KAER MAGA, CAPITAL OF HARUKA
“New to the city? All respect and honors, guv, but you’re not. No one is. These walls have seen wonders that would turn you or me to dust, and they’ll see more after you’re gone. No sir, Kaer Maga may be new to you, but you’re nothing new to Kaer Maga. Ten thousand years she’s slept here, and still we’ve yet to wake her. Some would say as we’re her dreams, on account of our strangeness, but I don’t buy that. I say we’re her children, though a fat lot of good that does us. See, the city, she’s like a giant insect who’ll devour her young without a second thought. In here, there’s none who will so much as bother to forget you when you’re gone. You’re nothing. I’m nothing. And these warrens will be our tomb.
“Why the long face, chum? This is home. And besides, you’ve got me. And for a fiver a day, I’m your new best friend.”
—Gav Nahli, freelance greeter, 4713 AR
RULER: KRUNE, RUNELORD OF HARUKA (SLOTH) (Wizard-20, Conjurer, High Priest of Lissala).
Runelord Krune rules Kaer Maga with several thousand Dread Warriors, about four thousand currently, compared to a citizen population of some eight thousand. Aside from a guard squadron stationed at the Gap, they rarely move from their positions atop the city walls, and the new Rune Palace rising just east of the Therassic Spire, where Krune has taken up residence. The city is allowed to go about its business, just as it has for countless millennia.
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| Runelord Krune |
Krune Dread Archer: CR 1 AC 18 HP 37+ Undead Fortitude (At 0 hp, fall prone & roll DC 5+dmg CON save to recover 1 hp); ST +2 DE +3 CO +3 IN -3 WI +1 (sv +3) CHA +0 Ath+4 Per+3 (PP 13). wpn: longbow (2 atts) ATT +5 dam 1d8+3, or shortsword (2 atts) ATT +5 dam 1d6+3
All Dread Warriors' weapons are +0 magical.
Each squadron of 26-36 (d10+25) Dread Warriors is led by a Dread Commander, capable of speech and good battle tactics.
Dread Warrior Commander: CR 3 AC 19 HP 72 + Undead Fortitude (At 0 hp, fall prone & roll DC 5+dmg CON save to recover 1 hp); ST +5 DE +3 CO +3 (sv +5) IN +1 WI +3 (sv +5) CHA +2 Ath+4 Per+5 (PP 15) . Weapons: 2 battleaxes (3 attacks) ATT +7 dam 1d8+5x3, or Javelin (2 attacks) ATT +7 dam 1d6+5, or longbow (2 attacks) ATT +6 dam 1d8+3. Gear: 4 javelins, two battle axe, plate armour. Language: Thassilonan, Common, Varisian.
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| Dread Archer |
CN small city
Corruption +5; Crime +7; Economy –1; Law –6; Lore +2, Society –3
Qualities magically attuned, notorious, prosperous, strategic location
Danger +35
Demographics
Government Autocracy (Krune)
Population 8,000 (5,500 humans, 500 halflings, 400 dwarves, 400 half-elves, 400 half-orcs, 200 gnomes, 100 elves, 100 orcs, 75 trolls, 50 centaurs, 50 goblins, 50 nagas, 175 others)
Notable NPCs
Djenikus, war priest (VGTM) of Lissala
Runelord Krune, Conjurer-20
Horus Ilaktya (male human war priest of Urgathoa)
High Priestess Shamalay Kasan (female human priest)
Merriman Ardoc (male human enchanter VGTM)
Suthevan Gyves of the Arcanists’ Circle (male half-elf mage)
Dakar of the Commerce League (male dark naga)
Warden Rogard Hammerfell of the Duskwardens (male dwarf Fighter-12)
Abra Lopati of the Duskwardens (male human veteran)
Halman Wright of the Freemen (human male veteran)
Elias Sayer (male human master thief)
Madam Rose (female human spy)
Lord Victae Cobaru (male vampire lord)
Uncle Guden (unknown)
Chief Bursar Tomkin Rassi (male human spy)
Minister Abigail Van Heuse (female human spy)
Gav Nahli, Merchant (male human spy)
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| Rogard Hammerfell |
Other items: Boots of Striding (att) gives Speed 30'), 4 potions of healing.
