Martin Goldcastle first suggested the name, and it was for dark reasons the first Exile settlers in Algoroc - well, the first who weren't here strictly to mine the place dry - called their new home Gallow. For like any group of people, there were good among the new settlers, and a few of the bad as well. In the case of Gallow's founding, the bad were pretty bad indeed, and it meant the good folk who wanted to live here had to build a gallows before they even built the first home alongside the dusty thoroughfare.

We didn't even have a peacekeeper in town then, which made folk vulnerable to the worst kind of instincts humans got. The worst of the lot was a fellow name of Crowe and his family full of ne'er-do-wells and murderous thugs. Old Pappy Crowe had raised all his children mean and nasty, turning them into more a gang than a family. Eventually, all you had to do to earn the name "Crowe" was do something wicked on Pappy's orders.

So, expecting trouble, the town founders rounded up all the Crowes in town and told them they should take their business elsewhere. Naturally, this didn't go over so well, and Pappy sent two of his biggest - Alf Crowe and his bigger brother Ugor - to burn down the tents and temporary structures that made up the as-yet-unnamed settlement. But the people of this new settlement were still Exiles, and Exiles fight for what's theirs, whether it's a three-hundred-year-old starship or a spot of dirt on a distant planet they aim to call home. The settlers caught Alf and Ugor in the act and built the first permanent structure in town: the gallows what gave the place its name.

Pappy Crowe didn't like it much, but the folk of Gallow - as it was now called - had made their point. Pappy took his family up to the hills and stayed mostly out of town business. Folk here don't want any trouble with slush, that nasty drink what the Crowes seem to specialize in, and the Crowes are keeping to themselves. Some say they've made contact with another criminal group, others that the Crowes are just making so much gold selling their foul brew offworld that they just ain't got time to bother with Gallow anymore. And a lot of folk say Pappy's running with the Krogg now and the Darkspur Cartel's the ones really pulling the strings. We'll just see about that.

If you ask this chronicler, this is a situation what can't hold. Pappy Crowe's always been one to hold a grudge, and he's had plenty of time to nurse this one. As I write this, a lot of folk are saying that our new peacekeeper can't show up soon enough. This chronicler tends to agree.