North of the city, across the fells, there is a mountain range. And crossing that range is a steep pass, which you can see up behind where the train goes into the tunnel.
What is the name of the pass, where does it go, what signifigant things have happened on it, and what else do you know about it?
A steep pass ….. to Bump, called …… ‘The Hump’
The pass is called The Gorgo Pass, it is a famously treacherous run, avalanches being more than commonplace. So commonplace that the pass is now named after the legend of the Gorgo Brothers, two giants who allegedly killed people by rolling rocks onto them then eating the flesh from their bones.
Not very surprising, the Gorgo Pass heads directly into Bump.
Half way along the pass there is a little track that leads up the mountain to an old abandoned aetheric observatory. Long ago this was part of a project funded by the old AP&E company to study distant stars by listening to the aetheric waves generated by those stars.
All records of their observations have been lost and the site is just a few broken burnt out walls now, but it is said that the project was abandoned after the entire scientific team went insane during a freak storm that cut off the pass for three months.
There are stories of one survivor, who driven by madness had eaten the bodies of the rest of the survey team. Apparently the rescue party reported that he just kept repeating the same phrase over and over again… ‘The Dark Ones are Coming!’.
Rennod Pass.
There was once a party of travelers who became tragically stranded there one winter, and, well, things didn’t end well for many of them.
Those who survived traveled down the other side and founded the town of Bump.
They had to eat themselves to survive! Not each other; themselves.
She’s onto something there… Rennod is the most common family name in Bump.
Hollerith Pass, so named for the alamingly regular and coordinated rock falls which sometimes punch holes in the passing freight cars in discernable patterns.
Temen Oblak Pass (Dark Cloud Pass)A low hanging black cloud hands in this pass. Is is just soot from New Babbage is it something much more? Some say the pass leads to Bump, others say that it leads to the center of the Earth.
No matter what you believe, no one ,in recorded history, has ever returned to New Babbage from this pass.
I can’t say that I know the name of the pass, but I may be able add to the legend somewhat. I have heard (and keep in mind I do not always trouble myself with the accuracy of facts) that in the time of the Empire, when the rails were initially spiked, there was a certain mathematician of Old Babbage who, with advancing years, became obsessed with the fear of death. One night he and his assistant (the daughter of a poet of all things) packed up all their belongings atop a hand car and left the city. Overcoming their fear of the Gorgo brothers they braved the pass, eventually came upon a natural series of caves where they renewed their pioneering work in biocomputational research. Many believe that their creation is still functioning to this day, and is on the verge of calculating the very meaning of life.
I have seen it referred to as Revenant Pass. At one time the City of Bump provided three structures, consisting of tall posts, thick like, with what looked like large wagon wheels atop them. They were on hubs, and turned in strong wind; unless, that is, one of the bodies that appeared there were strapped on or hung from the wheel. So these executed, or murdered, individuals were thought to drop into a pile of bones the spirit of which remains until they are interred. Hence the many stories of glimpsed figures shambling and staggering in the dusk or framed ghastly in the sparks of a passing train.
Crimson Gorge takes its name from the large amount of red clay that can be found at its bottom. When it has rained a lot, a river forms itself, called the Scar, which carries particles of copper included in the clay-rich soil.
Venturing into Crimson Gorge is never a pleasant business. One needs to be prepared for mudiness, humidity, falling rocks, leeches staying in the puddles of water and mosquitoes during the “warm” season. Oh and death too.
Actually, every year sees new mindless fools losing their life in the Gorge, because they thought they could pass and didn’t believe the Scar would grow that big and that fast after a couple hours of rainy weather.
But yeah, it is the shortest way to cross the mountains.
leans over to whisper in her ear… “copper makes rivers turn green. maybe its iron.”
Oh dammit… That’d be Absinthe Gorge then :op Or Copper Gorge… Hmm Coupe-Gorge…
*snickers at the thought of Mr. Tenk leaning to whisper in anyone’s ear*
I like Absinthe Gorge.
i said over, not down. she’s already taller than me.
Ever’body’s taller dan you!
Im no good with names either but for a legend….
There is an old tale about the Miners who mined materials from the mountain range for the building of New Babbage. They used state of the art machinery to excavate copper and tin, untill one group stumbled upon a seam of gold.
Excited this group feaverously dug down following the trickling seam in the hope it would expand but in their digging greed they broke into a chamber. Thinking they had hit the jack pot they absailed down into a large cave system. Suddenly the winches malfunctioned and the absailing men dropped down into the darkness never to be seen again.
All over the mining village people witnessed small shadows darting about. The magnificent mining machines started to break and malfunction bringing the operation to a stand still.
The managers were at a lost at what to do untill a miner stood forward claiming to know what was happening.
