The Cluster

Stretching around the Freeport Institute at the western edge of Drac’s End is the neighborhood called the Cluster—a collection of dormitories, boarding houses, taverns, and shops. The Cluster is home to a wide variety of students, academics, artists, visitors, and alternative kinds of folk, including many members of the nonhuman races.

History

The Cluster sprang into being shortly after Mandarus Whitmire founded the Freeport Institute and has continued to grow over the last one hundred fifty years. It’s perhaps the wealthiest area in Drac’s End, not on an individual level, more so because of the constant passage of visitors and their funds—not to mention the proximity of the Merchant District.
As well as students and Institute staff, the Cluster is also a popular destination for free thinkers, musicians, scholars, cultured merchants, and all kinds of travelers. The bars and halls of the Cluster are one of the few places where the poor and the wealthy might rub shoulders over a drink, discuss the art on display at a gallery, or get into a fair fight over who cheated at cards.

Architecture

Dozens of buildings of all kinds are crammed together in this neighborhood (that’s why it’s called the Cluster, after all). Space is at a premium, and even calling the passageways between the buildings “alleys” is a stretch. Still, the Watch heavily patrols them, as well as wardens from the Temple of Knowledge and vigilant locals, making this one of the safest parts of town.
Inside the buildings of the Cluster, the neighborhood quickly betrays its academic leanings. Students live and work in almost all the buildings, easily recognized by their ink-stained sleeves, strained eyesight, and appalling haircuts. Books, scrolls, musical instruments, unwashed clothes, half-eaten plates of food, empty wine bottles, unfinished experiments, and inexpensive prostitutes—these are the hallmarks of academia in Freeport, and all can be found within the Cluster.

Type

Neighbourhood

Location under

Drac's End

Characters in Location

• Lucius of Freeport
• Oskar Broadhammer