Preclipse Rescue Barges

Saving One Dynasty & Replacing It With Another

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Dutton Journal by ROD w/Midjourney

Mad Doctor Dutton's Otherwhere Adventures

From the journal of Dr. Matt Dutton, Reporting from el-e-goot Pass

MDutton Log Date 1907 Dr. Matt Dutton is a well-known mystery and adventure writer. His work involves capers that sent him to prison several times for refusing to disclose his sources. With political influence from the Garamund family he managed to escape prolonged sentences. His usual stay lasts only 6 months. He used only year long prison sentence to write a novel and to earn a law degree.
Knowing legal loopholes keeps him from being arrested. Dr. Dutton is no longer prosecuted for exhuming corpses from local graveyards. He continues to argue that the practice of medicine, in particular surgery, requires the dissection of the dead. The nearly dead used for research purposes is an unfortunate collateral mistake.

It is dark when bodies are rounded up and his grave diggers don’t always see well. Touching a dead body or looking for a pulse is a tricky procedure that results in strange presumptions.

— Dr. Dutton

Reclipse Barge Influence Sway on Social Upheaval in Airemoia

For hundreds of years the city of Preclipse preferred to ignore the benefits of trading and controlling the western regions of Airemoia. The city sorely needed the food source and migrant labor the el-e-loot people provided as necessary. Any suggestion the el-e-loot would leave their remote hills and fields resulted in threats any safety from Otherwhere countries would end entirely. Their quiet, peaceful and traditional culture would be destroyed by foreign progress.
Nature took its time, but eventually a terrible earthquake and flood overwhelmed eastern cities and the trading ports that supported the cities. During the desperate aftermath city administrations set their differences with the western regions of Airemoia, including the possibility of uprisings and shared its technology. Their solar and wind driven barge was used to saved the starving city and eastern countryside population. What the el-e-loot knew existed in lore became a reality. In an short period of time the el-e-loot fear of the unknown subsided. Instead the region's farmers began to explore their options for progress without considering damaging outcomes, much like their neighbors did.

Scout, Barge Fleet Commander

Preclipse Warriors

Preclipse Scout by ROD w/Midjourney

Preclipse Warriors by ROD w/Midjourney

Dutton and Longears Conversation with a Scout: I asked Scout several questions about the barge and its purpose. He answered politely, but he assured me that uses for Preclipse barges were not a permanent arrangement. Barges were invented years ocean travel, but none were tested. Storms that battered the Airemoia coast caused the boats to crash into rock and cliff barriers.
No one in Preclipse approved of using the canals to haul goods from inland regions. Inland regions were welcome to send their crops to market, but not to evolve on their own. In the past the el-e-goot farmers methods for moving freight were slow. Their goods were inferior. Their cultural practices were antiquated, and they didn't get along well with the sophisticated city dwellers.

Nevertheless, the emergency conditions resulted in the Preclipse government officials to bend the rules. They opened the border wall and shared with the farmers their technological innovations that included massive barges powered by the sun and wind to local regions. Since the established Airemoia order demanded a settled and peaceful conformity, they were delighted to see the first shipment of grain come in from the fields located hundreds of miles inland.

Although he appeared reluctant to answer I asked him about whether the harmony and sharing would continue. He shook his head and laughed. His history with Otherwhere countries that continued with policies that encouraged the melting pot of ideas asked for the tumult of war. Once the crisis is over science, technology and education, or the inclusion of foreign neighbors in Airemoia progress will be prohibited.

Our goals are to keep our competitors distracted by myth, superstition and fear. It is not a goal to inspire them ot build a country of their own. We need their yield.

— Preclipse Scout.

Control Deck

Intiating the Barge Drop

Warrior Housing

Burden Barge Hoisted by ROD w/Midjourney

by ROD w/Midjourney

The Scout and I realize that no matter how hard he tries to keep progress and change from occuring, transition happens naturally. Curious and industrious groups who want a better life for their tribes and families will seek it out regardless of how many obstacles they encounter.
In the case of Airemoia, neither Preclipse or the el-e-loot will agree to share in progress success or inevitable calamity. War is coming.
Confirmed Change

• Preclipse barges move more goods than what can be transported by horse or cart. This results in trade between settlements.
• While crops rot and spoil by horse, cart or boat, the Preclipse barge delivers fresh food and crops to city residents.
• Military personnel and colonizers move in great numbers to unsettled regions.
• An increase Airaemoia trade results in a merchant class who benefits from sale of goods along the canals.
• Tent cities spring up that attract artisans, craftspeople, and laborers.
• Working on the barges occupy a lower social class. Animals became beasts of burden when and where they could be bred.
• Skilled shipbuilders, sailors, and navigators learn about innovations.
• el-e-got trade routes enable the exchange of ideas, beliefs, and goods.
• The blending of customs and traditions is a result of trade interactions between different cultures, languages, food, and art forms.

There is no way to evade the short term fix during a period of destitution or discontent. Even the satisfied will give into temporary solutions. A shift is inevitable.

— Uwigor Longears.