Space 1889 - Mars-gold in the Wild North.pdf - Space 1889 - RPG

M ARS : G OLD IN THE W ILD N ORTH

A Space 1889 adventure setting by Anders Blixt

The Maariti Gold Rush

Suddenly the rumour is all over Mars: gold has been found in the Trans-Polodaari hills at the sources of the Maariti

creek, northeast of the city-state of Polodaar. Adventurous individuals journey to that area to make their fortunes,

turning it into an ill-administered and turbulent place for about five years (after which the gold is depleted). This is the

background for some adventures involving the PCs’ attempts to strike it rich in a lawless land.

The Maariti Area

The Trans-Polodaari hills are low and undulating. Their soil is poor, discouraging farming. Their climate has a distinctly

arctic quality, so there is a lot more humidity here than on more southerly latitudes, particular during the warm season

when the retreating polar ice caps generate a lot of water. Hardy low plants with occasional thorny shrubberies and

copses of trees cover the hills. The fauna is fairly varied. Narrow streams flow in the hills, gradually merging to creeks

that finally enter the canal going from the icecap to Polodaar.

The Maariti is one of these creeks, originating about one hundred miles east of the canal. It and some of its tributaries

contain auriferous sand, which can be washed from the water by the traditional manual process. The streams are rarely

more than two feet deep and six feet wide while the Maariti itself is equally shallow, but up to twenty feet wide.

The Common Gold-washers

Gold offers an irresistible lure for many, especially for the poor who see an opportunity to escape what they see as a

dreary life. However, dreams of wealth usually turn out to be just dreams. Very few gold-washers are lucky enough to

become wealthy. Most just spend some tough years in the hills and then return home as poor as when they arrived—

unless they join the really unlucky ones in shallow graves outside the hill encampments.

The average gold-washer is a sturdy but poor Canal Martian lad. He heard the tales of gold northeast of Polodaar,

spent his savings equipping himself and trekked the long way to the Maariti. He arrived a bit naïve but soon learnt the

basic skills of his new trade and the need to work long hours in the cold water to avoid starvation. He also learnt of the

necessity of cooperation. A lone man has slim chances of survival in a place where there are no effective authorities. The

common gold-washers—jokingly calling themselves fishermen, since they work in the streams—band together for mutual

benefit, building fortified encampments and jointly maintaining some semblance of law and order. It is important for

them to properly delineate land claims and to find methods of settling conflicts without resorting to violence. The

fishermen have for those purposes adapted the legal traditions of Polodaar to a set of common law regulations suiting

their needs.

There is a sprinkling of non-Canal Martians here, too: rough Red Men of many nationalities and young Hill Martians.

A Typical Encampment

The gold-washers prefer to live in sturdy canvas tents, which are easy to transport from one location to another. An

ordinary encampment has a population of 20 to 100. It is encircled by a log palisade to keep scavenging animals and

unwanted visitors out. Inside, the encampment is divided into different sections for tents, for cooking, for latrines, and

for keeping pack animals. Wagons must be parked outside the palisade. Usually, the only joint facilities in the

encampment are the latrines and the stable; both arranged to improve the general hygienic standard.

The Artisans and the Entrepreneurs

The people that really make money out of the gold rush are those that provide the fishermen with vital goods and

services—like tools, beer, and women—at exorbitant rates, the pricing being by traditional methods of supply and

demand.

In an encampment there is always a steady need for blacksmiths, wainwrights, tent-makers, and tailors to maintain and

repair the gold-washers’ possessions. Due to the generally inflated price levels, a skilled artisan is able to charge twice or

thrice as much as in the cities. However, his costs are equally inflated. Often, an artisan is a part-time gold-washer as

Gold in the Wild North

A Space 1889 Setting

well. Since he provides essential services while usually being a fully integrated member of the gold-washer community,

the fishermen generally accept the artisan.

The fishermen are able to provide much of their own food by hunting and cultivating small garden plots inside the

encampments. However, the common man’s skills are not enough to make some items, such as good drink or spices.

(Perhaps the particular services of females fall into this category as well.) The entrepreneurs supplying such merchandise

earn well, and are often the subjects of the fishermen’s dislike and envy, forcing them to employ bodyguards for

protection. Many entrepreneurs are criminals from Thoth or Alclyon, sent here by their bosses to make a quick profit.

