## Region ![[Malk Regional 2.jpg]] ### The Village Malk The village sits on a small peninsula that locals call the claw. the claw was historically a fishing and water-margin subsistence community, but a few generations ago, due to its unique geology and favorable microclimate, Malk became a site of "investment opportunity" to service the empires need for a port in the region. A larger road was built to connect to The Claw, and the port was built. #### 1. Little Nipper (Westclaw) Little nipper is a massive rock slab. Until the ports construction it was a Molusc fishing and aquaculture site but shallow topsoil, a lack of trees meant most of the villagers lived on Big Claw which had better agricultural affordances. ##### The Quay An unusual a port. a wide shallows but a sharp cliff drops off into deep waters has necessitated that the piers are built out almost a kilometer from the shore. ##### The Beckon A kind of church/prison/lighthouse/panopticon port authority that was built to protect The Quay. This is also the garrison for troops. ##### Sinner's Row A perimeter of tenement houses, brothels, and service industry for dockworkers, sailors on shore, and soldiers. Needless to say it get's rowdy. Sinners row is built over three gates that the Beckon uses to control (and tax) the flow of goods ##### The Beds The beds are the still functioning remains of the traditional mollusc farms, built in the shallows around the quay. These farms are operated by the Bedkeepers through an elaborate system of nets, floats, piers, flatboats. From the ships it looks as if the Bedkeepers are dancing across the water as they sing and work. ##### The Kelp Fields The Kelp which grows on the westmost reaches of the Little Nipper is used to make incredibly strong and waterproof rope, which is used to construct the **Beds**, the **Slop** and used by the import and export trade. Kelp farming is hazardous and and ropemaking is low paying, but the rope itself is steadily becoming more valuable and has developed an almost global reputation. #### 2. Big Nipper (Eastclaw) Formerly the main village center, the elevation and eastern cliffs gave good visibility and defensive options. Being leeward of the eastern wind maintained fecund soil. But, after a series of questionably legal and definitely opportunistic land deals most of the Big Nipper is now a burgeoning semi-industrial processing block owned by the Crenta family dynasty. There are still some holdout landowners, but the toxicity of living in proximity to the manufacturing plants has pushed many out. ##### The Mixer A large walled labyrinthine bazaar of import, export, expediting, warehouses, and light manufacturing concerns. this is at the center of the Big Nipper. Around it are a mixed bailey of local residents and temporary workers. ##### The Swag The wealthiest residents of Malk, a hndful of wealthy families and their servants and estates. ##### The Snag A dense forest that serves as an important windbreak for the roads leading into and out of Malk. ##### The Shag The few "finer" establishments, mercantiles, and entertainments are located along the main road between the two pincers. #### 3. The Slop As the local residents were pushed out of Eastclaw, they began building a rhizome of residences and businesses out into the shallow waters of the Slop. These are semi-permanent structures, and often sites of complex social conflicts over territories and historical grudges. It is also the center of youth culture and the home of what small amount of "resistance" is given against the empire from the region. ##### Slop Channel there is a deepwater channel that leads into the Slop, controlled by ##### West Slop ##### East Slop ## Story Beats ### I. Session: Dockside Tavern The opening scene is in the Buoy-Yard, a floating tavern on the slop. The players are a mix of local resident slop youths, young adults who work in various jobs in the village, and this is their "locals-only" tavern, in local slang, grimespot. dryfolk are not "excluded" but the tavern is in the midst of a snarl of lashed together buildings connected by kind of rope scaffolding, and dryfolk tend not to go looking for trouble they aren't likely to be able to get out of. #### Setting: The Bouy-Yard A warm, if perpetually damp, heart in the tangle of pilings and lashed-together platforms. Tonight, a low-hanging mist was rolling in from the open ocean, making the oil lamps strung between the rickety structures glow with a hazy, inviting light. The air is thick with the scent of saltwater, cheap pipe-weed, and the simmering stew from the galley. The heart of the the **Bouy-Yard** is its main building, housing **the galley**, a central hearth with an enormous cauldron of perpetual stew, where ingredients are continuously added to the pot which is never completely emptied. The barkeep, Hitch ("I don' own the bar, if anythin' she owns me") tends to the fire and the fare. The soup is kept piping hot to prevent food poisoning, and it has been customary to bring in a small portion of a days harvest to toss in the stew. You pay for your booze and buy your biscuits, but the stew is always free. This custom kept the community fed, but now, with fewer youths working the lines (the mollusc farms, or the kelp beds) it's more ceremonial than practical, but the stew is still older than anyone can recollect, and sometimes it is almost delicious. The **main cabin** has walls that can fold down halfway on fair weather, or it can be lashed shut in foul. only a few tables in the main room, the storehouse is behind and below the bar.to the right and left are rope-and-slat stairs that lead up to the east and west. The **west stair** leads to a large rooftop deck built around the central hearth and chimney, this is the main social area unless weather is extremely bad. The **east stairs** lead up to three smaller decks the **Bow**, the **Stern**, and the **Hold**. They are used for community meetings, trysts, plots, political intrigue, and any other business that requires a bit more delicacy or privacy. There is also **the snarl**, a persistent and unruly web of ropes, hoists, tackles, winches, and knots that reinforce, tension, operate, and otherwise connect these spaces. Some ring bells, raise the walls, lift buckets up or down stairs. Hitch of course, knows the functions of most of them (but not all). The snarl is the rhizome of the indigenous culture of Malk and it appears throughout Malk. though it is especially rich in the Slop. Players and NPCs may try to use the snarl for various purposes, and likelihood of their success depends on an insight roll with bonus for familiarity. Dryfolk get a -2 penalty (even if they've been carefully instructed on how to use the ropes). **Snarl** - **DC 10 (Easy):** A simple, labeled function (e.g., the main hoist bucket). - **DC 13 (Medium):** A common but unlabeled function (e.g., ringing a warning bell). - **DC 17 (Hard):** A complex or obscure function (e.g., operating a hidden shortcut, or using it in a new, unintended way). **Snarl fumbles** 1. **Oh no!** you've released the tension on a load bearing rope. something *very* *very* bad is happening. 2. **Loud and Wrong!** you've triggered some kind of clanging bell, a clattering chain, or a squeaky pully. 3. **Splash!** you've just dumped something of medium value into the water, a crate of produce, a laundry basket, a drying rack. 4. **Tangled!** you've failed AND gordian-ized the rope. Its tangled and will need to be repaired 5. **Yanked**! You have been jerked by the rope. Dex save to avoid being dumped into the water or taking 1D4 hp damage. 6. **Slop Luck!** It actually works. but it is success with a cost. You _do_ achieve your goal! But the line was old, and it snaps. Something not good (but not devastating) happens. ![[sample buoy-yard.jpg]]