Tiym Wrack Cove

Time-Wrack Cove?

  It depends on who you ask. Fifteen miles of beach and bank shoreline demarks the twilight division between the lands of Nycos and - someplace else. Near the equator on the eastern shores of Myrmadun, the cove is humidly warm by day, The patchwork appearance of its placid shores, its grainy white and courser black sands provide a stark backdrop to the actions of its denizens. For the foolhardy, the delicate white sand feels great between one’s toes, while the pumice-like black sands have a rougher texture, grinding and needling beneath your steps. A constant reminder of the power and terror of the open sea, the waves crash against the breakers like a dull heartbeat.   Fishing is still a primary resource for feeding the community. Most any type of fish, particularly zebra-stripe gump, blood-fang barracuda, and oil-blot Bass can be pulled from the brackish waters of the southward breakwater wall, an even more ancient ruin, dating beyond the Revening, and a mute reminder of the Great Wars.   If you venture a walk along the shoreline south beyond the wall, from time to time, the scratching sounds of a burrowing Bleach Claw or the cry of a Morg Hunter. can be heard in the shoals.   Continuing southward along the rising rocky ridge, you will eventually reach the higher ground, known as Shark Fang Point for its sharp, monolithic natural formation there. Most days the Cove's surface can be seen from there. , even in the worst weather. In the rare cold chill of morning, the fog provides no comfort. but thinly buries the cove like a shredded, decaying death shroud.   The air smells of Black Water’s salt and rotting timbers and fish. Vessels of all ilk, whether Merchant ships and privateers alike cross paths – and swords – here, and six times, attempts have been made build a lighthouse but the sea itself has ravaged them. It seems the light will never come to South Garrison, the ancestral name of the area, nearly forgotten. Shark fang point Is sixty feet high and so-named because of rocks at the top appear to be petrified monstrous shark’s teeth. Far to the south, looming over the horizon across the marsh, Doom Face is a rocky mountain formation shaped like a skull, only visible when the fog is thin and the wind is northerly.   Ghostly vessels are seen on the high tide leaving its safety, but none seem to have been docked in its safe-harbored docks. The shorelines north and south of the Cove's mouth fairly crawl with skeletons, zombies, and ghouls. The Lost Men of the Blacksands, Deadly Night Rays, and minor Death Maws infect the breakwaters beyond the Cove, seeking prey and harrying arriving - and departing - vessels of all sorts. It simply is not safe to leave the cove, it seems, and yet, these stragglers have never mounted anything resembling a massed attack. What keeps the horrors at bay?   Some say it is simply a place only in dreams, that it bounds Asomatum or Penumbra. Darker minds speculate that it hides some ancient force acting as a shield, saving the populace for either a great work or a great doom. Others say the cove is the interior of an immense black iron sphere created by Musk the Unhinged. That story relates that the Madman from Cauldron went places no one should, and learned the Secrets best left to the Emissary. It goes on to say that he decoded the puzzle, its strange arcane symbols emblazoned on its interior. The sphere is further rumored to be the sole gateway to other realms of existence. It is further believed it was this contact with the Nexus, that unhinged him and banished him to a nether realm fit only for the insane and small children. Perhaps it is a testing ground for the undead of the Blackwater, those whose passing was unmarked and unremarked. Something is binding them together, linking them inextricably with graveyards from other plains or dimensions. On the other hand, there are clearly champions in the area, dangers have been thwarted, and even great pirate houses fear to cross the cove's waters, saying it is cursed.   At the core, though, Time-Wrack Cove is the waterborne source of the Shadow Spawn. The power, the driving force behind the gloom, at once drawing the dead across the barriers and protecting the population of the tiny community from annihilation exists below the waves. It has always been, that objects from beyond the Sphere are themselves the author and finisher of all sorts of devastation. Deposited upon the very center of the cove, away from the living but not far enough is that which summons the flotsam and jetsam of unimaginable beings from undiscovered tombs of other dimensions.   Despite its size, Time-Wrack Cove does have a bustling community culture. Any adventure group is heralded, as the Shark Fang Seer holds court at the bar, with a talent for discerning Enjoined that grace the place.   For instance, the community is organized enough to have a formal team of Law Enforcement.   "Constummables" is a small collection of rotund individuals that think of themselves as the town civil authority. The community calls them the “Constummables” – a malapropism for “Constables” – behind their backs, after they collectively -though sequentially – fell over a singular shiny rock in the cobblestone. In particular, the three most vocal – and arguably the silliest – are the Three Sergeants, Billy, Bart and Ron (who remind everyone of their rank, as often as they can!)

“It is a wonder that we have any law around here at all!” says Sergeant Billy. 'We don't get respect, honor, or even cheesebread. It's a wonder they pay us at all. Wait... they don't. Nevermind."

The Sergeants are grumpy most of the time and treat any investigation with the utmost in hyperbolic care. Despite the ineptitude, they are only trying to protect and serve. In particular, Billy is constantly trying to petition for a better name for their organization. He in particular is fond of Wracken Gatekeepers, but so far, that hasn't taken off. The Brickabrack Shack at the Wrack is the name of this solitary local pub. The place specializes in "Gin Withany" - the local drink distilled from the juniper bushes that line the coast like rough whiskers.   The Reef of 100 Wrecks is the basis of the breakwater boundary to which Time Wrack Cove lays claim. Whether the number is factual or not, many a vessel has met her end here. Many hold the belief that the vessels who ended their final voyage on its rocks were carrying jewels and gold that did not belong in this realm. The proximity to the southeast, unending Temporal Storm known as Maelstrom, lends the tale credibility. How it is that not all ships that pass this way meet this end is itself a mystery. Even so, courageous, but foolhardy seekers of these lost treasures are plentiful.   The Jade Warrens, as it is now known, was a garrison edifice built ages ago, sometime after Hammerfall, the end of South Garrison. Lying on the road to the north along the Myrmadi coastal trail. The Warrens served shortly as home to the Jade Brigade, from whence it gets its name, at the end of the last Iteration. Recently, a small colony of Weedgie has taken up residence, and though they are considered dangerous on their own, they have improved safety along the road toward Myrmadun, which seems to be helping trade possibilities with the warlike northerners.   Withany's Cannery Row Warehouse is the largest building in the Cove, a business that failed decades ago, but whose shell now acts as an ersatz warehouse, a place for larger-scale commerce, legal or otherwise to be concluded, goods exchanged and loaded onto waiting vessels. The owner, Col Withany, left the building to the community, stipulating that there be no record of the kinds and types of business that is done there. It is a local legend that the Withany family has been doing business with the Heptonic alliance since the end of the Sixth Iteration, and the continued use of the Cannery Row Warehouse is certainly foddered for such talk.   Withany Manor is the historic home of the Withany family, the last of the High Council families of the Combine, long ago disbanded under suspicion of corruption and involvement with piracy and raiding during the IXL wars. It was this disgrace that put the Cannery Withany out of business and ultimately overshadowed the utility of Time-Wrack Cove as a trade center. The Manor remains in use, the family Withany still residing and doing business, although far more subtly and less aggressively.   Calsederso Ship Yard is an intentionally hyperbolic name for the only business actively offering boat rentals. Started as a kind of joke, the Yard still has two schooners and a half dozen dinghies for rent. the prices are prohibitive, so few care to use their services, but as the only shipwright or boatsmen in the town, they survive more on repairing visiting vessels or selling trinkets to the visitors they have dredged from the Breakwater Reef described earlier.