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1: The Alabaster District
2: The Marble District
3: Naos
4: The Irespan
5: Bridgeward
6: The Capital District
7: Grand Arch
8: Vista
9: The Bazaar of Sails
10: Dockway
11: Lowcleft
12: The Arvensoar
13: Keystone
14: Beacon's Point
15: Rag's End
16: The Marches
17: Silver Shore
18: Kyver's Islet
19: Ordellia

20. Underbridge/ The Shadow

This message was last edited by the GM at 21:27, Sun 16 July 2017.

Magnimar
City of monuments

   Built in the shadow of megaliths, Magnimar endlessly endeavors to surpass the overwhelming scale and grandeur of the ancient wonders that litter the Varisian landscape. A place of great opportunity, social stress, and cold beauty, the city exudes the airs of a southern metropolis, seeking to rise above its ignoble beginnings as a refuge for Korvosan outcasts to become a beacon of culture and freedom in an unforgiving land. Yet its towering monuments, elegant gardens, ostentatious architecture, and elaborate sculptures form but a cracked mask over a struggling government and a desperate people in need of heroes.
   Magnimar’s sprawling slate rooftops and marble avenues stretch from the foundations of the unignorable Irespan—a ruined stone bridge of impossible size—to beyond the western banks of the Yondabakari River. A sheer cliff, the Seacleft, cuts through the city’s heart, dividing Magnimar into its two major sections: the Summit, upon the cliff’s top, and the Shore, below. A third district, the Shadow, lies beneath the Irespan, a place where the sun rarely reaches and the city’s failures and corruption hold blatant reign.
   The second largest city in Varisia, Magnimar wages an open war of coins and lies with Korvosa to the east. Both city-states vie for control over vassal communities, natural resources, and trade with the cosmopolitan south. This rivalry stretches back to a time even before the city’s founding, as droves of Korvosan dissenters, unwilling to blindly kowtow to foreign despots after the fall of the Chelaxian Empire, departed for the Lost Coast. Ever since, Magnimar has welcomed those who would shape their own fates by the sweat of their brows and keenness of their wits, regardless of race or beliefs. To this end, the city has opened its gates and harbor to all comers, encouraging traders from many lands to discover the wonders of Varisia away from the excessive taxes and regulations of Korvosa, yet in greater safety than that offered by pirate havens like Riddleport.
   Today, more than 16,000 people make their homes in Magnimar, with the majority of that populace consisting of humans of Chelish decent. It also boasts the largest semi-settled population of Varisians in the world, with approximately 2,000 such residents— significantly fewer in the spring and summer travel months. Aside from the region’s native nomads, Magnimar hosts a second transient population: thousands of regular traders from far-flung foreign locales, particularly Absalom, Cheliax, and Osirion. Many of these merchants, emissaries, and adventurers have homes that they reside in while passing through but that otherwise remain empty.  As a result, whole city blocks—particularly along the Shore—appear deserted for months out of the year. Should every homeowner coincidentally be in the city at the same time, Magnimar’s population would increase by almost half again its current number.

Magnimar:Authority Figures
Haldmeer Grobaras, lord-mayor (male human aristocrat);
Verrine Caiteil, spokeswoman of the Council of Ushers (female elf aristocrat/bard);
Lord Justice Bayl Argentine, leader of the Justice Court (male human aristocrat /fighter);
Remeria Callinova, leader of the Varisian Council (female human expert);

Government and Politics
   Since the establishment of a formal city government in 4608 ar, Magnimar has been led by two political bodies: the Council of Ushers and the Office of the Lord-Mayor. When the city was established, this egalitarian arrangement was meant to assure that no one man would have too powerful a voice in the citystate’s governing. After more than a hundred years, though, this noble effort has become embroiled in officialism, paper shuffling, and the ambitions of its members.
   Supposedly the most powerful political institution in Magnimar, the Council of Ushers is defined by its charter as an assembly of the eldest, most experienced, and most influential of the community’s leaders, overseen by an executive moderator. As the city has grown, so too has this legislature, and what began as a group of the city’s 15 most active and outspoken family leaders has bloated into a delegation of 117 members, rife with bored nobles, scheming power-seekers, and greedy merchants. For all the assembly’s corruption, though, many honest business leaders and political activists passionately (and often, frustratedly) seek to serve the will of Magnimar’s citizenry.  From its impressive chambers known as Usher’s Hall, the council debates matters of city-wide import and makes decisions regarding the area of influence outside Magnimar’s walls—effectively governing the city-state as the fledgling nation it’s becoming.

