The Smog-Covered Factory City
If you dig deep enough beneath the accumulated ash on the street and manage to wave away the thick, ever-present smog, you might find traces of an older city buried with rust, grime, and charred materials. Once built of pale wood, marble, and stone with elegant motifs of nature and symbols of the Goddess of Death, the City of Ah’Shal has been overrun by a metallic parasite. Built atop the corpse of the old, the factory city of Ah’Shal features shoddy metal homes and towering metal and stone factories with large pipes that spew foul, dark gray clouds into the air every hour of every day. The streets are lined with scrap and ash… and perhaps even lost corpses. The dull, amber glow of lanterns barely pierces the smog. While it may be difficult to see, there is an abundance of noise in the city and there is almost never a moment of peace.
The cacophony of the city begins with the rising sun, which is almost imperceptible through the thick smog. Still, through tradition and habit, horns will blare from the central of factory production, alerting all those who labor that the next shift has begun. Although the heavy smog restricts visibility – especially near the largest factory complexes – the locals seem to move with practiced ease, relying on the countless times they walked the streets before and the continuous string of noise. Factories and homes alike are built of a mixture of metal and stone, stained with whatever ends up in the smog and littered with char marks and rust. The factories, however, are noticeably nicer and reinforced with sturdy beams of metal and thick wood, while the homes appear more ramshackle, hurriedly chucked together to accommodate the newest wave of the downtrodden looking for any sort of work to get them by. And when the sunsets again, another horn blares, but the city does not stop and the factories do not cease. They are merely blatant reminders of a shift change. Why stop when you can just bring in another shift?
It is initially hard to gleam if there is any underlying organizational structure to the City of Smog’s layout. Given the rapid and somewhat sudden expansive of the factory system, some of the city’s arrangements may seem haphazard. Large factories have overgrown and repurposed what once used to be homes or other businesses. On the other hand, ramshackle homes – worker “towns” – have built up around old scaffolding to provide cheap, easily accessible housing for workers who have just secured jobs in some of the larger factories. Every now and then, the old scaffolding gives way and half the supported homes may be on the ground or atop the roof of another building. Some regulations have been put in place to improve the living standards of many of the factory workers, but change is a bit slow when diverting resources away from production is stringently opposed.
Space on the top of the large Cliffside has become sparse in recent years and those seeking to establish new factories or expand their current ones have begun to scale down the Cliffside walls. Mining shafts just straight into the Cliffside, bringing fresh raw materials to some of the suspending factories, held aloft by thick metal cables and pure faith. Some of these hanging factories have been equipped with pulley-systems that allow them to drop finished products directly to waiting barges and boats below… though you’d never be able to see them from the height through the smog. Even though the smog is thinner here, these factories are arguably the most dangerous ones to work at. One must carefully navigate hastily constructed and narrow walkways that rattle and shake on days with particularly strong winds. Despite the risks, workers often take their short lunch breaks and sit, talking and eating as their legs dangle over the edge. It’s easier to bare any fear of heights when you can only see about 15 feet down before smog consumes the rest.
The smog, gloom, and strenuous workdays often consume the livelihoods of most of the residents of Ah’Shal, but the city still contains hidden gems, if you know where to look. After long hours in the various factories, drinks and cheap, greasy food are had in some of the hole-in-the-wall establishments. On the rare holiday or when a factory is forced to shut down for repairs for a few hours, those enjoying a break often exchange tales, sing, and gamble with whatever dice, cards, or other objects they can find. Children – perhaps against their parents’ wishes – delight in climbing the rickety structures, running across ropes from building to building, and playing ash ball… despite the risks of what they might find buried within the ash. Yet in the City of Death, finding a hidden corpse in the ash is more a delight and spectacle than a horror. It is often children who run to the House of Death to alert the Acolytes of a body, tailing after them as they collect it and prepare it.
As a City that primarily produces components, pieces, and parts, there is a particularly strong focus on roadways and transport. Technology has arrived from Nacheevi, but it has been strictly been given to and applied for factory use. Arcane skiffs and lifts are present, but function only to import raw materials and export the finished products to and from the factories, respectively. The wealthy, however, have been able to purchase some for their own personal use, often giving them to their enforcers to pursue runaways quicker.
