Farajiim

Coin and Shadow

Farajiim is a cliff city on the banks of the Idam upriver from Akhen and Senemet, founded over a century ago by refugees from Marmora in the eastern land of Qabir. The scent of spices and exotic cooking fills the air everywhere in this gluttonous polis, which imports the majority of its food save for garbanzo, garlic, nuts and sesame, for all of which it is the lead exporter of the entire Firesea region. Hummus is claimed to have been invented here, in any number of the small stalls and kitchens dotting the warrens of alleys and caves that comprise the bulk of the polis; certainly it is omnipresent and worked into a vast assortment of meals and snacks, and manifests itself in a far greater variety of formulations than is seen elsewhere.
Farajiim has become renowned as far as Pelekys and Xyria as "the Black Market of the Thousand Kingdoms," the place where the determined can find anything that exists to be had when all other options fail. The "merchant" council that rules the city is careful not to show favor to either Akhen or Senemet over the other, and offers some tribute of taxes to both poleis so as not to disrupt its access to the lower Idam and thence to the Pyrmar. As a result, it is said in Senemet that "the Pharess's gaze falls not upon Farajiim," and in Akhen that "the hyena laughs with gilded tongue."
Gnolls and Vul were the chief founders of the city, and continue to represent a sizeable fraction of the population. Many gnolls proudly, if dubiously, claim relation to or descent from the extended family of the infamous merchant turned monster slayer Ukko from the Daemon Winter of a century prior. Ukko's scarred visage overlooks the market agora in the form of a grand relief carved into the dark stone cliff, though no one is sure who paid for or installed it there.

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Farajiit PCs

• Proficiencies: You gain one bonus skill (Deception, Intimidation, or Sleight of Hand), and one bonus game, kitchen or tool proficiency.
• Hoarding: You can declare a Holdout (the ability to have retroactively purchased or prepared a minor item that you need right now) one more time between stretches of downtime lasting at least a week, and the first time you declare a Holdout after such downtime, that Holdout is free.
• Unsettling Behavior: As a bonus action that once used can't be used again until after you take a short or long rest, you gain a benefit depending on which of the three Farajiit skills you picked. Deception lets you cower and grovel to confound enemies within 10 feet and make them take disadvantage on attacks until the end of your next turn, Sleight of Hand lets you distract enemies within 10 feet and give yourself advantage on attacks and skill checks against them until the end of your next turn, and Intimidation lets you shout and unsettle enemies within 10 feet and give allies advantage on attacks against them until the end of your next turn.

Type

Underground / Vault