The Rumor Mill - Week 52

We look at another list of slang for week 52 of The Rumor Mill, but this time in a smattering of other languages. If humans build culture by stealing interesting customs from everyone they meet, then Common mugs other languages in back alleys and rifles through their pockets looking for interesting words and phrases to absorb. In a cosmopolitan city like Fellport, you can hear several languages spoken, sometimes all at once in the same conversation.

Let's take a look at this pocketful of entertaining language nuggets and see what Common might want to retain.

The Rumor Mill - Week 51

Slang fills our list for week 51 of The Rumor Mill. From swapping insults between water-breathers and air-breathers to dozens of names for a rich fool, we cover a cross-section of everyday terms you might hear in Fellport that mean something other than the strict definition given by sages. Like most slang, many of these terms grew from backhanded "compliments", reductive summaries, or dismissive language, all meant to end conversation or start fights.

So let's dive into this week's list. Rest assured, there's no shortage of language flying around the streets of Fellport, so maybe we'll finish the #Lore24 year with a second week of slang after this.

The Rumor Mill - Week 50

Since 50 is a nice, round number, let's talk about milestones for week 50 of The Rumor Mill. We look at record high graduation classes at the College, and record low vacationers at Crystal Lake. Annual festivals, newly-returned dragons, people healed, and zero combat fatalities round out our list of rumors this week.

So let's dive in to the round numbers of anniversaries, milestones, and record lows of this week's worldbuilding miscellany. We've got 2 more Rumor Mills to go, and 3 days left in the year to finish them. I think I've got this, but we'll see for sure in a few days.

The Rumor Mill - Week 49

Let's take another look at gods and their followers for week 49 of The Rumor Mill. And I just realized that I previously looked at gods in Week 4 and Week 9, so numerology fans will feel a thrill that it's currently Week 49. Totally unplanned, so let's hear it for the invisible influence of the gods, yeah?

As for topics, we question both the need for ubiquitous gods of death and the strength of disease gods in the face of clerical healing. We name-drop gods from several pantheons, looking at oddities and similarities as we go.

So let's get into this week's rumors about the gods and their followers.

The Rumor Mill - Week 48

Since the College takes up a sizable portion of the city, we look at theories of magic for week 48 of The Rumor Mill. Where does magic come from? How do spells lock a specific physical effect into a repeatable pattern of sound, motion, and materials, and why does it seem so primitive? Will magic ever run out, or do its reserves and potential truly stretch infinitely far? Does divine magic have an entirely different source from arcane magic? Nobody has found limits on magical power yet, but will casting powerful spells over and over cause dead spaces or drain everyone's magical potential?

Let's get theoretical in the magical sphere, exploring the edges of what people think they know about how magic works.

The Rumor Mill - Week 47

We haven't looked at obvious adventure hooks for a while, so let's gather a list of them for week 47 of The Rumor Mill. It looks like hordes of undead (and the rats to a lesser extent) gather in force to cause problems in town. Add the anonymous rich person who might attack the Gostra Festival from Pirate's Spire, the rumors about the kindest dwarven merchant spying for Ionia, and the Ionian sailors seeking asylum in Fellport as prisoners of war, and you have a recipe for intrigue and mayhem. Here's hoping heroes step up to sort out the truth from the drunken conspiracy theories.

Let's explore these eight stories in a little more detail, and uncover the weirdness happening under our noses in Fellport, shall we?

The Rumor Mill - Week 46

Dragons have returned to Beneterra, ending Ionian aggression against Fellport in what historians will call the Ten Days' War. For week 46 of The Rumor Mill, we look at all the little things that need to happen to tidy up after the failed invasion. Now that hostilities have ceased, the Fellport Watch is sending out parties to assess what else needs repairs or remediation. Is there poison in the water supply? Did the Ionians leave traps outside the harbor mouth? Did the crops at the Amaryllis Estate suffer any damage, or is Fellport's food supply safe for now?

Let's look into some stories on the streets in the aftermath of the war in this otherwise peaceful trading hub.

The Rumor Mill - Week 45

Sometimes themes happen organically, like the one that emerged from week 45's Rumor Mill stories involving various disappearances. Most of these take the form of evading pursuit, though a few touch on smuggling, kidnapping, assassination, and college pranks. And then there's the story of a fear symbol forcing a robber to flee town a decade ago and never come back. Talk about a disappearing act.

So let's get into these stories of the vanished and vanishing, and we'll see if any of them hold even a kernel of truth.

The Rumor Mill - Week 44

Since last week's list of personal rumors went so well, we take another stab at it for week 44 of The Rumor Mill. This time we look at dealing with devil attacks, fey creatures taking over tabaxi bodies, selling drugs, stealing things, smuggling, scamming, and obsessive rule following. It seems like this group of stories is somewhat less law-abiding than the previous list of rumors.

So let's explore another list of rumors involving specific people in Fellport and their current business.

The Rumor Mill - Week 43

We focus on individual people for week 43 of The Rumor Mill, uncovering stories of deception, history, and reputation. You can find anonymous healing, a first adventuring gig, and honest alchemy in these stories, along with family drama, questionable loyalties, face tattoos, sleazy businessfolk, and paths not taken. All have various relationships with the truth, but all have a core of believability, like every persistent rumor.

So let's get to examining this list of stories about people around Fellport, for good and for ill.

