City Squares V: Haven's City File

Today I’m going to share with you my city file of Haven. This is what I referred to during my players’ time there. I’ll be using the format I’ve described previously (1. District, I. Location, A. Contacts, i. Information, a. Leads). As of now the heroes have left the port city with no plans to return. Just in case my player’s do check this out, I’m going to leave the portions of the city they didn’t investigate whited out so highlight for spoilers. Feel free to drop Haven in your game and tweak it to fit your campaign.

Haven

A sea haven established by Captain Falamar. Originally, Haven was a small pirate cove, hidden from most, which Falamar used to hide his loot. He has come to rely on it as a base as Hannah the Irin has consolidated the majority of Lanun ports and pirate captains into the Lanun Confederation. It is a loose alliance of the city-states and pirates that pledge their allegiance to Hannah. Falamar has refused to take any such oath to her and maintains Haven’s independence from all nations.

Recently, the wars of surrounding nations have caused a large influx of immigrants from multiple nationalities to seeking safety and stability in Haven. Falamar now finds his small pirate cove a bustling city, and thinks it hilarious every time the residents try to elect him governor. As Haven grows, the city finds itself trying to be more than just a pirate port and becoming a true home to its citizens. War with: none. Open Borders: Balseraphs, Khazad, Hippus. Layers: 1) Criminal/Pirate Activities, 2) Jobs/Leads, 3) Religion, 4) Random Encounters Table for color.

Secret (H10): Haven was built on the ancient ruins of Leucetios’ fiefdom.

Clues:

1. Newly built homes in the immigrant’s quarter have been collapsing, as sinkholes reveal ancient ruins underground.
2. New monsters have appeared to roam the streets late at night (they are coming through the sinkholes).
3. There is a monument at the city’s center. It is a half-buried statue, so immense people don’t realize half of it is buried. The statue is of Leucetios.

(District Map)

1. Hiddenhold: This bustling area is rife with activity. Ships in the harbor are moving cargo round the clock. Hawkers selling their wares crowd the streets. With the exception of the coastal fort, the buildings are mostly made of brick and timber, and not well maintenanced. Splitting Hiddenhold down the middle is the Grand Canal, leading from the southern coast to the northern and dotted with piers. The area around those piers is quite dirty. Many buildings are covered in graffiti, and you don’t have to go very far to find rats picking through garbage. The people you see, while most are busy or hard at work, are look equally seedy. People tend to keep one eye open in this area, as its where the city’s pirates and criminal element spend most of their time. Buildings: Southern Port, Lighthouse, Seahaven, Lanun Pirates/Smugglers, Command Post, Elder Council, Falamar’s Mansion, Warehouses, Esus. Connects to Treeton (NW) and Clan’s Landing (NE).