Rogard Hammerfell is the current leader of the Duskwardens, a group of vigilant men and women who patrol the miles of tunnels beneath the Varisian city of Kaer Maga, and lead travelers along the Halflight Path into and out of the city. Rogard is a canny veteran of many underground battles, and is selfless in the protection of his men. He expects the Duskwardens to live up to his own high standards, but is not afraid to get his hands dirty.
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| Ardoc Nightingale |
Marketplace
Base Value 7,600 gp; Purchase Limit 55,000 gp; Spellcasting 5th
Common Items 4d4; Uncommon Items 3d4; Rare Items 1d6
Typical Common Items
1. Potion of Climbing - 100gp each
2-6. Potion of healing (2d4) - 50gp each
7. Cloak of Billowing - 200gp
8-9. Perfume of Bewitchment (1d4) - 50gp each
10. Cast-Off Armour +200gp
11. Mystery Key (1d4) - 50gp each
12. Shield of Expression - 100gp
13. Walloping Ammunition (1d6) - 50gp each
14. Pot of Awakening - 100gp
15. Moon-Touched +0 Sword - 200gp
16. Unbreakable Arrow - 100gp
Typical Uncommon Items (d12)
1. Bag of Holding - 2000gp
2. Boots of Striding and Springing - 1000gp
3. Cloak of Elvenkind - 1500gp
4. Alchemy Jug - 1000gp
5. Gloves of Swimming and Climbing - 1000gp
6. Goggles of Night - 1000gp
7. Wand of Magic Detection - 1000gp
8. Wand of the War Mage +1 - 2500gp
9. Various +1 weapons & shields - 2000gp each
10. Ring of mind shielding - 2000gp
11. Ring of swimming - 2000gp
12. Ring of Warmth - 2000gp
Typical Rare Items (d6)
1. +2 weapon (various)
2. +2 shield
3. wand of the war mage +2
4. +1 plate armour
5. Oil of Etherealness (rare, dmg 183)
6. Potion of Clairvoyance (rare, dmg 187)
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| Dread Warrior Commander |
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| Djenikus, Priest of Lissala |
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| Tomkin Rassi, Chief Bursar of Magnimar |
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| Abigail Von Heuse, Minister of Kaer Maga, Emissary of Runelord Krune |
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| Gav Nahli, Tourist Guide, at 16 (4713 AR) |
Geographical Overview
The first thing a traveler to Kaer Maga sees is the cliff. Towering 3,000 feet high in places and never dipping below a thousand, carved with the faces and forms of vanished kings and gods, the Storval Rise neatly bisects the frontier land of Varisia along a massive tectonic faultline, separating the lush lowlands of the coast from the arid and pitiless badlands of the Storval Plateau. Stark and forbidding, these rocky bluffs are unclimbable by all but the most daring, leading those who seek
passage out of the civilized lands to ascend carefully along the edge of the Yondabakari River, which cuts a
channel through the stone, or else to turn north and head straight for Kaer Maga itself, hoping to brave the legendary Half light Path.
From a distance, Kaer Maga appears to be an enormous outcropping of gleaming, white stone extending straight up from the cliff ’s edge, its 80-foot-high walls forming a seamless, six-sided ring and its squared-off skyline broken only by a cluster of towers and minarets at the south end. Upon closer inspection, however, the great walls are revealed to be riddled with holes at every level, doors and windows carved by its residents. From these random entrances hang knotted ropes and ladders, cargo nets and winch-operated dumbwaiters, which residents use to come and go without a second thought—even children swing stories above the ground and scamper
carelessly across makeshift landings. While several gated
entrances at ground level are big enough for carts to pass
through unhindered, most newcomers enter through the
Warren, a vast break in the walls where some unknown
force shattered the stone in ages past. Here a highrise
of wooden scaffolding and temporary structures towers
almost as tall as the walls themselves, and Kaer Maga’s poorest citizens live arboreally on planks and nets in a shantytown of vast proportions.