Law & Crime
   As a city founded by those who refused to live under the reign of tyrants, Magnimar has relatively few laws. From its barracks within the Arvensoar, the towering fortress of Magnimar’s small military, the city watch patrols the length and breadth of the city—although Lord-Mayor Grobaras’s decrees see that the richest quarters of the Summit receive the most attention. When the law falls into dispute or cannot be meted out by patrolmen, quarrels are taken before the esteemed Justice Court. Thirteen justices—led by Lord Justice Bayl Argentine —form the highest court in the city, settling arguments and deciding the guilt or innocence of those who come before them. The worst of the confirmed guilty are sentenced to time in the Hells, several levels of sweltering dungeons beneath the Pediment Building.  For all the efforts of the city’s law enforcers, numerous criminal elements operate throughout Magnimar. The oldest of these groups, the Night Scales, see themselves as the rightful masters of the city’s criminal underworld.
   The Varisian criminals known as the Sczarni also operate in great numbers in Magnimar. While the con-artists and thieves typically work together, the number of Varisians in the city has birthed numerous gangs, each taking names like the Creepers, the Tower Girls, or the Washside Wringers, adopting criminal specialties and operating in locally known turfs.

Arts & Entertainment
In an attempt to elevate the city-state beyond merely an aggrandized trading post, the local government has done much to encourage education and the arts. The majority of its contribution to citywide enlightenment goes to the Founder’s Archive and Museum of Ages. Occupying a small campus just north of Usher’s Hall, several grandiose structures house the histories, findings, and private collections of some of the city’s most esteemed citizens. Of particular note are three of the museum’s permanent displays: the ancient Eye of Rakzhan, the Gemstone Regalia of King Chadris Porphyria III (much to Korvosa’s disdain), and the Lions of Siv.
Beyond these halls of learning, Magnimar also hosts several esteemed—and not so esteemed—houses of the arts. While the Summit’s Triodea presents the grandest performances in western Varisia, the most popular public venue is easily the Serpent’s Run. The city’s largest structure, this gigantic hippodrome hosts decathlons, horse and dog races, displays of magic, circus performances, and—on rare occasions—small-scale naval engagements and mock-gladiatorial battles. Capable of seating a crowd of more than 5,000 cheering onlookers, its uppermost rim bears the shape of a gigantic serpent circling the entire arena—an homage to the heroics of the city’s most beloved founder.

Business
First and foremost a trade city, Magnimar owes its prosperity to the countless foreign merchants who readily make use of the city’s reputedly safe and free port. Enforcing no taxes on harborage or imports, the city welcomes business from all lands and makes the bounty of Varisia available for trade. As a result, several of the most prestigious trading coasters, mercantile families, and shipping concerns do regular business in the city, with some having even established offices and private local shipyards. The most notable of these include a remnant embassy of Andoran’s deposed Rousseau family, offices of the Hook and Hammer traders, and a lavish regional headquarters of the infamous Aspis Corporation.

Religion
Magnimar welcomes religions from all corners of the world, so long as they don’t pursue any ongoing crusades or violate city law. The churches of Abadar, Iomedae, and Pharasma have the strongest citywide followings, along with Desna well-represented among the Varisian population. Asmodeous and Calistria are also openly followed by many of the city’s scheming merchants, thieves, and betrayers, while a small sect of Gozreh’s devotees maintain and worship in the city’s various parks. Tradition and local legends surrounding the Arvensoar have also attracted a number of celestial mystery cults, which practice strange rituals outside the public eye. Assemblies devoted to the empyreal lords Soralyon, Ashava the True Spark, and the Horseman of War are all known to gather in the city.

Monuments
Two architectural marvels dominate the Magnimarian landscape:
the ancient Irespan and the modern Arvensoar.
The Irespan
Visible for miles out to sea, the ancient basalt bridge known as the Irespan dominates Magnimar’s coastline. Jutting from a prominent foundation upon the Seacleft, the Giant’s Bridge, as it is sometimes called, soars more than 300 feet above the city below, giving the eclipsed area its name: the Shadow.  An obvious remnant of ancient Thassilon.  The Irespan has been a source of wonderment, mystery, and ill-fortune. Although the founders of Magnimar chose their community’s location primarily for its natural harbor and proximity to the Yondabakari River, the ancient rubble of the Irespan that once littered the surrounding beaches proved an opportune source of building materials for the fledgling community. Today, many of Magnimar’s oldest and most elegant structures boast foundations, supports, and statuary constructed of Irespan basalt.
The Arvensoar
The tallest structure in Magnimar and a wonder in a city of architectural feats, the Arvensoar stands approximately 400 feet tall, climbing the entire length of the Seacleft and extending nearly a hundred feet above. In the simplest senses, the great tower is the garrison of the city’s watch and small military, as well as being a quick city-controlled connection between the Shore and the Summit. Beyond these mundane uses, the tower is a symbol of the city’s unity, ambition, and history.
Well positioned to defend the city, the Arvensoar boasts eight trebuchets capable of firing over the city and even past Outcast’s Cove—though Fort Indros and the Wyrmwatch are far better positioned to defend the city harbor—and provisions to supply the city through at least a week-long siege.
Lesser Monuments
Along with the stone sentinels that dominate the Magnimarian skyline, several lesser monuments adorn the city. Some are mere decoration, but others are much more. These are but a sampling of Magnimar’s best-known and most magnificent landmarks.
The Battle of Charda: A statue depicting the first and most famous battle between Magnimar’s navy and Riddleport’s pirates.
The Celwynvian Charge: A gift from the elves, this two-story tree-shaped sculpture is crafted from white wood and crystal.  Real leaves bud and fall at the appropriate times of year.
Champion’s Walk: A statuary-lined avenue leading to Serpent’s Run and depicting the field’s greatest champions.
The Fifth Wind: A massive stone weather vane visible along the docks.
The Floodfire: A beacon warning ships away from Kyver’s Islet.
Founder’s Honor: A monument to the city’s heroic founder.
The Guardians: An arch depicting local twin heroes.
Mistress of Angels: A sculpture of city leader Ordellia Whilwren, known for seeing celestial messengers upon the Arvensoar.
Our Lady of Blessed Waters: A bronze, strangely verdigrisfree statue of the spirit said to linger within the Seerspring.
The Wyrmwatch: A lighted guard against dangers from the sea.

