1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE RAINY CITY 3 THE MURK 32

FROM THE AUTHOR 4 LEVEE TOWN 34

THE PEOPLE 6 THE SUMP 38

THE SEASONS 8 THE MIDS 42
LIFE IN THE RAINY CITY 12 EMBASSY ROW 46
RICKETY AND THE SWELLS 16 THE HEADLANDS 50
VAGABOND BAY 20 TOWER CLIFFS 54
OLD TOWN 24 THE PATRONS 58
MAP OF THE RAINY CITY 30 THE SANDESTIN 60

Created & Written by: Rich Forest

Additional Development: Andrew D. Devenney, Alisha Forest, & Bill Spytma

Cover Design & Cartography: Andrew D. Devenney

Interior Art: Bill Spytma

Editing & Layout: Andrew D. Devenney

Layout Consultant: Ben Terry

Copyright © 2020 by Superhero Necromancer Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Fell Types are digitally reproduced by Igino Marini. www.iginomarini.com

Superhero Necromancer Press, LLC

http://www.superheronecromancer.com
2

0DUNHWVLQWKH5DLQ\&LW\DUHŕQHSODFHVWRVKRSDQGWREHVHHQ
 3
THE RAINY CITY
It’s the end of the world.
It always rains. Rain beats against the walls. It seeps through the shutters. It pours
RŔWKHPRVV\EDFNVRIWKHJDUJR\OHV,WWXUQVVWUHHWVLQWRVWUHDPVDQGULYHUV
Teetering, damp towers lean against rotting townhouses thrown together in
the ruins of a once gleaming city. Servants dash through storms on petty errands.
)LUHSODFHVVSXWWHUZHDNO\DQGVSHOOERRNVŕOOHGZLWKPROG\VSHOOVURWLQVSLWHRIWKH
protections lavished on them for their precious contents.
The Grand Academy of Magick used to be here. But that was before the world
ended and the rains came. Now the Grand Academy is mostly under the murky
channel that divides Old Town from the Mids, its secrets ruined and lore lost. A few
of the highest towers peek out of the still dark waters of the Murk, testifying to its
presence. Ferrymen use the towers as moorings and wayposts when the rain and fog
make navigating the bay treacherous. The school is a remnant of a past world.
But there is magic here. Wizards hide themselves away in their damp town-
KRXVHVDQGFOLŔWRSWRZHUVHDFKRQHMHDORXVO\JXDUGLQJWKHIHZVHFUHWVWKH\VWLOO
have, scrounging and scheming for more. The richest people live on Embassy Row
amidst the peaks, where the rains pour down the stepped streets in waterfalls. The
poorest live in the Sump, a low-lying slum that is as much a swamp as it is a neigh-
borhood of rotting stilt huts. Alchemists lead the guilds that rule over Old Town.
The desperate, striving tradesfolk and merchants build their townhouses in rings
that cling to the lower slopes of the peaks. Refugees from strange foreign worlds
ZDVKXSLQ9DJDERQG%D\WKHLUZRUOGVSDVVHGWKHFLW\WKHLUŕQDOKDYHQ
5DLQZDWHUSRXUVRŔWKHEDFNVDQGIURPWKHPRXWKVRIWKHJDUJR\OHVWKDWGHF-
orate the stone towers and keeps. They plot too. Some say they plot to destroy
the city, but wizards sometimes hire them to keep watch over their petty secrets
DQ\ZD\0RVWŕQGWKDWURXJKPHQDUHVHFXULW\HQRXJK9LROHQFHFRPHVHDVLO\WR
them, and they care little for sorceries. But thieves can make a fortune here, if they
are quick and clever. From the lowliest medium to the greatest wizard, the mages
hire experts to steal spells and enchanted items from their enemies. And from their
friends.
It’s the end of the world. It always rains. Your fate is in the hands of wizards,
alchemists, and thieves.
But it doesn’t have to stay that way...
4
FROM THE AUTHOR
Hello, friend! Welcome to the Rainy City.
I am Warden Beauregard Hardebard, d of the Master and Four Wardens of
the Fraternity of the Art or Mystery of Haberdashery and Millinery, and this is my
home. I am feeling loquacious, and I have come down to the bay to show someone
around. It is an occasional hobby of mine.
You are very fortunate!
6RWRDQVZHU\RXUTXHVWLRQVŕUVW
Yes, it always rains. No, it never stops. No, not ever. Yes, never. Really!
<HV\RXVHHQRŕUHV,WLVWKHUDLQ\VHDVRQDQGŕUHVGRQRWOLJKWHYHQZHDNO\
%XWZRUU\QRW'XULQJWKHZLQG\VHDVRQDQGWKHTXLHWŕUHVGROLJKW9HU\ZHDNO\
admittedly, and with much smoke. But this is a good thing, for smoke clears the
GDPSIURPWKHOXQJVDQGLVPRVWKHDOWKIXO$QGGXULQJŕUHOLJKWŕUHVGREXUQ
There are grilled foods!
How do we cook the rest of the year? Well, mostly with boiling salts, available
IURPDQ\DOFKHPLVWDQGQRRQHHOVH$QGPRVWIUXLWVYHJHWDEOHVKHUEVDQGŕVKHV
can simply be eaten fresh.
How do we light the place? Oh, all manner of ways. Wisp-lamps, naturally.
%LROXPLQRXVŕVKLI\RXDUHYHU\SRRURUYHU\ULFK*ORZYLDOVDYDLODEOHIURPDQ\
alchemist, and no one else.
5DWV"1RQRFRPPRQUDWVZKLFK\RXPLJKWŕQGRGGEXWWKHUHLVDQH[SOD-
nation, and it has nothing to do with superstition. Puddings! The city is entirely
infested by oozes and slimes. They consume the rats, and much else besides. The
Puddinghands Union can only do so much to stem the tide.
Who runs the place? It depends on where you are. There’s no emperor, king,
or mayor, and the “High Parliament” isn’t really. A parliament, I mean. There are
solicitors who seal and guarantee contracts through covenous pacts with ghosts and
devils. No mortal laws as such, strictly speaking, except that it is best not to cross
the wrong people.
To whom do we pray? Oh, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, friend. The gods
DUHQıWKHUHULJKWQRZ7KH\MXVWGRQıWFRPHDURXQG0D\EHWKH\ıUHGHDG0D\EH
WKH\GRQıWFDUH0D\EHWKH\MXVWGRQıWOLNHWKHZHDWKHU%XWGRQıWZRUU\ZHVWLOO
have all the religion you could possibly need!
Welcome to the Rainy City. Let’s have a look around.
 5

The Rainy City, looking north from Pondheim in the Sump

6
THE PEOPLE
Achterfuss: Undulating, orating cephalopods.
Waterbreathers, most stay in Underharbor and the
sea, but some reside in the canals and pools of the
city, emerging onto the streets during the rainy
season to labor, trade, sputter, and opine.

Boggy: Small, stout, stolid, and bouyant, bog-

gies hail from Bog End in the Sump. Many are
content there, eating crawdy pie, playing water
UXJE\DQGVPRNLQJUHHGZKHQWKHŕUHVZLOOOLJKW
2WKHUV ŕQG ZRUN DV ERWWOHUV LQ ZL]DUG WRZHUV
immune as they are to enchantments.

Deepsy: Victims of “the Depsis,” a malaise which

PDNHVLWVVXŔHUHUVSURJUHVVLYHO\ŕVKLHURYHUWLPH
Deepsies can breathe both air and water, often
serving as intermediaries in trade with Underhar-
ERURUMRLQLQJŕVKLQJVDLOLQJDQGVDOYDJHFUHZV

Gargoyle: Still, stone life. Watchers and plot-

ters, perched on walls and roofs. Gargoyles are
carved into life by skilled craftsmen and carry
something of their makers in their manners
DQGPRWLYHV0DQ\RŔHUVHUYLFHVWRZL]DUGVDQG
guilds, but none, ever, are servants.

Ghoul 6RSKLVWLFDWH ŖHVKHDWHUV RI 5HVSHFWDELO-

ity Row and County Gaunt. Rarely invited to
parties. Fond of crypts, but not for the scenery.
Old money. Dead, without; unlive, within. Always
hungry, but exceedingly civilized about it. Stop by
for tea, but don’t tarry.
 7

Gull: Chirping, wailing, opportunistic. All gulls

of the Rainy City are Gulls—intelligent, three feet
WDOODQGZLWKZLQJVWKDWFDQŖ\RUKROGWRROVEXW
not both at the same time. It is bad luck for a sailor
to harm a gull—and every gull knows it.

Larva: Fat, white worms. Legless, armless, the

size of overlarge children. Human faces. Each
led an evil life, and this is their punishment. They
OLYH XQGHU \RXU ŖRRUERDUGV DQG EHWZHHQ \RXU
walls. Many wizards pay well for larvae, which
they consume for magical energy.

Mermaid: Mermaids can slip out of their tails

and become human. Steal a mermaid’s shawl while
transformed, and you gain power over them. Few
mermaids risk losing their shawls, preferring to
visit the city only during the rainy season. Some,
however, walk secretly among us.

Mine Goblin: Beardy little cave elfs. The mine

goblin market can be found within the tunnels of
WKH6LOYHU)DOOV0LQHVLIWKH\DOORZ\RXWRŕQGLW
7KH\GLJFHDVHOHVVO\EHQHDWKWKH7RZHU&OLŔVWR
some unknown end. Sometimes they come above
to sell their toys and trinkets.

The Multitudes: A vast sea of humanity, of

course, plus myriad bugs, pucks & changelings;
demons, devils, & elfs; ghosts & goblins, hags &
haunts, imps & undines; kappas, kelpies & mares;
noles, nomes & nymphs; sylphs, sirens & selkies;
spirits, spectres & sprites. And wights. And wiz-
ards.
8
THE SEASONS
THE QUIET
Season of growth, molds and mildews,
sowing and reaping. The tar mines are
EXEEOLQJRYHU7KH6LOYHU&OLŔVSUR-
GXFHPRUHRUH7KHŕHOGVJLYHPRUH
grain. Seeds planted at the start of the
quiet can be harvested before its end.
Fermentations and alchemies too are
quickened, with glorious results in our
pubs and our apothecaries.
And then there is the usual rise in pud-
ding infestations that marks the season.
Fires burn weakly, with much smoke.

BELLRINGER’S DAY
7KHŕUVWGD\RIWKHTXLHWLV%HOOULQJHUıV
'D\ZKHQRXUVWUHHWVDUHŕOOHGZLWKWKH
ringing of bells to mark a new year.
It is a well-known fact that the ringing
of bells drives away evil spirits, fairies,
and storms, and the custom of ringing
the bells is ancient. The ringing begins
in the dim grey dawn and lasts through-
out the dim grey day until the dusk
returns the city to darkness and quiet.
WKHGRRU7KHFLW\ıVJDUJR\OHVŖRFNLQ
Old Town, hanging thick as bats to the
outer walls of the Chantry, ringing the
bells they hold in their teeth.
In the Mids, youths attach bells to kites,
Ŗ\LQJWKHPDVKLJKDVWKH\FDQLQWKH
VWRUP7KHLUPRWKHUVDŗ[WLQ\EHOOVWR
their cloaks and hang them from tea
cups. Messengers secure bells to their
boots.

There is not a moment in the day when
somewhere bells are not ringing.
Bells are sold in every shop in the days
leading up to the holiday, and children
rise early with their families on Bell-
ringer’s Morn to ring in the day. New
bells are said to bring good luck, and it
is true that lucky children have parents
ZKRFDQDŔRUGWREX\QHZEHOOV
No labor is done, except that which
RŔHUVWKHSHRSOHIRRGDQGGULQN%HOOV
are fastened to carriages in the Mids
and Embassy Row and to boats and
ships’ masts in Vagabond Bay. All shrine
doors stand open with a bellringer by
Barkeeps keep a gong next to the tap,
clanging it each time they pull a pint.
Bell races are held on the waters of the
Murk, as the ferrymen navigate the
guide posts in the bay as fast as they
can without allowing the bells on their
barges to ring.
7RZHU&OLŔVZL]DUGVVHQGWKHLUDSSUHQ-
tices, and the occasional bound demon,
to walk the streets of the city ringing
sigil-engraved bells, each proclaiming
that evil and rain shall be banished in
their master’s name.
And, of course, everyone attaches bells
to their umbrellas.
 9

FIRELIGHT
6HDVRQRIZDUPWKERQŕUHVDQGJULOO-
ing, smithing and coining. Fires burn
normally, food can be roasted and
grilled instead of prepared with boiling
VDOWVDQGPRVWVPLWKFUDIWDQGŕUHEDVHG
work must be done. The rains continue
unabated, but there is more warmth in
the city, more wealth changing hands,
and a great deal more smoking of every
possible herb, leaf, and weed. It is also
WKHVHDVRQRIŕUHZRUNVDQGJXQŕUHWKH
only time of year when black powder
will light.

THE MOLTEN HAND FESTIVAL city. As midnight approaches, people

Smelters and smiths put on this festival
in Rounders, in Old Town, to celebrate
WKHVWDUWRIŕUHOLJKWDQGWKHRSHQLQJRI
the annual smelting season. By day, they
open their halls to the public, who may
walk through freely and wonder at the
riddle of the smelt.
When night has fallen, smelters with
great scoops shaped like cupped hands
hurl sparking hot metal droplets against
the Roundwall, the arced wall of some
old city tower that still stands in the
square before their guild hall. As the
sparks scatter into beautiful star show-
ers, the crowds wonder and pyrologers
divine the future of the smithing season
in their forms.
MIDLIGHT NIGHT
Midlight Night marks the middle
RIŕUHOLJKWZKHQŕUHVEXUQKRWWHVW
Grilled duck, goat, and whale is sold
RQHYHU\VWUHHWFRUQHU(ŗJLHVUHSUH-
senting old gods, famous wizards, guild
masters, and local landlords are hung
above the doorways of pubs across the
pour into the streets and hurl raucous
FXUVHVDWWKHHŗJLHVEODPLQJWKHPIRU
FDXVLQJWKHUDLQV7KHHŗJLHVDUHWKHQ
brought down and paraded through the
streets to the nearest bay or waterway,
where they are cursed again, hoisted
LQWRWKHDLUDQGWRVVHGŖDPLQJLQWRWKH
waters to great cheering and toasts.
LANTERN NIGHT
2Q/DQWHUQ1LJKWHYHU\ŕUHSODFH
lantern, torch, and candle in the city
EXUQVŕHUFHO\/DQWHUQVDUHKXQJIURP
every window and door frame. Candles
DQGODQWHUQVDUHŖRDWHGGRZQGUDLQZD\V
and gently pushed into the Murk in
KRQRURIWKHGHDGDQGJULOOHGŕVKDQG
tipple are set out under umbrellas for
the ghosts.
As midnight arrives and the rainy season
rolls over the city from east to west, one
by one the candles, lanterns, torches,
DQGŕUHSODFHVRIWKHFLW\JRRXWVQXŔHG
by the damp. When the last lantern goes
out, the dead are put to rest, and the
rainy season has begun.
10
THE SEASONS
THE RAINY SEASON
Season of downpours, seafolk and
ŕVKUHIXJHHVDQGUHMXYHQDWLRQ)LUHV
whether magical or mundane, will not
light at all. All food must be prepared
with boiling salts.
This time of year, the natives of the
sea, be they krill or cod, achterfuss or
mermaid, can breathe the air above as
easily as the waters below. Mermaids
on palanquins go shopping on the
Mids Promenade. Achterfusses take up
seasonal work, from boat crews to the
alchemists’ guild. Fish is eaten fresh,
often brought live to the table, for it
EULJKWQHVVVKRZDQGWKHDQQXDOŕVKHU-
can be stored and transported live all
folk games (featuring competitions in
season.
knot tying, sail raising, net throwing,
Refugee ships pour into the city bailing out a sinking boat, and anchor
throughout the season, washed in on
WKHZDWHUVWKDWŖRRGHGWKHLUKRPH-
lands, bringing with them a diversity of
wonders.
THE GENTLE EXCHANGE
OF THE FISH
The ninth day of the rainy season
begins the most important festival of
Vagabond Bay, the Gentle Exchange
RIWKH)LVK)UHVKŕVKFDXJKWRYHUWKH
ŕUVWZHHNRIWKHVHDVRQŖRRG)LVKPDU-
ket with the bounty of the sea. Every
ŕVKHUDQGŕVKPRQJHUSURXGO\GLVSOD\V
WKHLUJUHDWHVWŕQGVDPLGWKHŖRSSLQJ
ŖDSSLQJVODSSLQJDQGVKRXWLQJZHWGLQ
of the Exchange.
The Peers of Fishmarket Way preen and
prowl, lording over their lessers. Crowds
ŖRRGWRWKHWKUHHGD\HYHQWZKLFKIHD-
tures public hangings, bracing auctions,
DFDWWOHŕVKVKRZFUDEŕJKWVVHDZHHG
VSDVŖ\LQJŕVKUDFHVDODQWHUQŕVK
UDLVLQJ3OXVDOOWKHIUHVKŕVK\RXFDQ
eat!
COLLOQUIUM
Colloquium, the annual event where the
JUHDWHVWZL]DUGVGLVSOD\WKHŕQHVWLWHPV
of magical power they have discovered
or invented each year. Mauvin the High
Critic, Mirk the Dull, and Musca the
&HQVRUDOOVWDQGUHDG\WRSDVVMXGJPHQW
Perhaps they already have!
Only Wizards and the Finest Citizens of
this Great City are even admitted to the
Colloquium.
Lesser magicians stand outside in the
UDLQVKRZLQJRŔWKHLUFUHDWLRQV&RP-
mon people of the city crowd Tower
Commons, here to marvel at the magical
works on display in the streets and,
perhaps, also to try to catch a glimpse
of a true wizard, or even a runaway
invention!
 11