Those who pass through the madness of the Warren quickly realize the true strangeness of the city’s
construction, for rather than being bordered externally by stout defensive walls, most of Kaer Maga lies literally inside its walls. Hundreds of feet thick, these vast stone bulwarks are mostly hollow, riddled through with chambers large and small and housing most of the city’s population in the twilight beneath their roof. In places the chambers are large enough that structures rise up the sides or stand free like those of a conventional city, while in others its interior is split into distinct floors,
with entire neighborhoods stacked one on top of each other. These areas are collectively known as the Ring and are generally avoided by outside merchant caravans, which instead move swiftly into the bustling open-air commercial districts known as the Core, pausing only to hire one of the countless Warren children who work as guides.
As the only area of the city to receive natural light and the source of the population’s water, the Core is considered neutral ground by most of the gangs and organizations vying for control of the city. Here a thousand sounds and smells war with each other in a raucous cacophony, and those with ready cash and strong stomachs can find anything their hearts desire, from obscure magical items and exotic pleasures to occult knowledge and human chattel. In theory all traders are welcome in Kaer Maga, and the complete lack of moralizing and taboos means that the markets—like the rest of the city—are a haven for outcasts and those who cannot find acceptance anywhere else.
Kaer Maga is roughly organized into 11 districts, eight in the Ring and three in the Core. Though many of the districts are controlled primarily by one faction or the other, the borders between them are not political but rather geographical—simply names for neighborhoods that may date back thousands of years. Regardless of their personal allegiances, all residents of Kaer Maga can
pass freely through the various districts, though gangs in active opposition are wise to avoid flaunting their presence on each other’s home turf. Most of the city’s citizens bear only nominal affiliations with the various organizations and as a result simply keep their heads down and do as they please, trusting to the balance of power and spirit of laissez-faire to keep them safe.
Halflight Path
The Halflight Path is a dangerous route from the base of the Storval Rise into the Varisian city of Kaer Maga via the Undercity. It is maintained and patrolled by the Duskwardens, who charge a hefty fee for escorting caravans into and out of the city. It is used by travellers who value speed over safety, and are willing and able to pay for the privilege.
The route upwards starts at an ancient bronze gate (surrounded by traveller caravanserai) at the foot of the Rise, called the Twisted Door. The Duskwardens open the door at dawn. They greet any assembled travellers and assess the fees for using the Path. This ranges from two gold pieces for a lone pedestrian to several dozen for a caravan.
Each traveller is issued with a Halflight charm, and they are split into groups of no more than a dozen. The Duskwarden escorts maintain that the benefits of stealth and having each group be a manageable size outweigh any apparent safety in numbers afforded by a larger party.
The trip itself takes an hour or more, depending on the make-up of the group. Most of it is through underground tunnels, but alternate routes occasionally emerge onto the cliff face. Some of the tunnel is natural stone, perhaps carved by water and improved upon by physical labour, but other places are wholly artificial.
Some walls are decorated by crude cave paintings; others are marked by complicated frescoes. All sections show signs of the work of the Duskwardens, who carefully block off dangerous side passages. Their groups are expected to pass such areas in silence; the sounds of unknown creatures scratching at the walls reinforces the need for caution.
The path ends at the Duskwarden Gatehold, a fortified bunker just outside the city, next to the Warren district. The Duskwardens then guide another party along the reverse route.
No travel takes place after sunset. The Duskwardens use this time to patrol the tunnel and shore up the barriers. They are competent to deal with most of the dangers of the route, but there are still casualties – and sometimes entire parties of travellers are lost.
Ring Districts
The following districts exist inside the city’s stone wall.
