The Styes
The haze of smoke hanging over the city is visible for miles, and its stench travels far downwind. Water flowing out the river mouth carries reeking sewage, streaks of dye, and islands of floating garbage far out to sea.
This is the Styes, the decaying remains of a once-notable port. Under bent gables, the carcasses of its houses lean against each other - languid, broken, and awaiting the peace of collapse. Door frames sag, dislocated from sod walls heavy with mildew, while splintering timbers support rotting boardwalks like broken limbs, disappearing into the thick, rancid water of the harbour below. In numerous places, sections of the boardwalks have fallen away completely, leaving broad holes that expose polluted water.
Once, the Styes was a marvellous place. Its magnificent buildings crowned an artificial island that was the centrepiece of a broad bay, held aloft on great oak pilings. Those huge beams supported great facades of marble grandeur, connected by boardwalks that thronged with richly clothed merchants, exotic travellers, and the passing palanquins of nobility. Known as the Island of Pleasures, the site was a destination for rich and decadent folk up and down the coast.
Time can be cruel, however. Warfare, corruption, famine, and natural disaster ruined many who loved the Island of Pleasures, and as their resources dwindled, so did this once-magnificent town. But even as fortune turned and the region rebuilt from devastation, the Island of Pleasures became an unneeded luxury. New people called the district home: poor, desperate folk crowded beneath fallen gables in hovels tattooed by mildew and damp rot. On their heels came folk whose trade was scorned elsewhere. Alchemists fouled the air and water with poisonous concoctions from failed experiments. Sweat-shop manufactories set up in the Styes and alI but enslaved their desperate workers.
Tanners and millers and dyers and butchers invaded the district, scraping every penny out of their businesses with no concern over the impact their toxic operations had on their neighbours or the environment. The city bears little evidence of its former glory as it daily sinks deeper into the muck.
The current population of the Styes is a little under twelve thousand residents, but they're packed into an area that might house half that number in a more prosperous settlement. Four-fifths of the district's residents are human, with the remainder split between gnomes, dwarves, halflings, half-orcs, half-elves, and a smattering of other humanoids. The Styes is ruled by a group of four officials called "the council."
Despite nominally being a part of the Cerulean Empire, the Styes has for many years been a place where the more shadowy elements of Imperial society are drawn. They may pay lip service to the Emperor, but the real power in the city lies with the Council. Consequently it has become a refuge for freebooters and a place where members of the Hold of the Sea Princes can lurk and plot. Despite defeating the Sea Princes inThe Battle of Tynamore Reef , the Empire holds little sway here.
Council Hall
This once-elegant structure is the traditional seat of the council in the Styes. Today, the four councillors who run the city spend most of their time in their own homes and businesses. A small staff of clerks works here, and the councillors hold town meetings in the hall once or twice a month, but most of this structure's other rooms have sat unused for decades.
False Hope
This inn in the Merchants' Quarter of the Styes is a small wooden building, with a small hedged yard and only a few crude tables and benches. Accommodations consist of woollen blankets near the hearth. Despite the poor appearance it is one of the best taverns in the city, and is at least free from damp.
Frother's Lamp
This decommissioned stone lighthouse in the Styes was once a proud beacon welcoming ships, but it functions now as nothing more than a sad Flotsam landmark. The light has fallen into disrepair, and after a few more decades of slowly sinking into the soggy seabed, it might end up consumed by shanties and other buildings built atop its corpse.
Harbour Master
These two stone buildings on a small island in the Merchants' Quarter are the base of operations for the city Harbour Master and her constables.
High Graveyard
The lack of a strong religious presence in the Styes means that the task of dealing with the dead falls to the mortuary in the High Quarter. This large building is surrounded by a disused graveyard, but the district's dead have long been universally cremated. The master of this morbid structure is Sliris Greycoat, a member of the council.The Impiety
This strange tavern in the Styes contains dozens of twisting wooden stairways that give alternate access to the theatre - the patrons of this rickety establishment prefer privacy for their entrances and exits, and the four-score doorways into dozens of private booths and balconies add to the sense of anonymity. The tavern is owned and run by a caretaker known only as “Grimes,” a cadaverously thin figure garbed in dark robes and an executioner’s hood.
Main Garrison
This three-story stone building houses the city militia of the Styes in crowded conditions more like a prison than a barracks. The gallows in front of the garrison seldom lies unused for more than a few days.
