Docks
Absalom’s docks may seem like any other harbor on Golarion: infused with the briny smell of the ocean, breezes playing about the ships lined up in their slips. But those who linger a moment can smell the spicy Osirian barbecue of local street vendors mingling with the sweet fragrance of elven mead. Those who look may see hundreds of different ships, hailing from ports as distant as Kalsgard or Goka. Those who listen will hear dozens of languages, from melodic Minkaian to staccato Mwangi.
If Absalom is the City at the Center of the World, then the Docks are the gateway where the world comes together. Few locations in Golarion gather as many cultures and viewpoints in one place. The very nature of the Docks is to facilitate travel to every other district in Absalom and to the far reaches of Golarion. A wanderer can find mundane transportation to just about anywhere they want to go, if they have the coin. When a ship comes into the harbor, dozens of porters, carriages, and wagons flock to the slip to greet the new vessel. Only the harbormaster’s tax collector is faster on arrival than the myriad vendors looking to hawk their wares.
Though the Docks seem welcoming enough to a traveler with coin, the very jingle of their purse makes them a target for every cutthroat and pickpocket along the boardwalk. Weary wanderers know to avoid the dark alleys and lonely streets that wind around the Docks. While the Harbor Guard does a well enough job of patrolling the busier avenues, it pays almost no mind to the forgotten corners in this district; it spends more time looking for illegal shipments and chasing down smugglers than it does investigating another knifing in Backbottom Alley.
Local gangs pay to keep the Harbor Guard off their backs while they work their smuggling operations, protection rackets, or other questionable ventures. The Gylou Sisters, an all-female gang with overt loyalties to Cheliax, spread propaganda and smuggle for the Chelaxian Embassy when they’re not harassing other dockside gangs. The Dockside Dozen—originally 12 orphans from Andoran looking to start over—boast nearly a hundred members and control almost half of the warehouse district, with the help of some luck and some influence from political powerhouse Goodmiss Alidane. These gangs mostly harass and come to blows with each other, but bystanders always get caught in the middle.
When things get rough, citizens sometimes turn to the Firebrands for help. A relatively new import to Absalom, these flashy revolutionaries are always looking to help the needy, punish the cruel, free the enslaved, and look fantastic while doing it. While some call them merely fashionista daredevils, the Firebrands have become very popular among would-be adventurers with kind hearts and young nobles looking to prove themselves. The Dock Council currently debates on whether these do-gooder thrillseekers are having a positive impact on crime or are simply filling the local infirmary with casualties from a Firebrand’s latest failed stunt. Goodmiss Alidane of House Candren is an open supporter of the Firebrands, claiming they help abate crime and keep tourists in the Docks longer, spending their coin with local vendors. Her proposals to legitimize the Firebrands are often opposed by Nomarch Lord Archych Dureanz, whose love of Cheliax grants him an equal measure of distrust and fear.
Two rival factions of the Firebrands became prominent in the Docks around the same time: the Bladed Bastards and the Mithril Chef. These two groups engage in friendly rivalry all over the Docks by holding impromptu contests of skill and daring under the watchful eye of the Harbor Guard. Often, these crowd-pleasing displays are nothing but a diversion from another more secretive goal, such as freeing concealed slaves aboard a Sedeq ship, freeing a beggar from debtors’ prison, or performing a raid on a criminal safehouse.
Absalom is a bustling city, and noise is a fact of life. Yet on the Docks, noise seems to have a life of its own. The constant calls of laborers and sailors orchestrating offloading of ships, the clatter and clang of repairs and construction, and the bustle of crowds consisting of busy locals and gawking new arrivals persistently plays out against the incessant crash of shoreline waves.
If Absalom is the City at the Center of the World, then the Docks are the gateway where the world comes together. Few locations in Golarion gather as many cultures and viewpoints in one place. The very nature of the Docks is to facilitate travel to every other district in Absalom and to the far reaches of Golarion. A wanderer can find mundane transportation to just about anywhere they want to go, if they have the coin. When a ship comes into the harbor, dozens of porters, carriages, and wagons flock to the slip to greet the new vessel. Only the harbormaster’s tax collector is faster on arrival than the myriad vendors looking to hawk their wares.
Though the Docks seem welcoming enough to a traveler with coin, the very jingle of their purse makes them a target for every cutthroat and pickpocket along the boardwalk. Weary wanderers know to avoid the dark alleys and lonely streets that wind around the Docks. While the Harbor Guard does a well enough job of patrolling the busier avenues, it pays almost no mind to the forgotten corners in this district; it spends more time looking for illegal shipments and chasing down smugglers than it does investigating another knifing in Backbottom Alley.
Local gangs pay to keep the Harbor Guard off their backs while they work their smuggling operations, protection rackets, or other questionable ventures. The Gylou Sisters, an all-female gang with overt loyalties to Cheliax, spread propaganda and smuggle for the Chelaxian Embassy when they’re not harassing other dockside gangs. The Dockside Dozen—originally 12 orphans from Andoran looking to start over—boast nearly a hundred members and control almost half of the warehouse district, with the help of some luck and some influence from political powerhouse Goodmiss Alidane. These gangs mostly harass and come to blows with each other, but bystanders always get caught in the middle.
When things get rough, citizens sometimes turn to the Firebrands for help. A relatively new import to Absalom, these flashy revolutionaries are always looking to help the needy, punish the cruel, free the enslaved, and look fantastic while doing it. While some call them merely fashionista daredevils, the Firebrands have become very popular among would-be adventurers with kind hearts and young nobles looking to prove themselves. The Dock Council currently debates on whether these do-gooder thrillseekers are having a positive impact on crime or are simply filling the local infirmary with casualties from a Firebrand’s latest failed stunt. Goodmiss Alidane of House Candren is an open supporter of the Firebrands, claiming they help abate crime and keep tourists in the Docks longer, spending their coin with local vendors. Her proposals to legitimize the Firebrands are often opposed by Nomarch Lord Archych Dureanz, whose love of Cheliax grants him an equal measure of distrust and fear.
Two rival factions of the Firebrands became prominent in the Docks around the same time: the Bladed Bastards and the Mithril Chef. These two groups engage in friendly rivalry all over the Docks by holding impromptu contests of skill and daring under the watchful eye of the Harbor Guard. Often, these crowd-pleasing displays are nothing but a diversion from another more secretive goal, such as freeing concealed slaves aboard a Sedeq ship, freeing a beggar from debtors’ prison, or performing a raid on a criminal safehouse.
Absalom is a bustling city, and noise is a fact of life. Yet on the Docks, noise seems to have a life of its own. The constant calls of laborers and sailors orchestrating offloading of ships, the clatter and clang of repairs and construction, and the bustle of crowds consisting of busy locals and gawking new arrivals persistently plays out against the incessant crash of shoreline waves.
Type
District
Location under
Included Locations
- Bartie’s Barges
- Beneath the Docks
- Besmara’s Boardwalk
- Black Whale
- Broadfoot Marshals Station House
- Concurrent Currency
- Crestwatch
- Devil’s Own Shipyard
- District Courthouse - Docks
- Grog Pit
- Kortos Watercrafts
- Lifter’s Mooring
- Margruel’s Masts
- Meilin and Zhen Ships
- Mithril Chef
- Ogrekin Hall
- Pickled Imp
- Pilot Island
- Pride of Azir
- Princely Shipyard
- Red Drake Warehouses
- Sea King Shipyards
- Temple Row
- The Beastx
Owner/Ruler
Additional Rulers/Owners
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
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