Building Bhakashal - The Marshlands: Fishing, Farming, Hunting and the Raosk

The Marshes Bhakashal is located on an island in a river that carves its way through a gigantic marsh, elsewhere I have detailed the monstrous inhabitants of the marshes and provided wandering monster tables for two “bands” around the city, an inner band (10 mile radius outside the city) and outer band (extending hundreds of miles further). This is a discussion of the history of the area, and the various inhabitants of the marshes. A. Farming, Fishing and Hunting The marshes are dotted with small villages, thousands of them, with the primary inhabitants being Saan, Togmu and Jugyi. For the most part, Togmu are farmers, Jugyi are fishermen and Saan are fishermen, farmers and hunters. If the group travelling through the inner band has a beastial or slayer with local experience amongst their number then they may avoid encounters due to their familiarity with the wilderness, this allows them to reroll one random encounter check per day. Farming Farmers make extensive use of polders, a polder is an area of the marshes where the water has been drained away (using ditches and windmills to pump out the water), leaving behind rich farming soil. Innumerable crops are grown this way, viga rice, brown kalo grains, clusters of plump boghul fruit, the list is vast. Since polders work best when separated by a good distance, most farms are solitary, or part of a small “ring” of farms that share water drainage systems. The marshes are dotted with windmills that pump out water from low lying polders to keep them from flooding. Crops from the polders in the marshes are taken to the city, to villages in the marshes, and to more distant lands. Farmers transport their crops by longboat, and rely on local hunters and the Saan on their black dragons to deal with monsters. Farms are spread out over the marshes. The Glider Network Most windmills in the marshes have a thick wooden spire that runs up the back of the windmill, stretching up about 100 feet above the top. At the bottom of the spire is a large block of stone, and there is a hinge about 30 feet up. There is a rope connected to the top of the spire, this rope is secured at the bottom of the windmill. When desired the windmill operator can take the rope and extend it out to a hook located a distance from the windmill, run it through the hook and back to a window in the bottom of the windmill. The rope is then attached to a hook and the windmill pulls the rope, pulling back the spire all the way to the ground. Once there the windmill is stopped, the spire is secured by hook to the hook in the ground, and a person with a wood and fabric glider can get into a small bucket. A lever is pulled and the spire is released, the stone block pulls it up again at a great speed, sending the glider upwards into the sky. Using this setup it is possible to glide for miles, and farmers and travellers use this network of spires to travel to distant farms, or to travel long distances from windmill to windmill. Fishing There are thousands of fishing villages in the marshes, most ply sections of the river and the various small lakes that dot the marshlands. There are sometimes “territorial” struggles as one village will encroach on the fishing grounds of another. For the most part these disputes are settled by the Saan and their dragons. In the marshes, Saan justice reigns supreme. There are two primary methods of fishing in the marshes. First, fishing from boats, fishing longboats hold 4 people, and use nets cast overboard, spears or fishing poles depending on the size and type of fish being harvested. Second, fishermen use 20’ tall stilts to “walk” the marshes, working in pairs with nets to capture multiple smaller fish or singularly with powerful harpoons to catch larger prey. In addition to using them to fish, fishermen use their longboats and their stilts to travel long distances in the marshes. Jinx’s are often fishermen, or work with fishermen, using their longboats to transport the catch to other places and travelling from village to village, sometimes providing musical entertainment, sometimes joining in with the fishing. Slayers are a common sight in fishing villages, staying there for the night, trading hunted animals for fish or items, or helping small villages deal with aggressive local animals like crocodiles. Finally spellbinders frequently associate themselves with larger villages or clusters of villages, forgoing the excitement of the city for a life closer to nature and to the simpler rhythms of day to day life. Hunting Due to the presence of Iallus beneath the marshes, the animal populations are fecund and profligate, so hunting is a necessity to allow the continued survival of settlements. Hunters in the marshes for the most part hunt animals, leaving the monsters to city hunting parties, city soldiers, adventurers and slayers where possible. All regular hunters are considered 1st level slayers who do not progress in level, and who have a chosen foe of giant animals and a regular foe of animals. Hunters in the marshes tend to use mounts to get around rather than boats and stilts, as mounts provide an additional protection against hostile animals and monsters, and are much faster than boats or stilts. The most popular form of mount for hunters in the marshes is the giant lizard as it can travel over land and water. Giant frogs are another popular choice for the smaller hunters (e.g. Togmu), and there are rare examples of the use of giant spiders for some saan and rakasta hunters. Most hunters are associated with a village or settlement, though there are hunters who perpetually wander the marshes, trading hunted animals for goods, other food, temporary shelter and healing. B. Garudin Several hundred years after the founding of the city a group of garudin who were passing over the swamp found the city and stopped there. Making easy targets of peasants from the city and swamp creatures for several weeks, eventually one of their number experienced a prophetic dream and they were compelled to relocate. They flew back home and