Surtor

At the mouth of the Sura River lies the southernmost city in the City-States Region. The small inlet produced by the the river allows the city of Surtor to host a small port. The southern part of the region does not produce very much so it is not particularly high-traffic, but it does serve well to ship granite out of The Sink to the cities in the north. This bit of shipping, along with the occasional harvest of chocolate and coffee from near the Shifting Jungle, allows the city to exist with a modest level of wealth.

Community of Adventure

The other primary source of wealth in the city is merchants who supply explorers, adventurers, and others journeying into the dangerous territories in the Southlands or up into The Glow. Surtor is a very common last stop for those traveling those directions, and while Southport is often where such journeys make landfall, that port's prices are somehwhat inflated due to its "last chance" nature and remote location. Surtor, instead, tends to see shops that are well-stocked and reasonably priced.

It's this community that has made Surtor host to a fairly vibrant community of "independent explorers" - as some adventurers will call themselves. A quarter of the city is full of taverns and lodging houses catering to those who rarely spend long in a town but who actively seek out others of their trade when they are. Many of those houses have meeting rooms, allowing for a small group to meet out of earshot of others, and have found other ways to help make this city a home to those who seem to always just be passing through.

Exotic Foods, Dangerous Farming

While most of the food in the City-States Region is grown in the Fertile Lands or otherwise on scattered farms throughout the region, some foodstuffs that are desirable are limited in where they can grow. Some of those areas are not particularly safe to farm in. One such region is around the edges of the Shifting Jungle, located inland from Surtor via the Sura River. The land here is extremely fertile and is the only place warm enough to find such desirable plants as coffee, chocolate, many spices, and other such crops.
Ther nature of the Jungle, though, makes any permanent farming settlement extremely hazardous. The Jungle is rife with dangerous wildlife, ranging from Floralfiends to Jungle Goblins to even the odd Treant. Any of these creatures (and more) will sometimes range outside of the edge of the forest, either out of innate hostility or simple territoriality.

So instead of setting down permanent crops and carefully cultivating them, the small number of people who try to grow crops here will do so in an almost wild way. They will plant seeds almost randomly, or transplant seedlings so that they seem to be naturally growing. They will occasionally check on them, but for the most part will only spend a significant time around them when harvesting.

It's a very inefficient way to farm, but given the dangers involved it is the only way to do it with even a vague level of safety. The end result of this work is a small amount of very expensive, very desirable crops. These make their way along the river to Surtor, where they will pass through the town's warehouses and then up to the larger cities in the north.

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