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Tal Darkling Creek Camp

Page history last edited by Kirk 12 years, 6 months ago

back to Meet the Muse! , or to the Index

  • 8th of Ardan:  Our Heroes travel through Arim, deluged by spring rains; they camp in a barn that night.

 

    • Aldak:  scruffy Arimite
    • Keja:   a "Saristan"
    • Puliko:  another Saristan
    • Vidan:  Xambrian 
    • Dragonlily: a muse from Astar
    • Digg:  a garden whisp

 

  • 9th of Ardan:  Weather is overcast, with variable winds. The party reaches Aldak's hometown, and we meet Aldak's mother Ardella. Also part of the household is an older Arimite, Jayden (a slave or serf). Ardella reveals that Boker (Aldak's father) and Kabar (Aldak's uncle) are off attempting to get rich at the Darkling Creek gold strike.

  • 10th of Ardan:  Everyone helps with the rich harvest of fruits and vegetables caused by the whisp. Mid-day, Our Heroes head off to Lake Venda. A general store at the lake provides many of the useful minor goods needed by the party. The party stays the night near the Lake; also arriving that night is an interesting group of women with fans, veils, and other signs of dancing ability. The dancers are led (or owned, or controlled, it's not clear) by a Zandiran entrepreneur (a fancy fellow with waxed mustachios and beard); they are traveling in a large wagon (not quite up to "land ark" scale, though).

  • 11th of Ardan:  The party sets off into the hills for the mining camp, following Darkling Creek Road; the weather is cloudy and threatening rain. As Our Heroes approach the camp, they see a stone tower on the hillside, and a walled enclosure within the camp; the tower and enclosure fly the Exarch's flag. The inhabitants of Darkling Creek Camp are amazed to see women, and especially charmed by Dragonlily, the muse. Many offers are made by desperate men, in various combinations of tempting and repulsive. Our Heroes decide the enter the Gem, the only multi-story building in camp; the proprietor, Shaythim, is a rough, aggressive, crafty fellow. The Gem is a very rough drinking and dancing establishment. Aldak negotiates a night's lodging with Shaythim (5 gold lumens per night per person), who makes it clear that "a lumen earned in the Gem is mine". Vidan takes up a sort of guard position at the top of the stairs leading to the two rooms; Aldak roams about the Gem and the town a bit, getting into a brawl or two and meeting an interesting Aamanian preacher, Aarnim. He also meets a party of gnomekin who object to the hydraulic mining being used by the Arimites along Darkling Creek.

  • 12th of Ardan:  In the morning, Aldak discovers that some whimsical whisp has sewn his clothing to Vidan's bedroll and pack. A period of grumbling ensues. The dancing troupe led by Caramon the Impresario arrives in the camp about mid-day, causing yet another surge of salacious and bored miners! The troupe has a Danuvian and a Thrall as boucers/guards. Caramon announces, with typically Zandiran gestures, that he is establishing another drinking and dancing establishment in the camp, to be called the Belle Theater. Upon hearing this, many persons glance at the Gem; the reaction of Shaythim is not recorded, but is probably of an intensely obscene nature. Our Heroes head off to the "East Camp" where Boker and Kaybar are supposed to be located.

  • The campsite of Aldak's father and uncle is easily located. Aldak's father is apparently in good health. There's a bit of discussion of the reasons for Boker and Kaybar being at the East Camp, and of their hopes for rich discoveries of gold and rubies. There are also some pointed questions for Aldak about what he's been up to, and why he is traveling in such outlandish company. Bored, Dragonlily wanders around, and comes back with some rubies; the party looks around a bit, and finds more signs of gems. Puliko is thrilled to find a particularly rich ruby; as he holds it up triumphantly, there is a zinging noise, and it is snatched from his hand! Much stomping of disgusted and disappointed feat, finger-pointing, etc.; Boker claims the theft was performed by a Ruby Zipper, some kind of varmint-ey pest. Keja is able to detect that the Ruby Zipper (or whatever) is near the top of a rocky outcropping on the other side of the creek; the party begins the laborious process of scrambling upstream and onto the rocks. As Our Heroes (and Aldak's kin) near the top of the outcropping, a nest of wasp-like creatures is hurled onto Aldak's back!

  • A fair amount of wasp-slapping, spell-casting and other precarious hijinks ensues; Aldak is stung pretty viciously. As the nuisances are dispatched, it becomes pretty clear that they were magically summoned creatures. The party proceeds to the top of the outcropping, and sees a sort of rocky hole, about two feet broad; nobody volunteers immediately to stick their arm (or even a stick) into the hole. As the party watches, the ground erupts, rocks and shrubs sliding off the hilltop, and a kaliya.

a kaliya

(from A Naturalist's Guide to Talislanta) 

 

