Sarka, southwest farm, the fallows, Klos 19th, 350AC, 14:13 (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)
Silfrarr folds his arms in front of him as the silence is occasionally broken by the buzzing of insect wings. “You say these Reevers are moving north. I assume you mean they are conquering those in their way. If that’s true, their motives don’t sound different than any other kingdom. Please tell me more of them. Answer my questions and I’ll answer yours next.”
Sarka, southwest farm, the fallows, Klos 19th, 350AC, 14:10 (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)
[audio:https://gwevolution.netfarious.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Bachbyllka.mp3|autostart=yes]You walk through the fields of shrooms, and enter the forest of purple byllka pods. The ground here is very soft and spongy, and you feel that the soil and mulch must be pretty deep. Here and there are pods that have fallen over. Some look like they fell down recently, others are decomposing into the soil. Several small dark insectoid creatures with glowing purple spots flit or clatter around in the background.
You each sense the ‘proper’ path to take, influenced by the warm presence. “This way. We will meet by the Awkyn Thorn.” You walk up and down ridges of soil, around mushroom pods, and soon find yourselves looking down to an area where the ground levels off. Several lanterns have been placed around the periphery, but instead of the usual dim yellow flickering, they glow with a steady purple light. Three badders stand near a 3 meter tall black spike that juts from the earth. They wear rust colored robes. The one in the middle is much taller than the others (around 5′). He holds out his clawed hand and one of the flying crab-beetles flitters down and lands on it.
“Good, you are here. I am called Silfrarr. I am unique in that I have no place here in Ukrul. I am nobility without title, an unwilling soldier, and an illegal mindrender. I can sense the various factions here without being part of any. Some of them want to destroy you. Others want to use you for their own games of power. At the moment I offer you peace and knowledge…”
Sarka, southwest farm, Klos 19th, 350AC, 13:50 (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)
Zeebo leads your group past the farm structures before heading down by the mushroom fields. The summary of your observations here will be based on your awareness rolls.
Arvak (8): 3 7 = white. Phallon (14): 40 2 = blue. Ragnor (16): 80 4 = yellow. Zeebo (8): 4 6 = white.
The workers in the fields are cutting down or pulling up various types of mushrooms (mostly the small yellow ones) with hand tools. Then they carry them in bowls (made from dried mushroom caps) towards the farm buildings. Some of these are brought to silos (the westernmost structures on the map) and placed inside. The yellow mushrooms are brought over to the badder powered mills and ground into powder. The yellow powder is then put in sacks and loaded up into the carts, which then leave the farm the same way you came in. The largest structure you did not get inside to explore, but looking past the badders that were at the open door, you could see one of its functions is storage of farming tools. The badders here seem uneasy with you walking around, but so far you are tolerated.
The low fields near you are full of yellow mushrooms that grow up to 2′ high. The badders seem to be harvesting the larger ones, but are doing so in a random manner, not clear cutting any one spot. Looking across the caverns, you see that the edges, and the paths down the middle have the dim flickering lanterns sitting on brackets. In a few spots along the path, mostly towards the center of the cavern, some shrooden supports run from floor to ceiling. It looks like they may have been the tall byllka pod mushrooms that were grown in place until they touched the top of the cavern.
There don’t seem to be any badders near the taller mushrooms to the south.
Sarka, southwest farm, Klos 19th, 350AC, 13:35 (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)
[audio:https://gwevolution.netfarious.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/happening.mp3|autostart=yes]Ragnor and crew march to the west. As you pass the cart stockade, you notice a series of trapdoors built into the ground. Two badder peasants open one of them and say something like “Chkkkkaaaak!”, and a brown pink-nosed furry creature comes scuttling out, making nearly inaudible high pitched squeaks. The badders hook it up to one of the carts, and you realize its the same type of ‘pack animal’ you’ve seen them use elsewhere in the city.
The next two structures to the west each have a 3 meter diameter wheel, suspended just off the ground. Both are being turned by a badder running inside the wheel structure (like a giant exercise wheel). As they run, the wheel turns and its axle is operating some sort of machinery next to it. Several badders are piling large sacks on the ground nearby. One of them, wearing a leather cap and wielding a whip, looks at you with cold eyes.
Further to the west is a large hut, and then what appears to be storage silos. There are a handful of badders moving back and forth. Some of them are harvesting mushrooms out of the fields and bringing them towards the buildings.
The voice says: “This is just one of our many farms. It is operated by the fungal-workers guild and its produce is by law, divided between the king, the people, and the guild itself. It is rare for anyone here to starve, but if you are not productive, your subsistence meals will be very unpleasant.
Explore the farm if you wish, but to get away from the ever present spying eyes, meet us within the fallows” (mental image sent is the area of tall purple shrooms to the south).
Sarka, southwest farm, Klos 19th, 350AC, 13:30 (underground, 65 degrees, crescent moon)
You quickly hustle over to the southwestern most point in the city cavern. You pass under the stone archway and down a long dark earthen tunnel. The musky badder smell (which most of you aren’t noticing so much anymore) gives way to a more earthy smell, very much like the fungi forest on the surface. You see the end of the tunnel, as there is the same dim flickering illumination as you left behind in the city.
You walk out of the tunnel to see yet another large cavern before you. Its a little smaller than the main city, yet still impressively large. To your right are a number of badder-made shruden structures. The closest is a set of fencing or stockades , where a number of empty carts rest. As you look to the left, there are large tracts of vegetation. Well, actually all the “plants” seem to be fungi. There are fields of low growing golden yellow pods interlaced with white-gray vine-like things growing onto 1-2m tall blue shrooms. As you look further left, the golden fields give way to taller blue shrooms (3-5 meters tall) upon which rusty red shelf mushrooms grow. And as you look to the far left, the edge of the cavern has a full forest of the tall purple shrooms that you think are the same ones as those growing above on the surface.
A number of badder peasants are moving around in the fields. But there are 4 badder soldiers and a scribe standing right inside the entrance to this cavern. The scribe, wearing a simple tunic and holding a clipboard, looks at your group and his yellow eyes scan over your bodies.
