Question 6.

[Mr. Tenk]

A freight train runs from the north to New Babbage. The town it comes from is associated with mining and has a higher than average incidence of dwarfism. What is the name of the town, and what else do you know about it?

[Mara Razor]

Littleton. It is a mining town. The actual town itself is a typical mining town - so filthy it makes Babbage look clean. But, it sits nestled between some very lovely snow covered mountains and there is farm land the surrounds the outlying area.

[Ceejay Writer]

I would assume it's a coal mining town. Babbage needs lots and lots of coal. Coat cutting machines are a new invention, but decades of pick and shovel mining led to the town's name of Pickton.

It's populated in part by former Babbagers who weren't inclined towards engineering, and in part by workers who've come from the mountains to find steady employment. Those miners don't talk much about their mountain villages but travel back once a season for traditional holidays. They are quite short and stocky men, and excellent miners, though lousy socializers.

[Mr. Tenk]

Here are some Odnar Halberstadt suggested when i asked him about it last week:

I picked some names from mining towns around the world.
Do any of these look good to you?

Hill End
Iron Baron
Skálatoftir
Strond
Nether Hambleton
Amber Valley
Steamboat Mountain
Deep Lake
Hammer
Kenfig

[Myrtil]

I like Strond and Hammer.

[Katherine Montpark]

Seconded! They have that tough, monosyllabic, mining sound to them. And Skálatoftir sounds like it's full of stories, superstition, and mysteries.

[Elfod Nemeth]

heh, I was born near Kenfig

[Mr Underby]

The town is named Bump, and sits on the side of a large rounded mountain, completely devoid of living trees; even dead trees are scarce, yet a few stand petrified on the top of the mountain, tall grey sticks which seem to be trying to escape the countryside and take to the bleak skies.

The mountain (named Bump Mountain) is mostly hollow now, from excessive mining over many hundreds of years, the tunnels spreading throughout the surrounding countryside like cracks in glass.

There is one saloon for every five people in Bump, they are serious drinkers and love a good long sad song to go with their flat pints of bitter. Prone to banjo and mandolins. They are not a religious people, but are a deeply superstitious lot, many legends, myths, and rumours from the old Empire still hold strong in Bump.

The main causes of death in Bump are black lung, and death by misadventure.

Children often disappear in Bump, and from the surrounding hills.

[Nightshade]

IRON TOWN. this place would have the homes and shops built into the side a mountain or cliff side. The builds outside are simple shacks. It has one main elevator in the town square that goes down to mines. Inside the mines there is a huge forge with 75% mines tunnels and 25% natural caverns. The main powersource is a damn with a waterfall flowing down from the mountain. The landscape outside the town is a marshland littered with old rusty machines.

[Matthew Masingh]

I traveled through there on my way to New Babbage by train.

On a stopover I noticed, the people are mostly workers and keep to themselves in horrid conditions. The mines must be small for all of them to have an average height that is considerably short, though it made no sense to me due to most being somewhat shorter than I.

A smaller group made mention of the great city of New Babbage in ways that suggested jealousy or a sense that our city leeches off theirs. But the overall import/exporting I saw seems to suggest New Babbage supports it and lets it thrive.

The food was rather drab and upon arrive in New Babbage a meal was needed at once. I am not sure what they call food and survive on there but I ate at least three bowls of wiggyfish chowder with a plate of bread.

[Doctor Obolensky]

Maynard.

Originally known as Sharp's Rest, a tiny roadhouse at the edge of the mountains, it was re-named by entrepreneur JP Maynard, who moved in and purchased most of the land when rich deposits of ore were discovered nearby.

JP also managed to convince the railroad to run a line to his little town, thus ensuring it's prosperity. However, he also runs the boomtown like his own private fief....and while generally benign, it is well known that he pretty much always gets what he wants.

[Penelope Strathearn]

Moria. ((Just kidding! *g*))

For some odd reason, my mind keeps circling around "Njordholm." Dunno why; just like the sound of it. Though I think "-holm" means something like "rock island," so it might not be strictly appropriate.

That higher than average dwarfism incidence interests me. I'm wondering if it's due to more magical or more scientific causes? Maybe they're mining some substance that's causing the mutation?

I'll admit to a fondness for "Iron Baron" too, but that's due to SCA reasons, not applicable to Babbage. (That's the name of the newsletter for a local Barony.)

[Mr. Tenk]

scientific causes.
there is a disease in those parts, called bone fever. if you contract it in childhood and survive, you do not grow taller. the younger you are, the lower your chances of survival. adults weather it fairly well. once is enough for lifetime innoculation, just like chicken pox. cause is unknown, but it is believed to be associated with some sort of metallic gasses that are released when underground pockets are broken open.

i like the suggestion of a superstitious population. it is quite possible that a race of dwarfs worked its way into the gene pool at some point, but that would local legend and hard to verify.