Vinefall

This was my contribution to the Dark Age of Sigmar (AoS28) Facebook group's joint city project. It'll give me something else to pootle about with alongside Caliban Fell. 

Vinereach

A district on the far eastern edge of the city, Vinereach was originally Tarak's Reach. In the Undermine Incursion three centuries ago, however, it was overrun by those beneath. The forces of the city fell back, surrendering Tarak's Reach to the invaders.

When Harmid Fellhand led the fight back, it was discovered that Bleeds from the Realm of Life had followed the invaders and vast, tangled growths now choked the entire area. The defenders of the City drove the invaders back and life slowly returned to the new area.

Houses and tenements had been ripped from the ground and borne aloft on the vast trunks of the Ghyranian growths; people soon slung cables and rope bridges from one to the next. The massive vines became trunk roads, artieries of trade and commerce from one level to the next, and slung cradle cars - some wound by hand, some pulled by beasts - became a common sight in the skies.

The very tips of the canopy provided an easy berth for the ships of the Kharadron Overlords, and so Vinereach rapidly became the natural import hub for the eastern half of the city; vast leaf parachutes thick liana cranes became part of the thriving Canopy Docks, transferring trade goods to the lower levels and thence to the rest of the city.

At the base, in the neighborhood known as Leafall, the lack of sunlight and everpresent rot of falling sap and leaf litter provided opportunities for scavengers and parasites of all species. Crime and degradation rapidly became the order of the day. The Hive - a criminal organisation patterned after the insects that plague Leafall - became the most successful of all the gangs and rapidly started to rule the shadowed floor where ancient ruins lie choked in tendrils and mulch.

Visitors to vine reach comment almost immediately on the thick, humid air and the green, hazy light. The ever present sway of the vast trunks and the creaking of their strain holding aloft the various homes, business and temples of the district provides a constant background noise, counterpointed by the buzz and flutter of insects. Visitors are warned to be wary of two things; sapwine, brewed from the liquid gained by cutting younger vines is a potent brew and rather addictive; slicers - those who cut the vines and brew it in secret - are not all beholden to the Hive but it is still wise not to become too dependent on them. The second thing to be wary of is that some of the other plant life seeded at various levels are not as passive as the vines themselves; rumours and folklore persist of unwary travellers who stop too long to breathe in a heady scent or admire a beautiful blossom and simply... vanish.

I quite fancy building a bunch of Hive-affiliated gangsters from the Leafall area. Could be a fun conversion project. And I like the idea of some of Knight Militia, maybe based around the Gawain and the Green Knight idea or picking up on the Green Man or wood woad folklore of England. Maybe the Wild Hunt?