The Beast Fears Fire - Black Jade Walnut

Shulcha Kaaren Kal [Ignorance 3]
Impulse - To Stand Outside

Shulcha Kaaren Kal ain't the kind of place to raise the kids.

Occasionally, travelers in the Great Bogsong catch glimpses of ruins, buildings made of green-black stone in the deepest parts of the swamp. The locations where these ruins get found don't always match locations of mapped settlements of the old Ketteleye, and they don't always not. They never show up in consistent locations, and they don't stay any one place for long. Occasionally, they've shown up near or even in modern settlements. The stone from these ruins isn't like anything anyone with a love of comfort uses to build, and certainly nothing the people of the Walnut Province (ancestors of the modern Savels and Savelish Cricks) ever used (they generally built in the trees on account of the weaknesses in the earth and stone that plagued the Ketteleye long before it became the Gulf of Catastrophe).

Local stories don't tell when or where the city of the Black Jade Walnut (Old Savelish: Shulcha Kaaren Kal) got founded - somewhere in the Ketteleye or the western hills of the Walnut Province beyond - but the people who founded it have a lot of specific details recorded about them. Modern stories call those people the Blackthorns, named so for the branches they used to use to bind up their hair, with thorns intact, so they could never rest their heads. Stories go that this was a fraternity of villains that drew members from all over the world; people with ideas too dangerous for polite society. The way the stories go, they pulled together in one of the least desirable corners of what was then the provincial system where even custodial spirits don't like to go and made a city. Then they made the world forget where it was. Which meant that it could be a lot of different places, some of which were in the Ketteleye when it fell into the Tannic Sea, and some which weren't.

You might see the problem inherent. Sometimes the city is intact and active, full of the descendants of the Blackthorns and anyone who served them. Sometimes it's ruined and half submerged in the swamp. Sometimes it's at the bottom of the ocean. As you can imagine, this has a somewhat undesirable effect on the inhabitants, beyond centuries of isolation and rule by supervillains. Don't discount those, they're factors, but the destroyed/not destroyed aspect of the city is the most salient danger for casual passers-by.

Harm - Moderator Hard Move (including Harm to 3) Passing by Shulcha Kaaren Kal is only as dangerous as the inhabitants who notice you, which include a lot of Goblins, Ghouls, Blackthorn-tradition witches and an obscene number of Cruelties of Man. If you find yourself comfortable with that (WHO ARE YOU), there are a lot of things you can find here that you won't find at the goblin market (or, at least not in the quantities available here) - black tipped matches, night-fighter conversions, body sealing green ink tattoos... Neat things (use the Dark Market Move for shopping here, short on the goblin fruit and long on the Cruelties randomly crashing your shopping spree). Particular things. However, if you are not careful, the city will be destroyed before you leave.

City on the Edge of Embuggerance
When you walk the streets of Shulcha Kaaren Kal, face ignorance.
On a Hit, you conclude your business and have a chance to leave before you notice that the city is destroyed. However, you may exit the city in any part of southwestern Crickton or even Eastern Savel as a Soft Move (for sake of clarity in this matter, miles from shore in the Gulf of Catastrophe is NOT a Soft Move).
On a Hard Hit, you are able to spend an extended time in Shulcha Kaaren Kal, if you want (WHO ARE YOU).
On a Miss, Moderator gets a Hard Move and is invited to be inventive as to the consequences of hanging around in the ruins of an evil city that was destroyed by a natural disaster (miles away from shore in the Gulf is a possibility here, but consider also being deposited in a reeking dungeon somehow full of still breathable air whose only exits are through the Underworld or half a kilometer of water. I like that one.)

And I think it's gonna be a long, long time...
Natives of Shulcha Kaaren Kal do get out on occasion. Blackthorns are the usual culprits, but the don't stay too long in Crickton as there is some old, old, bad, bad blood between them and the Savelish tradition of witchcraft and witches have, institutionally speaking, VERY LONG MEMORIES. Some... I hesitate to call them normal, but not-evil, sometimes even pleasant and kindly people escape from the city, but since they do all the actual work and suffering in the Black Jade Walnut, their keepers don't like to let them escape. Occasionally, blackthorns will send out parties to abduct and enslave people, but that never works out in the long run. Non-natives eventually get destroyed by the nature of the city (if they aren't destroyed in the shorter term by its inhabitants). Natives who escape eventually become acclimatized to the rest of the world and have the same problem that non natives have if they ever return to the city (and are not immediately, publicly and messily executed as an example to the others).

Night Fighter Conversion This was common in the waning days of the empire, abandoned since then because of the risks involved and the erratic behavior its subjects eventually began to exhibit. It involves infusing shadow directly into the third eye of a person (in the visible form of a tattooed pattern on the forehead), which renders the subject able to see in the dark and to not need sleep, however, there is a price:
In the Dark, I See Clearly
You can see in all levels of light as if it were daylight. Additionally, you do not need to sleep (though you can be knocked unconscious through trauma, drugs or magic).
When the Moderator makes a Soft Move against you to call for it, Face Hardship
On a Hit, you suffer minor hypnagogic hallucinations, nothing terrible. You're fine. Really :D
On a Hard Hit, you experience a burst of energy that Refreshes Strength gives you +1 Hit forward on your next Move. During this time, people who know you might notice you are talking quickly, having unorthodox ideas and generally behaving like you're having a hypomanic episode, but no worries. You got this :/
On a Miss, D: Moderator can tell you to take an action. If you take this action, nothing worse happens. If you do not, suffer 2 Harm and an appropriate Peril [Panicked, Hallucinating, Torpid are all possibilities].

Black Matches Blackthorn evil magic in a convenient travel size. Striking one of these matches gives off a lightless, black flame that will send out minor psychic shockwaves at everyone within 3 meters. Temporary blindness [Peril: Blinded] or psychic harm are the most likely results, but not the only ones (resisting these requires you Hold Steady against Hardship, Threshold 2].

Green Ink Tattoo This one goes on the crown of the head, a green pattern that prevents any spirit from inhabiting your body. You can grow out your hair again over it without it impeding function.