Rustwater

Rustwater District

In the smog-choked expanse of Grizburg, where toxic mists from the Kalnith Jungle merge with industrial pollution, the Rustwater District sprawls like an open wound in the city's flesh. Named for the chemically-tainted river winding through its heart, this sprawling bazaar never sleeps, its countless stalls and shops offering everything from mundane weapons to forbidden artifacts harvested from the jungle's darkest corners.

The district's foundations form a maze of half-submerged chambers and hidden vaults, where the real business of Grizburg transpires in shadow. The tainted waters flowing through these underground spaces have corroded metal and stone over generations, creating naturally defensible spaces claimed by various criminal factions and overseen by the Brinkburn family from their imposing Ironhold fortress-factory.

Above ground, the architecture mocks conventional engineering - rickety towers and bridges constructed from salvaged materials lean at impossible angles, held together by questionable science and desperate magic. The influence of the nearby Shadowspire District bleeds down into Rustwater's highest towers, where reality grows thin and time flows strangely. Merchants string their wares between buildings on cables that crisscross the sky, creating a chaotic canopy of goods and contraband swaying in the acidic breeze.

"The river doesn't just carry poison - it carries secrets. Every drop holds a whisper of power, if you know how to listen."

- Kregan Brinkburn

The infamous bazaars operate continuously, with different markets catering to specific clientele. The Day Market deals in legitimate goods, while the Twilight Market specializes in questionable merchandise. The Night Market, operating in the district's deepest recesses, trades exclusively in items and services forbidden even under Grizburg's loose laws.
Chemistry defines the district's character. The river's polluted waters have been incorporated into local industry and culture through the Brinkburn family's innovations. Their alchemists harvest unique compounds from its depths, while local taverns serve drinks laced with trace amounts of the water, claiming they grant visions or enhance negotiation skills. The long-term effects remain unstudied, though mutation rates continue to rise.
The criminal ecosystem thrives like a dark, mutated garden. In the shadow of the Shadowspire's grand forges, the Forge-Clans maintain hidden workshops where "unauthorized modifications" transform mundane weapons into artifacts of terrifying power. Smuggling operations wind through networks of corroded tunnels, moving goods between the corrupted jungle and markets that even the Council of Thirteen pretend not to see.

"In Rustwater, every drop of water holds a story. Every breath carries a price. And every deal might be your last."

- Anonymous River Merchant

Local governance falls to a loose coalition of guild bosses and crime lords who maintain order through a delicate dance of mutual threats and shared interests. The Eyes of Tezra maintain a significant presence, their otherworldly gazes ensuring that certain boundaries remain inviolate and properly sanctioned corruption flows as smoothly as the tainted river.
The district's relationship with the Bloodclaw Warband pulses with complexity. While their leadership publicly denounces Rustwater's activities, their elite warriors prowl the Night Market, seeking enhanced weapons and exotic stimulants derived from flora that should not exist. Many whisper that the Brinkburns encourage this hypocrisy, seeing opportunity in the contradiction.
The air carries value beyond mere breath - merchants collect and bottle unique combinations of industrial fumes and jungle toxins, selling them to spellcasters who claim these vapors enhance communion with powers that lurk in the Whispering Depths. The district's most successful traders have developed filtration systems that harvest specific compounds from the atmosphere, though many go mad from exposure to their own wares.
Deep beneath the marketplace lies the Drowned Exchange, where underwater deals transpire in chambers partially filled with caustic river water. Specialized breathing apparatus, developed in the Brinkburns' secret laboratories, allows traders to stay submerged for hours. Those who emerge often bear permanent marks - both physical and spiritual - that hint at transformations occurring beneath the surface.

"The Rust Mothers see all that transpires in their domain. Their wisdom flows through corrupted veins, their whispers echo in dreams of rust and ruin."

- Vezra Blackbilge

The district hosts a thriving black market in artifacts recovered from the Whispering Depths. These relics, bearing traces of Dead God essence, command astronomical prices. Some say the Brinkburns encourage this trade not for profit, but to study how these artifacts interact with their own experimental technologies.
Local legends speak of the Rust Mothers - entities that emerged from generations of exposure to the district's unique chemical and magical environment. These beings dwell in the most corroded sections of the underground tunnels, trading forbidden knowledge for biological sacrifices. Some claim they are failed experiments from the early days of the Brinkburn family's rise to power.
The Rustwater's population reflects its nature as a nexus of commerce and corruption. While goblins form the majority, representatives of every race gather here - from jungle tribes seeking weapons to sophisticated buyers from distant realms. Many show signs of mutation, their flesh and minds transformed by prolonged exposure to the district's toxic miracle.
Several notorious establishments have transcended mere business to become institutions. The Corroded Crown tavern serves drinks in metallically-enhanced glasses that slowly dissolve as patrons drink, allegedly improving the flavor while binding them to the district's corrupting influence. The Acid Bath brothel offers "transformative experiences" that customers find physically impossible to describe afterward, though their changed appearances speak volumes.
Weather patterns take on supernatural qualities as jungle mists merge with industrial smoke. Rain falls in impossible colors, sometimes flowing upward or freezing in mid-air, while lightning displays properties that defy natural law. The locals have developed elaborate systems of prediction based on these phenomena, though many prophets go mad or vanish after particularly accurate forecasts.

