Terrikton

The population of Terrikton is overwhelmingly Gnomish. Non-gnomes are welcome, but generally confine themselves only to Screetown, finding the narrow passageways and winding tunnels of Upper and Lower Terrikton generally too confining (but for those few exceptionally wealthy individuals who own apartments high in the towers with their own airship docks or gyropthopter hangars.

Terrikton is governed by a nine member council called "the Directorate." All but one of these nine, referred to as "the Eight" are the leaders of the city's largest design conglomerates, themselves elected by the workers in their companies. Some of these seats are effectively held hereditarily, such as the seat held by the design company founded by Terrik himself (still held by a distant descendant serving in a mostly ceremonial role), while others are occupied by individuals who won their seats through political maneuvering, or through their scientific, commercial, or technical expertise in a crucial field. These members are referred to as "the eight," and while their individual goals vary, it ensures that the primary concerns of Terrikton are always commercial and maritime. Terrikton's general strategic outlook can be described as "armed neutrality," as although it insists on maintaining its huge air fleet as a deterrent and safeguard against attack, but is extremely reticent to risk that fleet in foreign interventions or military actions for anything other than clear self-defense, and this has made Terrikton slow to act in response to major threats in the past, relying on the strength of its air fleet and the safety of the sea and its natural walls to protect it.   While these conglomerates are locked in fierce competition, they typically attempt to present a united front in their dealings with foreign powers, and much of the councils business is occupied with dictating the relationships of the various conglomerates with the outside world and mediating conflicts between them. The final member of the governing council is the leader of Terrikton's security forces, referred to as the "Chief Aeronaut." Possessing veto power over any act of the council (overruled only by a unanimous vote of the other eight), and casting the deciding ninth vote when required, the Chief Aeronaut is tasked with representing the cities defensive and security interests, and has emergency governing powers when they are bestowed on them by the eight during wartime. Additionally, as the assets of each conglomerate are typically owned by Terrikton itself, the council by a majority vote (or the Aeronaut by personal decree) can appropriate the assets of the conglomerates for the common use.

Terrikton is widely considered one of the most defensible cities in the world (hence its appeal as a settlement to its founder, Terrik).   Terrikton's natural geography is its chief defense. Any potential attack would first have to travel miles across the open ocean just to reach the city, before then contending with the treacherous natural currents and hidden reefs, shoals, and rocks which widely encircle the approach to the island and then would be forced to brave the additional unpredictable currents and hazards to reach the port (a challenge even for experienced local captains), before disembarking onto the exposed rocky beach of Screetown, where they would be confronted with two immediate problems. The first and most apparent is the fact that any attacking army who had managed to successfully negotiate the approach would now be forced to scale the nearly four hundred foot cliffs just to make it to the city proper. The gondola connecting the beach to Lower Terrikton is controlled from Lower Terrikton, so all the defenders would need to do to secure the island would be to raise the Gondola, and instead forcing them to somehow scale the rock face. This process is further complicated by the second problem, that throughout the whole approach, landing, and scaling, the attackers would be harassed by a hail of missiles, including heavy ballista fire from batteries built into the caves in the cliff faces and from the Gnome's dirigibles and balloons, darts and explosives dropped from gnome thopters and gliders, and the good-old-fashioned rock dropped from the edge or crossbow bolt fired by the defenders. These dirigibles, gryothopters, gliders, and war balloons make up the bulk of Terrikton's military defenses, and Terrikton views its air fleet as its primary means of security, and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and purposes, ranging from the individual gliders capable of only short glides between launching points, to the huge crew-operated airships and dirigibles.

