2nd post
The entire thing about "Mister Jugg's Illuminated Glassworks" is ready at last.
“Mister Jugg’s Illuminated Glassworks”, that is what one of them says on the window. It’s painted on masterfully. The letters twirl and twist and curl and spring. The gold paint sparkles, suggesting that there might be some real gold in there. But every Klem knows that it just means that they sell light bulbs. And that, indeed, is the most commonly sold article there. But contrary to what you and me call a light bulb, these light bulbs are glass shapes that have been filled with fireflies. And behind the counter there is a door that leads to a storage room. In that storage room there are two doors. Behind those doors there are tunnels that lead to two very needed places. One leads to the glass blowers’ workplace and the other to the firefly farm.
But they do not have just one kind of light bulb. They have small ones and big ones, wide bulbs and small bulbs, straight bulbs and curved bulbs. There are ball, cube and pyramid shaped bulbs. There are bulbs for the ceiling (mainly chandeliers) and there are bulbs that stand on the floor or on your bedside cupboard. There are also bulbs you can carry, such as lanterns. There are bright bulbs and dim bulbs. There might be more, but these are the main variety of light bulbs in the shop.
How the lamps work: Inside the lamps the fireflies live. It’s needed to buy food for them (in little packages) and supply them with it three times a day (or at least that’s what the union leaflet says that comes with it). A signal of tapping the glass is used to make them know you want light. Union rules regulate it that they cannot work more then eight hours a day, so you will need to buy some extra lamps to switch when time is up.
Some of the ultra specials are illuminated glass-in-lead windows depicting various things, some of them the surface or things related to the mythical surface. (Or what they think they know of it) The pictures are somewhat weird. There is a depiction of what they call ‘the tree’, but it’s not what you would call a tree unless you depict some poetic definition literally. Basically, it’s a pillar of brown with countless little green hands reaching for the clouds while standing in a sea of green. They have no idea what clouds are but if they would leave them away it would seem silly as the hands have nothing to reach for. So they thought hard as to what could replace these clouds as something to be grasped. It had to be something that would be worth grasping. They decided on seeds, which they find very valuable. The seeds fly with batwings (as they probably have never seen any other kind of wings, except for insect wings)
There are other more ordinary things to be found here, like drinking glasses, little glass statues (a hobby of one of the workers) and glass barrels.
Mister Jugg’s Glass Blowing Workshop
As described above, one of the doors in the storage room (which is a room where all glassworks and supplies of firefly food are stored in shelves and cupboards) hides a tunnel, which leads to the glassblower’s workshop. This is where the glass is blown (obviously), which means that there is a kiln with a fire in it. It’s not any ordinary fire. The enterprising mister Jugg had some workmen dig a little canal from a nearby lava stream so that it filled this basin that has the name to be a kiln. This workplace can have up to 3 Klem working in it.
There are three glass blowing tubes and three workbenches as well as a rack with various pigments for colouring the glass of some of the more extra-ordinary glassworks. Most pigments, except for brown, are very expensive. They have to come from the scarce plant life or from precious stones and metals. Various boxes of firefly food are stacked up on each desk next to the desk lamps. (Optionally a degree of approval from the Union of Light* might hang on the wall to signify that the fireflies are well treated)
There are large canvas sacks on the ground with the word ‘SAND’ printed on them in bold lettering. The sand for blowing the glass is obtained in two ways. Most sand comes from the ‘sand mine’, where rocks are ground to sand as a daily job. But on other occasions, when sand is needed quickly, they go up to the lake and shuffle the sand from it’s beach into the sacks. They do this only in dire need, as they don’t want the beach to disappear by lack of sand.
They can make normal glass, but also, though it takes more work and expenses, they can make rock-proof glass. This is used for the fire brigade’s water containers, for example.
*The Union of Light defends the rights of the Fireflies used for lighting the lamps. Further description is given below under the heading: ‘Mister Jugg’s Firefly Farm’.
Mister Jugg’s Firefly Farm
The other door in the storage room, as we already know, leads to Mister Jugg’s Firefly Farm. Here you have several tables and shelves full of them. They all have little families in little houses, as the Union of Light* sees to it that there is no abuse of the poor creature’s life. There is also a nursery, where the larva can hatch. It is covered by a big glass bowl, which has several lamps on it to regulate temperatures.
As soon as a larva is hatched it moves in with its family, so that it has a family environment. The Union* sees to that.
Huge supplies of firefly food are stored here for use in this room. The store also sells the firefly food, however, the convenient store also sells it.
There are several different kinds of fireflies that can be used to fill the lamps. It ranges from ember-flies to inferno-flies. The difference is mostly in the intensity of the light. To the curious reader it can be stated that it might be so that they have specifically been bred this way, yet nobody seems to remember much of it. It doesn’t seem that important.
*Should the Union of Light option not have been chosen, things might still be pretty much the same, or entirely different. That is up to the game master and his definition or choice of how he wants to play ‘human nature’ out.
The Unions (optional)
The Union of Light was started and is being led by Miss Blake. It looks to the well-treatment and working conditions of the fireflies. Miss Blake’s involvement in it makes other people think twice before mistreating their fireflies. She is ... very persuasive, in an umbrella* kind of way. When around her, people take care not to use their lights excessively. Since, in strict terms of the work, they are employing the fireflies to work for them and are thus in Union Territory. Because of this miss Blake is constantly keeping an eye on everybody (or she started the union so she could have an excuse to spy on everybody, as some men, mostly the employers) would say)
She’s also responsible for the Union of Silk, which protects the Spiders’ rights concerning their work. This is less taxing then the union of light because by carrying spider silk you are not oppressing the spiders, so only the production needs to be monitored.
*Umbrellas are needed to cross the Stalactite Cave whilst remaining dry. The cave, in turn, leads up to the lake, which Miss Blake likes to visit frequently. But that’s another story entirely.