1. “Pick Your Poison” Tavern, on Ditch Row not far from the docks, in a warehouse quarter of crowded streets and black markets. The street outside is crowded with drunken brawlers. The inn is a two-storey timber and brick building, with a gray tile roof and dwarf-wrought iron tables and chairs. Accommodations consist of several small rooms with wooden cots. The inn is locally known for the generous size of its tankards.
1. Gare, innkeeper/bartender, a lanky Lanun seaman with no morals but profit. After he lost his leg in a boarding action, he opened Pick Your Poison, and is rumored to have gotten such prime real estate due to his connections with the Black Lotus gang. He has a long face and a hooked nose, which does nothing to help his lanky features.
1. “If you’re new here, you’ll have a hard time off loading your goods without a nod from Count Ransid. He doesn’t do business with anyone unwilling to get their hands dirty. You should go pay him a visit at the fort.”
1. Leads to Ingrid at the Command Post.
2. “If you’re looking to make some quick cash, I know a guy in the Miner’s District looking for some operators. You can find him in the Copper Cask. He’s the only one in there who wears a hood up indoors. Tell him Gare sent you. Otherwise, pick your poison.”
1. Leads to cloaked man in the corner of the Copper Cask.
2. Hilda, a Hippus tavern wench, is exceptionally beautiful with braided brown hair and green eyes. She wears a slightly revealing blouse and a beer stained apron. A pendant of a red shield hangs round her long neck. The usual crowd knows of they get handsy she has no qualms about punching a man in the face.
1. “If you’re looking for good men in this town, Confessor Julius is best man I know. He spends his days preaching and healing the sick.”
1. Leads to Temple of the Order in Clan’s Landing
3. Raimi, a Lanun bartender and bouncer, is a tall, muscular fellow with shortly cropped black hair and gray eyes. On his break he is often found amongst the patrons playing bullseye with daggers for money. He always wins.
1. “You will need more money after you lose to me. I know a guy. He is joined up with Mary’s Men, and guards her “office” in Warehouse 66. He has a sweet tooth. Bring him something good and he might give you a tip. Who knows, it may even get you brownie points with Bloody Mary herself.”
1. Leads to Guard outside Warehouse 66 in Hiddenhold.
2. Command Post. This round tower oversees the harbor. It has thick stone walls and defensive battlements, with multiple embankments of cannon and is defended by a small company of mercenaries.
1. Lord Bartholomew was once a Lanun noble with a naval command, but turned pirate when he refused the insane orders of an Undertow admiral. Now he is on the Elder Council and one of the Pirate Lords of Haven. Bartholomew is of stocky build with a bull neck. His round face is broken up by thin red hair and a stylish mustache. The man is armed with a rapier, daggers, and scale mail.
1. “The bloody Blue Lizardmen are getting bolder every year. No matter how strategically we set a trap, they always manage to get through. I’ll pay 10 gold pieces per Blue Lizardman scalp you bring me….I hear the pearl divers have found an underwater cave, but its too deep for them. Tell you what, I’ll finance an expedition If you manage to get down there and have a look. If you find anything, we split it 50/50. Deal?”
1. Leads to the underwater cave near the pearl divers.
2. Outside the tower is the head of the man in the hooded cloak. It is spitted on a spike.
1. A sign is nailed to the spit below the head. It reads: “I stole from Count Ransid.”
3. Elder Council. It is a complex of rooms adjacent to the tower, mainly consisting of a grand meeting room and the offices of Count Ransid - Haven’s frontman for legitimate businessman and a sanctioned merchant trader of the Bannor Empire.
1. Ingrid, Count Ransid’s Secretary, a well-dressed pretty blond.
1. “We don’t trade with people we don’t know, but if you’d like us to get to know you, do a job for the Count….Tonight there will be a wagon here that needs a driver. Take it to the workshop a few miles east of Haven. It’s on the road. You can’t miss it. If the wagon makes it there, then tomorrow you may see the count.”
1. Leads to Workshop in square D5.
4. Warehouse 66 is the best guarded building in Haven after the Command Post. It is where the Pirate Lord Bloody Mary takes care of her business interests.
1. Johnson, Guard at Warehouse 66, Mary’s Men gangmember.
1. Overheard discussion about a rival gang’s attempt to buy off the hill giants with sizeable treasure. If the PCs can recover the agent or treasure it might get them a meeting with Bloody Mary.
1. Leads to Hill Giant Cave in square C4.

