[Quest Hub] Talon Rock

[Agent 333]

Better to just leave it rusty. The rusty part would protect the rest of the iron (or steel) underneath from rusting, IIRC. Of course, it'd get rather stiff... but if you hammer out the rust every once in a while, sooner or later you won't have a chain left.

[Aldus Vertten]

Ok, let me see if i this works...

The Hidden Death

A barge has come back to the docks with a strange load, a badly injured sunchaser, Pak, found floating in the water. After recovering for a few days, he starts to walk around the town, trying to learn all he can about the inhabitants. One night, the PC see him trying to sneak inside the Mayor's House.

If they confront the sunchaser about this, or try to stop him, they would eventually learn the reason he is in the town. For the last few years he has been tracking Rioch, a very dangerous killer, responsible of the death of their parents when he was just a child. The last clues he gathered make him believe that s/he left the criminal live and is trying to live as a respectable elder in Talon rock. Problem is, he doesn't really know who is Rioch, his aspect or even the gender.

Who is really Rioch? And why he retired in Talon Rock? From the info he has gathered in the last few days, he has  a few principal suspects...

- Idoia, the local judge. A very strong woman, that even in her late fifties is feared around.
- Katho, the owner of the Rising Sun Inn. There's a reason why the bar has a good reputation. Nobody messes with him...

and a few more i have yet to think of...

al

[Mister Andersen]

I imagine that you'll find that folks have built some sort of tow path along the western bank of the Crushrock that allows the ore barges to be taken back up stream with a minimum of fuss / needing the right wind / etc, with sailcraft generally keeping to the Silverbough and venturing no further than Talon Rock's port.

[Mister Andersen]

Black Blood of the Earth


Scene 1
Talon Rock settlement
Standard scene

(click to show/hide)

As everyone knows, one of the habits if not out-right duties entertained by towns like Talon Rock is keeping an eye on the face of the mountain and the folk that roam it. The expensive & painstakingly constructed farseer installed atop the town hall is perhaps the most prized possession of Talon Rock and is seen by some as a hall mark of the town’s legitimacy as a civic institution rather than some rough frontier camp. It is tended — and effectively guarded — by an unborn named Appleseed. And now, seeing a coded flash of reflected light from one of the precious signal mirrors taken into the Black Peaks, Appleseed has raised the alarm: during the night one of the mines has been attacked, and has since gone “silent”.

NPCs
Appleseed — Special — “Male” — Unborn — Sentinel: Named for the wood used to make him and the odd quirk that whenever he gets wet he smells strongly of cidar.
Ivy Cryingfox — Special — Female — Human, Jaano — Sheriff: Looks to be in her late 30s to early 40s, former sunchaser who decided to settle in Talon Rock with her young daughter, both of whom may be identified by tribal facial/neck tattoos.

Scene 2
Crushrock basecamp
Standard scene

(click to show/hide)

The team sent by the town Sheriff takes most of the day to get to the mine. The first sign that something is wrong comes with the discovery of the base camp near the mouth of the Crushrock has been destroyed, residents and pack animals used by the various mines to get their ore to Talon Rock all gone. As the party ascend, they find the signal mirror belonging to the mine next to the one they’re there to investigate lying amidst the scree, unnaturally damaged beyond what falling off a mountain side should have done to it.

NPCs
J’onzz — Standard — Male — Cat — Mouser: A friendly ginger tabby cat wearing a collar with an elven charm on it, has scars from a number of fights, obviously still bloodied from the raid on the camp.

Scene 3
Mine(s) in the lower Black Peaks
Dramatic scene

(click to show/hide)

The team reach the mine entrance. Clear evidence of a brutal armed fight by the miners can be found: broken weapons, blood, damaged equipment, the stink of something inhuman and bestial lingering on the air. Venturing into the mine, the team discover a newly uncovered cleft leading into a deep chasm that seems to harbour a reef of precious ore — and evidence that victims have been dragged into it. An attempt to descend is immediately met by an attack

NPCs
“Primord” — Special — Male — Unknown horror — Scout: An aggressive humanoid creature of twisted appearance, bestial savagery and inhuman agility. If the opportunity arises, it will abduct a party member and drag them into the mine away from the chasm...

Scene 4
Chasm floor
Dramatic scene

(click to show/hide)

The team discover the partially eaten remains of a number of not only the pack animals but also miners that have suffered varying degrees of extreme mutation. More of the primords encountered above are here, gathered votively around a seething black pool, into which they throw their last remaining screaming captive. After the captive is retrieved, the party watch as he undergoes a hideous metamorphosis, obviously in the process of becoming a primord.

