Skip to content

Posts tagged appendices

Flora and Fauna: Shriekers

Flora and Fauna: Shriekers published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - shriekersShriekers are one of the largest predators in the Valley. They are typically found where forests meet open space, and typically prey on herd animals of various sorts.

They are pack hunters whose main strategy involves sneakily encircling the herd they’re hunting. Shriekers at the rear let out a horrifically loud, piercing scream that either a) roots you in place in absolute terror, whereupon they grab you, or b) sends you fleeing in panic, directly towards the rest of the pack, who then grab you. All the shriekers close in around the prey to prevent escape. The shriekers at the rear can take care of any stragglers.

When their preferred prey migrates away during the winter months, shriekers go into hibernation. Like most hibernating animals, they will wake up periodically during the cycle, whether to engage in routine maintenance or because they’ve been disturbed by interlopers.

Ecology and Economy

Shriekers are keystone predators, making them essential for environmental balance in the Valley. Get rid of shriekers, and all of a sudden the herd animal population explodes, eats a bunch of plants that were keeping other plants in check, and the unchecked plants completely take over and kill off that one rare medicinal flower.

Since the Valley’s economy is so heavily dependent on materials gleaned from unique microclimates, the people want to avoid making any drastic changes to the ecosystem. As such, despite their fearsome nature, it is illegal to kill shriekers except in self-defense.

How Not to Get Eaten

“Why not just use repellents to avoid the shriekers?” you ask. Unfortunately, repellents don’t work especially well on shriekers. Since so much of their hunting strategy involves running prey into traps, individual shriekers may be too far out of range to ward off with a repellent. Because they move so quickly, they’ve already bitten you in half before they notice the unpleasant smell.

The best strategy is simply to move (quietly) during their hibernation season, or to monitor a pack and wait until they’re distracted by a hunt to sneak by.

If they decide to go after you, find some low, dense shrubbery to hide in, and then stay as still and as quiet as possible. You may have to sit there awhile, but eventually the shriekers will lose track of you and wander off.

Flora and Fauna: Merev Gombi

Flora and Fauna: Merev Gombi published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - merev gombiThe names humans have for many of the flora and fauna of the Valley come from Rovari, the Daraz language (Daraz are native to the Valley, humans are not). This particular creature is called merev gombi in Rovari, which literally means “hard sphere.” Humans usually just call this animal “merev.”

Merev are the beast of burden of choice for this region. Opportunistic grazers, they’ll eat just about anything placed in front of them, making them extremely easy to maintain. They’re slow but sturdy, and nearly indestructible. When spooked, they don’t run: they pill. If you get into a spot of bother, you know your cart will be more or less where you left it.

The merev’s hide is too tough for many predators to pierce, and its center of gravity too low for them to knock it over. So most predators simply don’t bother with them. YOU might get eaten, but your pack animal won’t.

The merev is not an insect; it is yet another of the many monotreme species in the Valley.

Flora and Fauna: Melaine Mushroom

Flora and Fauna: Melaine Mushroom published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - melaine mushroom

Melaine is a carnivorous fungus that typically feeds on insects or small animals like birds and rodents (the size of the prey depends on the size of the mushroom). Prey are lured in by the sweet-smelling ball bait at the end of a hair trigger. The treacherous ball is extremely sticky, and the struggles of the stuck prey trigger the hair to yoink them forcefully into a bowl of viscous digestive juices. The larger the melaine the more potent the goo, and the larger melaine specimens can eat away at human flesh.

For humans, it’s a “better safe than sorry” situation. If you see (or smell) a patch of melaine, give it a wide berth, lest you accidentally step in one and get splashed with a caustic substance.

Since the digestive goo is viscous and sticky, getting it off once it’s on you is a challenge to say the least. As with poison ivy oils, sometimes efforts to remove the substance just spread it over you even more. You will, at the very least, wind up with some lovely chemical burns, if not open sores.

The Daraz Harcos have significantly thicker and less sensitive skin than humans, so they aren’t as likely to be harmed by the melaine’s digestive juices. They have discovered that a small mushroom isn’t potent enough to do significant damage to the skin, but instead acts as a disinfectant for wounds, and the sticky nature of the goo helps stop bleeding by sealing the cut. Instead of avoiding melaine at all costs, the Harcos seek it out as an important tool in field medicine.

