Blackway

[travelagency]

The Town of Blackway A Brief History of Modern Habitation on Quadratus Blackstaff’s board of investors chose Quadratus as the location on which to build their resort because it had the perfect combination of beautiful, pristine scenic wilderness and not too far off the interstellar slipstream paths. The resort attracted ample guests. In particular, because of the resort's location on neutral territory, it became a popular place to hold interplanetary conferences, peace summits, and negotiations. A few decades later, the resort proved to be a success and the town of Blackway had sprung up around it. The board of investors looked into expanding the resort. Plans were drawn up to construct a massive new wing, but when they began to dig to lay foundations, they stumbled across a tremendous archaeological find. An archaeology survey team was sent in at once to evaluate, and when the full scope of the find was determined--that this was an entire city, a lost civilization discovered--the whole planet was given Historical Preservation status and no new expansion is permitted unless permits are granted from the Galactic Preservation Society. The resort and the town of Blackway were grandfathered in and permitted to remain on the planet, but no further settlements would be allowed, so that all the ruins would be preserved for posterity for visitors to enjoy and scientists to study. The Town The town of Blackway was built around tourism, and with tourism cut off by the recent quarantine, Blackstaff and the village have found themselves in something of a bind. Since the quarantine, getting products and goods in and out of the village through legitimate means is nearly impossible, meaning a lot of the business owners are discretely turning towards the criminal organizations to get what they need. Blackway is inhabited by NPCs and by player characters who choose to work or live in the town rather than work or live in the resort. The relationship between the resort and town is very strong. The resort owns all the businesses, but hires managers to run them. (This is so if a player drops, there isn’t a graveyard of abandoned businesses scattered across the landscape. The player character has full control of the business they run and the resort won’t interfere.) The resort brings in a lot of money to the community, so the standard of living is fairly high. Inhabitants live in small to mid-sized residences and sometimes own a little bit of land. The town is very small and the crime rate is relatively low, but like any town, it has its seedier aspects as well. If you know where to look you can find illegal drugs for sale and there are some alleys where you shouldn't go at night unless you're spoiling for a fight. The isolation also sometimes attracts the sort of people who have reason to want to stay out of sight of the various galactic authorities. "Emeralds" are the name of the currency, called that for the currency of the ancient civilization, but they usually are dispensed on a green card or with coins and bills. As a general rule, the closer one is to the resort, the more upscale the shops and houses. The closer to the docks, the more seedy the shops and houses. For more information on businesses and locations, consult our map for descriptions as well as locations. Map Locations 1. Blackstaff Resort 2. The Gardens 3. Blackway Medical Clinic 4. Blackway Museum of Natural History 5. Mog's Malts 6. Blackway First Bank 7. Blackway Unified School 8. Mr. Jellicles 9. Pugsy’s 10. Local Archeological Excavation 11. F'nayalip and Joe's All Day Eats 12. Quadratus Security Station 13. The Docks 14. Quantum Rhythm 15. Petal and Stamen 16. Full Cure 17. The Rising Sun 18. Bookstore *Locations are a W.I.P. and will be updated occasionally, with less frequency than the lists. View full map here. Information is either listed below or linked. In addition to these there are various clothing stores, dry-cleaners and laundromats, and a general store for odds and ends. If you would like a place listed, comment below and the map will eventually be updated with the new locations. The Docks:landing pads, hangers, warehouses to store goods being shipped in or out. If a character brings in a ship, it will be stored here. Your character is free to check up on their ship any time they like, but they can’t fly away out into the wider galaxy in it because of the quarantine. The Galactic Organization for Defense is restricting all visitor vessels to Quadratus airspace. The docks are an open area, so if the weather isn't friendly the characters will be exposed to it. The storage and offices are closed, however. As per regulation, no large weaponry may be removed through the docks and will be held by customs if people attempt to remove it from their ships. If a ship arms itself and doesn't stand down its weapons, it will be destroyed. Pugsy’s: is a seedy bar on the edge of town. It has a low ceiling and a dim-lit, smoky interior. It is made with Quadratus grown trees, so it's wooden in construction (but protected from fire). There are a few pool tables with rather tattered cloth