NPCs
“Primord” — Standard, horde — Male — Unknown horror — Soldier: Aggressive humanoid creatures of twisted appearance, bestial savagery and inhuman agility. If the opportunity arises, they will grapple party members and drag them into the pool.

[Mister Andersen]

The beginning of the wiki entry

[Morgenstern]

How wide and deep is the river and what sorts of craft are used to ship ore up and grain down?
Is river transportation expensive enough that the surrounding forests are being culled for charcoal for the initial smelting? 
How thoroughly has organized crime taken over the gin joints, brothels, gambling dens?  How easy is it to separate a miner from his loot?
Check this out for demographic information:  http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm
(Of course I feel like my questions are wandering off on the wrong track.)
[Edited to add stuff.]

The Crush Rock Creek is typcally about 15-25 feet wide and 2-8 ft. deep during the summer (rather higher in the spring) and this is not navigatable. It is sufficinet for some light farming/gardening and is being worked by independent gold panners. Sunchaser uses a 500:1 silver-to-gold coin ratio, so finding a decent nugget can easily represent two years of common labourer wages. There is some serious money in the camp, which is the motive for all kinds of antics and explains who a small population can support high end services like an alchemist and a magister.

The Silverbough is the larger of the two waterways and it is only marginally navigatable above where it passes by Talon Rock. It has been partially dammed just to the west of town to creat a catch basin for logs being floated down river from the Silverbough Forest. The mills preping lumber for use as shipping rafts would be on the shores of this newly formed pond. Loggers work the forests upstream either individually or in self-organized teams. They each arrange for a set of unique hatchet marks and mark the logs they cut at both end before tossing them in the river. They then check with the millers to collect their fee when the logs are fished out of the pond and cut. End-hacking and other forms of stealing someone else's lumber on its way down the river are view about the same as horse theft: you've got pretty good odds of being burned alive for it if the charge sticks. Hanging's just a bit too kind for scum like that.

Well below the pond embankment, a permanent chain has been strung across the river (about 450 ft wide here and smooth waters) to allow a pair of ferry platforms each about 25 ft square to be pulled back and forth. They are normally stationed one on each side at night in case of emergencies. They have toothed edges and can be locked together if needed to form a larger raft and to ease the loading/unloading of whichever one is farther from shore when both are on the same side of the river. This ferry system used to use tarred ropes but an accident killed several ferrymen when the previous incarnation of the system broke loose. The camp had enough money by that point to invest in a metal chain crafted there at Talon Rock. Yes, ghost stories about the killed ferrymen are inevitable .

The additional flow from the creek and the somewhat smoother gradient of the land north of Talon Rock makes the lower Silverbough fairly smooth for floating ingot-rafts downstream. There are several sets of seasonal rapids in the first 4 miles below Talon Rock, and loads have been lost there, meaning that the IS some treasure under the waters north of town, and darging folks looking to scavenge and salavage lost loads. Insert rumors of secret shipments and rare find here. Gold does leave town by the chest -load headed back to larger coffers so those tales aren't necessarily exagerations. A tow path on the west bank allows rafts to be returned during the summer and autumn months with the waters are low, but the number returned is far lower than the number sent down - many rafts are themselves broken up and sold off for construction once they reach the city. The tow path is also used by trevlers looking to reach Talon Rock who are not involved with the rafts. Keep in mind the path is also sporadic - the tow animals are carried o the raft itself where waters are flat, and only deployed where they are needed to pull the raft against the current along narrow stretches. Raft, barge and ship travel is extremely common and well understood in Anmai, as the many branches of the Thousand-River tend to define where settlments are established.

Talon Rock is not currently subject to organized crime, but there are undobtedlty some comparitively powerful or influential individuals in town. One man loanshark opperations and corrupt inn keepers both have their place. This not a land where the rule of law is terriby formal, so if the mayor says somebody needs killin' and the Judge argrees, you're not gonna be hiding behind a series of appeals. Likewise dueling is permited, so if two toughs go at it in the street, people are gonna find a safe place to watch from, not run for the guard.

[Morgenstern]

Ok, so if we're to create some Taverns, Shops, etc, what have we got?  Lets toss some ideas around and come up with something good.

Tavern name ideas:
Rising Sun Inn - Probably a more upscale location for the wealthier travelers who come through.  The bar would be more upscale and have less of a bad rep than many taverns.

The Fool Moon - Perhaps their logo would be of a moon with a face and a jester's cap. I could see this one being a seedy docks bar where all the sailors go and get drunk.

Both of these are great. Here's the [Approved] stamp for ya .

