08 - Mossbank [Meshon]

[Meshon]

Mossbank
Wellcome to Mossbank, where the trinkets and treasures of a hundred nations are yours to admire and yes! Even to buy! Mess Bank? No! You’ve been listening to Grubs and Inkslingers, huddled around the Inkwell, peddling their words for a few pennies and drawing maps of anything and everything for whoever will pay them. I hear those maps aren't always even accurate… Of no account I tell you. The arcades of Mossbank are not mere junk shops, let me assure you. Why look here! An obsidian bookmark from Hallancius… yes, well, dwarven books are rather bulky. Oh, and this Nahaduan cheese grater, an artifact of strife-filled times. What’s that? I believe that’s an original Ataxian deadlock, fine workmanship, nothing gets done with one of these around. Oho! And this Shireland mushroom peeler, surely you can see the value in it. Here we have Skrødjarb from Svarstjorn, and this! Look at this tooth! Massive! From a Zargan loom, yes, the finest silks in the world have passed over this treasure.

Current Map
Mossbank.jpg

Neighbouring Districts
01 - Supreme residence of the August Grandmaster of Guild City [tonnichiwa]
02 - Winden Gardens [GLS]
03 - Atlas Arena and the Compass Rose [Mouse]
05 - Nantara'Ïendel District [Ilanthar]
07 - Innominate Bluffs of the Polyrapt [Falconius]
11 - Plaza and transmission center [- JO -]

In order make it easier to check out, all the narrative information and the latest map will be posted in this first slot. I'll carry on with WIP posts and copious verbal meandering in subsequent posts as usual

Cheers,
Meshon

[Meshon]

The problem is, my district has two personalities. See, when I first spotted the Guild City poll thread, I did a little sketch to test my commitment to the project.
inkwell-c.jpg
At this point I was thinking of the cartographic version of 18th century Grub Street, a place where "hack mappers" would draw whatever maps you paid them to, with no regard for common cartographic decency! "Sure that river can split there, yep, then flow up into the mountains? Sure, no problem!" It felt like I was good-naturedly mocking myself… Also an homage to anyone working in ink, I added a magic fountain. Of ink. What a mess, right?

But I've always been kind of peripherally fascinated by Walter Benjamin's Passagenwerk/Arcades Project and so I wanted to map something like the covered streets in Paris that inspired Benjamin. And of course… well, I'm always telling people to make their maps dirtier and messier, spread more junk around. I figure I'd better rise to the challenge and offer a place where you can actually pick up all that junk to put in your maps!

I'm not totally sure where I'm going, but it will get somewhere! So far, I've been fiddling around with buildings. So I'll probably keep doing that. Seems like a promising tactic…
### Latest WIP ###
Mossbank1.jpg

Now to go spy on the neighbours. There's some strange structures going up nearby, and we need to sort out some bureaucratic red-tape about bridge-building permits…

cheers,
Meshon

[Abu Lafia]

A brilliant concept Meshon, glad to see you joining the fun! I saw your wonderful inkwell drawing the other night in this hell of a Guild City thread and am glad you reposted it here. I think another search for it in there could be rather dangerous for my mind... Curious to see this district of inkspillers unfold!

[Tonnichiwa]

Haha, I love this concept you have for this part of the city. I'm sure the inhabitants of the Castle grounds go slumming there quite often. They probably use those gentlemen of dubious mapping to re draw property lines and try to push property ownership disputes through the courts.

[Mouse]

Brilliant idea, Meshon, and already a whole load of progress

Looks to me like you might be doing quite a trade in the end

[kacey]

Great idea Meshon, I was admiring you're original drawing in the previous thread so I'm glad to see it here too.

[ChickPea]

This is going to be awesome!

[Straf]

Great start Meshon. You know a good ink needs a good fixative? Up in 56 the druids and alchemists, with help from kacey's university, have come up with some great fixatives to help inks withstand time and sunlight and that. There's a special one that consists of a mixture of dried poppy milk with a few herb and fungus extracts.

[Meshon]

Haha, I love this concept you have for this part of the city. I'm sure the inhabitants of the Castle grounds go slumming there quite often. They probably use those gentlemen of dubious mapping to re draw property lines and try to push property ownership disputes through the courts.

Oh perfect! I hadn't considered that use for a mercenary map-maker…

Great start Meshon. You know a good ink needs a good fixative? Up in 56 the druids and alchemists, with help from kacey's university, have come up with some great fixatives to help inks withstand time and sunlight and that. There's a special one that consists of a mixture of dried poppy milk with a few herb and fungus extracts.

That sounds good. We have all sorts of, uhm… treasures to trade! And just wait until some prankster tosses a bottle of that fixative into the fountain!

Here's the latest, just some lines to start getting a sense of the water's edge.

### Latest WIP ###
Mossbank2.jpg

Cheers,
Meshon

[Mouse]

Already well planned and laid out

And is that a floating village I spy off my waterfront? Should make an interesting view from the water tower