RSS Updates
Hikakilalli
Updated: Jan. 09, 6:59 p.m.
This island is a canonical part of the DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND setting. You can still edit it, but aware that the admins may revert your changes if they don't align with the overall vision of the setting.
Summary
This island includes a volcano, peaceful ruby-mining natives, disreputable pirates and some weird honking ninjas.
Size: 4500 square miles
Population: 10,000
Main Cities: Hanni’s Springs, Katu
Components in this Island
Clan
Place
NPC
Hikakilalli is about 90 miles long and 50 miles wide. It includes a variety of mountains and ridges rising nearly a thousand feet above the sea, but the most dramatic of all is Old Man Vaharo, a single conical peak rising up from the jungle-strewn lowlands in the southeast of the island. Old Man Vaharo is an active volcano and also home to the Gilded Fang Cult, a mysterious ninja group who have lived here for a hundred years or more. As the southeast portion of the island is least hospitable, inhabited by dangerous creatures and far from any welcoming anchorage, the Gilded Fang ninjas are left alone by the other residents of the island.
Besides the ninja cult, Hikakilalli is home to about 10,000 souls, mostly natives who live in agricultural settlements across the fertile interior plain. There are two ports of note on the island; one, on the west near a vast lagoon, is known as Hanni’s Springs, and the other, at the opening of the only navigable river on the island, is called Katu.
Katu is the more “legitimate” of the two. The natives have a permanent presence there and welcome traders. Besides the abundant fruit and vegetables grown on the island, Hikakilalli is also known for significant quantities of gemstones mined from the mountains in the southwest of the island. These gems have been carefully managed by the native elders and the island has prospered from the many goods they have purchased. Katu is a thriving community of several thousand, including rest homes for traders, a market, and many services such as leatherworkers, smiths, and so on.
The central plateau is where the bulk of the native population make their living. The land is fertile, with rich volcanic soil, and much has been cleared for farms over the years. The settlements are largely family-based, each one numbering up to 100 or so individuals who for the most part obey a patriarch (or in some cases a matriarch) who represents the village at Katu each Year’s End when the wealth acquired from the ruby mining is shared out. Each village is also responsible for sending a certain number of workers to the mines each month.
South of this plateau an east-west ridge isolates most of the more dangerous creatures that live here from the farmlands to the north. The southern reaches collect more rain and contain the active volcanoes here. The ruby mines are also here, and the workers are guarded by heavy fortifications and trained warriors. The ninjas of the Gilded Fang Cult have been known to assist when a mine is in danger of being overwhelmed by powerful carnivores, and as such they are considered honourable neighbors by the natives. There are also a number of ancient ruins along the shores of Lake Kila, all of which are avoided by the natives.
Tsoka Asafun
Owner: barsoomcore
Crimelord Tsoka Asafun is a grotesquely fat man with piggish eyes and a constant wet sneer on his lips. Despite his bestial appearance, Asafun is quite intelligent and utterly ruthless, and is a very dangerous man in a fight.
Asafun came to Hanni’s Springs more than twenty years ago, kicked out of a pirate ship for hoarding more than his share of the take. He decided life at sea was too democratic for him and set about turning the town into his own private fiefdom. In the early days there wasn’t much of a town, and with his willingness to terrorize and his skill with a knife, Asafun soon found himself in control of things.
As the town grew, it became harder to maintain the absolute grip he once had over the town, but Asafun has changed with the times. He counts among his closest allies Angus over at Gilbert’s Tavern, Makuhani from Katu (one of the long-standing patriarchs of the native community), and of course his right-hand man, Mul Kwende.
But Asafun’s only true friend is his capuchin monkey, Cassin. Cassin travels with him everywhere and has many times warned Asafun of impending danger. Any attempt to follow the crime lord will have to evade the little monkey’s watchful eye.
Hanni's Springs
Owner: barsoomcore
Situated on the northwest coast of Hikakilalli, Hanni’s Springs grew up as a known place to take on water without being noticed. As the coast here is marshy lagoons and swamps, few natives live here, and so pirate captains would often put ashore and send crews to the many clear springs that bubbled up only a mile or inland. Over time some folks set up here permanently, offering trade and services to incoming pirate ships. Hanni’s Springs is a seedy agglomeration of saloons and brothels and the like, home to perhaps a 1,000 rough-living sorts.
A couple of the more famous (or infamous) places folks are likely to encounter include
- Gilbert’s Tavern – A second-rate bar overlooking the harbour. The booze is watered and Gilbert left years ago, leaving Angus Drinker to watch the joint. Angus is a sullen one-legged ex-pirate who mainly runs the joint so as to ensure a reliable stream of nobodies to listen to how the world is out to get him.
- The Mangrove – Tsoka Asafun’s saloon, with gambling, whores and cheap liquor. Flashy and trashy, with gold paint peeling off the banisters. Best place on Hikakilalli to buy or sell under-the-counter rubies.
- Beds For Rent – cheap rooms and a full-on flophouse, over-run now with refugees. The owner, Mrs. Margrove, insists on payment and has received some help from Kwende’s boys in making sure those who refuse to pay are encouraged to leave.
- Finger’s Fish – Finger is sallow old bastard who buys most of the local catch and salts it for transport. He sells some of it here for locals, in a slime-strewn open market.
Beneath the catwalks and boardwalks of the city lurks another sort of world entirely:
Dredgers’ Rest – the Dredgers are an insular community who maintain the pilings and the mangrove muck to keep the town from falling into the marsh. This location, only a rumour among most of the inhabitants of Hanni’s Springs, is a complex of rooms and twisting passages constructed underneath the main levels of the town. It is a labyrinth and can be deadly, as certain parts flood at high tide. In other places the Dredgers have trained assorted nasty creatures to hang around and pick off anyone who strays too close to the water (or takes the wrong turn into a dark passage).
There’s also some key players hereabouts.
- “Itzchen” is an Impsalan runaway who joined Maxon’s crew years ago. He’s a massively overweight bastard with a fondness for young girls.
- Derrin Snok is one of the leaders of the Dredger community, a pasty guy with goggles and long wiggly fingers.
Gilded Fang Cult
Owner: barsoomcore
A ninja clan based on the slopes of a volcano in Hikakilalli. These dudes are CRAZY ninja. They’re descended from a group of natives who rescued Grand Master Kakima and nursed him back to health. In return, he taught them the secrets of the Gilded Fang Cult and they established their headquarters here. They have a friendly relationship with the Hikakilalli people but keep themselves separate. Since the latest trouble between Hikakilalli between Impsala, they have distanced themselves even further, suspecting that the Impsalans have not-good plans.
Gilded Fang ninja are easily recognizable — first of all, many of them are native, which is rare among the ninja clans. But even more so, the senior clan members adopt “cat” personas, and wear tiger or leopard or black panther masks. They fight with claws strapped to their hands and are adept at disappearing and striking from the darkness.
They have relics. And magic ninja powers. Like Essence-Absorbing Stance, and Exploding Fist Strike. And they’re named crazy things like Obsidian Tiger and Night-Ruling Falcon.
The biggest problem for the Gilded Fangs right now is that a number of their relics went missing when one of their fastnesses was overrun by Impsalan troops. Most of those relics are now on board the treasure fleet heading to Impsala. Oh, and they were basically completely wiped out.
