Carter Post

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Carter posts are stations for carts and wagons that haul freight, serving as units that temporarily store goods for loading to be taken somewhere else. Raw materials and farm produce is collected at isolated carter posts and taken to urban centres, where large carter posts unload these goods for sale and distribution. These posts are commonly owned and operated by guild concerns, specifically to collect those goods that are needed for manufacturing finished products, and then for carrying those products to distant customers. Carter posts form an integral link with seagoing trade, as goods are constantly moved from ship to wagon and vice versa.

Because delays and overnight stays are common, carter posts include amenities for teamsters and animal handlers, as well as their animals. Every post includes a bunkhouse sufficient for at least 8 persons, an outdoor paddock, a tether for two oxen, two stalls for sick animals and a galley kitchen. A roofed shelter with minimal walls serves to protect at least two wagons or four carts from weather. Storehouses collect and outlay goods.

Personnel

A regular staff supports this collection of buildings. Apart from cook, stablehand and housecleaner, the carter post includes a farrier, stockkeeper and head overseer, who in turn employs a scribe to keep accounts. The farrier and overseer each live in their own dwelling, counting 1-7 persons each (2d4-1). The remaining persons live collectively in two dwellings, supported by 2-5 additional persons including spouses, siblings and children. This makes for a total population of 9 to 24 persons.

Larger carter posts may include far more residents, depending on additional services offered. It's best, however, to see these larger posts in terms of collected individual posts, with attached other facilities, for the purpose of determining their importance in a community.