Flora and Fauna: Cloud Spiders

Flora and Fauna: Cloud Spiders published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - cloud spiders Millenia ago, the people of the Valley domesticated an animal known as a cloud spider*. Spider silk is exceptionally lightweight and has extremely high tensile strength, and the humans have been able to tease many uses out of an animal that yields a large quantity of silk.

As humans have done with dogs, cows, etc., the people of the Valley have domesticated the cloud spider and bred multiple variations to suit specific needs. Mostly this is focused on producing different kinds of silk for different purposes, including varieties of silk that can be compacted, hardened, and moulded into all sorts of shapes. The resulting material is extremely durable, lightweight, and flexible. So in place of wood or metal, both of which are relatively scarce, most of their daily-use objects are made of silk.

So yes, the entire structure that houses the country of Pocalo and all its provinces is ONE GIANT SPIDER WEB that has been built up over the course of many thousands of years using construction-grade spider silk. Hence, if you are in any province but the very topmost, when you look up, your view of the sky consists mostly of silk. Hence the name “Valley of the Silk Sky.”

*Don’t worry, arachnophobes, it’s not actually technically a spider! It’s a MONOTREME. There are actual bugs in the Valley, but most of the larger incarnations like the cloud spider are really egg-laying mammals.

Flora and Fauna: Carnivorous Plants

Flora and Fauna: Carnivorous Plants published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - carnivorous plants

The Valley in which the Provinces of Pocalo sit is ringed by a range of high red mountains. The poor nutrient content of the red soil, coupled with the erosion issues on the cloud spider web structure (and low sunlight in many areas), make it difficult for many species of plants to take root.

As a result, several of the more successful plants in the region are ones that had evolved to draw their sustenance from the delicious flesh of insects, and other things (cough, ahem) larger than insects. Birds, perhaps. A rat or two. Maybe, I don’t know, a human sometimes? Who’s counting, really?

Sticky tendrils, grasping appendages, alluring lights, digestive juices: the flora of the Valley have a wide range of adaptations for ensnaring and devouring hapless fauna.

Several of the plants, like the melaine mushroom, have useful medicinal applications, provided one can harvest them without being eaten.

Flora and Fauna: Blue Beetle

Flora and Fauna: Blue Beetle published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - blue beetleAh, the humble blue beetle, such a common sight in the Valley it gets the most obvious possible name. It’s also one of the main sources of animal protein for the citizens of Pocalo. So delicious, so nutritious.

Humans typically cook these insects prior to eating, as the texture of raw bug is not especially appetizing (similar in consistency to raw poultry). At the same time, “appetizing” is a luxurious concern for one who hasn’t had anything to eat in awhile, and humans can eat the beetle flesh raw if need be.

Daraz, meanwhile, aren’t accustomed to cooking food first (they can’t have fires in their underground cities or they’d all die of asphyxiation). But, whether raw or cooked, Daraz don’t typically care much for the taste of blue beetle and only tend to eat it out of necessity. The Rovari name for this particular insect translates roughly as “edible, I guess.”

Humans don’t just use the blue beetle for food. The shells are collected and ground into powder, which is then made into fabric dye. This particular dye is called “blue beetle blue,” JUST in case you were confused about the color or the source. Any dyed fabric is fancier than un-dyed fabric, but blue beetle blue still doesn’t rise much above “better than nothing.”

Geography: The Rift

Geography: The Rift published on

Valley of the Silk Sky -The Rift

There’s a decent amount of seismic activity in the Valley. Pocalo is generally highly resistant to earthquakes, as the construction-grade cloud spider silk is slightly flexible and highly shock-absorbent. But a particularly severe quake with just the right combination of vibration and shear forces got the better of Pocalo, and the next day people had to wonder, “Where did that giant rift come from?”

The Rift stretches for several miles across the Muru interior, and plunges several hundred feet down into Eradu, the province immediately below Muru.

This major geographic change also altered the course of the Red Silt River, forming a lake known as The Flood, which drains into Eradu in the form of a huge waterfall. During dry times this can cause the river to stop flowing further south from The Flood, causing water management problems for folks downstream.

Both The Rift and The Flood have made any form of travel across Muru a bit of a challenge. Boats can no longer ply the course of the Red Silt River. And the one crossing point, the Cashel Bridge, is in the process of sloughing off into the Rift.

Because The Rift appeared overnight, the Cashel Bridge was put up in extreme haste, with the idea that a better, more permanent solution would be implemented later. After only a few years it has begun to fall apart, but there’s little incentive to build a more permanent crossing. Most people have opted for more reliable alternatives, and have abandoned the pre-Rift routes that took them past this region.

