City of Tashichoka

The cliff runs NE to SW for hundreds of km. This has got to be where the Barbarians come from. Maybe even the Gillmen...?

— Master Expeditionary Envoy Explorer Pechin Kaze

The ocean is rough on the approach, especially when the tide is ebbing and the wind flows from the NE pushing the surface into the cliffs. These cliffs rise from 100m to 300m out of the ocean. The contrast of blue against the black and grey of the cliff face create a foreboding sensation, the giant wall looming over the sea. The winds are strong and unpredictable and many a ship wreck can be found at the bottom of the cliff, a ship without a good watch and in the fog or storm will bash against the cliffs and never know what it hit, descending to an unmeasurable depth below.
But like all stories, there are a few places where there is civilization, because, that's why you're here, right?
At one of these known sites, the cliff face has a portion scooped out that is protected from the unpredictable winds and is shallow enough to allow for docks to be built. Actually, its not shallow enough, its just that the cliff face had collapsed and has formed an area where docks can be built, its still deep enough to be able to draft even the largest of currently know ships. When you venture out past the outer cliff face, the bottom drops off to uncountable depths.
In this cove, to the back of the cliff face was a large cave mouth. Now, size being relative, and what I might call large but you would consider normal or medium, lets say you could build a three story standard structure before you would be able to touch the cavern openings upper lip. Width wise, I don't know about your cities, but with ours, its about 6 city blocks wide, or at least that's what the settlers here have built.
But lets progress the view from ocean to cove to the beach. The beach is shallow and the local residents had shored up some portions with concrete and built a seawall where they host the docks that jut out into the cove for the ships to moor when coming and going.
After the beach and docks, on first sight, you find what looks like a seaside village. Its intentionally misleading as the city is actually through the cavern mouth, passed here. Walking past the first few blocks and buildings encountered, moving into the cliff face, you pass into a eventual huge chamber. Its estimated to be 66 stories high at the 'highest' point. You can see it from some of the early buildings inside the cavern. Dining on the roof of Philipa Shao's Wine Bar, looking to the west, you see there is a spire that rises to the cavern ceiling marking the center of the city.
The first portion of the settlement is chaotically built, but again its a façade and defensive measure for the larger city beyond. They say this section is designed so oddly because it supposedly keeps the riff-raff away.
The first few blocks once you venture into the cliff face are equally chaotic and provide for further confusion to those who aren't frequent visitors. Its designed with narrow roads, shoulder wide throughways and foot paths that would make any invader with a lager army think twice. The design bottlenecks invaders and they can easily be picked off once they emerge into the section called "The Courtyards".
The city inside the cavern is a spoke and wheel design. All the spokes flow to the narrow center spire that rises towards the ceiling of the cavern About 50m before it looks like the column would reach the ceiling, a giant blue orb hangs suspended in the air. It floats between the ceiling and the end of the spire. There are 13 main spokes with some sections having minor spokes in between, and 7 wheels going around at the widest point.
Where possible, houses and businesses were carved out of the existing rock as wood is scarce and scavenged from shipwrecks when it floats into harbor. You can find both concrete and stone blocks used to build other structures when it suited.
How and why does a city this large exist in a cavern? Where do all the goods come and go to and from? Follow spoke 9, it goes from the port side through the city, to the back of the cavern. This spoke leads to the surface, the Savannah of Dreams and the lands beyond.
But given what's happened, you have to survive first...


The ship slowly, quietly, flowed into the harbor.
"Captain," Tobias the First Mate loudly whispers, "Nothing seen on shore, no movement."
Captain Springer gives a curt nod. "Continue to anchor."
"Aye sir." First Mate gives the hand signal and the deck quietly springs to a different dance.
Accepting the challenge wasn’t the difficult part for Captain Springer, compiling the information from the First Mate and Bosun was more difficult and they had done a good job. It was not having any reliable charts or actual reliable known information. There was nothing but hearsay and unfortunately that was what they had to go on. Stories and legend probably more scary then fact.
But that remained to be seen.
The ships bow made a quite 'plunk' noise as the anchor descended into the bay. It felt like it dragged for a little longer than expected before catching then they released to stern anchor to help with stabilizing. There was enough to compensate for tidal changes, which would be another thing they were uncertain of as they were not known in any of the reports either.
A skiff was quietly lowered and the Captain, first mate, and 3 other men descended the ropes to get in and begin their way.
"Sir, I think we should go o'er to the docks, the shore may be to shallow, and everyone talked about creatures near the shore.'
"Make it so, Tobias."
Captain Springer had high confidence in Tobias, he had known the man going on 15 years and had sailed with him all over the islands and in many cases outside the veil. They even did a few tours together in the Natural World and came out with only a couple of extra scars. Tobias had great water instinct and water magic skills, not as strong as the Captains, but reliable and strong just the same.
The men handled moving the skiff to the dock almost silently, quickly slotting in between two larger ships to use as a hiding spot. They climbed up onto the docks and looking around, saw no signs of anyone. Walking slowly, cautiously down the docks they came to what would be your staging areas for goods to go on and off the docks and ships and paused to look around.
The town was eerily quiet. No barking dogs, no running children. Not a soul in sight.

