Winedark Venturers’ Bank:   A modest blue granite building houses this small local bank (unconnected with the Venturers’ Guild, and in a lengthy lawsuit over the name).  Winedark is the institution of choice for many of the poorer people of the district.  Drained by the lawsuit, undercapitalized and with a number of risky loans outstanding, the bank is secretly on the verge of failure.  Well-respected "Old" Aleman is still the nominal head of the institution, but his grand-nephew "Young" Aleman and his three cousins operate the bank.  They are increasingly desperate for a quick fix, but fear a bank run if word gets out of its near-insolvency.

North Wall General Store:   Julian Maligor runs this busy corner store built against the city wall (and for which ample monies are paid for the privilege).  He is one of Keva Ob-Eye‘s lieutenants and runs the district’s drug smuggling business for the Thieves’ Guild; two buyers make arrangements with incoming vessels, three distributors broker the smuggled goods, and Julian has two button men who serve as muscle.  Julian himself is short and fat, and lecherous almost beyond measure - he will always find time to take a lady in the backroom to pay down a drug debt, and any absences he has from the front during business hours is almost certainly connected with backroom gruntings.  Opium is sold legally; illegal moondust, a strong hallucinogen, can also be had.

Sign of the Fuming Gate:    Incongruously enough, this is actually the local whale oil and coal seller, Dorinda the White.  The long ago hostel of a martial monastic order, this building was empty for years before becoming a flophouse and now taken over by Dorinda, who wanted to expand her business from formerly cramped quarters.  She considers the sign a terribly funny joke, and hasn’t yet realized the consequences of poking fun at a notoriously grim fighting order.

Cholir’s Bathhouse:   The faded relic of an earlier, more prosperous era, Cholir’s is the largest public bathhouse in the Mariners’ Quarter.  The exterior is carved sandstone, now weathered and crumbling, the interior of glazed (and chipped) azure and white blue tile.  There is a large warm water communal bath, smaller communal baths for men and women, a steam room, a salt water bath, and two private tubs (a third is damaged and out of commission) for groups of up to four.  There is a one in six chance that any given bath is out of order on any given day.

Lanta, Tea Merchant:  Mikoguchi Lanta blends and serves out bulk tea to the districts inns, taverns and general stores, aided by her eight energetic children (all, she boasts, by different fathers).  She will sell retail, but will gouge anyone save for Malabar, whom she credits with alchemical beautification potions.  The shop carries Golden Zorca blend tea, a smooth black blend notable in the city.

Tavern, no sign:   In the basement of a tenement block, Camibel and her orcish-blood husband Elerek (whose crippled leg no longer lets him work as a longshoreman) run this plain but clean tavern for the fishing folk and longshoremen.  The common room is small only four small tables and a dozen chairs and the fare doesn’t run beyond stews, rye bread and beer.  Their tavern is unlicensed and illegal, and they are under threat to be shut down.  The Thieves’ Guild have offered to smooth their way for consideration and are ramping up the pressure.

Sign of the Anchor and Arm:  Nithic is otherwise a fair tattooist, but has a blind spot:  that hes an artist.  Hell do a good job on one of his dozen basic nautical motifs, but given the chance (as he will implore) to get creative, the result will be an unrecognizable mishmash of line and color.  An orcish-blood fellow who does well in neighborhood arm wrestling competitions, fewer people seek refunds of Nithic than might otherwise be the case.

Sign of the Copper Hoop:  Doneka is a dour, skilled cooper, one of the few Mistress Race rock trolls in the Old City.  Much of her business involves repair work for barrels (her prime location hard up against the Sea Gate as a boost); however, with an eye towards an copper, she also sells watered wine and beer for the dockworkers, drovers and Sea Gate guards.

Waterworks:  This is the Old City’s pumping station for piped water.  An engineer and several workers oversee and repair the pumps.  Much of the complex is underground (with ample open access to the sewer tunnels), where magical water purification rings form a giant lattice moving into the mains and side quills.  Two City Watch guards are here around the clock to prevent theft of the enchanted rings, which are quite portable and worth a couple gold sovereigns apiece on the black market.