The bulk of Terrikton's workforce are engaged in the mining and manufacturing operations of the island. Terrikton is one of the world's largest producers of Runestone, highly valued for its ability to retain magical enchantments for uncommonly long periods of time, though it rarely exports more than limited quantities of it. In addition to mining Runestone, the gnomes also use it to power the variety of magical contraptions and works of artifice they create. These magical and mechanical contraptions are Terrikton's chief export, and (aside from Runestone itself) are the most highly valued goods the island produces. Gnomish clockwork machines are prized the world over, and the gnome's engineering expertise is sought by various notables all around the world. Among these manufactured goods, the gnomes are known to produce "liquid fire," a highly flammable and sticky substance popular in warfare, and more recently have begun experimenting with mixtures of saltpeter, sulfur, nitrate, phosphate, and charcoal to produce a substance known as "black powder" which can be used in potent explosives.    Also highly valuable, but a closely guarded commodity, are the gnome's famous airships and gyrothopters. Although the gnomes have been willing to sell these contraptions to sufficiently wealthy buyers, even in these cases, knowledge of the specific details of their design and operation are considered trade secrets and matters of immense security and discretion, and the gnomes generally limit the overall number exported and exercise careful discretion in who they actually sell to. Terrikton's official policy is to always maintain the largest air fleet in the world for its own security, as an aerial attack is seen as the only viable way to threaten the city.    While most of the island's population is involved in some part of the manufacturing, trade, design, or mining operations of Runestone or the contraptions that use it, Terrikton also boasts a lively, if unorthodox, fishing industry. Using their various airships, gliders, dirigibles, and gyropthopters, the gnomes fish the rich waters around Terrik's Rock, including for the highly valued Colossal Tuna.    Finely, Terrikton also trades in the domesticated Pterosaurs and Atlas Albatross which nest on the Rock and outlying stacks, using them as the primary beasts of burden and as a means of transport for those wealthy enough to afford them and otherwise adverse to gliders or airships.

Terrikton has deep mines which tunnel into the rock itself (even below sea level), which extract the valuable Runestone from the core of Terrik's Rock.    Additionally, Terrikton has robust manufactory facilities which produce all manner of artificer goods, mechanical and clockwork trinkets, and the famous airships, gyrothopters, and gliders which the city is known so well for (as well as the hangars and docking bays to support them). In fact, the facilities at Terrikton are the center of a global airship transit network. Towers and districts in the city are often linked by gondolas suspended on wire cables, while the two chief marvels of the city are the huge lifts which connect Screetown to Lower Terrikton and Lower Terrikton to Upper.

Screetown

The first point of entry for any guest in Terrikton is called Screetown. Here, on the narrow rocky beach, a messy town of wooden buildings has sprung up to service the port and the visitors who come to the city. They include a few inns, mainly catering to the merchants and sailors who come to visit. The few permanent houses here are also made of planks of wood much like the boards used for the ships which come through the harbor, and house the few locals who call Terrikton home full-time to service the port. Generally however, the buildings of Screetown are taverns and drinking holes for the various sailors who pass through town.   The port is modest, with only a small breakwater to offer some measure of shelter to the ships who fight their way through to make landfall. It offers a few docks and jetties for unloading goods, with a row of storehouses packed between the sea and sheer cliffs. A small drydock and shipyard offers repairs enough to make vessels seaworthy to finish the crossing of the Shattered Sea, making the Terrikton a key waypoint for supplies and emergency repairs for those experienced enough to make the landing.    