THE WINDY SEASON

Season of storms, cold and wind, rest
and shelter. Ports and harbors are bat-
tened down, as sailing is most treach-
erous, and even the Admiralty and the
pirates of Rickety mostly settle in to
wait out the storms.
Refugee ships do not reach the safe
haven of Vagabond Bay. Most are lost in
the Outer Swells before they reach the
city, and wreckage is all that reaches our
shores.
Fires burn weakly, with much smoke.

MIDWINDER NIGHT
On Midwinder Night, family and
IULHQGVJDWKHUZLWKVPRNLQJŕUHVVSLOO-
ing over every hearth.
Why? To feed the Winder Man, of
course, so that he does not come into
our homes and feed on our breath.
(YHU\VKLSLQWKHFLW\ŖLHVLWVEDQQHUV
DQGŖDJVWKLVGD\WKHSHDNRIWKHZLQG\
season and windiest day of the year.
Doors, windows, and the tops of chim-
neys are decorated with torn and frayed
cords, ropes, and threads, in hopes of
binding the Winder Man and other
Winderwraiths out. Winder Man dolls
DUHVWXŔHGZLWKVFUDSVRISDSHUQDPLQJ
illnesses, misfortunes, and enemies—and
hung on poles or left on rooftops so
WKDWWKH:LQGHU0DQPLJKWŕQGDQG
take them away.
It is also a time of charity. The poor are
LQYLWHGLQRŔWKHVWUHHWVIHGDQGNHSW
hale. Every breath the Winder Man
steals this night makes him greater,
and it is known that if ever he breathes
enough breaths he will blow away the
city, casting it over into the sea. We’ve
lost parts of town before on Midwinder
Night, and surely we will again. Even
killers stay their hands, for last breaths
are the gravest gift of all to the Winder
Man.
The streets are alive with activity, late
into the night. Revelers careen from
pub to pub, for tonight may be their
last. Carolers sing songs of praise to
the Winder Man in front of homes to
encourage those inside to pay them
handsomely in food, drink, or silver to
move on. The faithful visit shrines and
temples to pray that all Winderwraiths
be averted by their guardian daemons,
gods, and spirits.
All who are out on this night wear thick,
colorful scarves and kerchiefs over
mouth and nose to hide their breaths
from the Winder Man. Colorful threads
DQGVWULQJVDUHDŗ[HGWRFRDWVDQGKDWV
for added protection. Those who can
DŔRUGLWZHDUFHQVHUVLQDOOVKDSHVDQG
sizes, enveloping them with alchemical
smoke.
12
LIFE IN THE RAINY CITY
Life in a city where the rains are
FRQVWDQWDQGŕUHVLQFRQVWDQWPD\
seem dour, but it need not be! We are
an ingenious people in an enchant-
ing town, and we have found ways to
provide all the light, heat, food, and
comfort we need.
LIGHT
Fire is not the only way to light a home.
We have cultivated the many and varied
glows of the vegetable and animal king-
GRPVWRJUHDWSURŕW
+HUH\RXZLOOVHHODQWHUQŕVKLQDERZO
Dŗ[HGWRWKHZDOO,QWKHUDLQ\VHDVRQLW
can even be carried about in a little net
hung like a lantern! There, you will see
DJORZLQJMHOO\ŕVKXQGXODWLQJSHDFH-
fully in a chandelier. It provides light
enough, and more!
The sea is bountiful with glowing
creatures, from the piddocks that give
Piddock Town its name and delightful
atmosphere to the various shrimps, krill,
and crabs that clamber about our streets
and alleys.
And at times, glowshrooms and molds
creep along damp corners so vigorously
that we must need trim them if we are
to get any sleep! The poor often simply
leave them to grow.
If you have the wealth, you may wear
garments threaded with glowsilk from
the silkworms of the Wevenwood, or
KDYH\RXUVHUYDQWVORIWŕQHODQWHUQV
containing wisps, which provide a calm-
ing light to any room.
The alchemists, too, sell small bottles
containing glowing alchemical concoc-
tions, entirely safe!
And if you need to light a room
brightly, there is no better way than
bottled lightning, also available from
the alchemists’ chantry.
HEAT
Many of our lights are not so warming,
it is true. But our city is rarely truly
cold. It is chill, often, and clammy, but
QRWLQVXŔHUDEO\VR
6RIRUWKHPRVWSDUWZHVLPSO\VXŔHULW
layering our coats and staying as dry as
we can, especially near Midwinder.
,QŕUHOLJKWZHVRDNXSDVPXFKŕUH
heat as we can.
7KRVHZKRFDQDŔRUGLWKHDWWKHLU
homes on chill days by having their ser-
vants boil large stones or piles of stones
in boiling salts, then setting the stones
in the hearth or upon great bowls in the
center of the room to radiate.

FOOD
Two manners of food preparation dom-
inate our cuisine.
)LUVWPXFKIRRGFDQEHHQMR\HGIUHVK
or what newcomers to the city some-
times term “raw.” Shrimp, scallop, and
oyster, tuna, bass, and bream, urchin,
octopus, and roe, all are commonly
found fresh on our plates alongside
fresh kelp, sargassum, watercress, water
cabbage, and mushrooms.
Second, the ingenuity of the Harmo-
nious Chantry of Alchemists has given
us the mystery of boiling salts, which
enrich our cuisine with saltboiled,
steamed, and stonebaked dishes. The
ubiquitous macerushes of the Sump
provide edible, tuberous roots for our
WDEOHVRQFHVXŗFLHQWO\VRIWHQHGE\D
ORQJERLO*URXQGUHHGJUDVVPDNHVŖRXU
for stonebaked breads. Our staple grain,
far beyond any other, is rice, which
grows well in the city and can be found
in most meals.
The sea’s bounty adorns our tables, but
it is not our only source of meats. Most
homes keep ducks, and some geese,
both well suited to life in this city. It is
not uncommon to trip over a duck in
a residential alley or have a humorous
13
encounter with a goose. Sea turtles
also can be kept well in a back yard or
courtyard, especially if a salted pool is
provided for their swimming. Frog and
ewt both provide delicious meats and
are readily available. Pigs have adapted
well to our town, and with some care to
keep their feet dry enough, sheep and
goats provide milk, butter, and meat.
For sweets, cranberries, blackberries,
musc grapes, and elderberries adorn
our centerpieces, sugared or fresh.
6DOWERLOHGWDŗHVDUHDIDYRULWHFRQIHF-
tion, easily made as they are with sugar,
butter, boiling salts, and a little labor.
Sweetened milkrice is another beloved
dessert, and stonebaked rice pastries
dipped in sugars are also a treat.
Our meals follow the seasons. In the
TXLHWRXUWDEOHVRYHUŖRZZLWKDOO
manner of vegetables and fruits. Come
ŕUHOLJKWJULOOHGDQGEODFNHQHGPHDWV
are in order.
The rainy season brings us seafood so
fresh as to be positively lively, mak-
ing our meals as amusing as they are
delicious. We turn to hearty smoked and
stonebaked fare in the windy season,
compensating as well as we can for all
WKRVHUDLQ\PRQWKVZLWKRXWŕUH
14
LIFE IN THE RAINY CITY
DRINK
Fresh water is easily found.
Teas grow well in the city, and a great
variety of green, black, and herbal teas
are sipped over polite conversation.
No meal is complete without an accom-
paniment of ricebeer, or wine made of
blackberry, cranberry, or elderberry.
Properly distilled, rice makes a lovely
poteen and wine fruits lovely brandies.
Elevated spirits can also be distilled
from macerush roots, most famously in
the form of boggy tipple, which may
HYHQEHSHDWVPRNHGLQŕUHOLJKW$QG
WKHHYHUSRSXODULQIXVLRQRIMXQLSHU
adds a lovely herbal quality to the
poteen commonly called gin.
RARE DELICACIES
Finally, many refugee ships arrive with
stores of food and drink, or even live
beasts, from their homelands. The
stores that survive make it to the tables
of those wealthy or fortunate enough to
acquire them.
Live beasts often are unloaded directly
to Clean Street in Vagabond Bay for
butchery in exchange for local silver,
ZLWKWKHH[RWLFPHDWVWKHQVROGWRŕQH
restaurants and the rich.
PESTS
Puddings of all manner are at their most
troublingly generative during the quiet,
but they are a persistent plague on our
city. Adaptable to seemingly any envi-
ronment, they creep behind basins and
between the walls, drop from overhangs
and ceilings, and lie in puddles in our
very streets awaiting an unwary foot.
Their ubiquity is cause for the entire
business of the guild of Puddinghands,
who carry alchemical solvents and pow-
GHUVRQWKHLUSXGGLQJKXQWV7KH\RŔHU
us at least some occasional respite, for a
small fee.
In the rainy season, sea pests also arise.
Barnacles grow up walls, and crabs and
shrimp clamber and skitter through our
streets and into our homes.
WILD BEASTS
Foxes live wild in all neighborhoods of
our city, and vigilance must be main-
WDLQHGRYHUGXFNŖRFNVOHVWWKHIR[WDNH
a better dinner than you.
The Sump also has more dangerous
beasts, including some bears, more
than a few alligators, and the predatory
dewgang, an omnivorous manatee of
surprisingly hostile agency.

WORKING BEASTS
Ewts are the most common beasts of
burden in the city. Visitors often com-
pare them to ponies and horses in terms
of size and the work they do.
With the right saddle and training, they
can be ridden. More commonly, they
are found pulling carriages, wagons, and
plows.
The ewt is an amphibious creature, and
native varieties can still be found wild
in the Sump and the Headlands alike.
The right rider may take an ewt straight
from the street into the waters and
back out again, and the most cleverly
designed coaches have boatlike bottoms
for easy transitions across bays and
channels.
PETS
Cats are a favored pet in the city,
beloved for their independence and
VHOIVXŗFLHQF\WKRXJKWKH\GRQRW
DOZD\VEHKDYHDURXQGŕVKODPSV
Dogs, too, make good companions,
with spaniels, retrievers, barbets, and
15
poodles all comfortable in our town and
serving good warning when puddings
enter a property.
,QVRPHKRXVHKROGVWKHŕVKLQWKH
lanterns are given names and attributed
personalities. These are the most com-
mon pets, but small ewt breeds like the
“evet” are popular as well.
SPEECH
Our city is home to uncountable
languages. Some are restricted to only
a single family or to arrivals from a par-
ticular ship. Others may serve a neigh-
borhood or diaspora spread throughout
the city.
This guide is written in Patois, our local
creole tongue.
HATS
I don’t have to tell you that the most
important accessory in the city is a good
hat. Umbrellas are of value, but we all
know that the Droll Union of Brolly-
factors rather overstates their merits. A
hat will not become entangled, unless
you are so close that you want it to be.
16
RICKETY AND THE SWELLS
$ŖRDWLQJSLUDWHKDYHQEXLOWIURPWKH
lashed-together wreckage of hundreds
of ships, drifting the Midder Swells.
Scoundrels too dangerous—or too free—
to make a life in the Rainy City may
ŕQGWKHPVHOYHVKHUH$PRWOH\WRZQ
more strange, wild, and varied than
any other place in the city. Its sprawl-
ing gangplank markets rival the Old
Town Bazaar, and if not for the Admi-
ralty blockade, many more merchants,
WUDGHUVDQGFLWL]HQVZRXOGŕQGFDXVHWR
visit.
Even with the blockade in place, smug-
glers do a brisk trade, bringing goods
between Rickety and Vagabond Bay,
and even sometimes bringing mer-
chants, other criminals, and the curious
to and from the city.
Find work on a pirate crew, sailing,
UREELQJDQGŕJKWLQJ*URZDQGKDUYHVW
kelp in the Farm. Work as a ship’s car-
penter or shipwright in the Yard; aspire
to the status of master ricketwright
DQGNHHSWKHFLW\LWVHOIDŖRDW6PXJJOH
Tend bar. Do taxidermy. Teach sword-
ŕJKWLQJ6HOOSURVWKHWLFV
LAW AND ORDER
Most unwelcome. The pirates of
Rickety live free and keep to their
RZQURXJKMXVWLFH'RZKDW\RXZLOO
The only consequences are the conse-
quences!
DISORDER AND DISARRAY
Always!

WEATHER
THE YARD
In the Inner Swells THE CABIN
near the Rainy
City, rolling
waves and
seasonal rains.
In the Midder SKIPTON PLANK
Swells around JONESTOWN
ROPE STREET
Rickety, steady
winds and lashing
rains.
STAR SQUARE
In the Bobber Sea,
THE IRON WORM
still winds, warm
PETREL POINT
waters, and a drizzly
sargasso. In the Outer
Swells, gales and tem-
pest-wracked seas. JUNKTOWN

INTERACT WITH
Pirates, especially human,
THE FARM
achterfuss, deepsy, gull, and
mermaid.