The Social System – The Reign of Bounty Hunters
The factory overlords run the City of Smog, but they are often rarely visible or obviously present within the city itself. As the smog intensified, those with wealth and power chose to set up their residence elsewhere – where the air was still clear and nature still present. This created a bit of a power vacuum, which permitted those with a love of money, watchful gazes, and a willingness to commit violence to ascend to positions of enforcers. Although still referred to as bounty hunters, those that land the cushy jobs working directly for a factory overlord truly carry power within the City of Smog. They patrol the ashen streets looking for anyone who steps out of line. They hunt down and drag back workers – dead or alive – who had the audacity to steal or flee. They are the eyes and ears for their employers, the overlords. And what they say… is law.
The Bridge to Tel'Rhea
At the Western edge of the City, there is the briefest break in the metallic monster that is the factory system. A small square has been preserved here, though the falling ash has not spared it. The stone of the square is broken and cracked and what once was a fountain is now filled with piles and piles of ash. A statue of a robed figure holds one arm out, but the forearm has long been missing and whatever she might have held has been lost. Although the Acolytes from the House of Death make daily visits to clean the statue of Ah’Shal, it is almost always covered with some form of graffiti and a thin coating of ash.
Beyond that, a massive bridge stretches out beyond the edge of the cliff. The bridge was carved to depict the Goddess of Ah’Shal in a tiefling form reaching out towards the carved figure of Tel’Rhea on the other side. While the form of the Goddess of Life is still visible to the ships passing below, the depiction of Ah’Shal has been obscured for centuries. The only portion of her that is still visible is the tip of one of her fingers that crosses the magical filter that keeps the smog of Ah’Shal from trespassing upon the City of Life. Traffic from Tel’Rhea is rare, but people from Ah’Shal travel frequently into the City of Life… but not all are permitted to pass. Women are always welcome to enter the City of Life and bounty hunters can often bully their way through, but there are guards present to keep the particularly unsightly out of the City of Life.
Notable Locations
Besides the massive, towering factories, the following are locations of note within the city of Smog:
- The House of Death – The City's largest morgue and Temple to Ah'Shal, Goddess of Death. While it has almost been partially consumed by the metallic tendrils of the factories, it is still easily identifiable by the gray-robed figures going in and out.
- The Hunter's Square ("Bounty Bowl") – A crater in the ground was filled with stone in the crude shape of a bowl. The bottom has clearly been stained in blood, but multiple establishments have taken up residence here, with their doors embedded in the stone walls. The common rabble tend to stay away... this is the bounty hunters' domain.
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City
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Included Locations
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
Related Reports (Primary)
Related Reports (Secondary)
The Sprawling Factories
Whispered Names
Although bounty hunters are easily recognizable and arguably the largest group of the population (after your regular worker), the majority are nameless to the every day common rabble. There are a few notable exceptions. The few elite, effective, and often lethal bounty hunters that make it into the cushy pockets of a regular gig as the top muscle for a factory Overlord... well, their names are whispered on the street with dread. They have the money and prestige to be elsewhere so if they're lurking around the smog-filled streets, it most likely means they're hunting:
- Diavolo the Executioner – A blue dragonborn known to decapitate his targets. Easier to carry a head back than a whole body.
- Mirage the Shadow Walker – A warforged (suspected). If you see her, you have about 2 seconds to live.
- Beast – a tabaxi (most likely) that doesn't care if you know he's coming. He'll laugh. He enjoys the chase. So run.
- Blitz – A human known to take her targets from above. She's either got a sixth sense or quick reflexes.
- Vald, Lord of Death – A middle-aged man who dresses like a noble, but strikes his targets like a mercenary with no remorse.
- Rust Bucket – A warforged who looks in need of repair. It won't be him kicking the bucket if you get into a scuff though.
- Cordelia, the Five-Tailed Viper – A gorgeous woman who leaves her mark on any who she leaves alive... consider it an honor to have the lash marks.
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