought over many times in the past, but with how wide and vast the Gumbuckle name extends, and how many loyal gros will stand by them, they’ve been able to win every time. They have since not been challenged in a very long time.
"The Wyngling Ranch"
Last Notch's biggest hatchery. Long ago started as a quarry ori ranch and was later re-purposed into a hatchery.
Owner:
Tal'baa
The Wyngling Ranch is Last Notch’s largest hatchery: a large stone building that was once one of the town’s larger quarry ori farms on the edge of town. The ori farm fell into disrepair and nearly ruin after many years of slow decline after the land grew infertile and couldn’t even sustain enough scrubland to care for quarry oris.
With the continual growth of Last Notch, the property was soon re-purposed into a hatchery with more stone and brick extensions added to match the original farm building. Stone sculpted from the nearby quarry now dots what was once an ori pasture, serving as a massive playground for the wynglings to play on (and glide between in some cases). Fences surround the property to give the wyngling clear boundaries, and there are always quite a few hatchery nannies around to make sure naughty wynglings don’t go trying to sneak out to the quarry or other nearby ori farms. Lastly, the hatchery is known for its grand entrance, the path to the main building surrounded by imported bavilda horned trees, entwining their branches together to create quite the magnificent (and somewhat eerie) display.
The Wyngling Ranch has steeper adoption fees and protocols for their hatchery, with rigorous schedules for their wynglings and activities they must follow. There is actually a law that prohibits selling or throwing away unwanted eggs, and major jail time/heavy fees are applied to anyone caught doing so. Many unprepared parents end up needing to fork over a lot of coin to abandon them at the Wyngling Ranch.
Tal’baa Gumbuckle is the manager and head "hatchery mom” of the Wyngling Ranch, but is not often seen at the ranch herself. She makes sure that everything runs smoothly when she does come by though, and the caretakers are always on top of touching things up to perfection when they know Tal'baa is coming by.
"Gumbuckle Manor"
Home to the Gumbuckles! Mostly immediate family, although some extended family stay at times. This is also known as the biggest party house, as elaborate social gatherings of all the business owners come together and mingle. Many wild stories have rumored to have happened here.
Residents:
"King" Huepoe
Gumbuckle manor is located in an isolated area in between the quarry and the largest ori ranch in Last Notch.
Although the Gumbuckle's have their own private ori ranch, it's much smaller and exclusive to higher ups. Their manor and surrounding area is thus always decorated.
The main use for the manor is that of dinner parties and business trades, although it seems like everyone in town has some wild story about a visit at the manor. Most of this is due to the youngest son, Barney, and his elaborate parties and get-togethers with friends.
The manor is well secured, and almost a 4th of the city's guards are usually posted in this location specifically. Needless to say, the Gumbuckles do enjoy their privacy and security.