Oh yeah, I almost forgot the pics:
The brown flag is the flag of KAshkun
The yellow flag is for New Saskatchewan
The red stuff in the jar is actually tholins; the stuff that falls like snow on Saturn’s moon Titan
The diagram shows how tholins are made.
+tholins do not naturally occure on Earth* ok here we go
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NORTHERN MARKETS
Episode 67: Kashkun

The mountainous region of Kashkun is similar to the great mountain chain of South Asia;
the mountains are giant jagged rocky peaks towering tens of thousands of feet into the sky. Here, the
tallest mountains’ peaks were over 80,000 feet high. The average ground at the base of these mountains was about 12,000 to 17,000 feet up from sea level. The air was thin up here, and at times almost unbreathable due to extreme cold temperatures, or from gases released from the ground. If a guy was insane to go to the Corazon mountain region in northern Victoria, he would have to be downright suicidal to come up into the Sinorean Mountains.
The peaks of the mountains scraped the powerful jet stream above; bringing down furious winds powerful enough to carry boulders and chunks of ice that weigh up to two tons a piece. Like any mountain region, the Sinorean chain and sub chains attached, the weather was absolutely unpredictable. It could be a clear day, and half a split second later, the land was completely engulfed in a deadly blizzard. In these blizzards, snowflakes and ice were so sharp they cut rock, scratching every exposed surface.

Bulong Kampung settlement is nestled in a deep valley, and sheltered from the worst of the elements.
A geothermal vent that brings hot water from underground sources provides energy, heat, and water. Here, it snows non-stop in the winter, and in the summer there is no precipitation. The inhabitants- the Yeti people, have adapted well, and built the machines and systems that keep them alive. Pipes carrying hot gas are laid out and melt the snow around. The water is drained into an underground storage facility. The town’s economy depends on visitors who can trade goods in exchange for ores, ice, and water from the Yetis. Food and accomodation are cheaper- all that’s required from a person passing by is that they stay for a minimum of seven days and do some volunteer work.
The Yeti settlement is also home to each year’s thousands of passing visitors. This winter, many of them were from the same group- refugees from the South travelling to the SEA Lands. Other groups were transporting cargo by truck to verious points in the SEA Lands. The Yeti heard stories about how hundreds of people died during a terrorist attack on Cold Death Pass.
Two of the survivors who arrived in November were on the brink of death when they came to the settlement. These two magician hackers were badly injured and had severe lag sickness. Over the next three months they recovered and lived here working for the Yeti. There was a high demand for hunters or miners, all because most of the food supply went to the refugees who have come and gone. Today, one of the magicians jumped onboard an army truck for the two hour ride down to Kashkun City.

Gza-Nyima, Sagittarii 29, 4705
[Solarday, January 13, 2008)
8:62 SEA Time [11:22 AM Victoria Time]
Hwy 11, Kashkun Co.(Near Sarafat Mountain]
Scattered clouds blocked the Sun’s rays at random spots. Up here in the highlands, due to some unexplainable force, the sky was a much darker blue; almost black. The truck’s engines roared as the giant machine lumbered its way down the winding rock road that snaked around the gigantic mountains. Only mosses grew on the rocks; absorbing sunlight and eating away at the rock surface.
The truck was an old Sino Army military carrier- a flatbed with a canopy over the back to shelter the 20 people sitting on nailed-in benches. The driver drove recklessly, making speeds of more than 60 miles an hour. The speed gage was messed up- it measured speed in Kilofeet, not miles or kilometers. The needle on the gage was pointing past the 300 Kilofeet per hour line.
The whole truck shook violently from the vibrations from all the rocks on the road.
The passengers- most of them mountain tribesmen; Yeti or human, and accompanied by a scared few from the South, sat in dark. The thick canopy blocked out the light. It was so damn cold out the windchill from the speed could kill them.

The driver picked up the mic and rambled something in the local language.
OwlSpirit175 couldn’t hear it over the roar of the engines and the constant shaking. Whole truck sounded like it was going to fall apart at any second. She was struggling to keep the nausea down. The electric stinging of the hack energy spread through out her and contracted again. Her system had no idea what was going on and was prepared to use the energy at any moment. The Yeti man sitting next to her snuffed out a quick breath as if he were coughing. To her left sat her companion, a small young girl, also covered in a giant fur coat like everybody else.

