- PONDERING MAPS
We’re given a map.
It’s a starting point to our ponderings, not the end all of what we can investigate map wise.
The circular lake is in the first map we saw, not this one.
We discuss where the “mountains in the stars might be” the jagged peaks to the north west.
As an exercise, we ponder the points of interest:
The city could be the fortification on the lake in the middle. Confirmed by villagers.
The Wood Town. A great hall with a bunch of wood carvings. Town of Saer.
We walked out of the mountains to the east and saw this valley.
Storr: We were in a boggy marsh with stone pillars.
Villager: Not sure. There are many marshes in the mountains. Not sure which one you came from.
The fields below the hills are flower checkered plains going down into waterways.
There’s a big winter fortress up to the north. Caergaea
All four seasons seem to be represented in the map, but the seasons don’t change, they just stay the same where they are.
There’s two towers connected by a bridge on each side of the river above the waterfall. (The Waterfall at the End of the World)
All the rivers flow into the lake, except the waterfall.
There are towers up in the northern mountains.
There’s another tower in the northwest mountains.
Three of the four sections seem to have their own towers (though they look different). We can’t see one in the autumn section.
The names of rivers and lake:
- The river we’re on is called the Meander
- Lake of voices (or Singing Water)
Possible locations to go:
- Sear
- The City of Nyth
- The “Mountains in the Stars”
There are a lot of mountains. “If you walk out to the edge of the world, if you walk to the edge of the world, you’d see the abyss of night.”
We’re not 100% percent sure, but the consensus view is that we need to head toward Twseren. That is the tower known for looking at the stars, way up in the mountains. That’s the tower to the north west. They’ve heard that someone is up there checking out the stars, their not sure about the folks that are there.
We ask about the possible route. The simplest route would be to follow the stream that goes through the village. That joins the Meander, you’ll go through the valley, travel by boat, barge or raft, to the lake. Have to figure out how to traverse the lake. People are hesitant to cross it. You should use caution on the lake, it has a mind of its own. Then, going up the autumn river, faster flowing. Comes down through a large forest. Probably a trail that runs along it, not been there, but heard of it. A solid while to try to make it.
Use the bridge? Could go that way, harder cutting across land in the foothills. A little bit wilder that way. The route they would take would be the river.
Is there a shipwright in town? No. The river here is not too intense, too rocky and shallow. We need to go further downstream to put something like a canoe in.
Are there other settlements down the river? There are villages. Larger town at the site of the river joining the Meander. That town is also called Meander. Sort of a port.
- GATHERING RUMOURS Possibilities:
- Tree of Whispers
- The child
- Musk (was he an intentional genius, or did he not realize what he was meddling with?)
We ask about the child. It’s a newborn, possibly with someone that looks like Musk (haggard, homeless)
.
To give more context: Their appearance may have coincided with unexplainable phenomena, seems related to a prophecy about a foundling? It would have been a man.
With that context, you would not have gotten a lot of traction. No one’s come through here. As we poked around a little more, as we described this ragged guy, someone might have said, (Callinen the miller’s wife tells us,) “You know I did hear something, I have a cousin who lives down by the river (in the town), and he was going to pick some spring herbs, and this was a little while ago, and this guy appeared out of the hills, and there was a baby, and he said he didn’t want the kid, and he said he was trying to save her from someone and he gave her away? She’s unclear on that. This happened somewhere in the spring hills (to the north of Meander in the scattered red rushes. He didn’t come through this village.
When did this happen? She would indicate that it may have been “a few years”, counting the phases of the moon.
She doesn’t know where the child is at this point.
We don’t understand enough to know how time works here. “Years” might mean something else.