Tag: detail

Posted on

The Shining Mantle: Book Two

This evening is the Spring Equinox, Ches 19. Over 60 days have passed since the siege of Fort Midway.

The remnants of the gang of Mons Millmaster have been crushed by the militia of Rankford. Millmaster himself stood trial, with only the Druid of the Lords Wood, Ruddiger, absent and thus abstaining. Millmaster was found guilty of murder, coercion, burglary, theft, blackmail and imprisonment. He was publicly hanged. From him, you the militia have taken possession of a mysterious map.

This map has lead you to investigate unlabeled locations, including this abandoned farmhouse where you believe the notorious midwife Damentia Lancaster has holed up.

The criminal Latimer Eeger and his gang of thugs have taken up covert residence in the Wood where they harass those on the Starwater Road. The King’s Dragons, their numbers grown to ten or a dozen, try to keep the Road open and safe. They are lead by the recent arrival Gitta Lansik (hf).

The necromancer, known as Eyebite (also called Van Xeffan by Mons), is still at large. The druid Ruddiger has faded quietly into his wood.

Lord Segur, known as “The Count” by Gitta no longer routinely visits Rankford. However, the Dragons have made it clear that he is under their protection.

The great Wolf Fence now protects almost the entirety of the Collective. Ning Stagg (1/2m) is the Watchmaster in that region. Regular communication passes between the Collective and the Mitte via the Signal Tower.

In the Northern Heartland, the Signal Tower atop the Old Mill has been rekindled. Regular patrols control the road toward Mitte, captained by Watchmaster Gleamsilver.

The Ranger Azan and his wood elf clan have ruthlessly hunted and slain the elven allies of Marver.

The lumber mill has resumed business, under the leadership of Ilona Gleamsilver, Skank’s older sister.

The former Quarrymaster Mikis Lazaris (hm) has returned from retirement, now that the giant crab creatures have disappeared. The quarry once again produces tons of stone every week.

Shand’s baby was delivered safely, a health baby boy named Progress. He is known and celebrated by all of Rankford as the first child of the new era, “Prog”.

The population of the county of Seguria has swollen. The Taledo’s shipping business is non-stop. Many pass along the Starwater Road, east and west. A tall new inn is under construction. Venturer’s Vanguard is more prosperous than it has been in decades. A new bakery, The Hearthflower, purchased by Tulu Savimbi (1/2f) produces breads and baked goods unlike anything seen locally. Amos Boyce (hm) runs a moneylending shop of sudden prosperity built on the ruins of the old Ulric Scroll Foundry.

Dirac has returned to the War Wizards tower, but attends Rankford functions.

The former Temple of Gond is being rebuilt as a house of Ilmater. When Dain Skullcrusher is not available, it is staffed by a young priest freed from being held by Mons at the Saw Mill, Fujio Izumi.

The militia has uncovered and partially explored a tunnel network that criss-crosses the county. It extends in a ring around Mitte, with exits beneath the Watchtower, the former Madame Rolland’s brothel, Taledo’s and an incomplete tunnel connecting the ring to the Grey Wolf Inn. It is caved-in at various points, or incomplete, or made all but impassable due to the underground extent of Froggy Brook which feeds the fountain. It extends to the holding cells beneath the Warden’s Office to the east, to north of the Smokeworks and west to the quarry. A northwestern leg of the ankheg-dug tunnel stretches to unexplored reaches beneath the King’s Wood.

Posted on

TSM Detail: The Old Fountain

The centerpiece of Rankford Mitte is a large freshwater pond fed by an underground tributary of the old Ranqor River (“Rankford” is a corruption of “the Ford of the Ranqor”) which runs along the northwest side of town before meandering east and heading underground. The pond is encircled by a low stone wall of ancient make, but is well-maintained by the Gnomish families who settled north of town centuries ago, and who also built the Watchtower. Arching stone walkways pierce the wall in three places and converge roughly in the center of the pond in a wide stone platform. A hand-cranked well, circular and weather-worn extends three feet above the platform and disappears into the pond.

The extent of the pond varies seasonally. In wetter years, it has been known to overspill its rock wall. In dry years, the pond has shriveled to a damp shadow of itself, but the well has never failed to meet the demands of the citizens of Rankford.

Families will often queue up shortly after dawn to fill their buckets and water sacks from the well. While many will dip a cup into the pond on occasion, especially the senior members of the community, or those wishing to adopt the mantle of a town elder, by custom the pond is off-limits for other uses, including bathing or play. Drunken miners and adventurer passers-by are promptly rousted by the town militia if they breach this custom, if they aren’t met with a hail of rocks from concealed slingers first.

The Mayor, when Rankford has one, is expected to sip water from the pond, either via the ancient and battered silver Cup of Office that adheres to that office, or by hand, before deliberating on serious issues facing the town. The water, it is believed, contains the wisdom of the ancients. “In Well Water is Wisdom,” it’s said. It is more said that truly believed.

In more recent decades, the Mayor’s office has been vacant and major issues are settled by the Tribunal, who eschew the traditional sipping of the waters.

Items are not permitted to be tossed into the pond or (especially) the fountain, with this exception: when a family produces a new offspring, a small wooden boat with a red (for a boy) or green (for a girl) sail is pushed into the pond water by a senior member of the family. The Mayor or other senior official is expected to receive the boat when it reaches the far “shore” and reads a note attached to the tiny mast, revealing the name of the newest citizen in a ceremony going back a hundred years.

Old-timers claim that the pond is of relatively recent vintage, but that the fountain has survived from an earlier age, perhaps from the time of the ancient Netherese. There are many local claims of Rankfordian artifacts that date back to the Netherese; the antiquity of the fountain is probably the item in least dispute.

Those that live near the Ranqor or the StarWater rivers take their water from those sources, or from other ponds in the greater Rankford area, such as Bentbeak Hole. However, when in the Mitte, most will fill a water skin if they have time. Hugo Brewer is the latest in a long tradition of ale crafters who extoll the virtues of Rankford’s water, his brewery having been built atop the same aquifer.

Posted on

TSM Detail: The Militia Watchtower

This structure, known simply as “The Watchtower” by locals, is one of the ten buildings circling the great pond and fountain in Rankford Mitte.  It sits between the Temple of Gond and XXX.  The Watchtower is a three-storey building, made of dense stone cut by Silas Stonebreaker himself.

The roof of the tower is crenelated and features a trapdoor leading to the 3rd floor, where the militiamen reside.  The second floor holds the Sheriff’s chambers plus some storage.  On the ground floor is the front desk area and the Sheriff’s office.

The basement is made up of two storage areas and the 2-cell gaol.  The gaol features a bunkbed made of stone from the excavation of the tower.  Three stone walls and an iron barred wall with a single, narrow bar door form the gaol.  At least one rathole exists, gnawed low on the northern wall.

A secret trap door is concealed under the bunkbed, which is actually mounted or a sort of subterranean lazy suzan, with a brake that can be unlocked via a secret lever concealed as a stone.

The keys are normally kept with the Sheriff.

Under the trap door is a crude wooden ladder that leads to an open room where tools of the thievery and burglary trade are set up in essentially a classroom. The sole doorway, locked from the inside, leads to an expanded ankheg tunnel.