Thieves’ Quarter

At one time Old City was the entirety of the city of Greyhawk . Although the walled-off district is today a crumbling collection of leaning tenements and makeshift hovels, one can still detect a trace of greatness in the structures. Many of these ancient buildings, though now in advanced decay, once housed nobles and government structures critical to the city’s survival. An ancient bathhouse along the Processional bears monolithic sculptures from an earlier time of prosperity, while the more unsavoury types dwell in the moldering ruins of Greyhawk’s Old City Hall. South of the Black Gate, the city’s main avenue is a littered, ill-maintained mess filled with potholes and refuse. Old City is home to the working poor and criminals with few options. The whole place breeds corruption and desperation. To venture here is to put one’s purse and life at risk.
The eastern portion of the Old City is aptly named the Thieves’ Quarter. It is widely known (though less widely spoken aloud) that the Guild holds much sway here. Cutthroats and muggers prowl the warren of narrow streets for easy marks, while gangs of thugs wring protection money out of the local business. Most of the quarter’s inhabitants are either labourers or poorer tradesmen. Few are brave enough to speak out against the thieves, knowing that to do so is to ask for, at best, a severe beating. Even the City Watch only comes here in force.
The danger is much worse at night, when the district’s unlit streets swarm with trouble-seeking young gangs, bands of thieves, and beggars engaged in nefarious business. The City Watch operates on the assumption that anyone on the streets of Old City at night is a criminal. The Watch seldom ventures into the district and almost never patrols, leaving the desperate folk of the Slum and Thieves’ Quarters to maintain their own sort of law enforcement. The Guild and the Beggar’s Union represent the most significant order here, and those expecting to make a mark on this district will need to deal with them.
The buildings of the Thieves’ Quarter are slightly less run down than their Slum Quarter equivalents, its people marginally better off. Such wealth is relative in Old City, however, where a handful of silver is enough to make one a prince for a day—or simply an easy target for a jealous criminal.

Type

Neighbourhood

Location under

Free City of Greyhawk

Included Locations

• Black Orchid Boarding House
• Brass Dragon Inn
• Chapel of Norebo
• Chapel of Olidammara
• Common Crypt
• Devin Halfhock's Pawnshop
• Gold Digger Tavern
• Gritch Hariad, Jeweler
• Hanged Man Inn
• Madame Zaccaruso's Rooms for Rent
• Mama Esther's Bakery and Boarding House
• Merchants' and Traders' Guildhall and Livery
• Millrose Brewery
• Old City Depot
• Old City Watch Station
• Pawnbrokership of Vesper
• Public Bathhouse
• Shrine of Beory
• Temple of Xerbo
• Turin's Servant Agency
• Whitehorse Inn
• Zorbo's House of Fun