THE CABIN
A tower of ships stacked atop one
another teeters over Jonestown. This is
the tower of a wizard, known locally as
“Jonesy,” or “the Skipper,” known to
old friends and enemies in the Tower
&OLŔVDVij,DPELF3HQWDFXODUĴ+HUHLQ
this tower he toils over his tomes, cata-
loguing the secrets of the drowned.
He is the greatest wizard of the Rainy
City by some estimations, not least his
own. He wears ghosts as a cloak against
the wind, and a watery entity with his
very visage visits the city on his errands.
Why should a wizard of Iambic Pentac-
ular’s standing go outside and get his
head wet? His watery double can do so!
Its head is already wet!
THE IRON WORM
A great iron hulk of unknown prove-
nance, the Worm is site to many of the
busiest foodmarkets of Rickety. The
nearby kelp farmers sell their wares here
LQWKH,URQ0DUNHWDQGŕVKHUIRONKDYH
WDNHQWRMRLQLQJWKHP
In the belly of the Worm, hulkwrights
work tirelessly against the rust to keep
the Worm from sinking and dragging
Rickety down to the sea.
JUNKTOWN
The treasures of plundered ships and
SKDQWRPLVOHVDOLNHŕUVWFRPHWRPDUNHW
on the storied decks of Junktown.
There is perhaps no better market in the
FLW\WRŕQGDQHQFKDQWHGRUDFFXUVHG
gift for a special someone. The boldest
traders hire smugglers to take them to
and from Junktown, defying the Admi-
ralty’s blockade.
17
ROPE STREET
Stretching from Star Square through
Jonestown, Rope Street is a hanging
walkway of ropes, cables, cordage, and
sails. Treacherous to traverse, some take
it rather than the streets below to avoid
common street robbery and violence.
It is also the only way to reach the
Crow’s Nest, a pub built into a refur-
bished dogger suspended in the ropes,
much favored by Blackfeather’s crew.
SKIPTON PLANK
A gangway and public square where
dead pirate captains are honored in
HŗJ\
:HOOSHUKDSVHŗJ\LVQıWH[DFWO\WKH
right word—their bodies are recovered,
in whatever state they were in, and taxi-
dermied properly by the careful hands
RIWKH6FUXSXORXV6RFLHW\RIWKH6WXŔ
Great care is taken to preserve their
death wounds. Honorable name plates
are hanged from their necks on hempen
ropes.
The Plank is thus assured to be a riot-
ously haunted place. Stop by for a drink
with your old captain, or seek advice
from a captain of yore. Try your hand at
being ridden, giving a ghost a taste of
life for a few moments, a favor some will
repay with a service.
THE YARD
The “high docks” of Rickety, where
ships come to be hoisted aloft for repair
under the steady hands of carpenters
and shipwrights.
Ships of unknown provenance recov-
ered from the Swells are brought here
ŕUVWIRULQVSHFWLRQ
18
RICKETY AND THE SWELLS
MYSTERIES OF THE SWELLS
The Rainy City is surrounded by a
tempest-wracked sea. Wretched salvage
gangs, brazen pirates, and hardened
monster-trawlers sail the storm swells to
their own desperate ends. Reports from
these far mariners and from the captains
of refugee ships speak of nine great
cycles in the storm and of the nine great
waves encircling the city. Beyond the
ninth wave, it is said, lies the stormwall,
the end of all worlds.
It is by these waves and the coursing of
the clouds above that Rainy
City mariners navigate.
Refugee ships are
tossed by the storm-
wall into the Outer
Swells, where the
VWRUPVDUHŕHUFHVW
smashing many
ships before they
even approach the
refuge of the city.
Out here there also are
monsters—great sea
serpents and demons Capucine of the Wine Dark Sea
of wind and wave.
Those ships fortu-
QDWHHQRXJKWRVXUYLYHWKLVSDVVDJHŕQG
no rest, for in the Midder Swells lurk
pirates in fast cutters seeking treasures
from lost worlds. Salvage crews pick up
ZKHUHWKH\OHDYHRŔ
Lost ships may spot a dim light among
WKHZDYHVDQGŕQDOO\KRSHIRUUHIXJH
If they are lucky, they have reached the
Inner Swells and have seen the lights of
Vagabond Bay.
)RUWKH\ZLOOŕQGQRUHIXJHLQ5LFNHW\ return to the city.
THE BOBBER SEA & ENDSWELL
A strange, still sargasso sea extends
across a stretch of the Inner and Midder
Swells south and east of the Rainy City.
The winds die, the rains drop to a driz-
zle, and only by rowing can a ship move
through these waters.
This territory is home to the “Bob-
bers,” who live in shallow, oared ships
with two masts upon which they hang
KDPPRFNV%REEHUVGUDZNHOSDQGŕVK
from the sea for their meals, and dive
into the unusually shallow waters below
to salvage trinkets from the sea
ŖRRU
At the far end of the
Bobber Sea lies
Endswell, a region
where Midder
Swell currents drive
unlucky ships into
the thick sargasso,
where they become
WUDSSHG,WLVŕOOHG
with rotting hulks, the
lost, and the strange.
It can only be
approached safely
through the Bobber
Sea in an oared ship.
When someone causes enough trouble
to the wrong people in the Rainy City,
WKH\PD\ŕQGWKHPVHOYHVKDQGHGRŔWR
the Admiralty, who happily sails to the
edge of the Bobber Sea and sends them
on a rowboat to the edge of Endswell,
GURSSLQJWKHPRŔLQWRH[LOH7KH
Admiralty holds guard along the edge
of Endswell, allowing only those who
have served their exile to emerge and

THINGS TO DO
JOIN A PIRATE CREW! Those Admiralty
dogs will not say where you can and
cannot go, what you can and cannot do,
who you can and cannot rob! Sailing
skills helpful, but not needed, if you
have a certain je ne sais quoi.
Climb ropes! Board ships! Vote in the
captain! Vote out the captain! Sail the
storm-wracked seas of the Outer Swells,
seeking the richest prizes. Sail the roll-
ing waves of the Midder Swells, striking
ships before they reach port.
Join the crew of Blackfeather, the fear-
some gull pirate who bathes in gunpow-
der and heads the most motley ship in
the seas.
Join Early Yardarm, who rode a sea
serpent to the stormwall at the edge of
the Outer Swells and came back with a
passion to reach a treasure-encrusted
island he saw in the winds.
Join the mermaid pirate Capucine of the
Wine Dark Sea, the most formidable
captain in the Nine Swells, who walks
along the docks openly, wearing her
shawl upon her head and daring any
fool to try and take it. Yo ho!
19
EXPLORE PHANTOM ISLES! Gather a
small but venturesome salvage crew to
plunder phantom isles. For when the
currents align, phantom islands rise
above the breaking waves of the Nine
Swells.
Some say these isles are the places of
SRZHUIURPŖRRGHGZRUOGVFXUVHGDQG
cursing, and refusing for one last breath
to be lost to memory. Others that
drowning gods are holding them aloft
for they hold some last vestiges of their
powers. Still others that they contain
FXUVHVDQGHYLOVWKDWWKHVHDUHMHFWV
Whatever the truth, these isles rise to
the surface adorned with ancient ruins,
haunted by angry ghosts and bizarre
chimeras. Gather your crew of raiders
and rogues.
Stand your hydromancer on the prow
and your nephomancer by the helm,
to read the currents and clouds that
foretell where an island will appear.
Race and battle other crews for the best
treasures.
Tarry not too long, for some isles last
only a day, some only hours, before
being swallowed back up by the abyss.
20
Your port of arrival, with its piers
and docks, ships and warehouses,
sailors, bullies, and refugees. Barna-
cle encrusted shacks, narrow alleys,
ramshackle causeways and piers, rotting
wood, and the spray of salt and brine
everywhere.
Poorly built, and built altogether too
KLJKWKUHHWRŕYHVWRU\VKDQWLHVOHDQ
against each other for support. Row-
boats and barges, sloops and doggers,
and Admiralty ships of the line crowd
into creaky piers from Brining Lane to
the Fingers. Warehouses and pubs adorn
Bully Alley. Butchers keep Clean Street.
Refugees from a thousand worlds land
KHUHŕUVW
Welcome to the Rainy City!
WEATHER
Ever gustier and blusterier than the rest
of the city, prone to squalls, with strong
tides and unsteady waves. The waves of
the inner swells draw ships inexorably
toward this bay.
VAGABOND BAY
druggist, costermonger, mudlark,
smuggler, pirate, shipwright, ware-
houser, wormer, puddinghand, or tax
collector.
LAW AND ORDER
The Admiralty keeps order in its
way—the order of the sea, doling out
whippings and beatings as needed to
establish peace. The gangs maintain
their own order in their neighborhoods.
Where they can, the Port Association
ŕJKWVWRSURWHFWUHIXJHHVLQQHHG
DISORDER AND DISARRAY
Clashes between the tars and the gangs
are common. Clashes between the Por-
ters and anyone who would exploit or
attack refugees—gangs, tax collectors,
and other criminals—are rarer, occurring
in bursts.
THE FINGERS

INTERACT WITH
Local humans, gulls, deepsies,
mermaids, achter-
fusses, sirens, undines, MURK
CORNERS BULLY
L
and larvae, as well ALLEY
CLEAN
as beings of all sorts STREET
WINSTEAD
recently arrived from
BRINING
ŖRRGHGZRUOGV LANE

Find work as a
ŕVKPRQJHUŕVKHU PIDDOCK TOWN &
bully (longshore- UNDERHANG

man), sailor,
Admiralty tar,
auctioneer,
FISHMARKET

ADMIRALTY HOUSE,
THE FINGERS
Private club for members of the Admi-
UDOW\2QO\UHFRJQL]HGQDYDORŗFHUV
PD\HQWHUWKHXSSHUŖRRUVDQGRQO\
commanders and above may enter the
Council Chambers.
The club bar has the largest collection
of otherworldly brandies, gins, rums,
and whiskeys in any one place in the
city, saved and protected by tars while
escaping their own doomed worlds.
BRINING LANE AND
BULLY ALLEY
The busiest portside lanes, for citywide
trade and refugee arrivals.
CLEAN STREET
Many ships arrive with livestock or
food animals, and many are sold for
immediate butchery on Clean Street,
LQH[FKDQJHIRUORFDOVLOYHU7KHUXQRŔ
from the butcher’s shops runs into the
bay, darkening the waters and attracting
sharks and the oppobriation of mer-
maids.
Vellum makers and some bookbinders
can be found on Clean Street as well.
Hove’s Bindings, the bookbinding shop
of Verily Hove, Witch of Clean Street,
can be found here.
Dark rumors swirl around Ma Hove,
who has been seen more than once fol-
lowing a wizard who later disappeared.
FISHMARKET
7KLVVSUDZOLQJŕVKPDUNHWH[WHQGVRQ
wharves over part of the bay. The bell
rings daily at 5 am, signalling the begin-
ning of the trading day.
21
)LVKHUVFDUULHUVEURNHUVDQGŕVKPRQ-
JHUVHQWHUŕUVW%\DPEXPPDUHHV
begin selling to the costermongers, and
by 9 am the busiest part of the day has
passed.
Every year, on the ninth day of the
rainy season, Fishmarket is host to a
massive festival—“the Gentle Exchange
of the Fish.”
MURK CORNERS
7KLVQHLJKERUKRRGDGMRLQVWKHSODFH
where the bay ends and the Murk
begins. The fogs of the Murk roll into
this neighborhood unpredictably, stay-
ing sometimes for hours, sometimes for
days. Ghosts come with them.
The locals leave fruit and spirits at small
shrines in the hopes of appeasing them.
PIDDOCK TOWN
6SLOOLQJRYHUWKHHGJHRIWKHFOLŔRQ
ZRRGHQVFDŔROGVDQGVXSSRUWVDJORZ
with luminous piddocks, Piddock Town
extends down to the sea and the com-
munity of boat people who live below.
SEVEN BULLY ALLEY
A sprawling wooden tenement tower-
ing over multiple blocks of Vagabond
Bay along the Alley, teeming with an
unknown number of people.
It serves as home to many newly arrived
refugees, containing entire enclaves
from some lost lands.
Its residents also include bullies and
their families, mudlarks and theirs, and
PDQ\JXOOVWRRROGWRŖ\
The basement houses deepsy families
ZKRFDQHQGXUHWKHUHJXODUŖRRGLQJ
No one owns it, and no one controls it.
22
ORGANIZATIONS
The Admiralty is a club where all
old navy hands can gather, in a richly
appointed (if a bit salt-crusted) pub and
lighthouse in the Fingers, at the tip of
Vagabond Bay. Only sailors from legit-
imate navies may enter, and they must
prove their provenance through tests
from known members to become tars.
The organization also fronts the Rainy
&LW\ıVXQRŗFLDO1DY\OHGE\WKH
self-appointed “Council of Admirals.”
It is led by the Admiral of the Fleet,
Alpha Admiral Herrinck
Barnswallow, and Admi-
ral Chanticleer Wigg.
The Admiralty
patrols the waters
around the city to
keep pirates and
ULŔUDŔDWED\
The Noble Asso-
ciation of Fishers
and Fishmongers
controls Fishmarket and
its tributaries. This most
genteel of associations Sir Aberdaire Alderman
provides the city with much
of its food. It is led by Sir Aberdaire
Alderman, Earl of Fishmarket Way,
and his governing council—the Peers of
Fishmarket Way.
,WLVRQO\ŕWWLQJWKDWWKHDVVRFLDWLRQ
hosts the greatest annual festival in
the city, on the ninth day of the rainy
season, “The Gentle Exchange of
the Fish.” It is said that more money
passes through Fishmarket’s vault, “the
Locker,” in those three days than any
other vault in the city the entire year.
VAGABOND BAY
The Port Association for the Ben-
MÅKQIT1VKWZXWZI\QWVWN :MN]OMM[
and Asylum Seekers (“the Porters”)
is a charitable organization that works
to clothe, feed, and support refugees in
ŕQGLQJDSODFHLQWKHFLW\
,WVIRXQGHUZDVDQLQŖXHQWLDOPHPEHU
of the Union of Bullies, the city’s guild
of stevedores, and many bullies are
counted among its membership. The
Porters work out of 9-18 Bully Alley, a
loose cluster of shacks and warehouses
one street back from the harbor, where
they provide rooms, soup,
ŕVKDQGRWKHUDLGWRQHZ
arrivals in need.
While focused on
providing charitable
aid to the needy,
the Porters are not
averse to violence
and have intermit-
tent clashes with tax
collectors, tars of the
Admiralty, and members
of the Vagabond Bay Boys
and Sons of Arne.
The Chivalrous Order
of the Cuttle provides docking services
to ships in need. Baltic Grey and his
knights, or “Cuttlers,” place alchem-
ically treated pudding-globes over
their mouths to breathe water and ride
trained krakens.
Many a captain new to the city has
EHHQWHUULŕHGE\WKHJUDVSLQJDUPVRI
a kraken upon their ship, only to see a
MRYLDOZLQNDVD&XWWOHUJXLGHVWKHPWR
safe harbor.
For a fee, of course!
 23

