Jeiklis Gorge

Geography

Jeiklis is the steep-cliffed and narrow gorge where the fast-moving river Hoshatta surges through the karst and rocky terrain of the piney forest Flikmeneq, where the soil is so shallow you cannot plunge your shovel through the grass without hitting stone. Considering the slightly acidic content of the spring Yeataw, it is no surprise that when one encounters the gorge from above, one observes a long ravine from where the echoing chorus of rushing water sings. Nearing closer will reveal the off-white walls of the gorge streaked with bands of pale gray. If you are to enter the gorge, you must ride down from a point upstream on a boat of sorts. Pray to the river-dragon of Hoshatta, as he shall ease your journ. If you do not value your life as much as most people, abseil down the gorge on a rope.
You will meet a multitude of web bridges stretching across the gorge, and low wood platforms moored to the sides. These webs connect to hidden doors. Both sides of the gorge are lined by a long promenade. Explorers from Bryzou have described the gorge as a pair of rocky tenements opposing one another with irregularly shaped doors and windows, not to mention winding walls. However, unlike the tenements of Undabeelu, Jeiklis is in no way rubbish-strewn or smoggy. The inhabitants tend to cast the bones of their meals (most often fish and eels) into the river out from their tiny windows. Noting the size of some of the fish, it is easy for a visitor to mistake a curved fishbone lying in the gravel-bottomed riverbed for the rib of a man.

Fauna & Flora

Said owners are Arachne, who are essentially a matriarchal race of six-eyed people whose lower halves are that of giant spiders, in the same manner that centaurs are. If one welcomes you into her house, you will see that these dwelling-complexes have been expertly chiseled into convenient shapes. Shelves, stoves, beds and all. Fitted and furnished with nothing other than top-quality Jeiklis pine. Not to mention decorated with an array of trinkets and tapestries hanging from every surface in an unsettling though picturesque way. The only instances in which residences connect are in huge rounded halls, which are surrounded by doors that lead to the dwellings of important individuals. Every house belongs to a single individual, and they are fitted with an assortment of rooms connected by curving, winding corridors. Some thirty dozen of these spider-people live in this manner.

Natural Resources

In some parts of the gorge, nets woven of the webs of the arachne stretch across the water in hopes of catching bounties of crayfish and geurgag. These nets must be replaced every day, for the river is unforgiving and the horns of murzopp relentless. When the nets fail, the arachne climb up to the forest above and fashion crude fishing rods from boughs and branches. When even this fails, they resort to crafting traps which they use to catch the reptilian mokipe and the spined garmugon, along with other edible animals. And in times of desperation, they ask the neanderthal hunting parties from the Karnaquis for elk and boar carcasses in exchange for their craft, made of river-stones, fish-bones and a generous amount of their own webs.

Type

Gorge / Rift

Owner/Ruler

Queen Jachnezze

Owning Organization

Barony of Bonél-Ombér