1. Treeton: This quiet neighborhood west of the canal is mostly residential. A granary is the only building that rises above the one story brick dwellings. Most of them have gardens lining their porches with the homes themselves covered in ivy, often cultivated into decorative designs. In the center of the district there is clearing with a large garden dotted with trees here and there. Buildings: Residential (Lanun), FoL, Granary. Connects to Miner’s District (N) and Clan’s Landing (E).
1. Garden Grove in the center of the residential area. It is full of flowers, trees, and small animals.
1. Doco, a Priest of Leaves, has short gray hair and dark amber eyes. He wears hide armor and carries an ebony cane. He looks sad.
1. “I am troubled. There is news of an evil curse has befallen the neighboring village of Waha’da, and I am trying to decide how best to care for the afflicted.”
1. Leads to village in square D3.
2. Clan’s Landing: The homes of this mostly residential area are built of brick and timber, and grouped into orderly rows on the canal’s eastern bank. Near the center of the district is a domed temple made of marble and stone, with no iconography on the outside to identify or beautify it. The people who live here are almost exclusively clansmen refugees from Hippus lands, hence its name. Buildings: Residential (Hippus), Order, Temple, Asylum. Connects to Treeton (W) and Simpleton (N).
1. Temple of the Order
1. Confessor Julius, an elderly man with soft gray eyes. His white beard is trim and his head is clean shaven.
1. “Hell is coming. There is no corner of Erebus to hide from it....I fight the infernal legions by saving souls. In this way I take away soldiers from them that may one day slay the living….I have built a flock loyal to Lord Junil, but it is diminishing. Three times this month brigands have trespassed in this temple and lay waste to are furnishings and physically beating worshippers. These people are not warriors but poor immigrants looking for a better life. Please find a way to be rid of these brigands….We all know they frequent the Horse & Blade, our local tavern.”
1. Leads to thugs drinking at the “Horse & Blade.”
2. Dreamland Home for Children
1. Father Youlin-Sa
1. Knows of a group of urchins in Hiddenhold. Youlin fears they are living in horrid conditions since they are stealing for a living. They have resisted his invitations to stay at Dreamland. He asks the heroes to find them and convince them to come to the orphanage.
1. Leads to Hiddenhold - where the children operate - and a chase to their hideout. Their they find the children working for an ogre mage disguised as a teenager ruling the kids. The monster has on him an ancient key. The key opens a magically sealed entrance to Leucetios’ tower, aka Falamar’s Locker, from where he escaped.
3. The “Horse & Blade” Inn
1. Bartender - Svalga Sviri (Hippus) has a narrow face, with brown hair and amber eyes. She dresses simply, but her clothes outline her fit figure. Stoic and covetous, she is a retired thief who keeps a collection of various maps and keys, and is always willing to buy maps and keys.
1. “People are sick of this city being a hive of scum and villainy. They just want a safe place to raise their families. The problem is that the only authority here is the Elder Council, made up of the oldest and toughest pirate captains….They run this city like it’s a business. Everyone has to pay for protection or their homes and businesses get trashed….For years the people have tried to hold elections, usually nominating Falamar for governor. The people love him and the pirates all listen to him, but while he ain’t a villain he also don’t care, and every time somebody sets up a polling area the pirates trash it….There’s another man in the city the pirates don’t mess with, though nobody knows why. He’s a merchant working the north docks in Simpleton. Kindly enough, and sympathetic to working folks, but won’t take a stand neither. Goes by Waverly....Might I ask where y'all are staying tonight? We have some nice rooms here.”
1. Leads to Mr. Waverly, a merchant in Simpleton.
2. One-Eye Jack. Alcoholic, Hippus, former merc, family man.
1. "Did I hear you say you're staying in Hiddenhold? Be careful there at night. People can disappear there.
1. Foreshadows Slave Trade.
3. Miner’s District: Another residential area on the west bank of the Grand Canal. The buildings here are almost exclusively built of brick. Some of the nicer looking houses decorate their front yard with stone sculptures. On a hill at the edge of the district can be seen a stone step pyramid. This area is known for its productive people, most of whom worked in the mines north of the city - until they were shut down. The population is made of a mix of Hippus refugees and Lanun immigrants.Buildings: Residential (Lanun & Hippus), RoK, Library, Academy. Connects to Treeton (S) and Simpleton (E).
1. The “Copper Cask” Tavern
1. Carodor, Lanun merchant and mine owner. He is heavyset man who likes his ale, with uneven gray hair and dressed in workman’s clothes. Seeks to save his family from financial ruin.
1. Losing tons of money as workers refuse to mine it. Hiring brave souls to open the vault and prove it harmless. “This mine was rich in iron, and everything was going good until the men found a block of ice deep in underground. After digging deeper they found a large vault. The men are spooked because they think it’s cursed. I have a mine full of iron ore and my workers all refuse to dig it!....I was bleeding fund because of that empty mine, so emptied the bank and tried having them dig north. They found another block of ice in the ground. This time they wouldn’t touch it. Now the men think I’m cursed! Can you believe my luck? I’m going to lose everything….I don’t have much left, but enough to make it worth your while. Please, open that damn vault and show the men there’s nothing to be afraid of. Just maybe I’ll be able to get things operational again in time to keep my family off the street.”
1. Leads to megadungeon entrances in the mines northwest of Haven.
2. Man in the corner, under a dark cloak has a heist job for the heroes.