The Price of Progress

As night falls over Rustwater, the true nature of the district emerges. Shadows cast by the Shadowspire's towers stretch impossibly long, carrying whispers of ancient powers and forgotten technologies. The waters of the river glow with an unhealthy light, while strange shapes move beneath its surface, neither fully organic nor entirely mechanical.
The Brinkburn family watches over all from their Ironhold fortress, their influence spreading like a chemical stain through every level of society. Their experiments continue day and night, pushing the boundaries between industrial innovation and forbidden knowledge. Many wonder if their quest for power will eventually consume the district entirely, transforming it into something beyond even their control.
Yet still the markets buzz with activity, the forges burn with unnatural fire, and deals are struck in corroded chambers deep beneath the earth. In Rustwater, everything has a price - be it measured in gold, blood, or transformation. And as the district evolves, taking on aspects of both mechanical precision and organic chaos, one truth remains constant: in this crucible of corruption and commerce, survival demands adaptation, no matter the cost to body or soul.

Demographics

Life in the Shadows

Rustwater teems with life like a festering wound in Grizburg's flesh. During peak trading seasons, the district's population swells from twelve thousand to nearly twenty thousand souls, each drawn by the promise of profit or transformed by necessity. The streets pulse with a rhythm of commerce and corruption, where goblin merchants - who make up more than half the permanent residents - have adapted to thrive in the toxic environment.

"The weak mutate or die. The strong mutate and rule. That's the law of Rustwater."

- Anonymous Alchemist

Orcs stride through the marketplace wearing elaborate filtration masks, their green skin mottled with chemical burns that mark them as longtime residents. Humans, making up barely a tenth of the population, cluster in the upper levels where the air is marginally less toxic. The remainder comprises a fascinating menagerie of tieflings, half-orcs, and beings so transformed by exposure to the district's unique environment that their original race becomes impossible to determine.

Power and Politics

The district writhes under the control of a loose coalition of guild bosses and crime lords, their power balanced on knife edges and measured in drops of poison. From his heavily fortified workshop-fortress, Slazgar Two-Eyes pulls strings in the arms trade, while the Brinkburn family's influence seeps through every level like the river's own corruption. Above it all, the Eyes of Tezra watch with otherworldly gazes, ensuring that even crime follows certain cosmic laws.

The Vertical City

Rustwater rises in precarious tiers above the poisoned river that gives it its name. Rickety bridges and cable systems connect buildings that lean at impossible angles, their structures defying both gravity and sanity. The district descends as much as it climbs - an extensive network of corroded tunnels and underwater trading halls honeycomb the earth beneath, many partially flooded with caustic water that eats through steel and flesh with equal hunger.

Markets and Mysteries

Five distinct zones divide the district's commerce. The Upper Markets maintain a veneer of legitimacy, while the Twilight Bazaar deals in goods of questionable origin. The Submerged Quarter hosts deals too dark for surface scrutiny, its underwater chambers accessed only by those wealthy enough to afford specialized breathing apparatus. Alchemists' Row glows with unnatural light as its practitioners transmute river poison into profit, while the Drowned Vaults hold secrets that even the Brinkburns dare not speak of openly.

Weapons of Power

The district's lifeblood flows through its exports - modified weapons that blend mundane steel with eldritch power, alchemical compounds that transform their users in ways both wonderful and horrific, exotic toxins harvested from the river's depths, artifacts smuggled from the jungle's heart, and information that costs more than mere gold to trade. These feed a constant hunger for raw materials, magical components, and industrial chemicals from the world beyond.

Guilds and Powers

Countless factions vie for control, their territories marked in blood and poison. Slazgar's Arms Network maintains order through controlled chaos, while the Forge-Clans craft weapons that should not exist. The Alchemists' Collective experiments with substances that blur the line between science and sorcery, and the Tunnel Lords rule underground domains where light fears to tread. Through it all, the Eyes of Tezra's agents walk unseen paths, and the Rust Mothers' Cult grows stronger with each passing season.

Nature Transformed

The very air burns with potential, thick with chemical compounds that drift like dreams through perpetually humid streets. Rain falls in colors that have no names, while strange atmospheric phenomena paint the sky with impossible lights. Below, the river offers up treasures to those brave or foolish enough to harvest them - unique compounds, mutated life forms, and crystals that form and dissolve like thoughts in a fever dream.
Here in Rustwater, even the architecture submits to transformation. Buildings wear their chemical weathering like badges of honor, many incorporating living chemical growths that pulse and writhe in patterns that hypnotize the unwary. The structures themselves lean and twist, supported by engineering that defies mathematics and magic that defies reason, a perfect mirror of the district's soul - corrupt, vital, and utterly essential to Grizburg's dark heart.

Type

Slum

Location under

Grizburg