The Vault
In the middle of the Warehouse District, sitting alone, is a large stone warehouse that boasts better security and locks than any other place in Freeport, perhaps aside from the Sea Lord’s Palace and the Freeport Jewelers’ Guild. This is the Vault, the safest place in town to store just about anything, assuming you have the money to keep up with your payments. Traders and merchants, not to mention pirates and thieves, store their most valuable merchandise here for safekeeping.
Purpose / Function
Storage Fees/month
- Small, standard 15 sp
- Medium, standard 3 gp
- Large, standard 10 gp
- Small, warded 15 gp
- Medium, warded 30 gp
- Large, warded 100 gp
Architecture
The Vault is a sprawling two-story stone building that covers a full quarter of a city block; it is distinguishable by the fact it has no windows on its exterior. The only external door is made from heavy stone reinforced with iron and bears a number of extremely good locks. The interior of the building is a maze of corridors lined with vaults, ranging from small trunk-sized units up to rooms large enough to hold an entire caravan wagon and all of its goods. All the walls are constructed of sturdy stone, ranging in thickness from one foot for interior walls to a rumored three feet for exterior ones. Some have joked the place could withstand an assault almost as well as the walls of The Old City.
The only items forbidden to be stored in the Vault are devices that seem obviously dangerous, such as demonic relics. Vault rates are calculated on a monthly basis and based on the size of the storage unit. That fee gets the renter a personal unit inside the massive building, to which only he and the management possess a key. Having the key to a unit is considered to imply ownership of the unit and all its contents; no questions are asked as long as the proper fees are paid. Hence, renters are advised to keep a tight grip on their keys. Magically locked and warded units are also available. Samarka Joliet, the owner, personally casts and maintains the spells protecting these units. Arrangements to access a magically locked unit must be made a day in advance, so Joliet can be on hand personally to bypass the lock.
Units can be accessed freely from sunup to sundown. Getting access after dark is extremely difficult, not to mention dangerous. Every night, Joliet locks the Vault down and protects it with a variety of spells and wards that can keep out, trap, or even kill intruders.
Rental payments are due on the first day of every month. Standard policy is to hold a client’s belongings for one month following delinquency; the nature of sea travel and trade makes it inevitable that some clients have difficulties getting back to Freeport in a timely fashion, so Joliet is generous. Proxies can also be sent to pay the rent in one’s absence. As long as the account is brought up to date, Joliet is willing to be munificent. However, if even a single extra day passes, a delinquent client’s goods end up at the Freeport Municipal Auction House and the Vault collects a share of the auction price.
History
The Vault is one of the oldest buildings in the Warehouse District; it was built in the time of the third Sea Lord, when Freeport was even more lawless than it is today.
Financed by a consortium of merchants and traders, the Vault was built to be impregnable by the standards of the day. Centuries later, the building has withstood every intrusion attempt—including several catapult strikes by one particularly determined group of pirates a couple of years ago.
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