Cormelle
Cormelle
Cormelle is a pocket plane run by the mysterious Master, who has people to create, change and destroy pocket planes.
The primary plane is a small island, about one mile in circumference, surrounded by a warm sea. The sea itself only continues out from the shore several hundred yards before it becomes the void.
The Beach
The beach consists of sections of tidy paved promades interspeced with scubby dunes, both of seemingly random lengths. The dunes contain packed sand walking paths which wind around the hillocks while the paved areas are staight and wide, with wide stairs leading down to the white sandy beaches.
Brightly painted beach huts sit on the sands, neatly aligned to the promade while beach chairs are scattered along the promanade and the beach below in some vaguely ordered, vaguely random fashion. Should a visitor remain in one place for length of time on paved areas vendors pushing hand carts will appear, randomly selling all the necessary items required for an afternoon at the beach, from clothing to cold drinks and ices to hot food such as hot dogs or fish and chips.
A sun shines brightly in a cloudless sky and a slight beeze coming in off the water, carrying a hint of salt and fish. The whole area has the feel of a lazy summer's afternoon and the a slight thirst for lemon ices. Once on the beach time will pass normally but should a person leave and return it will once again be early afternoon in summer.
Beyond the beach and dunes is a narrow strip of rough grass terminated in a tall line of trees. A number of gaps in the treeline exist though which people can travel into the island's interior.
The place contains a wide variety of seaside life, from gulls and ganets to crabs, shellfish and coastal fishes. No large mammals can be found but rabbits can be seen in the grass occassionally.
A small wooden pier, build a few feet above the water line, leads out from the beach into the water and ends seemingly about a hundred feet into a heat haze. If you walk along the pier you will send up on a pier at the Garden of Eternity in Mazarathin.
People with Summer Aspect will be favoured while those with Winter Aspect will be disadvantaged. The hours between mid evening and mid morning will never happen here and anything that relies on crossing midnight will not occur.
The Gardens
The "Gardens" is a large park, with a walled village in the center. It is well over five miles in diameter and near 20 miles along the treeline that seperates it from the beach. Considering the beach is about one mile in circumference it is quicker to exit the Gardens, walking around the beach and enter it at another entrance then walk across the park.
The park itself is rolling, with a number of small hills scattered thoughout. It is generally wooded interspersed with small lakes and grassy meadows. The park is populated with a considerable amount of wildlife, including deer and foxes.
When entering the park it will always be early morning, with dew on the ground and a slight chill in the air. Time will pass normally once you are in the park, with the sun travelling "east" to "west" on a southerly route, some time in spring.
The whole area teems with life and the is all life aspected people gain -5 bonus to dice rolls while all death aspected people suffer a +5 penalty. A number of groves and stone dolmen are in the park and all are earth places of power. All earth spells cost one mana less to cast.
There is one paved path in the park, which runs from the pier gate to the village. The path has a tendency to wonder and itself about five miles in length due to its meandering nature. Beyond that there are a number of seemingly natural paths cutting though the woods, often cutting around stone circles which have been placed on the hill tops. The view across the park from the hill tops is excelent but beyond the hedge it gets extremely hazy so the water beyond the beach is but a hazy blue blur.
The day will end shortly after the sun has set, with the hours between sunset and sunrise never occurring.
The Quarters
Viewed from the park the Quarters is a small village of half a dozen houses but upon entering though one of the gates in the surrouding stone wall a substantial town resides inside.
It is mid evening on an autumn day, the temperature cold but not freezing, with the smell of coal smoke filling the air. The whole place is a contrast of bright braziers and deep shadows. It has rained recently and the paving stones still glisten with water.
Between the gate and the town center are a number of side alleys but the main road is wide enough for two carts to pass each other. The town is built around a large stone square, with a narrow but tall black tower at the center. The tower sits upon a raised platform that is around 80 feet each side. On each side wide shallow stairs lead from the square to the platform.
There are many establishments around the square and all seem to be open for late trading, with light spilling out into the square so that the whole outer area is brightly lit. In comparison the platform in the square is wreathed is darkness, with the lights a distant flicker reflected against the slick surface of the stonework.
The town is full of activity and people, and has the feel of a successful market town in an up and coming kingdom bordering on the edge of a vast and dangerous wilderness. It is a curious mixture of relatively well to do burghers and seasoned adventurers, with a wide variety of peoples and races in the crowd.
There are atleast a dozen inns and taverns around the square and all of them seem to be full, most with music and shouting coming from them. Inside any one of them is a warm and friendly atmosphere, with plenty of good, if simple, food and a selection of ales, bitters, ciders, mead and wines to please most. Any who stay for the night will witness the townsfolks leave after several hours but whatever establishment the person is in will have a group of roudy adventurers who have just returned from some heroic adventure and will continue to drink until dawn. With the rising of the sun visitors will find themselves falling asleep to wake a hour after sundown in a small room at the back upstairs of the inn, fully refreshed and slightly fewer coins in their wallet.
If people ask there will tales of dark happenings some time past, involving vampires and marauding orcs, but will be told that it was sorted and all is well in the kingdom but adventures await those who head into the wilderness.
The Tower Beyond
The square is ice wraiths, mana creatures of elemental cold, which attach anybody nearby. Those that are slain become ice scultures over time, the flesh replaced by elemental ice. Only a Rank 10 healer can bring somebody back from this state as their whole body needs to be regenerated and the trapped soul restored into the cadaver. Ice Mages are not immuned to these creatures but gain +20% to call cast chances and all fatigue costs are reduced by one.
At the bottom of the stairs in the town's square it looks like a easy climb of twenty or so steps up onto the platform but it will take a person a good hour of hard climbing to reach it, and the town will be a distant glimmer far below, the stairway a vertigo inducing drop.
The surface of the platform is hard with ice and snow is constantly swirling around. Thick cloud seems to be all about and it is pitch dark, with the freezing winds whipping away any heat that escapes a person. In the center of the desolate platform, itself a mile or so square is a dark tower of black stone. Blocks of broken masonary litter the area around the base of the tower, along with pieces of broken glass. The tower rises up into the gloom like a broken monolith. On one side of the tower, it is impossible to say which, is a set of steel doors, both half open. The tower itself is made from some unknown grey masonary, its surface pitted and arcane scrawlings covering every possible surface around its base. From the tower light is emitted from numerous windows. However it is not a friendly light, yellow like a cheery candle or the red of a warm fire, but a harsh, cold, white light. Every so often one of the lights will flicker, so that at no time are all the lights on.
Inside is a swirl of thin paper, the freezing winds coming though the open doors continuously whipping the paper up into a flurry of rustling. The large entrance room seems to cover most of the floor area, except to left where the entrance to a stairwell exists. Next to the stairwell are two sets of double doors, made from some grey metal, both closed. The whole area reeks of stale urine and old dirt. Apart from some weak, pale light coming from the stairwell the room is unlit. Scattered across the floor a piles of burnt objects and slushy ash, the floor blackened from fire. Like the exterior the walls are a mess of colour.
