Scorpionisland

The Scorpionisland is notoriously known for its pirates, outlaws, mercenaries and witches. Overall a place no good citizen ever would consider to enter on free will. If you´re up to no good on the other hand, or plan any major crimes and are in need of a crew - you found the right place.
 

Geography

The Scorpionisland lies just south of Nandaahr and recieves a lot of warm water through an oceancurrent from the east, which in combination with its high volcanos and mountains catches a lot of clouds that ensure rain throughout the whole year and a near endless supply of drinkingwater for everybody on the island. Due to its volcanic origin the soils of this island are very fertile. The mountains flanks are covered in misty laurel forests who are most of the times disguised by thick clouds. The only open plain area is located in the southeast and gets covered in new ash every few years by one the few active volcanoes that are left on the island. The "tail" of the scorpion is mostly rocky, steep and covered in laurel forest, which makes it pretty bad for building settlements. Only the sting offeres a small bay with a little flat land.  

Settlements / Towns

There are 4 settlements to be found on the island, Freetown on the "back" of the Scorpion, Sharks Throat in a deep bay at the belly, "the village" in the southeastern plain and Blackeye´s watch at the sting of the scorpion.  

Freetown

Freetown is the only settlement on this island that really deserves the name town or city. Nobody knows who builded the large fortress that rests on top of the steep cliffs of the scorpions back, but whoever it was, he combined the natural fortress that is this cliff with a well structured fortress that makes it nearly impossible to take the place by force. The buildings of the fortress look glued to the cliffs and are connected by tunnels. When the pirates first came to this place, they added more and more buildings and most important more and more cannons, catapults, mortars and other weaponry to the place. Freetown itself sits behind an ancient but still sturdy wall that makes it hard to attack the place from land too. Inside the walls and the fortress you find what you might call cesspoll of vice or den of sin. All things that are shunned and bannished on the mainlands found a new and welcoming home in this place. Freetown is free in the sense, that everything is allowed here. And everything can be bought or sold in this place - be it a stolen altar or a stolen princess. If it has value to someone you can sell or buy it in the warehouses, tents, docks, taverns, brothels, breweries, chapels (yes, there is a deity for everything) or directly at the harbor that sits between the cliffs. The houses of freetown are a mix that reflects its inhabitants quite perfectly. While tourning around yourself you can see (and smell) all the different cultures whos most despicable parts settled down here. Log cabins, Tents of all kinds, big mansions, Houses carved out of sandstone, stilt houses and even some old ships that have been gromed to serve a house scatter between the bigger ware- or auctionhouses. The town is like an orchestra out of tune - a mixture of screaming animals, screaming people who speak as many languages as are known to men, seabirds competing with them while another thunderstorm rolls over the island.
  Freetown has, despite its name and reputation 3 rules that can´t be broken and if they get broken, the offender most of the time is getting executed pretty fast. The 3 golden rules are:

1. To be a "citizen" of freetown, you have to buy a golden pin. Every year this pin gets changed and you have to buy a new one. As a citizen you are protected against all odds as long as you honor the rules and carry your pin visibly.
2. Rule number two is, don´t ever steal from, or kill another citizen. Damaging or killing slaves or other property on accident can be payed of with a hefty fine to the city council (I´ll tell you bout it later) and the owner of said goods.
3. Rule number 3 is to protect the island and its independency with everything you got in case of an attack.

If you stick to these rules you are relativly safe because the city council keeps a drawing of you with the bill of your pin.   The market district builds the core of the town, the living quaters with some houses for the local traders and tavern owners encircle the market and the tavern, pensions and brothels are right next to the harbor in the lower part of the town. The market district itself is seperated into different goods. Slaves and animals are sold in an underground cavern - to keep the screaming and smell at a minimum. Weapons, Valuables, armor, clothes and all things you wear on your body are sold close to the central fortress that hosts the city council. Food is sold in the middle of the district and planks and other stuff to repair ships or buildings are sold nearest to the harbor.   The Council Now you might ask, what is this council he goes on about? These people are pirates, aren´t pirates the ones who live to disobey? Oh you are perfectly right my fellow reader, but just like a ship needs its captain, this town does too. The council is formed of the 13 most rich and most powerful captains who are registered as citizens of Freetown. They decide on all things defence, fleet coordination and comando structure in case of an emergency. According to rule number 3 all captains have to obey in case some mainlaind admiral or ruler thinks to attack this place. In real life the council doesn´t take much part in everyday buisiness. They collect a small tax from everybody who lands his ship here or owns some kind of establishment, but since it wouldn´t be wise to anger their citizens and since they can make more money by plundering and trading their loot here this forms a quite stable balance. Formaly they rule the whole island but as long as the village in the south delivers the food tribute they don´t bother what happens on the rest of the island.  

The Village

The Village is an assembly of houses with a small market in a wooden barricade that is populated by former outlaws who decided their days on "active duty" are over, but fear to be executed for their past on the mainland. Here they become traders, farmers, blacksmiths, craftsman and whatever is needed in the islands settlements. Most of the food that is needed on the island comes from the volcanic plains around the village, in exchange for food, the rest of the islands inhabitants hold their hands above the townsfolk and protect them.  