THINGS TO DO boarding action in one of the count-

YOU HAVE BEEN WRONGED. Perhaps less border engagements between the
your application for membership in Admiralty and the pirates.
the Noble Association of Fishers and Or circumvent the blockade entirely,
Fishmongers has been denied because dropping sail and rowing through the
\RXDUHijQRWDŕVKHURUŕVKPRQJHUĴ doldrums of the Bobber Sea among
EHFDXVH\RXDUHWKHZURQJNLQGRIŕVKHU the wrecks of lost ships and their wild
RUŕVKPRQJHU&RUPRUDQWŕVKHUVQHHG inhabitants, coming back to Rickety
not apply), or because you are so good from the other side.
DWŕVKLQJWKDWWKH3HHUVGRQıWZDQWWR
be compared to you.
JOIN THE PORTERS! Guard refugees
from tax collectors and other scam
Maybe you are a standing member of artists. Fight the Sons of Arne and the
the Association, but one of the Peers of Vagabond Bay Boys in the streets to
Fishmarket Way has insulted your boat. protect the innocent or at least the
Whatever the reason, you have been naive.
wronged, and you will have your Stop the Admiralty from pressing new-
revenge. comers into their damned navy.
No one has ever robbed the Locker 6HQGDJHQWVWKURXJKRXWWKHFLW\WRŕQG
during the Gentle Exchange of the work and shelter for new arrivals and
Fish, they say. protect them from the depredations of
Well, no one has ever been as motivated the gangs, cults, and guilds.
as you. Give food to the hungry. Punch slavers
YOU ARE A SMUGGLER. and slum lords in the face.
Smuggle rice and other
goods from the city from
the bay to the pirate
haven of Rickety in the
Swells. Evade the Admi-
ralty’s blockade, slipping
through by night. Play a
game of cat and mouse
with the Admiralty using
the phantom islands of
the Inner Swells as hid-
den coves and harbors.
Be bold! Sneak your
goods onto an Admiralty
ship, waiting to move
them to a pirate sloop
during the chaos of a
24
The heart of the city, where baroque
guild halls and shops now displace the
crumbling domes and towers of old, or
UHŕWWKHPWRQHZSXUSRVHV
Sections of wall knocked out of an old
palace make room for a locksmith’s
shop, a cobbler, and a moneychanger.
Limestone columns and terracotta
ornaments from an ancient temple
adorn the entryway of an umbrella
emporium. The verdigris-covered dome
IURPDIDOOHQWRZHUVHUYHVDVDŕQHURRI
for a saltboiled cod stall.
From the walls, gargoyles stare and
spout while tradesmen, traders, and
townsfolk barter and crowd.
Watch the skies, and watch your
pockets!
OLD TOWN
through monopolistic fellowship. Find
independent work as a thief or charla-
tan, minting your own riches out of the
innocence of others.
LAW AND ORDER
Old Town law is guild law. Trenchant
guild enforcers and merchant body-
guards impose order over their domains.
DISORDER AND DISARRAY
Pickpocketing and thievery in markets
and shops, muggings in alleys. Prov-
ocations and bedevilment by gangs of
apprentices wandering at night. Brawls
between members of rival guilds,
or raids and skirmishes over serious
DŔURQWV
GLEN’S LANDING

WEATHER
Quintessentially seasonal—
drizzles in the quiet, showers
LQŕUHOLJKWGRZQSRXUVLQ GRACE PARISH

the rainy season, and thun-

OLD STAIR BAY
A
derstorms in the windy
season.
HOLDINGS
HEADFIELDS
INTERACT WITH
A miscellany of mer-
chants and craftworkers
WOLTER’S
from every conceivable FARM
world. Gargoyles of every
size and description, espe- CROSSTOWN

cially around the Chantry.

Find honest work with a
WESTERN TRADES
trade guild, honing your
craft from apprenticeship THE ROOKERY
R

to mastery. CUPPERS

)LQGSURŕWDEOHZRUNZLWK
a merchant guild, protect- ROUNDERS
VERDIGRIS STREET

LQJ\RXUŕQDQFLDOLQWHUHVWV

THE BARRISTER COURT
Binding contracts in the city are sealed
by pacts with devils, ghosts, fairies,
and other spirits. When a contractual
dispute arises, covens of barristers and
VROLFLWRUVQHJRWLDWHWKHŕQHUGHWDLOV
of the pacts at the Barrister Court in
Bedding.
THE OLD TOWN BAZAAR
A system of passages, plazas, and
emporia in Eastern Market, crowded
with shops and stalls selling the artifacts
of ten thousands worlds. It is an easy
matter to become lost in its labyrinthine
passages, or turned around by a savvy
seller.
BIG JEN
J CROSSTOWN
The high belltower at the center of
Bellstown, where the Clangers’ Guild
makes its home. Big Jen is one of the
most celebrated landmarks in the city
on Bellringer’s Day. PEAS OOP
STONEBREAKS
EASTCHEAP
A
GILDER SQUARE
EASTERN MARKET
BELLSTOWN
BEDDING
25
CHANTRY HALL
At the heart of Western Trades stands a
seven-story testament to the power of
WKHDOFKHPLVWV,WVPDVVLYHJURXQGŖRRU
houses Chantry Theater, the most pres-
tigious opera house in the city. Here,
every Midwinder, Grandmaster Axatos
hosts a citywide guild conclave, bring-
ing craft and merchant guild masters
together on matters of shared concern.
Other nights of the year, alchemists and
their guests plot over mixed drinks in
the Alembic, the guild’s private club.
The personal laboratories of the magis-
ters, masters of alchemy and of the city
itself, are found in the upper levels.
Before the rains, this neighborhood
was home to the manses and towers of
wizards. These towers were abandoned
when the Grand Academy sank beneath
the Murk, but their ruins remain, many
now serving as the workshops of
tradesmen or shops of merchants.
Some still have sealed dungeons
beneath. Venturesome entrepre-
neurs pay shop owners for access,
unsealing a vault to seek its trea-
sures below. Some return.
THE OLD STONE HOUSE
A stout old gatehouse and traveler’s
LQQRIROGVWLOOVHUYLQJŕQHO\GLVWLOOHG
Stonehouse Spirits to locals of Stone-
breaks. Here Haberdashers from nearby
Ward Hall and Hatpin Street mix with
the ferrymen of the Murk who ply their
trade from Stonebreaks Pier. Ewt-
drawn carriage drivers have a drink
after—or before—delivering customers
from all districts to and from the pier.
26
GUILDS
The guilds rule Old Town, and from
there, the city itself.
Our city has no king, no mayor, no
ruling council, and each district has
its own leaders, by dint of custom and
might. But the guilds are everywhere,
and their decrees and oaths bind their
shared interests.
Only the foolish, bold, or desperate
defy the guilds, and then only in secret.
The greatest guild of all in power and
OLD TOWN
The Master and Four Wardens of
the Fellowship of the Art or Mys-
tery of Haberdashery and Mil-
linery governs the arts of hat, cape,
cloak, shawl, and kerchief making,
as well as the mysteries of pin, clasp,
needle, button, badge, and ribbon.
Everyone, from the lowliest plucker
of the Sump to the greatest wizard of
WKH7RZHU&OLŔVQHHGVDKDWZKLFKWKH
Haberdashing Fellowship provides.
Under the steady hand of Master Abe-
lard Hardebard and his four Wardens—
prestige is the Harmonious %HDXUHJDUGŕUVWLQDUWLVWU\
Chantry, which subsumes (GZ¡UGŕUVWLQZKLPV\
all chemistry, alchemy, *DUGQDUGŕUVWLQEDO-
and magistery. ance), and Harvárd
No unguents,
salves, balms,
emollients, creams,
preparations,
agents, counter-
agents, drugs,
draughts, elixirs,
tonics, brews, or potions
may be made by anyone,
unless said craft be properly Alchemists at Work
regulated and controlled by
the Chantry.
Alchemists produce the boiling salts
that give us hot foods in all seasons,
the black powder that lights rockets,
SLVWROVDQGPXVNHWVLQŕUHOLJKWDQG
the healing draughts and curatives that
remedy our ills.
Only the guild holds these secrets, yet
they seek an even deeper mystery—the
HOXVLYHHQOLJKWHQPHQWRIDOFKHPLFDOŕUH
WKHŕUHZKLFKZLOOEXUQHWHUQDOO\DQGLQ
all seasons. None yet have succeeded.
ŕUVWLQGHOLFDF\į
the Fellowship
ensures that no
head goes uncov-
ered, except those
fool delugeonists.
The Molten Hands
oversee all smithcraft
and metalwork from their
foundry town in Rounders.
Most smithcraft can only
EHDFFRPSOLVKHGGXULQJŕUHOLJKWDQ
intense and laborious time for the guild,
for only then can the foundries be made
hot enough for all work. This is why
the prices of smithed items are so high
throughout our town.
The Molten Hands are also responsible
for the annual Molten Hand Festival,
when they create scattered “star show-
ers” in Rounders by hurling molten lead
against the Roundwall to celebrate the
VHDVRQRIŕUH

The Society of Thatch is our guild of
venturesome roof workers—for it takes
daring to work on the rain-slick roof-
tops of this city.
7KDWFKHUVZRUNZLWKDOOURRŕQJWLOHV
and types (thatch is rarely used in the
modern city) but hold proudly to their
ancient name.
Their rivalry with gargoyles, whose
stony weight and claws often damage
roofs, is legend, and their exploits on
WKHij7KDWFKHU5RDGĴDUHWKHVWXŔRI
street songs and Penny Delight-
fuls. These tales make
Thatchers into living
folk heroes who brave
the winds, rain, gar-
goyles, ghosts, and
goblins above us
to keep our houses
dry.
The Pudding-
hand’s Union, in
their own words: “For
hundreds of years, we,
the goodly members of the
Puddinghand’s Union have Panchen Tor
kept both the stately homes
and understately hovels of the Rainy
City clear of the myriad oozes, slimes,
PROGVMHOOLHVJRRVPXFNVVOXGJHVDQG extraordinarily common? It is no more
sundry amorphous blobs endemic to our than bad luck, and it is impolite to sug-
metropolis.
We, the People of the Pudding, toil in
the damp and the dark so you can go
to your toilet without losing your seat.
And yes, you are very welcome for it.
But we do not do it for your gratitude.
We do it because we take pride in The
Work.”
27
The Clangers’ Guild serves an equally
important function in this city—driving
gargoyles away from our roofs when
they settle in to roost there, making
altogether too great a clamor. That is
when you call the Clangers down from
their clubhouse in the belltower of Big
Jen.
Guild Master Panchen Tor will gladly
send a crew out to clang your house,
walking through it ringing bells in
every room to drive away the gargoyles
above—and doing the Thatchers a
favor in the process, not that
they ever hear a thank
you for it.
Pay no mind to
scurrilous rumors
that Clangers have
been seen consort-
ing with gargoyles
before and after
clangings. They
could not be working
together, for they are
mortal enemies, as they so
vigorously proclaim.
It is true that many a clanged
home has been burgled not long after
a clanging. But are burglaries not
gest that there is any connection.
The Free Order of Masons built the
foundations of this city, and they main-
tain it under the hand of Zebulon Tugg.
0DVRQLFFUDIWVULWXDOVDQGVDFULŕFHV
bind the stones upon which we walk. It
is best not to question the deeper mys-
teries behind their works.
28
STREET ALCHEMY
A crooked alley leads from Peas Oop to
Murk Corners. You have stumbled upon
Nimbus Row. There in the enduring
IRJ\RXPD\ŕQGDQXQDVVXPLQJKRPH
with an equally unassuming window.
$V\RXDSSURDFK\RXPD\ŕQGWKDWWKH
ZLQGRZLVRSHQHG$QG\RXPD\ŕQG
that a man stands at the window.
His training is alchemical.
His business, medicinal.
His impression, philosophical.
+HZHDUVDORQJWDLORUHGMDFNHWRIVHDO-
skin, adorned with seven clasps, one of
gold, one of silver, one of copper, one
of iron, one of tin, one of cinnabar, and
one of lead.
Vengus Ult does not peddle the wares
of the guild. To do such a thing would
be a breach of guild law. Only a fool or
a very dangerous person would risk such
a thing.
Does he look like a fool to you?
No, of course not.
OLD TOWN
Vengus Ult is a simple seller of tinctures
and unguents. He will gladly sell you his
wares, if you have need. Many people in
the Rainy City are in need.
And Vengus Ult does not like to see a
person in need.
He will also buy from you, if you have
the right wares to sell. Books. Gri-
moires, in fact, are something of a
hobby.
No, he is no wizard.
Some people are readers, friend. There
is nothing strange about that.
Do not listen to, or spread, rumors
that Vengus Ult has within his home a
farm of sorts. There is no damp kitchen
where great old grimoires lie open while
fungi sprout from their mouldering
pages.
A mushroom library?
This can only be a fantasy.
Who would consume a mushroom
grown from a grimoire’s pages, after all?
What might become of one who would?

THINGS TO DO
PROVE THE PUDDING! Our city is awash
in oozes, slimes, and blobs. Join Guild-
master Aloisius Grunt in the noblest
profession—crawling through pipes,
sticking your head down drains, and
reaching into cracks to clear homes and
businesses of infestation.
You go prepared. You have gloves! Vials
of alchemical reactants adorn your belt!
You know how to keep your head about
you when things
go pudding
shaped.
Endure foul
odors, miasmas,
and vapors! Defy
poisons and
poxes!
After a long day,
retire to Geor-
gie’s Pub for a
drink with your
mates.
And above all,
take pride in The
Work.
WALK THE THATCHER ROAD. The
roofs of our city are a borderland, a
place between, where the boundaries
between the unseen world and our per-
ceptible world are blurred and crossed.
Trolls cling to the undersides of eaves,
awaiting a careless footstep on the roof
above or a careless peek out a window,
that they might throw someone to their
death.
&KLPQH\JREOLQVWRLODWOLJKWLQJŕUH
WRURRŕQJWLOHVHYHQLQWKHUDLQLHVWRI
29
weather, always needing more black
smoke to fuel their lungs.
Stunted hobgoblins crawl along the
edges of roofs with bricks and debris to
drop onto the heads of passing pedes-
trians.
The newly dead abide for a time above
the places they were killed, senseless
and terrible, seeking redress, revenge,
or simple slaughter.
Nightmare steeds
carry greyfaced
spectral hunters on
their nightly ride
from the Head-
lands to the Sump.
Ghostly spires
appear above the
roofs of our town-
houses where the
towers and temples
once stood.
Gargoyles perch
and clamber. Gulls
screech and mob.
Sorcerers call up
devils on the tops
of houses built over ancient crossroads.
And many burglars and killers take the
high road to and from their visitations,
risking the dangers of the road for the
sake of imperceptibility to their victims.
In the midst of it all, the Thatchers toil
and venture, arm wrestling trolls, having
mustache competitions with devils,
wrestling with gargoyles, and singing
the Thatcher working songs that charm
their feet from slipping and ward their
hearts against bedevilments.
32
The fogbound canal that separates the
upper and lower islands of the city.
Towers of the once great school of
magic emerge from the fog and still
waters.
Ferrymen with long poles use the tow-
ers to guide their boats across. Spectres
and spirits haunt the crossing.
On maps, it may show up as “the Nim-
bus,” but to most citizens, this is simply
“the Murk.”
WEATHER
Thick fog, always.
By day, calm waters, with
small, languid waves.
By night, unnatural
stillness.
There is no wind in
DQ\VHDVRQMXVWWKH
steady drizzle of
the rains.
Chill and clammy,
always. All the more when
the ghosts gather.
Old Schwiller
INTERACT WITH
Ferrymen, their customers, old
school divers, and ghosts.
3LORWDIHUU\MRLQDGLYHRUWKULOOYLVLWRUV
DVD1LPEXVEDOORRQLVWGXULQJŕUHOLJKW
LAW AND ORDER
The only law of the Murk is goblin law—
DSSHDVHWKHVSLULWVOHVW\RXMRLQWKHP
DISORDER AND DISARRAY
Angry ghosts are a constant concern.
Muggings and ferryboat freebooting
are very real risks as well.
THE MURK
ORGANIZATIONS
The Collegial Fellowship of the
Ferry is the informal professional asso-
ciation of those who work these waters,
bringing passengers over the channel
and divers to their towers.
Its members gather on no particular
schedule in the Old Stone House, near
the ferry piers in Stonebreaks, to share
lore and advice.
It is important to stay aware of which
hobgoblins and haunts have emerged
from the down below each day,
what riddles and risks they
pose, and how to appease
them as needed to pass
by.
Elder ferrymen,
like Old Schwiller,
are respected for
the decades of lore
they hold. For there
are seasons and cycles
among the goblins, and
when old things arise, old
wisdom can help put them
back to rest for a time.
(YHU\ŕUHOLJKWthe Lofty
Order of Balloonists, Balloon-
wrights, and Aerofactors brings a
little whimsy to the Nimbus! Ride as if
through a cloud in the upper Nimbus.
&URVVWKHFKDQQHOLQVW\OHŖRDWLQJJHQ-
tly above the worried waters below.
Balloonists are agile hands and genial
conversationalists, making the traverse a
MR\$HURIDFWRUVDSURIHVVLRQDODVVR-
ciation of gulls, defend the balloons
and give gentle pushes to propel the
balloons smoothly across the channel.

