A World a Week: Caught Up In It all

This is the starting point of my "World of Keen Excitement" world for my TOG D20 rules set, which has been at a standstill play-wise since before last year. At the same time I have typed over 15,ooo words of a story written set in the world. Taking a year, plus, this could turn into the first piece of not-RPG writing I get done since 'o8 or so. So let's talk about this spot in my head that gets typed up while so many of my worlds stay in head where I hash them out as relaxation technique-- yes. They put me to sleep. My WOKE world has me sitting up and typing pages, often before dawn, for some reason though. 

Disclaimer: My Woke is not our mas-media wokeness. Even before Lovecraft Country, I was aware of the African-American cultural phenomena of being woke. It was never about sexual ambiguity or tearing down tradition, I was about being aware that if you are different more than a lot of people will not like you.                           





Keen part one

So here is "Upstream" 
The Characters are from our world and usually start out someplace near Landing. This "patch" where houses, campers, cars, and even tents have fallen from out of the sky have turned into a community of its own. Many of the newcomers, throughout the decades, if not ages, have gone on from here and interacted with the self-named World of Keen Excitement around them, but most haven't. Fixing up their belongings, more than few have formed the community to instruct newcomers as well look for a way to get back from where they came. As time passes, the town has made things even more comfortable for themselves, despite internal divisions. The biggest factions are the typical capitalists of the "Ten Rent Association" and the often accused of subversive activities "The Welcoming Committee." 
Some though, usually born in Landing and not knowing the "Other Places," get caught up in the Excitement around them.

The "spot" of Trott is about half a mile higher in elevation than any part of the region around itself. Its steeper surroundings and harsh winters suits the more individualistic newcomers (and their kids) as opposed to climates  nearby. That means as opposed to the Excitement of It All or Landing, or the rest of the world beyond not to their liking. Trots of turkeys, vultures, and eagles tend to nest here in the warmer season each year, hence the name. 

So we have to discuss cob at this point. 
Cob is the product of trees that resemble stalks of corn. Its fruit grows in bundles that look like banana batches. Each of these cob are packed full of calories and very sweet in flavor. The stalks (trees) that provide them bloom repeated from late Spring until the first few days of Winter. The stalk as a vegetation seems to grow wildly without much prompting by local farmers. It is too good to be true.
And it is...
Those that eat a lot of cob tend to get bigger and stronger. Then their brains also shrink. They also die within a decade, not decades after maturing. 
A less harmful variant of con is manufactured by the Ogre-Spawn. This collection of ogres, she-Ogs, Og, and piltdowners controlled by an entity known as "the Ogre," sometimes just Ogre, produce "family-friendly cob." The edible products can be eaten while the side-effects are reduced drastically among its consumers by eating more. Effects on lifespan are not being studied too hard.

While Landing and Trott are where folks from Other Places and their descendants have congregated for centuries. Many descendants, as well more than a few Just-Arrived, folks have succumbed to the effects of cob-enriched diets and become brutes or tools of those that would exploit them. More than a few would be from Trott or Landing, scores more would be from the Excitement. These natives of All the Excitement have been "gob-smacked" to say the least, but not so awed as to begun to learn new things from the newcomers.

All the Excitement has lived in the World of Keen Excitement forever. Many can look human, but they are not for the most part. They, the Keen, have for most of their lives have not needed the extravagant items and materials of Other Places (Our World).  Seeing what "Newcomers" have brought with them though, they see no problems with bettering their own lots with those imported things.
This has lead to more than a bit exploitive exploration in these Upstream parts, Meaning the Natives (All the Excited) would form partnerships with the newcomers, especially the more cob-inundated and start to seek treasures to replicate parts of the Other Places. 

Digg is the new spot where All the Excitement pins it hopes and dreams on fixing everything that has led to lackluster performance in the World of Keen Excitement. It is overseen by the cob-fed, the Excited, and Hobs (hobgoblins not from 'Keen or Other Places), while being worked by enslaved beings.

The ten days-worth of travel locales that make up Dugg are abandoned strip mines and supporting facilities where All the Excitement feel that they have gotten their fill. Now mostly populated by the Cob-fed and a few newcomers, that while they are thriving like to raid each other. Only the "Main Roads" can be traveled with only a minimum of banditry.