Editing Merlin Township (section)

==The Town==
No native will ever use foul language stronger than "Darn". 
"By Callahan's Beard, it's easy to spot the newbies by their cussin'. "


'''Welcome to Merlin Township Sign'''(Sign changes on a whim)
*POPULATION: Living - 8,201 Dead - 5,179 Other - 2,366'''
*"A Nice Place to Exist"
*"Established 1856, 1888,1911, and maybe 3086
*"Home of the State Champion Merlin Banshees
*"Where the Odds are with you."
*Out of sight, in your mind!
*Home of whatever you could think of!
*Your home away from home... or is it?
*Home of Kipp Ashby's famous pie!
*You're still reading this, aren't you?
*Deep Ones welcome!
*Slogans are hard to come up with, you know.
*Home of scenic Lake Morgan and Camp Chupacabra!
*You're making my job a bit hard here, friend.
*Y'know what? Fine, no slogan for you.
*The Closest Faraway Place"
*The Living and the Dead Welcome You"
*"A Friendly Town Full of Friendly "People."
*"You Belong"
*"Enjoy Our Super Natural Wonders"
*"The Hidden Jewel of Lethe County"
*Established 227 AD, Wales, Britain - Sometimes.
*Try Mr. Frank's assorted "Cheeses"
*Don't try Mr. Stevenson's assorted "Cheeses"
*Home of the Sky.
*Birthplace of Birth.
*Try again later.
*Welcome Home

On the back it says "Come back yesterday!" 
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Merlin Township is a picturesque place with picturesque people. Depending on what you're looking at, this picture could be a Monet, a Magritte, or an Escher. Regardless of how you look at it, Merlin Township is a charming small town that has more than its fair share of oddity, and a nearly ever-present relaxing atmosphere. But despite how charming Merlin Township is, it has its share of problems. Rowdy visitors, overzealous pranksters, plain old human error, and more are there to ruin the day of an otherwise happy citizen.

Merlin Township is a real place somewhere in the USA, North of the Mason Dixon Line and East of the Rockies. It is not in the minds of crazy people, it is not through a Portal like Narnia, it is hidden- like Rivendell or Midian. Those who need it and those with an affinity for it may find themselves there. Some people for a visit and some can choose to stay. The more 'in tune' with the weirdness, the further down the rabbit hole you can go.

There are at least a few things in Merlin Township that don't follow physics, causality, chronology, or just plain sense. That could easily include its founding location, the heart of Lethe County in "Somewhere, USA".

After all, it was founded at least three times... Four if you count the time it was founded on the Moon.

Merlin Township is not on most maps. It might be a place you simply go to on purpose like any other destination. More likely you get lost while driving through picturesque countryside roads and pull into town, or you fall asleep on the wrong train and wake up pulling into Merlin Station with a couple of hours to fill, or you stumble into town after a day's hike through thick forest.

You find Merlin Township because it's the place you stop at before moving on to where you ought to be. 

'''"Maybe you don't find it, it finds you."  Shepherd Book'''

The people and things you see in the own are all there because they didn't have anywhere to go, or because when they got into the town, they decided it was better than where they were going. An entire town cast out from what would be considered "normal". 
But they're not bitter or upset about any of this, of course. Merlin Township is the place where they belong. It's the place where they can be a community. If your place is with them in Merlin they'd love to have you. If it isn't, well, they'd sure like to help you get to wherever that is.
Merlin sometimes appears to be a ghost town when a lost person enters.
It is kind of unsettlingly nice town

If Merlin is the place you ought to be, staying there won't be a problem at all. If you are just trying to hide there, away from the world and away from where you ought to be, what you see and do and learn in Merlin will give you the strength to move on in your own time. If you are a petty thug or an unrepentant brute you will experience bad luck and inconvenience as the Town "rejects" your presence until you leave on your own. If you break the law, you will be escorted out of town by the police.

Some visitors are drawn to MT because they need healing, this could include nasty ones who are aggressive and disruptive. Some can be helped by the ghost children giving them flowers, but some are so angry they run around tearing up the place. This setting is much more of a court intrigue type of setting that downplays or avoids combat, and it also begs the question,"Can't the locals take care of the problem without the PCs?" That said, perhaps a marauding nasty might need a smackdown to purge the evil. 
Example: The Slendercat is skulking around trying to eat the rainchildren. The locals want the PCs to mature a little and feel like heroes of the community so they let them hunt it. They fight it, and the killing blow splits open the horrid creature. The tiny spark of goodness it still had buried deep inside crawls out of the carcass as a sootykitten. Occasionally, the sun will fail to rise in the morning over Merlin Township. This is no cause for concern, because the problem is usually fixed by winding the clock in the Town Hall clock tower back up and setting it to the proper time again.

Given how hard the townsfolk have been working lately to make ends meet, the Merlin Town Council have decided to institute a new eight day of the week between Saturday and Sunday, named of "Sundurday." The Town Council believes that offering the hard-working, hard-playing citizens of Merlin Township an extra day each weekend to use as they see fit will do wonders for the Town, and hope that, if the newly created day meets with approval, that other communities might adopt it as well.

With startling regularity, objects left unattended seem to rearrange themselves when you aren't looking. These rearrangements usually only result in a general "tidying up" of the immediate area.

Cell phones almost never reach outside of Merlin Township. Yet, somehow, the most important messages always make their way to you. Sometimes they are messages that nobody sent. 
*Most of the ghosts simply vanish out of existence about 50 years after their deaths, most of the time after accomplishing a major good deed.