Thieves' Quarter

Named for the now-vanished Westden thieves’ guild, this district continues to be a dark and dangerous place, but has also become somewhat fashionable among jaded nobles and thrill-seekers. Shadowy inns and taverns sit cheek-by-jowl with drug dens, smugglers havens, and houses of ill repute. Almost anything can be bought or sold here, if the price is right. It certainly is far from the safest district in the city, but the Canal District has long since supplanted the Thieves’ Quarter as the seediest and most unpleasant spot in Westden.

Infrastructure

Beggar’s Row

This tattered row of old buildings has become a central gathering-place for many of the district’s criminal elements. Stolen goods can be fenced here, assassins can be hired, contraband and illegal narcotics obtained. The place is also full of beggars and vagrants, and drunkards sleeping in gutters are a common sight. Some of the district’s best-known establishments including the Hidden Lady and the Inn of the Fallen Tree can be found here.

Fortune Avenue

This street teems with pickpockets and muggers, who feel that the name refers to them rather than their victims. The gaming house known as the Fortune’s Fool can be found here, always surrounded by beggars and ne’er-do-wells.

Shady Way Street

This narrow, cobbled street is constantly in disrepair, filled with potholes and damaged stones. Its shops are close-packed, and its alleys are a common hiding place for rogues and transients.

Fortune’s Fool

The center of social life in the Thieves’ Quarter is a testament to bad taste in just about every way. Garishly painted, built in an ornate and archaic style, the building is decorated with images of scantily-clad women frolicking with satyrs, and similarly gaudy statues can be found throughout the grounds and interior. The ceiling is domed and painted with more images of bacchanalia, and the floor is covered with bright red-and-gold carpets.
This ornate gambling establishment, its bars, theater and eatery, are all owned by Fat Juliello Broad-Toe (male halfling). A decadent and hedonistic man with a quick temper and a greedy soul, he encourages his guests to “have fun” and spend as much gold as possible, though he’s a thoroughly unlikable fellow.
Julie has no tolerance for cheaters or troublemakers, and quickly dispatches his bouncers, brothers Colic and Choli Bonesnapper (male bugbear) to deal with anyone who disrupts the place. His security forces include several bouncers, Louis (male human), a sorcerer, and Ilyashar (female human), the accountant. They are all well-paid, and are as intolerant of troublemakers as their boss.
By human standards, Choli and his brother Colic would be considered chaotic evil, as they wish to slay their blood sworn enemies and eat them. However, they are both trustworthy to those that they deem as friends to their cause and those that would help them against the evil followers of Chernobog and Set who have driven them from their homes and killed their young.
Colic likes to drink milk. He has seen smart people drink milk, and feels that he will be smart if he drinks milk too.

The Silver Serpent

This large hexagonal, three-story building houses one of the most raucous of Westden’s inns. Popular with adventurers, criminals and similar low-lifes, the Serpent serves good food and excellent liquor. The common room is a haven for prostitutes and their pimps, and the small rooms upstairs can be rented for 1gp per hour or 5gp a night. The Serpent’s private booths are well protected from eavesdroppers, and many dark bargains are sealed in the inn’s smoky shadows. Bouncers armed with cudgels keep order here, and fights are surprisingly rare.
The place is run by Chadwick (male human), an experienced tavernkeeper who knows how to keep his mouth shut. He is a bullnecked man with sharp ears and sharper eyes, and is known to be one of the best sources of information in all of Westden, though he only talks if well paid, and always prefaces his information with “Well, I never told you this, but...”
Chadwick’s selection of liquors is (with the exception of Brin Zwiescher’s ale for 4cp per mug) excellent, and includes Silversnake Brandy (1gp per shot), Chadwick’s Own Brew (1sp per mug) and fine Vinewood Chablis (20gp per bottle or 5gp per glass). Food is average, and costs standard prices.

