"Life in Nettle Springs is pretty great. Cool at nights and warm in the day, panoramic view of old and tired mountains to the northwest and a forested creek to the south. Pretty good biking trails.

Pretty great.

Pretty.

Great.

I-  ... I've been lying to you. Life in Nettle Springs isn't that great. When I first moved here, after that Christmas when my dad Eddie Senior died six years ago, Nettle Springs was heaven, but since then, I don't know, I feel like I've seen something I shouldn't have. A glimpse beyond the fire painting shadows on the cave wall.

It's a hungry town, it's very hungry, but it's not hungry in a scary "I'm gonna eat you" way.

It's more like those fly trap plants in the swamps, the ones that are perfectly vibrant green like the others, but they've got that awful nectar, this insidious liquid that calls to everything around it to drinkdrinkdrink, and before you know it you're drowning in it, about to be digested as a snack for a patient predator.

That's Nettle Springs. It's a weird town, and it attracts weird people. But I'm telling you, I promise you, I swear on my father's grave to you all, all of that weirdness has an awful cost, and you aren't going to notice it until it's too late.

Just...just try to remember what I've told you. You're going to arrive here and you're going to fall in love or finish the piece of music you've been working on, gonna find a shade of green you never knew existed, going to learn what you've been wanting to know and confront those ugly truths you can't bear to face anywhere else. And you're going to love it. Going to call Nettle Springs home.

But it's not. It's not home.

This place is hell."

Eddie Junior

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"First off, I want to warn you about that Eddie Junior guy. He's got his heart in the right place. Just wants to help, like me, but Eddie Junior's a bit touched in the head. You know, we can't call guys like Eddie Junior crazy anymore, but if we could, we'd say he's fuckin' nuts.

Nah, you don't need help. You need information. And that's what I'm going to share. Information about Nettle Springs.

It's a small town nestled comfortably in the foothills of the Appalachians, somewhere in Pennsylvania. It's managed to remain a small town without the poisons of poverty and hard drugs and has a pretty vigorous economy. While the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor work hard to ensure the town stays exactly as it has for the last fifty years, they invite new businesses and citizens who can add a (tasteful) addition to their little town.

It's kind of an artsy town, has an, uh, an undercurrent of weird electrifying everything. Don't worry, the people bathe here, and you're not about to find a commune full of those fuckin' hippies anywhere. But you'll find people doing what they love to do and telling the whole world to go to hell if they don't like it.

Don't expect to buy a burger from McDonalds in Nettle Springs or pick up suspiciously cheap shit at a Wal-Mart, and good luck finding a snooty coffee house that serves cups of high-priced and organically sourced espresso. Nettle Springs doesn't want that.

What Nettle Springs does have is classically styled diners neighbored with a modern sports bar staffed by scantily clad bartenders, both across the street from "Pepper" O'Connell's Smoke-and-Barbershop. The main street is a busy place every hour of the day as businesses do a great job sharing the wealth of the community.

Like, a suspiciously great job. As one store owner flips the sign to CLOSED, the next business over is flicking the switch on their buzzing OPEN sign. The old school business owners handle this like clockwork without a hint of hesitation or question, and the new business people... well, they think it's weird at first, but as their cash registers are filled to the brim day after day, they start to look forward to that daily ritual.

It's like the ritual itself is what keeps Main Street running.

Sorry, I'm getting off on a tangent I shouldn't be talking to you about. Not yet, anyway.

So, Nettle Springs. Totally normal place, really. When you step away from the suffocatingly sweet Main Street it's a breath of fresh air. The place is surrounded in almost-old-growth forest laced with plenty of cool streams and a big creek that's almost a river. The forests have a variety of edible plants and mushrooms to forage; heck, foraging is so popular in Nettle Springs that Holly Clark over at Patchwork Gardens runs classes on how to do it.

Thing is... I- I guess you should know, but it always feel like you're being watched in the woods. Almost always, anyway. Most of the time it's not uncomfortable, just a tickle you're aware of on the back of your neck. But every once in a while that feeling gets real strong, your hairs stand stiff as nails, and when they do... well, just get out of the woods. You don't need to run, but shouldn't stop moving until you get your feet back on pavement.

Nettle Springs is a pretty old town, too. Hell, it's older than the records officially say, and-

I shouldn't have said that.

I don't think I should tell you much more, not right now. When you get here you'll see the rest for yourself. You kind of have to, really. Nothing like seeing the real thing, you know?

If you still aren't convinced, I'll find you again and we can talk some more about it. Just leave a candle lit in the window of your kitchen, and don't worry about how me and Eddie Junior know where you live.

Just be happy we do."

Earl Wellings

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Stop by if you're looking for a sortaparanormal small-town tale. I'm looking for the stars of the show to interact with one another and to flesh out a lovely little  tale. A host of NPCs is available to interact with.

The focus here is strongly centered on creative and cooperative writing. I expect players to inevitably pair off, but group activity in community threads is the focus of this story.

Check it out!