The Strongmen

Another group of winners are those individuals who, with the help of their henchmen, exclude others from rich areas and

let their underlings exploit their gold with the most sophisticated methods available. Since the corrupt Taarir the Warden

leads the only local Polodaari authority, the strongmen are able to run most of their businesses unhindered as long as

they grease his palm suitably. However, Taarir does not accept too blatant a criminal behaviour, so even the strongmen

have to clothe their activities with fig leaves of legality.

The Player Characters

Various occupations and pursuits suitable for player characters in this environment, ranging from ordinary gold-washers

to artisans providing useful services to mercenary guards. The two latter categories can more easily move around in the

Maariti area in search of employment; hence, these may be more preferable pursuits for the PCs.

The Polodaari Presence

Taarir the Warden

Polodaar’s ruling prince has taken some measures to monitor the situation at the Maariti and to try to curb the worst

disregard for law and order. He has organized the Maariti area as a separate hundred of the East District, appointing

Taarir, an officer of the Polodaari army rangers as its warden and judge. Taarir received a company of fifty soldiers to

assist him in his less than envious task.

Taarir accepted his mission with dark pleasure in his heart, since he realized that this was good chance to make a

small fortune through corruption. Being the only permanent representative of Polodaar in the area, there is nobody to

oversee him and discover that he accepts bribes. However, he is not stupid, so he is careful to maintain a surface of

respectability and honesty. The best way of satisfying those that bribe him while keeping an aura of credibility is to be

elsewhere when something critical happens and to bias the judicial process by an excessive use of petty technicalities to

achieve the desired results. Already after one year as warden, Taarir is thoroughly disliked by the fishermen, but they

cannot accuse him of any substantial wrongdoings. Most of their complaints against entrepreneurs and strongmen

founder on technicalities, while their opponents are far more successful when they bring their cases to the warden’s

judgement.

The Warden’s Soldiers

The Polodaari Army Rangers is a light infantry warband recruited from the rural districts of Polodaar. It has been trained

for independent anti-bandit operations in the wilderness. Its soldiers are skilled frontiersmen, which is why they were

chosen to accompany Taarir on his mission.

Fifty soldiers cannot keep complete control of several thousand gold-washers scattered in dozens of wilderness

encampment. Their main task is to prevent outbreaks of anarchy and banditry, tasks that they so far have managed well.

However, they have occasionally been ordered to enforce Taarir’s unjust decisions against fishermen. This has caused a

lot of resentment among the common gold-washers who no longer fraternize with the soldiers. The two groups become

more and more estranged.

The soldiers really dislike going against their countrymen. They think that their main task is to fight bandits and High

Martians, not to evict ordinary gold-washers from disputed land. There is therefore a growing disapproval with Taarir’s

policies.

The Hill Martian Natives

Many local Hill Martians disapprove of the influx of greedy strangers who—intentionally and unintentionally—disrupt

their traditional way of life. Some natives also want the gold for themselves since they see themselves as the “property

Gold in the Wild North

A Space 1889 Setting

holders” of the area (even though it was some Red Men that found the auriferous sand). For these reasons there is much

Hill Martian banditry and the gold-washers’ encampments face intermittent raids. The newcomers have learned the hard

way to always travel in well-armed groups.

On the other hand, a lot of Hill Martians earn money by selling supplies to the gold-washers. There is a steady

demand for flour, meat and hides, goods that the natives produce themselves and exchange for gold at a good rate. The

precious metal is then used to buy tools and weapons from the city of Polodaar.

Hence there is no united Hill Martian front against the gold-washers. Instead, there has already been strife among the

natives when antagonistic groups have tried to settle their conflicts by force. (This is fortunate for the Canal Martians;

should the natives unite, the newcomers would not have much chance of surviving in the hills.) So far, few Canal

Martians know of these incidents, since there is so little communication between the two ethnic groups.

The Trans-Polodaari High Martians

There are some High Martian tribes stalking the Trans-Polodaari hills. However, their number is small at this time so

raids are very rare. The High Martians have a healthy respect for the Hill Martians, whose hunters have displayed an

unusual skill in dealing with their raiding parties.

The High Martians have little information on the events in the hills and do not understand why there is such a sudden

influx of Canal Martians. Occasionally, a group attacks a fisherman encampment to steal food and weaponry, but there is

no organized warfare due to the absence of a strong leader to take command over the squabbling savages.

