Gate Pass

The Free City-state of Gate Pass lies in a rocky mountain pass that runs east to west between Netheril and lands of the Cormanthyr Elves. Sheer cliffs mark its northern and southern borders, and fortifications built up over centuries have made the city highly defensible, allowing it to avoid being annexed by either of the nations that surround it. These same fortifications, unfortunately, make it difficult for anyone to sneak out of the city without going through any of the numerous gates that give the city its name.

Though the city’s borders to north and south are tightly limited—less than a mile wide at the widest point—the mountain pass is nearly twenty miles long. Various small farms and ranches dot the mountains around the city proper.

Demographics

The citizens of Gate Pass are mostly human. A small elven refugee population is the only other significant group, with half-elves, dwarves, and gnomes filling out the rest.

Government

A half-orc named Merrick Hurt is the city’s governor. He presides over a city council represented by individuals from each ward and district in the city. The council is responsible for managing the military, commerce, and public projects. According to most of the populace, the council is largely ineffectual and is easily swayed by citizen groups, wealthy merchants, religious concerns, and military groups.

Defences

Numbering close to two thousand, the guards also act as constables. Most guards are responsible for watching the gates and kill zones around the city. A small unit of twenty griffon riders patrols the farms in the outlying area and represents the only cavalry.

Infrastructure

A broad, twenty-foot-wide thoroughfare called the Emelk Way runs the length of the city, interrupted only by the district walls every half mile or so. The city’s natural landscape rises in the center to a broad hill called Summer’s Bluff. In addition to being home to dozens of gated estates for the city’s politicians and rich merchants, Summer’s Bluff is the site of the city’s grand square, where various annual holidays are celebrated. The grand square can easily hold several thousand people, and it is dotted with dozens of small groves, statues, and ornamental gate arches, with staircases people can climb to get a better view. In the center of the grand square is a high stone dais, its surface carved in a massive relief that depicts several local legends.

Districts

The city consists of various districts of skilled workers, common housing, warehouses and businesses, and slums. Each district has representation in the city government. By city ordinance, every fourth district must contain a park at least a quarter mile to a side, though entrance to these typically requires payment of a few coppers.

The city grew outward from its central districts, with a new district and new outer wall springing up every few decades or so. Because of this, it is possible to see the changing styles of construction and defense over the centuries of the city’s existence, like reading the rings of a tree. In older districts, built before the development of the city’s underground sewer system, countless reservoirs and aqueducts rise above the rooftops, designed to catch rainwater and direct sewage to dumps outside the city. The current sewers flow into an underground river before being swept into endless, uncharted caves.

The city is segmented into fourteen districts, each slightly more than a half-mile in length. They are separated by 30-foot-high, 6-foot-thick walls that stretch from north to south. The tops of the walls sport metal grates sticking out sideways 5 feet in each direction. City ordinance forbids any rooftop within 10 feet of a wall, though the city has a few stories about industrious thieves using massive ladders to traverse the city for twilight heists carried out in the wealthier districts.

Guilds and Factions

In a few districts are found smaller walled areas populated predominantly by a single race. Most common of these ghettos are those of the elves, who tend to shun outsiders. Elvish ghettos are renowned for having no visible entrances through their walls— all the doors are secret, which elves can intuitively notice.

History

Gate Pass has the distinction of being the only city to successfully defend against annexation by the Empire of Netheril. Forty years ago, Karsus defeated the city’s army, set up a military government, and erected a 90-foot-tall statue of himself in the grand square on Summer’s Bluff. For two years, citizens waged an insurgency against the occupying army, until finally Karsus decided the city wasn’t worth the loss of men until his plans could come closer to fruition. Karsus declared that he would withdraw from Gate Pass if Shaaladel, the Lord of the Cormanthyr elves, agreed to leave the city as a neutral buffer between their two nations. The elves agreed, the city celebrated its victory, and trade between the two nations began to flow.

A myth that is native to Gate Pass is that of the Dragon and the Eagle. A series of myths tell of an ancient time when the lands that are now Netheril and its neighbors were the domain of four elemental spirits—the Tidereaver Kraken, the Worldshaper Worm, the Flamebringer Dragon, and the Stormchaser Eagle, and these four beings are common motifs in the art and architecture of Gate Pass.

Points of interest

Inns

Inns are most often found at the outermost districts of the city with the exception of a few around the grand square. The quality of accommodations lessens the farther away the inn is from the Emelk Way. Famous locations: Dassen Arms (5 stars, the best Griffon Suites (4 stars Mannish Inn (2-star Harrigan’s Inn (1 star).

Taverns

Some well-known taverns are Flaming Forest Alehouse (5 stars Seaquen’s Spirits (3 stars Poison Apple Pub (2-star One-to-Go tavern (1 star)

Supplies

Two-Winds Trading; Menash’s Provisions; Adventurer’s Trove.

Architecture

The city’s architecture tends to multistory buildings with bridges between roofs, creating thousands of “gateways” along roads and alleys. Even in poorer districts, buildings are usually at least two stories tall. Many merchants, made wealthy from the traffic that passes through the city, own vast ranges of adjacent buildings, all of them connected with high bridges. An expression of the city—“a coin for every gate”—both refers to the wealth of the city, and serves as a warning to visitors to avoid poorer areas where buildings lie unconnected.

Rantle Sibracan of Gate Pass

Population

17000, another 2,000 or so live on the countryside and upper mountain slopes within a few miles of the main gates

Owner/Ruler

Merrick Hurt

Vehicles Present

• The Golden Endeavor