Holtsberg

Holtsberg was once one of the largest towns settled beneath the boughs of Mirkwood, though it is now much diminished from its former glory-days. Now, with the increasing exodus of orc bands from Gundabad in the Misty Mountains into the forest, raids upon the settlement have become more common in recent years. Made up of hardy Woodsman, fierce and stubborn, Holtsberg has managed to hang on, but just barely.

Now with only a few hundred stubborn and hardy families calling it home, the last of the old Guard, the Hirdmann Theorar, has raised a heavy palisade around what remains. Some say he has gone mad in the past years, after both his father Theodar and his son Aedenar were killed in orc raids. The heads of Warg and Orc alike decorate the forest around Holtsberg now, and few others travel that way. Many have fled as well, and in almost every settlement east and west of Mirkwood, a family formerly from Holtsberg might be found, having sought out greener pastures.

Holtsberg has a single, run-down tavern known as the Bloody Axe.