Friday 26 May 2017

85 % of my itinerary drawing

Okay, so, this is the itinerary of Paper's trek alongside the river from easy Mountains to the Islands. It's not finished, most details are still in need of corrections, I'll add the text later and parts of it are missing altogether, because I got bored and have better things to do. But it was fun. I'll tell you a little bit about her route of this unusual footpath along water, based on my favourite foot road from Ljubno to Zidani most...

It actually only got as far as the "Hiye Marketd" in the original story of the road on a rainy night .. But then Paper found out about the Hiye Marketd and met with smugglers who rode a boat down around it. She stole the boat and ended ... dunno yet. Somewhere. However, the Orchard where the orgy takes place is down the same stream and that slowly slides into a swampy delta, where not much grows, but there's lots of river traffic. Further still you reach the ocean and the Archipelago, where coincidentally (although they move in from the other direction) Paper and the Great Orc have their final adventure together. I was also bored during a wait for ma coffee date the other day and designed a primitive aqueduct, leading to an unusually important site... Of what i don't yet know.





Oki, so in the original story, Paper has found that if she follows a small river source off the Easy Mountains (which are a natural gateway between stories), in a week's or so time, she reaches the valleys and villages. In that snipped she has just been chased away from her mini camp by rain and she comes upon a hunting lodge where a human and Elf ranger are cotting and the three get into a discussion about Elf cruelty, Orc cruelty ("I've never heard of an Orc prisoner leaving with their life intact." "I've never heard of an Elf prisoner living with their sanity intact.") and making maps. The two then offer to take her to see Hiye Marketd, which they assumed was her original destination.  

Though the region is known to be rich in ore, Paper marks the mines on the map, but doesn't investigate it just yet.

While she roves, Paper always investigates old ruins, specially castles, their dungeons and whatever towers may still hold any lore. She also marks locations of unusual plants for Fidi to know where to look for her medicinal materials, and unusual animals or mystery locations.

There's a watchtower marking the end of the fertile valley and beginning of the mountain land, which is still being manned. 

This is a farm region, with wide roads, road stops and a lot of bee-keepers. Like all beggars, Paper also marks the farms which are welcoming and offer food and lodging to vagrants. 

This is also where boat traffic is becoming frequent.



The "Hiye Marketd" or High Market, is a castle upon a very steep rock formation, which once served a military purpose but has since become a merchant Mecca. Paper is only able to enter the 'art market' part of the castle and even that only after she procures merchendise of her own. The bigger, higher yard of the fort is accesible only if you are a soldier or adventurer for hire, and there's a lower, village-based fair for trade in produce.

Asking three dubious boatmen to take her along down-stream results in Paper stealing their boat and unloading their wares on the other bank to buy time (and bridges and ferries are scarce), sailing slowly with the current for a few days.

(At this point the orientation of the sky has also changed so much an additional compass had to be drawn.)

Towards the end of the river run is a delta and a marshland, where the soil is less worked, too salty and most of the economy is based on wares-exchange: fish and salt and exotic goods coming in from the  sea and honey, ore, crops and wood coming down from the west. There are more watchtowers here to make sure water traffic behaves.

I'm calling this misterious castle Paper sees in a distance Castle Carmenic, because I love that name, but of course it is from I Roved Out by Rupert Everton, I'm only borrowing it..

The moorland is full of abandoned boats ...

and decrepit, poor farms, making the most of a shitty terrain.

The sketched-only archipelago will include some mythical marine fauna with stories of their own..

The end of the delta and start of the Islands.

The desert area eventually becomed dense jungle again, but that's from another story, from the other direction, with a forlorn holy mountain in the distance and an old tall wall which you can't see from here, but it's there.  Orc and Kay explore it, using the kite, and time travel.

 This aqueduct, primitive though it may seem, was an indication that wherever they seemed to need to travel drinking water was emportant enough to inspire engineering, so, though it is hard to maneuver a sail boat under it, Paper offs to investigate. But that's another story. 


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