Custom Lore Proposal: Dink's D'wharf

[Maulbane]

THERE'S AN UNDERCLASS WHEREVER YOU GO. THAT'S A FACT.

THING IS, GOBLINS GO BIGGER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. ALSO FACT.

IN BOOTY BAY, THE 'HOME' IN 'GO BIG OR GO HOME' COMES SEPARATELY.

The founding of Booty Bay was a great occasion for Goblinkind - but, more specifically, the Steamwheedle Cartel. Their greatest presence in the east today is the envy of other trading nations, and the wealth that flows in and out (and, when tensions rise, underneath) of Blackwater Bay has been the subject of envy since it's been colonised by ourselves. Of course, such enormous wealth changing hands so quickly caused some... Fluctuations in personal coffers throughout the city. The phenomena we call 'loss of all assets' is caused by many things. Failed deals, personal stupidity, gambling debts, gambling wins leading to splurging leading to destitution, injury and disease, or just plain old accidents. Either way, sufferers of this malediction are quashed deep into the city and make up the majority of its permanent population, too poor to leave - at least in their lifetime. This is a unique to us goblins. Let's face it, tourists wouldn't last a minute here without their wallets.

The poor of Booty Bay can thusly be categorised into three nifty slots. The poor, the really poor and the really, really poor. The poor are those who subsist on unskilled trades, often working with machinery or otherwise tasks that require repetitive, unprofitable work. They generally have something saved up, but hardly enough to coast. The really poor are those with worldly assets they can fit in a small room or less, and often make up the near-ubiquitous hordes of beggars throughout the city. They also tend to fit into the 'unofficial industries' of odd jobs - message runners, hawkers on the lowest level of pyramid schemes and other unreliably profitable but necessary roles in the town.

Now, the really, really poor...

If these goblins work at all, it's on a shorter basis than Razdunk's temper. Most of these miserable creatures are shunned by the former two groupings - give them all a bad name, on account of the fact that they more often than not subsist by crime. And sure, all three groups aren't homogeneous, and all three have exceptions, but that's what they are - exceptions. These people tend to form communes outside of the eyes of the authorities, then run amok. Most of these are underneath the lowest levels of the city, usually on rafts, or among abandoned buildings.

That said, the largest of these is Dink's D'wharf.

It's a blight on the city, that's for sure. The story is an embarrassment, so I'll go through it with brevity so I don't get that puke taste in my mouth.

After the dragon messed half the world up, the waves destroyed the largest fort in Booty Bay - we know that much, it was a local catastrophe. What most people obligingly ignore out of good taste is that we weren't able to salvage it. Fact of the matter was, considering that thing was built at the height of goblin expansion, coupled with the slowdown in trade due to the worldwide damage and fear of taking to the sea, I doubt we've got the coffers to do anything about such a gigantic mess. Even if we'd got there in time, those guns weigh more than the damn boats we'd be using to do the work. But, as it stands, we didn't get there in time.

Like birds can sense rain, y'know, it's as if the poorest in a society can sense an opportunity before anyone else does; they capitalised on it big time. Just a couple of weeks after the waves stopped, they'd set up there. We - well, the establishment - saw it happening, and knew we couldn't allow an enclave like that to consolidate, so we did what any self-respecting businessmen would do - and sent the slavers. Thing is, rubble or not, it's still a fort, and you can't really land an attack on it save for a few narrow roads; they all got beat up and tossed into the drink. Well, then we hired the best - a guy from Dun Morogh, gunslinger with one of the privateer crews. Had so many guns that two of them were strapped to his head - on either side of that wide-brimmed hat.

Well, long story short, a guy called Dink must have killed him, because he never came back and they started bandying that name around slow but steady. Most of them seem to just call it 'the wharf' or 'the fort' or similar, but it still gives me one furious itch on my butt either way. I mean, we'd just shell it, but could you imagine how humiliating that'd be? Shooting our own fort because we can't stop a bunch of penniless goblins?

So, yeah. We've basically got a rebellion of a couple hundred ne'er-do-wells we can't do jack about, all camped out in our best fort and using it as a HQ to do all kinds of junk in the city proper. I should say all of this is pretty damn confidential, by the way.

Otherwise, all's good over here. Sorry for the history lesson, it's just been 'on the brain' for a while. Thanks for the cookies, ma. Grigik's doing you proud out here.

OOC

Spoiler:

Okay, so, this is a pretty small thing that I'm making while I piece together my Quilboar lore, but that I think will be a help overall!

The real TL;DR of this is:

An 'expansion' of Booty Bay geographically. Rather than just a useless old fort that I don't think has ever seen RP in its existence, the post-cata Booty Bay fort gets given some lore, a purpose, and some excuse to RP there.

The fort becomes a home to the dirt poor of Booty Bay. Somewhat of an anarchic, lawless zone where those that don't have anywhere else go and congregate. Lots of criminality, but not an 'evil aligned' place; more just desperate.

One of my biggest aims is OOC - if it's approved, I think this will give a good common base to draw goblin players around, even if they never use this area. I've always been critical of Booty Bay RP, but I also think that disparaging places is ridiculous - people will RP where there's RP. So, I thought, why not expand the city and try and introduce an atmosphere through actual RP? So I had this idea.

The location would therefore give rise to the possibility of poor goblins who either live here or associate here - possibly in gangs, possibly on their own - who would go around and interact with the ubiquitous Booty Bay tourists. Crime RP is at an all-time low, and some pickpocketing, mugging and general heckling or begging around a city as notoriously seedy in lore as Booty Bay seems like it'll be fun for everyone, rather than just living in the Salty Sailor.

Okay, so I lied, this is an awful TL;DR. Here are dot points.

1. Booty Bay ruined fort becomes home to the truly destitute of the city.
   
2. Said fort will be a 'home' for said goblins.
   
3. These goblins are generally (but not exclusively) desperate and subsist on odd jobs or crime to survive.
   
4. Either of those two things can be used to interact with ordinary BB RP in a way that broaches the zone's lore, but not in a pushy, powergaming or dispiriting way.
   
5. Will hopefully bring a new batch of goblin characters if interest is gained!
   
6. The fort itself as a location would be dangerous for non-goblins. Character warnings for injury and loss of property, but not death unless the player decides they want to go hunting for vagrants.
   
7. Important: The picture may be misleading: this is not a 'build' thread. If this is approved, the fort will OOCly look exactly as it does now.
   
8. Also important: The fort OOCly will not be tied to this lore - like any location, it can be RP'd as anywhere else, or even another broken Booty Bay fort!
   
9. Important x3! Characters associated with this place would not be considered a 'hostile faction'. Going around stealing will obviously tick off the guards, but due to the many sea and jungle paths to Booty Bay from the fort, it'd be very difficult for said guards to notice a PC as being part of that group.
   
10. Overall, this custom lore is extremely work-light, and doesn't require players to actively participate in it to succeed - just its existence will expand the city's lore. Players volunteering to spread it in-game is simply a bonus.
    
11. Okay, I think that's it. I might've missed something crucial. If so, I'll edit it in as soon as possible! Wa-ha-ha.

[Maulbane]

Bump!