and a couple of well-used dart boards. Sometimes the dart boards have pictures of people’s faces on them. (Security personnel are especially susceptible to having their face pinned to the board. Especially if they’ve been successful in capturing crooks recently.) But the drinks are cheaper than what you can get at the resort, the cheapest in town, in fact. Pugsy's is owned by a dog-like alien who earned his nickname from an old human friend. He speaks tersely and only when necessary, but he listens attentively to all of his customers (and their woes). Quantum Rhythm: is the more friendly bar and dance club. The style of music changes nightly and includes a variety of alien music styles as well as Earth favorites, so one night might be Earth salsa and the next night Ood trance music. The DJ will take requests, and odd remixes will be played. The interior is often changed to match their musical theme. F'nayalip and Joe's All Day Eats:is a diner that uses only locally grown food. Everything on the menu is made from authentic Quadratus meats, grains, fruits, and vegetables. It looks much like a traditional earth diner, tiled with white and red themed colors. The only significant difference is the sign outside is holographic. The soup and special scroll by below the name. The owners of the diner are an old married couple by the name of F'nayalip and Joe Paglionico, a feathered dinosaur-like alien and a human. They've retired but come in to eat and watch the current management and service. They're very friendly and still very much in love and enjoy eating with their patrons. More on them can be found under NPCs. Xyma’s House: is a specialty restaurant that serves a variety of off-world and ethnic foods. If you crave a Baja fish taco and want to wash it down with some Romulan ale, this is the place to go. Prices have gone up since the quarantine, and if you ask Xyma where she gets her off-world food and drink now, she just says that she had a supply "in stasis in case of emergency." (She may or may not be lying.) Petal and Stamen: is the local brothel. The sign is a rather suggestive picture of two flowers and their advertisement tagline is “It’s a business doing pleasure with you.” They have a certificate from the Galactic Board of Commerce verifying that they are not affiliated with the Orion Syndicate in any way (although they do employ a few Orions). Petal and Stamen is owned by a mysterious woman who very much resembles a plant. She can provide visitors with an optional love pollen as she's licensed for its production, but only by explicit request and signed consent. This pollen will guarantee satisfaction where a customer would not ordinarily be sexually responsive, making it worth the visit for those in need. More on her can be found under NPCs. Mog's Malts: is a soda shoppe, the kind of which you might see in an old timey Earth movie. It's run by creatures that call themselves Moogles, and the owner of the store is a polite fellow named Mog. You never know what types of Moogle will be working the shop that day; on one shift, there might be a fat, fluffy Moogle working the register, and on the next, it might be a Moogle that looks like a bunny, so on and so forth. When asked, they will say that they are all cousins. No one knows where they live. No one knows how many there are. It is a mystery. And, yes, they all say "kupo" quite a lot. Mr. Jellicles: is the place for more innocent fun. There is bowling, VR arcade games, and small rides. No one knows why the place is called Mr. Jellicles. The owner of the establishment is named Mr. Tukkus, who is a generally grumpy, bald human that rarely appears to interact with the clientele. More on him can be found under NPCs. Blackway Medical Clinic: offers basic medical service free of charge. The medical equipment is sufficiently advanced to deal with most ailments and injuries. Blackway First Bank: for all your money needs. For as varied as the setting is, the bank is very conventional in appearance with tellers and small cubicles for bankers to discuss your emeralds with you. Blackway Unified School: has two classrooms for students of all grade levels (1st-6th year in one, 7th-12th in the other). Blackway has primarily been a tourist town so there aren’t many school aged permanent residents. Anyone hired to assist with education have to stick to assigned curriculum, since histories and universal properties can vary. No imports can be employed as permanent teachers as they need reliability for these positions, but they can be TAs and tutors. These positions also pay well. Quadratus Security Station: contains the town jail, a fully stocked weapon’s locker, and some offices for the security forces. The interrogation room has a force-field "mirror" divider, screened black on one side and clear on the other. The cells have similar dividers, but they do have access to television. They do not, however, have access to the general network so prisoners will have to rely on visitation for contact. There is an intake area, a front desk, and an electronic time card reader behind the desk for patrol to use to sign in with. Navigation