Below Town and Environs
Below Town
The settlement, sprawls across a wide but narrow strip of sand half-shaded by Carroways. A sprawling shanty town of beach shacks, shabeens, rough-thatched cantinas and rude-looking camps of unwashed men . Stalls sell exotic looking liquors and brews. Parrots and tame monkapes caper. Hawkers sell fish snacks and brightly coloured potions. Men , and fewer women laugh, fight, and lounge about. You note humans, disreputable-looking Masquani, even the occasional Half-Ugak and Kehanna in the throng.
The Rocks. Beyond the Beach. Small farms, grazing 'gruffs' (antelope- or goat-like animals) and stone cottages which occupy the steadily rising land beyond the settlement.
The Bazaar: a chaotic marketplace near the rear of the settlement. Its centrepiece is an old Ugak totem pole rumoured to be cursed. The heart of the town.
The workshops. A cluster of factory-workshops which occupy a semi-stockaded compound close by the bazaar. Run by a scurrilion, Tobias. They carry out work- weaving linen, creating ceramics, even some weapon-smithing - useful to the wealthy Atani. Working there gives good daily pay, and meals are thrown in. But Tobias is a harsh task master and selects only the cleverest looking fellows from a queue that forms outside each dawn.
Shop Street.Wending its eccentric way through the shacks, a kind of street which includes some almost respectable looking workshops and stores: a chandler, some grocers, a smithy, a tailor and an apothecary amongst others.
The three 'good' taverns in Below Town. Two on the beach (The Beachcomber and the Nightswimmer) and one up on the Rocks (The Aerie). All three are made of good timber or stone, have comfortable beds for guests and a selection of non-gut-rotting beers and liquor.
The Tree Town Reached from BT by the 'Bridge' , a narrow, long shard of wood and stone that slopes up to the treetops. Near the Bridge's gated entrance Atani soldiers tote powerful short muskets. The gate slides the gate open and leads to a complex network of intersecting walkways. At the centre of these galleries, rope-bridges and gantries is the Chamber of the Elder Tree.
Here seven councilors meet around a beautiful, fragrant table, all dressed in splendid turbans and sashes. there are six clans, ordered in importance according to the size and centrality in the Carroway network of their Home Tree. The Western or Second Tree will one day (When the Trees Will It) become the new centre of the network. In effect, the new Elder Tree when the present one declines.
Important Atani:
First councillor: The leader of the Council, an old Atani male
Second Councillor: a fair headed Atani woman, who has a triste with the Nelly’s captain
Oliglide, captain of the guard
Atani X, an Atani who has asked Skrot to be vigilant concerning news of his lost friend
