The Despotrix of Hardby

The heavy traffic in trading vessels has given the town of Hardby its reason for being. Surrounded by its wooden palisade, the town rests in a sheltered cove along the shore of the bay. It has docks and wharves far grander than its size would seem to warrant.

But here is where the seagoing vessels of deep draft unload their cargoes, and here the cogs of the native folk load them. Hardby is a town of small, steady population. but a great number of inns, hostels, boarding houses, and eateries for these visitors from the water.

Nights in Hardby are wild, with the wa terfront saloon district being the scene of frequent robberies, fights, and slayings Other districts are quiet and pleasant, however, and the general opinion seems to be that those in the Dock District deserve what happens to them.

Hardby also supports some small business m fishing, and serves as a base for several of the war galleys tllat patrol the waters of Woolly Bay and combat the constant outrages of pirates.

The town pays a regular tribute to the Free City of Greyhawk, primarily for the protection offered by Greyhawk's powerful wizards and the Thieves' Guild. The town of Highport, at tlle opposite end of the bay from Hardby, is the haven of the lawless pirates. That town is a center of depravity and bawdiness, for it is ruled by ignoble orcs. It provides a haven for pirates of orcs, human, and other races. Its military might is too great for it to worry about direct assault from its Woolly Bay neighbors.