The Mouldering Chapel
This converted, half-burnt mansion is the only chapel in the Styes, run by a malnourished, wild-eyed prematurely greyhaired young man named Mordecai. As yet he has few followers — and no one knows to which deity he prays. But his sermons are quite zealous and full of temper and frenzy, wielding a spyglass as he preaches.
Rashlen Manor
One of many run-down manors in the High Quarter of the Styes, this building is home to Rashlen Deverin, one of the Styes' councillors.The Rigg
This decommissioned lighthouse is slowly sinking into the muddy shoreline of the Alchemists' Quarter of the Styes. It is now only half the height it once was in the city's glory days. Still, what protrudes towers nearly eighty feet above the shore. It has been repurposed as a makeshift tavern, though most of the clientele appear to be Kenku.
Slapsticker's Gloom
In the Styes, craftsmen and carpenters produce a variety of household knick-knacks and trinkets, some for sale in stalls in the market, some sold right in the shops. A converted mansion of long ago, the half-burnt, practically condemned building provides space for a dozen such skilled labourers.Sliris Manor
Were it not for the corroded and tarnished brass plate by the door of this large house in the Styes it would just appear another crumbling dwelling. It is in fact the home of Sliris Greycoat, a council member of the town who bears the unlikely title "Magistrate of Health".
Styes Market
This large open area in the Styes serves as the primary market for the city. The place is always crowded, but the goods for sale here tend to be of doubtful quality. Repair work on the Market Square Reaper Clock has recently been completed. The clock stood in ruins over the eastern side of the marketplace for decades — Councilman Thornwell claims to have funded its repair in an attempt to return some of the Styes to its former glory.
Theatres Macabre
A centre of gruesome excess within the Styes, the Theatres Macabre specialise in shock performances — horror shows and gruesome magic acts containing displays of suffering and misery. They are the most popular shows in the Styes, with some twenty companies currently doing a roaring trade shocking people in this building, which is divided into a dozen small auditoriums.
Thornwell Tower
The tallest structure in the Styes, Thornwell Tower is a pinnacle of black and red marble surrounded by a stone wall. Councillor Thornwell dwells here. Locals whisper that the tower is haunted by devils and contains a portal to the Nine Hells.
The Four Quarters of The Styes
The four Quarters of The Styes each have their own distinct flavour and atmosphere, despite remaining a definite part of the same huge settlement. Each district is governed by a different member of the Council.Alchemists' Quarter
The Alchemists' Quarter is the northeast section of the Styes. Long ago, it was the seat of the district's scholastic and religious leadership. but its once-fine temples and universities have long been dismantled for construction materials, or converted into dim. smoky factories and noxious laboratories owned by shady alchemists. With no regulation to speak of in the Styes. alchemists are free to conduct whatever dangerous experiments they like, and to cut corners on safety and quality control. Iron chimneys belch smoke and foul vapours into the air, while liquid and solid waste are dumped into the water around the quarter.High Quarter
The seat of local government in better days, this quarter is the southeast section of the Styes. Most of the buildings here were once municipal offices, but only a few are still in operation. All the rest are either deserted or have been rented to strange and furtive eccentrics. This section of the district is the least populated, and its often-empty streets and boardwalks are in stark contrast to the crowds that frequent the other three quarters. Militia patrols are common here.Low Quarter
Also known as Flotsam, the northwest section of the Styes consists mainly of slum tenements, dubious taverns, rickety warehouses, hovel-crowded alleys, and decommissioned ships converted into buildings. This entire area is slowly sinking into the sea. As old buildings become un-liveable, new ones are built atop them, and the tangle of structures is four or five stories deep in some places. Many of the lower structures are completely walled off from the outside. making them ideal places for hidden temples and black markets. Swaying rope bridges provide the best avenues bet ween the blocks of this quarter, since the old boardwalks are sinking like everything else.Merchants' Quarter
The southwest section of the Styes hosts most of the district's industry and mercantile efforts. Most of the community's fishers live here, and numerous warehouses line the edges of the quarter. Most of these places are either abandoned and boarded up, or serving as flophouses. Of the four quarters, the Merchants' Quarter is the most welcoming to visitors - though that's not saying much. It's also said to be the healthiest part of the city - but that's not saying much either.Notable Features and Buildings
Council Hall
This once-elegant structure is the traditional seat of the council in the Styes. Today, the four councillors who run the city spend most of their time in their own homes and businesses. A small staff of clerks works here, and the councillors hold town meetings in the hall once or twice a month, but most of this structure's other rooms have sat unused for decades.
