PlaceRelay/AroundDiamondHearth
Places in and around Diamond Hearth
Diamond Hearth is one of the harshest environments in all of Creation, yet people still live on and work there. It is there in this frozen landmass that people can make fortunes from a few years hard work. But not everyone goes there to mine the ice or other valuables there. Many are there to support the workers and the slaves there. Some of these places are as follows: -Dmccoy1693
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Joseph Reinhorn's Potion Shop -Dmccoy1693
Even small towns and villages in creation have atleast one a potion shop, but not one like this. Joseph Reinhorn has discovered a special formula that only he himself knows. He has discovered a potion that allows the drinker to stay warm against the cold (no matter how terrible) for up to 3 hours. Naturally the miners and everyone else in the city consider this potion a staple to keep with them for every day life, just incase the have some kind of bad accident out in the cold. Reinhorn has grown so rich off his formula that he can afford to keep his shop warm, and he offers the warmth in his shop free to anyone who is purchasing a potion. The walls of his shop are decorated with the furs of a mammoth to help keep in the warmth. Reinhorn is also found quite frequently to be wearing clothing that would be appropriate to An-Tang, as he constantly says, he wishes to retire there before he turns 40. The potion can only be made in his area because it is close to an improperly capped demense just outside the city and it is that essense that changes the potion just enough to give it's amazing warming properties.
A regular customer at the Potion Shop is Urgand Fallins who can frequently be found at....
The Salt Ravine -DeathBySurfeit
This sardonically named district describes a meandering circle cut deep into the ice and rock of Diamond Hearth. Initially made as a line of defence, the Ravine still shows signs of battles joined there. Since the outer walls were built, though, this region has fallen into disrepair, its sloping passages becoming smooth and treacherous in the abscence of frequent salting and maintenance, the structures above casting mist and shadow along its rivulets. Its name refers to the undulating walkways and squares cut deep beneath the level of the town proper, as well as the patchy layer of grimy salt that remains.
Opportunistic ne'erdowells, noticing the town's disregard of the area, began to populate it with dugouts and dens a few generations ago. With the pioneering work of a few bright businessmen (under the mantle of the now-aged Urgand Fallins), the Ravine has since been built up with taverns, trade stalls and meeting places in its less sunken regions - initially to cater to the town's seedier elements, but now increasingly to cater to the citizenry's needs for cheap, questionable or exotic goods and services. It now enjoys a rather mixed reputation, with the local gangs and trader's unions having worked for (well, bribed for) a degree of freedom from authority interference; many visitors to the town drop by to sell or buy what they can.
Perhaps the most palatable place for such journeymen to meet is the...
The Warm and Cozy - SpicyMcHaggis
That's what the folks call this little hole in the wall, literally. A wooden sign ruined by years of abuse from mist and disrepair only most vaguely reads "Warm and Cozy". No one really knows what the sign used the read but everyone calls it The Warm and Cozy. It is a small establishment focusing on warm drinks and cheap salted meats. The drinks are the important part, hot stoves keep large iron pots of water boiling for cheap tree bark tea, with or without cheap alcohol or there are also pots of fine imported cider for the more respectable customer with a pitiful variety of spices to accompany it. Warm milk(with sweetner or alcohol or just plain) is another popular choice, though the quality depends on what type of milk it is, and that depends on what's available. The occasional nursing mother has been known to sell breast milk to the Warm and Cozy for a little extra when milk is scarce. The meat is all heavily salted and cheap, most people think that the meat is just way to get people to buy the drinks since with all the salt most people can't have just a slab of jerky.
The Warm and Cozy is attended by a wide variety of patrons, one of which many of the locals would not expect. She is the proprietor of none other than...
The Silenced Tower - DeathBySurfeit
This once-magnificent tower has passed hands many times in the last few centuries, and the last remnants of its First Age construction are now almost completely subsumed by hasty repairs and tumescent extensions. It hangs over the minshafts like a gulty memory, and to some extent it is. A woman of unmeted cruelty ran the mines from it for some time, although her prime pleasure was in expanding her knowledge of the occult arts at the expense of ill or otherwise unfit slaves. The tower itself went nameless until one fateful night, when the horrors she committed proved sufficient to plunge the tower into the Underworld. The shrieks and moans that locals had grown near-accustomed to fell suddenly silent, and so she passed from history.
It went unoccupied for several decades, warded many times over by the finest thaumuturges the city could afford. Recently, however, it has acquired a new owner, who invites all that would come to its luxurious new interior of fur and marble. Here, they are waited on and can converse with the spirits of times past, and here they are served a chill clear tea that robs the mind of guilt and strong emotion. Though rumours abound of this new woman - some that she has ghostly blood in her veins, some that she is greater still - it has proven most popular amongst those seeking a quiet place in which to rest, and be comforted. No money changes hands in the Tower; all free men and women are welcomed inside to enjoy her hospitality, should they dare to.
The Pyre of Last Rest - Wordman
Not long ago, one of the hardier slaves to have ever worked the ice fields declared himself free when his latent terrestrial blood explosively expressed itself for the first time. He had no legal grounds for freedom, of course, but his former owners realized they were not fireproof, so saw him on his way. As a slave, he had been disgusted at the handling of the dead, furious that none seemed to heed the shadowland it was obviously (to him anyway) beginning to cause. He looked on the reopening of the Silenced Tower with equal suspicion, but resolved to solve the problem with bodies first. Taking over a small stone building and tossing its inhabitants onto the street, he opened the Pyre of Last Rest, a self-powered crematorium. He is now in the process of recovering the corpses of dead slaves, providing them last rights, and incinerating them for the good of the town.
Comments
Ok so that idea flopped; here's a different theme. - Dmccoy1693
Some data regarding the debate during thePlaceRelay/RightKneeoftheLap about wether a place relay should attempt to flesh out a specific place vs. give examples of a kind of place:
- The first theme (give examples of a kind of place) took at least three months to finish, maybe closer to six. It's hard to tell, as the history has been purged. The last entry was a throwaway, because the author wanted to move on (I know this, because it was me).
- The second theme (flesh out a specific place) was done in 20 days.
- The third theme (a bit of both) was abandoned after four days because no one responded.
- The fourth theme (give examples of a kind of place) has sat without a single entry for a month.
Draw your own conclusions. - Wordman
Well, I like the theme. I just didn't have the time to create an entry so far. I think both possibilities of interpreting the PlaceRelay could work, but I think "giving examples" is trickier. - Jiba
So I like a challenge...DeathBySurfeit
Thanks DeathBySurfeit for the minor touch up and the ellipsifying. - SpicyMcHaggis
Quite welcome. Let's see if I can resuscitate this with a new entry - done! ...DeathBySurfeit
