RPGaDay2020 Day 11: Stack – the Stacks of Akorros

Yesterday in RPGaDay2020 we looked at Want – the desire of disabled people to play someone like themselves.

Today the theme is Stack, and I have to confess I struggled to come up with something to writes about. Then I thought about Summer Camp 2020 and about my original statement of my plan for RPGaDay2020 – using it to develop my Akorros campaign setting.

So let me tell you about the Stacks of Akorros.

Akorros is built on a lava plug which was left standing when ice sheets covered the land and scraped out the softer rock.

The Stacks of Akorros are a collection of basalt islands sticking up out of the lake between Khonorous Isle and the Isle of the Dead. Originally formed from various outwellings of lava through cracks in the rock, they now stick up out of the lake like a bunch of blackened fingers or branches.

With almost vertical sides, and erratic currents and underwater rocks in the narrow channels between them, no-one lives on the stacks except lake birds, although their nests cover almost every approximately flat surface, and their constant wheeling and crying fills the air.

The remains of many broken boats scatter the lake bed in mute testimony to the treachery of the waters, but still adventurous individuals brave the swirling currents…mostly for clandestine meetings where they can’t afford (or want to avoid) official attention. The customs officials tend to avoid the stacks, preferring to police in easier waters.

There are also stories of lodes of diamonds and rubies within the stacks caused by the immense pressure when the stacks were formed, which continually draw adventurers hoping to strike it rich. No-one has yet succeeded in finding any (as far as anyone knows…) but that doesn’t stop people coming and risking their lives attempting to land on the stacks.

Come back tomorrow for Day 12, and we’ll look at Messages and the language of flowers.