In the center of The Sunset Quarter lies a fountain that has long fallen into disuse. No spray fills the sky from its stone pool, though water aplenty fills its depths. Ten feet in diameter, the stone pool rises two feet above the ground level and contains hundreds of gallons of the most unusual water in Sunberth. There is a fountainhead, one shaped like a flower, but it has long fallen to stain and ruin. The fountain itself has a thick ledge that makes a perfect seat all the way around its diameter. The depth is hard to gauge because one cannot see the bottom nor does one see anything hit the bottom if something is tossed in or prodded into the water.
And though some say it is an evil magical thing left over from the reign of mages in Sunberth, others claim it has no sinister properties other than harboring mosquito larvae in the summer. Despite its disrepair, the water in Yedra's Fountain remains clear and drinkable year round. It also has a tendency not to freeze even in the harshest winters, which is an odd property for it to have.
Items tossed into the fountain disappear from sight almost immediately and many have claimed to see an unusual shimmer as things drop down out of sight into its depths. There is a story associated with the Fountain that often gives a little validity to this claim. The story also lends the fountain its name.
Yedra was supposedly a daughter of Aquiras. No one knows who gave birth to her, whether it was Priskil herself or another nameless woman. Yedra lived in Sunberth - or what passed for Sunberth when it was something different and the world wasn't in ruin - separate and lonely from her father. She would often linger around doorways, gateways, and thresholds, speaking to him as if he could actually hear her. No one knows why the girl was in exile from his presence, though there were many guesses. Ill-fated love. Rebellion. Disrespect. A wasted youth. The list of speculation was long and the stories never-ending. And despite the reality, Yedra never stopped loving and longing for her father's presence.
That longing caused her to weep and those tears she shed were magical because of her Alvina blood. According to the story her tears filled a depression in the ground of Yedra's back yard. Yedra cried so much she passed into the next life, a victim of loss and loneliness as she never found happiness in Sunberth no matter how she tried.
Sometimes deep in the night, people at the fountain claim they hear a woman's weeping.
Old walls can be found if the ground is excavated by people in the know around the well far enough out that indicates there was once some sort of foundation or fence line present in the past. People wondered at the water and called it a gate to other places. Nothing tossed in ever was fished out again, including people... especially bodies. And the water proved so useful that eventually a fountain was crafted around its pool and raised above ground so people could more easily visit.
No one is ever affected adversely by drinking it. It is said to taste sweet and salty all at the same time, but it never causes the illness drinking true sea water would. Instead, sometimes when people stare into its depths they see glimpses of other places and other worlds as if it is indeed a true gateway to the beyond.
As for Sunberth's underworld denizens, they often use it as a place to get rid of the bodies. And occasionally, someone tossed in the water will not make it out again, especially if they get completely submerged. They just tend to sink like rocks and vanish from sight in a flash of shimmery light. And for those paranoid about wanting no witnesses, The Shifty Shamus could be persuaded into to keeping an eye out for trouble.
This fact alone has earned it the nickname 'The Drowning Fountain".
* Anyone falling into the fountain must make a 1d100 dice roll in chat and add in their modifier for swimming/acrobatics/or some other related appropriate skill. Anyone rolling a 35 or below will end up somewhere else in the world of Mizahar. Anyone rolling a 1 will drown.
Credit: Location created by Kelski.
NPCs
Group Name: The Shifty Shamus
Race: Human
PoB: Sunberth
Shifty Shamus is simply the name given to the ‘keepers’ of the fountain. This unofficial clan of children and teenagers seem to take shifts at the fountain. They trade information in exchange for food, wine, drugs or favors but it’s never guaranteed. An offer might be too great of a request which could easily earn the inquirer a blade to the gut. On the flip side of the coin; there is no greater way to find the pulse of the city; the Sunset Quarter in particular. And when asked why they hang out at the fountain, they only ever state "The weeping reminds us of our Mums." An unnerving phrase always followed by a sly smirk.
NPC Concept: Credit to Berkley Whispers
Shamus The Shifty
Name: Shifty Shamus
Race: Human
PoB: Sunberth
DoB: Spring 3rd, 508 A.V. (10 yrs.)
Title: Shifty
Gang Affiliation: Neutral.
Skills: Intelligence: 30, Observation: 42, Running: 44, Subterfuge: 30, Weapon (Club): 28. Larceny: 33,
Gnosis: Yshulis, 1.
Shamus is small, standing at a mere three feet in height and weighing even less. He hobbles around the fountain with an obvious limp, yet it does not slow him down when he needs to run. His parents both died when he was young, leaving him to wander the streets until he was taken in by the Shifty. Selfish by nature, he has picked more pockets and seen far more death than most should beyond his years.
Shamus the Shifty is, the current, unofficial leader of this band of urchins. He can often be found hanging out around the fountain with his cat named "Ugly''. He rescued Ugly by 'permanently borrowing' the feline form its cage at Killroy's because he thought the cat was cute. It was a small act of thief which went unnoticed by all, save for Yshul who granted the boy her mark.
He has been approached by the Night Eyes on several occasions since his marking, yet denied joining them each time.
