Examples
WORMWOOD
written by wrensghost, art by Banzz
To anyone who didn't know the place, Wormwood was a tangled mess impossible to navigate. More than once, those that walked the pipes by the daily had run across the stinking carcasses of those not bright enough to snag a map. Yet Tallie didn't blame them - the grungy hawkers at the city's main entrance didn't look like creatures out to help anyone. If anything, the tattered papers scrawled over with lines and mysterious markers probably led to a trap, or the lair of a murderous beast.
Tallie didn't need the map anymore, but she took one all the same before dropping ten feet down into the earth, wadding it up in her pocket. It'd serve her right to be two hundred feet under ground and stumble upon something new and have no way to mark it.
Left, right, down, up, left, left - it seemed utterly random, but Tallie knew the way.
"Follow the water," the Misk advised, above all else. The tunnels were easy to get lost in, and claustrophobic as best, adjusting themselves to the size of their occupants but just ... scarcely. Tallie was a whole two feet tall at the shoulder, and her whiskers scraped the edges of the pathway.
Water was the easiest way to find civilization. It ran in trickles here and there, remnants of when the tunnels themselves were flushed out, and all of it eventually ran down to the canals. From the canals, the Hole wasn't far, providing a touch of safety down in the tangled city. Tallie's insides were grumbling at the thought of the tavern's warm, hearty soup specialty. It was worth the walk for a soft bed and Mot's stews.
Underfoot, the ground turned soggy, and it gleamed in the dim light of the lantern clutched in her grasp. Tallie wrinkled her nose as her feet sank into mud. Eugh. Somehow she always managed to come out covered in muck, no matter how careful she was.
A dozen paces down Tallie's favorite side tunnel, something else let off a soft reflection from her light. That was new. Tallie raised the lantern a bit higher, noting the tunnel itself broadened out the further down it went. The ceiling itself was higher too, and strange formations ran down, almost glowing in the dark.
Not stalagmites.
Tallie's pulse raced a little quicker as she drew nearer, large eyes picking out details most would have missed. Had it been this long since her last trek into the dirt?
Pressed against all sides of the cavern were the bare bones of a wurm. A big one at that, Tallie thought. Teeth the size of a Dourin's spear point jutting out of the dirt, and the trickle of water had carved a path down the bottom of the skull. The spine was wedged into the roof, ribs making an eerie shape against the wall, and what might have been scales crunched under the Misk's feet.
What could kill a wurm?
Probably a bigger wurm. It was a bone-chilling thought, and Tallie picked up her pace, fumbling to retrieve the map from her pocket. Another day she could steal back in, pack up some of the remains - a sorcerer would pay a good bit of coin for a wurm's dust.
Occupied with scratching out a marker, Tallie didn't notice the ground well up into an obstacle until she'd tripped clean over it. There was a sharp crack, and everything went head over heels - including the lantern, extinguished by the breeze of folly.
Swearing, Tallie scrambled to put the lantern upright on the tunnel floor, her feet aching with the collision. Gods. It took a few tries to get enough of a spark from the flint stone, but eventually the wick caught and spilled light back across the ground.
Tallie turned her head, scowling, and froze - that'd have been the crack, all right, Tallie thought, having brushed it off as a broken toe already. No. A broken toe would have been a blessing in comparison.
With an unearthly hiss, a hatchling Wurm raised its head.
WORMWOOD, THE CITY BELOW
Carved long ago out by miners and enormous beasts, Wormwood is an gaping cavern far below the surface of the earth, accessible only by confusing tunnels and treacherous drops. Marked by only a tiny outpost above, cave-dwelling Thalla hawk out carefully made maps and anxious warnings of death.
Still, plenty make their home in the maze of tunnels below. Wormwood has no government, and no leader, and the cave folk handle trouble in their own, brutal way. It is said treasures can be found for those who dare to explore the abandoned mine shafts, but by the far the most popular is The Hole. Simply a crack in the wall that seems far too small for anyone, creatures of all sort who chance the gap will find themselves in a warm, comforting tavern full of Wormwood's citizens. Mot, the barkeep, handles all the details, and has quite the stories to tell if you've got the time - and coin - to listen.
Wormwood's primary resources are ancient gemstones and funny flora that only grow along the steam vents used to warm the caverns - as well as the occasional wurm output, assuming anyone is powerful enough to defeat one. While many of the tunnels and caves were created by miners and adventures, quite a few others are scraped out by enormous, blind wurms - primarily feeding on rock and dirt, they are known to make a meal of a lost traveler. Wurms live for decades far below the surface, but occasionally rise up to look for new territory - or to lay a single egg, shortly after which the wurm will die.
LANDMARKS
CANALS: Bursting with strange, blind fish and silt, the Canals are the furthest point in Wormwood. It's said the easiest way to navigate the tunnels is to find any trickle of water, and follow it down to the Canal. Here, waterway Misk and Thalla live in shacks along the shore, living on tasteless fish and reeds. It's a bland life, but they seem ... satisfied?
CENTRAL CAVERN: All tunnels are said to lead eventually to the Cavern - or one could simply follow the canal path up to it. Your choice. There are a handful of shops dug into the walls, as well as dozens of homes snug in the rock, but the main highlight is a bizarre tavern known simply as The Hole. Despite the bleakness of the surroundings, many travel to Wormwood for a good bite to eat and a new story about the horrors deep within.
MINE SHAFTS: Abandoned decades ago, these shafts were the growing point for Wormwood to become a real city. Allegedly, the ground yielded gold and jewels, and creatures from all across Attica swarmed to make their fortune. However, the mines depleted quickly, and many could not afford to leave. Forced to settle where they were, Wormwood grew throughout the depths. Still, the original mine shafts remain, and scaffolding can be seen descending into a void-like, supposedly bottomless pit.
STEAM VENTS: Far below the reach of the sun, the ground is chilly. Frigid. To prevent miners from freezing to death, ventilated pipes were run alongside every main tunnel, releasing steam and occasionally boiling water. Of course, occasionally they're prone to bursting, killing anyone in the vicinity, but you know ... sacrifices have to be made.
SURFACE OUTPOST: A tattered building and a small goods shop, populated mostly by Thalla living in tents and shouting paranoia.
QUEST BOARD
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On the counter top of The Hole is a tattered slip of paper. Well, several slips of paper. For the moment you can only make out one - a bounty call, with a coin reward for any who can bring back a Wurm scale. It should be easy enough. The great brutes are always shedding them ... the issues is not stumbling upon the owner. Hmm.
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