Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #201

Settlements and Sites of the Four City-States #201 

July 20th, 2023 

• Number: 201 

• Name: Sequential Dive on a Site of Interest: West Rift Ventures of Carasta Part 5: Not Dead and Buried 

• Location:  Center of the Narrows between the Sleeping Woods and the Furnace 

• Population (approx.): 340 

• Brief: Despite Kumec’s death, the scholars and magicians continued to, now carefully, collect the green dust. Sarya Trisric (#198) eventually determined that the substance, in the presence of essence, transformed and engulfed the source of the magics. She theorized that city was targeted by some foe who encapsulated it in the material killing some outright and leaving the remaining population to suffocate or starve. The material compressed and shrank as time passed and Aenwyld consumed the city. The residue on the outer surfaces and numerous bodies found within buildings and the few discovered on the city streets led credence to the theory. The nature and age of the population defined analysis due to the dust. 

• The excavation and mining operations expanded in parallel. The attendant Mercenary Guild company expanded their presence as valuables were discovered in both the mines and the buried city. Miao Dewbrow, recently arrived from Carasta was one of those guards. 

• Miao Dewbrow, 23, Human, is a mercenary for the Ring of Hawks Mercenary Company. She is tall and has bright red hair and pale blue eyes. High on her left arm, she has tattooed the symbol of the Ring of Hawks, a large golden ring with 4 Hawks clasping it. Miao's standard armor is leather pants and a chain shirt. She uses a long sword and a kynac as weapons. 

• Miao is new to the mercenary trade and is enjoying steady work. She enjoys her various assignments and the requisite training with others in her Company. Miao isn't sure about her current position, as there isn't much to guard. Fortunately, there is time to train and exciting people to talk to. 

• Miao has become friends with one of the Dwarven diggers, Raneal Axerock, 45, Dwarf. The two of them enjoy geology and are trying to figure out what to make of all the green stuff that has been discovered. Both are single and have made a plan to meet at a local tavern when this job is done. 

• Later one day, Miao is on watch in the excavated city. Nearby a scholar is examining a recently unearthed, green-covered statue of some sort of unrecognizable quadrupedal beast. A tremor runs through the surrounding earth, causing rock to fall into the statue. There’s a *ping* as the solid green coating cracks. Silence and then the statue animates, shedding the green with a shudder and roars in displeasure. The scholar is trampled before he can flee. Miao bellows an alarm and with the help of other guards and miners, they manage to disable the entity, but not before it wounds everyone and kills two. Another mystery for the expedition, how did this creature survive while the population perished. Several other similar “statues,” once unearthed, were carefully sheltered versus inadvertent damage. 

• Geography: The West Rift site continues to expand. The shafts into the city have been expanded and fitted with horse and person-powered elevators to transport people and earth to the surface. A chamber resembling a sqashed hemisphere about 40 yards across as been carved between the two access points. A half-dozen buildings connected by sidewalks and remains of a thoroughfare have been revealed.  

• The mines continue to expand in rift, with two levels of tunnels expanding beneath the entombed city. Platforms cover portions of the floor of the rift allowing for further exploration. The strata, and hence the ores discovered and to be mined, are very similar of that to the east at Deep Mining Station 3A (#23)  

• Next Article: West Rift Ventures Part 6: Grand Theft Wagon