135. South Weave
For additional (spoiler) Narrator Notes for South Weave, see entry 823.
If Jupi and Adri are with you, neither have been there, but as you get closer they will tell you what they know about the village:
As you can see, the local crop is Cold Cotton, a local variety that doesn’t produce as well, but can be grown in much colder temperatures. The location of South Weave, along the Southtap, between a large mesa and days of hills, is particularly well suited for the crop, as the moisture of the morning fogs just hangs there, nourishing everything.
The village is home to several dozen people, most of whom are cotton farmers and weavers. The quality of textiles coming from the village rivals what can be found in Deeproot. New carts arriving from South Weave always cause Deeproot to erupt like an ant hill. There’s word that an Oseram woman showed them how to use machine parts to automate much of their work, and a Banuk explorer helped establish a trade route for dyes and pigments unavailable in Plainsong.
Before we left Deeproot for the Sundom, we heard that strange vegetables were growing in South Weave. It was thought to be good news, as the new vegetables were supposedly much larger than any seen before, but with the other news from along the Southtap, we should check to be sure.
South Weave sits just outside a fork of the Southtap, where the smaller branch curves off to hug the start of a range of hills to the southeast. Another mesa, not unlike Hawk’s Song, lines the north end of the valley, this one running east-west and longer than the eye can see. South Weave is a trio of hills surrounded by flat farm land along the river and in every direction. While several are dedicated to food crops, most of the land is covered in rows and rows of cotton.
Even from a distance, it’s clear something is wrong with South Weave. Log spikes have been driven into the stony ground, forming some kind of rudimentary and completely ineffective defense. It takes a moment, but you realize the logs were taken by tearing down most of the buildings which should make up the town. The only structures still standing are the watchtower on the north hill and a few small storage sheds, barely more than sturdy tents.
Human remains are visible from a distance, dozens of them, likely the entire population of the village. While the bodies show the decomposition of weeks or months of being in the open air, they do not show signs of animal consumption. Characters with high perception would notice foxes, boars, badgers, goats, and other fauna are also present and in a similar state. If Adri, Jupi, or any Nora or Utaru characters with medical or agricultural proficiency are present, they will advise against approaching the village, assuming the presence of some kind of disease.
Investigating the Area
Observation gives signs that not all the humans died at the same time.
Some of the bodies have been dragged into rows near one edge of the village, while others seem to have been piled and set on fire.
It’s hard to tell from a distance, but other than the ones set on fire, none of the other bodies show signs of traumatic injury.
Getting close enough to scan them with a Focus does not reveal anything — it simply labels them as Human (Deceased).
This scan also reveals several other bodies in the fields surrounding the village.
Some look like they were walking away from the village, while others look like they dropped where they were working in the fields.
Circling the village, nothing too unexpected is seen. A dozen or so human bodies are found, all with the same signs of sudden death. Dozens more dead animals are also found, in various stages of decomposition, the freshest of which looks only weeks dead.
Widening the search, you start to see live animals again some 700-900m from the village. They all seem perfectly healthy and normal, though if pursued they will only run away from the village. Characters with cartographic proficiency, or big-picture thinking, would notice that the ring of death is not actually centered on the village, but makes an oblong ellipse, with a second focal point in the fields on the peninsula made by the river’s fork.
Investigating that area reveals an entire field which has been burned to the ground. It’s impossible to tell what the crop was, as the fire not only reduced everything to ash, but was hot enough to fuse the sand near the river into glass. The burned area is almost a perfect square, 500m to each side. Two similarly burned areas can be found, though much smaller at 100m to each side, closer to the mesa to the north and the hills to the south.
South Weave Mesa
Eventually, eyes will be drawn to the large mesa to the north of the village, where a familiar line of Glinthawks can be seen. The watchtower on the north end of the village is not tall enough to let you see the top of the mesa, but it does help you get a sense for where the Glinthawks are concentrated. Given enough time, you can also approximate where fast-moving Glinthawks appear out of the earth.
If you were willing to make the 15km walk around to the north side of the mesa, you could find the valley-level entrance to the Cauldron. Otherwise, the slopes of most of the mesa are gentle enough such that you could find your way up to the top, where you could then look for the Glinthawks’ entrance.
To go in from the top, go to entry 136. Otherwise, make the hike around the meta and go in at valley level with entry 137.