The City
While the Seacleft and Irespan break the city into three obvious sections, the cityfolk and the government recognize 18 local communities: seven upon the Summit, ten along the Shore, and one in the Shadow. Each of these communities has
its own distinct atmosphere, venues, and local personalities.  Presented here is an overview of those districts and their most prominent features.
The Summit
The wealthiest of Magnimar’s communities are found upon the Summit, along with the seat of the Magnamarian government, its most prestigious centers of learning and the arts, affluent businesses, and numerous meticulously kept parks and statuelined avenues.
   The Alabaster District: Formally called the Stylobate, the colloquially named Alabaster District is home to Magnimar’s richest and most affluent citizens. Segregated from the lower districts by steeply canted, marble-inlaid walls, only a few prominent avenues allow ascendance to the statuary-lined streets above by way of long, well-guarded stairs. At the northernmost point, commanding a strategic position over Maganimar’s coast, stands Fort Indros. Bristling with ballistae and trebuchets, the lofty fortress deters all but the most brazen pirate attacks.
   The Marble District: The residents of the Marble District hold only slightly less prestige than those in the Alabaster District. Well-appointed townhouses, small villas, and even the walled estates of several old Magnimarian
families—most notably the Kaddren, Scarnettis, and Vanderales—find majestic views atop the Fogwall Cliffs.
   Bridgeward: Although much of Magnimar’s industry and trade takes place along the Shore, the dusty blocks that surround the Irespan ring with the noisy work of sculptors, jewelers, woodcarvers, and all manner of other artisans who work in rare mediums—even magic. One of Magnimar’s best-known local industries is the Golemworks, a series of unremarkable, crow-haunted warehouses near the north edge of the Irespan. Nearly 30 years ago, local wizard Toth Bhreacher discovered that the stone of the Irespan proved particularly useful in spellwork. Since then, his studio has grown into a sizable and prestigious workhouse, dredging fallen segments of the Giant’s Bridge from the Varisian Gulf to craft a range of constructs and simpler creations for wealthy buyers.  Nearby stands a 10-story, cylindrical monument called the Cenotaph. Created as a memorial to Magnimar’s most beloved founder, Alcaydian Indros, the monument was meant to be an empty tomb honoring the local hero. As years passed and Indros’s family members and friends passed on, an inordinate number requested to have their bones entombed near or within the monument. Begun as an honor to the great man, then a vogue, the practice has become a tradition and post-mortem status symbol for all who can afford burial beneath the stones of the surrounding Mourner’s Plaza or in the later-constructed catacombs beneath the memorial.
   The Capital District: Surrounding the bustling square known as Founder’s Honor and the towering sculpture called “Indros cul Vydrarch” spread the high marble columns and ornate facades of the heart of Magnimar’s government and political arena. Here, the elaborately sculpted Usher’s Hall serves as the meeting place for the city’s Council of Ushers. Anyone who wishes to meet with a councilmember must first meet with Jacildria Quildarmo, the hall’s Seneshal of
Dates, a power-mongering, pinch-faced secretary who revels in her authority.  Near the Usher’s Hall stands the impassive gray stone fastness of the Pediment Building. While the impressive upper halls, replete with stern-faced gargoyles and grim judges, serve as the home of the Justice Court and the Halls of Virtue (each judge’s personalized audience hall), beneath lie the sweltering halls of Magnimar’s only prison, the Hells. Only the city’s justices and most infamous
criminals know how deep the prison’s claustrophobic floors run, but rumors tell of one of the deepest halls where guards no longer patrol, sealed in response to an unpublicized uprising and left to the worst of the city’s convicts.
   Naos: The home to many merchants and comfortable families, the city stretch along the Avenue of Hours is disparagingly called the “New-Money District” by local nobles. Despite the disdainful comments of the elite, Naos is one of the most welcoming and well-kept parts of Magnimar.  Upon Starsilver Plaza—where abalone shell inlays create a scene of thousands of stars—stands the Triodea, the most renowned playhouse and concert hall in Magnimar. This one building houses three performance halls: the Grand Stage for operas and plays, an acoustically perfect concert hall called the Stonewall, and the Aerie—a raised, rooftop stage for soloists.
Naos is also the home of two of the city’s most eccentric citizens, esteemed hunters, explorers, and Pathfinders Sir Canayven Heidmarch and his wife Sheila Heidmarch. The world-traveling adventurers have recently retired to Magnimar, but have not been content to settle into the quiet life, opening their sizable manor to their society. The first Pathfinder chapter house in Varisia (just north of the Triodea) welcomes all members eager to explore the still relatively unknown land.  Visiting members of the Pathfinder Society are welcomed to the manor by comfortable lodgings, a well-stocked library of far-flung lore, and its owners’ sagely advice.  Aside from their home, the Heidmarchs also curate the Lord-Mayor’s Menagerie, a public park where they display many of their taxidermy trophies and live captures, most notably a blinded ruby-eyed basilisk (its eyes also on display), the viable egg of a millennia wyrm, and “Prince Mandali”—a seemingly tame 14-foot-tall ape.
   Vista: High-class shops, restaurants, businesses, and the offices of globe-spanning mercantile concerns spread between the Avenue of Honors and the Seacleft. The Aspis Corporation—a conscienceless shipping, trading, and money-lending venture of Chelish descent—keeps its bronze-faced Varisian headquarters here.
Directly upon the Seacleft stand several estates of the city’s more daring nobles, but even the most lavish of these are outshined by Defiant’s Garden, diplomatic resort and home of Lord-Mayor Haldmeer Grobaras. Although the lord-mayor has traditionally kept a simple residence among the people, Grobaras moved into the lavish city-owned estate under the pretense of wanting to be more intimate with his work—and certainly not to take advantage of the small castle’s eight fully staffed floors of sumptuous salons and comfortable lounges, usually reserved for visiting diplomats.
   Grand Arch: The largest of the Summit’s districts, Grand Arch stretches from the Twins’ Gate to the heart of the upper cliff. Many of Magnimar’s middle class and simple shop owners live comfortably here, but a surprising number of the area’s homes stand unoccupied much of the time—the homes of foreign merchants and travelers whose business takes them elsewhere but who desire comfortable living upon their return. Just within Twins’ Gate stands one of the city’s larger monuments, the Guardians: 200-foot-tall colossi depicting the young heroes Cailyn and Romre Vanderale facing each other with touching weapons held high, forming a giant arch.