THE GRAND ACADEMY
The Academy was the reason for the old
city’s greatness. Everyone came here to
study magic in all its subtle and unsubtle
forms. Now, the school lies beneath the
Murk, but for the towers that rise up
from its waters.
Wards and protective spells still hold
in many places, keeping the school’s
FKDPEHUVXQŖRRGHG:KHUHZDUGVKDYH
partially failed, waterfalls run down
stairs or pour in windows, and rivers
ŖRZGRZQKDOOZD\V:KHUHZDUGVKDYH
IDOOHQURRPVDUHŖRRGHGHQWLUHO\
Rotting spellbooks spill pocket
dimensions into old lecture halls. Spells,
mixed by rot and blotted ink, awaken to
confused chimerical life. Goblin and fey
servitors run free.
Here a troll charges a toll to any who
cross his makeshift bridge built of old
tables. There a host of low elfs eats an
endless feast, sat in water up to their
waists. In the alchemy wing, invading
sea-things slurp through old laborato-
ULHV0RQVWHUVIURPWKHQRZŖRRGHG
dungeons beneath the school have made
new homes in its upper chambers. And
dead wizards still orchestrate old feuds.
33
THE DIVING CLUB
This adventurers’ club has chapter-
houses throughout the city, but its
KHDGKRXVHLVDVWROLGDŔDLULQ6WLOOZDWHU
Landing in the Mids.
To become a member, one must be a
survivor of at least one dive into the
ruins of the Grand Academy of Magick,
earning the moniker of “diver.”
The club serves as a clearing house for
MREVUXPRUVZDUQLQJVDQGORUHDERXW
the enchanted, treasure-laden academy
ruins. It is also a great place to have a
drink.
THE GOLDEN KANDIVE
An onion-domed tower rising three
stories above the Murk houses this pub
and eatery.
Here Old Town guild hands rub elbows
with Midstowners at the upstairs bar
while ferrymen take lunch by the win-
dows. Divers gather over maps by the
golden stairs, a central circular staircase
that descends into the tower, and a main
thoroughfare for the adventurous to
enter the academy ruins.
Try the lampreys, which are delicious.
Do take care not to consume them in
surfeit.
34
Industry! Religion! Revolution! Admire
the mighty engineering of pumphouses
and watergates that divert the rains.
Marvel at the wheelhouses that power
the pumps as well as our mills and fab-
ricatories!
Appreciate the simple beauty of lane
after lane of stock brick rowhouses. Join
a creed, cult, or chapel in Littleshrines,
or pledge yourself to a sacred union
or fraternal society. Start a revolution!
Watch your back, and learn the secret
signs!
WEATHER
Steady. Oppressive. Gray.
THE BOUNDS
MOSS
OSSY TOP
THE PUMP DISTRICT
LEVEE TOWN
Find work as a Pumphand or Wheel-
hand, or volunteer as a Constable of
the Pump or of the Wheel. Proselytize
as a street prophet or chapel priest in
Littleshrines. Labor in a fabricatory or
manufactory. Make bricks. Mine tar at
the pits. Sponge water from the streets
as a spongehand. At least it’s industri-
RXV2ULI\RXSUHIHUMRLQDUHYROXWLRQ-
ary society and break the power of the
bosses!
LAW AND ORDER
The Order of the Pump and the Order
of the Wheel are everywhere in the
Rainy City, but here they are the law.
CAP
A TAIN’S
QUARTER

THE BRICKS Volunteer

constables of
the Pump and
LITTLESHRINES
of the Wheel have
granted themselves
authority to keep order
in Levee Town, and they do
WENDING WHEEL CORNERS so, with clubs. They also enforce
Levee Town’s Ninth Bell curfew,
demanding that all lights be doused
BROWNSTONE and all citizens be in their homes from
Ninth Bell to Morning Bell.
LEVVEE & SEAWALL
DISORDER AND DISARRAY
Cults conspire with and against each
other, spilling blood when need be.
INTERACT WITH
Constables of the Pump and of the
+XPDQVPRVWO\EXWDQ\RQHFDQŕQG
Wheel altercate too, for while guilds
WKHLUSODFHE\MRLQLQJDVRFLHW\RUVHFW
may be bound together by the inexo-
Conform, and you will be most wel- rability of industry, their rivalry often
come! erupts into most spirited violence.

GRAVES FIELD
The oldest graveyard in the city,
shunned and overgrown. No one enters
WKHŕHOGXQOHVVWKH\KDYHQHHGįEXW
many have need to visit.
In a little chapel at the heart of the yard
lives Antigone Graves, the Witch of
Wending Street. Ma Graves was here
when the oldest among us were born,
bringing us into this world. She will be
here still when the youngest among us
dies.
THE LEVEE
If not for this feat of prodigious engi-
QHHULQJ/HYHH7RZQZRXOGEHŖRRGHG
And in need of a new name! All the
wheels and pumps of the district push
water to the sea or the Levee, which
then pumps our excess waters into the
Sump.
The Levee also doubles as a wall
between the indigent vulgar poor of the
Sump and the industrious working poor
of Levee Town. Inspirational!
LITTLESHRINES
The sacred heart of the city, where
uncounted shrines, altars, and chapels
cluster along the central street and cram
into side streets, all trying to move
onto the main. Prophets, proselytes,
and priests shout from windows or atop
boxes, revealing the dictates of their
gods.
Annually, the sects of Littleshrines put
on the Grand Procession of Bellringer’s
Night, when the curfew is lifted and the
whole city descends on Levee Town to
revel and parade at the turning of the
year.
35
MOSSY TOP
This hilly rise in Levee Town is home
to a thriving art scene, all thanks to the
talent of the mudscaper, Capability
Withers. Capability’s fantastical mud
sculptures never last, but the impres-
sions they leave have inspired artists
IURPDOODFURVVWKHFLW\WRŖRFNWRWKLV
place.
THE PUMP DISTRICT
There is perhaps no more iconic symbol
of Levee Town than the Engine Room,
home of the Order of the Pump!
Pumphands take pride in their indus-
try, and they will not let the gutters,
drains, conduits, pipes, and mains of the
neighborhood lay the city to waste. All
WKDWUDLQDOOWKDWŖRRGLWFDQQRWGHIHDW
the pumps.
The Engine Room is the pumping heart
that keeps our city streets free of the
ŖRRGV
THE TAR MINES
Great, deep pools of thick black pitch
give us tar for our roofs and ships. Tar
miners draw the tar from the pools.
WHEEL CORNERS
There is perhaps no more iconic symbol
of Levee Town than the Wheel House,
home of the Order of the Wheel!
Wheelhands take pride in their indus-
try, and they will not let the gutters,
drains, conduits, pipes, and mains of the
neighborhood go to waste. All that rain,
DOOWKDWŖRRGLWDOOWXUQVWKHZKHHOV
The Wheel House is the true engine
that powers the pumps, mills, and man-
ufactories of the city.
36
ORGANIZATIONS
The Adepts of the Deluge is the city’s
most widespread—and least demanding—
religious sect. Delugeonists embrace the
rains.
Some adherents step outside each day
for prayers without hat or umbrella.
More rigorous observants disdain
XPEUHOODVKDWVDQGRWKHUREMHFWVRI
delusion and self-deception at all times,
instead walking with naked heads
beneath the falling rains. The truly
devout enter the streets fully exposed to
the storms.
The most extreme sects,
RŗFLDOO\SURVFULEHG
HPEUDFHWKHŖRRGV
so fully as to engage
in acts of sabotage
against pump and
wheel, praying
for the day when
WKHFLW\ŕQDOO\LV
embraced by the
waves.
All believers, regardless
of sect, agree on this: you Adepts of the Deluge The wheels power our
may choose to cover your
head with a wide-brimmed cap, or hide
beneath an umbrella, but you cannot
escape the truth!
The *MVMÅKMV\7ZLMZWN \PM;XWVOM to help loot old basements. The wheel is
is a guild of common working people
who, with sponge and mop, engage in
ceaseless labor to unwet the streets.
Everyone knows that Levee Town has
the driest streets in the city thanks to
the proud work of the sponge. You
may wonder how anyone can tell the
GLŔHUHQFHEXWZHNQRZWKHVWUHHWVDUH
LEVEE TOWN
drier because the Order of the Sponge
tells us so! All that labor must amount to
something. Otherwise why would they
do it?
The Order of the Pump, led by
Thomas Pumpend, is the civil engineer-
ing guild that keeps Levee Town from
ŖRRGLQJ7KH\DOVRDFWDVSDLGH[SHUWV
for pumpwork in the excavation of old
city ruins.
0DQ\ZDWHUŕOOHGROGFLW\UXLQVFDQEH
found beneath our streets and homes,
and excavation crews employ pump-
hands to force out the water
long enough for a crew
to go in and reclaim
ancient artifacts.
The Order of
the Wheel, led by
George Wheelend,
is the civil engi-
neering guild that
builds wind and water
wheels to provide
power to Levee Town
and beyond.
mills, turning the raw grass
seeds of the Sump into honest food-
VWXŔV,WLVWKHZKHHOVWKDWSRZHURXU
pumps, giving the pumpers the leisure
the most industrious shape, and it is an
honor to bear its sign.
Arden Moistneck preaches \PM:M^M-
lations of the Drowned Man. Arden
initiates new members in the holy
drowning pool in the basement of his
VKULQHDW/LWWOHVKULQHV$OOH\ULŖLQJ
their pockets only after their passing.

THINGS TO DO
BREAK CURFEW! Who are the consta-
bles to say you can’t be outside after
Ninth Bell? You can.
You have legitimate business. Go to
late night parties. Fight other night
walkers in the streets. Steal from the
fabricatories, moving your hard won
goods through the dark streets. Con-
stables can’t be everywhere, after all!
Smuggle wisps, leeches, or citizens past
the Levee. If the constables didn’t want
the district bathed in the conspiratorial
security of encompassing darkness, they
would let you light your home after
Bell.
VOLUNTEER! You’re a constable now—
wear the badge of the Pump or the
Wheel with pride.
Becoming an Engineer of the Pump
or Wheel may require seven years of
hard apprenticeship simply to become a
MRXUQH\PDQEXWDOOLWWDNHVWREHFRPHD
constable is a volunteer spirit!
Investigate ritual murders in Little-
shrines. Protect pump or wheel houses
against extreme delugeonists. Drive
wandering haunts and gaunts back to
Graves Field during night watch. Pro-
tect citizens from themselves!
37
START A CULT! Everyone needs some-
thing to believe in. Why not let them
believe in you?
Promote or invent a god, demon, spirit,
or even pantheon! Declare yourself a
divine being! No one will know the dif-
ference, and there is good money in it.
Spy on rival cults, grow your shrine or
territory. Do some good for yourself, or
even for others, I suppose, if you must.
([SDQG\RXULQŖXHQFHEH\RQG/LWWOH-
shrines to the rest of Levee Town and
beyond. Who’s to stop you, other than
the other cults?
WORKING PEOPLE OF THE CITY, UNITE!
It is our time now.
Will you march with us? Will you take
back what is yours?
Too long have the bosses stolen our
labor, giving us only pencies of our own
work!
Too long have they shackled us in their
manufactories, pumped us for their
SURŕWVDQGEURNHQXVRQWKHLUZKHHOV
No more!
:HZLOOFDVWRŔWKHLUVKDFNOHVWDNHEDFN
our labor, and break their wheels and
pumps! Working people of the city,
unite!
38
THE SUMP
The Rainy UPTOWN AND
FLOOD STREET
City’s marshy, ACKERS

freshwater slums.
A place of rot- BRIDGER’S
MARKET
ting, mossy huts
on tilted stilts,
of mire and MUDDLEMARSH

muck, of shaky THE WASH

walkways over WORMSWELL

muddy pools,
and of paupers,
rafts, and rice.
BOG END
9LQHVŖRZHUV
and fungi engulf
shacks and burst CORMORANT
COV
out of soggy PONDHEIM
O E

rafts and gang-
planks.
Here the vulgar
poor steadily gather the many fungi,
reedtubers, weedseeds, and vegetables
that feed the better classes of other
districts. Sumpcats and marshbears stalk
high reedbeds. Shinebees hide in rushes
and under gangplanks. Copperheads,
ZLOGHZWVDQGSUHGDWRU\ŖHVKHDWLQJ
dewgangs glide through the waters.
Watch your step, and keep your wits
about you!
WEATHER
+RWVWLOODQGVWLŖLQJZLWKDVWHDG\PLVW
falling slowly, almost hanging in the air.
Muggy, sweaty, sodden. Brief afternoon
storms bring beating rains and blasting
winds, driving even the boldest under
cover.
INTERACT WITH
The vulgar poor of all kindred and
peoples. Boggies near Bog End and
WISPER WOOD
ranging the Wisper Wood. Lizard, frog,
and serpent people of the Wash.
Gather edibles, like the rest of the vul-
gar poor, to sell at Bridger’s Market to
feed the vast appetite of the city. Peddle
ricesoup and poteen from your saloon
raft. Harvest shinebees in the twilight
as a wisperer. Farm rice at Sump Ackers.
Dredge for baubles washed into the
Sump by the Levee.
LAW AND ORDER
The Sump is lawless, but not without
peaceableness. Clans maintain their
ways and manners among their kinfolk
and through clan alliances. Gangs con-
trol their territories with violence.
DISORDER AND DISARRAY
Feuds, between individuals and clans.
Gang wars. Raiding, smuggling, and
robbery. Internecine disputes within
clans and gangs.