1. “There is a wagon lead by an oxen driven by two gnomes heading from the southern docks in Hiddenhold to the northern docks in Simpleton. I’ll pay 500gp for you to relieve the gnomes of their wagon and their cargo and bring it to the east warehouse in Simpleton, not the docks. The wagon should reach the docks one hour before dawn. I’ll know if any cargo is missing.” Crates of bananas. One crate hides 24 doses of Assassin’s Blood poison in 4 yellow wooden horns at the bottom of the crate.
1. Leads to the northern docks in Simpleton.
2. The Eternal Mountain Academy. The art is relatively unknown and taught only here. The Academy has an inaccurate reputation for philosophy, and focuses strongly on meditation. In the lands of the Elohim, this school is known for its “Eternal Mountain Defense” technique.
1. Master Tetsuishi, 11th level Monk, has a chiseled jaw and is bald except for a greying ponytail. He wears modest grey robes, and sitting on his shoulder is a badger named Hageshi.
1. “Greetings. I am Master Tetsuishi and this is the Eternal Mountain Academy. Please, pardon my accent, but I am a humble immigrant from Elohim lands….Do you wish to learn the ways of the Eternal Mountain? How may I help you?....I thought this place to be full of potential students in touch with the earth, and open to the ways of the Eternal Mountain….I am open to training all honest, hard working men, but it seems the people here are too afraid….They fear many things, the curse of the mines, how they will feed their families, and mainly the criminals that rule here….The way of the Eternal Mountain is about providing for yourselves. I cannot solve these people’s problems, but if any wish to learn from me how to solve their problems themselves, my door is always open.”
1. Foreshadows training citizens to take the town from the pirates.
2. Yorin, Senior Student. Yorin is tall and willowy, with copper hair and hazel eyes. He wears simple clothing and is overseeing the training of some junior students.
1. “Greetings. I am Yorin, the master’s most senior student. What can I do for you?....I’m helping these junior students correct their form while Master Tetsuishi attends to other matters….We were all local miners, and now with the mines closed we have a lot more time to train….I know we’re not many, but seeking out new students is against his philosophy….There has been something bothering me. A friend of mine, another senior student, he’s upset that the master has selected me to be head student. He went off into the hills north of the city to prove his worth. Saino thinks if he can move a boulder with his bare hands Master Tetsuishi will make him head student. I’m worried about he could get hurt. I have a gem I found while mining. If you can bring him back it’s yours….He’s misinterpreting one of the masters lessons: Once upon a time there was a stone cutter. The stone cutter lived in a land where a life of privilege meant being powerful. Looking at his life he decided that he was unsatisfied with the way things were and so he set out to become the most powerful thing in the land. Looking around his land he wondered to himself what is it to be powerful. Looking up he saw the Sun shining down on all the land. "The Sun must be the most powerful thing that there is, for it shines down on all things, and all things grow from it's touch." So he became the Sun. Days later, as he shone his power down on the inhabitants of the land, there came a cloud which passed beneath him obstructing his brilliance. Frustrated he realized that the Sun was not the most powerful thing in the land, if a simple cloud could interrupt his greatness. So he became a cloud, in fact, he became the most powerful storm that the world had ever seen. And so he blew his rain and lightning, and resounded with thunder all over the land, demonstrating that he was the most powerful. Until one day he came across a boulder. Down and down he poured and his thunder roared, lightning flashed and filled the sky, striking the ground near the boulder. His winds blew and blew and blew, and yet, despite all his efforts, he could not budge the boulder. Frustrated again, he realized that the storm was not the most powerful thing in the land, rather it must be the boulder. So he became the boulder. For days he sat, unmovable, and impassive, demonstrating his power, until one day, a stone cutter came and chiseled him to bits….My interpretation is that the most important thing to remember is that you have everything you need already, right inside of you. Power is an illusion. I think that’s why the master chose me.”
1. Leads to the hills north of Haven.
4. Simpleton: The northern docks are quite small in comparison to Hiddenhold. It’s a collection of piers and warehouses along the east bank of the Grand Canal as it empties into the northern coast. This is area gets its name from the pirates who like to trash talk the honest merchants and sailors who do business here. The reasoning is that anyone who turns down the lucrative life of smuggling for honest business must be simple. It is a nice area kept in good repair. Buildings: Northeastern Port, Lighthouse, Sea Haven, Warehouses, less criminal activity due to a less busy port. Connects to Clan’s Landing (S) and Miner’s District (W).
1. Northern Docks
1. Mr. Waverly, merchant
1. “Look, I can’t do anything that might put my family in danger….There’s a drug dealer of the Black Lotus gang dealing to the workers here. Tell you what, if you can send him packing, and manage to not get murdered when the try to make an example out of you. I’ll consider what you’re asking.
1. Leads to…right here.
2. Acolyte of Junil offering blessings and looking for donations.
2. Cemetary
1. Gravedigger
1. “Somebody has been sneaking in here the past few months, stealing corpses! I’ve reported it to the count more than once….Don’t knows what you need a corpse for….A few nights ago I saw two of them filling a wagon. They was real short, but still nothing I could do. I’m just an old man….They was heading south down the road.”
1. Investigation action can turn up the wagon in Hiddenhold.