List of locations/business that could be there:
- Obviously a guild house for the Northern Trading Company

- Maybe a hideout for the Sunchasers. Perhaps the town built it for them to make sure they don't get into too much trouble (and so that when trouble comes to find them, there is less collateral damage for the citizens) or some previous Sunchasers set up a place for others to come as they randomly arrive.  (I'm thinking something akin to those little stamp book games where you put one somewhere and everyone comes and puts a stamp in your book so you know who's been there, except in this case, its a house)
The walls could be signed by past Sunchasers with words of wisdom, warnings of local hazards and motivating remarks. 

- Port Authority.  Clearly it needs a different name, but a building that houses the staff who keep the docks running

- General Trading goods store

All good and necessary. Flesh them out a bit and we are golden.

- Armory.  I doubt the town is big enough to support a full blown weapons store, however I could easily see the towns armory stocking extra supplies and selling and buying things from people as needed.

Diefinitlely like this over the idea of a weapon store. WIth the locals being a pretty burly and rambunctions lot, you want to keep the action down to fist-fight level as much as possible. Everybody's got knives, but you can remind yourself a knife is a tool, and not someting you need to go for in every fight. A sword on the other hand has exactly one use and it ain't peeling potatoes...

- Since Agriculture is a large part of this region, I would say that anything not covered from the general store would go to a small Farmer's market place that the townsfolk and passers through set up daily.  Be it food, clothing, trade goods not from the NTC, herbs/medicine (apothecary's typically had carts if I remember right), and the like.

Good call, I'd place this outside the stockade and likely on the north side of the river.

- A church to Avva and Moru.  I'm imagining a small stone temple with a large observatory dome so that the sun or moon can shine in and grace them with it's presence.  At the least, lots of windows

Good description. I'd keep it small. All of the four kingdoms that survived their time in the UNderheart learned to work stone, so the miners are probably a pretty multi-ethnic group, but the farmers and craftsment are going to lean towards Jaano and Ahset. The Jaano split their worshiip between the Sun and Moon and the Spirits the local elves worshiped, and the Aheset kinda do the same with Sun and Moon sharing time with the Dwarf-favored elemental spirits. This means that while the SUn and Moon are respected by everybody, they may not be the principle faith of most folks here.

- A small library/Arcane sanctuary.  No spiraling towers, but perhaps a small building where they can store books and practice their arts away from the public.  Perhaps this building can be connected to the Church via a tunnel or small walled in garden with a sundial in the middle. Since magic seems focused around Moru, then the Arcane sanctuary could be focused on her, while the church could have a more Avva themed feel, and a place to congregate in the middle for special occasions.

Scale this down further, and make it just the resident Magister's (largish) house, who encourages those who think they have magical talents to come and recieve training and guidance. I'd love to have a scene in a wizard's sitting room with the arcane books piled high on the shelves and the occasional aspiring apprentice running about making tea in between their lessons. Incidentally, magical aptitude runs about 2:1 female to male.

- Mayor's mansion.  I'm imagining something fairly lavish/gaudy for such a small town, built more to mock real authority than to be a sign of wealth.  Since the Jaano don't trust authority, I can't imagine there being a large amount of faith put into their rulers, but I can definitely see them building a huge house almost out of spite.  Plus, the bigger it is, the more people the mayor will have to hire to clean it for him.  It would be amusing if it was right next to the inn/tavern so adventurers would get confused which was which and try to rent a room at the Mayor's house instead of the tavern by accident.

Actually this should probably be pretty somber (thought the benefits of size are a good call). Mayors are elected officials, ussually with a 7 year term (thought they can be ousted by mass disapproval). With a town like this, the founders have a huge leg up o the intial decisions (basically setting up a mayor before most of the residents arive). The chief resident may not get to keep it, and looking levelheaded and sensible is a big part of getting a Jaano to take you seriously when you are supposedly in charge, so it's probably not overly decorated with permanent and expensive features. In fact it's probably a good call to have an election comming up next year. Not pressing, but starting to be a topic of conversation.

Love ithe idea about placement and shenanigans.

Oh, and a quick tidbit about Pech (sometimes called 'westfolk') and ogres (called 'eastfolk' by the elves, though that appelation is not in common use by humans) and running herds out on the east side of the river. The two are widely seperated branches of the same race. Ogres will kill Pech if the need arises, but they absolutely won't eat them. They're afraid the Pech's small size might be contagious .

[Morgenstern]

"Ogre burrow" is my favorite concept of the day. Sunchasser Ogre now officially form burrows as base camps when out raiding .

Barrows are cooler

They are. Which is why I'm going to use the idea, but only for special occasions .

