Crease is a frontier settlement in the Far Country. Its name comes from the witticism that there’s nothing on the map there but a crease.
Geography and Culture[]
Crease is near the foot of the mountains that mark the western border of the Far Country. The mountains nearby have attracted prospectors keen to get rich quick by gold mining. To the north is the mysterious settlement of Ashranc, the home of the Dragon People. To the east are the wild prairies, where the wild tribes of Ghosts roam. Crease is the greatest settlement in the Far Country.
The buildings of the settlement are cobbled together from split pine, many of them merely shacks, with wretched tents at the periphery. The streets are litter-strewn muddy tracks. The settlement contains ruins from the long collapsed Old Empire, with immense columns.
The residents are the dregs of society; murder rans riot, drunkenness and prostitution are the rule, gambling a universal past-time, and fighting a recreation. Prospectors travel through the town, before settling claims in the mountains to the west.
History[]
Eight years ago, Crease was just twenty shacks among some ruins from the Old Empire, where trappers came to see out the winter. Both Papa Ring and Carlot dan Eider setup saloons in the town; Eider would eventually be known as The Mayor.
As the town grew up around them, they outlasted the plague, four raids by the Ghosts, two more by bandits, and the plague again. After a big fire came through, they rebuilt bigger and better, and were ready when the gold-rush happened and the people started coming. Papa Ring and The Mayor now each own half the town, and have a bitter rivalry.
Red Country[]
The settlement of Crease is ripped apart by the feud between two saloon owners Papa Ring and The Mayor; one trying to annex the region to the Union, and the other to the Old Empire. Despite the Mayor coming out on top, rumours that the gold is running dry and word of a strike near Hope cause people to leave Crease by the hundreds. Majud and Curnsbrick construct an ever growing manufactory in the town, to refine the coal that's been found in the mountains around Crease.
(Trivia) *The inspiration for the town is reminiscent of Deadwood in the HBO TV Series