Seraph
2005-07-14, 03:42 AM
Introduction: when resting at an Inn only a week ago, you heard two other adventurers speaking of the rumored 'city' of Brazenport, a city of anarchy and chaos that somehow manages to thrive. scoffing, you dismiss it as simple hyperbole and tall tales, and decide to visit this town to see just how bad it really is.
unfortunately for you, it is, indeed, exactly as those adventurers said.
many cities are supposedly "ruled by the thieves", but most of these have some sort of order, and the criminal element refrains from announcing their presence publicly, allowing a farce of government to stand out.
not so with Brazenport. the city is, indeed, ruled by thieves. as you enter the city gate, by the time you reach the first Inn, four failed arcane spells are aimed at you, seven thieves try to pick your pockets, and you are propositioned no less than six times. and the inn is only thirty feet from the gate.
the moment you enter the Inn, you duck to avoid a thrown tankard. surveying the interior, you find it to be packed to the gills with loud merrymakers. as you walk to the inkeeper, you step in two puddles of ale and witness four people get stabbed or set on fire. or perhaps they set themselves on fire, it's a bit hard to tell.
before you ask the inkeeper anything, an evil thought creeps through your mind as you realize you could likely buy anything, kill anyone, and do anything you want in this city and get away scot free . . .
Stats:
Small City
GP Limit: 15,000
Population: roughly 10,000. percentages are unknown, as people going from door to door asking census information usually get an arrow in the face, but it's estimated at about 20% spread of each race.
Background Information: unfortunately placed at an important crossroads, the city initially was a bandit camp for raiding wealthy merchants. one would think that merchants would learn to avoid such a crossroads, but several major cities are connected by this area, and a traveller must subsequently pass close to this place at some point if they want to sustain an extended mercantile buisiness.
realizing the profitability, several bandits joined up and the camp gre. women were kinapped, bards were hired, shady architects were bought off, and a half-arsed bandit camp quickly became a small walled city populated entirely by thieves, prostitutes, and cutthroats. on more than one occasion, forces have been assembled to send against this threat to mercantile, but the populace, due to a nature of survival of the fittest, was more than tough enough to fight off the forces, causing the responsible governments to just let them be and tell complaining merchants to hire better security. the only exception to this is that, when a new mayor of any of the nearby towns is elected, the first thing they do is promise to "rout the miscreants of Brazenport" and assemble a task force to send against the town. no task force as of yet has managed to even get past the walls of Brazenport.
Physical Description: set just off a crossroads of several important travel paths between major cities, the surrounding countryside is somewhat hilly, tree-dotted and pleasant, if not somewhat spoiled by the fact that you can hear the rowdy populace from some miles away. Brazenport itself is a small city set over a wide river, with a two story iron-and-stone wall entirely around it. not a single building exceeds three stories in height, but the hilly nature makes some buildings appear taller than they actually are. there are also caverns underground, as well as a gray-dwarf engineered system of sewers. the caverns are below the sewers, as it happens.
Arts and Culture: anyone good with a paintbrush, chisel, or other such artistic tool and does commissions can make it in Brazenport, but pretentious avant garde never really made it in this city. mainly because the locals got fed up and converted their ribcage into a backpack after too long. Also, minstrels and bards worth their instrument are more than welcome. besides these exceptions, culture is based around survival of the fittest. an annual game is held whenever a task force is sent against the town, called "Knight-putt". it essentially consists of seeing who can hit the Knight in charge of the task force with rocks the most times without missing. the winner is usually treated to free ale, or gold if they're lucky.
Economics: there are a surprising number of businesses in this town, whom actually have decent stock. most of this stock is stolen, of course, but if no-one asks, no-one will tell. the only thing related to import is the fact that locals usually just steal whatever they need from the occasional merchant caravan. export consists of, on a monthly basis, dead bodies shipped to necromancers and live bodies shipped to slave dealers.
Religion: if you look hard enough, you can find a place of worship to every Diety you can think of and several that you can't, in varying states of woe.
Government: none.
Crime: constant. or, at least, by the standards of other towns, as there is no local government in Brazenport to enforce law, and there is no actual crime by definition.