Sign of the Healer:  Pracek Trews is a physician of reasonable skill and has a surprisingly poor memory for faces and identities, as long as silver is slipped into his hand.

Blackwind Notary:  Jolene Blackwind is a disbarred barrister from a neighboring kingdom who fled just ahead of a jail sentence.  Nasty and bitter before her crimes were discovered, she does as little as possible in as slovenly and rude a fashion as she can manage.  She has a number of printed blank forms useful for maritime legal purposes, such as haulage contracts, articles of hire for merchantmen, paying out of shares and the like.

Mason, no sign: Basilio runs a small gang of masons and bricklayers.  Mostly engaged in upkeep and repair of the districts buildings and structures, he is trying to get more into construction.  His crew often hangs around potential building sites, offering to undercut other masons.

Sign of the Trefoil Herb:   Neysa is an elven-blood woman who is a fairly prosperous herbalist.  Two assistants compound preparations in bulk for the quarter’s healers.  She is painfully aware her husband Lodos happens to be a renowned pirate captain; they are now separated and on poor terms, and she is deeply embittered by it.

Sign of the Three Golden Orbs:   Lareya operates this clean, busy pawnbroker’s shop.  This is actually the main front for Jakaesa’s smuggling operation, as there is a secret tunnel under the city wall and to the warehouse directly behind this shop on the North Quay by Right Hook Pier.  Lareya herself is an accomplished thief.

Dock Square:  This square is somewhat out of the way, and peopled by the lower-class district residents, the fishing trades, and the down and out.  Outsiders the City Watch included - will attract scrutiny, and may be harassed by local youths and wannabe thugs.  There are a number of pushcarts selling various ready-to-eat foods, which is illegal but ignored by Watchmen as long as the thoroughfare isn’t blocked.

Quicksilver Messenger Service:   Cap’t Mefto runs this service, which just consists of his schooner Windfinder’s Way, a small racing schooner that does indeed have a Windfinder (Master Uttrik, a nautical wizard with weather-control magics) in its crew.  He undertakes to beat any ship anywhere within a days sail of the City, or the hirer’s money back.

House of Light:  This ostentatiously named lampwright shop is brightly lit with dozens of hurricane lamps and hull lights around the room.  The door is strongly reinforced with iron, and bars cover the thick-paned windows.  Kyriel, the young proprietor, has a dignified and noble air about her.  She moves with some grace and is quite well-mannered.  Kyriel tenses up when a non-human patronizes the shop, the result of a sexual assault some months ago, and something a keen observer might notice.

Order of Skilled Coopers and Barrel-Makers:   The door to this shop is always kept open to cool.  Even in winter, it is a little too hot for comfort in here.  Copper bands and many tools line the walls and shelves of the place.  There is an almost constant clanking from the back corner of the room, where the cooper is at work.  A slight haze hangs in the air from the steaming press.  Brugold is a Chulik burly even for his kind.  His torso is bare, his skin covered in soot and marked with scars.  The cuffs of his dusty leather pants and apron are tattered and worn out; nonetheless, he is a well-off and well-respected merchant who is the Guildmaster of the City’s coopers, though he does not take the post terribly seriously after all, his shop is the guild hall - and defers to Doneka as his superior craftsman.

The Raven Company, no sign:   The solemn, black-clad mercenary group headquarters here, at a cheap location that permits them easy access to cheap transport, and is refurbished into an impromptu barracks, complete a mess hall.  After suffering terrible casualties the previous campaigning season, this eighty-man company is down to forty and is recruiting; having lost two out of their four wizards, they especially want magical help.

Customs Warehouse:  This warehouse contains items seized by customs inspectors as contraband pending condemnation - ranging from undeclared mundane cargoes to weapons, drugs, liquor and magical items.  Dangerous or illegal items are cataloged, then destroyed in theory, anyway while other goods are auctioned off to known legitimate merchants. Break-ins happen occasionally: thieves trying to steal the rare items in storage or smugglers attempting to retrieve their goods.  A dedicated force of a dozen under the command of veteran lieutenant Sharia Ristemer, seconded from the Admiralty Marines, watches the warehouse. When it holds a large or valuable cargo, Ristemer may hire outside mercenaries.

User Submitted Ideas (0)