Cartographer

[Elijah]

“Cartographer” was a good sounding justification to getting away from the normal everyday chaos of the city of RhyDin. Having been born and raised a native of the city of RhyDin, that chaos was like a normal background buzz to his everyday senses. Life though had never presented much of a chance to enjoy the serenity and tranquility of the country and the wilder areas of the regions beyond the realms surrounding the city. For the city slicker as it were his travels beyond the city gates had been few and far between and really no further than some of the more prominent dueling venues of the team league and the realms surrounding those. Most of the surrounding realms had been well charted and various updates to some of the wilderness regions floated to the streets of the city from time to time, but he figured to lend himself to more commercial pursuits.

It had recently come to his attention that many of the regions and realms about RhyDin had changed hands and borders, so while the geography was mostly the same, most inhabitants of these lands didn’t really know the ways about the larger continent as a whole. Just the other day in his establishment along the river where many a merchant quenched their thirst after business was concluded he heard one lesser lord making quips about a caravan that went a whole week out of it’s way around some mountains when there was a safe traversable pass just a half day away from that supply costly decision. It was a remark that made him curious, and when a merchant bemoaned about the fourth loss of life among hired scouts to chart better trade routes, he saw an opportunity. In a libation imbuing establishment like his own many of his staff had confided to him they had been slipped many a heavy tip for information, and the one they most could not assist with was providing information on up to date accurate maps of the outlands being readily available. Every social establishment did well in good and lean times to some degree, but some tavern owners used their resources from one business to supplement other financial opportunities that often present themselves in their cultural environments.

Over the last few weeks he would occasionally strike up seemingly random conversation topics about mapping these trade routes and the dangers in doing such pursuits. He figured there would be tales of brigands and foolish mistakes in traversing certain terrains unprepared, but the one thing that caught him by surprise was the whispered tales of creatures that would affect one’s mind in various ways to distract or disable you so it could attack you. He was competent enough in some basic melee abilities to get around the streets of RhyDin without begin bothered by most normal mundane denizens of the streets, so he figured it was a start to take his chances outside the city walls. But he had no magical weapons or items, and certainly did not have any arcane ability to do anything, and wondered if perhaps he would be getting in over his head if he tried such a venture to supplement the cantina’s reputation. After sleeping on it for a few nights he decided he would give it a few tries and see what might happen.

He approached a lesser lord landholder one afternoon in his cantina when the crowd was sparse and politely inquired what were some of the definitions of this scouting opportunity. The lesser lord basically described where his land was in relation to the city and some of the terrain between there and here. This landholder was the type who used his lands to help distribute and store his wares from other holdings in other lands. He had a warehouse here in the city, but often transferred his goods quickly to his realm to the north to eventually get shuffled to some caravan or another. This international merchant wanted an intimate knowledge of not only the best routes from his realm to RhyDin, but from RhyDin to many other realms and short cuts from his realm to many of these realms without having to go through the city of RhyDin. With recent events going on in the city, he certainly could understand that even without considering the avoidance of certain tariffs. Even having a small business in the city along the river doing respectably, the addition of a residence in the city along the river and his overhead left him a modest little income to sustain a medium lifestyle, but he would never be confused as nobility with his meager coffers.

From these coffers though he decided to splurge on his first two magical item purchases of his life. The first was a Bag of Holding that he had sewed into the main portion of his new custom traveling adventurer’s backpack so that it seemed like another pouch inside. He was not a stout individual, but he was a healthy specimen of a human who could walk all day on cobblestones carrying items on errands without complaint, but the expenditure on this item he justified to help him making sure he carried enough to be prepared for most situations without being too heavily encumbered. The next item was purchased strictly out of alleviating some of his fear of these creatures and individuals that used tricks of the mind to prey upon their victims. He was told the Gold Amulet he got at the arcane shop would help to shield his mind from these types of attacks. Maybe at some point he might seek to purchase more heavy-duty items like a magical weapon or armor, but he hoped to avoid being in places or situations to want a need of those types of items. The rest of his gear was unremarkable, though made of good quality materials and craftsmanship as if he planned to use the typical accruements of a traveler often and they needed to do more than survive the wear and tear.

So it was in the predawn twilight of one fresh autumn day as the gates of the city open to the day’s business that he slipped out of the city heading north from the Seaside district. His commission now started, as his legs would carry him north often crisscrossing from west to east and back west again and again until he reached a certain geographical reference near the base of some mountain range to the north. There he would meet up with his benefactor to deliver the first report of his mapping with some suggestions of more safer and timely routes. But to be honest, he just wanted a justification to get out of the city and enjoy time in nature and get paid for it all at the same time.