Ankar-Te: The most diverse collection of foreigners in
a city based on immigration, Ankar-Te is a hodgepodge
of cultures and the only district in Kaer Maga that allows
undead to walk the streets unmonitored.
Bis: The fabled ledge-manors known as the Balconies
of Bis climb the walls of this immense chamber like cliff
dwellings, ruled fairly but severely by a family of brilliant
golem-crafters.
The Bottoms: This cliff-side district is the home of the
escaped slaves and abolitionist revolutionaries known as
the Freemen, whose riotous celebration of democracy is
matched only by the ferocity with which they defend it.
Cavalcade: The industrial heart of Kaer Maga, Cavalcade
houses mills and smithies that are frequently powered by
the countless streams and aqueducts that run through it.
Highside Stacks: The richest and most powerful
members of Kaer Maga exist not within the city but rather
above it, making their homes in posh towers so large and
accommodating that many of their residents never set foot
on the ground. Krune's Palace is here.
Oriat: This district is the most colorful of them all,
renowned for its theaters, music, nightlife, bardic college,
youthful exuberance—and the sectarian warfare that
regularly claims the lives of its citizens.
Tarheel Promenade: Home of the powerful Arcanists’
Circle, Tarheel Promenade is one of the best markets in all
Varisia for items of a magical nature.
The Warren: Razed long ago by unknown forces, this
broken section of the Ring has grown into a ramshackle
shantytown seven stories tall, and is home to the city’s
poorest residents.
Core Districts
The following districts lie in the city’s open-air center.
Downmarket: A constantly shifting bazaar of tents and
stalls, Downmarket is Kaer Maga’s primary commercial
district, where foreign caravans meet to trade with locals
and each other.
Hospice: No city is complete without a hospitality
district, and Kaer Maga’s is among the best. Hospice offers
the best and worst accommodations a visitor could ask
for, as well any sort of licentious entertainment he might
desire—and some he’ll wish he could forget.
Widdershins: An island of sanity in a city of chaos,
Widdershins is a quiet, domestic neighborhood where
everyone acts appropriately, lest their neighbors turn them
over to the Constabulary for “readjustment.”
The Undercity
Though not truly part of the city, a vast network of natural and artificial chambers and tunnels lies underneath Kaer Maga, extending so deep into the cliff that its depths have never been charted. Locals refer to the whole system as “the Undercity” and avoid all but the topmost layers, which they use for storage, secret hideaways, and occasionally shelter, depending on the brotherhood of urban rangers known as the Duskwardens to seal off any further passages
and protect them from the bizarre abominations that
occasionally rise from the depths. In truth, however, these deeper chambers—abandoned workshops and prison cells, lost cities and pocket dimensions left over from the world’s creation—hold far more than those living above them could imagine, and still occasionally draw brave and foolhardy adventurers seeking to make names for themselves.
The Warren
While riddled with windows and doorways at everyheight, carefully carved for the convenience of the
residents over the course of millennia, Kaer Maga is a
ring of unbroken stone, its sides seemingly invulnerable
to weather, siege, or time—except here. On the city’s
northwestern side, some unknown calamity appears
to have blown an enormous hole in the city’s ring,
completely obliterating any stonework down to the bare
earth and leaving only scattered chunks of broken rock,
most of which have long since been scavenged by other
districts for new construction. Within this breach,
generations of Kaer Maga’s poorest residents have made
their homes in the most literal sense, building shack on
top of shanty in a hodgepodge of scaffolding and scrap
lumber that now towers almost as high and wide as the
rest of the ring, its interior a maze known only to its
inhabitants. This is the Warren.
