[ERF] The Meket Gumwoods

The Meket Gumwoods straddle the fine line between terrorscape and trade hub. Lack of strong Looney presence and marginal Cultist influence has led to the capability for large human settlements. If it wasn’t for the environment. Ranging from tropical paradise (with pseudocrustaceans!) near the coast, to living nightmare with toxic trees blotting out the sun (also with pseudocrustaceans), the Gumwoods are a place of stark dichotomy.

Many maps split the Gumwoods into threes: the habitable zone, the crab zone, and the dark zone- resting near the Baclama Desert.

Beyond the habitable zone, pseudocrustaceans are the largest animal, making humans the most common victims. Crabs themselves are made prey by much bigger monsters however: plants. Predatory plants make up a sizable minority of plantlife in Meket, and branches into many different species spanning the entirety of the jungle. From trees that excrete harmful neurotoxin, ground-bound chlorophyll pits with vine-tentacles, enormous flytraps, pitcher plants, and flypaper traps. The intensity, size, and danger of these increase the further inland one is. Many unobservant adventurers fall victim to their signs, and corpses litter the darker recesses of the jungle.

Harbor snatchers are the most common pseudocrustacean species in the Gumwoods, only adding to the amount of hidden dangers in the jungle. A result of this has been an overabundance of birds and flying insects, fortunately the crabs have that covered too. Guabo’jazi Lashers, or flying crabs to locals, find a niche in the tall trees above the undergrowth. And if trees are a settlement’s fancy, the occasional logster can make quick work of that. Both make up the minority of crab populations, with flying crabs coming in at five percent, and logsters at ten.

Most sentients turn out to be harbor snatchers, often creating junk villages out of whatever they can steal from human settlements. Scrap metal, dock wood, and bone turn out to be the material of the day for many tribes. In fact, many tribal conflicts between sentient snatchers arise over literal piles of junk, causing hundreds- if not thousands of casualties over a broken-down toilet and some rope.

All of Set is a balancing act, and when there are less Looneys, more crabs show up. This is no truer than in Meket, where Crab is King. Most inhabit the line just beyond human habitation in the middle of the jungle, but many ignore this, making their homes on the more temperate coast of Tildan. On sentience, ~90% of the region’s crabs are feral, the other 10% sentient, although raiding, killing, and cannibalism squirms its way into every nook and cranny of a crab’s life. Sentient or not, crabs are a constant problem, and often times settlements that aren’t walled like a fortress, with a soldier at every wall, only realize their mistake when being eaten by a dozen crabs.

Major crab tribes include the Yupi Thrashers, the largest and most violent tribe, taking its residence in the middle of the human habitation zone. This is followed by Turu, Bana, and crab chirping, usually called Chirpi by those unlucky enough to live by them. Among these, a sizable amount of Bana’s population follows the Cult, however poorly. This often gets them targeted by human settlements, Looneys, and even their own kind. Occasionally, Bana devolves into civil war over allegiances.

Beyond crab habitation, lies a truly dark jungle. Few pseudocrustaceans, and even fewer humans decide to make their homes in this thicket. Those that do worship the plants themselves, claiming their allegiance to a plant God, its vines in human shape.

The Cult of Meat has limited power in Meket. Although still existing in settlements, it doesn’t find a hold in many of Meket’s humans. Its crabs, however, follow the faith in increased numbers. This doesn’t matter much to human populations, it just means they go after the crabs with meat on them first.

Settlements are only kept in check by the waxing and waning of crab populations, but even that isn’t enough for larger towns to cement themselves into Meket’s ecosystem. In all of this four cities (San Alto, Rashasha, Opil, Yuteq) have managed to claim the mantle of having a population over five hundred, with San Alto having been the largest at ~10,000 before its destruction. Opil (900) and Yuteq (1100) are both underground and have been limited by size and San Alto’s Hellbots. Conversely, Rashasha (600) was built into hundred-foot-tall trees, who manage to avoid many crab attacks that way. Many smaller settlements exist in the habitable zone, but none reach the size or splendor of the big four.