Ealing Gardens

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Revision as of 05:00, 25 December 2022 by Avid Perfectionist (talk | contribs) (cutting commercial development section and moving hillchanger scorpion info. other significant adjustments)

"This was once part of London, but it was badly damaged in the Fall. The brick buildings toppled, the wooden buildings burned. Hillchanger Tower lost its crenellations."[2]

Ealing Gardens is a community just outside London, which serves as the first station of the Great Hellbound Railway.

On the Outskirts

"Not everyone who lives here is a Rubbery Man or a market gardener. Other people – the very poor, the very eccentric, and the very unpopular – have found homes here as well."[3]

A red mushroom with a brown stem.
A Peppercap.

Ealing was once part of London on the Surface, but it suffered serious damage during the Fall[4] and landed some distance away from the rest of the city.[5] Eventually,[6] some buildings were shoddily repaired and new ones were built in a mix of styles,[7] while areas that proved beyond repair were repurposed as mushroom farms.[8]

Ealing's citizenry is an eccentric mix of Rubbery Men,[9] London's poor and outcast,[10] and fungus farmers.[11] When the Great Hellbound Railway arrived, it brought with it new visitors and residents of various stripes:[12] retirees from Tracklayer's Union and their families,[13][14] Bohemians seeking inspiration,[15] enterprising paleontologists,[16] and even Monster-Hunters.[17] It also brought the Ministry of Upper River Development, which now oversees the growing community.[18]

Aescwine Hill

"It's the Hillchanger Tower. The one that appears on Aescwine Hill and then travels other places. I've thought for some time that represented another power."[19]

A rocky spire with windows.
Hillchanger Tower

Aescwine Hill is a landmark near the outskirts of Ealing.[20] The summit is a popular painting spot for landscape artists,[21] if they can brave the enormous scorpions that infest the slopes.[22] It is also one of the resting points for Hillchanger Tower, which travels across the Hinterlands[23][24] but returns atop Aescwine every midnight.[25]

The critters that menace Aescwine are called Hillchanger scorpions, and are the size of cats and unusually "well-trained."[26] Their venom can only be extracted when Hillchanger is at Aescwine; otherwise they produce only smoke.[27]

The Rubbery Community

"Even here, they are subject to stares and unflattering comment. But they are more numerous in these parts than elsewhere."[28]

"People around here often mention Helicon House, a gathering place of Rubberies and Bohemians..."[29]

A neatly-dressed Rubbery Men wearing a top hat.
The Tentacled Entrepreneur

Rubbery Men make up a significant proportion of Ealing's population. Sadly, even here they face discrimination from the town's human residents,[30] and the Railway's growing influence negatively impacted the existing Rubbery community.[31][32] The Tentacled Entrepreneur recently moved most of his operations to Ealing,[33] and staffed his factories with Rubberies.[34]

Helicon House is an important institution in Ealing, especially for the Rubbery community.[35][36] Within its walls, Rubbery people freely express and engage with their artistry and culture,[37][38] allowing ideas to flourish and evolve.[39]

