Merchant's Ward

The western half of the city is called the Merchants’ Ward because it’s the site of the Grand Souk and because many of the merchant princes’ villas are there. In general, this is the upper-class section of the city. The majority of the city’s merchants and traders actually live and work in the Market Ward.  

4. Goldenthrone

This palace serves as the meeting place for the merchant princes of Port Nyanzaru and is recognized as the seat of the city’s loose government. It was built decades ago by an Amnian trader and is one of the most opulent structures in the city, rivaled only by the grander temples and the merchant princes’ villas. An honor guard of eight Chultan gladiators is always on duty, to keep away loiterers in the daytime and thieves in the night.
Goldenthrone is the best place to meet any of the merchant princes without an appointment. They rarely meet with visitors who show up unannounced at their homes. During the day, each merchant prince has a 1-in-6 chance to be at Goldenthrone, accompanied by a retinue of aides and guards. Characters must wait 1d3 hours before being given an audience. In fact, the merchant princes have few day-to-day responsibilities when it comes to running Port Nyanzaru, so unless a meeting is being held to discuss city business, the delay is just a tactic to underscore who’s in charge. If the characters have interesting news, they’re likely to obtain an audience and to be given as much of the merchant’s time as they need.  

5. Merchant Prince's Villa

Each merchant prince has a private villa in the city. These residences have beautifully plastered walls adorned with bright murals, patios and arcades festooned with fresh flowers, garden courtyards open to the sky, and enormous cisterns equipped with water wheels to power fountains, fans, and kinetic sculptures.
None of the merchant princes is likely to meet player characters who show up unannounced at their doors unless the characters did something noteworthy (such as winning a dinosaur race, stopping a rampaging carnivore, or completing an expedition that made significant discoveries). The exception is Wakanga O’tamu, who welcomes any adventurers traveling in the company of Syndra Silvane.   See "Merchant Prince's Villa".  

6. Grand Souk

The Grand Souk, or market, is one of the three beating hearts of Port Nyanzaru — the others being the jewel market and the Red Bazaar. True to its name, the Grand Souk is the grandest of the three. Traders from up and down the Sword Coast come to this market to buy timber, spices, medicines concocted from jungle plants, dinosaur skulls and claws, iron, tiger pelts, carved ivory, Batiri and grung handiwork, colored feathers, tropical fruit, monkeys, plesiosaur meat, and all the other riches of Chult. Business begins before the sun comes up, and dealing doesn’t stop until well after darkness edges across the city. It’s a noisy, jostling, aroma-rich circus. Guards are numerous, but less numerous than the urchins and pickpockets. Street performers and tabaxi minstrels add to the cacophony. Colorful awnings protect the market from sun and rain but also trap the heat and smells.   Everything listed in chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook can be purchased in the Grand Souk. Unusual items might not be available (elephants aren’t found in Chult, for example), but a merchant can always be contracted who’ll bring an item to order, for the right price.  

7. Temple of Savras

Savras is a deity of wizards, fortune tellers, diviners, and those who unfailingly speak the truth regardless of whether listeners want to hear it. His symbol is a monstrous eye, or a crystal ball filled with eyes. Savras’s temple is one of the oldest, grandest buildings in the city. The tiled roof of its great dome resembles an unblinking eye, staring skyward.
A deity devoted to revealing the truth might seem to have a weak draw in a city of merchants, but Savras was widely worshiped in Chult long before the Spellplague. In those years, Savras’s clergy were valued because they could keep tabs on the activities of the inscrutable yuan-ti. The snake people still loom large as bogeymen in the imaginations of Chultans, but nowadays the clergy of Savras scries into more mundane matters: portents around business affairs, the outlook for newborn children, and affairs of the heart.   The head priest of the temple is Grandfather Zitembe (LG male Chultan human priest). When the characters meet the priest for the first time, he’s in the midst of a heated conversation with three members of the Zhentarim (NE male Tethyrian human assassins) who are looking for Artus Cimber. The Zhents have come to the temple to see if Zitembe can cast a spell to aid in their search. Although the assassins offer payment in the form of a 500 gp ruby, Zitembe senses their evil intentions and shoos them away. The assassins seem hesitant to leave without satisfaction, but the arrival of the characters changes their minds, and they depart with scowls on their faces. The characters’ timely arrival makes Zitembe predisposed to help them.   If he’s approached for aid or advice in tracking down the Soulmonger, Zitembe’s first reaction is to express disbelief that the death curse has anything to do with Chult. If characters give a compelling argument or make a donation to the church of at least 25 gp, Zitembe agrees to “consult the guides.” This ritual takes 24 hours, during which Zitembe sees visions of “a jungle city far to the south, enclosed by cliffs and crawling with snakes” and “a black obelisk draped in vines.” He dared not peer any deeper, but he urges the characters to seek out this city and the obelisk.

8. Temple of Gong

The boxy stone temple of Gond looms behind the royal docks. It’s popular among Port Nyanzaru’s many artisans, craftspeople, smiths, ivory carvers, and hydro-engineers. Where most such temples have a forge as a centerpiece, this one features an immense fountain whose water jets shift continually to create amazing shapes. It’s all done with nozzles and valves moving on cams, driven by the city’s plentiful water pressure.  

9. Temple of Sune

  Isolated atop a rocky formation in the sea, the temple of Sune is reachable only by an elevated causeway from Temple Hill or by boat. Steep steps wind up the cliff from the temple’s small harbor. When seen from a distance, the temple’s roof seems to float in midair — an illusion created by mirrors lining the outside walls. Inside, Sune’s faithful and casual visitors alike can partake of public baths, receive lessons in applying makeup and styling one’s hair, and learn to dress in a manner that suits the individual’s body, profession, and the climate. Newcomers to the temple must make a Charisma check. Those who score 15 or higher are welcomed as brothers and sisters of Sune; those who score 10 or higher are offered friendly advice on how to improve their presentation; and those who score 9 or less are greeted with sad, sympathetic looks and surrounded by a crowd of coddling devotees.  

10. Jewel Market

  The jewel market is intentionally styled as a miniature, more exclusive version of the Grand Souk. Its chief business is buying and selling the rich supply of jewels that are dug out of Chult’s mines, but many other rare luxury items are also traded here. This market is largely secure against pickpockets and thieves, thanks to the privately hired security agents patrolling it openly (guards) and undercover (spies). All of them work for the merchant prince Zhanthi, who has a monopoly on the jewelry trade in Port Nyanzaru.

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