Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: wolf@cheshire.oxy.edu (Clinton Richard Wolf) Subject: The Shunned Center Message-ID: <1992Jul6.232839.3108@cheshire.oxy.edu> Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1992 23:28:39 GMT Well, I never got around to it in my posts, but for whoever it is that's running the Map of Generica and description of its locales, here's a summary of that dark and evil place, the Shunned Center... The Shunned Center: Located at the decrepit heart of The Low City, this maze of run-down houses, ruined alleyways, and rubble-strewn streets has been abandoned by the Citizens of Generica for as long as any mortal can remember. Its buildings date back thousands of years; indded, many sages agree that it was here that Generica was first founded, many centuries in the distant past. However, an unknown cataclysm caused the destruction of most of this "First Generica", and the survivors of the Holocaust relocated outside its boundar- ies to start again... the new Generica eventually rose up to surround the Old part, but no one dared set foot into the Center or raise a business or home there, preferring instead to build around it. Those brave souls that tried living there mysteriously disappeared, giving rise to the present belief of many Genericans that the Center is some- how "cursed" (they are more right than they know). Tales of strange sights and sounds, and horrid monsters abound in the tales of the Shunned Center, as well as tales of powerful artifacts and great treasures of Old Generica that can still be found within its crumbling ruins... The Low City surrounds the Center, as the town sur- rounds the Low City. This is mostly because of the rep- utation of the Center, such that those with money and means took great pains to live as far from it as possible, while the poor and outcast of Generica, having nowhere else to go, raised their hovels around the edges of the Center. The scum and dregs of society found also that the Lawmen of Generica were reluctant to pursue their quarry so close to such a cursed area, and so many of them relocated near the Shunned Center as well; in this way was the Low City born... and, as the upstanding citizens of Generica fear the Low City, so do those of the Low City fear their own geographical heart, for they know that things much worse than the bloodiest scum of the slums lurk within its boun- daries... It is easy to tell when the Low City ends and the Shunned Center begins... The buildings of the Low City are mostly run-down, but at least have some form of upkeep from the humans that dwell there... the Shunned Center has not experienced such main- tenance for thousands of years. The Shunned Center is a blasted urban wasteland... nothing grows there, save per- haps a few sickly, twisted weeds struggling through cracks in the cobblestoned roads... The buildings are all comple- tely bleacheed of any color, being now almost a uniform whitish-grey. Most are collapsed and crumbling, and quite unsafe architecturally if not because of their current "tenants"... the streets are narrow, and the buildings tall One should always feel claustrophobic here... even in com- parison to the crowded slums of the Low City, the passages of the Center are unbearably cramped, and the sun does not penetrate far into its dark corners... A good description of its atmosphere is in my post, "The Ransom of Lucas Murphy, part 6". I can also give a description of its general feel through E-mail, if you so desire, but as a guideline, this place should be a cross between Transylvania and a post-holocaust city. It should seem like an alien world, removed from the norms, where humanity are the cattle and not the masters, and where a nameless underlying dread pervades the very soul... The old warehouse under which lies the lair of Great Mother is once again at the centerpoint of this blighted land, and she radiates her many spokes out from it like an obscene wheel underlaying the City of Generica... The Shunned Center is riddled with cramped catacombs beneath its surface... some of these connect to the Gaps, but are far different in both look and feel to those man- made tunnels... Anyway, this is obviously going to have to be short- ened again to fit the guidebook, but it should give every- one a good, solid idea of what the Center is like, which will be very important for the Kron Questors, who at some point will have to penetrate this Hell to reach the heart of Darkness and the horrific answer to Kron's mystery... Oooh! That's so poetic! :)