The Shore
The majority of Magnimar’s working population lives along the Shore. Comprising more than just the coast and dockside portions of the city, the Shore extends from the base of the Seacleft out to Kyver’s Islet and Ordellia, south of the Yondabakari River.
   The Bazaar of Sails: A destination for traders the world over, the Bazaar of Sails is the largest free market in Varisia. Anyone with merchandise to sell is welcome to set up a tent, booth, or wagon among the hundreds of other ever-changing shops that fill the dockside plaza. Crops from local farmers, Varisian artifacts, Osirian spices, Chelish fineries, Andoran quartos, and more exotic goods from a hundred foreign ports fill the market, with the offerings of any day varying with the season, trade winds, and tides.  As merchants eagerly trade, competitions, rivalries, and all manner of criminal temptations arise. Although the market welcomes all comers, the ever-changing crowd, shouts of exotic traders, and generally raucous bustle make the place a nightmare for the local watch to patrol and mete out justice. Fortunately, the Princess of the Market, Sabriyya Kalmeralm, takes care of policing her own. The daughter of the first Prince of the Market, Nazir Kalmeralm, who disappeared nearly 28 years ago, Sabriyya is well-loved by most of the bazaar’s regular traders and her “court”—a sizable gang of toughs and money collectors.  While many in the city still see her as little more than an exceedingly public gang lord, those who frequent the chaotic maze of stalls and shops know the service she provides.
   Dockway: The shouts and bustle of countless traders, fishermen, and foreign travelers stir the choppy waters of Outcast’s Cove through all hours of the day and night. Along the seaside district of Dockway, salt-blasted storefronts and cramped businesses cater to the typically rough seafolk, while exotic inns and taverns serve as familiar welcomes to visitors from afar. The best known of these seaside sanctuaries is the Old Fang, a taproom and cheap inn built right on the docks and covered in barnacles and peeling white paint.
   Lowcleft: At the bottom of the Seacleft lies one of Magnimar’s most vibrant districts. Numerous small playhouses, pubs, brothels, hookah bars, dance halls, and a wide variety of other entertainments make Lowcleft—or “the Rubble,” as locals typically call it—a home to the city’s artistic and avant-garde community.  Among the best known of the district’s nightspots is the Gilded Cage, a garish nightclub built into the face of the Seacleft and run by Jayleen “Morning Dove” Mordove, a former prima donna of the Triodea who retains her connections to the city’s artistic elite.
   Keystone: Seerspring Garden, a park boasting a spring of crisp, clear water, marks the center of the Shore’s central district.  While impressive and intimidating buildings line the four avenues radiating out from the area’s  eart, behind them lie the townhouses and close streets of Magnimar’s common people. The fortress-like temple of Iomedae stands here, sounding the daily call to glory and preaching of honor, sacrifice, and spiritual rewards to the layman.
   To the south of Seerspring Garden stands Magnimar’s most esteemed school of wizardry, the Stone of the Seers. The spring that still bubbles at the heart of Keystone is said to have once been home to an oracular water spirit who departed decades ago but promised to one day return. In the tradition of that strange sibyl, Master Leis Nivlandis began a school of the arcane with a focus on abjuration and divination magics.
   It also hosts Cynosure Tower, a temple to Desna run by Bevaluu Zimantiu (female Varisian)cleric of Desna.
   The Marches: The entrance to Magnimar for many traders and travelers, the Marches’s Castlegate is where those locals who would bring their wares to the city must first pass. Many simple and largely contented folk live in this sizable district, but despite its size and population, the Marches receive little extra in the way of city funding to maintain the area and protect its people. While this has caused a rise in Sczarni theft and cons, the churches of Abadar, Erastil, and Iomedae all maintain presences to aid the city and perhaps win a few converts.
   Beacon’s Point: Comprising the western rim of Outcast’s Cove and ending at the statue-studded point called the Wyrmwatch—a lighthouse said to overlook the spot Alcaydian Indros battled the Vydrarch—Beacon Point is a raucous home to traders; sailors; and hardworking, hard-living families of all sorts. Numerous warehouses, shipping concerns, and other businesses fill the area, as do numerous simple but boisterous festhalls and taverns.
   Rag’s End: Only the poorest and most deprived of the city’s working class make their homes in the cramped, maze-like knot of alleys called Rag’s End. Temporary laborers, crippled dockhands, drunks, and the sorely out-of-luck scrape by on coin earned from begging, performing odd and often demeaning jobs, and the charity of the city’s sympathetic religions.
Silver Shore: The wealthiest district below the summit, Silver Shore is home to several well-to-do business owners, council members, and nobles who seek to live close to their work, the people, or the beauty of the river. At the northernmost part of the district stands a spherical building of metal and glass shaped something like a diving helmet, a curious diversion called the Aquaretum. The proprietor, Nireed Wadincoast, opens this home and personal collection of large aquariums, captured fish, embalmed sea creatures, and sunken discoveries to any with a silver piece and the time to tour. Although an expert on life beneath the water, his tales of whole cities lying at the bottom of the Varisian Gulf are largely discounted as “typical gnome enthusiasm.”
   Kyver’s Islet: This small island at the mouth of the Yondabakari river is given over almost completely to lumbermills, shipwrights, and noisy workshops best situated away from homes and quieter businesses. From the northernmost point of the islet rises the Floodfire, a small lighthouse that warns ships away from the shallow waters and half-submerged sandbars of the river.
Ordellia: Long a hotbed of dissension and governmental criticism, Ordellia perhaps best embodies the untenable spirit of freedom and leaderless rule Magnimar was founded upon.  Many in the district consider themselves a town apart from Magnimar, taking pride in organizing their own small community militia and council apart from the city’s. The unofficial “capitol” of Ordellia is the Rose and Rake theater, an open-air, circular playhouse known for its scathing social satires and ribald political commentaries.