BOG END
Here the rounded wooden damhouses
of the boggies break through the muck,
covered in moss, sedges, raindews,
pitcherplants, and orchids.
(QMR\WKHIDPRXVGHZJDQJSLHPDGH
from manatee meat and crushed herbs,
and macerush tipple, peat-smoked and
aged in cypress barrels.
Boggies live well and die at home. Their
dead are bound and sunk in the bog.
Swarms of wisps rise over the End’s
peatways and canals at twilight.
Boggies wander freely in the glow,
immune as they are to the wisps’
enchantments.
BRIDGER’S MARKET
A spiderweb of long bridges and docks.
Sump allspices and entrepreneurs hawk
their wares from covered stalls and
roofed boats.
The guilds are too weak here to stop
non-sanctioned trade. Recreational
shine is sold openly alongside unli-
censed potions and powders. Black
powder guns are set out next to mutter-
ing larvae. You might cut a deal if you
buy both.
THE MUDDLE
A marshy lake fed by the Levee. Famed
Sump eatery, the Salted Leech, sits on
an island in the lake, for here grow the
fattest leeches of the district.
Legend has it that some great beast
known only as “the Sump Whale” lives
in its unseen depths. Sightings of its
back breaking the surface suggest a
creature of great size.
39
THE PIG WITCH OF
MUDDLEMARSH
Abigail Stacks, the Pig Witch of Mud-
dlemarsh, sees to a small herd of sump-
swine near the shores of the Muddle.
Her people are the desperate pluckers
of the Sump.
If you go to her, beware. Even if you
leave with nothing else, you will leave
owing her a favor.
UPTOWN AND FLOOD STREET
On a low shallow hill rising above the
marsh stand ruined, crumbling houses
RIWKHROGFLW\:DWHULQWKHŖRRGHG
streets stands ankle to waist deep, and
WKHJURXQGŖRRUVRIKRXVHVDUHRIWHQ
ŖRRGHGDVZHOO
Some uptowners claim lineages as old as
the city, but they are no richer for it.
THE WISPER WOOD
A dense cypress swamp grown over an
ancient and crumbling necropolis, the
:LVSHU:RRGLVŕOOHGZLWKLWVHSRQ\-
mous wisps. Wisperers harvest its edges
in the twilight, when the charm of the
wisps is at its weakest.
The swamp’s depths hold the walking
wet—the bloated corpses, damp skele-
tons, and watery wraiths of the dead.
THE WORM’S WELL
In the center of the Sump, in the wet
stone streets of a ruined square, there is
a well.
At the bottom of the well, there lies a
dragon.
It is said that the Worm can grant a wish
to any who come to him with it. But he
always asks for something in return.
40
GANGS OF THE SUMP
The Flood Street Descendants and
the Flood Street Gentlemen range
forth from the rotting townhouses of
Uptown.
The Descendants, led by Lord Boz of
Hill Top, accept only natives among
their crew, treating others most
viciously.
The Gentlemen, led by Kind Michael,
welcome refugees, for any hard heart is
good by your side at a slaughter.
The Flood Street Bridge, which
separates their turfs, has
hosted some of the most
brutal wars in the city.
Both gangs dress in
natty clothes of the
fanciest sort, frilled
when possible, with
ŕQHEXFNOHVDQG
cravats.
They terrorize the
people of Uptown and
neighboring districts, but
dare not enter the terri-
Abigail Stacks, the Pig Witch stowner has a wisplamp
tory of Ma Stacks.
She keeps her swine well fed.
The Constant Society, under the
masterful hand of Mad Dog Konstan-
tina, rules the Sump, especially Ackers,
the Wash, and Bridger’s Market. From
WKHUHLWH[WHQGVLWVŕQJHUVRXWWRRWKHU
markets across the city.
The Society maintains a strong grip on
the shine trade, controlling both the
legitimate and illegitimate sides of the
wisp business. No one deals in wisps
without dealing with Mad Dog.
THE SUMP
THE SHINE TRADE
Will o’ the Wisps, or “shinebees,”
can be found anywhere in the Sump,
enchanting people and drowning them
in muckish waters.
By day, they retreat into the shadows
beneath houses and huts, into dense
reedbeds, and between the grasses of
rice.
By night, they emerge. Travel with
a friend, for a companion or two can
usually shake one free of the shinebee
charm. Few wisps have the strength
to enchant more than one
victim at a time.
Wisps are also a
resource. If you sep-
arate the motes of a
shinebee swarm, the
charm is lessened.
One or two motes
can be encased in
a clouded lantern,
leaving little risk of
enchantment. Many a
rich merchant or Mid-
in their townhouse.
In pairs, viewed directly, motes ensor-
cel but without the strength to fully
enchant, making the viewer euphoric or
melancholic, and granting visions.
“Shining” is addictive, and shiners
eventually become inured to certain
shinebee motes and need new shine to
get lit.
Every shinebee mote carries with it its
own resonant emotions, not all of which
are pleasant, and bad shine can send
addicts into dark places.

THINGS TO DO
ENTER THE SHINE TRADE! You are
poor. Why risk being torn to pieces by
DEORRGWKLUVW\PDQDWHHMXVWVR\RXFDQ
gather macereed tubers for sale to the
marginally less poor of other neigh-
borhoods? Turn your hand to the shine
trade instead!
Drift quietly, chained to a raft, at the
edge of the Wisper Wood at twilight,
gathering the bees and safely deposit-
ing them in dark shineboxes for later
separation in your wisper room. Sell
your motes to the Constant Society, or
take them to a Flood Street gang for
JUHDWHUSURŕW,I\RXDUHEROGEXLOG
your own connections, selling directly
to the Cutthroat Courtiers, Idleman’s
Guild, or the League of Legitimate
Business of Levee Town; the Clangers,
the Whitefriars, or the Crosstown Kings
of Old Town; or the Sons of Arne, the
Vagabond Bay Boys, or the Welcoming
Committee of Vagabond Bay.
Expand your network. Sell direct to
consumers, dodging the constables of
Levee Town, the guild enforcers of Old
Town, and the Admiralty along the way.
But beware always, for the Constant
Society is everywhere, and Mad Dog
Konstantina does not treat kindly with
competitors.
41
MR. SNODPICK BARLEYSMYTHE HAS
A VISION! The Grand Sump Pleasure
Gardens. To whit—
Marvel at exotic beasts in the Cyprious
0HQDJHULH(QMR\JDPHVRI&KDQFHDQG
Good Fortune at Rattle and Shake, a
venue from Messers. Smythe & Tibbits.
Relieve the weight of your coin purses
at Toland’s Market! Plumb the depths
of Sump pleasures exotic & sundry at
the Garden Stews! Be enraptured by the
dulcet melodies of Tilda the Singing
Frog! Sample poetry, water dancing,
tumblers, & more at the Fenchurch
)ULQJH6HHWKH&LW\ıVŕQHVWZRUNVRI
popular review at the Salt Theatre!
There is but one minor challenge. First
we must build it! Mr. Barleysmythe
has come into the possession of a site
between Muddlemarsh and Wormswell—
Fenchurch Found. Desolate, unset-
tling, and of slight sinister whimsy,
locals avoid the place. No one entirely
remembers why, but locals bring up the
legend of the Fir Bolg of Fenchurch—a
swamp bagman and eater of children
and a shameless reciter of lewd poetry.
Such stories are piddle and poppycock,
of course. With the patronage of Mr.
Snodpick Barleysmythe, you will clear
the Found, capture exotic beasts, and
build the gardens!
42
Respectable rowhouses crowd into nar-
row ridges along hilly streets, clinging
WRWKHVORSHVEHORZWKH7RZHU&OLŔV
Ewt-drawn carriages dare steep climbs
and descents under the expert, or at
least experienced, control of coach
drivers. Quality shops adorn neighbor-
KRRGVRIFRQŕGHQWGLVWLQFWLRQ
Our citizens may not be monied like an
ambassador, nor a master of the unseen
like a wizard, but they have something
both lack—the stolid virtue of the mid-
dling classes.
WEATHER
The rains of the Mids are as middling as
its peoples.
Whatever the season, the weather here
is always rather moderate.
Dependable. Steady.
Even the rainy season brings only mod-
estly more rain, and the windy season is
marked by distant thunders and inter-
mittent breeziness.
INTERACT WITH
THE MIDS
Find work as a coach driver or messen-
ger on the streets, or a shop owner or
merchant of Cascades Market or the
Promenade. Retire to your townhouse
after a day—or lifetime—of guild work in
Old Town or service in the Admiralty.
Work as a domestic.
LAW AND ORDER
Respectability takes care of itself, with
a little help from rumor and insinuation.
When more force is needed, we turn to
our clubs, whose members work closely
with neighborhood civil watch societies.
DISORDER AND DISARRAY
Disputes between neighbors. Burglaries
RIŕQHWRZQKRXVHV3LFNSRFNHWV7KH
odd ghost or revenant loosed from
the catacombs. Formal duels in Public
Square.
NORTHSCARP
CATACOMBS
RESPECTABILITY
ROW

Humans, everywhere. Gulls and ghouls

around the catacombs.
Upstanding citizens, always.
SMALLSIDES
PUBLIC
SQUARE
CLEARNESS
STRAND THE RIDGES
HERITAGE
SCRIBBERY
R HILL
HEIGHTS

CASCADES
CRESTVIEW MARKET
TIDESWELL
PROMINENCE
BANKS
NIMBUS
POINT STILLWATER
LANDING

BANTHUS’S ELITE COACHES
The streets of the Mids are steep and
slick. Walking can be dangerous, and
worse, laborious. And labor is for the
poor.
Better to take one of Banthus’s Elite
Coaches! Let an ewt do the walking
while you ride in style to your destina-
tion.
CASCADES MARKET
Shops and canvassed stalls spill down
a tangle of stepped streets, with little
waterfalls running down the stairs
between shops.
THE GRAND PUBLIC HOUSE
7KHODUJHVWFRŔHHKRXVHLQWKHFLW\KXE
of Mids social life, with the longest bar
in the city and two great open drink-
ing halls surrounded by balconies. A
whirlpool of intellectual conversations,
debates, and discussions. With Public
6TXDUHMXVWRXWVLGHLIDGLVDJUHHPHQW
becomes unamicable, the dueling
JURXQGVDUHMXVWDIHZVKRUWVWHSVDZD\
THE MIDS PROMENADE
Stroll with your partner along the
SURPHQDGH(QMR\EUDFLQJYLHZVRIWKH
7RZHU&OLŔVVWRUPVDERYHDQG9DJD-
bond Bay gales across the harbor, safely
engulfed in the steady showers of the
Mids. Shop, eat, and most of all, be
seen.
,QŕUHOLJKWZRQGHUDWWKHŕUHZRUNV
show put on from above by the wizards
RIWKH7RZHU&OLŔV
2Q0LGZLQGHU1LJKWHQMR\WKHEOL]-
zarding hour, as wizards transform our
rains into snows for a brief period to
please the Winder Man.
43
NORTHSCARP CATACOMBS
Clusters of terraced tombs form into a
FOLŔVLGHQHFURSROLV7KHROGHVWWRPEV
predate the rains.
Gravesites are in high demand, for
prominent citizens deserve proper rest-
ing places. Thus the Reverent Associa-
tion of Renovators was born. Renova-
tors identify goodly and noble crypts,
relocate the existing bones and spirits,
DQGUHQHZWKHWRPEVWRWKHVSHFLŕFD-
tions of their new occupants. Any goods
recovered in the course of the work
belong, naturally, to the association.
PIZARRO’S DRY BATHS
The weather gets into your very soul,
doesn’t it? Come to Pizarro’s Wonder-
ful Dry Baths on the Mids Promenade
and spend a droughty afternoon in its
DULGVDORQVHQFLUFOHGE\ZLOWHGŖRZ-
ers and shriveled plants. You will leave
healthfully dessicated!
PUBLIC SQUARE
Honor and respect are all we have, and
sometimes, a conspicuous display of
honorable violence is needed to clear
the air.
A huge open square, surrounded by
umbrella-covered dining patios, Public
Square hosts the city’s most prominent
duels. Seconds-for-hire and other
professional duelists loiter in the area,
RŔHULQJWKHLUVHUYLFHVWRWKRVHZLWKWKH
resources to hire them.
A holiday to the Square is a popular pas-
time for citizens of all ages, for enter-
tainment is always to be found here.
(YHQZL]DUGVRIWKH7RZHU&OLŔVFRPH
down here when honor demands a duel.
44
CLUBS
Private clubs are popular in our city,
wherever people of quality with shared
interests choose to gather, and it is in
WKH0LGVZKHUHFOXEOLIHŕQGVLWVJUHDW-
est expression.
Every person of character belongs
to some club or another, gathering
privately with fellow members to drink,
relax, read, gamble, and pursue some
shared interest, away from the distrac-
tions of domestic life.
+HUHLVMXVWDVDPSOLQJRIWKHFOXEV
of our district.
The 1UXMZQIT;WKQM\a
of Explorers, 512
Smallside Lane,
RŔHUVDSODFHIRU
the intrepid to
talk about rous-
ing explores and
adventures. On
your way to the club-
house, do beware the
“Cap Killer” of Smallside
Lane.
The Honorable Association of Vassili
Liars is headquartered in a modest
home in Heritage Hill and has chapters
throughout the city.
Members of the club are connoisseurs
of the lie, from the subtlest exaggera-
tion to the most egregious fabrication. The Surly Club is devoted to avid
Many members are novelists. None are
poets.
The club president, Carpediem Duke
Merry Heart, is perhaps unique in the
city, for he himself speaks only the
truth. The Duke has never uttered even
the most minor of falsehoods.
THE MIDS
<PM:IQVa,Ia+T]J is dedicated
to whiling away a rainy day away from
family and other disagreeableness.
The Smokers’ Club, with indepen-
dent businessman Scrappler Twoon
at its helm, is dedicated not simply to
smoking, but, especially, to the collec-
tive and collegial smoking of things that
are not meant to be smoked.
Its members emerge in the rainy season
to scour the city for unusual smokables,
collecting these to share with clubmates
throughout the rest of the year.
The Spit-farthing Club,
under the exact-
ing presidency of
Madame Poncier, is
dedicated to thrift.
Members are
sparing in all
things, eating little,
drinking little, and
speaking even less.
The Spouting Club
of Old Stair Bay, presided
over by “the Waft” (whose name
is well-earned!), devotes itself
to propounding, declaring, and
educating. Club members study, that
they might profess on any topic at a
moment’s notice.
disagreeableness.
Under the capable direction of the head
clerk, Fallow Lang, its members stand
ready to quarrel, or at least grouch and
grumble, over anything at all, or noth-
ing, from recent actions of the Admi-
ralty to the weather this season.

THINGS TO DO
FOUND A PARLIAMENT!
You possess the inclination, self-as-
VXUHGQHVVDQGŕQDQFLDOPHDQVWR
declare yourself a representative of the
people.
Participate in this grand experiment in
democracy!
Separate yourself from the common
rabble, and represent them! Do some-
thing good for the people of this city,
or for yourself.
Make laws. Call for a recorded vote!
Argue eloquently, or at least forcefully,
RQWKHŖRRURIWKH*UDQG3XEOLF+RXVH
Call everyone “Right Honorable
Soandso,” and avoid unparliamentary
language, for the Black Rod will always
be ready to sternly admonish those who
indulge in it.
6HWWOH\RXUGLŔHUHQFHVWKURXJKUHD-
soned debate, and if that doesn’t work,
take it out to Public Square to settle the
honorable way.
Eat pies!
45
:RUGVZULWWHQRQDGDPSŖ\HUVWXFN
in all places where wizards are not
known to gather.
The Alchemist’s Guild can no longer
maintain order in this city, for it is well-
known that they can not maintain even the
foundations of their own Guild House.
The wizards care not for the people, only
their damp pages and fancy rugs. It is
time that the people be represented by a
Government.
All Rightful and Good Thinking Citizens
RIWKHFLW\DUHLQYLWHGRQWKHşUVW6LWWLQJ
'D\RIWKH5DLQ\6HDVRQWRFRQJUHJDWHDW
WKH*UDQG3XEOLF+RXVHRQ3XEOLF6TXDUH
7RJHWKHUZHZLOOşOOWKHYRLGLQWKHKHDUWV
of our people with Good and True Public
Legislation. We will be a Parliament.
Only Those of Honor need apply. There
will be pies. No Wizards!
Yrs,
Lord Chidney Bragg, the Right Honorable
*HQWOHPDQIURP&DVFDGH6WUHHW6RXWK
First Publican
46
Where the city’s best live. You can be
certain they are the best because they
have the most money!
Strange and fanciful mansions in the
styles of a thousand worlds. Wisp-
topped watchboxes lining the streets,
ŕOOHGZLWKZDWFKIXOER[HUV7KHWUDFN
7KHFUDFNHWŕHOG+LJKVRFLHW\
Welcome to the home of the vulgar
rich!
WEATHER
9HU\ŕQH2IFRXUVH'XULQJWKHUDLQ\
season, the rains pour down much like
the rest of the city, but here they have a
cleansing quality. During the windy sea-
son, the winds are bracing, the lightning
enlightening.
EMBASSY ROW
laundry maid, groundskeeper, gardener,
coachman, or groom. Join a construc-
tion crew building a new embassy. Do
ER[ZRUN%HDQHZWMRFNH\RUFUDFNHW
player. Valuate and assess for Auction
House.
Or don’t work at all. Be an ambassa-
dor, free to pursue your passions and
grudges while others work.
LAW AND ORDER
Watchboxes line the row. Within each
watchbox stands a boxer, who sees
to the wisplight above and keeps the
watch. The Vigilant Circle of the Box
carefully records everyone who passes
and challenges those who do not
belong.