Searching For Gold

A gold-washer is a stationary person, spending long and boring days sifting sand in the stream where he has staked his

claim. He searches for small nuggets that have been eroded out the Trans-Polodaari rock and transported by water down-

stream. The nuggets are, small weighing just a few grams, and pretty hard to spot unless one possesses the proper

experience.

It is suggested that the Gamemaster uses the following simple method to determine how much gold a player character

discover during a day in the stream. Since this is a fairly boring task, it should be burdened by too much arithmetic.

The Formula For Success

Roll 1D6. Subtract 3 if the stream is of poor quality, 2 if the stream is a good one. Subtract another 1 if the character has

worked less than a month as a gold-washer.

The result is the amount of gold, measured in steps of 1/16 th of an troy ounce, that the gold-washer has found. If the

final result is zero or negative: too bad, you did not find any gold today.

If you roll a 6, roll again and add the result; if you roll another 6, roll again, etc. It is an open-ended series of rolls,

making it possible, though extremely unlikely, to find quite big lumps of gold.

Example: The experienced Fred Brown, who has staked a section of poor quality stream, works hard a sunny day;

his player rolls 6, and hence rolls again, another 6, and again, 3, giving 15-3 (poor quality stream) = 12/16 th troy oz.

Fred Brown really struck it lucky when he found a gold lump weighing about 25 grams.

His buddy Donny Craig in the adjacent stake is less lucky, his player rolling a 2, giving a zero result. No nuggets found

today. However, he expects Fred Brown to make a small celebration with his buddies tonight.

Gold in the Wild North

A Space 1889 Setting

The Seven Mercenaries

A Maariti Adventure

Orthaad is a local strongman in the Maariti area, originally being a crime-lord from Alclyon. He claims a large rich area

for his henchmen. However, it already contained some fisherman encampments, including one settled exclusively by a

group Hill Martians from Cebrenia—and their inhabitants showed no inclination of moving out. The conflict between the

fishermen and Orthaad’s henchmen gradually escalate. Eventually the boss sends for seven notorious Hill Martian

mercenaries (originating in Karkarham) from Alclyon, giving them the task of cleaning the area from its unwanted

occupants.

The PCs, living or staying in one of the encampments, face the choice between fighting the injustice or leaving. Their

fellow fishermen are tough frontiersmen, but not warriors. The seven mercenaries are competent and merciless and plan

to kill or scare away the undesirable fishermen with terror, leaving false clues implicating local Hill Martians as the

perpetrators. The mercenaries’ presence is initially unknown, but the PCs have the opportunity of uncovering the true

story behind the fearsome events. However, putting them permanently out of action will be a major accomplishment.

Timeline

Day 1

The seven mercenaries arrive by foot in the area and establish as small hidden camp in a copse some distance from the

disputed area. After sunset, the mercenaries’ spokesman walks to Orthaad’s camp to discuss the strongman’s plans.

Day 2

From dawn till after sunset, the mercenaries scout the area to learn what it looks like and how their adversaries work and

live.

Day 3–4

A few hours after sunset, the mercenaries capture two fishermen, who are performing maintenance on their wagons,

from the PCs’ encampment. The prisoners are brought to a secluded spot by the mercenaries, interrogated brutally and

the situation in the encampment and its surroundings and then killed and buried in hidden graves. The kidnapping is

executed with no obvious traces, so the victims’ friends are unable to find out what has really happened. The culprits are

skilled woodsmen and know how to hide their movements. This is a part of the mercenaries’ plan to strike terror in the

fishermen’ hearts, since an unknown foe is always more frightening than a known one.

The disappearances are discovered after a few hours but nobody is able to understand what exactly has happened.

Day 4

During day 4, the mercenaries stalk some fishermen who work alone and kill and rob three, one of which is Kwaliwi the

Cebreni. (None of the victims belong to the PCs’ encampment.) The Karkarhamis do not leave any genuine clues to who

did it. Instead, at one murder site they drop a typical local Hill Martian dagger.

The rumour of the killings spreads like wildfire in the area. The stories become more and more distorted and frightening

as they travel by word of mouth. Soon a lot of fishermen are convinced that Hill Martian vampires and other terrible

creatures stalk them.