The Shadow
The area directly beneath and to the west of the Irespan holds but one city district, formally known as the Underbridge. Due to the eclipsing bridge above, light only reaches the streets below for one hour in the morning and two in the evening.
Underbridge: Seedy taverns, poorly run brothels, and ratinfested gambling dens compete with salt-blasted tenement buildings and cheap flophouses in Magnimar’s most dangerous district.  While the Magnimarian government champions cleaning up the Shadow as one of its most important long-term goals, many council members realize that the vices of the slum attract a certain amount of business to the city and that truly clearing away the “bridge trash” could significantly impact the local economy.  Although the submerged rubble and jagged, ruined pylons of the Irespan make sailing beneath the Giant’s Bridge a treacherous prospect, a few docks line the trash-strewn Underbridge shore, serving as the entry point for all manner of contraband. At the end of one such dock slumps the Friendly Merchant, a dilapidated tavern frequented by thugs, con-men, deviants, and worse. The friendly merchant himself, Siov Cassimeel, eagerly rents out his private dock for exorbitant prices, but offers discounts to the Night Scales and generally keeps his ears open for the thieves’ guild.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:05, Sun 02 July 2017.

Shadow Clock Tower


Seven Brothers Sawmill



Foxgloves Townhouse

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:05, Sun 16 July 2017.

Turtleback Ferry


 Turtleback Ferry is a small township of almost 450 inhabitants, mostly humans but there are some gnomes and halflings. It's perched on the rain-drenched north shore of Claybottom Lake and climbs the slopes of the low mountain to the north-east. Three distinctive ferries crafted from the shells of giant turtles slain by Autek Lavendy, one of the town’s founders, make Turtleback Ferry the central trading town for the region.