'XULQJWKHTXLHWWKHUDLQVIDOODVDŕQH In time of need, every watchbox can be

DQGJHQWOHPLVW'XULQJŕUHOLJKWWKH\ locked from the outside, serving as a
are energizing. makeshift gaol for the unruly or illicit.

INTERACT WITH DISORDER AND DISARRAY

Embassorial entities, creatures, and per- Duels over honor, verbal or otherwise.
VRQVIURPŖRRGHGZRUOGVVRPHQHZO\ Duels over position on the row.
arrived, some long on the Row, and &RQŖLFWVLQFRQVWUXFWLRQFUHZV)LJKWV
their multitudinous servants, extended between debtors and their betters at the
families, and hangers on. 7UDFN'UXEELQJVRQWKHFUDFNHWŕHOG
Find work in the upper service of an Riotous brawls between rival cracket
embassy as a steward, bottler, house- clubs in the stands.
keeper, valet, lady’s maid, or chef; or in Burglaries.
the lower service as a footman, house-
Assassinations.
maid, scullery maid, chamber maid, OCTAGUE
AUCTION EMBASSY
HOUSE
ST. JOHN
GRUE EMBASSY
EMBASSY COMFORT
VANDERDOPP
HOUSE
EMBASSY
V
VONGORST
EMBASSY

THE CRACKET
FIELD
THE TRACK
IANUS TUT
EMBASSY

AUCTION HOUSE
Elegant and austere, Auction House
serves the Legal Chambers of Arden-
wick, Ackson, and Overunder, who exe-
cute the contracts for all legal property
exchanges on the Row.
COMFORT HOUSE
The mansion of the Assisted Living
Commission. Under the reassuring
guidance of the Divan of Comfort, an
enchanted, animate sofa, the commis-
sion provides a community and home
WRDQLPDWHDQGVHQWLHQWREMHFWVRIDOO
kinds.
No one knows how many animate
REMHFWVLQKDELW&RPIRUW+RXVH,WLV
hard for outsiders to know who is who
and what is simply what.
However, its most famous inhabitants
are well-known. The Divan of Comfort,
himself. The poet Kasa-Bake, whose
position on the Sandestin is made very
clear in her work. The sword used by
Zaam the Alacritous’s nameless appren-
tice to kill all those people a few years
back. “Entirely the boy’s own doing,”
the sword mentions at parties, even
when no one has asked.
THE CRACKET FIELD
Cracket, a ball game played with a
paddle-like bat, is a popular pastime in
every district, but important matches
are held here.
It is a sport of great tactical depth, with
very clear rules regarding how many
points are scored by hitting the ball and
how many are scored by hitting a mem-
ber of the opposing team. A civilized
sport for a civilized city.
47
THE TRACK
Ewt racing is the sport of the people.
Anyone can place a bet on their favored
ewt at their local corner Chancey Hall,
and the races, held every week, are a
source of excitement throughout town.
THE EMBASSIES
The lifestyle of an ambassador is expen-
sive. One must maintain a certain air of
quality in one’s home and interactions
with others.
Many an ambassador arrives in the city
with great wealth. Few manage to retain
it. So it is that ambassadors come and
go like the seasons, with diminished
DPEDVVDGRUVIDOOLQJRŔWKH5RZ
This healthy natural churn creates space
for new ambassadors to take their right-
ful places on Embassy Row each year.
It is, of course, expected that an ambas-
VDGRUZLOOOLYHLQDKRPHWKDWUHŖHFWV
their homeland, so it falls to each new
ambassador to have their new embassy
rebuilt to suit.
7KXVQHZFRQVWUXFWLRQSURMHFWVDUH
common in the Row, for newly arrived
ambassadors must get situated quickly.
Further, even established embassorial
families are in a constant game to move
up or down the Row as their fortunes
DQGLQŖXHQFHFKDQJH
It is not uncommon for a rising family
to trade embassies with a neighboring
family on the decline, necessitating
reconstructions to get each mansion
right.
Most embassies are a bricolage of archi-
tectural styles and vestiges beneath a
PRUHXQLŕHGYHQHHU
48
GRAND EMBASSIES
The Old Houses claim to be the ambas-
sadors of the old city. They make up
about half of the families on the Row.
They vigorously claim ancient land
holding rights. These holdings pro-
vide the steady riches that have kept
the Old Houses on the Row for a very
long time. In addition to land, the Old
Houses hold the pettiest grudges.
House Grue, once great, is now a
declining clan of necromancers of the
meanest sort. They hate everyone,
and everyone hates them.
They cannot be unin-
vited from parties.
They will come
anyway.
The ancestral lands
of House St. John
lie beneath the
waves, but that has
not kept them from
collecting rents, for
they hold claim over all
ŕVKLQJLQWKHZDWHUVDERYH
their lands.
Avery St. John
They are often seen yachting in
WKRVHZDWHUVHQMR\LQJWKHVSUD\RIWKH
sea and keeping an eye on the source of
their wealth.
The houses of Octague, von Gorst,
and Babineaux are intertwined, inter-
marrying often. Their scions rouse and
rabble in the streets under the moniker
“the Blackcoats.”
The Octagues are famously proud and
callous, the von Gorsts loyal to family
above all, and the Babineauxs bellicose
and bold.
EMBASSY ROW
The New Houses are more precarious,
but no less assertive of their rights.
More than one emperor, king, queen,
prince, and princess can be found
among them, alongside the warlords,
generals, high priests, and merchant
princes who have arrived in the city
overloaded with gold and treasures.
There is at least one God King, the
PXPPLŕHG1IV][<]\, who has placed
a great pyramidal facade over his stately
PDQVLRQDQGŕOOHGWKHJURXQGVZLWK
damp sand. He is great at parties!
Too, there is House
Vanderdopp, a clan of
doppelgängers who
indulge so vigor-
ously in life’s plea-
sures as to make
even other ambas-
sadors whisper
awkwardly amongst
themselves.
Everyone wishes to go
to their soirees, of course,
but few are admitted. The rest
gossip horribly instead. One
PXVWŕQGSOHDVXUHZKHUHRQH
can, after all!
The lowest house on the Row has been
newly occupied by a clan of upstanding,
bowl-headed, shell-backed goblins
wearing overlarge imperial robes. This
is the House of Shirihiki.
They always propose to wrestle. They
are very spirited!
I do not recommend accepting the
challenge. It is not the friendly consti-
tutional it might appear to be.

THINGS TO DO
YOU ARE VULGAR RICH. What are you
waiting for? Declare yourself an ambas-
sador! Buy up a recently open mansion
on the hill, or create your own opening
by conspiring most cleverly to drive an
H[LVWLQJDPEDVVDGRURŔWKH5RZ
Set your neighbors against each other in
petty yet far-reaching social games to
secure or improve your embassy’s place
on the Row.
Host a salon to display your good taste
DQGŖDXQWWKHH[RWLFDRI\RXUKRPHODQG
EHIRUH\RXUMHDORXVQHLJKERUV
Attend an auction, picking up strange
antiquities from some fool who is
running out of money! Laugh at them
as they are cast down to the Mids, or
worse!
Hire an assassin. And always, always
watch your back. There are fewer than
sixty Embassies on the Row. You will
not hold yours long if you become
careless.
YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE WORSHIP-
FUL COMPANY OF CARPENTERS, and
your guild has received a commission to
reconstruct a mansion on Embassy Row.
Negotiate your contract with the
49
Ambassador’s steward, who is exceed-
LQJO\PHDQ:DWFKRXWIRUVFXŘHV
between random gargoyles and the
Thatchers employed to construct the
roof.
*HWLQŕVWŕJKWVZLWKPHPEHUVRI
the Worshipful Company of Fusters,
Carvers, Joiners, and Ceilers, who think
themselves better than you because they
do not need nails for their work.
An absurd claim. It is no wonder their
works do not hold for the ages.
Studiously avoid making eye contact
with members of the Free Order of
Masons, whose insistence on conse-
crating the foundation with blood is
of dubious value, strictly speaking, in
matters of structural integrity.
Placate (or avoid) angry ghosts until a
representative of the Compassionate
Society of Exorcists can lay the dead to
rest. Stop sabotage attempts contracted
out by the many bitter rivals of your
client.
Work through rain, wind, and lightning.
Work together! And get the thing built
now, friend, before the money runs out
and you have to start again for a new
client!
50
7KHFLW\ıVQRUWKHUQSODWHDXRIFOLŔHG
coasts, high moors and fells, and deep
woods.
Fishing villages in coves. Country
estates of the ambassadors, who come
RXWKHUHWRHQMR\WKHTXLHWOLIHRIWKH
country aristocrat. Vast estates covering
acres of open land, the greatest even
holding tens of acres!
WEATHER
The rains are at times melancholy, at
times sorrowful, at times purifying, at
times redeeming.
The clouds are sometimes brooding,
and often lonely. The winds lament and
clamor, and can be furious, violent, or
raging.
INTERACT WITH
Ambassadors in their country estates,
and their servants. Country villagers,
ŕVKHUIRONKXQWHUVDQGZRRGVPHQ6HO-
kies, it is said, near Moll’s Cove. Ghoul
sophisticates, as everyone knows, in
CALLIE’S
COV
O E
COUNTY
OCTAGUE
COUNTY
OUN
THE HEADLANDS
County Gaunt. Jenny Weaver, some-
where in the dark of the forest, when
she allows herself to be found.
Find work as a servant in one of the
great estates, or grounds or game-
keeper. Work as a shepherd or goatherd
RQWKHIHOOVRUDFDWWOHŕVKGURYHULQ
Callie’s Cove and the Cape of Octague.
Or live the gentle life of a country aris-
tocrat, if you have the means.
LAW AND ORDER
Here there is only the law of the local
lord. Each country aristocrat has
dominion over their estate lands, doling
RXWMXVWLFHRUDWOHDVWMXGJPHQWDWWKHLU
whims.
DISORDER AND DISARRAY
Brigandry on the roads. Sheep, goat,
DQGFDWWOHŕVKUDLGVE\ORFDOFODQVRU
ambassadors having a bit of fun in
the wild country. Aristocrats settling
Embassy Row grudges on windswept
moors. Wreckers along the coasts.
THE TEETH
COUNTY
GAUNT
N GRUE
U MOLL’S
COV
O E
COUNTY
FIRGEN

CALLIE’S COVE
)LVKLQJYLOODJH7KH&DWWOHŕVKKHUGV
are kept here in the waters of the cove
most of the year. With the coming of
the rainy season, it is time for the great
FDWWOHŕVKGULYHZKHQWKHGURYHUVRI
Callie’s Cove lead these ponderous,
ZDGGOLQJŕVKHVXSWRJUD]HWKHKLJK
heaths of County Octague.
COUNTY GAUNT
Family Gaunt is an ancient clan of ghoul
sophisticates whose crumbling castle
lies ruined on these moors. The Gaunts
themselves range widely, attending
parties in Embassy Row (where they
have no embassy), haunting the Norths-
carp Catacombs when they hunger, and
hiring body thieves and murderers to
bring their meals to them when the rains
are heavy and they are overcome with
the torpors.
COUNTY GRUE
Ancestral lands of the Grue family, and
home to the only herd of true cattle that
remains. The old necromancers guard
WKHLUKHUGVMHDORXVO\0DQ\DGHVSHUDWH
and ambitious cattle rustler has found
eternal servitude as a revenant guarding
the herd.
COUNTY FIRGEN
The Rainy City has but two deepwoods,
and one grove. The Wevenwood of
County Firgen may be the deepest. A
few isolated estates can be found within
the wood. Bandits, too.
Walk alone into the woods with spiders
LQ\RXUKDQGVDQG\RXPD\ŕQG-HQQ\
Weaver standing before you. Jenny will
tie your fate to that of another, if you
51
ask. Many come asking for love. She
will not promise love. She promises only
that two fates be bound together for-
ever. What that means for the two fates
is left to them, but what Jenny Weaver
binds may never be unbound.
COUNTY OCTAGUE
Ancestral lands of the Octagues, who
retire to the County to don archaic
armors and practice archaic military
arts. That they often put these arts to
use on the streets of the city is, perhaps,
a reminder that the outmoded is not
always obsolete.
MOLL’S COVE
Fishing village. Many salvage crews
work out of Moll’s Cove. The villagers
here make little distinction between
salvage and wreckage, and not all recov-
ered goods that pass through the village
were gained honorably. Some of the
ŕVKHUIRONDUHVHONLHVZKRGRQVHDOVNLQV
to glide through the waves. They do
not much appreciate being told how
adorable they are and can become quite
belligerent. Yet they are adorable,
nonetheless!
THE TEETH
+LJKVWRQHVSLUHVMXWWLQJLUUHJXODUO\
from the sea, the Teeth catch many an
unwary ship. The lucky among refugee
ships are caught in the current to Vag-
abond Bay. The unlucky or unwise may
be caught in the current to the Teeth, or
lured by the lights of wreckers to steer
this way. Salvage gangs recover goods
and artifacts from the resulting wrecks.
Wrecker crews ensure there are always
new ships to plunder.
52
LORE OF THE HEADLANDS
On Wreckers
Geneviera the Ghost’s crew are not
wreckers, but they are always there at
WKHŕUVWFUDVKRIDVKLSRIJUHDWZHDOWK
Geneviera knows. She reads the move-
ments of the clouds. She hears the whis-
pers of the waves. They tell her.
So it is that when a great ship is coming
to wreck, her crew, the Haunters of the
North Shore, know afore.
Best to wait if you arrive at a wreck and
ŕQGWKHPWKHUH:DLWQRZ
For any who disrupt Gen-
eviera’s work, though
WKH\PD\ŕQGJUHDW
riches in a wreck,
ZLOOJRKRPHWRŕQG
their sheep wan-
dering, their lures
FDWFKLQJQRŕVKDQG
their spouses in the
arms of another.
Geneviera the Ghost
is no wrecker of ships, but
wreckage she will cause to Jenny “Ma” Weaver, Witch
those who defy her.
On Fate can blow them apart.
Well, one day, the Sandestin set out to
try Jenny Weaver.
Now in those days his name was Jack.
Jack started out, spiders in hand, and
into the woods he went, eyes closed. But
he went walking backward, for to test
her. And so he went.
And there she stood.
Nowadays, everyone knows you must
never turn your back to the Sandestin,
THE HEADLANDS
for he will take it very hard, but Jack
WXUQHGKLVWR-HQQ\:HDYHUMXVWWRVKRZ
her his back.
“Jenny,” says Jack over his shoulder,
“I’d have my fate bound to yours.”
For the Sandestin knew that Jenny had
DOZD\VEHHQDQGKHŕJXUHGLWDJRRG
way to live forever.
“It is done,” says Jenny. “Now you are
a weaver, too. All your life, and it will be
a long one, you will weave your tricks.
But as sure as my weavings are forever,
your weavings will be as ropes of sand,
blown apart by the barest
breath. For you came to
me backward, and your
boon will be granted
backward as well.
And so it always will
be, so long as Jenny
Weaver is.”
And so it is.
That is why, if you are
clever enough, you can
always get the better of old
Jack. For the Sandestin
can only weave ropes of
VDQGDQGDQ\OLWWOHSXŔ
And this is also, as you have surely
noticed, how old Jack came to be called
the Sandestin.
On Luck
It is bad luck to cross the path of an
ambassador, look undeferential in the
presence of an ambassador, speak to
an ambassador without being spoken
to, and not remove your hat when an
ambassador passes. Be lucky.