Lower Terrikton

Where the scree beach meets the base of the pillar, a metal cage crawls up the cliff face, pulled along a track by a series of cables, winches, pulleys, and cranks. What appears to be a single mesa from sea level actually reveals itself to be tiered, with two distinct plateaus- one at the Gondola's landing 400 feet up the rock and another at the second plateau almost at its topmost face, seven hundred feet up. Used mainly to haul up supplies from the port and ferry visitors to and from Terrikton itself to Screetown below, the Gondola rises nearly 400 feet at a steady pace into the salty sea air before disembarking its passengers at the lower plateau of the stack known as "Lower Terrikton." While from sea level the stack appears to be a single mesa, at the landing of Lower Terrikton, it reveals itself to be tiered, with two distinct plateaus- one at the gondola's landing 400 feet up the rock and another at the second plateau almost at its topmost face.     In fact, Lower Terrikton comprises a collection of districts and smaller neighborhoods that make up the bulk of the city of Terrikton. The gondola landing is one of the few relatively open spaces, featuring a fairly open central square around the lift mechanism, and is surrounded on three sides by the encroaching city. Leaving this central plaza, visitors enter the maze of steps leading up, down, and through the network of buildings. Given the lack of space on the island, the neighborhoods are crowded and the city streets are narrow and famously hard to navigate for outsiders. In fact, the streets more resemble the winding tunnels and passageways of Gnomish Burrows rather than the wide thoroughfares of human cities. To accommodate the tight quarters, lower Terrikton has expanded both upwards and downwards. Here, most homes extend for multiple floors, both carved out of the bare rock of the mesa itself, sometimes ten stories deep, while upper floors made out of wooden beams and thin sheets of metal stack onto the lower plateauincreasingly top-heavy looking layers. These buildings, often referred to as "towers," are often neighborhoods in their own right, with dozens of families inhabiting residences throughout the different levels. Additionally, many of these towers are interconnected by (depending on the floor) either stone bridges where the lower levels of the tower have been carved out of the rock to form deep crevasse-like alleyways, or at the higher levels by rope bridges with wood or tin catwalks, or in some especially high traffic areas by further systems of gondolas running on wire suspensions.   The lower floors of the towers have been carved out of the rock itself. Here, alleyways between towers are formed from the sheer rock, offering access to the layers of apartments and shops honeycombed into the rock itself, accessible through the tight stairways and bridges which cling to the rock walls and criss cross the canyon-like gaps. Although these interior alleyways are often dim (especially as one descends to the lowest levels, sometimes more than a hundred feet below "ground" level), once one enters these cavern-like apartments, they discover they are surprisingly bright and airy, as most feature exterior windows opening up to the open air, sea breeze, and sunshine. At higher levels, the stone taken in carving out the lower steps of the towers has been repurposed into first large stone blocks, then smaller mortared and stone bricks, and finally debris-filled-retention walls surrounding huge imported-wood pylons driven into the rock work to provide the structure for additional floors jettying out and made of thin sheets of metal and billowing fabrics similar to sailcloth.   The bulk of the commercial portion of Lower Terrikton is located around the Gondola's landing in order to easily facilitate the transfer of trade goods between the city and through the port at Screetown, and this area is the most heavily trafficked by foreign visitors who take the trip up the gondola to see the city proper, as well as by those inhabitants of the city who require essential trade goods only available from outside. Further into Lower Terrikton, most areas shift to exclusively residential usage (or the small commercial centers which support them, such as a neighborhood restaurant, tavern, or shop). Businesses and private homes are often intermixed in the towers, making each tower or pocket of towers interconnected and tightly knit communities. Deeper into Lower Terrikton, away from the edges of the rock, often at the base of the towers, use shifts to more industrial focuses. Here, in addition to the ongoing excavation work which creates new living space by extending the towers downward, miners dig even deeper into the rock in the deep tunnels which wind through the stack, opening into caverns and pockets in the rock itself to excavate the precious resources.  

Upper Terrikton

Upper Terrikton comprises the second tier of Terrik's rock, rising another three hundred feet above the lower plateau. Significantly smaller than Lower Terrikton, its own plateau is only a third the size. Much like in Lower Terrikton, the bottom third of the mesa is honeycombed with residential housing carved into the rock itself (often catering to those higher-status members of the city population including the political elite, wealthy merchants, and military and industrial leadership), accessible again by narrow stone step ways and tracks along the mesa's rim. Additionally, these also offer some particularly expensive lodgings for those wealthy tourists or important notables who have come to the city by airship.   Farther up the mesa in Upper Terrikton, usage shifts to almost entirely industrial and commercial. The flat top of the mesa, accessible by another gondola, serves as a huge docking bay for Terrikton's famous Airships and Dirigibles, while the various caves and tunnels which twist through the rock serve as additional docking bays for visiting airships or launching points for the various gliders and gyrothopters which the gnomes of Terrikton are so proud of, and hosts most of the hangers for the island's air fleet.  