  • The three-headed monster, fifteen feet tall, breathes darkness and flame onto the group. Vidan quickly steps up and dispels it -- it's an illusion -- and the real menace is revealed (in a dispersing cloud of bubbles):  Lord Cabbadon, aka Chuckles, aka the arch-devil master of illusion acting as Our Heroes' supervisor on their Missions Of Death. Cabbadon has a good laugh, and asks a few questions along the lines of "why aren't you out hunting the ghast, get back to work" variety. He reveals that he wrote the letter to Aldak from Boker, and also gave Boker a copy of the Seven Kingdoms wanted poster featuring Our Heroes. Cabbadon gets in a few more digs, and of course the rubies discovered this day were all illusions.
  • Boker has a few questions for Aldak, in turn; when Aldak won't provide answers, they have sort of friendly brawl to see if answers will be forthcoming. After Aldak's defeat, he tells his father the tale of Our Heroes' unlikely adventures. Our Heroes (and Boker and Kaybar) walk back downstream to Darkling Creek Camp. Sitting on a rock outside of the camp, the party has a long discussion about What To Do Next. Most of the party wishes to free the Caramon's dancing girls from bondage; the difficulty of getting them out of the Belle and away from the inevitable rescue/bounty hunting party is mentioned. We visit the camp's cemetery to see if it has a spiritual connection to the land of the dead -- no. Vidan takes Boker and Kaybar to the Belle Theater for "scouting" while the rest of the party visits the Gnomekin; the Belle has been completed in less than half a day's time. The Gnomekin prove to be interested in seeing the Belle's dancers freed, but tell the party that the nearest branch of the Underground Highways is several miles downstream from Darkling Creek Camp. They don't have a convenient network of tunnels under this camp (the boomtown has only been "booming" for less than a Talislantan month, after all), and are actually more interested in bringing the hydraulic mining to an end. Vidan returns from the Belle, and there's some discussion of flume-riding, dam-breaking, and other heroic strategems and tactics.    

 

Darkling Creek Camp - background

 

Lake Venda is the source of the Axis River and the place where barges of iron ore and other goods are loaded for transport to Shattra. Typically, the barges are one-use only, built for the trip then scrapped for use as fuel to feed the forges of Shattra. The shores and hills surrounding Lake Venda have been clear-cut and are spotted with sawmills and the small villages surrounding them.  Lake Venda is considered accursed by the Arimites who believe a Shaitan is imprisoned in its depths. Accordingly, their barges and boats hug the shoreline and never venture over the lake's depths.

 

Darkling Creek was heavily mined for placer gold about 140 years ago. After ten years, most miners moved on leaving lumberjacks as the only people working the valley.  The Arimite style of forestry is to clear-cut a valley and then leave it unmolested for a generation or two. A new sawmill at the mouth of Darkling Creek was built two years ago.  The trees within a few hours of Lake Venda were quickly harvested and the lumberjacks moved far up into the creek's valley and the ravines of its tributaries. The flow of the creek has been diverted far upstream to feed a flume used to take logs to Lake Venda.  Water in the flume is regulated by a holding pond built on the ridge above Darkling Creek Camp itself.

 

Two months ago, Darkling Creek Camp was a few tents for the lumberjacks and not much else. During the Septenarial Concordance (7 Zar to 21 Zar), a great crash echoed through the valleys followed by a strong blast of wind.  Strange lights played in the air to the north, high in the Onyx Mountains.  A few hours later, a flash flood poured into the valley, washing away the tents and killing twelve lumberjacks. Those that made it to high ground tell stories of the ground shaking and groaning, rock falls and mudslides, and odd voices and sounds moving in the air.

 

In the morning, the survivors picked through the wreckage and were delighted to find the color of gold shining through the waters of the creek. Word spread quickly and a small boomtown has grown at the Darkling Creek Camp. Fresh gold in the stream drew the attention of most while others found rubies near the surface of the rocks, awaiting the picks and shovels of the hard-working miners.  The placer gold has mostly played out now and while some thought is given to hard rock mines, a new invention from the Exarch - hydraulic mining - has kept the gold coming into the Camp.

 

The Exarch is represented in the camp by the force at Fort Cesaret, established by Captain Kenbarr, a younger son of Count Edrus.  Kenbarr's leadership style can be kindly described as minimal and ineffective, a trait his fighters admire for it means they are rarely sent into battle.  The recent plummet in Druhk violence in his patrol area was accomplished with no loss of life; Kenbarr was highly honored for that achievement.  Since arriving in Darkling Creek Camp, Fort Cesaret has been plagued by desertions as the fighters drift off to seek the riches of the area. Kenbarr has threatened severe punishments for the deserters, but none have been carried out to date.  The only fighters left in Fort Cesaret now are either old, lazy, or clever enough to make money off the miners rather than go mining themselves.

 

People in the Camp

 

  • Aarnim - Aamanian aspirant of the 4th level, preaching to the sinners of Darkling Creek.

  • Boker and Kaybar - brothers hoping to hit it rich mining rubies (Aldak's father and uncle).

  • Caramon - Zandiran entrepreneur, owner of the Belle Theater

  • Dancing Girls of the Belle:

    • Sariella, Batrean (slave)

    • Thelda and Threna, acrobatic Thiasian twins (slaves)

    • Xan-Mei, Mandalan singer (slave)

    • (?), Bane (slave)

    • Chorine and Zenana, Zandiran dancers (partners with Caramon)

  • Fort Cesaret - the Exarch's outpost at the camp

    • Kenbarr - Captain, inadvertent hero credited with the drop in Druhk attacks, a truly hapless commander.
    • Morork -  Senior sergeant of the post, silent partner of Shaytham's, Morork is the reason anything effective ever happens inside Fort Cesaret. Morork turns a blind eye to desertions in exchange for kickbacks and the chance to sell mining gear to the deserters. 
    • Agarn - violent and dimwitted enforcer for Morork.  
    • Kaffer - elderly knife-fighter, lone survivor of Count Salak's campaign (581) to exterminate the Druhk. Quite possibly the worst active horn player in the Western Lands, Kaffer's renditions of military calls are infamous. 
  • Shaytham - Arimite entrepreneur, surly owner of the Gem Saloon (gambling, drinking, dancing, and where the camp goes to post notes for local Revenant activities).

 

Still to come:

 

  • Gnomekin

  • Other notable workers at the Belle and Gem

 

 

It's the 12th of Ardan; on to Flame and Flume! 

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