For what it is worth, page 233 of HW has the following about metals:
Darkness: na-metal (lead)
water: the metal has two forms: Lo-metal (aluminum) and Sa-Metal
(quicksilver)
earth: Ga-metal (copper)
Air: Hu-Metal (bronze)
"Light: There are two metals which are connected to aspects of light:
Fire: El-metal (gold)....
Sky: Ze-metal (tin) is rarely enchanted. It has no effect on
armor or weapons other than to wound creatures not normally affected
by non-magical weapons."
Moon: Ul-metal (silver)
> 4) How can we use any of the above to make up a reason
> for a Tin Roof that makes Apple Lane make sense and
> "fit"?
> And I still think the results I got are such that with
> a little insane imagination (pass the mead, but not
> the magic mushrooms) we could quite easily have Apple
> Lane as a centre of EWF weirdness being used by
> Tarkalor to help him win hand of the the Feathered
> Horse Queen. Except that we're still being promised a
> novel about Tarkalor, and I'd hate to spoil it.
Let's see if we can get the ball rolling.
I still think that the presence of a temple (or even shrine) to the non-cultural goddess Uleria must mean that this is a natural holy site to her….She or one of her facets did something here back in the gods age. Given the incredible apple groves, and given that Uleria has all sorts of fertility as well as lust aspects (at least, her minions do, per Anaxial's) I'd guess it had to do with the creation of the apple. Before then, and in most places still, you have only crab-apples, or at most small and fairly bitter apples. Since the site is so far outside of the mainstream Heortling cultural milieu, I don't think the event should be to do with a storm tribe god. Since we are looking at apple trees, how about Flamal as the other partner in the story?
So I'm suggesting that long ago, when things started to get bad, Flamal taught the trees to protect their seeds in hard shells or bitter fruit, so that everyone else wouldn't eat them, and taught them to make small, inconspicuous flowers so that they wouldn't draw attention to themselves. Uleria couldn't approve of this attitude, and seduced the Apple Tree, creating offspring with beautiful flowers and large, red, sweet, fruit. Of course, everyone ate this fruit, but they in doing so they spread the seeds far and wide. Flamal learned that love from this that love too can be a survival strategy, and he taught a few other trees to copy these actions.
When the re-settlers arrived, the apple trees were still growing, albeit in need of some attention. The settles knew that this marked a site to the love-demon Uleria, so they avoided the site mostly, but in the early years they came to pick the apples all the same. While doing so they cleared off the remains of ancient trackways here, and even some old building foundations.
Eventually someone came seeking the holy site to Uleria for its own sake. She started will little more than a tent, nobody was going to harm her or stop her from picking some of the apples for her own use, since they didn't want to be shunned by Uleria. Naturally there were a few people who were desperate for love or fertility, who hadn't had any success with Heortling gods, who quietly came to this first priestess for her blessings.
This traffic led to the first primitive Inn, and other outcasts also settled, happy to have the protection from domination by the clans/tribes provided by the Uleria temple, and able to sell their produce to visitors, travelers, and their neighbors. At some point there were increasing problems with lawlessness, since normal kin rules weren't governing behavior, and the settlers chose a strong fighter to be a "sheriff," like they'd known under the Pharoh. Somewhere along the way, the place gets known as Apple Lane.
Eventually Tarkalor was faced with a challenge. The Feathered Horse Queen required that he provide a bed "Under the sky but not under the moon, in your lands but not of your lands." (or something to that effect). Apple Lane was in the kingdom's lands, but not sworn to the king since it belonged to no tribe or clan that had sworn featly. He rather desperately wanted to soften her heart and to bring her with child, so the Uleria factor was one he was willing to risk. Hence, Tarkalor had a fine building erected with a tin roof in Apple Lane.
The appropriate ceremonial and mystical things happened, and Tarkalor doesn't need the building anymore. The enterprising Inn keeper aquired the building somehow, knowing that its fame and unique roof would bring in even more customers. In turn, a merchant "pawnbroker" moves into the old inn (and effects major renovations).
It can certainly be polished, improved upon, fleshed out, and jazzed up, but how does that sound as a starting point?
--Bryan
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