Character:
Cindrek
is about the only large town you can find on the plane of
Ash that's been established by humans. It's rather dull
looking, yet the people reflect the nature of Ash itself:
Live greatly and then die out. You see, ashes have only
so long to live. They start out as embers of a fire,
burning fiercely. When the fire goes however, the ashes
die out, becoming cold and lifeless. Such is the life of
the natives. These people try living life to its fullest,
for one day, our flames will all die down.
Ruler:
Halowick
Emberson (Planar / male ash genasi / F13 -M9 / CN) is the
ruler of this town. Few would challenge him, especially
since most are busy making the most of their life.
Emberson doesn't enforce absolute law, as life is too
short to be boring. Instead, he tries to make sure nobody
gets hurt in their constant revelry.
Description:
Cindrek
is a fair sized city with a few thousand people in it.
The natives are primarily human, more sociable ash genasi
and sartarin ruvoka, but others that can survive the
plane come here as well. The ash genasi usually sell
tools and crafts from their homeplane to travellers, but
they sometimes get better results trading with wizards.
After all, if you want magical components, where else
would you go but the inner planes? That's my motto. Do it
right or don't do it at all. The houses here are well
reinforced with magically enhanced ash walls, courtesy of
Felix the Quick, an old friend of mine (Planar / male ash
genasi / F10-M16 / CG ).
Despite
the dullness of ash, the planar beasts are far from tame
and the locals take no chances. The streets aren't any
different from the rest of the plane. The locals just
don't bother. The circular city has magical lights
illuminating it at all times. As one gets closer to the
centre of the city it gets darker and darker, until at
the centre there is none. There in the town hall, one can
find Lord Emberson.
There
are few taxes here, and the people try to help each other
out. They don't have any opinions on outsiders, and allow
them to stay as one of their own if they wish, granted
that they remain civil.
Militia:
On
the Inner Planes, the landscape is often hostile so there
is a good deal of militia here to protect inhabitants and
travellers. There are dozens of patrols around town and
at the borders. The typical patrol consists of 5 troopers
(Planar / ash genasi / F1-5 / CN). The leaders of the
patrols are usually equipped with some magical weapon,
usually a pole-arm.
Services:
Cindrek's
services tend to lie around pleasure, as the ash genasi
tend to spend most of their time indulging in it. The
best tavern one can come to here is "The Furnace", a fine
establishment run by madame Ferris Coalin (Planar /
female ash genasi / B7 / CG). I'm sure Volo would
recommend it, if he could endure the plane. The bar
caters mostly to ash genasi, though it offers an
environment free of the plane's drab appearance. There is
always a party going on here, and the food and drinks are
both palatable and cheap. A good ale goes for about 7
silver while a hearty meal goes for about 1-2 gold
pieces. Ferris also provides information. She has access
to much choice gossip as many of the city's most
important men come here to get drunk. Ale has a way of
loosening a man's tongue, especially in large
quantities.
There
are various weapon stores here as well, since you'd have
to be barmy to go through the Inner Planes without
protection. A smithy of note is "The Drake's Claw", run
by Jolren Caviron (Planar / male ash genasi / F12 / NG).
Jolren forges weapons of great quality made from Ash
mined from the heart of the plane. His method of forging
these magnificent dark blades remains a mystery to me,
but they've saved many a travellers life in a battle. He
typically charges 50 gold for a regular longsword, but if
you've the jink and the time, he can craft a true
masterpiece of a weapon (1d8, +2 versus creatures of
elemental Ash, user may breath and walk through ash as a
native of the plane, suffering no damage). He rarely
makes these weapons and a special price may be demanded,
as well as a large sum of gold (2000 minimum).
Finally,
there are the services that allow unprotected travellers
to walk through the plane unharmed. It's quite annoying
when a spell runs out to leave you for dead on a hostile
plane, but the natives make sure it won't happen to you.
For a price. The stores sell cloaks made from an unknown
dark material, but they provide shelter from the
heat-leeching nature of the plane and also make normal
breathing and sight possible. These
cloaks go for about 500 gold each (the natives may be
kind, but not stupid) and if money is not readily
available, the ash genasi will allow travellers to
survive and pay off the debt.
Being
a burg in Ash to which sods who lost it all face reality
in the most brutal way possible...
Character:
"I
lost everything and I'm starting again with what the
multiverse gave me in return! I'm facing reality! I ain't
like all those berks up on the Outer who live in fantasy
and think belief is reality! I lost it all and I'm
building back from the ashes that were left to me. And I
ain't got a chip on my shoulder for it like all those
other berks who claim they've lost it all and sit and cry
all day!" --
Grestaroth, typical citizen
Ruler:
There's
no proper ruler to this burg, but of course there is a
prominent member who're listened to more than most.
Seeing that this burg doesn't need and doesn't want a
government to help (or interfere) with what the people
are doing, it won't take kindly to a body claiming to
rule over them. But a blood by the name of Est' A Est
(Planar / male pit fiend baatezu / 13 HD (98 hp) / Fated
/ LE) is listened to more than most. Perhaps because he's
a pit fiend or because he's the one to have lost the
most, he's pretty much the High Up of the burg. Since he
lost all of his armies and territory and three (!) prime
material worlds in one feel swoop to his former "friend"
(a former pit fiend whose acquisition of ten brand new
armies and three prime worlds got him a promotion to
Noble), he's been here trying (without any chance of
success) to rebuild what he lost. Since he won't accept
any offer of help or similar "gifts", it's no wonder he
can't amount to anything.
Deep
down, Est' A Est is happy not to succeeded for he's
certain that should he succeed, another would surely rob
him again. He's got a serious confidence problem and any
mind-bender could help him -- but who would really go up
to a pit fiend and say: "Hey! You know that you've been
sabotaging yourself for the past hundred years and I,
puny little mortal before you can do what you can't and
help you overcome this problem." So Est's condition his
not likely to change this millennium. Anyhow, he's always
trying to force the Ash quasielementals to follow him and
their laughing hasn't improved his self image. Est'
doesn't concern himself with the burg because they surely
wouldn't follow him.... Of course, this doesn't show to
the average blood who'd only see a high-up baatezu in
exile and hiding.
Behind the
Throne:
There's
nobody here that would even try to manipulate a pit fiend
(they don't know how he's feeling and he's still as smart
as ever and his claws haven't dulled....). And the burg's
population is to individualistic to be organised enough
to be manipulated as a whole.
Description:
This
place is for the sod who lost it all and decides to face
reality in the most brutal way. But it's a lie berk! The
dark of it is that all here are trying to give themselves
an excuse not to try again. See, around here there ain't
much to work with and so they can't fail or lose again
since there ain't anything to fail at or lose. Every
thing around here has already been lost, it's been burnt
and there ain't anything but ash left.
The
centre of town is built pretty much like one would expect
in such a place as Ash: it's built on and from the solid
ash and lies in a big hollow sphere upon which any
surface can be stood and so the few building in this area
are littered about this big hole in the plane. A very
interesting and important feature is a leafy plant they
called Ai'ogoth (from some prime tongue meaning life from
the ashes). The plant looks like a great vine that clings
to Air and forms huge spheres criss-crossed with their
stems and leaves. The stem is a deep royal blue while the
leaves are dark red-brown making a it a truly beautiful
creature. This plant is exceptional in that in survives
in ash and it gives off fresh air! Needless to say
that anybody cutting down one of these is in for a hot
time despite the cold!...
But
this part of the burg ain't the busiest part; it houses
only a few people, between 20 and 100 heads depending on
the frequency of the raids this past month. The real city
is scattered around the hole and is connected by a few
(2-20) tunnels around the surface of the
sphere.
Unlike
most burgs who have streets and houses... well,
dwellings, that are lined up around the first, Cold
Reality is more like a watchers (prairie dogs) warren and
to get to a certain point, you have to pass by a certain
tunnel that leads to a certain somebodies house. See, it
goes like this, people here don't want any help and so
they think they have to live alone or at least not
directly in the "city" and so they all dig up their
little in the plane around the sphere. But it ain't all
people who want to dig up from scratch (sure they want to
make it on their own but it's hard work and not all are
fit for digging this Ash stuff...).
This
is helped by the fact that dwellers weren't too keen on
having holes every which way they turned lead to people
making friends (or at least temporary partners) to dig up
homes. And so peoples' homes have been adding up in
different tunnels at different intervals and none of them
even considers connecting the close ones (it's hard to
know where's your future neighbour's house is in a pile
of ash....) together. This makes this burg probably one
of the toughest to navigate in the multiverse, 'cause
you've got to use private roads all the time, and most
people here don't take to kindly to strangers just
walking, slithering or whatever in their personal work.
The easiest way to meet somebody here is to stick in the
sphere and literally wait for them to come out. So be
prepared to wait.... That's for layout, but what's going
on, what's where and what's here?
With
typical mortal determination and grit, the citizens of
this place have managed to eke out a living and most of
the more recently arrived (they won't say it and
don't say it to them) profiting from their
"cadets" darks, have been able to do something else than
trying to survive the plane. Since it's just at the right
distance from Fire to be comfortable for mortals. Don't
think it's like Elysium though, the cold here will freeze
off any part that's not carefully covered up but the
plane doesn't absorb the heat quite as much. Magical
protection isn't needed and fires give about a third of
the heat they would on a Prime world. And if they have
the ai'ogoth to give fresh air. And so, if you can get
here, you can probably live here and it makes it a
beautiful resting spot for the wary planewalker.
Fortunately (in the residents view) rare are the few who
know of this place.
Getting
back to what they do with their free time. Remember, this
a place where folks come who want to start again, so once
they're here, they start doing what they did back before.
But the major problem that any native of Ash faces, is
there's no material to work with but ash. See, most of
the sods who wound up in this place worked with wood and
let me tell you this: if you're looking for a nice piece
of wood to carve in Ash you're in the wrong place! The
outcome of this little dilemma was cunning craftsmen
learned to work the ash itself. This has led to great
works of art of ash, truly a sight to behold! Cutters
found ways of making it hard as stone and the masters at
it can make it hard as steel (especially Galano'an, he's
a spell slinger of no small power). Homes are made of the
stuff and those who can are starting to make the ground
this hard. (Now, being always the practical basher, I
wonder if I could persuade Steelmar, that's a smith I
drank with a few times, to make me arrows of the colder
ash...?)
Seeing
that they have an endless supply of material, homes are,
for those who can manage it or pay for it, great works of
art. The interiors are usually comfortable (if chilly)
and practical (remember these are bashers who work hard,
even by Bytopian standards). Usually, covering every wall
and floors is a necessity if you want to be able to take
off your shoes without catching frostbite. The beds are
pilled with furs and anything that remotely warm and many
sleep with their clothes on. Every house has its ai'ogoth
in a special room full of holes to connect it to the
other rooms. Food is never cooked here since it freezes
up before you can eat it and consists mainly of an animal
cleverly named the "ash whale" because it lives in Ash
and... it looks like a prime whale (such originality!)
"Drinks" are stored individually and then heated to a
slush like consistency before serving, and are most often
sap from a ai'ogoth which is harvested exclusively from
personal growth. Hot drinks just aren't worth the
price!
Another
interesting trait about the people here is their open
indifference to people's troubles. If they see another
struggle with a heavy bag, no one will try and help him.
See it's the mind of the viewer that they wouldn't want
to be helped without asking and so they return the
favour. Thing is, people are happy with this... But if
one does ask for help, it's considered bad form to refuse
but politeness obliges the helper to keep on saying that
it must be impossible to do since he needs his help and
he knows how independent he is, etc... Asking for help is
the equivalent of begging for a living in Bytopia in
regards to social status.
Since
this is such a (relatively speaking) nice spot, other
groups of creatures have started to gather up.... And one
of them seees the place as a very pleasant place to
own... A powerful ash genasi fighter got hold of a
medallion that lets him charm monsters and he's
"recruited" quite a few hordes of rast, with which he has
a special affinity, around himself. Why he won't enter
the town as a peaceful citizen is still dark, as is his
presence to all but three townsfolk (and two have left).
All folks know is that rasts seem to be attacking every
second step since a week. Many folk have left trough a
portal not to far away with the help of a few friendly
ash quasielementals rejoiced in seeing mortals leaving
their plane and sorry to see that not all were leaving.
Currently, the towns population is of 37 in the Sphere
part and 200+ (who knows exactly) in the Warrens. Most
people in the Warrens haven't been attacked while those
who were in the rasts' way to reach the Sphere are either
gone or lost. (There's plenty of interesting stuff to
find in there if a basher ain't got too strong a moral
code...)
Now
that you've heard about it and had time to let it turn in
your head for a little while (unless you ain't read what
I wrote), why are most bashers here former wood workers?
See, it goes like this: when sods see their shops go up
in flames and they truly feel they lost everything and
they got this ultimate conviction that they'll start
again from the ashes if they have to, sometimes the smoke
and falling ashes become a portal. It's like the falling
ash creates a great portal and the will to start again
from scratch is the key. And, apparently, since
blacksmiths workshops tend to ignite rather well too
there's quite a few smiths as well. Most are workers
since otherwise, it would be lost dreams they would
mourn, not lost work and material. Curiously, no prime as
ever been "brought" here this way. Probably has to do
with the planar malleability of the Outer planes or some
such.
Services:
The
greatest service here is crafted ash. It can be sold for
a hefty purse to the right buyer in the Cage and if my
friend accepts my request, it can't be to long before
another basher gets the idea and we might be looking at a
new export.
Food
and drink can be purchased along with a bed in the only
(nameless) Inn of the place with the only inscription
"Outsiders here" with an arrow pointing to the door. The
Inn is mostly a drinking place and has only three rooms
and no stables.
Trade
is conducted on an individual basis and they don't want
to make the towns presence known and so they trade almost
exclusively with other citizens in the Sphere. They
really dig their own graves deep!
