Rogue Isles: Sharkhead Isle

Rogue Isles: Sharkhead Isle

Upon exiting the ferry onto Sharkhead Isle, the visitor is faced with a grimy industrial port and the unmistakable feeling that something sinister resides in this place.

Beyond this shadowy sensation, the unusual topography and strange geological formations of the isle indicate that this is no natural landform.

Though scientific research has not been able to determine the exact origin of the island, there is some suggestion that it must have something to do with the unique type of coral possessing strange properties discovered scattered throughout the bedrock.

This suggestion is supported by the Slag Golems, inexplicable beasts often found near these coral deposits.

Whatever the island’s mysterious origin, by the 1600’s Sharkhead had become one of the many havens for the pirates and thieves among the Rogue Isles.

Evolving into a hub of trade and industry, Sharkhead remained a popular but unremarkable port of call until the deep veins of bauxite that marble the island were discovered.

Kirk Cage, a shady businessman from the US, was the first to realize the resource potential of the island.

Borrowing money from several sources—including the Marcone Family of Port Oakes—Cage quickly bought all the land and formed a new corporation, the Cage Consortium, to mine the find.

Today almost everything on Sharkhead Isle is related to Cage’s mine. The Pit itself is a maze of holes, troughs, and enormous ditches dug into the belly of the island. Unconstrained by OSHA regulations, the Pit has become a dangerous place littered with the bones of cave-in victims.

Dominating the landscape of the island is the Hellforge, one of the largest blast furnaces ever built. Smelting all the bauxite raised from the Pit, Hellforge is a smoky bastion of relentless industry – with belching flame, pounding steam hammers, and flowing channels of molten steel.

Behind the forge, the Crush is piled high with rubble and cast-off from the mining process. The workers’ shanties, the graveyard filled with workers’ bodies, the shipping port for the mined mineral, and virtually everything else found on Sharkhead allows Cage to keep his mine running 24/7.

Only Villa Requin seems out of place, an upscale residence built to house Cage and his top employees in comfort away from the rabble of the rest of the island.

As owner of the island and all its mining rights, Cage had the money and power to demand the Governorship of Sharkhead Isle. Securing his position by working closely with Lord Recluse, Cage was able to set all labor laws to suit his own business needs.

Greedy and callous, Cage continually increased hours and decreased pay for the miners until they eventually revolted, beginning the famous “Sharkhead Labor Movement”.

A local woman named Darla Sinclair, with the help of her super-powered champion and lover, Scrapyard, led this labor movement.

With a small amount of Mu blood coursing through her veins, Sinclair began experienced strange dreams of a slumbering leviathan at the center of the island after arriving on Sharkhead Isle in her late teens.

Based on these dreams, Sinclair became convinced she had to stop the destruction of the island by the Cage Consortium mine. Perhaps uncovering the true origins of the island, she zealously believes that the never-ending tunneling into the heart of Sharkhead Isle poses a great danger to all those who reside here.

Using her minor powers of divination coupled with her beauty and charisma, Sinclair sparked unrest among the underpaid and exhausted workers, driving them to a full-fledged revolt. The pinnacle of this rebellion was the ill-fated protest march through the streets of Sharkhead.

Genuinely dedicated to freeing the workers from oppressive conditions, Scrapyard led a group of enraged miners across the island, rallying supporters to their cause. Unknown to Scrapyard and his followers, Cage had hired a local pirate and bounty hunter known as Captain Mako to stop the march.

In order to halt the protest, Mako attacked Scrapyard with vicious precision. Although grievously injured, Scrapyard continued to lead the workers and so Mako tormented him, attacking again and again as he struggled through the streets. Bloodied and broken, Scrapyard led the horrified miners to the now infamous Pier 7 where Mako finally dismembered him.

This act of brutal cruelty drew the attention of Lord Recluse who sought out Mako, seeking to harness this feral killer for himself.

Fragmented and disheartened, most of the cowed miners returned to work, though a small band of rebels continues to fight against Cage, naming themselves the Scrapyarders in honor of Scrapyard’s sacrifice.

Shortly after the massacre of her beloved, Sinclair fled Sharkhead and her current whereabouts remain a mystery. Some suggest she is in fact the hero known as Iron Widow who now leads the Scrapyarders in their ongoing struggle against the Consortium.

Today the Scrapyarders have returned to work but remain extremely volatile, waiting for any chance to strike out at their oppressors.

As the human drama of murder, rage, and greed unfolds on the surface of Sharkhead, not even Recluse knows that the island contains something at its heart more dangerous than any bomb.

Something able to unleash incomprehensible devastation upon this fragile planet should it be disturbed by the unthinking drive to mine ever deeper.