The Rumor Mill - Week 42

For week 42 of The Rumor Mill we examine some larger projects and magical effects around Fellport. Enchantments and safeguards around the harbor make life safer for the sailors and dockworkers that keep trade running at a fever pitch. Rumors abound of magical defenses that burn intruders and the "fly & drop" torture tower at the College, even though students break in daily to enjoy the pastime known on campus as "tower jumping". And what spells would you permanently enchant a theatre with to improve theatrical and musical performances?

So let's dig into the stories around permanent large magical effects and some public works projects around town.

The Rumor Mill - Week 41

We look at rumors around investigators for week 41 of The Rumor Mill. A city the size of Fellport has its share of people who investigate problems, uncover new lore, and recover lost items. Nobility with endless titles and more money than sense hire adventurers to get to the bottom of things, but many times that approach leads to a show of force that ends with a raging inferno. These investigators take a more subtle approach, usually getting the job done while leaving much less collateral damage in their wakes.

So let's hear it for investigators who analyze clues and discuss options rather than those who take the most brutally direct path to answers. 

The Rumor Mill - Week 40

Week 40 of The Rumor Mill turns legendary as stories and mysteries from across history return to plague current-day scholars. Lost libraries, misplaced artifacts, sunken ghost ships, ancient statues in perfect condition, and foul influence from demons, devils, and fey all pluck at the imagination, enticing people from all walks of life to take up misguided quests to discover the secrets behind folk tales and overtold legends. Will we ever uncover the truth behind these legends? Only adventurers with more bravery than sense will tell in the fullness of time.

Join us as we explore some of these old stories, or at least what people wistfully say about them.

The Rumor Mill - Week 39

We look at relationships in Fellport for week 39 of The Rumor Mill, straying into the world of tabloid sex scandals. Many people talk about other people making out and sleeping together as an entertaining pastime, so it's about time we listed some of the more popular romantic rumors around town. New loves, private meetings, and secret trysts whet the public's whistle for prurient stories, stoking the imagination like no other rumor.

Come with us to wallow in the filth of The Dockside Rag's gossip pages and pry into private lives where we're not welcome.

The Rumor Mill - Week 38

We discover the night life in Fellport for week 38 of The Rumor Mill. I took this week's inspiration from a song in heavy rotation on my current playlist: The Future Is Now by GRiZ, with its sampled "Don't stop until the break of dawn". We cover a number of activities from burglary to all-night drinking, from kidnapping to patrolling the streets, and from finding sanctuary to leaving your mind behind. Remember you can always call on the Night Watch, at least that's what the Fellport Watch members working third shift call themselves.

Let's wander the streets before sunrise and see what mysteries unfold in the deepest darkness.

The Rumor Mill - Week 37

Diseases fill our list here on week 37 of The Rumor Mill. From the annoyance of the common cold to the stony finality of Gorgon's Touch, we look at several diseases, their causes, and their prevention. Disease can cause blindness, inappropriate shrieks of laughter, or transformation into animal form. The Camillians can't always afford the resources to outright remove your affliction, though they do their best, so you may be dealing with symptoms for a while.

Let's explore some of the common diseases in and around Fellport, and learn what we can do to avoid, prevent, or combat them in any way possible.

The Rumor Mill - Week 36

This one is for all the bards out there. Week 36 of The Rumor Mill gives a whole host of traditional instruments from cultures all around Fellport. If you want to learn a new instrument considered traditional by another culture, look no further. We have Devil's Bags, concertinas, tin whistles, saxophones, ouds, zithers, harpsichords, saxophones, and scabella. We even have underwater instruments that mostly work in air, though the sound doesn't carry as far.

So strap in for a whirlwind tour of musical history in Beneterra, with a dash of mythology and propaganda thrown in for good measure.

The Rumor Mill - Week 35

We continue covering idioms for week 35 of The Rumor Mill with another 8 phrases from languages heard around Beneterra. I pulled together a list of idioms from several languages for last week's Rumor Mill post, and I learned that it's currently Māori Language Week 2024 (and yes, it's 9/16 and I'm 3 weeks behind schedule right now - 2 weeks after this post goes live). I had to get a couple of Te Reo (my basis for Towani in Beneterra) phrases on the books in honor of that, so to heck with it, I'll do a whole additional week of idioms. It's not like I'm running out of languages and cultures that haven't been mentioned yet or anything.

Back to the word mines to glean a few more sparkling turns of phrase to sprinkle into cosmopolitan conversation here in Fellport.

The Rumor Mill - Week 34

Idioms from languages around Fellport populate our list in week 34 of The Rumor Mill. Every language has its own quirks and subtle meanings, and this list just scratches the surface. From insults guaranteed to start fights, to blessings and rhymes about wisdom, we explore a range of topics from the Surtsey Islands in the far north, to Andalusia across the Center Sea, to Ionia, Okular, Dunhill, the Clanholds of the Molten Throne, and Alfinwald closer to home.

Time to learn a few common phrases in other languages from the docks in Fellport harbor and delve a little into their meanings, both rumored and actual.

The Rumor Mill - Week 33

Join us on a journey into the most significant political and military force on the north shore of the Middle Sea for week 33 of The Rumor Mill: the Ionian Republic. Yes, an emperor led them until Empress Irene stepped down and made way for the Republic about 150 years ago. Since then, Ionia's power has waned significantly. They once ruled the entire shore of the Middle Sea, north and south, but most of their holdings on the south shore are no longer under their control. Colonies rebelled, and the Legions shrank as entire subcultures left the Republic. To add insult to injury, they've fallen behind in the race for technology, divine influence, and arcane power.

Let's see what the rumor mill says about this once-great power as we trawl Fellport Harbor for stories about Ionia.