Off-Rock

The final district of Terrikton is not in fact one place, but rather refers to a multitude of different neighborhoods. These neighborhoods all linked by the common feature of not actually being connected to Terrik's Rock, but are rather located on the variety of nearby sea stacks that have since eroded from the main rock, hence their common lumping together as "Off-Rock." As with the rest of Terrikton, homes, workshops, hangars, and defensive posts are carved directly into the rock of these communities. While the closest of these stacks can still be reached by rope footbridges or the connected gondola which run back to Terrik's Rock, the stacks furthest from the rock itself are accessible only by airships or thopters which land at their docking bays or hangars for heavier goods, and this fact is the primary reality that dictates the lifestyles of the people who live Off-Rock. For personal travel between the Off-Rock stacks and Terrikton, most of the population of these islands favor the ubiquitous gnome gliders, and even gnome children learn to use these gliders from a young age.

Terrikton's chief asset, aside from its valuable Runestone, is its air fleet, and in fact virtually all aspects of life in Terrikton revolve around the air fleet, as it is not only the settlement's chief military defense, but also its primary source of trade, its chief export, and its lifeline to the outside world, and as such it is seen as being of vital importance. The various flying machines used by the gnomes  are incredibly diverse in both form and function, with the major design conglomerates each regularly offering new models in a constant race to outdo one another. These range from huge passenger intercontinental dirigibles or the prides of the gnomish navy, the fearsome dreadnoughts, equipped with heavy ballista and (in newer models) black powder cannons, to the mid-sized but still formidable frigates, battle balloons, or gyrobombers, to the more nimble gyrothopters, corvettes, skiffs, and gliders.

Terrikton is dominated by a number of the different design, engineering, and airship manufacturing conglomerates, all of which compete to produce the most advanced and impressive designs to be used by the city's air fleet. In a constant race to outdo one another, these guilds are involved in all phases of the production process, from the mining of the Runestone which powers their devices, to their drafting and design, and the eventual construction of the finished products. Generally speaking, this competition between the conglomerates is amicable or at least not actively violent, though some corporate espionage and (figuratively) cutthroat methods are to generally be expected and considered "part of the game."  While many of these guilds specialize in specific goods (some specialize in airships, others in gliders or gyrothopters, while others still focus on technical engineering, mining, or even consumer goods), all at least dabble in airship production and manufacturing and produce their own models for use by citizens of the city.

Terrikton was founder by Terrik the Tinkerer, a gnome who landed on the Rock shortly after the Sundering, seeking a new home for his people where they could live in peace and security. Arriving on the barren and isolated rock, where others saw only an incaccessible and lifeless rock, Terrik saw potential. Seeing the huge Pterosaurs and Atlas Albatrosses, as well as other, smaller seabirds nesting on the island, safe from predators behind miles of ocean and high on the cliffs, and relying on the ocean's bounty to survive, Terrik was inspired. He recognized that the same features which protected the seabirds nesting on the rock would protect his people. Terrik built the first gondola lift, and was said to be the first to domesticate the Atlas Albatross and Pterosaurs as beasts of burden to use to help navigate the stacks. Modeling his designs off these animals, Terrik created some of the first gliders and the gnomes learned to ride the ocean air currents to truly make the Rock home. Shortly after, the discovery of Runestone deep within the Rock's core, coupled with the security of the island and natural bounty of the surrounding fisheries, sparked a wave of settlement, and soon the original gnome settler-refugees saw their population swell as many more followed. Not long after Runestone started to be seriously extracted from the Rock, it was Terrik who first theorized Runestone's properties for magical enchantments, while the shipwrights which had come to the island quickly saw their use and applied his lessons to their own experience with sailing to create the first airships and dirigibles. In the years since, Terrik refined his ideas and the lessons of the airships to create the first gnomish gyrothopters, and these industries have formed the basis for Terrikton's industry and prosperity ever since.

