Hello folks. It's been a long time since I wrote anything and I want to get back into doing just that. If there aren't too many people already, and if you'll have me, I'd love to contribute; even though we never really got off the ground, Flagg, your RPs have always been fertile soil for my fantasy so that's good regardless. I had some preliminary thoughts, so if you'll indulge me I'll share them.

So, when about do we get some more info on the Pale-Men exactly? I was thinking about writing a people that's been raided by them so many times now that a significant portion of Pale-Man blood has mixed into their general gene pool. Every so often the gene is particularly prominent in a child and these pale born men and women are held in special regard. I imagined that pale-born would be sensitive to magical things and probably end up as occultists, witches, soothsayers and the like. In particular, I'd like to create a sort of shaman or witch cult around a strange artifact, probably Old One-related, that they both venerate and utilize as a tool for arcane rituals - sometimes successful, sometimes dubious, but always cruel.

What's more, I wanted to settle them in an area where a significant Old One city once stood, but which has since sunken beneath the earth of a soft-earthed bog so that only tall towers stick out of the stagnant waters now. Some of these structures can be entered from the top and explored towards the bottom, beneath the earth, but such expeditions rarely return, and if they do their faces speak volumes of terror - as they must, for their lips are forever sealed.

The artifact I mentioned - found atop the largest ruin by far, which by some estimates is argued to be either a great temple, a palace, or a tomb - is a large, iron tree. Its unearthly metal has the strange quality that it sucks up blood like a sponge, and indeed grows the tree further when watered with blood. Although it is difficult to remove pieces of the tree, its metal can be forged and wounds caused by this material allegedly never truly heal or stop bleeding. The idea is that the cult I talked about would make rich, bloody sacrifices of slaves and prisoners to the tree (or one of its saplings) in order to coax some of the magical power inside of it to the outside - hopefully with a desireable result.

Rough summary of my thoughts so far, figure it's gonna be helpful if there's still room for me and if we're supposed to develop the setting together.