returned with hundreds of Garudin who lined the walls of the city until they had an unbroken chain all the way around. Several of the city’s sensitives had dreamt of their arrival, and they had also dreamt of three huge spires that the Garudin would build. Over the next 10 years they toiled to build the three spires (each has a 300’ diameter circular base tapering to a 50’ diameter for the majority of the height). The spires have open entrance caves all the way around starting 50’ off the ground and continuing all the way up to the top. These caves are inhabited by hundreds of Garudin. The spires are 50’ across at the top and flat. The area around these spires is known as the Raosk. The garudin hunt in the swamp, river and surrounding lands and the residents of the city treat them like avatars of Mohlk, with great respect for the most part. A handful of garudin work with the city guard, but most do not. Some also offer rides to strangers willing to hang from their feet holding a pole or in a harness. Rather than warlocks or seers the garudin elite are phantasmists of 1-5th level, and are frequently found concealed by illusion to appear as humans, jugyi or saan walking the streets of the city. They are also involved in removing the bodies of the dead from the temples to be taken high atop their spires to be picked clean by the birds. There is no burial of the dead in Bhakashal, all bodies are taken to the top of the Garudin spires to be devoured by the birds. The bones are left atop the spires to bleach in the sun and are then used in religious ceremonies. C. The Raosk Migration over hundreds of years in the surrounding areas has created waves of fishermen, hunters and farmers that arrived at the city, most of whom wanted to farm, fish or hunt rather than live inside the city walls. Over time a large segment of this itinerant population formed a community surrounding the three garudin towers, called the Raosk. The population of the Raosk lives in raised homes, mostly elaborate tents, kept above water on platforms built on tall poles. Some of these tents are closed, some are open on the sides with only a covering on top. All are elaborately colorful and often have flags with crests of the more powerful and influential groups within the Raosk. The elevated platforms are connected by suspension bridges, and they surround the three garudin towers in a chaotic but connected pattern. There are no mounts in the Raosk, people must travel on foot or have garudin carry them around. The Raosk’s population consists of all playable groups, day laborers who work in various surrounding farms, fishers, hunters, traders, merchants, craftspeople, spiders, slayers and spellbinders. Mercenaries abound here. Garudin are quite common. Justiciars are sometimes found wandering the Raosk as part of their training. Some high level slayers choose to live in the Raosk as well. Beastials are a common sight in the Raosk, and adventurers often pass through the Raosk on the way to the city. Each part of the Raosk operates under a “take care of yourself” rule, all weapons etc. are in principle allowed. In practice casting spells will draw attention, often unwanted. Periodic sweeps by city guards and random visiting saan consist of the only real law, other than the occasional justiciar or hunter that passes through for a time. Pickpocketing and minor larceny is common, as there are looser laws and a significant itinerant population passing through the Raosk; it is a dangerous place for the newcomer. The Raosk has a built housing population for approximately 5000 people at any given time, many people sleeping in large common groups on platforms with only canopies above. Some reside in more elaborate tents, and there are platforms that function as gambling houses, fight pits, supply stores, etc. Anything needed for fishing, hunting or farming can be found in the Raosk. There are a number of platforms that serve as temples to various gods, Kurlog, Murla, Torphak, Aeskaros, Poniar and Mubare all being quite popular. One branch of the thieves guild works out of the Raosk as well. This branch is responsible for providing muscle, recruiting new spiders, fleecing visitors and adventurers that arrive in the Raosk and shaking down locals for protection money. Finally they attempt to profit by acquiring monstrous components from incoming hunters at low prices and selling them at higher prices in the city (arbitrage). The current leader of the Raosk branch of the Spiders Guild is a thri-Kreen, Kalantros. The Raosk is also a starting off point for the City hunt and there is usually a steady stream of people travelling to and from the Raosk to the city. Any boat in the waters around the Raosk with a blue stripe painted on the side will cook and sell what it catches from the boat to passerbys. Farmers often set up outside the Raosk near the main road to the city to sell their produce. The Raosk has many interesting features, for example, one of them is an ancient tree that occupies a patch of land in the middle of the platforms that has never been built upon. The tree, known as Cayugar the Ancient One, has been described by the sage Grammak the Cyan in his work on the history of the Raosk, “In the center of that section of land, nestled inside a ring of brightly colored platforms there is a tree. The ground is flat and looks to be covered with russet red-brown sand, it stretches from the ring of buildings on poles to the tree. The tree has no apparent leaves, but instead it is covered in orange and brown thorns that bristle from every branch. And it had hundreds of thick branches, a criss crossing mass that spreads out wider than the crown of a tree would normally spread, bulging and swollen, all splaying from a trunk at least 20 feet thick. The thorns impale passing birds and unfortunate small flying reptiles and primates, dripping blood to the ground below it, I am sure that I saw the ground shudder when drops landed there … the tree wore death on its thorns like a crown.” The tree is worshipped by the cult of Torphak, and is also a holy site for beastials from the city coven.