- A guided tour-
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- A guided tour-
A Documentary by Sir Wilfred Dromadon, Trader/ explorer ExtraordinaryIntroduction:
We floated down the river Seethe, the only road to Deeg. The last bastion of civilization, if you can call the mish mash goblin society a civilization. At least it was a stop though, before we would venture in to the all consuming Mirgian Jungle, or like the gobs like to call it the ' Big Mean Green'. Even the seethe was mean, taking a week to get to Deeg from Krull, with avoiding sandbars, rapids, and even having a crewmen eaten by Var. The trip had been eventful, to say the least.The first glimpse I had of Deeg was of the docks, like skeletal fingers hovering over the river. The docks were high, for when spring came so to did the monsoons. The flood waters would be even with the docks themselves, a good ten hands or so. We tied the junket to a post and clambered up on to the dock, it afforded us a great view of the surrounding area. We could see the walls of Deeg, encircling the small town, protecting it from the Green. The town appeared to my eye like the navel of the Green, or as goblin religion might have it, the navel of the Green Mother.
A brief history...
Our guide during the week long journey from Krull had been coaching us in the history of the town. In long winded dictation's, we had no choice but to soak it in. He told us of the formation, and settlement of Deeg to the current political climate of this trading post for the Tribes.
Deeg was founded shortly after the swamp got bitter( Hey that's the way our guide said it), the Tribes that had had to move were in need of a defense against the elves. They came across a huge circle of standing stones, unaware of their import or meaning they used them as a foundation for a city wall. The ancient stones were buried, their meaning never to be discovered, in fact they may possibly still stand.
A defense against the Hell bent elves had been established, however the war that had been expected never came. Instead humans and there quest for the unusual found the town of Deeg. Humans with no allegiance except their own hides, showed goblins they need not remain part of the tribe. The humans had been teaching the gobs the meaning of civilization in exchange for the rare herbs known as shash. The teachings spread through the Tribes in the area, like wildfire. The climax of that era, was the beginning of a new movement, of self. Those gobs that agreed with the teachings, forsook their oaths to their Tribes and took up a rural life within the walls Deeg. Using the shash for recreational use as a posed to ceremonies.
The tribes shrank and some disappeared altogether, either being absorbed by another Tribe or becoming completely feral. Two Tribes remained in the end to rule over Deeg, and it's new population of Tribeless, The Korakolum and The Greegore. Even these remaining Tribes were defenseless from the influence of the humans. They soon became more and more like lords and ladies, but not the soft human kind. The Tribal gobs were mean and tough, repressive, strong handed bullies, and militant minded. So unlike the peace loving Tribeless, that they ruled unfettered over Deeg, squabbling only between themselves.
Well, the squabbling turned into a full fledged war between the two remaining tribes, each sabotaging the others cornered industry and caravans. Yes, the gobs had learned a lot from their human friends, including capitalization and the principles of a monopoly. The goblin Tribes demeanor suited these new philosophies to a "T". The tribes moved away from Deeg in order to better protect their assets, leaving Deeg effectively lawless.
The town...
The colorful streets of Deeg, it was a bejeweled navel, if it was one. The goblins had obviously taken the art of making buildings out of mud to new heights. They must have used a type of dye to give color to the mud bricks, a wide variety of dyes at that. Not only that most of the buildings had intricate color designs made from various colored bricks. Stores, shops, and Inns all had signs made from the veritable cornucopia of colors.
My men and I noticed a weird phenomenon on side streets and a couple times on the main road, in lone or in pair, sometimes in even larger groups, gobs just stood there staring at the wall. This seemed extremely odd behavior to us, it was only later that someone explained that those gobs were sauced. Having taken Lolum, they were 'Spaced or sauced' and on the 'Trip'. Apparently spaced was a mental plane one reached after using Lolum, which then made you defenseless to the 'Trip'. The 'Trip' could be triggered by even the simplest pattern on the wall, or even the beads in a Dosa's hair. None of this made sense to me until much later in my visit.
I digress, so back to the town. Deeg's streets were not only filled with the colorful buildings, Dwarven architecture competed for our attention. Our guide told us of a group of Dwarven merchants that had ventured this way, they'd had Lolum put in there drinks when they weren't looking. Apparently, our guide informed us that it was quite addicting, needless to say the dwarves ended up staying here. They built the stone edifices to support there new found habits, giving Deeg a Dwarven angle. The architecture was no typical Dwarven design, they had bazaar themes and quirks.
The people...
Dwarven architecture wasn't the weirdest thing about Deeg though, the varied inhabitants of this town took the cake. From the multi colored dress of those gobs into the sub culture of the Tribeless, to the merchant class lasses mimicking the Tribal Dosas, the Treeg riding mercenaries, and tattooed Tribesmen... The list went on and on, till I lost my guide when he stepped on the toes of a Treeg that promptly bit his head off. We were left to our selves, either to extract justice or move on. We moved on. It, was then that we realized the lack of guards about, so common in other lands.
Quickly finding a new guide, this one wore bright swirly colors and was obviously deep into the sub culture of the Tribeless. The faint odor of shash followed him, making my nose itch. Once he had heard the story of our last guide, he told us of the problems in Deeg. How, the Pheronians and Bladesingers were their only law, but their patrols were few and far between. The Head of the Bladesingers was known to be especially ruthless, but then he was a huge hulking Sstiss. The Tribeless didn't really like authority, but they didn't seem to mind if they caught a particularly nasty pusher in the act.
The Bladesingers and Pheronians weren't the only guilds in town, we also spotted some of the Brotherhood here. Probably on a retreat after the church in Maston declared war on them. I asked about other guilds, even the thieves guild. The Guide said there were none to his knowledge, and as for thieves guilds... " Who needs em' when everyone's a thief? " Those were his words.
Trade...
The Tribeless guide lead us through back alleys and small plazas, through markets and around the Grand plaza in the center of Deeg. The Plaza was sacred and only Tribesmen aloud to grace it's surface with their feet. Surrounding it, however was the largest collection of booths selling rarities this side of Gar. Seeing our party caused such a ruckus of squawking merchants trying to get our attention, that we had no choice but to stop. They offered diamonds for our things made of metal, and even bricks of shash. I was to tempted I traded a lone dagger for a brick of shash, I haven't left Deeg since...
- Adieu,
Sir Dromadon
Village of Deeg Message Forum