Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Yareth's Pit

One of the stranger places in Andasso is a huge hole in the ground called Yareth's Pit. About 50 years ago, a foreigner named Yareth came to Andasso for unknown reasons. After traveling around the region for a few months, he began hiring all of the laborers he could find, stripping several villages of their entire labor force. For weeks, the laborers dug, completing one deep shaft straight down as well as several incomplete, shallower shafts. Then, abruptly, Yareth ordered them to stop and sent them all home. Yareth was never seen again.

The Pit, located miles away from the nearest village, resembles a dug-out quarry. The main shaft is about one hundred feet deep; the others range from a few feet deep to close to seventy-five feet deep. Much of the rock quarried in the digging remains piled nearby, although some has been taken over the years.

No one knows why Yareth did this, or why he abruptly stopped, or what became of him. Some believe that Yareth was from an entirely different world, and was digging to find a portal back to his home. Others think he was searching for some ancient artifact, and stopped the work as soon as he found it. Most people just think Yareth was a rich lunatic. Today, some of the diggers still share stories about Yareth and his pit.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Civil War Jones

I'm not sure if it's because of the 150th anniversary, or because I've been reading about it (James Macpherson's excellent Battle Cry of Freedom, or some combination of those and other factors, but I've really been jonesing lately to play an American Civil War game or two.

I own several ACW games, and I've love to get one or more on the virtual table (probably no opportunity to play face to face), including:
I also own For the People and In Their Quiet Fields II, but haven't played either; I'd love to learn both of those.