[Elijah]

There once was a large ominous mountain known to the locals as Mount Bane that a few years ago seem to implode upon it self for what many still have not heard as a valid explanation as to why that happened. Mount Bane though was once considered probably the tallest peak in altitude on RhyDin being located as the southern most mountain of the northern range that ended just to the north of the city of RhyDin also seemed to impose a dark will and shadow over the city-state region of RhyDin. While Mount Bane itself no longer towers into the sky, its imploded form now seemed to cause its neighboring peaks to jut up higher in a hodge-podge of mashed potato looking peaks all entwined together forming a rugged bulge of mass at the southern end of this northern mountain range. It was towards this mass that the city’s newest cartographer kept ahead of him as a point of destination to navigate with in his first commission.

The region between the previous Mount Bane and the city of RhyDin sported no common maintained road back in those days and the wilderness that shrouded the region was filled with twisted gnarled dead vegetation. Only the bravest, or perhaps the stupidest of adventures tried to venture there, and no one but some very powerful denizens ever tried to make a home in these parts in the past. He had heard tales as a child and as a younger man of the types of creatures that had once inhabited those lands as being not entirely from this plane of existence. Even the lone river that traveled south from inside the mountain to eventually join up with the river that flowed through the city of RhyDin more oozed some kind of liquid downstream than seem to flow freely of natural waters. There once was a previously maintained main trade road that ran along the west border of this region and the western side of the mountain range to reach some of the northern realms that seems to have faded in places back into the natural geography. It was from this old road on the west to a bigger river that once was the border in the east to an old realm known as Questrion that the cartographer used to crisscross back and forth from to chart what geography he found as he worked his way to the former base of what had been Mount Bane over a period of a couple weeks.

The little river, more like a large creek, that ran from the bass of the mountains seems to now have natural waters that flowed downstream and he was careful to mark places where foot, horse, or wagon could cross it safely in places. The other curiosity that intrigued him often journeying through this region was how the twisted gnarled trunks of trees still remained, but now sported a splendid display of autumn colors before his eyes. There was quite bit of dead limbs and such that had been decaying into the ground over the last few years, but from death comes life he had always been told in regards to nature. There was no doubt to him that come spring, the transformation from a wasteland to a lush forest would continue with trees getting new leaf buds, and other such plants sprouting from the ground to encourage more life to be in abundance here. It reminded him a bit of watching a forest recovering over the years from a devastating wildfire. Still though it puzzled him that he had not seen, heard, or otherwise discovered much evidence of natural animal life inhabiting the region as yet. Unbeknown to him there were still some creatures here who did not belong here, but his golden amulet had shielded him from their prying powers. These unscrupulous creatures kept their distance with a careful watch on the lone journeyman for their chance to maybe catch a new prey.

[Elijah]

Along the south by southwest edge of the base of the southern mass of the former Mount Bane and its neighbors a great orifice in the side of a cliff face about eighty meters off the ground reveals a subterranean river spilling out onto the surface. The water cascades down a mostly smooth featureless surface of rock until it drops to the ground below into whirling pock marks in the ground that make natural groups of little pools. The pock marks reminiscent of a foreign battlefield in other lands where bombs were dropped in large clusters so now it appears like the mountain has been almost torn up from the ground and the wound never healed. The mistiness of the forest canopy about the pools gives a sense that more life has returned here to this former dark realm than in other spots he had so far traveled through reaching this point from the city of RhyDin. The scent of noxious minerals followed by noticing the mistiness came from steam rising off the surface of these pools made him realize that these were naturally formed hot springs.

From this point at the base of the mountain the river flowed mostly south in a rapids cascade along a shallow rocky creek bed. The hot springs pools had to be a good hundred to hundred and twenty kilometers north of the Seaside district gate out of the city of RhyDin and maybe a good thirty-five to forty kilometers east of the old northern trade road that formerly border the old realm of Mount Bane on the west. For about a third of the river’s journey south towards the city of RhyDin it mostly heads south before taking a severe angled vector off towards the southeast and sometimes almost easterly flow winding through some of the northern farmland that still exists just within a day or two travel by horseback from the city of RhyDin. This flow of water that started as a creek and because of other runoff streams from the hills becomes more of a small river ends up being a healthy tributary of the river that eventually runs through the city of RhyDin out into the ocean. The source of this river helping to provide many minerals and beneficial nutrients to the farmland that uses it for irrigation while the region of the water flow in the former dark realm seems to find its healthiest recovery within several kilometers of the path of this river.

He sat on a rock near the hot springs pools just a few meters off to the west side of the waterfall waiting to make his rendezvous to give updated maps on the commission so far and get some additional supplies. While he sat waiting and feeling relaxed, he penciled in a name on the map for the spot he was at now, Bane Hot Springs.