Cliffside

Cliffside encompasses the docks and waterfront of Sharn, running along the edge of the Dagger River and up the cliff above it. Massive lifts levitate goods up to the skydocks in the district of Precarious. The area’s rough and poor, filled with sailors and dockworkers. Many of these boisterous folk love the life in Cliffside; as a common saying goes, “Better a tankard of ale in Cliffside than a barrel of Central wine.”

Plenty of legitimate services can be found here—ships need supplies and repairs, goods need to be stored, captains need to hire crew, and sailors need a dry bed to sleep in once in a while—but other businesses meet different kinds of demands. These services include bordellos, taverns, gaming dens, and shadier entertainments for sailors to spend their off duty hours and wages on.

Even though the Sharn Watch has a token presence here, Cliffside remains one of the most crime-ridden districts in the city. This situation is exacerbated by the presence of sahuagin, who sell their services as guides to help ships traveling to Xen’drik. In fact, the sahuagin rarely initiate violence, but there have been clashes between them and aggressive, drunken sailors.

The Cliffside ward makes up the lower edge of Dura, built on and into the cliffs that drop toward the river.

This waterfront district, full of businesses that cater to the sailors who pass through Sharn’s port, can be a rough and tumble place. Legitimate services can be found here—ships need supplies and repairs, goods need to be stored, captains need a place to hire a crew, and sailors need a bed on dry land to sleep in once in a while—but other businesses spring up simply to meet demand.

These less-than legitimate services include bordellos, taverns, casinos, and even shadier entertainments for sailors to spend their off-duty hours and wages on. The City Watch finds it hard to keep order here (or perhaps the Watch captains simply ind it hard to care), and Cliffside is one of the most crime-ridden wards in all of Sharn. Some say the problem is exacerbated by the presence of sahuagin in the ward, who sell their services as guides through the Straits of Shargon.

Grayflood

First Impression: Most of the traffic here consists of sailors in search of entertainment. Bars, lophouses, and small shops—many of which don’t bother to advertise the nature of their business—line the street, which winds precariously along the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the river.

Social Class: Lower class

Grayflood, a seedy waterfront district, fills roughly the northern half of the docks and wharves running along the Dagger River. Gigantic cranes empowered by magic haul freight from ships at dock to the warehouse districts of Precarious and White Tower, while the crews of those ships restock and recharge at the shops and taverns that line the bottom of the great cliffs.

Ship's Towers

Drifting alongside the Cliffside docks is a collection of rafts, ships and houseboats lashed together to form a floating community.

First Impression: See Graylood.

Social Class: Lower class

Almost identical to Graylood in mood and appearance, Ship’s Towers is distinguished by its southern tip. Here, buildings float upon the water. This boat town, formed of rafts, houseboats, and other watercraft of every shape and size, bobs on the water and is connected by a web of piers, gangplanks, and rope bridges.

Mud Caves

This shantytown sits on the edge of Cliffside, where generations of destitute people have carved out homes in the cliff walls. It’s a wretched existence, but most of the inhabitants have no other options. It also makes an excellent hiding place for fugitives.

First Impression: Lean-tos, smoky fires, and makeshift hovels cling to the side of the cliff and spread into tiny caves in the great rock wall.

Social Class: Lower class

The southern expanse of cliff face, away from the wharves where the Hilt flows into the Dagger River, is dotted with small caves. Some of the poorest of Sharn’s poor find shelter in wretched hovels built in and around these caves. The populace is a destitute mixture of humans, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, shifters, changelings, goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, orcs, ogres, and even a troll or two.

Longstairs

First Impression: Most of the towers in this residential district have stairs that wrap around the outside of the buildings. The people go about their business with quiet determination, and keep a suspicious eye on any strangers.

Social Class: Lower class

Longstairs is a quiet residential district, and its inhabitants like it that way. The people of Longstairs are primarily human and dwarf commoners, with a few experts and magewrights mixed in. These citizens go out of their way to maintain the stability of the neighborhood, and anything disruptive is quickly met with unified opposition. The apartments in Longstairs are reasonably priced and well maintained. However, adventurers who settle in Longstairs may have to make an extra effort to fit in; characters that engage in wild antics may be run out of the neighborbood.