The city of Tashichoka is a well regarded port city. Merchants bustle about and for every ship that is leaving another can't come in fast enough. What baffles me as I explore about, the technology here is so different than home. It makes no sense to those seeing them for the first time. It's like it came from another world.

— Master Expeditionary Envoy Explorer Pechin Kaze

The dock leads to the lower portion of the shore docks where large rocks support portions under the docks and protect against erosion. To the left and right, concrete has been laid and spreads out and back into the city that disappears into the darkness of the cliffs. Roads appear to go to the south and north along the short shore and disappear into the cliffside. Closer to the waters edge, an inviting sandy beach looks ready for beachgoers and smaller crafts, but none are there.
After you come ashore and walk the dock to the shipping area, city buildings made of wood and bone are built until you reach the imaginary line under the cliff face. From there, some dwellings are carved into the cliff face at the ground level, with stairs cut in for higher levels. The primary portion of the city continues further into the cliff, into the rock and goes deep into what is a vast cavern to form an underground city.
No one from the Islands has come back with a positive thing to say, if they have come back at all. When they were asking around for information before departure, many of those who would talk said 'You can enter, but never return'. This may or may not have been shared with the crew of the Marlin.
Of course you would be right to think there are so many other possible directions to go in being out at sea, that you could just come to the vast cliff in the sea at any point you wished, but by some strange force of the winds and currents you inevitable are pushed to one of a few locations along the cliffs, the primary one being Tashichoka.
Further into the cliff, the city of Tashichoka appeared to be a bustling metropolis of trade and government. Walking its streets its was easy to see the lanterns along the roads and lights over the streets that would illuminate and change colors helping to keep traffic moving. Vehicles of different kinds were see throughout, from those being pulled by animals to the rare few with their intricate engines encased in wood or some kind of metal.
When captain and his team wandered past the first rows of buildings and into the cavern portion, the air changed to something more comfortable, a light haze in the air above. Sounds of running water could be heard from all directions and the smell of cavern air was prevalent. The hardest thing to wrap their mind around, they still have not seen anyone.
The streets were clean of trash, lights were on but no one was home. Restaurants were lit with kitchens ready for cooking, but no staff were present. No one was outside calling for people to come in and eat. There weren't even any stray animals around.
One of the men tripped and fell, swearing he had felt something there but when they reached out to touch the space, there was obviously nothing there...
The mystery only deepened further. Following the scent of freshly cooked food, they found a restaurant that had tables outside with freshly prepared food, sitting perfectly placed and ready for them to sit and eat.
"Sir?" said first mate pointing.
"Nope." said the captain as he stood there looking. They continued on.
After walking for a time, they all stopped near a fountain that in the center had a sculpture of a great winged beast with what looked like a sharks tail. They ate the sea tack they had brought with them, facing away from each other so they could keep an eye on the surroundings.
Nobody saw anything move except the occasional curtain from an open window caused by the constant moving breezes within the cavern city. The air temperature was actually quite pleasant and it would be easy to doze off.
At roughly the same time, the street lamps with their flicker flame all at once went out. It wasn’t like watching lights go out down the street, like dominoes falling, they just extinguished.
Immediately the growling sound began.
Running through the streets in the dark was problematic to say the least. One of the oarsmen was able to cast lights while they were running. The sight they saw on the initial casting, you might call it unlucky(?) to cast the first light right in front of the creatures face, or lucky because now it quickly jerked its head away and raised an arm to shield its face from the light as if blinded, giving them a few moments first movement. It had great veiny wings and the face of a demon...with a tail like a shark?...wait, how was it walking? Wasn't it in the fountain squirting water from its member into the pool? How did it change color?
The group ran, their thoughts jumbled in a frenzy. They could see the bright light from the outside leading to the city's dock up ahead, but they knew they were not safe yet. Two creatures emerged from one of the side streets casting shadows by the oarsman's light, lunging at the landing team with trident spears.
One of the creatures caught an Oarsman by his red shirt, tearing it. But he didn't slow down. He stumbled slightly, but his sea legs kept him from falling. These guys were used to the rocking of the waves, and not much could throw them off balance.
"Gillsmen!" cried one of the other Oarsmen.
They knew what this meant, there would be more in the water.

Cliffside by Original Mr Ty and midjourney

Type

Large city