Day 5 Onwards

The mercenaries continue their terror campaign, killing and robbing gold-washers. Since nobody dares working alone,

the killers have to deal with groups of two and three adversaries, but that pose no major problems. Fear spreads among

the fishermen and many prepare to depart for other areas. The Cebrenis get angry and decide to hole up in their

encampment, while trying to find out who killed their friend.

If the PCs do not successfully deal with the mercenaries, the area will after two weeks be empty of gold-washers, apart

from the stubborn Cebrenis. Orthaad’s henchmen will gradually take over the abandoned encampments, while the

mercenaries depart from the area. The crime lord has then achieved his plans.

While all this goes on, the Warden and his men will be on patrol in another part of his area of responsibility. He has been

bribed to stay away for at least three weeks.

Gold in the Wild North

A Space 1889 Setting

The NPCs

Orthaad

A few years ago, Orthaad was a minor crime-lord in Alclyon, running smuggling operations. However, the law were

eventually to catch up with him. He was tipped off by a contact in the city administration, terminated his operations, and

departed with his henchmen from Alclyon before the city guard was able to strike. Orthaad decided that a sojourn in the

wilderness could be a good idea. He had heard of the Maariti goldrush and of Taarir the Warden, so he realized that this

would be a good opportunity.

Orthaad and his henchmen arrived to the Maariti about a year ago, claiming a potentially rewarding area and building

an encampment there. He quickly discovered Taarir’s corruption and started to bribe the Warden to further his interest.

The strongman covets the neighbours’ claims and tries to find ways of expelling the local fishermen. However, mainly due

to the stubborn Cebrenis, Orthaad’s plans have not progressed. To remedy that, he has sent for some assistance from

Alclyon, thinking that what he cannot get by bribes and threats he can get by brute force.

The Seven Mercenaries

The notorious seven come from the Karkarham area. Today, no Hill Martian tribe there would admit that they once

belonged to it, so they must have been banished for some unusually heinous reason. The seven are skilled frontiersmen,

with lots of experience of killing High Martians and beasts.

They have lived for some time in Alclyon, earning their living as muscle for hire in the local underworld. The city

authorities know that they are crooks, but have had a hard time pinning anything on them, since those that are about to

witness against them in court usually disappear without a trace. The seven are a competent bunch of people, who rarely

act rashly.

Now the mercenaries have come to Maariti on Orthaad’s invitation to terrorize certain settlements and scare off their

inhabitants. The Karkarhamis arrived in secrecy, establishing a small camouflaged camp in the wilderness. Their

spokesman visited Orthaad’s settlement during a night to get instructions and receive part of their wages. Then they

initiated their terror campaign.

If outsiders discover the camp, the Karkarhamis will kill them if that seems to be a good option. Otherwise, they will

pretend to be newly arrived goldwashers, who are looking for a good place to start working. They have been very careful

to not leave any clues that point towards their camp.

The PCs’ Fellow Fishermen

There are 31 NPCs sharing encampment with the players. It is not possible to provide information for all of them, but

they all share some basic traits: stubbornness, professional competence, rugged physiques, honesty to each other, and

well equipped. However, none of the NPCs are experienced warriors.

The Cebreni Hill Martians

There are a group of Cebreni Hill Martians gold-washers in the disputed area: twelve close friends and relatives—

Bowiriw, Khowiriw, Thowiriw, Kwaliwi, Nowi, Dowi, Giwil, Tiwil, Zimiwil, Bawil, Lawil, and Ruwiri—who all belong to

the Therto tribe and are very proud of their clan. They are all young adventurous adults. When they heard of the gold in

the Maariti, they decided that a visit there would be a rewarding experience. Their chieftain was not too keen on the idea,

but eventually let the youngsters go.

The Cebrenis have built their own encampment, actually a stone house they built themselves, at a stream that they

have staked out as their own. The neighbouring fishermen were originally a bit suspicious of the Cebrenis, but quickly

realized that the newcomers were honourable and hard-working individuals. The Cebrenis used their skills to select a

good area to exploit; their gold-washing operation has been unusually successful so far.

The Cebrenis get along well with the neighbours, since they have been treated well by them. On the other hand, they

are very angry with Orthaad who offered them what they considered to be a trifling sum to move elsewhere in the region.

Unknowingly, Orthaad insulted the Cebrenis and they have vowed not to give in to his demands even though they may

have to fight to defend their claim.

Gold in the Wild North

A Space 1889 Setting

Space 1889 - Mars-gold in the Wild North.pdf

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