Carafon - The Tyrant's Soldiers by DMFW with Midjourney
Yvessu hired one of the little mirror boats and left the
Cavern City of Carafon on the third day after the
Festival of Thyme and Spice. All the obvious ways to the surface were crawling with
Ullasa's soldiers, stopping every traveller and trade cart. They were closing in on her now and although Carafon offered many hiding places she had no time to waste playing dangerous games of cat and mouse with the
Tyrant's men. Below "Lowest Lock Gate" she steered into a narrow and obscure branch of the canal system which came ultimately to the Rose Quay at the edge of the great Lake of Night's Home. There was very little traffic here. Only a few barges cut across the short and narrow inlet to the Black Shore warehouses, saving their owners the trouble of a much longer and more convoluted alternative through the hazardous maze of tunnels in the Gykula district.
Yvessu tightened the bright silver belt about her waist - the precious treasure that kept her sane - and avoiding the almost empty docks, passed unnoticed into a twisting tunnel which led out onto the Lake. She was completely alone here and at length she came to the last outpost of the City, a final dim red lamp suspended from the ceiling at the end of the tunnel. The stillness of the dark and open waters lay ahead of her, lit only by the small circle of this solitary sentinel and the even fainter glow of the light at the prow of her rowing boat. Ataska's map was behind her in the stern with the few provisions she had been able to gather. According to the map, there was a way to the surface through the abandoned tin mines on the far shore but strangely, no one from Carafon ever ventured over the Lake of Night's Home. It was cold down here. Yvessu shivered and wished she'd been able to purchase a pair of trousers to cover her bare legs. Water dripped with a slow musical plink into the still lake but it was otherwise completely silent. Wondering why the people of the Cavern City had not opened regular routes into the mines, Yvessu set the prow of the boat directly into the great maw of darkness and began to row.
Comments
Author's Notes
This is a another very early image rendered in Bryce 4 and of the same vintage as Crossing Over. I was in a learning phase, enjoying finding out what Bryce could do and creative ways to exploit it. I was particularly pleased with the idea of using of an inverted terrain for the cavern roof when I made this scene. The multiple light sources from the lanterns and the water, I think, give it a pleasingly spooky darkness which also helps to hide the inadequacies of the barely visible figure in the boat. By today's standards it is nothing special but I was happy with it at the time. It's much better than Crossing Over. The text is quoted directly from the original posting on Renderosity and followed on from the text fragment I'd created in Crossing Over. Now on World Anvil, I am beginning to pull together these threads with some other early fragments I've dropped into the same realm and I am starting to see the outline of a story for Yvessu's whole quest, which I intend to slowly expand upon. I'm not sure whether I will ever turn it into a completed tale or not but I do see it as a source of inspiration for future world building in the Lost Retreat.