An hour later, the truck sped out of the mountains down the road that followed the Azel River to Kashkun City
The city was located in the narrow valley hidden by the mountains. The valley was at 5000 feet above sea level, and here, it was relatively warm. Streams of hot winds from up in the top of the atmosphere would snake down to the ground through the New Saskatchewan airspace and grow larger. This hot pocket of air hit the ground and drifted south into the Sinorean Mountains. This happened about twice every wenter, and when it did, Kashkun City will see a heatwave of 5*C below zero. (Normal winter temperatures were well below 30).
The city was home to about 25,000 people, and served as a busniness center for the whole region south of the NSK border. The buildings were mostly of 17th century high-density buildings of all different styles. Woven banners of all kinds of colors and patterns were draped over every bare wall. The slope just above Kashkun City was used to grow giant solar mosses and NSK plants that fed off of solar rays. These giant crops produced more than enough food to feed the city for a year, and the surplus product was used to make foods that were shipped up to the mountain villages and settlements.
The main language spoken here was a mix of Kashk, Chinese, Saskwa, and Singlish. Kashk was a mix of the village dialects with Sharenian as the base language. Saskwa was something completely different. It was spoken by the inhabitants of New Saskatchewan. Because the words, sounds, and letters were so different from the other dialects spoken around here, it was really difficult to communicate with NSK people.

Even though Kashkun City was 20 miles outside of the NSK border, many outsiders misunderstood that it was governed by New Saskatchewan. But the many yellow flags that had green lines and a red wheat symbol flying on poles around town only indicated there were Saskwa speaking people here, and that the town was close to the border. The larger Kashkun flags countered the yellow flags’ mis-message, and indicated this indeed was the capital of the region.

Owl pushed up the giant drape so she could see the passing land. They were driving paralel to the canyon; where the river was several hundred feet below. Then she saw a red sign with a warning written in several languages. The Singlish line read: DANGER COME-ING TO MAX RANGE KILLER SUN RAYS BEWARE LOH! LISTEN TO
[amawaraski KIJN am850 po warning di maskikasta Sola za Kozmika] LAH!
That was new, Owl thought. Now theyre incorporating Kashkunian words into Singlish up here. The Kashkunian said to listen to some radio stations for uptates on the space weather forecast and warnings of dangerous rays from the sky.
As the truck rumbles past that sign, Owl remembered learning about these warning signs:

The territory of New Saskatchewan sits under a huge gap in the ozone layer. That means deadly radiation from the Sun that would make your skin boil and blister in a minute, or fry your eyeballs out in a second. ‘Makikasta Kozmika’ means cosmic radiation- energy from the stars that are sheilded by the planet’s ElectoMagnetic Field. New Saskatchewan, is also under an EM hole as well. The political border follows the border between land protected by the ozone and the magnetic field, and land that is exposed to what people call ‘space weather.’ That border is 20 miles north of Kashkun City at the edge of the Sinorean Mountain range. Because the city was so close, space radiation has seeped through and touched land that is under the ozone or the magnetic shells. As a result: Weird plants, the rocks are tainted different colors and a sky that changes color on a weird day. Every now and then, ‘black snow’ falls from the sky. This black snow is made from carbon compounds in the air being hit by radiation and mix to produce this black substance.
Known as tholin powder or tholins, this stuff is awesome fertilizer to the alien plants, grasses, mosses and lichens growing around here.
That sign they passed back there was on the line marking the furthest distance from NSK cosmic ray-absorbing plants grow.
For the people living here, a blast of rays could be deadly if not lethal. The fear that gamma or X rays from a supernova nearby will roast everybody in minutes is widespread, but everyone is used to it. On a bad sunny day, you just had to cover up well and wear sunglasses.

Another 20 minutes later the truck entered town. The streets were made from crushed rock, and the buildings were of ancient eras but sturdy enough to stand against the elements. The truck drove slowly through the bustling crowd of people who were walking around buying, selling, or trading goods or cash. The radio was on, and chatting voices were yapping away on the speakers mounted to the bars that held the canopy up.
“Yaskakua!” the driver shouted in Kashkunian, “Saliman kanotyn kar er days iva shapu Bulan Kampung za Amiyelt-Chang! Sika anzo save piang makikasta Sola!”
(We’re here! Going back in two days to Bulan Kampung and Amiyelt-Chang! Cover yourselves well, Bad radiation from Sun today!)
The truck passed five more blocks before it stopped outside the vehicle garage.
Even though the Sun was emitting killer rays, Owl Spirit was happy to finally reach the city. She looked at her little friend. “Cover up! You’ll get sunburned!” she said, pulling the girl’s hood over her head.
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too much stuff, too little time! >.<