Editing Diners of Amber (section)

==='''Halzir, Taxorami'''===
[[File:P-Halzir.jpg]]  [[File:Wendellofhalzir.jpg]]

Halzir is a strange section of a very strange world. I waxed rhapsodic earlier about this shadow so I won't repeat myself but Halzir is a different kettle of fish.  While the regions Random once coasted over are typical for this very odd shadow they are distinctly different then Halzir.

This is one of the Diners of Amber. Three ribbons of stone, a twenty thousand feet long, 300 feet tall, and 200 feet wide rise out of a calm blue sea.  A collection of spurs and smaller formations create islands in and amongst the three great rocks.  The ribbons extend down 200 feet below the surface of the waters. Over the centuries these once solid ribbons of stone have been mined, carved, and populated. Bridges span the ribbons and nearly two hundred thousand people live here. Vast glass windows adorn lower halls giving a wonderful view of the sea life below the waves.

People here live on fish. The ribbons span a major spawning route and thousands of types of fish swim north to south every day. They just toss out nets from their windows, lower them and drag up a couple of fat trout for supper; maybe a couple dozen for smoking or drying.

Fishing for large game is both a sport and part of the local food supply.  Salt water fish include a wide variety of tuna, halibut, albacore, sea & stripped bass, snapper, mackerel, barracuda, sturgeon, opah, yellowtails, salmon, sailfish, various marlins, and tarpons.  Many variety of shark patrol the waters as well and while often are caught, they often come when an anglers has a good fighting fish on his line.

One would think they would get tired of a diet so heavy on fish. I did mention the fact that the Taxorami are forgetful, right?

Mollusks crowd the underwater portions of these rocks and are another important part of their diet.  Abalone is one of the most common but other varieties are available.  Crabs, Lobsters, shrimp and a wide variety of decapods also patrol the region, both in the water and on the land.  A giant fighting lobster the size of a mule occasionally is found wandering the alleys of Halzir and causing a general ruckus.  

The card actually delivers the traveler to the archway on the left of the card, near a wharf for riverboats, and gondolas. This is Wet Wendell's Hothouse. Wet Wendell runs a really tight ship.  I consider him a close personal friend, which of course means I love him dearly and don't trust him a tiny little bit. Restaurant, card-club, distillery, boarding house, brothel, dance club, industrial hub, conference center and municipal offices all rolled into one. That's the Hothouse.

[[Wet Wendell]] passes for a Mayor in Halzir. In much the same way he might  also pass for a governor of Taxorami. Or an emperor, pirate, robber-baron, procurer, pimp, or Indian chief. He is a pretty funny guy and knows very well about Amberites. Knows most of us personally. While Taxorami is physically nowhere near a Golden Circle world, Wet Wendell's has held high level meetings of a dizzying variety. One of the preliminary Patternfall Treaty documents was signed here. Two Golden Circle Treaties were signed here. A private defense agreement between Caine and Wet Wendell was worked out here. Both Random and the last Swayvill have been known to the vacation here. Wet Wendell understands about reservations, emergencies and the need for added security measures.

Wet Wendell also makes no secret of his eagerness to have Taxorami welcomed into the family of Golden Circle Signatory Kingdoms. Of course, that usually requires a monarch, or at least some kind of shadow spanning government, something the Taxorami are simply not culturally able to grasp. Signing a Golden Circle Treaty with Wet Wendell of Halzir would be like Amber signing a Golden Circle Signatory Treaty with Luxembourg on the earth world of your choice. He is eager to do favors for Amberites, even the nobles, if he thinks they might one day have enough of Random's ear to advise him on this matter.

The problem is that while Wet Wendell desperately wants a GCST, he is enough of a politician to entertain the possibility of signing the Black Zone Pact Instrument as well. He has been building up favors at both ends of shadow against the day he is in striking range of either a [[GCST]] or a [[BZPI]] and a working pen. This irritates Random, bothers the new Swayvill, and delights those of us that like to see our monarchs get a little pissy from time to time.

<span style=color:darkred>((GM-Note:I imagined many a hellride passing through here with players taking a break at the Hothouse.

===='''Middle Earth Five pack'''====
Well, as has happened, cards come in groups and this group was put here to annoy me.  Dworkin pulled five cards from my personal deck just to show me he could.

The first three are from a Middle Earth world some 400 years before the final Ring War. [[https://www.gamesradar.com/lord-of-the-rings-timeline/]]

The war typically is all over 3019 of Third Age.  So these cards are set in 2603. Its 167 years before Smaug destroys Dale and shifts the dwarves from the Lonely Mountain.

I mention this for reference.  These three cards are to taverns in a time of relative peace.  There are brigands and criminals but the '''''Archer's Delti'''''is also a good place to get a big plate of beef steak and pan fried potatoes and broccoli with a tankard of Gildon pale wine.  At the time a ''"Deltiam"'' is like a restaurant for regular people to eat. They can get rowdy in the evening but nothing too rowdy.  There is work in the morning.