The Monument: commissioned early in the town's time by someone or other, an artisan constructed a large black marble statue of the original head bandit of the highwaymen that the Town grew around. the bandit in question is displayed as a tall human with long, loosely curled hair, a moderately sized beard and moustache, loose trouasers, knee-high boots, and a large jacket. raised above his head is a large saber. his visage has a smirk and an enscription on the cube-shaped pedestal reads, in common, "Make yourself either Useful or dead, otherwise we'll do either or both for you!" this is the customary challenge issued by the Bandit leader to any fresh blood who wanted to get a share in some raiding. this statue is a representation of the sheer lawless nature of this city and it's inhabitants.
Power Struggles: nothing truly major, as there is no real power in the town, but you can not go down a street without seeing someone get mugged, and rarely walk down a street without someone trying to rip you off.
Adventure Hooks:
Spelunking
as you wander aimlessly, a dwarf approaches you and tells you he has a proposition that could get all involved a large chunk of treasure. supposedly, in one of the deeper caverns under the city, the Original Bandit leader after whom the statue is modeled left a huge fortune that would make a dragon jealous. The Dwarf has a very good Idea of the location of the treasure, but it is in an area populated by nasty subterranean monsters. (In a forgotten realms setting, the DM may add that the tomb is brushing the upper regions of the underdark) in addition, there may be traps around the loot. thusly, the Dwarf requires a group of sturdy adventurers who can fight off monsters and disable traps, in exchange for a large share of treasure.
I am the Highway
a group of Highwaymen are looking for some help on a particularly tough job. a certain merchant has hired a small army of security. they don't look tough individually, but there are way too many of them. so, the group will pay a group of people quite a bit of money to help bring down this caravan.
Battle Stations?
a nearby town, having recently elected a new Mayor, has sent another task force against Brazenport. it's doubtful they would spare you in a (unlikely) purge of the city, so it's in your best interests to help the half-drunk and somewhat insane residents in the city repulse the task force, either by shooting from the wall or assisting some less-than-sober gray dwarfs set up bombs under the task force and blow them up. (I personally reccomend the DM having the Knight commander get halfway through his speech before being hit in the head with a rock and heckled by bandits on the wall in the beginning)
we be pirates. yar.
a group of merchants have gotten the Idea of using the river to send ships of goods downstream to coastal cities. take a boat with some highwaymen-turned-pirates down the river and show them the error of their ways. with fire and thiefy buisiness.
unfortunately for you, it is, indeed, exactly as those adventurers said.
many cities are supposedly "ruled by the thieves", but most of these have some sort of order, and the criminal element refrains from announcing their presence publicly, allowing a farce of government to stand out.
not so with Brazenport. the city is, indeed, ruled by thieves. as you enter the city gate, by the time you reach the first Inn, four failed arcane spells are aimed at you, seven thieves try to pick your pockets, and you are propositioned no less than six times. and the inn is only thirty feet from the gate.
the moment you enter the Inn, you duck to avoid a thrown tankard. surveying the interior, you find it to be packed to the gills with loud merrymakers. as you walk to the inkeeper, you step in two puddles of ale and witness four people get stabbed or set on fire. or perhaps they set themselves on fire, it's a bit hard to tell.
before you ask the inkeeper anything, an evil thought creeps through your mind as you realize you could likely buy anything, kill anyone, and do anything you want in this city and get away scot free . . .
Stats:
Small City
GP Limit: 15,000
Population: roughly 10,000. percentages are unknown, as people going from door to door asking census information usually get an arrow in the face, but it's estimated at about 20% spread of each race.
Background Information: unfortunately placed at an important crossroads, the city initially was a bandit camp for raiding wealthy merchants. one would think that merchants would learn to avoid such a crossroads, but several major cities are connected by this area, and a traveller must subsequently pass close to this place at some point if they want to sustain an extended mercantile buisiness.
realizing the profitability, several bandits joined up and the camp gre. women were kinapped, bards were hired, shady architects were bought off, and a half-arsed bandit camp quickly became a small walled city populated entirely by thieves, prostitutes, and cutthroats. on more than one occasion, forces have been assembled to send against this threat to mercantile, but the populace, due to a nature of survival of the fittest, was more than tough enough to fight off the forces, causing the responsible governments to just let them be and tell complaining merchants to hire better security. the only exception to this is that, when a new mayor of any of the nearby towns is elected, the first thing they do is promise to "rout the miscreants of Brazenport" and assemble a task force to send against the town. no task force as of yet has managed to even get past the walls of Brazenport.
