:: Random Location—Fairgrounds of the Emerald Overlord ::

Fairgrounds of the Emerald Overlord

by Wm Jay Carter III, 6/16/15

Attraction: Maypole

Nation: Ranai

Condition: Barren, Maintained

Weather: Strangely Cold

Color: Emerald Green

Keyword: Overlord

Ignoring the signs that clearly discourage wandering off the path, you leave the well-traveled road behind and plunge into the forest. You abruptly stop short as a piercing pain shoots through your foot—a razor-thin blade of grass has lived up to its once-metaphorical (now literal) description. Looking closer, you see that the blade retains the vibrant green of grass, but now shimmers like a perfectly cut emerald, and—as your foot can now attest—is just as hard.

Proceeding on stilts as you were wisely instructed, you enter a clearing full of such emerald grass. Within the clearing, you see a joyous celebration in progress—children playing field games, maidens dancing around a maypole, and vendors selling sugar crystal candy. At least, you assume it was sugar crystal candy at some point, just as you assume the occasion was joyous… You shiver in your skin; everyone and everything in the clearing has been turned to hard, cold emerald...just like the grass.

:: Random Location—The Lincean Lexicon ::

The Lincean Lexicon

by Wm Jay Carter III, 6/12/15

a zephyr

Attraction: Aviary

Nation: Leonian

Condition: Simple, Charred

Weather: Nor’wester

Color: Salmon

Keyword: Lexicon

Rubbing your head, you awaken to the howling of the wind as it blasts across the treetops, shaking the leaves in a raucous rustle much like the roar of the ocean. You discover that your bed is actually a large wooden platform swaying high above the forest canopy on a pole thicker than the trunks of the surrounding trees. There are no bars, no walls to hold you prisoner; only the staggering height and the blasting wind.

As you look around you see there are other platforms, other prisoners. One is a desperate siren with salmon-colored scales, busy pleading with her platform in a language you don’t understand. As she turns, however, you realize that she is not a siren but a zephyr whose wings have been clipped, explaining why she had not flown away already. Likely the blasting wind is her vain attempt to topple her pole and secure a gentler descent.

Another platform bears an actual córean, asleep, wings also clipped. A third is empty, but the charred black patch on it makes you think a phoenix might have been there once, its wings also clipped no doubt...before it burned itself alive and its ashes were scattered. Well, you reason despondently, at least it escaped.

:: Random Location—Slasher's Circle ::

Slasher’s Circle

by Wm Jay Carter III, 5/23/15

Attraction: Arena

Weather: Muggy

Conditions: Small, Simple

Color: Pastel Red

Keyword: Slash

Wiping the sweat from your brow, you come upon the rubble of a fallen building. Traversing a cleared path in the debris, you see that the center has been swept to the dirt foundation, making an ideal place for several young combatants to play-fight without interruption. As one girl lunges with a “spear” fashioned from a broom handle and a damp sponge, her opponent staggers away with a dab of pastel red paint on his clothes. Thus “wounded,” he falls to the ground, acting out a gruesome demise. Only then do you realize the true purpose for the whole performance, for the adult spectators sitting atop the rubble now stand, alternately cheer or sulk, and begin exchanging money.

:: Random Location—Hortus Mortem ::

Hortus Mortem

by Wm Jay Carter III, 5/19/15

Attraction: Park/Promenade

Weather: Dusty

Conditions: Inviting, Barren

Color: Bright Blue

Keyword: Venom

Tired, your feet plod on across the barren sand. Parched, your lips crack a little more. Blinded, your eyes squint into the burning reflection of the sun glinting off...water? Your eyes focus, taking in the slightly denser haze off in the distance. A hasty shuffle brings you at last to the edge of a lush oasis. You bat a large palm leaf, shaking loose a spray of dust, proving to yourself that this place is not simply a product of the heat. Past the foliage, you quickly arrive at the blessed lake that waits, silently inviting the thirsty to drink of its bright blue liquid.

:: Random Location—Aviary of the Éan Sídhe ::

Aviary of the Éan Sídhe

by Wm Jay Carter III, 5/12/15

Attraction: Aviary

Weather: Damp

Conditions: Vacant, Wild

Color: Seafoam Green

Keyword: Awesome

As you crest the peak of the seaside cliffs you are met with the largest birdcage you have ever seen, easily matching a two-storey mansion in height. Composed of not only one, but dozens of cages of cascading sizes, the whole must be taken together as a labyrinth of barred-off spaces carpeted with patches of green-and-purple heather and bright golden-haired lichen. With a framework of cold-wrought silver and draped in a mesh of thin gold links, the expansive aviary sparkles in the foamy splash of the sea and the light of the setting sun. As the crash of the waves dies, a faint twittering reaches your ears. Yet, eerily, you see no birds anywhere...