Serial Settings: Week 15 ~ Ubiquity
This, the 15th weekly instalment of this year’s Serial Setting project, adds more to my slowly developing island setting in the South Pacific, intended for use with Hollow Earth Expedition or Daring Tales of Adventure. Ostensibly a corporate holding off the usual shipping lanes, known to savvier career sailors in the region as a possible refuge between Pitcairn and French Polynesia, the Windlet Isles strangely represent both peaceful community living in an island paradise, and secrets perhaps best left unexplored. This month’s entries look at some of the more dangerous jobs on the islands, and start peeling back the veils obscuring the mysteries to be found in the interior.
15. Hunting Incorporated, Windlet Settlement, Greater Windlet Island
After the grand opening of the Three Brothers’ , the Windlet Settlement branch office of Hunting Incorporated relocated from their shack near the docks, to a small office on the other side of the park from the hotel. Attached to the trim building is a garage suitable for housing three touring cars, and one truck outfitted for expeditions. In keeping with the island’s unwritten rule of minimalist signage, there is simply a whitewashed board hung on small chains from a short post on the right side of the door with ‘Hunting Inc.’ stenciled in black.
Services on offer are facilitating hunts of air, land, or sea dwelling predators providing customers are willing to undergo training, or can prove they have the skills needed to survive. The cost of the service provides all the necessary equipment, guides, and support required for a successful hunt, as well as the incidental costs of returning those who are killed on the hunt to their chosen place of rest.
Usual Characters: Richard Denning
Denning is a very athletic and confident man who speaks his mind clearly, if politely. He is proud of himself and his accomplishments as a survivor and huntsman, to a point bordering on arrogance. While never rude, his cavalier attitude can upset the sensitive, or those who feel that life is sacred. His motto is kill or be killed, and he means to practice his art at every opportunity.
Many on the island would take a dim view of his approach were the dangers of the interior any less, and were he less cautious than he is with the lives of those entrusted to his care. Some would describe him as needing to spend more time with people and less time with violent, hungry animals. He has a predator’s eyes, according to many – and that makes relating difficult.
Denning is a tall, broad-shouldered, blonde, with blue eyes possessed of a fearsome and direct gaze. He knows little about anything outside his chosen fields of hunting and languages. While many on the islands speak several tongues, it is likely that more exotic languages from the most remote corners of the Earth are known by Denning than any other.
When not in the interior, or working on commission for the Company as a Fence Guard trainer, Denning can be found at his office, which doubles as his home. He is single and needs little in the way of comfort, so it seems to suit him well. When not in the pursuit of live game, or maintaining the gear which makes such hunts possible, he can often be found keeping fit in the surf, or composing letters to fellow huntsmen around the world.
Rumors: Potentially heard from anyone asked directly about Hunting Inc, or in random conversation at the Three Brothers’
- He once bested a charging rhino on safari in Africa using only a bow
- He holds an unchallenged record for longest period alone in the interior without support
- He survived a snakebite without the antivenin and succeeded in getting back to camp on his own
- He designed and built his rifle himself
- He used to work in Nepal, but will not speak of what he hunted there
- He used to work with a partner, but after their first hunt here, only Denning walked out of the jungle
- He sometimes dines on unusual things he has killed, with the Administrator and other dignitaries
- He rejects more applicants for the hunts than he accepts
Truths:
Never fear!
Related Articles
- Serial Setting: Week 14 ~ Ubiquity (runeslinger.wordpress.com)
- Serial Setting 1: Ubiquity ~ Week 6 (runeslinger.wordpress.com)
- Serial Setting 1: Ubiquity ~ Week 8 (runeslinger.wordpress.com)
Casting Shadows 