Six More Dust Town Locations!

Dust Town Racetrack (#16/30; #106/365)

The Racetrack of Dust Town is a gravelly expanse of dusty wasteland on the south side of the settlement. Here are held weekly Wheelie races, typically on Stormsday or Earthday. Wheelie Races involve 6 to 12 WHEELIES racing around a rough oval-shaped track for 3 or more laps, leaping and dodging several obstacles, including a SAND SNAPPER pit, thickets of barbed acacia thorn-bushes, and a jump over sulphur-yellow quicksand. For more information on running a Wheelie Race, see Citadel of Chaos (p. 35).

 

The Dust Town Race Track is part of a loose tour of competitive circuits spanning the ruins of Balkash and Cutsilver, the dungeons of the Black Citadel, and Sapphire City to the south. More distant tracks can be found in Warpstone and Wolftown, but the dream of any professional Wheelie racer is surely the incredible Circus Mirabilis in the vibrant city of Bakulan, capital of far and distant Shabak. Locally famous racers include Flat-Face, Speed Merchant, and Fast Fyodor.

 

The Master of Ceremonies of the Dust Town track is a tall spindly human called Khafor of Halak (dextrous, dishonest), who rules proceedings with a magisterial air (and with marshals comprising hired muscle from the Scorpions’ Den). On race day, the raised stone biers around the track will be three-quarters to completely full of spectators, bookies, food-sellers, ale-purveyors, pickpockets and others. Scalpers will patrol outside the track, selling both real and fake tickets at exorbitant prices. The rest of the week, the track will be undergoing maintenance between races.

 

Aardwolf Meat Farm (#17/30; #107/365)

This is a long low building of stone, roofed with palm thatch, from which emanates a powerful musky stench. Kept within deep pits inside, in disgusting conditions, are Giant Aardwolves, farmed for their nutritious meat. The meat farm is run by an elderly DORAGAR called Kem Lagor (stocky, mean) who is armed at all times with a whip and a gleaming cleaver, and his crack team of RAT MEN underlings, likewise armed with whips, and also shortswords and nets.

 

Despite the apparent squalor, meat from this farm is of excellent quality and sold on throughout Dust Town, Pellod and elsewhere. However, Kem Lagor is constantly on the lookout for adventurers and troubleshooters, to help him with a host of problems, including:

• sourcing Bristlebeast colonies for meat for his Aardwolves to feed on,
• dealing with rival competitors offering cheap and poor quality or tainted meat,
• predator incursions of Hyenas, Jackals, Raterpillars, and even the occasional surfacing Giant Sandworm, attempting to feed off his product,
• occasional ‘liberation events’ by either Gnoll tribesfolk (‘to free their fellow hyenid people!’) or a mix of Desert Elf and Chervah freedom fighters ('rescuing these poor creatures from such appalling conditions!’)

 

Dust Town Quarry (#18/30; #108/365)

The Dust Town Quarry lies to the north-west, in the rockier upland parts of the settlement, and is where chunks of limestone and fossilized coral are hewn out of the cliff-face to be used as building materials in both Dust Town and Pellod. The quarry is run by a clan of chaotic green-skinned Half-Dwarfs, led by Nek-Bakish Ashbeard (big nose, humble), who takes great pride in his craftsmanship, and personally, has been appalled by the manner in which the Autarch tore down a perfectly serviceable stone fort and replaced it with the current gleaming metal monstrosity. Of course, he generally keeps these opinions to himself, except on the odd occasions he gets raging drunk on Skullbuster! Rumours abound that the quarry-workers sometimes uncover hidden caves and caverns with links to the subterranean chambers beneath the Slimepit Oasis.

 

Orc Ironsmith (#19/30; #109/365)

Why should Goblin Warsmiths have all the fun? A cheaper alternative to the pricey, if good quality, metalwork sold by the Goblins, is the Street of Orcsmiths, who sell similar gear at much lower prices (half the city prices listed in the rulebook). A common slur on ironwork items of Orcish manufacture is that Orc smiths don't care about workmanship, because breakages caused by poor quality demand a constant supply of replacements and thus more profits; or that Orc tribal shamans are ordering the smiths to deliberately provide shoddy weaponry to Dust Town as they plan to attack the city soon. Actually, most Orc smiths working in Dust Town are fleeing uncomfortable tribal conditions and settling here ‘to make real good honest moolah, you know!’ An example of this is Garkla the Modest (one-legged, youthful), an enterprising young Orc Ironsmith, with a steel leg and a lively forge producing cheap serviceable swords, shields, helmets and breastplates.

 

Trail Trader (#20/30; #110/365)

The best trail merchant in town is Al-Rhor Sandyfoot (bald, collector of trail news). Half-Nomad and half-Desert Elf, they have been selling travel gear to merchants, strongarms, wayfarers, and pilgrims for a long, long time. His shop on the edge of the Trappers’ Market sells most things anyone would ever want to survive in the wilderness, having all the necessary gear of good quality, available at regular prices. Al-Rhor is also a walking compendium of travellers’ tales and lore, and, for a price, can offer plenty of accurate advice and recommendations on the best ways to get to other destinations and the various difficulties that need to be avoided along the way.

 

Goblin Warsmith (#21/30; #111/365)

A typical Goblin Warsmith has:

• A spotless forge
• A host of DARK GOBLIN helpers
• Excellent gear
• At high prices
• Is a proud guild member, paying fees to Teknos
• Sometimes has some weird stuff that ‘fell off the back of a cloud’

One such Warsmith is Rudhan the Accomplished (spotty, dreamer), who specialises in crossbows, battleaxes, spears, and polearms, as well as plate and chain armour. Occasionally, if they have a sense of trust with their customers, Rudhan may offer more esoteric black-market gear, including stolen Dwarfish firearms, or strange Pangarian tech that has been funnelled down to ground level via numerous corrupt intermediaries, and thus highly expensive to purchase!