Geography: Light Holes

Geography: Light Holes published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - light holes

The eponymous Silk Sky in the Valley is a multi-leveled, mostly-opaque structure made of the silk of domesticated cloud spiders (“Pocalo” literally means “spider web”). So how does light get down to the interior of the lower levels? The answer: LIGHT HOLES.

Throughout each province you’ll find numerous holes in the floor and in the ceiling, which allow sunlight and rainwater to filter through. Not too surprisingly, the further down you go, the less light and rainwater you get.

In general, for the lower provinces, populations cluster at the edges where the light is present throughout the day. An interior area that gets particularly good daylight coverage is called an oasis, and may have sufficient resources to support a small settlement or a waystation. Even if they aren’t suitable for permanent habitation, they’re usually an excellent source of rare plants, or can make for decent temporary campgrounds.

Flora and Fauna: Sweetberry Bush

Flora and Fauna: Sweetberry Bush published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - sweetberry bush

Sure, giant mudbats can be scary if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, but by far the most dangerous thing in this picture is that massive green shrub, the sweetberry bush.

As the name would imply, the bush produces a delectable fruit. It’s quite edible and nutritious! Some enterprising soul who encountered the bush in its native habitat thought, “Why don’t I bring this lovely, innocent little plant back to Pocalo with me, that I may cultivate its delicious produce?”

Well, it turns out birds took a liking to the berries and cheerfully dispersed the seeds in their poop, and the sweetberry bush really, REALLY took a liking to the province of Muru in particular. It spread explosively, and has choked out countless native species in its rampage across the landscape.

Economic and Social Effects

Muru’s economy has long been heavily dependent on the collection and sale of the various rare medicinal plants that grow throughout the province. Runners who specialized in a particular species found themselves out of work after the sweetberry bush showed up in their region and destroyed the indigenous flora.

The resulting economic instability has led to a significant increase in crime throughout Muru, with many former runners becoming bandits. Meanwhile, the extinction of numerous medically beneficial species has caused a resurgence in various previously-treatable diseases, resulting in waves of epidemics throughout Pocalo as supplies of medicines have run out. Social services are stretched thin dealing with both the crime and the epidemics.

The Poison Marsh

Attempts to control the bush have ranged from the ineffective to the utterly disastrous. The worst of these was an experiment with an herbicide whose runoff collected into a low-lying area, rendering a whole region dangerously toxic. This area is now simply known as the Poison Marsh.

Worst of all, the herbicide not only failed to kill the bush, but destroyed various other plants, opening up even more of the landscape to colonization by … THE DREADED SWEETBERRY BUSH.

Pocalo Economy: Runners

Pocalo Economy: Runners published on

Valley of the Silk Sky - Chadsen - RunnerThe unusual geography of the Valley makes it a host to countless microclimates, which in turn means there’s a whole bunch of rare flora, many of which may only be found in one small area.

Many of these plants have valuable medicinal or industrial application, and they can often be difficult or impossible to cultivate. So how do you get ahold of them if, say, you’re a pharmacist and you need that berry extract for a wound treatment salve? Why, you hire yourself a runner.

The harder a plant is to get, the more it costs to retrieve. So, while you can certainly do a little bit of business as a runner in the upper provinces, the real money is to be had collecting items from the lower three provinces. All you have to do is avoid being killed by whatever is between you and the thing you’re trying to collect. Simple!

Pretty much anyone can become a runner, but you’ll have an easier time getting hired if you’re licensed by the Pocali government. Licensed runners have had training in correctly identifying desirable plants (you do not, for example, want to hire a runner who can’t tell the beneficial berry from the nearly identical poisonous berry).

Of course, the services of licensed runners are more expensive. Use an unlicensed runner at your (or possibly your client’s) own risk.

There is a standard set of runner’s gear that includes the shirt, trousers, bracers, gaiters, shoes, belt, and vest. The outfit is designed to be modular, and there are multiple variations tailored to the preferences of the particular runner. Are you looking to enhance speed and flexibility (go with the wraps), or are you worried about snakes chewing on your ankles (you’ll want those gaiters)?

You’ll be able to pick up a set of gear if you attend a runner’s academy in the course of pursuing your license. If you didn’t go to academy, you can make your own gear, or you can scavenge it from wherever you can find it. If you got it off the last runner who died in pursuit of that extremely-difficult-to-retrieve medicinal, maybe keep that fact to yourself.

Primary Sidebar