New arrivals in Terrikton are generally most eager to visit the Air Port, located on the mesa of Upper Terrikton. This wide, flat space is crammed filled with berths, launches, and landing pads for the various flying machines used by Terrikton's residents, including the huge dirigibles used for intercontinental air travel. This area bustles with activity, not only from the various military and commercial air traffic, but also the constant activity of the ground crews. Those with a particular affinity for aeronautics (or those looking for work) may the eight conglomerate's design and manufacturing yards. These buildings often feature huge networks of rooms and large warehouses, studios, and labs to test new technology and refine and produce new products and designs.    Travel between the districts of Terrikton often involves the use of one of the mechanical cable gondolas which connects the city levels, themselves a marvel of engineering. Each one rises more than 300 feet straight up and down the cliff walls, crawling up the rock and supported  by a network of cables, levels, and winches which pull them, and can haul a remarkable weight.

Terrikton is a popular but rarely reached tourism destination, and its wonders are famous worldwide. The most common visitors to Terrikton are merchants who come to buy the various mechanical contraptions produced by the gnomes of Terrikton, or those interested in one of the cities other major strategic exports, its runestone, airships, or black powder weapons. In addition to their business, these tourists also often mix a bit of pleasure in on their stay. Those who arrive by airship, such as through one of the lines operated by Terrikton itself, typically stay in Upper Terrikton, finding the more open spaces more suited to their comforts and offering stunning views of the city and seascape. Those arriving by ship, such as those merchants offloading and buying bulk cargo or those driven to the port by necessity, generally stay in Screetown.    In addition to merchants, Terrikton is visited by a host of sightseers and thrill-seekers. In addition to stunning ocean views, Terriktoners have developed a host of extreme sports which are popular amongst the locals and daring tourists. Perhaps the most famous of these activities is gliding from the gnomes' speciality gliders. Particularly talented gliders have honed their craft into a refined art form, participating in high speed races weaving between the sea stacks and surf. These races require an immense amount of ability to read the wind currents, precision manipulation of one's glider (almost mirroring flight), and a not insubstantial amount of lack of self-preservation, but occur regularly between the racing teams of the city (often sponsored by the various conglomerates), and tourists can both spectate and try their hand at gliding or racing on their own. Besides entertaining the populace and attracting tourists, these races also allow the various conglomerates to showcase their newest and most impressive designs and often feature stunt-flyers or military expositions showcasing astounding feats of aerial acrobatics and precision maneuvering, designed to awe onlookers.   In addition to these races, those of fainter heart can still take balloon or dirigible trips up for scenic views of the city, some even featuring meals or in-flight entertainment. These trips also offer a unique view of the various festivals occur throughout the year which feature an array of multicolored and intricate and unique kites, sometimes numbering in the hundreds or thousands, while the streets also bustle with activity during these festivals and are crowded with spectators and fliers below. Ever-competitive, the Terriktoners have developed both a complex system rating the most impressive kite of the year (within certain parameters and graded based upon aesethics, aerodynamics, craftsmanship, and creativity), as well as a form of "kite fighting" in which kites are dueled in the sky to until a single champion remains. Also ubiquitous during Terrikton's many festivals and holidays are its famous fireworks, which attract tourists of all kinds. Using their unique mixtures of black powder, chemicals, and magic, the Terriktoners produce delightful and fantastic displays of fireworks, creating huge stories and images in the sky (and simultaneously demonstrating their impressive firepower).   Terrikton is also a popular hub for sportsman, as the ocean upwellings around the sea-stacks make the surrounding waters teem with life. While the gnomes are generally averse to those creatures which they view as intelligent, many gnomes are pescatarians and readily share their fishing grounds with marine mammals like whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, birds, marine and avian reptiles, and even octopus. Game fishing off Terrikton includes grouper, marlin, tuna, snapper, and tarpon (though most species of shark are left alone), and fishing of the highly valuable Colossal Tuna is a lucrative (if challenging) industry and lures glory-seeking fishermen. The gnomes have even combined this sport-fishing and fused it into a way to refine their attack-gliding skills, as gliders are challenged to harpoon their target from the air and reel it in while in flight, in a practice called "Osprey-ing." Prizes are generally awarded for the largest (although sometimes the most valuable or challenging) catch. This means competitors are confronted with not only the practical challenges of spearing and reeling in a target mid-flight, but also demands they exercise careful judgement, as too-small a target means they risk losing the competition, while too large a target risks the real danger of being pulled into the sea by their quarry (made all the more hazardous given the gnomes often chum the water beforehand to attract targets). Those less enamored by this risk can choose to fish the way the gnomes' main fishing fleet does, by balloon, typically using a combination of harpoons, nets, and drop-lines. Given the fertility of Terrikton's waters, it is no wonder that Terrikton also attracts a number of unwelcome visitors, and mercenaries and monster hunters who visit Terrikton can find no shortage of work the Aeronaut would rather outsource than risk Terrikton's own resources on. These include giant sharks and leviathans, giant marine reptiles and saltwater crocodiles, rocs, harpies, wyverns, and even the occasional sauhaugin raid or pirate vessel which dares venture too close to Terrikton's protected waters or challenges it for control of the skies.   Terrikton's most revered holiday is the Night for the Lost, which honors those gnomes killed during the Wars of the Concordance and who did not survive the original flight to Terrikton. During this holiday, the Terriktoner's cease all work and observe ten minutes of silence (demarcated by a pair of flares). Following this period, the Terriktoners release a huge assembly of colored lanterns into the sky, which are carried on the ocean wind currents high up into the sky and over the sea where they become lost amongst the stars.