THINGS TO DO
YOU ARE A MEMBER OF A SALVAGE
CREW. Watch the coast for wrecks,
rushing down to the banks when yet
another unfortunate ship is taken by
WKLVFUXHOVKRUH*HWWKHUHŕUVWIRUWKH
EHVWŕQGV
Negotiate with other salvage gangs,
enterprising village elders, and local
gentry, all of whom may lay claim to
your hard gotten goods.
)LJKWRŔPREVRIJXOOVGHVFHQGLQJ
from the Gullspeak to steal what you
rightfully recovered!
Watch out for ghouls in search of an
easy meal.
Or make your own opportunities, as
a wrecker. Dare the violent waves and
implacable currents of the Teeth to
shine lights that will draw unwary ships
into the rocks.
When you wreck them, you reach them
ŕUVWDQG\RXKDYHFODLPRYHUWKHPD
claim that you can defend with violence.
You do everything a salvage gang does,
but you do it better.
You have taken the initiative! Now keep
it!
53
YOU ARE A SELKIE, one of the seal peo-
ple of the Headlands. This is your coun-
try. Glide through the waves, heedless
of the currents that so cruelly hinder the
unsealy people around you.
+DYHŕHUFHŕVWŕJKWVRQWKHVKRUHVRU
throw your body against that of your
rival to prove who is strongest. Float
adorably on your back. Throw your
body against that of anyone who dares
call you adorable! Balance a ball on your
nose.
JOIN THE ANNUAL RAINY SEASON
CATTLEFISH DRIVE! Guide the herd up
the steep road from Callie’s Cove into
County Octague, riding alongside on
your trusty ewt, or walking with sturdy
walking stick, as you prefer.
Watch out for the spines and barbels of
the great creatures. They are weighty,
awkward things on land, but their spines
carry venom, and they are oddly fond
RIGUDSLQJWKHLUŖHVK\EDUEHOVRYHUDQ\
who stray too close.
)LJKWRŔEULJDQGVDQGFDWWOHŕVKUXV-
WOHUV6SXU\RXUŕVKWRJHWDORQJZLWK
the greatest possible alacrity, so that
you can claim the best pastures. Defend
your claim!
54
TOWER CLIFFS
Where wizards make their homes.
The veil between the immanent
world and the invisible world is
thin here, waxing and waning
according to its own inexplicable WANDSEND
laws.
A place of manses, seclusia, and
towers, of the unreal made real,
and of phantasms and illusions.
Apprentices run their errands,
THE CRUMBLE
gargoyles go about their busi-
SILV R FALLS
L ER
ness, and miners from the
6LOYHU&OLŔVZRUNWKHLUVKLIWVDQG
retreat home. Burglars and their
crews case tower and manse,
ready to seize wealth and power
for their own. TOWER
COMMONS

WEATHER SOUTHSCARP
CATACOMBS
Thunder and lightning, storms,
lashing rain, gusts of wind. Even STAFFAGE
F

during the quiet, the storms of the
7RZHU&OLŔVQHYHUIXOO\DEDWH
INTERACT WITH
Local humans, gulls, gargoyles, bog-
gies, and mine goblins, as well as devils,
golems, ghosts, and fairies bound to the
service of a wizard.
Find work as a Silver Falls miner, silver
trader, or silversmith; a footman, valet,
maid, groundskeeper, groom, house-
keeper, bottler, steward, or chef in a
wizard’s manse; a clerk of the High
Parliament, wizard’s apprentice, or even
wizard, if you have the gift; or a burglar,
if you have the nerve and craft.
LAW AND ORDER
1RODZLVQHHGHGLQWKH7RZHU&OLŔV
for each wizard is intrinsically a person
of Quality, who would surely never
even imagine transgressing social or
metaphysical boundaries. And as no one
would cross a wizard, regardless of the
secrets and treasures held in their towers
and manses, for fear of their wrathful
SRZHUQRODZLVQHHGHG(YHU\WKLQJMXVW
sorts itself out nicely.
DISORDER AND DISARRAY
Wizards crossing wizards, dueling over
perceived insults, their apprentices get-
WLQJLQWRNQLIHŕJKWVLQWKHVWUHHWRYHU
matters of precedent (or less). Horrible
screaming deaths of burglars caught
by the traps and monstrous guardians
of wizardly homes. Body snatching of
visitors to the neighborhood for use in
strange experiments. Monsters escaping
into the streets and wreaking havoc.
,QŕUHOLJKWH[SORVLRQV

THE CRUMBLE
The least prestigious neighborhood
in the district, for it is crumbling and
falling into the sea bit by bit.
Once a prosperous place, where the
great Iambic Pentacular had his tower,
it fell into the sea some years ago when
the Mine Goblins dug too deep beneath
it and something very bad came out.
Now, it houses some poorer wizard
towers, and is perhaps most renowned as
a place for adventurous sorts to engage
in wizardly salvage operations, daring
the dungeons and caves that once served
as wizards’ vaults but are now split open
to any who would dare the descent.
THE GALLERIA
A museum and gallery in Tower Com-
mons, the Galleria hosts exhibitions of
DUWDUWLŕFHDQGDUWLIDFWVWKURXJKRXW
the year under the sharp guidance of the
curator, Oberon Rowington, and the
pronouncements of Mauvin the High
Critic.
Each year, on Midrainy Day of the
rainy season, Colloquium is held—that
UHQRZQHGJDWKHULQJRIWKHŕQHVWPLQGV
of the wizardly elite, where the most
impressive magical inventions of the
past year are put on display, and where
Mauvin the High Critic declares the
greatest of arcanopoetic artefact of the
year.
$ŕQHRFFDVLRQIRUFDPDUDGHULHDQG
collegiality.
SILVER FALLS
The silver mines are here, and entrance
to the mine goblin markets beyond.
Silver miners work tirelessly to mine it,
55
the most arcane metal and the source of
the monetary base of the city. The mine
entrances are carved into the sides of
WKHFOLŔVDQGVFDŔROGLQJŕUPO\URWWLQJ
provides purchase for miners going to
and from work.
SOUTHSCARP CATACOMBS
2QHRIWKHWZRPDMRUQHFURSROLRIWKH
FLW\DMXPEOHRIFDWDFRPEVFDUYHGLQWR
WKHVWHHSKLOOVDQGFOLŔVEHWZHHQWKH
0LGVDQGWKH7RZHU&OLŔV7KH5HYHU-
ent Association of Renovators operates
here, emptying tombs to resell them to
new owners.
Ghouls, gulls, and gargoyles call the
catacombs home. Go deep enough into
the right tombs, it is said, and you might
MXVWŕQGDZD\LQWRWKHYDXOWVDQGGXQ-
geons beneath a wizard’s tower.
WIZARD HOUSE
A stately public house in Tower Com-
mons, where the High Parliament
presides.
The High Parliament makes decrees
on behalf of the Wizards of the Tower
&OLŔVZKRGRQRWGHPHDQWKHPVHOYHV
to come vote in person, for politics is
beneath even the lowliest wizard.
Instead, the Clerks of Wizard House
issue the decrees. The clerks are a
bureaucratic cult, whose members
closely spy on the movements and inter-
actions of wizards throughout the city,
UHDGLQJWKHPOLNHWHDOHDYHVRUŖRFNVRI
birds, to divine their will and transform
it into legislation.
Wizard House is also the only pub in
WKH7RZHU&OLŔVZKLFKLVSUREDEO\WKH
only reason wizards ever enter it.
56
WIZARDS OF TOWER CLIFFS
Dominian the Proscriptor is the
master of the Gurgling Death. You
would not cross him. Many a fool and
burglar has been gurgled in their day.
+LVPDQVHLVDŕQHROGVWDWHO\PDQVLRQ
He would not lower himself to living
in a tower. He has a certain lifestyle to
maintain.
Mauvin the High Critic’s discern-
ment is so far beyond that of the next
man that it should be no surprise that
Vramer the Unseen has only one
KLVMXGJPHQWVDUHDWWLPHVLQFRPSUH-
hensible! Each year at Collo-
quium, it is he who selects
the greatest item of
power and art.
His manse? A
stately apartment,
folded invisibly
into the unseen
world of the Grand
Galleria itself.
At times, he is seen
entering and exiting it via
REMHFWVRIDUWDQGDUWLŕFH
Oculam the Oracular Oculam the Oracular
sees all! He knows all! Do
you believe him? You do!
His observatorium tower is at the high-
HVWSRLQWLQWKH7RZHU&OLŔV$WRSLWD
telescope points toward the clouds.
Orbeg the Multipotent, whose tower
has a level for each lesser potence he has
cast behind him on his path to better-
ment. Some thirty-six Orbegs, each less
multipotent than the one above, abide
in his tower, each assured in its assurity
that it will one day be the ultipotent.
TOWER CLIFFS
;][SW\PM1UXZWJIJTe, geostrologist
and gadabout, whose parties are the
ŕQHVWVRLUHHVWREULQJZL]DUGVDPEDVVD-
dors, and haberdashers together in one
room, and whose robes are like unto the
FR]LHVWRISDMDPDV
+LVKRPH"$VPDOOPDQVLRQWRRŕQHIRU
its place, a tower that leans so precari-
RXVO\RYHUWKHFOLŔVWKDWLWVKRXOGKDYH
fallen a century ago, and a small chapel
no one ever enters.
head, of this he can pensively
assure you. You have heard
two, or three? Unimag-
inable. Surely these
reports are exagger-
ated. You see only
one. Don’t doubt
your eyes. His
manse is a sprawling
estate at the edge of
WKH7RZHU&OLŔVLWLV
said. But no one can see
or approach it unless
they have already been
there.
MORE WIZARDS
Agnosticus the Hermetical, Bursebear
WKH,FRQRFODVW&KDŔ)XVWLQ)XOPLQDWD
Grindalar the Garrulous, Hyssop the
Benevolent, Ildoitz Empyrean, Kan-
que, Kusgirinugal the Bleak, Lafonse
the Enigmatic, Pergio the Prestidigi-
tator, Phangol the Gallant, Quantifex
Quadrat, Ubari the Remarkable, Vasso
the Redolent, Xarl the Certain, Yaunt
the Numinous, Zaam the Alacritous,
Zarasko the Tenebrous

THINGS TO DO
COLLOQUIUM IS UPON US! You are an
apprentice to one of the Wizards of the
7RZHU&OLŔVRUDQHQWHUSULVLQJFLWL]HQ
of this great city who has taken it upon
themself to pretend to be an apprentice
to a great wizard. You are surely not
here to steal magical art and artefacts
from their rightful owners. Shameful!
Such behavior is beneath the attention
of the wizards, who would deign neither
to engage in it or show concern about
it. You, too, would not risk it. It is sure
WREHDQHQWLUHO\ODZIXODŔDLUDVZDVODVW
year, and the year before that. Every
year, really. Let Colloquium begin!
YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE ASCEN-
DANT ASSOCIATION OF ASTROLOGISTS
AND ASTRONAVIGATORS, and the time
has come. You will break into Oculam
the Oracular’s Observatorium and peer
through his telescope!
But beware! Every pool, mirror, and
fountain is his eye! It is said he can
even scry through raindrops. How do
you avoid his ever searching eye, and
how will you get past his guardians?
57
What will you do if you run into his
“housemate”—an eyerant that moved
in, declared the tower its own, and does
everything in his power to annoy Ocu-
lam into moving out, including killing
his guests! If you reach the telescope
and peer through, what will you see?
Can you do this? You can!
ORBEG THE POTENT NEEDS YOUR
HELP. +HWKH2UEHJRIWKHŕUVWOHYHO
of the thirty-six levels of the Tower of
Multipotence, is ready to move up in
the world. The only problem? All the
other Orbegs! Surely an enterprising
crew of independent treasure hunt-
ers such as yourselves would have no
qualms about helping him remove some
2UEHJV2QH2UEHJLVLQVXŔHUDEOH
enough, and they only get worse as you
climb the steps.
Dare the traps, bypass the guardian
monsters, and do away (discreetly or
indiscreetly, for really who cares) with
VRPH2UEHJV.HHSZKDWHYHU\RXŕQG
except for their potence, which Orbeg
would kindly like to place in his bottle
for later integration. You are very kind!
58
THE PATRONS
1IUJQK8MV\IK]TIZ: Wizard of Rickety, with a
cloak of ghosts and a watery double. He knows
the secrets of the drowned. But he does not so
well understand the secrets of the living. Will you
help him?

Hyperion the Hated: The only wizard who can

FRQMXUH ŕUH DQG ŖDPH LQ DOO VHDVRQV DQG GRQıW
you forget it! Haha! Jerks! Someone has spoken
ill of him. Go wreck their house. That will teach
them.

Elenia the Smuggler: Fame might not seem a

boon to a smuggler, but for a master of disguise,
it is less of a problem. Elenia has a lead on a very
rare item. You get it for her. She will get it to the
buyers.

Snodpick Barleysmythe, Esq.: Levee Town

solicitor with a vision! The Grand Sump Pleasure
Gardens. You help him procure and pacify the site.
He will help you with your little “legal” problems.

Madam Lydia: Doom! Dooooom! Aged diviner

of Old Town, famed for her dark prophecies. You
will help her make them true! The city will fall,
with a little help from her demons. And you.
 59

Antigone Graves: The Witch of Wending

Street, greatest witch in the city. She must bind
the demons of the seventy-two seals before they
bring doom upon this city, but she cannot do so
alone.

Agar Yaminnu, the Kandive: Elder wizard,

awakener of gargoyles. His past is a broken mir-
ror. He may yet piece it together, but he needs
your help gathering the artifacts that hold his
memories.

The Worm: At the bottom of a well in the Sump

lives the Worm. It does not come to you. You
come to it. It can grant you what you ask. But now,
you must do something for the Worm.

Pizarro: Entrepreneur! Pizarro’s Dry Baths are a

grand success. It is time to expand his operations.
Steam baths! All he needs is for you to help him
capture a salamander.

Kasa-Bake: The Sandestin abandoned her. Now

she has awakened, with a thirst for vengeance and
a gift for poetry. Watch the Sandestin. Report
their stupidities for immortalization in cutting
verse!
60
THE SANDESTIN
“There has always been a Sandestin in the Rainy City. And there always will, you
vituperative snotbag.” -Loquacious Germaine, the 18th Sandestin, a Right Cur and
Hunter of Beasts.
$WLWOHZLWKRXWDQ\REYLRXVPHDQLQJDQRŗFHZLWKRXWDQ\DSSDUHQWSXUSRVHWKH
Sandestin is a curious footnote in the historical lore of the city. For as long as there
has been the Rainy City, there has been one, and only one, Sandestin. When one
incarnation passes, a new one arises to take its place, with such regularity that the
chronologers of the city count its eras according to the years of each Sandestin.
Some aver that the Sandestin is a wizard and charlatan. Some a devil born and
reborn with a new face. Some even that it is the spirit of the city itself. Others have
suggested that it is little more than an example of what happens when a long con,
or a simple banal pretension, takes on the historical crust of traditional ritual and
LPSRUWDQGVRPDQDJHVWREHFRPHZKDWLWŕUVWSUHWHQGHGWREH2IFRXUVHQRRQH
would dare suggest this to the Sandestin’s face!
So it has always been. Until now.
The impossible has occurred. When Jhail Fassbender, the 22nd Sandestin, sailed
into the West, three stepped forward to claim the title. Scandal and skullduggery!
Which is the true? Will there be others? What does this mean for the city? The era
of the No One Sandestin has arrived.

Janderson Jackdaw, The First To Declare

Tincture Stout, the Ortho-Sandestin Rosa Szlam, The Red Sandestin