Archive for the ‘Oasis of Klima’ Category
Lost caravan – why?
Sunday, January 22nd, 2023
Rarius Yuroki talking to guards of the dunes.
[Roleplay event: Saturday, 21th of January, 1 pm SLT, 9 pm gmt]
A large caravan from the Oasis of Klima has disappeared without a trace. However, there are no reports that the Kurii have reappeared. There must be another reason. What’s particularly strange is that a few lesser kaiila from this caravan showed up at the Oasis of Lame Kaiila, but they weren’t carrying salt or saddles. We need to know the reason for this and will search the desert up to the exchange point of Klima.
We were attacked by a group of bandits near the exchange point of Klima. The fight went on for a long time as we had to force our way through the rock gate under heavy fire. We took prisoners, there were numerous wounded. The bound bandits were taken to the salt mines of Klima.
A high-ranking delegation from the Oasis of two Scimitars marched with us to Klima and supported us in the fight. Negotiations started in Klima about the accession of the Oasis of two Scimitars to the Southern Trade Alliance (STA) and about a cooperation between the Gorean Merchant Association and the STA. The negotiations lasted into the night.
Dangerous Salt Trade
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022
Announcement: Salt sale for everyone for just one day! (29th of October) Location: Exchange Point of the Oasis of Klima (NOT Klima itself). Start: Gates of the Silver Stone Desert Oasis
Not all of you will be able to find the path to Klima or to reach the exchange point! It will be extremely dangerous! All men should be armed! Female merchants should ask for the protectoon of men.
All merchants of Gor welcome! You will be able to buy a reasonable amount of authentic red and yellow salt from Klima and a certificate. To get to the exchange point you will have to find persons who have been in Klima before. Ask the people you will meet near the gates!
Very few Goreans know the way to the Oasis of Klima. Anyone who draws maps of the desert will be killed. The Salt Ubar and his warriors (Guards of the Dunes) control the trade in salt from Klima. Their names are not known, they are always veiled or wear a mask.
Many Goreans from all regions gathered at the gates of the Oasis of Silver Stones. The caravan marched at night because the temperature in the desert is almost unbearable during the day. Some masked warriors seemed to know the way, the others joined them. The Tahari is dangerous, often you can see bleached bones of animals or people.
A few experienced STA merchants had marched to the Exchange Point days beforehand and were preparing to sell salt.
According to the rumors spread by the caravan leaders, the caravan encountered three Kurii who attacked immediately. The men defended themselves, some of them taking a detour to lead the women and the kaiila to a safer route. The Kurii were repelled. There were a few injured, but the men finally arrived at the Exchange Point of the Oasis of Klima.
The Kurii seemed to have disappeared, but no one knows where and if they would return…
Some merchants who are members of the Southern Trade Alliance marched from the Exchange Point to the Oasis of Klima to meet the Salt Ubar there.
It seems that the remotest reaches of the Tahari can once again be traversed with guides, but who knows how long this treacherous peace will last…
Beware of the Steeltower!
Tuesday, September 20th, 2022
Strong sandstorms destroy the paths to the Oasis of Klima very often. Even the Guards of the Dunes had trouble finding their way. For several months, no salt caravan has arrived from the oasis, There are rumors that entire caravans have even disappeared. The STA leaders had decided to equip an expedition to reach the oasis of Klima. Armed men lead the caravan and scout the terrain.
The caravan to the Oasis of Klima prepares for for the march at the gates of Cartassa. The leaders give final orders.
A guard of the dunes riding a kaiila explores the terrain, as yet no danger seems imminent
After a long march, the steel tower that some caravan leaders had reported about suddenly appears. A spooky being runs towards the caravan and lets out an incomprehensible roar.
The men draw their weapons and prepare for a fight. A second Kur appears behind the first one. The experienced caravan leaders try to placate the Kurri with crates of raw meat. Some run behind the dunes and try to avoid the steel tower.
The Kurri are irritated by the smell of the meat. Everyone run towards the oasis of Klima. The Kurii attack the stragglers, there are some wounded. Luckily nobody gets killed.
The wounded are treated in the infirmary of the Oasis of Klima.
The most remote place on Gor – We marched there!