Nearly 80 miles from the next town of equitable size (Ilsurian), Turtleback Ferry has nominally been under Magnimarian rule for 45 years, an arrangement the settlement agreed to in return for protection from the region’s ogres and ogrekin. Yet Turtleback Ferry remains independent in many ways, for its remote location ensures that official visits from Magnimar are few and far between. Since the fight for Fort Rannick, Magnimar has appointed a baroness to handle the settlement, but she let the former mayor keep his position and he handles the local management as she travels a lot. Turtleback Ferry’s mayor is an aged cleric of Pelor named Father Maelin Shreed, a selfless soul who tends to the village church as both a safe haven for travelers and a hospital wherein he tends the village’s sick. Turtleback Ferry boasts several commercial buildings as a trading post, an inn, a tavern, and a smith.

Most of the village’s other buildings are the homes of farmers, hunters, fishers, and trappers. Visitors to Turtleback Ferry find the locals friendly enough, although many of them seem nervous and skittish, quick to lock their doors at night and often overreacting to the sound of dogs barking or other unexpected noises.

The wilds nearby (particularly Kreegwood) have grown more dangerous. Wild animals like bears, firepelt cougars, and boars are becoming increasingly common along the edges of these woodlands, and several of Turtleback’s hunters and trappers believe these predators are being forced from the depths of the woodlands by the increased activity of local monsters like ogres, trolls, and worse.

Locations
1. Graveyard
  Just north of town is the graveyard located. It holds the graves of the town's founders but no others of note.

2. Stable
  Old man Jobe owns the stable where he buys, sells and rents horses, mules and donkeys. If you have the time he can tell you stories of his youth when he was a trapper traveling Kreegwood. His stories always end making the point that having a good mule saved his life.

3. The Golden Giant
  This is the newly opened tavern owned by the new baroness Sandeli. Her personal cook, makes the Noble's food available to all that can afford it. The dishes are pricey but still good value as they are quite large and made using the best quality ingredients available and exotic spices. It's only open when the baroness and her cook is in town.

4. The Globe
  At the edge of town a strange wooden building rises. It is a theater built by the new baroness. The Globe is a two-story, open-air amphitheater approximately 70 feet across and can house up to 400 spectators. The Globe is an octagon of eight sides. At the base of the stage, there is an area called the pit or yard, where, for a copper piece, people can stand on the rush-strewn earthen floor to watch the performance. Around the yard are two levels of steeply raked seating, which are more expensive than standing room.
  A rectangle stage platform, also known as an 'apron stage', thrust out into the middle of the open-air yard. The stage measures approximately 30 feet in width, 20 feet in depth and is raised about 5 feet off the ground. On this stage, there is a trap door for use by performers to enter from the "cellarage" area beneath the stage. Large columns on either side of the stage supports a roof over the rear portion of the stage. The ceiling under this roof is called the "heavens," and is painted with clouds and the sky. A trap door in the heavens enables performers to descend using some form of rope and harness. The back wall of the stage have three doors on the main level, with a curtained inner stage in the center and a balcony above it. The doors enter into the tiring house where the actors dress and await their entrances. The balcony houses the musicians and can also be used for scenes requiring an upper space, such as the wall in the Of goblins and ghouls, act I, scene II.

5. Sandeli Manor
  A surprisingly lavish house for such a small frontiers town, this is the manor where the Baroness Sandeli lives. It overlooks the town from the slopes but is a little secluded from the rest of the town. It includes a garden, although not well kept, in season there are lots of foxgloves growing there. There's also an outhouse and a small cabin for the gardener.

6. Kramm's Fur and clothes
  The family Kramm have been trading furs for as long as Turtleback has existed. They buy pelts from trappers and either make fur coats or sell them as they are shipping them off to other towns. They also make other clothes, usually very robust. The house is one of the oldest after the church and passed from father to son for many generations. The men are easy to spot with their orange hair and freckles but the latest child is a little girl, Tabitha, who also shares the same look.

7. Barlom's Bakery
  The baker, Aram Barlom, have for long specialized in dark sourdough bread and biscuits well suited for long travels, but he is getting old. When his son died, his daughter-in-law more or less took over the business and his two grandsons are experimenting with pastries, to his great dismay.

8. Turtle's Candle's and Soap
  Elora is Turtleback Ferry's candle-maker who also makes soap. She uses both wax or herb oils and tallow. There are scented versions of both candles and soap. The tallow and fish oil is used to make heavy duty soaps best suited for laundry and textile usage but the herb oils used together with perfumes from Sanos forest makes wonderfully scented washing soaps. Those are known as far away as Magnimar.

9. Schoolhouse
  The school is a small riverfront house where Tillia Henkenson can be found instructing her class of young boys and girls. She is very protective of her flock. The original ferries made from turtle shells that gave the settlement its name are placed outside and their story taught to the children.

10. Market
  The square is often filled with stands where fishermen and trappers sell their catch, but you can also find groceries from nearby farms, freshly baked pies, perfumes and other more exotic items brought in from the gnomes in Sanos Forest.

11. Turtleback Ferry Church
  Father Maelin Shreed, an aged cleric of Pelor and a selfless soul, tends to the village church that is also used as both a safe haven for travelers and a hospital wherein he tends the village’s sick. It is a sturdy stone building among the oldest in town overlooking the square.