“Gremlins, you have Gremlins running amok”
He offered to solve the problem for a hefty price and the managment agreed. The next day the man asked to be shown the hole to the cavern. Once there he attached a strange clockwork musical box onto a rope and after winding it up it started to play music.
Suddenly little creepy dark shadows came dancing from the surrounding rocks and as the man slowly lowered the musical box into the cavern hole the Gremlins dropped in after it. Once they were all in the man ordered that a large bolder be placed over the hole and that it should never again be disturbed.
The mining operation continued untill the moutains resources were depleeted but there is one area somewhere that was left unmined. Visitors to the pass sometimes say they have heard fait music coming fromt he mountains like a childs musical box. Others have witnessed otherwise perfectly oiled machines malfunctioning for no reason. Because of this you may find the mountainside and pass littered wit rusting machines that mysteriously stopped working.
Perhaps some of the Gremlins never made it back to the cave that day, or maybe they found another way out….. or perhaps its a load of old cobblers…. you never know…
I suppose you could call it Gremlin Pass :-)
Machine killing monsters!
*hides behind the sofa*
The main pass the railroad chose for the northern line was initially surveyed by a French engineer, who described the approach as “Mal de Coeur” in his notes. Over time, this was changed by the predominantly English-speaking workers as Maldecker.
I personally love this one… it has that ring of authenticity.
Since this has generated so much interest, I kind of think of it now as: Curious Gorge.
Was it surveyed by the Engineer in the Yellow Hat?
Hell’s Crook, known for it’s jagged outcroppings, sheer drops and cracks seeping stinking, eye watering sulfur clouds.
Orpheus checks his maps….
That pass is clearly listed as “Eastwood Ravine” named after some youth who was killed many years ago. He was either hijacking a train, or trying to rescue the local school teacher from a runaway train (accounts vary depending on who you talk to), but he was unfortunate enough to find that the tracks had not yet been completed. The train crashed in a fiery blaze, but strangely the boys body was never recovered. Probably “disposed of” by the people from Bump….
Dead Man’s Pass ..
I guess its interesting that we all have given grizzly histories for this pass. Maybe it should be Happy Flopsy Bunny Pass, named for the abundance of cute adorable bunnies that frolic along its length?
^_^
Happy never makes the news.
smiles @ AV .. ” cotton tail pass “
Yay!
Yay!
No!
Boo! ^_^
*laughs*
Bowler Pass
So wonderious is the lanscape and surrounding mountains that gentlemen would pull the windows down on the train carrages to get a better view. But at a certain part of the track the surrounding geology causes the wind to wip up snatching unsuspecting gentlemens Bowler and Top hats. The bottom of the gorge is littered with perfectly good Bowler Hats which urchins frequently collect and sell at New babbage Market.
…and there I was going to make a Big Lebowski quote.
It’s actually a true story from Snowdon in Wales. There is a train that travels up to the sumit and mens bowlerhats would get blown off at a specific part of the track and so it became known as the Bowler pass or something along those lines.
It’s the same reason there is a Swearing Creek near where I live in North Carolina. The story was that where the road crossed the creekbed was very muddy and many wagons were stuck trying to get out of the creek and up the hill next to it.
WE NEED ONE OF THOSE!
i think its near the intersection of abney parkway and loner lane.
I think you’d dig this, Jed:
http://www.runleiarun.com/lebowski/
The Knave abideth.
*now returns you to your regularly-schedule programming*
My vote?
Cottonmouth Pass
Well known for it’s abundance of venomous snakes, esp. Cottonmouths.
According to myth there was a party of travelers who missed the train and were desperate enough to get out of Bump that they ventured forth on foot. The good people of Dairy, having heard that they had come from Bump, promptly ran them out of town so they headed for New Babbage via the then named Pleasent Pass.
Upon reaching it they discovered that the rail company had named it as a PR move to hide the fact that it was one massive snake den full of large mostly venomous snakes.
They survived despite many bites and made it to the city where they decided to celebrate with a drink at the nearest bar. All but one dropped dead several hours later as they were leaving to look for lodgings for the night.
The Great St.Bernard’s Pass
The great St Bernard’s pass is present in the western Alpslocated in Switzerland and Italy. It runs northeast south west through the Valais Alps and has an elevation of approximately 2469 m.
The road on the pass joins the Martigny on the upper Rhone river present in the Canton of Valais in Switzerland to the Aosta, presnt in the Aosta valley in Italy, hence joining the two countries.
Quite Spectacular really
http://www.redbubble.com/people/johnofbastonford/art/232110-great-st-bernard-pass-between-italy-and-switzerland
St.Bernard’s Pass : Woof Woofs:) with destintion !