References

  1. ↑ Consult the Delightful Reverend, Fallen London "I like all of our options, except possibly Ealing [...]"
  2. ↑ Tour the Neighbourhood, Fallen London
  3. ↑ Acquaint yourself with its present condition, Fallen London
  4. ↑ Tour the Neighbourhood, Fallen London "This was once part of London, [...] it was badly damaged in the Fall. The brick buildings toppled, the wooden buildings burned."
  5. ↑ Take the train to Ealing Gardens, Fallen London
  6. ↑ Acquaint yourself with its present condition, Fallen London "Not everyone who lives here is a Rubbery Man or [...] market gardener. Other people [...] have found homes here as well."
  7. ↑ Tour the Neighbourhood, Fallen London "The architecture is a Rubbery parody of London: old ruins propped up [...] new buildings built in [...] imitation of known styles."
  8. ↑ Acquaint yourself with its present condition, Fallen London "The blocks that could not be salvaged [...] have been laid with topsoil for mushroom-growing. [...] has to supply all the plates of London."
  9. ↑ Acquaint yourself with its present condition, Fallen London "Not everyone who lives here is a Rubbery Man [...]"
  10. ↑ Acquaint yourself with its present condition, Fallen London "Other people – the very poor, the [...] eccentric, and the [...] unpopular – have found homes here [...]"
  11. ↑ Acquaint yourself with its present condition, Fallen London "Not everyone who lives here is a [...] market gardener [...]"
  12. ↑ Acquaint yourself with its present condition, Fallen London "Now that the railway has arrived, it will be rejuvenated."
  13. ↑ Engage in Unobserved Charity, Fallen London "[...] wounded ex-Tracklayers who live around here, no longer able to [...] work."
  14. ↑ Fill a stomach, Fallen London "You smuggle your donation to [...] Union workers – some of them living with their families, and with not really enough to go round."
  15. ↑ Airs of Ealing Gardens, Fallen London "A Bohemian painter struggles up the side of Aescwine Hill, [...]"
  16. ↑ Airs of Ealing Gardens, Fallen London "A group of Palaeontologists stand consulting a map."
  17. ↑ Airs of Ealing Gardens, Fallen London "A cluster of women with harpoons pass you in the street."
  18. ↑ Airs of Ealing Gardens, Fallen London "A servant of the Ministry of Upper River Development is nailing wood over the door of an abandoned house."
  19. ↑ Build the station at Moulin, Fallen London
  20. ↑ Constellations, Fallen London "[...] it's easier to make out the silhouettes on the horizon: the outline of Aescwine Hill [...]"
  21. ↑ Upper River Artistry, Fallen London "The more Nocturnalist Bohemians have taken a liking to Ealing Gardens. [...] some simply paint landscapes of the vista from Aescwine Hill.
  22. ↑ Offer your defensive escort, Fallen London "[...] a little trouble, [...] a troupe of [...] scorpions the size of house-cats [...] Your party does not get even halfway up the hill before you are swarmed by [...] scorpions?"
  23. ↑ Build the station at Moulin, Fallen London "[...] the Hillchanger Tower. The one that appears on Aescwine Hill and then travels other places," [...] It has taken up a place in Moulin now [...]"
  24. ↑ Promise to retrieve the Honey-Mazed Bear again, Fallen London "They wanted to put the stash in 'illchanger Tower, [...] see 'em climb up one morning and find the 'ole lot gone off to Burrow-Infra-Mump [...]"
  25. ↑ Time the appearances of Hillchanger Tower, Fallen London "Whenever and wherever it goes, it is always back by midnight."
  26. ↑ Offer your defensive escort, Fallen London "[...] a troupe of perhaps two dozen scorpions the size of house-cats, [...] are those scorpions? How are they so large? And so well-trained?"
  27. ↑ Develop into an Envenomed Pickle of Vinegar, Vengeance, and Hillchanger Scorpion, Fallen London "To milk the venom from a scorpion stinger, [...] because these are Hillchanger scorpions – [...] perform the extraction during the time when the Hillchanger Tower is in Ealing. Otherwise, all one gets [...] is a curl of clove smoke."
  28. ↑ Rubbery Observances, Fallen London
  29. ↑ Track rumours you've been hearing, Fallen London
  30. ↑ Rubbery Observances, Fallen London "Saving Flute Street, nowhere in London [is] [...] a home for Rubbery Men. Even here, they are subject to stares and unflattering comment. But they are more numerous in these parts than elsewhere. The Tentacled Entrepreneur built his first factory [...] down that block."
  31. ↑ Ministry Enforcement, Fallen London "'Property of the Ministry of the Upper River – Severest Penalties for Squatters.' [...] a tentacle draws a curtain at the window, then flicks it back into place."
  32. ↑ Outflank the Ministry's servant, Fallen London "Make it look as though the Rubberies have every right to be here. [...] Afterward, a magnificently tentacled face presses itself to the window. [...] with gratitude."
  33. ↑ Tour the Neighbourhood, Fallen London "[...] the Tentacled Entrepreneur brought most his operations here, where the factories could expand and the workers live [...]"
  34. ↑ Sneak into the Factories of the Tentacled Entrepreneur, Fallen London "The factory floor requires the Rubbery men to sit closer together than seems comfortable."
  35. ↑ Construe a significant burble, Fallen London "Interlocked tentacles: a gathering place."
  36. ↑ Pay in the currency of perishable wealth, Fallen London "If you [...] observe several Rubbery persons conversing among themselves, you should refrain from joining [...] without [...] invitation."
  37. ↑ Listen to the compositions, Fallen London "The finest Rubbery composers present their art here [...]"
  38. ↑ Contribute some extra practitioners, Fallen London
  39. ↑ Listen to the compositions, Fallen London "The music establishes a beat, and then abruptly deviates from it. [...] there is a meaning in those dissonances, [...] It is a music of approximation; it offers imperfection as a necessary state, and mutation as inevitable."
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