Postfest: Bral Businesses

I tried to do the writeup in a more generic and less setting-specific way, 
so that it can be used on Bral, Dragon Rock or any other "spacer-
settlement". Comments & feedback are welcome.


tauster
}:o)


Name: Knip’s Waste Management
Type: space dump
Location: A small cluster of asteroids near Bral (or Dragon Rock) in the 
Tears of Selune
Quality: -
Prices: -
Danger: 2-4 (4 adventuring on the ground of the five astertoids (diseases, 
monsters...))


Description: 
**********
Wherever lots of people live, they produce waste. Normally, in groundling 
settlements, the material is shoved outside the city or village and that’s 
it. On asteroid settlements, it’s a bit more complicated. Most asteroids 
are small compared to the hinterland of groundling settlements, there is 
usually no place for a dump. Often the problem is solved by catapulting 
the garbage off the asteroid or just throwing it over the sides, where it 
bumps a little up and down until it comes to rest on the gravity plane and 
slowly drifts out of the air envelope.

Thus, many spacer settlements have aquired a formidable ring of trash 
around them. That’s no problem, not even for approaching spalljammers: 
they just home in above or below the ring and avoid crashing into 
unpleasant “trash missiles”. If the asteroid settlement has a rotation 
axis, the problem gets a bit more complicated since over time, the rock 
acquires not a RING but a SPHERE or garbage that surrounds it on all 
sides. 

[delete the follwing paragraph if you use Bral instead of Dragon Rock and 
don’t want it to rotate!] 
In the case of Dragon Rock, the rotation of the asteroid gave birth 
to “Knip’s Waste Management”, and the city has been better off ever since. 

Knip, or 
Knipthegrandsonofthegreatgnomewholiberateddragonrockfromitscloudofjunk, as 
he calls himself officially, is one of the cities most important people 
(...and one of the richest, though only a few know that and Knip tries 
everything to preserve tha status quo). He is in close contact with the 
cities government, has very good relations to key organisations like the 
customs authority, waste-intensive guilds (with some of which he has 
separate contracts), the transport guild and the city watch, only to name 
a few examples.

Knip’s Base of operations is a cluster of small asteroids in the Tears of 
Selune, where he deposits and processes all the waste materials from 
Bral/Dragon Rock. 


History
******
Five of the six rocks have been drawn together by unknown means several 
hundred years ago, since on old star charts describing the tears in 
detail, there is nothing to be seen at the place where they are today. 
The “Fetid Five”, as they are commonly known, are only a dozen meter apart 
from each other. 

All but one asteroids are linked to each other by wooden contraptions that 
look like bridges and seem, despite their decrepit appearance, to support 
their own weight as well as that of the wheelbarrows. Still, for many 
newcomer the experience of crossing these bridges is unsettling at best 
and traumatic at worst. There are stories of people being dangled by 
members of the watch [or whatever authority your settlement has] from the 
rickety wooden constructions by flimsy ropes with only distant Toril below 
their feet visible, to pry secrets from them. The method worked remarkably 
often, if one believes the stories.

When Knip’s father took over the business from his father (the founder), 
another rock was moved there. Again, nobody knows how the asteroid was 
moved since it cannot be seen from Bral as it is behind the other five. 
It’s arrival was noted by passing ships who discovered a sixth rock, a 
little outside of the Five’s shared air envelope, linked to the others by 
means of a tremendous iron chain whose links are about one meter long. At 
that time, the construction works of the manor was already under way, so 
the asteroid must have been there for at least a tenday. 

Even more mysteriously, no rock of that size is missing in the near 
proximity of Selunes tears, so it either must have come from the heart of 
the tears (which is entirely possible, since there is no star chart or map 
exact enough to cover ALL asteroids of that size) or somewhere else 
completely. Nothing mysterious happened after the arrival of rock number 
six, so the spark of interest fizzled out after a few weeks and everything 
went back to normal. Even the name of the “Fetid Five” stayed the same, 
since only five are visible from Bral. 

Since the asteroids are close to Bral (or Dragon Rock, or whatever 
asteroid city you prefer), there is no need for helm-driven ships. Members 
of Knip’s Waste Management use large rafts, driven by all kinds of 
nonmagical engines to commute between Bral and the Fetid Five.


Ecology
*******
In terms of numbers, most of the animals on the Fetid Five are insects. 
Flies dominate the air, bugs (mainly dung beetles) the ground. Scoop up a 
handful of earth and you will see scores of worms hard at work. With so 
much food around, many first-time visitors wonder where all the birds are –
 until they discover the snakes and rats who populate the five asteroids 
in huge numbers. 

Higher up the food chain are gophers and mongoose who prey on beetles, 
worms and snakes. It is rumored that some of the cute beasties are more 
intelligent than animals are normally. Some workers have reported hearing 
high-pithced “voices” when near them, but so far nobody cared to look into 
the affair.

The atmosphere of the five rocks is breathable, but the experience is not 
a nice one. Some say it’s “like falling face-down into the mud of 
Waterdeep’s Rat Hills on a hot summers day”. Knip’s workers are used to 
the stench and don’t seem to notice it anymore.

Knip, however, enjoys completely fresh air in his manor on the sixth rock, 
thanks to the Vegetation that covers every available surface of the rock, 
and thanks to the separate air envelopes. There is a kind of “space ferry” 
installed alongside the huge iron chain, where passengers can pull 
themselves forward to go from the fetid five to the gnome’s manor. The 
distance between the air envelopes is short enough, so the passengers 
personal air envelope suffices.