The Bloody Boar

Named for its most famous dish — extremely rare roast boar — this tavern has had many owners. Rumor has it that it only changes hands through blackmail or murder. It’s a dull night when a fight doesn’t break out, but outright fatalities are relatively rare (weapons are required to be checked at the door). Locals say that the Black Viper is where one goes to get killed, but the Boar is the best place to get a bruising.
The common room is always crowded and rowdy, and the bar — made from a great gnarled and knotted tree — is busy at all hours. Owner Vig One-Tusk (male orc) is well respected and rightfully feared by the folk of Westden. While he always makes sure that everyone at the Boar has a good time, he is not above breaking heads to keep the peace and avoid excessive bloodshed. A large burly pureblooded orc, known as a mag'har in orcish, Vig has only one tusk. The other tusk hangs about his neck, after it was torn from him in a brawl. He is often seen smoking from an ornate ivory pipe. The orcish tobacco he smokes is also offered for sale, though it can hardly be stomached by humans. An accomplished warrior in his own right, he leaves most of the actual security to his bouncer Chord (male human), a burly former wrestler, and usually contents himself to glower menacingly at troublemakers and puff at his foul-smelling pipe.
The Bloody Boar special, a platter of seared boar meat, costs 4sp and feeds up to four hungry diners. Other items include Boar’s Breath Beer at 3cp per mug, Vig’s Vodka (he is said to distill it himself from discarded potatoes and radishes) is 1sp per shot, and as expected, Brin Zwiescher’s Ale is available for those who truly want it at 4cp per mug.

The Hidden Lady

Thomokos (male elf) does his best to keep a low profile and not draw attention to this small inn. So far he has been successful, and attention from the constables has been minimal.
The inn is small, built of stone and wood, and is hard to find unless one knows what one is looking for. Inside, a small common room usually hosts a crowd of regulars. There are a six sleeping rooms available. The bard Onund (male human) entertains here and maintains quarters upstairs. The Lady’s rooms cost 5sp per night. Food and drink are also available here for standard prices.

The Black Viper

Draped booths provide privacy, and the bar is overseen by a man known only as Scars (male human). Scars maintains strict neutrality in his bar, and doesn’t ask any questions about his customer’s business. He serves regulars with a grim smile, charging 20% less than standard prices for food and drink. Outsiders get a sneer and are charged double. Those who come here asking too many questions are inviting trouble, and rarely leave under their own power.
Scars is assisted by two surprisingly beautiful bar girls, Natala and Zarabeshe (female human). They assist Scars and dispose of troublesome customers for him. Several other regulars that are often about are Johan the Bastard (male goliath) or Tork (male dwarf).
Rooms upstairs are small and neat, costing 2sp per night, 12sp for a week, and 2gp per month. Drinks include Viper’s Venom (3sp per shot; drinker must make a DC 10 + 1 per shot Con save or pass out for 2d6 hours), Cotton Mouth Beer (3cp per mug), Mirkeer’s Grape (12gp per bottle, 3gp per glass) and, of course, Brin Zwiescher’s Ale (4cp per mug). Meals are only barely edible (Scars is not much of a cook) and cost 1sp per person.

Shrine of Suffering’s Ease

A mere notch in a back alley wall around the corner from Beggar’s Row is all that remains of the once-prosperous faith of Ceres. In its heyday, the faith had temples all over the city and beyond. Today, only a small and pathetic clearing, its walls covered in graffiti portraying Ceres and some of her legends is tended by a handful of impoverished, emaciated priests. The priesthood still tries to do good, helping the poor and healing the sick, but they themselves are only a few steps away from starvation, and are unable to attract new converts, save among the most destitute and hopeless of the city. Ceres’ high priest, Rath Kata (male human), is a wizened old man in filthy robes, his only possessions a walking staff and holy symbol of the Revered Mother. Kata is a wild-haired zealot who protests against slavery, imprisonment, and execution of criminals. He is a champion of civil rights, for right or wrong, and is often misunderstood by the citizens of Westden. The shrine uses what little money it brings in to feed the poor, and take care of the needs of the destitute in the Thieves’ Quarter.