Tuesday, July 5th, 2022
Survival in the Tahari can be very difficult, if not impossible, unless one is cognizant of the ways of the desert, unless one properly understands the intricacies of desert survival. As an initial issue, this region can be extremely hot. When the sun beats down upon the sand, the surface can attain a temperature of 175 degrees Fahrenheit. Though shaded areas can offer some respite, the temperature can still sometimes reach as high as 140 degrees. But, what many may not realize is that only a foot below the surface the temperature can drop by as much as 50 degrees.
[Leader of the caravan] …raises his hand in a Gorean salute: welcome to Cartassa, wanderers and merchants and friends of the Southern Trade Alliance: this caravan will leave for the exchange point of the Oasis of Klima very soon.
[Leader of the caravan] …recognizes a few palm trees on the horizon, it looks like there is water there, he mumbles to himself in astonishment: That has never been here or am I hallucinating? He waves to the group that someone should see if it really is water there…
[Leader of the caravan] …behind a dune he recognizes a strange thing, he raises his hand to get everyone’s attention: Stop! Armed men twith me! We need to examine that… thing… he shakes his head in disbelief: Have you seen, or heard aught, of a tower of steel?
Leader of the caravan] …stops and points with his had to the steel tower: Move! Move! We should move away. This is a very dangerious area, ignore that steel tower! I have been told that men disappeared here in the past!
Leader of the caravan] …holds his palm over his eyes again and scans the horizon, then he points straight ahead, a smile on his face: We are not far from Exchange Point from the oasis, I recognize the rocks, it’s only a day from there until you are all safe and can rest and have enough water, as they say, you don’t need to know the name of the oasis..
Leader of the caravan] …”Kaiila and other animals you may use to ride are not allowed in the oasis from many reasons,” He points to the crest of the dune that everyone is just climbing over to have.
Leader of the caravan] …We need to go to Vask, barbarians call it “South”, I recognize that area now…
Leader of the caravan] …you have enterered the caves and salt mines of the Oasis of Klima, caution! dont fall down…
The locations of the pits, such as those at Klima, are little known, and, to protect the resource, are kept secret by mine agents and merchants.
Thank you for everyone who participated the very interesting roleplay! (Many thanks to the 24 roleplayers of Belnend!)
First View: Oasis of Klima, rebuilt
Saturday, April 16th, 2022
“In the distance, below, perhaps five pasangs away, in the hot, concave, white salt bleakness, like a vast, white, shallow bowl, pasangs wide, there were compounds, low, white buildings of mud brick, plastered. There were many of them. They were hard to see in the distance, in the light, but I could make them out.
“Klima,” said Hamid.
“I have made the march to Klima,” said one of the prisoners. He cried out, elatedly, “I have made the march to Klima!” It was the man who had, for many of the days, cried out for us to be slain. It was he who had, since the noon halt of four days ago, been silent.
I looked at the prisoners. We looked at one another. Our bodies were burned black by the sun. The flesh, in many places, had cracked. Lighter colored flesh could be seen beneath. There was salt on us, to our thighs. The leather wrappings about our legs were in tatters. Our necks and bodies were abraded, raw from collar and chain. In the last days we had been denied salt. Our bodies were cruel with cramps and weakness. But we stood, all of us, and straight, for we had come to Klima.”
“The surface temperature of The crusts would be in the neighborhood of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The air temperature would range from 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.”
“Needless to say, Klima contains as well, incidental to the salt industry entered there, the ancillary supports of these mining and manufacturing endeavors, such as its kitchens and commissaries, its kennels and eating sheds, its discipline pits, its assembly areas, its smithies and shops, its quarters for guards and scribes, an infirmary for them, and so many respects Klima resembles a community, save that it differs in at least two significant respects. It contains neither children, nor women.”
“How,” I asked, “does one become kennel master?”
“Kill me,” said T’Zshal.
“It was cool in the pit, on the large raft. At each corner of the raft, mounted on a pole, was a small, oil-fed lamp [kommt noch]. It was dark in the pit, save for our lamps, and those of other rafts.”
“The retaining vessels are, at the salt docks, lifted from the rafts by means of pulleys and counterweights. The crew of a given raft performs this work. When the retaining vessels are suspended, they are tipped, and the sludge scooped and shoveled from them into the wide-mouthed, ring-bearing lift sacks… These ropes run in systems to the surface and return.”
“Klima has its own water, but it is dependent on caravans for its foods. These food stores are delivered to scouted areas some pasangs [several kilometers or miles] from the compounds”.
“The salt in solution is obtained in two ways, by drilling and flush mining and, in the deeper pits, by sending men below to fetch the brine. In the drilling and flush mining, two systems are used, the doublepipe system and the separate-pipe system”.
