Perched on the side of a coastal mountain is the seaport city of Inachon’s Point. For over 200 years, the city has served as a coastal beacon with its towering lighthouse. Inachon’s Point is a free city-state, ruled by a six-member governing council and an Assembly of 500 citizens, legislating for a population of nearly 100,000.
Tag Archives: urban encounter
Kiselton, Riverside Town
Nestled upon the banks of the Durbin River is the town of Kiselton. With a population of over 1,000, it’s a booming trade center that relies upon its salt mines as a chief source of revenue. Like most settlements of its size, Kiselton has a ruling council and a mayor to perform the civic duties, such as appointing a sheriff, negotiating trade agreements, and collecting the taxes required to maintain the town’s dock, roads, defensive walls, and government buildings. Over the years, Kiselton has done well, attracting laborers to work in the mine for wages seldom seen in smaller villages or warrens. Along with the opportunity for greater earnings comes a broad range of entertainment, attracting more residents with a variety of talents to the riverside town. Its ease of access makes it a popular stopping place for travelers, caravans, and various touring merchants.
Zombies
Zombies are staples of late night horror cinema. The walking dead have shambled across the countryside for the past several decades in their never ending quest for fresh victims. Theirs is an existence dominated by the driving urge to consume living cranial matter. Humanity has but one purpose for these rotting creatures: They’re what’s for dinner!
Modern Wizards
Through years of study and practice, some people have learned to harness the powers of the universe that are outside of normal human perception.
Vampires
When one mentions of vampires, Braham Stoker’s Dracula often comes to mind. As time passed, the genre has grown as other authors have developed the vampire’s nocturnal world, added myths of their malicious nature. This has caused great angst for the undead who stalk the world’s streets because they would prefer such things to be left in the past as it would make their existence much easier.
Tauntors
Tauntors resemble dwarfish humans, with large heads and spindly bodies. Their eyes have a yellowish cast to them, and their finger nails are long and clawlike. They appear in groups, the number of which is always a multiple of three or five.
Soldiers
European Armies
The aftermath of the French Revolution resulted in the formation of mass armies, which were used with great aplomb by Napoleon in his bid for Empire. The mass armies of the Napoleonic era led to the almost universal adoption of conscription by the continental European states, a tradition that is only now beginning to end in favor of professional, all-volunteer militaries. The United Kingdom, ever apart, has a tradition of a small professional military, though they did use conscription in both World Wars (and after the Second World War into the 1950s).
Giant Sewer Creatures
Over the years in the big cities, there have been crazes about exotic pets that people wanted to have, ignoring the fact that one day they would grow into an adult predator. Many collectors bought several eggs at once and let them grow until they became too big to house in the terrarium. Once that occurred, it was a question for the owner of what to do with them. Too large to simply Bush down the toilet, the collectors often dump the terrarium down the nearest storm sewer and assume that’s the end of it. Other creatures find themselves driven below by encroaching human developments.
Serial Killers
One of the true horrors of reality is that evil does not have to wear a monstrous mask to be effective. It often chooses to walk the earth in an average-looking, nonthreatening form that easily blends into the background. Serial killers are urban predators who utilize circumstance and the indifference of the world around them to stalk victims. These sadistic fiends come from all walks of life. Their prey rarely suspects their true intentions until it’s far too late. On some occasions, serial killers make benign contact with their quarry. The good Samaritan who stops to fix your tire today might stalk you tomorrow!
Screaming Blue Murders
Screaming blue murders, around one-third to two-thirds of a meter long, resemble human babies, the only discernible difference from normal babies being a pallid blue hue to their skin that gives them a sickly complexion, as well as a knowing look in their eyes that goes beyond their apparent infancy.