Homes in Terrikton vary in their design based upon what district they are located within. Buildings in Lower Terrikton are usually built out of stone and thin sheets of metal, although their upper levels and roofs are often made out of sheets of metal and canvas wrapped around huge wood pylons. These buildings are almost all huge apartment blocks that extend down into the deep recesses of Terrik's Rock, tunneled into the stone itself, and generally accessible by one of the many winding footbridges or staircases that crisscross the wider network of apartment blocks. In the upper floors of these blocks, wood beams and thin metal boards couple with sailcloth to create airy upper rooms, with the topmost layer reserved for airship docking and community gathering space. Most of these apartments are comfortably adorned within and of consistent sizes, and many are specifically oriented around windows facing out to the sea and are designed to let the sea breeze carry throughout the home.    Architecture is much the same in Upper Terrikton, though here the size of the rooms and space per unit is significantly larger. Most of these apartments feature wide patios and verandas from which their occupants can watch the sea, and some even feature private berths for gliders, gyrothopters, or airships. Units here are generally lavishly decorated, and many gnomes in Upper Terrikton maintain private gardens on their porches beyond just the simple window or rooftop boxes of herbs and vegetables kept by many residences. These private gardens are used as subtle signs of status, and their owners take great pride in cultivating their own green oasis retreat by importing and carefully maintaining exotic plants from all over the world, often to stunning effect.    Screetown is perhaps the most out of place of the districts, with its buildings constructed almost entirely out of wood and canvas. Many buildings are not so much even buildings as multi-room tents supplemented with wooden beams, while even the largest and most permanent buildings in screetown are hardly larger than a village inn, and are nearly as modest- often cobbled together from spare deck-planks used in the shipyards. Still, Screetown has its own particular charm, as most buildings are only a few yards from the pounding surf and are regularly showered with sea spray, while the scree stones and rounded pebbles of the beach are often pleasantly warm to the touch or comfortably cooled by the surf, and many buildings in screetown forego true floors in favor of the natural scree beach.    Homes and communities Off-Rock are broadly similar in architecture to those of Upper and Lower Terrikton, varying between the tightly compact apartment towers of Lower Terrikton and the larger and more extravagant suites of Upper Terrikton. Invariably, these homes and communities are oriented around their airship ports, gyrothopter hangars, dirigible berths, gondola cars, or glider launches.