12. Turtle's Luck
  There is a brothel in Turtleback Ferry, serving the needs of the men of the frontiers, but this is the most renown since The Paradise's Gate burned and sank. It's a combined gambling hall and brothel where many trappers have lost much money. Maelin Shreed have long tried to get it closed, but without any wider support his pleas have been ignored.

13. Turtleback Ferry
  The very ferry that gave the small town its name docks here.

14. Turtleback General Store
  Turtleback Ferry also boasts a trading post that is well equipped to handle most needs that arise from farming, fishing and hunting, but there are other things available as well, the candy ranking highest among the children, if they get their hands on some coins. This is a two story stone house with a sturdy door to stop break-ins.

15. Bottoms Up
  This tavern is frequented by visiting hunters, trappers and scoundrels looking for drinks. Bar fights are not uncommon but are usually broken up by Vorn, the well grown owner. You can get food, but the usual stew is usually only ordered once because of its taste.

16. Fisherman's wharf
  Fishing have long been important to Turtleback Ferry. The catch is sold either here or on the market in the square.

17. Irontooth’s Metal Goods
  The smith Irontooth is a very good smith when he isn't hung over, but even then he gets by if he only can endure the noise. He visits Bottoms Up most nights.

18. The Turtle’s Parlor
  This inn has a calm atmosphere where weary travelers can refresh themselves with food, drink and entertainment. Usually music is played by visiting bards. There is a big common room and there are several smaller rooms on the second floor for the guests, a few with a beautiful view of Claybottom Lake. The nearby smithy usually quites down late afternoon as Irontooth visits Bottoms Up most nights. The owner, Yosnan Klava thinks of himself as better than most and has a superior attitude but most visitors don't even notice it.

19. Bathhouse
  The bathhouse have several tubs where you can clean up or just relax. Hot water is added as needed and most of the products from Turtle's Candles and Soap are available. The bathhouse also have a barber who often get to work on trappers or miners who have spent several weeks away from civilization. There are other services available too, like massage and more.

20. Harbor Warehouses
  When merchants bring exotic wares from Sanos forest they bring it along the Old Sanos Trail and the Wicker Walk to Turtleback Ferry. In these warehouses it is then stored until it can be loaded onto ships or a caravan sets out along the Pendaka road.

21. Butcher
  The butcher is a small but surprisingly strong halfling woman who, with the help of her two cousins cuts enough meat for the towns need. They keep livestock in a pen in the back.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:50, Sun 17 Dec 2017.

