Undercellar
A cluster of chambers in a warren of storage cellars beneath the city has been used as a seedy tavern and festhall for most of the Gate’s history. Archways, some with iron-barred, lockable gates, link the cobbled, vaulted chambers of the Undercellar. At least two dozen ways in and out of the popular establishment exist. About half of them connect to other buildings. Not all are widely known, and a few are purposely kept secret.
The affable Heltur “Ribbons” Ribbond, a gaunt, bearded man, runs the Undercellar. Ribbons is always smiling, has never publicly lost his temper or shown fear, and throws daggers and bottles with deadly accuracy. His cadre of toughs, which everyone calls “the Cellarers,” guard the festhall.
It’s rumored that Ribbons is actually a front, the fall guy in case something untoward should happen. According to gossip, a shadowy owner known only as “Tallhat” employs Ribbons. Some whisper that Tallhat is really Duke Silvershield, while others say Tallhat is the wizard Lorroakan, or is actually Guildmaster Nine-Fingers.
The Watch and the Fist never police the Undercellar. Thus, the underground locale serves many unsavory characters, functioning as a meeting place for the Gate’s underbelly professionals and bottom feeders. Visitors are routine in the festhall’s popular areas, but anyone who wanders farther afield quickly runs afoul of the Cellarers. If Ribbons doesn’t recognize someone, he pointedly questions the patron about his or her business in the Gate’s belly.
Several notorious characters, such as the Fetcher, have put down professional roots in the Undercellar and have created Guild-approved corner offices for themselves. The Fetcher is almost always in. Ribbons directs many patrons to the Fetcher’s private chamber. It’s rumored that he’s a Guild agent whose hands dance as he attends to numerous dirty strings, which happen to be attached to Baldurians in the highest and lowest of places.
The Undercellar is also a place of business for Alfrus Manyblades, a fly-ridden, scarred, rasping old dwarf who sells weapons to anyone; Vug Gorkul, a sophisticated, effete yet monstrously large half-orc herbalist who purveys potent medicaments, exotic liqueurs, and vitiating toxins; and Nasparl Nintanter, a sardonic male half-elf who wears an eye patch and sells disguises ranging from the simple to the elaborate.
As a festhall, the Undercellar isn’t riotous or obviously bawdy. Its public areas function mostly as guarded gambling dens and dining areas in which “sociable friends” lounge, chat, and sip drinks that their suitors buy them. For private liaisons, companions sashay their suitors over to the Cellarers, who escort the participants to secluded quarters. Mistreatment of a sociable friend results in a Cellarer immediately whisking the victim away and deserting the offender in the perilous maze of darkness that is the Undercellar’s undercellar.
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments