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PlaceRelay

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Format

The theme is a specific location (or type of location), with five entries detailing aspects or sublocations within.

Location -- Author

Text

Theme: Shattered Chiaroscuro

Much of the once great glass city of Chiaroscuro lies in shattered ruin. By day, desperate men and women try to build a life. By night, the streets run with ghosts. Some of the places built from the ruins follow: - Wordman

Chiaroscuro Public Hospital -- Overshee

Founded by the Outcaste Wood Aspect Cornelia Exhilion, the Chiaroscuro Public Hospital was founded as a place to treat those injured by ghosts or ruffians. Born of an affluent glassworker, Cornelia was exiled after spending a large portion of her family's money starting the hospital.

When her flow of cash stopped, Cornelia thought her dream of a public hospital might fail, however, a wealthy young noble thought that it would be a suitable way to avoid taxes. Since then the noble, Sextus Exhilion, has fallen deeply in love with Cornelia and she with him and they have married.

They now manage the hospital together, bringing free care to the less affluent denizens of Chiaroscuro.

A little weak, I'm not totally happy with this.

The Vulture -- DeathBySurfeit

Cackhandedly restored to nothing resembling its First Age glory, the Vulture is a common blot against the Chiaroscuro sky. A jumble of heaving air sacs and malfunctioning hover arrays keep the ship bouyant, if not truly airbourne, and it is usually seen coasting around the more desolate areas of the city. Atop its back are a ragtag bunch of spotters, salvagers, merchants, physicians and technicians that aid its work - to serve as an extraction platform for scavengers, both successful and unsuccessful.

A scavenger need only display a white flag from somewhere within the sun's reach in Chiaroscuro; the keen eyes and immaculate lenses atop the Vulture will spot them and lower a cable... eventually. There's no guarantee that one of the spotters will be looking in their general direction, or even on-duty; the ship is a handy source of transport, but not a reliable one. They don't broker with beggars, either, and anyone found without payment for their journey (plus weight of any goods) is rather unceremoniously tossed off board.

The ruin of the Vulture was found by its now-captain in...

The Skyshrine Junkyard -- Paincake

Certain areas of the city are beyond salvage; no-man's land, death traps, dead-ends and useless space. Rising up through this splendor like a worn shoe thrust defiantly into the sky is the leaning, ratty tower that has become occupied by all manner of vagabond, ruffian, thief, and idiot. It has been a military base, a hideout, a temple, a cult temple, survived three raids, thought destroyed twice, evacuated countless times, and though it contains perhaps 20 percent of its original infrastructure it has actually grown from its original size. The leadership of this group of laughingstocks changes monthly, and it is an in-joke among the thieves and locals (which few new leaders get, and which ambitious upward-risers ignore) that "To Sit the Skyshrine Throne" is a euphemism for suicide. The plans coming out of this locale range from a takeover of Chiaroscuro, to a takeover of the Chiaroscuro thief underground, to day-to-day hungry ghost repelling, food shortages, the latest coup, or other business of the sort. Once, it was a beautiful edifice dedicated to the Skies, Celestial motion, and Flight. There are three shrines within; two are patched over and technically 'outside' the building, and the Flight shrine is thought of as scrounging yard and little else. The only true danger this place poses is collapse.. though some of the more unrecognizable bits of First Age relics are actually integral components to Essence Generators, Light Arrays, Flight Equipment of all sorts, and even fearsome weapons. An example that illustrates the buffoonery and potential danger; this tower bristles with the equivalent of about half a thousand flashlight handles, twelve mirrors, two broken essence cannon, a fully functional implosion bow mounted to face *in* at the tower, and the only functional weapons, four lightning-cast rods. This motley arsenal is pointed outward on all sides, mainly in the general direction of Chiaroscuro proper. The only contact in the surrounding area is the occasional fly-by made by The Vulture, and those who built the....

Previous Locales:

• /DomainOfTyrannicalEarthGod
• /RightKneeoftheLap
• /AroundDiamondHearth

Comments

Damn, I'd help with this, but it appears that I'm a bit behind the times. Chiaroscuro get destroyed the what now? ...DeathBySurfeit

[] Solar Usurpation
[] Great Contagion
[] Fair Folk Horde

Tick all that apply, I suspect. - LeumasWhite

Indeed. I believe the trick is that Chiaroscuro has not been destroyed recently, merely that as a First Age city goes, it's seen better days. Entire sections are in ruin, and very little of it retains useful original living space. The issue, of course, is that the destroyed building material is glass, meaning it can be quite hazardous, not to mention the wandering ghosts. -- GreenLantern

Oh! DeathBySurfeit facepalms