The Gap
Though countless small doors and gates open out of Kaer Maga’s walls, not to mention windows
and other portals reached by ladders, ramps, and nets, the Gap in the middle of the Warren is considered by all to be the main gate, for the simple reason that it’s never been closed. Here a wide break through the center of the shantytown’s towering scaffolding allows enough room for several
carts and wagons to travel abreast, and local muscle hired by various merchants
ensures that these travelers are not overly inconvenienced by the district’s residents. That said, there’s a fine line between helpful and annoying, and this avenue is constantly choked with locals attempting to offer their services as guides, porters, and runners during merchants’ stays in the city, supplementing their meager fees with kickbacks from any inns or merchants they lead travelers to.
While pushy and discomfiting to many outsiders, these Warreners are vital to helping facilitate foreign trade, and hence they are tolerated by most.
Meatgate
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| Gav Nahli, Merchant, at 23 |
their interest to sell in the open air meat market which rests at the edge of the Warren’s borders. Here hunters and trappers from the surrounding area can sell their goods quickly and efficiently, by the pelt or the haunch, without sharing their take with a middleman. While the place tends to be a riot of shouts, blood, and unwashed hermits with good reasons for avoiding the city, the system works, and many of the city’s poorer residents can acquire fresh food here at surprisingly reasonable rates. The young merchant Gav Nahli, a former Warrener, makes a good business buying fresh meat here for the wealthy households, inns, taverns and restaurants of the city.
Mother Millie’s Little Treasures
No one knows exactly what the cause is, but something in the Warren
taints women’s wombs, turning good seed bad and producing far more than the normal share of deformed children. While many of these children go on to lead productive lives—at least as much as any children of the Warren ever do—others are too debilitated for their overworked parents to care for, or else bring too
much shame to their family. These unfortunates are sent to Mother Millie’s Little Treasures, sometimes less politely known as the “Sick Pit,” a workhouse specifically devoted to caring for such children and helping them earn their keep through simple piecework and other repetitive, menial tasks. Not exclusive to Warren residents, the workhouse also contains numerous offspring from well-to-do families in other districts, and the sliding scale Mother Millie (female half-orc priest) charges for taking in a child pays as much for her silence as for the less-than-stellar conditions in which the children are kept.
Halfway Houses
Halflings live everywhere in Kaer Maga, blending in with their human cousins as servants,
merchants, and tradesmen, and often performing jobs that would be too diff icult or uncomfortable for larger races, such as cleaning out sewers and chimneys. Yet it’s here in the Warren that many half lings feel most at home. In this small cluster of scaffolded dwellings, known as the Halfway Houses for both their high level of turnover and their low ceilings, dozens of halfling families take comfort in each other’s presence, creating homes sized just for them and a haven where they can gripe and jest freely about the prejudice of the clumsy larger races. Still, their relations with humans and others are far from confrontational, and in fact the Halfway Houses have a high percentage of interracial marriages, with many halfling men and women drawn to the copious physical delights offered by “the big ’uns.”
The Pillars of Dream
It would seem strange to many that one of the most beautiful structures in Kaer Maga rises from the tangled and filthy mass of the Warren, but such is indisputably the case—albeit not through
any actions of the district’s residents. Here, in a small circular clearing that extends all the way up to the sky, stand two twin crescents of an unknown black metal, rising from the hard-packed earth 30 feet apart and curving together until their points almost touch, 20 feet in the air. Covering both are exquisite raised designs that seem more grown than carved, their edges liquid-smooth and reflecting less light than they ought to. The pictures inscribed on the sides never seem to repeat, and clearly represent stars and the swirls of nebulae and galaxies, though the scholars who search for recognizable constellations and the children who make up their own are both forced to admit that the sky depicted is not visible from Kaer Maga—and perhaps not from Golarion at all. The pillars are not identical; where the northernmost blade bears a sun as its largest design, its rays seeming to shelter the nearby stars, the patterns of the southern blade fade away toward the bottom, apparently absorbed by an ominous blank patch. Perhaps most unnerving about the pillars is the fact that, judging by the recollections of old-timers, the blank patch appears to be slowly growing.