Chalk and Slate

In the midst of the squalor of the Thieves’ Quarter is this small, well-kept building, home to both a school and orphanage run by Aaronic (male human). An orphan himself, Aaronic seeks to educate the downtrodden and parentless children of the district, teaching them reading, writing, and history, in the hope that they go on to better lives.
The building contains a sleeping room with bunk beds, a small kitchen and dining room, and a classroom with various stools and chairs. At the head of the classroom is a large piece of slate, upon which Aaronic draws each day’s lessons. When not engaged in classes, Aaronic and his orphans beg on the streets, gathering enough income to keep the orphanage running. There are presently 16 students, all young human, halfling, half-elf, and half-orc orphans at the school.

The Inn of the Fallen Tree

This two-story wooden building is one of the more unusual of Westden’s inns, since a large oak tree fell onto it some years ago. Since then, minor renovations have been performed, and the oak is now part of the structure itself. The inn is run by a haggard commoner known as Old One-Tooth (female human), who generally asks no questions of her boarders as long as they don’t commit any excessively overt crimes.
On the second story, in one of the “tree rooms” (that is, one of the rooms that was rebuilt around the trunk of the fallen oak), her boarder Krants the Bruiser (male human), a former wrestler who has fallen on bad times, spends most of the time hiding in his room, asking that food be left at his door. The room’s windows are covered with blankets, and other guests complain of the stench of garlic that periodically wafts from the place. From time to time, the sound of moaning comes from the room as well.
Rooms at the inn cost 1sp per night, with flavorless meals an additional 1 sp. One-Tooth serves only the ubiquitous Brin Zwiescher Ale for 4cp per mug to drink.

The Cat of Nine

The exotic woman known as Mistress Honeysuckle (female tiefling) owns and operates this shop, where she makes and sells whips of all kinds, from riding crops to bullwhips, and everything in between. Though she sells to those who use whips for ordinary purposes, her main customers seek somewhat less mundane pleasures. An expert with all sorts of whips, Honeysuckle gives a demonstration to any who ask, but the customer should be ready to serve as her subject in the process.
Honeysuckle keeps certain other items, including manacles, torture racks, blindfolds, collars, leashes, and the like in the back of the shop, and sells them to her best customers.

Rogues’ Island

This tiny, hawthorn tree-covered island is known as Rogues’ Island. A single manor house called Slip-Gallows Abbey sits upon the island. The Abbey was once the guildhall of the Gray Deacons, Westden’s thieves’ guild. Today it is said to be haunted, and none of those who have investigated the place have ever come out again.

Character

The Thieves’ Quarter sees an interesting mix of inhabitants — during the day, tourists, students, and thrill seekers throng the streets, hoping to soak up some of the district’s local color. Inhabitants include broke artists, failed musicians, struggling playwrights, and impoverished students, as well as foreign immigrants, adventurers and vagrants. The Thieves’ Quarter never sleeps — most taverns are open all day and night, closing for only an hour or so to clean up. At night, the quarter shows its true nature, and most slumming nobles had best vacate before sundown, when thieves, killers, alley bashers, and other undesirables creep forth from their lairs to practice their bloody trade.

Businesses

Just about any business, legal or illicit, can be found in the district, though most businesses are bars, taverns, music halls, gambling dens, or bawdy houses. Many large buildings have been converted to tenements, where poor residents live in filthy conditions.

District Modifier

–3

Prices

Standard unless otherwise noted.

Gold Piece Limit

800gp unless otherwise noted

Building Type

Old style two- and three-story brick and wood frame buildings are common throughout the quarter. Most are in poor repair, though some residents struggle to keep their buildings pleasant and livable.

Guard Details

Constables and sheriffs patrol irregularly, and are more common during the day. The generally take a hands-off approach to the populace, unless a crime is being overtly committed nearby.

Location under

Westden