Hook Mountain Area


Graul Farm



Fort Rannick




B1. Wall - The fort’s 15-foot-high wall is battered and chipped, offering plenty of hand- and footholds. A DC 15 Climb check is sufficient to scamper over the wall, but bits of rubble break free in the process, imparting a –5 penalty on Move Silently checks made while climbing. The nameless creek that runs along the perimeter of the walls like a moat is 10 feet deep but relatively placid, requiring a DC 10 Swim check to cross.
B2. East Gate A twenty-foot-tall gatehouse- gates are blocked from the inside 1 ogre
B3. Stable
B4. Old Guard Tower - This old tower is falling apart. Most of the mortar has cracked or sloughed away, leaving stone to grind on stone. The structure itself is nearly thirty feet high.  Abandoned by the Black Arrows due to its unsafe condition,this tower is close to collapsing. a couple of ogres + Karly Lop (subleader type 2b)
B5. Tunnel to the eagles - has been blocked off with rubble
B6. Cook House - This open-air structure contains several large racks for storing smoked meat. ogre cook
B7. Drainage Ditch - A vile pool of sewage sits at the base of a nook in the wall. The pool drains through a two-foot-wide sluiceway in the wall to the creek beyond, a Small creature can clamber through it easily, but a Medium creature must make a DC 20 Escape Artist check to do the same.
B8. South Gate - This twenty-foot-tall gatehouse is protected by an iron portcullis.  The mechanism to lift the portcullis is located atop the defense platform directly west of the gate—it takes five rounds to raise the portcullis, but a DC 28 Strength check allows someone to lift it from the ground.  Looks intact and operational, guarded by 3 ogres and 1 subleader type 2a
B9. Pond - A crystal-clear mountain lake has a waterfall plummets from the cliffs to the west into the pool, which keeps much of the water clean.  This lake is the primary source of drinking water for the fort.  The pool itself is 30 feet deep at its center. A cursory examination of the waterfall from afar (and a DC 30 Search check) allows a character to see a cave behind the cascade ten feet above the water.  It’s only a DC 10 Climb check to get up to the cave.
B10. New Barracks - This wooden building seems to have been abandoned for some time;
it’s in fairly poor repair and seems almost to lean against the cliff wall behind it for support. A short flight of wood steps lead up to the single door. The building itself sits on raised timbers over the uneven, sloping ground below—excess lumber is stored haphazardly in the space below.
  These barracks were still called “new” by the older members of the order, though they were built 20 years ago. Constructed at a time when no sensible architect resided among the Black Arrows, the building is a deathtrap should it ever catch on fire.
  The secret door in the base of the cliff wall behind this building can be found with a DC 25 Search check. a dozen or so ogres
B11. Entrance to Fort Rannick - A single set of double doors allows entrance to the central keep of Fort Rannick. The doors are made of oak.
B12. Waterfall Cave - A walkway of soggy planks leads from this opening southeast to a second opening curtained by cascades of falling water.  Apart from the wooden walkway, the floor in this cave is slippery, requiring a DC 12 Balance check to navigate.
B13. Secret Armory - Several crates are stacked in a nook to the northwest.  This cave was used to store additional weapons in the event of a siege.  A passageway to the east leads to a secret door that opens out behind the new barracks. Just before this door, a side-passage winds down under the central keep, connecting to area B37.
Treasure: Apart from a fair supply of mundane weapons (including two dozen longswords, shortswords, daggers, and longbows), one of the crates contains an oilcloth wrapped around six +2 shocking burst arrows.
B14. Ravine - A deep ravine stretches across this cavern, splitting the room in half.  Geodes and veins of glittering minerals shimmer along the walls of the chasm, which drops away into the dark. A ten-foot-wide wooden bridge spans the gulf.  The bridge is rarely used.  The gems glittering along the walls of the chasm, while pretty and shiny, are relatively worthless rock crystal. They do make the walls of the 50-foot-deep chasm very slick and difficult to climb, though—it’s a DC 25 Climb check to scale these walls.
B15. Crypt - This is where the Black Arrows once interred the remains of their brothers and sisters. The crypt filled far more quickly than the Black Arrows anticipated, and rather than spend more time expanding the crypt, they began sending off their fallen kin in elaborate pyres and then scattering the ashes. No Black Arrow has been buried in this crypt for nearly 30 years— The walls of this fairly dry cavern contain twenty seven-foot-wide, two-foot-high niches, in each of which rests the ancient body of a long-dead humanoid. The skeletons wear ceremonial armor and weapons of various types.
B16. Main Hall
B17. Towers - Each of these featureless round rooms contains a ladder that can
be used to access a trap door in the ceiling above (area B28). The ogres are too ungainly to navigate these ladders.
B18. Workroom - The lathes, sawhorses, and other tools in this workroom.
B19. Armory - This large room is filled chiefly with several heavy wooden racks, all bristling with pikes, longswords, and quivers of barbed arrows.
B20. Guest Quarters - These rooms are where the Black Arrows quartered guests, trainees, and other visitors.
B21. Library - A long table with benches to either side sits in this room opposite a bookshelf filled with dozens of books.  The rangers used this room as a place to keep important documents about their order, atlases, bestiaries, and other books that held their interest.
B22. Storeroom - Crates, barrels, and a stack of firewood.  A flight of stairs leads
down to the west.   The stairs double back on themselves after a landing before reaching area B36 below.
B23. Infirmary
B24. Barracks
B25. Mess Hall
B26. Kitchen
B27. Pantry
B28. Ramparts - These stone platforms are shielded by crenellations spaced at even intervals, offering those behind them cover against archer fire and a perfect killing angle on foes charging the keep below.
B29. Chapel - The walls within this enormous chamber are mounted with dozens of trophy antlers, some taken from stags that must have stood as tall as dire bears. This chapel, dedicated to Erastil, was a place of worship for the Black Arrows—the antlers on the wall being trophies offered up to the god of the hunt.
B30. Commander Talbots Quarters
B31. Tribunal
B32. Map Room
B33. Storeroom - This room was used to store miscellaneous supplies and tools.
B34. Tower Stairs - This flight of stairs ascends to the watchtower (area B35) above.
B35. Watchtower - The forts bell
B36. Jailer’s Den - Cells have average locks(DC 25)
B37. Lizard Warrens - These winding tunnels are the nesting ground for a large pack of shocker lizards that have infested the place for decades.  They keep to themselves in the tunnels, mostly, but during their mating seasons when they grow more aggressive, the rangers use bitterbark smoke to sicken and repulse them, keeping them from overrunning the castle.
  Shocker lizards are dog sized (small) that can emit an electric shock within 5'.  It hurts but usually isn't fatal.  But in groups they can 20' radius shock which can be extremely lethal.  The more lizards, the more lethal it is.

Black Arrows






Types of Ogre:
1 - standard ogres - http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG...tiary/ogre.html#ogre
2- subleader Ogre, with levels - very tough
  a- Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, really deadly with an ogre hook (feats) and can be identified by the mw bow they carry and use
  b- harder to id, look for older ogres with more scars or other unusual features; the can rage and make more than 1 aoo per round
3- Leaders
Jaagrath Kreeg(male) - a combo of 2a + 2b, has killed several BAs over the years
Dorella Kreeg(Jaagrath wife) - supposed to be a powerful wielder of magic, but the BAs have never fought her so they can't say what powers she has.

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Kreeg Ogre Clanhold

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:06, Fri 21 July 2017.