The one thing everyone knows for truth is the quality that gives the pillars their name—anyone passing between the pillars falls instantly asleep and is subjected to all manner of strange and colorful dreams, details of which can never be remembered afterward. Since the pillars also seem to
negate any need for food or water on the sleeper’s part, only the district’s most paranoid members worry about potential side effects, and children, drunks, and ne’erdo-wells are regularly found unconscious here, sleeping contentedly until more practical locals shove them out of the affected area with brooms and long sticks.
Bis
The fabled Balconies of Bis are far and away one of the most recognizable landmarks in Kaer Maga, and no traveler who ventures among them ever forgets the sight. In the southwesternmost district of the city, called Bis, the multi-floored structure found in other Ring districts long ago fell and gave way to a single cavernous space, so vast that huddled but freestanding buildings rise several storiesinto the gloomy, foggy air. Yet it is not the crowded streets or the shocking amount of airspace within the chamber that makes newcomers stop short, but rather the fact that the people of Kaer Maga have literally climbed the walls to create more room for themselves, building fresh or repairing outcropping ledges of old masonry to line the chamber with eight stories of towering cliff dwellings.
In need of continual repair due to the strain placed upon them, the buttressed platforms of the Balconies rise up the eastern and western walls of the chamber like shelving or tree fungus, sometimes protruding hundreds of feet from the walls. While they tend to be small and
separated from each other, with each balcony holding a few structures at most, there are generally at least three ledges on any vertical patch of wall, and sometimes as many as five, with the topmost structures brushing the ceiling. The means of accessing these structures vary, from narrow spiral staircases to ladders carved into the chamber wall itself, and the hassle involved in hoisting
up any significant amount of material means that, in Bis, the height of one’s balcony frequently ref lects one’s wealth and social standing. Though members of the powerful Ardoc family are above such petty games and live wherever they please (often near the Kiln for the sake of convenience), the rest of Bis has an unofficial system of social rank based on who lives higher than (and thus “shades”) whom, leading to the constant and sometimes ill-advised repair of aging balconies, and construction of new ones wherever possible. In reality, of course, the idea of shading is somewhat
ludicrous, as the entire cavern exists in a permanent twilight, with the lights of the businesses and homes on the Balconies creating a shimmering, twinkling waterfall. For the center of the district, where the light from the walls is merely decoration, the citizens have foregone streetlights in favor of enormous lanterns that hang from the ceiling 80 feet above at staggered intervals, like a swarm of motionless fireflies. These lamps are tended by the district-funded Lamplighters’ Union, who operate the complex system of ropes and pulleys necessary to keep the lamps suspended and frequently change their positions in artful ways, making the lighting of Bis a constantly shifting work of art.
One of the most orderly districts in the city, Bis is watched over by the Ardoc family, a cabal of golemcrafters bound by blood and marriage who rule with quiet but absolute power. Somewhere between magistrates and mafia dons, most of the Ardoc brothers are content to work in the massive factory workshop known as the Kiln, producing golems and constructs for sale and district use, but all are ready and capable of pronouncing judgment on any found breaking the district’s strict yet just laws.
While any citizen of Bis has the right to request the brothers’ off icial judgment, most know better than to bother them with trivial matters—even minor crimes—as the chisels that all Ardoc brothers wear on their belts to proclaim their status aren’t just for golem-crafting. Penalties for crimes are generally given in terms of “knuckles,” with the punishment carried out on the
spot by the brother passing the sentence. Each knuckle represents the removal of a single finger joint, with the punishment spread equally across both hands. For example, a criminal sentenced to 10 knuckles—such as a rapist or a major thief—would still have eight singlejointed fingers and two stubby thumbs with which to work and attempt to atone for his misdeeds. Given the nature of the average Kaer Maga resident and the amount of trade that flows through Bis, such mangled
digits are common throughout the city. More often, problems in Bis are solved by simpleminded
iron golems programmed to keep the peace and report incidents to the nearest brother, or else by residents consulting the brothers in an unofficial capacity under the guise of asking advice. While not all brothers possess great wisdom—their status being based entirely on nepotism and magical ability—they are overwhelmingly a lawful and methodical sort and tend to be good at finding logical solutions to conflicts.