Terrikton is built into the rock of a single immense stack rising out of the sea, called "Terrik's Rock," about three square miles, as well as the outlying stacks which have since eroded from the main pillar. The walls of the stacks are made of rough and jagged stone, constantly buffeted by the surf and surrounded by rubble on three sides and rising nearly vertically. On the leeward side, the stack has eroded down slightly farther, where a narrow scree beach offers the sole point of landfall, making up the inner arc of a crescent bordered by more sheer cliffs on its landward side.   The first plateau of the stack is nearly four hundred feet up the cliff.    This space is itself bordered by further cliff-faces,

Terrikton has a generally hot and dry climate, with a dry season and a storm season. During the dry season, days regularly reach ninety degrees fahrenheit, and the plateaus of the rock bake under the heat and direct sun and can reach temperatures as high as one hundred and fifteen degrees. However, this is not typically an issue for the population of the city, as the ocean winds rising up the  mesa act as a sort of natural ventilation system, and residents regularly keep their windows open to the sea to allow the breeze into their homes, keeping even those topmost levels of the tower a comfortable seventy to eighty degrees, while those in the lower levels and without as ready access to the breeze still benefit from the natural coolness of the stone and the shade of the deep tower alleys. While rain is infrequent during this season, a series of natural cisterns and wells deep within the rock keeps the city well-supplied with water even in the dry months.    In the storm season, Terrikton is usually emerges unscathed. While serious Hurricanes regularly pass over the island during storm season, residents of the rock are sufficiently experienced to batten down their homes and take refuge inside the sturdy safety of the rock itself, and while Screetown and the Off-Rock neighborhoods are generally heaviest hit, even they generally take fairly little damage in these storms, sheltered by the rock itself from the worst of the wind, rain, and even the most serious storm surges. While the daily temperature is slightly cooler (still in the sixties or seventies), homes in Terrikton still remain a comfortable and consistent temperature due to the natural heat retained by the rock itself.

Terrikton is blessed by its natural resources. Foremost among its natural assets is its control over deep mines into Terrik's Rock which enable them to extract valuable Runestone, and it is believed that Terrikton sits above one of the largest and densest Runestone deposits in the world. Terrik's Rock and the surrounding sea stacks also host substantial deposits of metal ore, and high concentrations of phosphate and nitrogen.   Aside from its mineral resources, Terrikton possesses very little in natural resources. Terrik's Rock and the outlying stacks are generally devoid of trees (excepting small and carefully cultivated groves), and very little room exists for the typical beasts of burden or livestock. Terriktoners have proven to be particularly adept in domesticating (or at least cooperating with) local wildlife, and have been known to domesticate some of the local Pterosaurs which come to roost. Terriktoners aslo cultivate small colonies of edible fungi in the lower, more damp and humid levels of Terrikton.   Terrikton's true natural wealth comes from the surrounding sea. As an isolated pocket of shallow water in an otherwise deep ocean, and situated on a high-nutrient ocean upwelling, the waters around Terrikton are especially rich, and the outer breakwaters of the stacks often feature stunning coral reefs. While as a general rule Terriktoners avoid whaling and do not fish or hunt the whales, dolphins, giant turtles, seabirds, or other marine mammals or reptiles, most have no such compunctions about shellfish and fish. As such, the natural fisheries of oyster, clam, barnacle, conch, scallop, and mussel are all valuable and heavily relied upon by locals (including certain species which are native only to the Screetown area and are local favorites). Crabs, lobster, and squid are all similarly popular parts of the local diet (although hermit crabs and octopi are generally excepted) and are frequently sought by fishermen. Naturally, the greatest value from Terrikton's fisheries are the fish themselves, and Terrikton's flourishing waters mean fishermen are spoilt for choice of target catches. These range from shoals of the smallest baitfish such as sardines, anchovies, herring, and sprat, to schools of dinner plate sized Snapper, Sea Bass, and Cod, the true trophy sport-fish like Tarpon, Swordfish, Grouper, or Mackerel, or the coveted and immense Tuna. Terriktoners supplement their marine diet with with root vegetables, herbs, and fungi grown on the island,  alongside kelp and seaweed from the ocean. Beyond the ocean's edible resources, Terrikton has also developed a valuable peal industry around the local clam species, and harvest coral and seashells for various purposes including artwork and key components.