Physical Description: set just off a crossroads of several important travel paths between major cities, the surrounding countryside is somewhat hilly, tree-dotted and pleasant, if not somewhat spoiled by the fact that you can hear the rowdy populace from some miles away. Brazenport itself is a small city set over a wide river, with a two story iron-and-stone wall entirely around it. not a single building exceeds three stories in height, but the hilly nature makes some buildings appear taller than they actually are. there are also caverns underground, as well as a gray-dwarf engineered system of sewers. the caverns are below the sewers, as it happens.
Arts and Culture: anyone good with a paintbrush, chisel, or other such artistic tool and does commissions can make it in Brazenport, but pretentious avant garde never really made it in this city. mainly because the locals got fed up and converted their ribcage into a backpack after too long. Also, minstrels and bards worth their instrument are more than welcome. besides these exceptions, culture is based around survival of the fittest. an annual game is held whenever a task force is sent against the town, called "Knight-putt". it essentially consists of seeing who can hit the Knight in charge of the task force with rocks the most times without missing. the winner is usually treated to free ale, or gold if they're lucky.
Economics: there are a surprising number of businesses in this town, whom actually have decent stock. most of this stock is stolen, of course, but if no-one asks, no-one will tell. the only thing related to import is the fact that locals usually just steal whatever they need from the occasional merchant caravan. export consists of, on a monthly basis, dead bodies shipped to necromancers and live bodies shipped to slave dealers.
Religion: if you look hard enough, you can find a place of worship to every Diety you can think of and several that you can't, in varying states of woe.
Government: none.
Crime: constant. or, at least, by the standards of other towns, as there is no local government in Brazenport to enforce law, and there is no actual crime by definition.
The Monument: commissioned early in the town's time by someone or other, an artisan constructed a large black marble statue of the original head bandit of the highwaymen that the Town grew around. the bandit in question is displayed as a tall human with long, loosely curled hair, a moderately sized beard and moustache, loose trouasers, knee-high boots, and a large jacket. raised above his head is a large saber. his visage has a smirk and an enscription on the cube-shaped pedestal reads, in common, "Make yourself either Useful or dead, otherwise we'll do either or both for you!" this is the customary challenge issued by the Bandit leader to any fresh blood who wanted to get a share in some raiding. this statue is a representation of the sheer lawless nature of this city and it's inhabitants.
Power Struggles: nothing truly major, as there is no real power in the town, but you can not go down a street without seeing someone get mugged, and rarely walk down a street without someone trying to rip you off.
Adventure Hooks:
Spelunking
as you wander aimlessly, a dwarf approaches you and tells you he has a proposition that could get all involved a large chunk of treasure. supposedly, in one of the deeper caverns under the city, the Original Bandit leader after whom the statue is modeled left a huge fortune that would make a dragon jealous. The Dwarf has a very good Idea of the location of the treasure, but it is in an area populated by nasty subterranean monsters. (In a forgotten realms setting, the DM may add that the tomb is brushing the upper regions of the underdark) in addition, there may be traps around the loot. thusly, the Dwarf requires a group of sturdy adventurers who can fight off monsters and disable traps, in exchange for a large share of treasure.
I am the Highway
a group of Highwaymen are looking for some help on a particularly tough job. a certain merchant has hired a small army of security. they don't look tough individually, but there are way too many of them. so, the group will pay a group of people quite a bit of money to help bring down this caravan.
Battle Stations?
a nearby town, having recently elected a new Mayor, has sent another task force against Brazenport. it's doubtful they would spare you in a (unlikely) purge of the city, so it's in your best interests to help the half-drunk and somewhat insane residents in the city repulse the task force, either by shooting from the wall or assisting some less-than-sober gray dwarfs set up bombs under the task force and blow them up. (I personally reccomend the DM having the Knight commander get halfway through his speech before being hit in the head with a rock and heckled by bandits on the wall in the beginning)
we be pirates. yar.
a group of merchants have gotten the Idea of using the river to send ships of goods downstream to coastal cities. take a boat with some highwaymen-turned-pirates down the river and show them the error of their ways. with fire and thiefy buisiness.