[gaghiel42]

List of locations/business that could be there:
- Obviously a guild house for the Northern Trading Company

- Maybe a hideout for the Sunchasers. Perhaps the town built it for them to make sure they don't get into too much trouble (and so that when trouble comes to find them, there is less collateral damage for the citizens) or some previous Sunchasers set up a place for others to come as they randomly arrive.  (I'm thinking something akin to those little stamp book games where you put one somewhere and everyone comes and puts a stamp in your book so you know who's been there, except in this case, its a house)
The walls could be signed by past Sunchasers with words of wisdom, warnings of local hazards and motivating remarks.

- Port Authority.  Clearly it needs a different name, but a building that houses the staff who keep the docks running

- General Trading goods store

All good and necessary. Flesh them out a bit and we are golden.

-NTC Guild House:
I'd imagine that the Docks take up a rather sizable part of this town, and as such, the NTC guild house would be one of the prominent features in the docks area.  The barracks they have to house their small army of soldiers would make it an excellent strategic point to defend any attacks on the docks as well, as they would be the first to respond to any crisis.  I see the building as being as centrally located as possible in the docks area with the barracks being split into two larger halls on either side of the main lobby/facility area in the middle.  This would allow for the troops to be split by shift or responsibility or what not, and allow them to deploy or fall back more strategically.

- Sunchaser Hideaway
The exact location could be anywhere, but I would say that the townsfolk built the building in the city itself, and placed it near one of the entrances or the docks.  Having a well renowned place for Sunchasers is a good way to draw more 'tourism' into their community and it would also double as a source of income and security for the area.  In theory, the NTC could have even 'sponsored' its construction and have it nearby their own building so they can keep tabs on the actions of the party as well as advertise a bit.

The location itself I could see as a glorified house with a sizable den area with all sorts of trophies from the region that the Chasers didn't want to haul along with them.  There should be a big tapestry map of the local region that has been marked on with paint for important spots that have been added over time and places to look out for.  Rooms run along the outside of the Den area and are on a second floor with a balcony that looks out over the Den itself which is actually dug down a bit from ground level.  The rooms are well used and maintained and has space for the chasers to store their gear and supplies while they are in town.

Just inside the front door is a guest book with tons of names of wandering Chasers that have stopped by over the years and keeps a small record of any deaths or notable deeds that have occurred while here.

-Talon Rock Port Authority
A sub-division of the local magistrate's office (which means someone else's house) and a large storage facility for passing trade goods and spare resources.  I could see it being Dockmaster Swint's small home with an office built in the front room and it being attached to a large warehouse where spare raft materials, small boats, extra chain, rope and crates are stored.  The warehouse may even be suspended over a few small docks and have access to the water and perhaps even a covered dock/boat slip area where the boats can be lifted out of the water to be worked on. 

Kinda like this with a warehouse attached...

(click to show/hide)

When I get a moment, I'll come back and toss out an idea for the general store or something, or let someone else toss an idea out there.

[Morgenstern]

The NTC building could simply be called "The Iron Hall"

In keeping with the hospitality traditions surrounding Sunchassers, they are often welcomed into people's homes, so any place 'set aside' for them is actually going to be some sort of (possibly detached) guest quarters within a major figure's home. In this case I'd say hook it to the the current Judge's residence. She gets a formidable weapon to combat the camps problems and gets to keep an eye on the Sunchassers all at the same time .

The Port Authority also probably doubles as the assayer's office - miners and especially the panners, bring their finds here to be weighed, evalutated, and purchased - possibly with a mixture of silver coin and guild script.

[Morgenstern]

The beginning of the wiki entry

Nice.

[gaghiel42]

Drew a picture to help us plot and scheme better.  This took me just a few minutes to doodle out, so I appologize for its non-perfection and lack of good scale.  I kinda just wanted to make sure everything so far was in there.

By no means is this a finished product, merely to help us get ideas going in our heads.  Feel free to tear it apart and move things about or remake it in your fancy programs, etc.

(click to show/hide)

[MugMug]

The Port Authority also probably doubles as the assayer's office - miners and especially the panners, bring their finds here to be weighed, evalutated, and purchased - possibly with a mixture of silver coin and guild script.

I initially read this as "miners, and especially the panners, bring their friends here to be weighed, evaluated, and purchased." Perhaps the town was a little rougher than I initially thought.

Walter

[Mister Andersen]

How advanced is human engineering? For indtance, could the ferry be geared and powered via water wheel, or is it powered manually?

[Morgenstern]

There is a waterwheel where the Silverbough pours out of the logging pond being used to power the mill (which thus needs to be on the west side of the northern settlment and facing onto the pond so logs can be fished out). The ferry chain is kinda at the upper end of the available engineering just anchoring it so that it's under tension and nearly flat despite it's own weight across 400+ ft. of river. It's worked manually by the ferrymen. Burly guys. You do not want to get in a bar fight with them unless you've got serious skills.