Rubbish Dump
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Towns and cities produce large amounts of waste. To keep the population healthy and the streets relatively clean, a place to dispose of all that rubbish is essential.
The Dump
Lucky Dip: When a citizen dies without an heir, all their earthly belongings get sent here. Then, anyone due a reward from the authorities can instead choose to rummage through the pile and take one cartload of whatever they wish in lieu of payment.
The Abyss: This pit is unfathomably deep; no light has ever reached its subterranean depths. The townspeople have made a betting pool on how long the ever-growing mountain of rubbish will take to reach the surface, but this certainly won’t come to pass within their lifetimes.
Tide’s Tithe: This settlement utilises a nearby stretch of tidal mudflats as its rubbish dump, piling the refuse on the shore and letting the tide sweep it out to sea. The local merfolk do not view this behaviour kindly.
Ilmatoivia’s Incinerator: When the piles of rubbish at this dump get too high, Aabraham Ilmatoivia, a powerful local wizard, uses his magical powers to incinerate the excess material. The extravagant pyrotechnics often attract an impressive crowd.
Major Features
Strange noises echo across the dump at night, although no two witnesses can agree on their exact nature.
A filthy pool of water, its surface covered with a thick layer of scum and rat droppings, promises a foul disease to any foolish enough to enter it.
A small hut fashioned from scrap material is nestled into the side of a rubbish heap. An old, warped door, still set in its frame, leans haphazardly against the entrance.
Hundreds—perhaps thousands—of rats infest this rubbish dump; many carry virulent diseases.
Minor Features
The musty smell of damp cloth and rotting wood pervades the area.
A large collection of household items grouped tightly together gives the impression that a whole household’s worth of stuff was thrown out all at once.
An eerie silence hangs over the area, broken only by the rustling, clanking sounds of the character’s movement.
Vultures circle lazily overhead, occasionally swooping down to peck voraciously at scraps of rotting meat.
What’s Going On
A sudden rustle in a nearby rubbish pile betrays something small scurrying around.
A pack of stray dogs, mangy and starving, pick over the rubbish, fighting over any scraps they uncover.
Fat rats swarm over a dead bird, quickly reducing it to feathers and gnawed bones.
A group of tired workers sit on improvised seats around a small, makeshift table, taking a break from their hard labour for a game of knucklebones.
Other Folk
Brusi Ehtaro (LN male human) works hard as a carpenter, and the quantity of his work produces a lot of offcuts and waste pieces of wood. Whenever that pile gets too big, he brings it here on his small cart.
Tuulitar Kylli (LN female human) makes her living scouring the heaps of rubbish, finding any broken or discarded metal items and selling them as scrap metal to local ironsmiths.
Mauno Tapatora (N male human) prefers solitude in the natural world to the busy bustle of urban life. He is a hermit. Lacking income, he can often be found at the rubbish dump, scavenging for useful items.
Kristiina Arijoutsi (CN female human) claims to be a city official collecting a small tax from those wishing to dump their rubbish here. In reality, no such tax exists, and she is a conwoman, albeit quite a skilled one.
What’s Lying About
Teddy Bear: Dirty, waterlogged and missing an eye, this worn teddy bear lies discarded in a muddy puddle.
Chipped Axe Head: This axe head has no shaft and is so chipped it would be of more use as a saw than an axe.
Taxidermied Squirrel: This stuffed squirrel is incredibly well-preserved, except for its tail, which, oddly enough, has been shaved.
Mysterious Paper: Hidden in the sole of an abandoned boot is a scrap of paper, so wet the writing is indecipherable, although it looks to be written in Elvish.
Credit
This is a short system-neutral extract from Urban Locale #22: Rubbish Dump by Christopher Broadhurst.
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