False Hope
This inn in the Merchants' Quarter of the Styes is a small wooden building, with a small hedged yard and only a few crude tables and benches. Accommodations consist of woollen blankets near the hearth. Despite the poor appearance it is one of the best taverns in the city, and is at least free from damp.
Frother's Lamp
This decommissioned stone lighthouse in the Styes was once a proud beacon welcoming ships, but it functions now as nothing more than a sad Flotsam landmark. The light has fallen into disrepair, and after a few more decades of slowly sinking into the soggy seabed, it might end up consumed by shanties and other buildings built atop its corpse.
Harbour Master
These two stone buildings on a small island in the Merchants' Quarter are the base of operations for the city Harbour Master and her constables.
High Graveyard
The lack of a strong religious presence in the Styes means that the task of dealing with the dead falls to the mortuary in the High Quarter. This large building is surrounded by a disused graveyard, but the district's dead have long been universally cremated. The master of this morbid structure is Sliris Greycoat, a member of the council.
The Impiety
This strange tavern in the Styes contains dozens of twisting wooden stairways that give alternate access to the theatre - the patrons of this rickety establishment prefer privacy for their entrances and exits, and the four-score doorways into dozens of private booths and balconies add to the sense of anonymity. The tavern is owned and run by a caretaker known only as “Grimes,” a cadaverously thin figure garbed in dark robes and an executioner’s hood.
Main Garrison
This three-story stone building houses the city militia of the Styes in crowded conditions more like a prison than a barracks. The gallows in front of the garrison seldom lies unused for more than a few days.
The Mouldering Chapel
This converted, half-burnt mansion is the only chapel in the Styes, run by a malnourished, wild-eyed prematurely greyhaired young man named Mordecai. As yet he has few followers — and no one knows to which deity he prays. But his sermons are quite zealous and full of temper and frenzy, wielding a spyglass as he preaches.
Rashlen Manor
One of many run-down manors in the High Quarter of the Styes, this building is home to Rashlen Deverin, one of the Styes' councillors.
The Rigg
This decommissioned lighthouse is slowly sinking into the muddy shoreline of the Alchemists' Quarter of the Styes. It is now only half the height it once was in the city's glory days. Still, what protrudes towers nearly eighty feet above the shore. It has been repurposed as a makeshift tavern, though most of the clientele appear to be Kenku.
Slapsticker's Gloom
In the Styes, craftsmen and carpenters produce a variety of household knick-knacks and trinkets, some for sale in stalls in the market, some sold right in the shops. A converted mansion of long ago, the half-burnt, practically condemned building provides space for a dozen such skilled labourers.
Sliris Manor
Were it not for the corroded and tarnished brass plate by the door of this large house in the Styes it would just appear another crumbling dwelling. It is in fact the home of Sliris Greycoat, a council member of the town who bears the unlikely title "Magistrate of Health".
Styes Market
This large open area in the Styes serves as the primary market for the city. The place is always crowded, but the goods for sale here tend to be of doubtful quality. Repair work on the Market Square Reaper Clock has recently been completed. The clock stood in ruins over the eastern side of the marketplace for decades — Councilman Thornwell claims to have funded its repair in an attempt to return some of the Styes to its former glory.
Theatres Macabre
A centre of gruesome excess within the Styes, the Theatres Macabre specialise in shock performances — horror shows and gruesome magic acts containing displays of suffering and misery. They are the most popular shows in the Styes, with some twenty companies currently doing a roaring trade shocking people in this building, which is divided into a dozen small auditoriums.
Thornwell Tower
The tallest structure in the Styes, Thornwell Tower is a pinnacle of black and red marble surrounded by a stone wall. Councillor Thornwell dwells here. Locals whisper that the tower is haunted by devils and contains a portal to the Nine Hells.
Travel Distances
All distances are approximate and via the shortest possible routes, which might not always be practical. Where a travel distance is not shown there is no connecting route possible (e.g. there is no road or waterway that links the places).
The Styes by New Line Cinema
Founding Date
ca. 5580 AtD
Alternative Name(s)
The Island of Pleasures, The Sinking Port
Type
City
Population
ca. 12,000
Location under
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