Along with the Balconies, Bis is distinguished from other districts primarily by the prevalence of magical constructs. In addition to those creations that act as the eyes and muscle of the Ardocs, close relationships with the Ardocs mean that the citizens of Bis have comparatively cheap and easy access to construct labor. As a result, many houses on the Balconies have simple arcane machines that exist solely to haul up dumbwaiters and elevator platforms, and it’s not uncommon in the marketplace to see twiggy, bird-like messenger golems running errands for their masters.
The Kiln: As the headquarters of the Ardoc family, the Kiln is both the seat of government for the district and a working factory and foundry. Here the craftsmen create all manner of constructs, from the tiny spy-eyes and man-sized clay arbiters that back up the family’s words and keep peace within Bis to the miniature servitors and hulking thaumaturgical workhorses which they sell at great prof it to customers both local and foreign. Most of the brothers have personal workshops housed within
the Kiln as well as access to large shared spaces and specialized tools on the open foundry level. Built in a solid, utilitarian style, the Kiln is a squat stone fortress of solid blocks, and if necessary would be capable of housing the entire Ardoc family safely. The building also holds the Judgment Seat, a great meeting hall on the top level in which the extended family comes together
to discuss policy decisions, hear out petitioners, and conduct trials.
Quarrimac’s Curatives
This small, cluttered shop is the home and business of Kylos Quarrimac (martial arts adept - VGTM), a former adventurer who gave up a life of wandering in order to become the city’s foremost apothecary and alchemist. While the herbalist is widely known for his wild stories and sense of humor and can always be found either researching new tinctures or asleep at his workbench, those who seek to shoplift from his selection of valuable goods find that years of study haven’t dulled
the monk’s edge.
Duskwarden Guildhouse
Though most of their work takes place either in the Half light Path just outside of the city walls, or else in the basements and corridors of the uppermost Undercity, the Guildhouse is the headquarters of the Duskwardens. A placard bearing the group’s twisted-arch insignia in blue and gold hangs above the doors of this squat and solid structure, and inside its walls are a few small offices, barracks
for new recruits and those members with nowhere else to sleep, several supply rooms and
workshops, and the group’s pride and joy—its famous Map Room. This last contains
an extensive library of charts, maps, and diagrams noting all of the organization’s subterranean explorations to date, and presents by far the most complete picture of the Undercity in existence, though even the Duskwardens are forced to admit that they’ve only scratched the surface. While not exactly secret, these resources are held for guild use, not the public’s, and those adventurers and
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| Mother Shalanthe |
Mother Shalanthe's Tavern (est. 4717 AR)
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| Atesia, Varisian tavern slave |
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| Sumata Mercellin of Korvosa, tavern slave |
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| Buedra, tavern serving slave |
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| Esquinard, Troll Doorman |
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| Abra Lopati, Duskwarden, ca 4713 AR |
Downmarket
The Warren may be the first district new visitors toKaer Maga see, but the crowded stalls and wagons of
Downmarket are invariably their destination. The
primary commercial center for foreign trade, this is
where caravans off load their goods and purchase new
cargo, cutting deals both large and small. Though prices
tend to be slightly higher here, as merchants catering
primarily to foreigners trust the dizzying crowds of
the market to discourage newcomers from doing a lot
of comparison shopping, even native Kaer Magans are
forced to shop in Downmarket on a regular basis, as the
selection is simply too good to ignore. The belief that
anything can be bought or sold in Kaer Maga stems in
large part from the merchants of Downmarket, and no
good or service is off limits here, no matter how taboo.
