The train stops at Glendale station at the edge of the world. It should take several weeks to get there by train, though this is mostly because of waiting in Linden’s Lake.
Glendale, population 707, is a farming town. It’s a good place to live, or it would be if it weren’t for the encroaching abyss and the creatures that come out of it. There are even trees here, oak-like scraggly things coming out of the low hills and against the rocks to the west. There’s even one grove of trees tended by carpenters within the city in the abandoned area to the south. There are thirty-four trees there, and several more tree stumps of trees that have died.
Glendale: The river
One of the reasons that people stay in Glendale is the river. It’s not much of a river, but it does provide some fresh water for the rest of the world.
The aqueducts
The aqueducts once ran from the eastern mountains and delivered water throughout the city. Where they run from now, no one knows, and their “water” is used only for waste disposal. It does mean that the toilets of Glendale work and are available in most buildings. The water is an undrinkable briny mess.
Glendale: Dreams
Near the abyss, the characters will have unquiet dreams of insects and darkness and cold.
“The roots of the world grow weak. Insects nip at the branches and gnaw at the trunk. The branches of the tree are the paths of the world: the road and the tree are one.”
The Ambrosia Tavern
Rufus is currently the proprietor of the Ambrosia Tavern and Inn. It’s the place that Jon or Peco will recommend.
Rufus will remember Joe Lakono if you’re using him.
Glendale: The trap
If there is a character without a moral code, and Joe Lakono knows about it (for example, if this character could see Joe when he used the Ethical Invisibility spirit manifestation) Joe will leave a trap, an item with a Divine Service Trickster spirit attached to it. He will leave it with Rufus, since he knows Peco will recommend the place. He’ll leave an envelope with a note, an empty matchbook, and a denarius. The note will read something like
NAME, this is specifically for you since you’ve been such a quick study. If you want to know more about the abyss, open the matchbook and say ‘tell me about the abyss’. I’ve also left you a coin. You can use if it you ever want to talk to me. Hold it and say, ‘help me Joe Lakono’. These will only work for you, so don’t let anyone else waste them.
The note is in Anglish. Examples for the spirit manifestations set up on the matchbook and coin:
Matchbook: Trickster spirit with Divine Service at third level. On manifesting, Joe will whisper “walk the rails into the abyss now and learn”. Remember that for Divine Service to work, the victim must either share a moral code with Joe, or must not have any moral code.
Denarius: Death spirit with Deplete Vitality at first level targeted on the person saying the words.
The reason Joe is doing the first one is to convince them not to follow the road. If he can just convince them to forget about it and go home, they won’t mess up his plans. The second one is just so that if they do get across, he’ll find out about it. He has the Spirit Channel specialty, which lets him hear and see everything going on for nine minutes after an attached spirit manifests. (This is how he can whisper the service command for Divine Service.)
Remember that circumstances might lead Joe to recall those spirits to free them up for use elsewhere.
Wyvern tracks
If they search the edge of the abyss north of the rails, they might see the small swatch of dead grass where Joe Lakono called the two wyverns up about four weeks back. A standard perception roll will find it. Anyone with tracking will recognize that there are large footprints of some lizard-like creature with a tail behind it; they might even see the human tracks near the lizard (wyvern) tracks. The pestilence trail goes for twenty feet and then the wyverns took to the air.
Glendale: The abyss
The abyss is half a mile out of town, or about one mile from the Ambrosia Tavern.
The abyss is an invisible, malleable field of force. Looking into the darkness, it is utterly black. If a person looks closely and carefully, however, there are strange, ponderous movements in the utter darkness, as if a thing of even more absolute darkness were moving at some unknown distance.
There is a steam engine on the east-bound tracks halfway into the abyss. Engineer Garem tried to get through to the other side twenty years ago; he’s probably still inside. They didn’t find him for at least twelve hours, and the Metroliner Hermes didn’t arrive to try and pull it out for another week. (This was before Pecos and Jon were running the rails.) If they do pull the engine out, Garem is there, looking as if he died just seconds past.
Remember that people don’t talk about the abyss. They’ll tolerate sidewinders mentioning it, but will not discuss it themselves nor will they take part in any sidewinder discussion, brushing it off with a “let’s talk about something more important.” If they get someone drunk, they might be able to tell some of the stories about it, such as when someone stuck their head in and almost died.
Because of the abyss, there are more weapons in Glendale than elsewhere. The outlying farms especially need them. The city itself is immune because of the Pax Urbana. If the Pax Urbana failing on Route 47 is news, it will travel with the train and be something people talk about if it or the Pax Urbana or weapons is mentioned. In fact, the Pax Urbana is weaker here, too, though people won’t believe it. The town is wider than the Pax’s effect.
Creatures of the abyss
Within the abyss is an area of semi-reality where monsters are born and live in a hellish hot world. The barrier between that hell and the area around the abyss is thin and easily broken, allowing the monsters and animals to crawl into reality from semi-existence. There is no way, once real, to crawl back into semi-reality. The abyss is forever up and down.
Most creatures will be weakened when they leave; they may spend some time poking around Glendale but will eventually be called to Nequinium and follow the rails. Remember that any creature will need to make a reaction roll to attack anything on the road or rails. That includes monsters attacking player characters and player characters attacking monsters.
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