One of the five asteroids has acquired another kind of resident. Shortly 
before Knip took over the business, his father was tragically killed by 
his own waste... in a way, at least. While he was inspecting the compost, 
it suddenly arose in a vaguely humanoid figure and drew the gnome below 
the earth, along with the two workers accompanying him. The investigation 
of the city watch (the Fetid Five are regarded as city area and thus are 
subject to all laws), turned up the bodies of the three – and the 
murderer: The waste itself had beome sentient! 
The reason could never been determined, but the most probable explanation 
is magical or alchemical pollution. 

The asteroid was abandoned immediately. Magical examinations brought up 
nothing – the wizards divinations were able to identify the monsters as 
mudmen, but no spell, neither arcane nor divine, could locate the them. 
After a few decades of isolation, the asteroid was slowly used again as 
dump. Today, it is used as dump for materials that cannot be composted 
like toxic materials and slags from the smities. The barges just fly ofer 
the asteroid and dump their load. The bridges leading to the “Toxic Rock” 
are blocked but not quarantined. Large signs warn the irgnorant 
of “Dangers by poison, disease, monsters and unknown sources”.



Behind the scenes: All that glitters... is sold.
************************************
Like many dumps, the five asteroids are a treasure trove: virtually 
anything can end up in the garbage – and Knip’s sorters sifts through the 
piles, diligently and with an almost intuitive sense for valuable stuff. 
Even without the compost-business, the garbage-trade is highly profitable 
for him. He jealously keeps that a secret, of course. More than a few 
people have been found dead shortly after visiting the Fetid Five. Most of 
the time, they have shown signs of diseases, but quite a lot of them 
really died because they got the hang of how profitable the sifting-
business REALLY is... 

The lions share of what Knip’s sorters find in the garbage is sold to 
various business contacts: 
The gnome is on best terms with a couple of Dohwar merchants and often 
sells whole container full of unsorted junk to them, which they in turn 
sort out, polish up and resell. Gnomish spelljammers like to buy raw 
materials for “ship enhancements” on a regular basis. Scrap metal is sold 
to smiths on Bral (Dragon Rock). Interesting and more valuable objects are 
sold to Al'Azan's Shop of Wonders [thanks to novamaster for that great 
contribution!]. Many rich spacers thought they bought curio there which 
originated directly from this or that ancient culture, while instead it 
came directly out of the scrap heap.



DM ideas:
**********

Corpse-hunting

The Fetid Five are the ideal place to get rid of corpses. Need I say 
more? :o) 
You don’t even need undead (throw in some rumors about undead on the Five 
for good measure anyway), just having the PC to sort through the fermented 
waste can spark off lots of adventures. Apropos “sparking off”: where 
waste ferments, there is biogas. Highly flammable gas, at times. Or gas 
that works like helium. Imagine the party with squeaky voices for a few 
days (and force them to roleplay that!).

Rumors about spirits and reports of ghostly vioces actually originate from 
the Tavi (see “Clever cuties” below), who try not to talk when others are 
within earshot but are sometimes just too talkative.


The monsters are loose! 
One fine day, a little too much “magical toxic waste” accumulated on the 
compost-heaps. The mudmen, normally just resting below the loose earth, 
become more intelligent ...and more ambitious. They claim three of the 
five asteroids as their own and fight all trespassers. Flying a few feet 
over the ground is the only save way of maneuvering; everyone walking is 
attacked from below. 

It can happen while the PC are officially (more fun: inofficially!) there 
to search for the whereabout of a corpse or an object that was thrown in a 
garbage heap by a gangster while he was chased by the guards/PC (the heap 
was cleaned up and tansported to the Fetid Five before it could be sifted 
through). 


Clever cuties

The rumors about intelligent gophers are true. While nobody knows where 
exactly they came, they have been identified as Tavi’s, a magically bred 
race of mongoose from a pirate city called freeport. [See “Creatures of 
freeport, p.68-71, Green Ronin Publishing GRR1027] * 

They are so smart that they are on the brink of forming a rudimental 
culture. Maybe it was a load of magical “toxic waste” or an odd 
combination of substances from some alchemists shop... anyway: some of 
them are able to form actual words now – and most of the time, their 
sentences even make sense... in a way. 

Word of the talking mongoose spreads out to Bral/Dragon Rock, and soon 
everybody wants to have one. Players can find themselves as Tavi-hunter on 
the ground (throw in “The monsters are loose!”) or employed by a druid or 
ranger who wants to protect or resettle them to a groundling world. The 
Tavi themselves have to be persuaded to leave their old homeland (which, 
with all the food and almost no predators around, is a paradise to them). 

* If you don’t have access to “Creatures of Freeport”, substitute the Tavi 
with Beguilers from the 2nd Edition Monstrous Compedium Forgotten Realms 
Appendix, MC11. Other alternative Races: Chattur (MC7) or Sleeks (MC9).


The Hamster is loose!

Recently, a gnomish ship crashed on one of the rocks. Whether the crew was 
dead or alive is up to the DM. Survivors can be interviewed supply clues, 
while “everyony dead” is more mysterious. Both alternative have pro’s and 
con’s. 

In any case, however, there was at least one survivor: a giant space 
hamster or more precisely: an INVISIBLE giant space hamster (IGSH). 
Whatever the reason for the PC’s presence on the Fetif Five, they will 
meet it (or them – see “more fun”) and will have to deal with the 
invisible menace. 
More fun: If you want to be REALLY mead with your players, push the crash 
a bit back the timeline, make it a mated pair of IGSH and let them start 
reproducing!