Sharks Throat

Sharks Throat sounds pretty fantastic and let me tell you, this is actually a fortress as stunning as Freetown. Probably the same unknown architectural geniouses who build the foundation of Freetown probably builded the fortress and harbor now known as Sharks Throat. It is located at a cliff in deep bay on the southern shore of the island. What gave the fortress its name is a giant sharks head with open jaws, that has been carved out of a cliff. Its mouth is about 200 meters wide and has a harbor inside which is connected to the town on top by tunnels. Needless to say that this place too is sporting quite an arsenal of massive weapons. On the head of the shark a town has been growing , simmilar to Freetown, but it only holds a small part of the islands population. But the combination of these two fortresses makes it impossible to succesfully attack the iland with only one fleet. As soon as you block one town and they actually run out of food (there is plenty of it stored in guarded caverns all over the island), then they can supply themselves if needed from the other harbor. And so far the rulers of the many kindoms of Andaahr and Nandaahr never came to an alliance since they are way too busy smashing eath others heads in.  

Blackeye´s Watch

This is a small fortified harbor at the sting of the scorpion that is used as an outpost to look for potential threats or cheap captains who try to ditch the harbor tax and sneak in from the landside. Nothing much really goes on here, the guardsman change regularly and are well paid so they don´t give in to their boredom and sleep on duty.  

Landmarks

Apart from the towns there are a few Landmarks that are to be considered noteworthy. The lighthouse at the scorpions head, the big volcano in the southern plains and the dreadcave in the mountains near the village.  

The Lighthouse

Was build by the pirates - if you consider this it is one sturdy thing. Made of different colored sandstone and volcanic rocks wich gave it a pretty colorful look. It is about 80 meters tall and is constantly guarded by a team of around 15 men who keep the fire burning and an eye out for enemies. Local legends say theres a ghost of a former lighhouse warden who wil try to kill you if sleep in the room directly under the fire. So far this couldn´t be proven, maybe because nobody ever sleeps there, who knows...  

Big Volcano

Is the biggest active volcano on the island and erupts like a clock every four years with a massive amount of ashes that keep the island fertile. Around its massive crater over the years a big wall cooled lava has formed which - pretty conviniently keeps the lava from the village and drains into the sea on the southern shore. It can be spotted from a far by the massive cloud of ash that allways rises from its depths.  

Dreadcave

The name is what you get here. Nobody who ever entered this cave left it afterwards. A medium sized river leaves this cave and flows through the surrounding laurel forest. Rumor has it, that this cave is home to a special spezies of salamander. They are, according to locals around 3 to 5 meters long and spend the days in the subterran lake within the cave, but at night they come out to hunt and prey on everything they can lay their cold, wet and dark eyes uppon. (You wanna know more? Check out the creature-section)  

Vegetation

Most of the steeper areas of the island are covered in a laurel forest, which in turn is heavily covered in mosses and epiphyts who together form a pretty impiercable and dense jungle. It is allways colder in the jungle than on the rest of the island, the sounds from the outside world are silenced by the endless layers of plants and the moist air that covers the daring adventurers body like a second skin and replaced by the jungles own sounds. Strange noises of invisible birds, frogs, insects and many other creatures - maybe even the dreadsalamanders who picked up your scent? Its easy to get lost in this forest because after you are a few steps in you will loose every sense of orientation and without a compass and a basic knowledge of the islands topography you are doomed to wander these forests until something wants to feast on your warm flesh.   The plains on the other hand, eventhough rarer than the forests are a quite lush and friendly place. Nothing harmful lives here, only some dear who learned to keep away from the forests. But beware of the humans who live here, every foreigner has a good chance to get mugged for the few coins his purse might hold.  

Animals

The island is home to an array of endemic and sometimes equally dangerous animals. The islands name doesn´t solely derives from its form, but also from a very very poisenous species of scorpions, the purple striped scorpion. Its venom is so deadly, most people who accidently step on them don´t get to realise the sting because they are allready dead. Extracting it is hard, but for assasins there are few poisons who are worth more then the "purple ones gift". On the other hand there are the feared Dreadsalamanders, who in addition to their enormous size seem to have a great sense of smell and hearing, eventhough they lack in the eyesight-departement. In their spit they have a paralysing venom that makes it easier for them to hunt and makes them even more dangerous for the islands inhabitants.
  But not all animals here are as deadly, the islands also has an endemic Laurel Dove, that, thanks to beeing a clever bird is used by the pirates to send notes all over the island. Normally the nest far up in the tops of the laurel trees, but you can see a lot of halfdomesticated ones in the streets of the towns these days. Also there lives a little lemure, the Laurel Lemure in the forests, who equally clever as the doves is sometimes groomed as pickpockets - if trained right the sell for big amounts of money (i´m talking really big here).