A Mysterious Man
Sunday, February 13th, 2022
Three merchants from the Oasis of Four Palms arrived at the Oasis of Klima after a grueling trek. In the tavern they met a mysterious man who did not want to reveal his name. He said he was a simple-minded salt merchant…
Oasis of Klima by night
Saturday, January 29th, 2022
“The Tahari is perhaps most beautiful at night. During the day one can scarcely look upon it, for the heats and reflections. During the day it seems menacing, whitish, shimmering with heat, blinding, burning; men must shade their eyes; some go blind; women and children remain within the tents; but, with the coming of the evening, with the departure of the sun, there is a softening, a gentling, of this vast, rocky harsh terrain. It is at this time that Hassan, the bandit, would make his camps. As the sun sank, the hills, the dust and sky, would become red in a hundred shades, and, as the light fades, these reds would become gradually transformed into a thousand glowing tones of gold, which, with the final fading of the light in the west, yield to a world of luminous, then dusky, blues and purples. Then, it seems suddenly, the sky is black and wide and high and is rich with the reflected sands of stars, like clear bright diamonds burning in the soft, sable silence of the desert’s innocent quietude.”
Lost in the desert
Friday, November 19th, 2021
A group of merchants got lost in the desert and met two kaiila riders. These saved them from dying of thirst and led them to a small oasis…
(…) Nods and looks at the group one after the other: We will bring you to safety, it is a couple of days’ march to an oasis where there is enough water, the way back would be much longer for you, you would not survive that, we are several pasangs away from the Oasis of Red Rock, I wonder how you have managed so far without a guide, that was extremely reckless
… looks at the man who have come with him and speaks to him in a rare dialect of the desert: “It is better if we don’t let anyone disappear, there are too many, they will be looked for and they will try even more to find the way, so we lead them to the oasis through the salt mines, then they can rest and we can bring them back again, they won’t remember the way…”
We made the March to Klima!
Sunday, October 24th, 2021
[Guard of the Dunes] looks at the men who have come with him and speaks to them in a rare dialect of the desert: “Ele olha para os homens que vieram com ele e fala com eles em um raro dialeto do deserto.
É melhor não deixarmos ninguém ir, são muitos, vão ser procurados e vão tentar ainda mais encontrar o caminho, por isso os conduzimos ao oásis através das minas de sal, aí podem descansar e nós pode trazê-los de volta, eles não vão se lembrar do caminho.” (…)
[Guard of the Dunes] shields his eyes with one hand and looks around, there are no signs and no plants, then he briefly looks at the position of the sun and the shadows of the dunes, he nods and points to the right valley: We have to, and stay always on the left edge of the dunes, do not run down, there is quicksand! (…)
[Guard of the Dunes] Stop, I have to think about it .. he looks around to make sure no one has been lost and examines the group, who are already looking quite exhausted, he makes a gesture to the other guardians of the dunes to hold everyone together, then he picks up a Gorean compass Hand: Rim, no Ror, yes, we have to go there (…)
[Guard of the Dunes] holds his palm over his eyes again and scans the horizon, then he points straight ahead, a smile on his face: We are not far from the Exchange Point from the oasis, I recognize the rocks, it’s only a day from there until you are all safe and can rest and have enough water, as they say, you don’t need to know the name of the oasis… (…)
[Guard of the Dunes] stops at the pile of bones for a moment and looks at them, he mumbles more to himself: escaped slaves, or merchants who said they had to travel through the Tahari without a guide, he casts the group a sharp and disapproving look..
[Many thanks to all 21 participants!]
The March to the Oasis of Klima
Tuesday, October 12th, 2021
We made the march to Klima! The Salt Ubar administers and controls the salt districts primarily by regulating access to the districts, checking the papers and credentials of merchants, inspecting caravans, keeping records of the commerce, etc. The Salt Ubar’s men are customarily veiled as their allegiance is supposed to be to no tribe but to the protection of salt.
The Southern Trade Alliance (STA) hold a meeting in the Oasis of Klima guarded by heavily armed men who were veiled or masked. The membership of several cities and oasis had been confirmed by the assembly. The Salt Ubar was present and his deputy too.
[Thank you for everyone who participated the very interesting roleplay and thank you Sнaι’leιa Ͼeleѕтe Ḣuѕzan (shaileia) for the awesome and outstanding sim!]