Unlike most of the other districts in Kaer Maga,
Downmarket contains very few permanent structures,
instead consisting of a constant shuff le of carts, tents,
wagons, and awnings. This is primarily to accommodate
the steady stream of traders who, rather than simply
selling their goods to local merchants, are equally likely
to set up small shops of their own for as long as their
stock holds out, reaping greater profits by selling directly
to consumers. Most business is conducted during the
day, when the swirling crowds of shoppers and hawkers
are shot through with pickpockets, palanquins, solemn
Augurs, and gawking foreigners, but the carts that don’t
pack up at sundown often do business long into the night,
catering to those souls drawn by shows
at the amphitheater or restless merchant
guards eager for entertainment.
Augur Temple
One of the few permanent
structures in the district, the temple of the
trolls is a vast and columned affair of stone,
with wide steps too tall for human comfort climbing up to
a covered walkway that extends all around the building.
When not actively wandering the markets and reading
the future in their own entrails, the Augurs sometimes
conduct business on this platform, but otherwise they
use it for lounging and socializing. Beyond it, enormous
steel doors bar entrance to the temple proper, where the
trolls sleep, mate, and undertake the other unknown
rites of their intensely private personal lives. All that
most outsiders know of the inside of the temple is
that large sections are roof less, leaving it open to the
Storval Plateau’s rare rainstorms. During these, those
unfortunate enough to be looking down on the temple
from above (such as from the top floors of Highside
Stacks) can sometimes observe large groups of trolls
cavorting in the inclement weather, welcoming it
with prayers and celebratory orgies.
The Flesh Block
While not especially common
in the city itself, the slave trade makes up a
significant portion of Kaer Maga’s economy,
and the Flesh Block in Downmarket is its
heart. Foreign slavers, orcs from Urglin and
Belkzen, and even desperate residents looking
to sell themselves and their children to pay off
bad debts meet here to broker their freedom at
all levels, from sharecropping and time-limited
indentured servitude to complete slavery. Those
seeking to make deals for their own service
mingle directly with the crowd of domestic and
foreign buyers, while those sold against their will
are held in a series of fenced pens and brought up
one at a time by one of the professional auctioneers
who work the podium and act as brokers, and who
sometimes even purchase bedraggled but promising
slaves themselves in hopes of fattening them up so they
fetch higher prices later on. The buyers are a constantly
shifting crowd, as unscrupulous caravans from all over
Avistan come to Kaer Maga to unload their own slaves
and purchase those of other nations, whose exotic looks
and customs fetch higher prices back home. Strangely
enough, the Freemen of the Bottoms are the most
regular (if belligerent) customers; they’ve realized that
without the military might to liberate all the city’s slaves
by force, the next-best strategy is emancipation through
legitimate purchase, and a fair number of the Freemen
owe their freedom to these deals.
Lakeside Amphitheater
Oriat may be where most of the entertainers and performers in Kaer Maga go
to socialize and practice their craft, but the Lakeside
Amphitheater is where all of them dream of performing.
Open to the sky, the Lakeside Amphitheater is Kaer
Maga’s foremost venue for the performing arts.
The Drunken Tailor
Though the official name of this
“shop” is Humboldt’s Haberdashery, no one other than
its proprietor refers to it as such. Efram Humboldt (NG
male human expert 3), an effeminate man with a neat
beard and an ample belly, claims to have once been the
off icial couturier for the harem of the Qadiran satrap
Xerbystes II, before the ruler blamed a particularly
revealing dress for one concubine’s scandalous infidelity.
Efram barely escaped with his life, but eventually came
to rest in Kaer Maga, a city he feels is far beneath one
of his stature and talent. The tailor can usually be
found somewhere in this district, drunk as a lord and
sleeping it off in the wheelbarrow full of fabric that he
calls his establishment. For all his self-pity and riotous
drunkenness, however, Efram is in fact as skilled as he
claims, creating totally unique garments for each client
in f lurries of drunken creativity and often working with
local enchanters to give each piece whatever magical
enhancement he feels best suits it.
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| Selith, Undercity Spirit Naga w zombie servitors, friendly w Abra Lopati |
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