Description
Fountainport is a grandiose capital city famous for its many architectural wonders, and the city is an international hub for trade and culture. Nearly a hundred thousand people call Fountainport home, and thousands more live in small villages and hamlets a few days' travel from the city.
Fountainport is divided into three main regions:
The Outer City, estates, suburbs, and slums surrounding the city walls.
The Inner City, protected by the City Walls and accessible through five Gates.
Castle Scaledrake, a palace and military fortification that lies atop a high crag.
The city itself is further divided by the Drann River. Common parlance calls the two halves the North Ward and the South Ward.
General Features
Streets
Five major highways lead to Fountainport. The roads transition into the city’s main streets: King’s Road, Temple Road, Shepherd’s Way, Champion’s Way, and College Street. Each passes through a correspondingly-named gate, and ranges from twenty to forty feet wide with broad sidewalks along either side. They converge at Market Square. Elsewhere in the city, the common cobblestone-paved roads are twelve to eighteen feet wide. Most have a narrow two-foot wide brick sidewalk. Sidestreets are often no more than ten feet wide, and in other areas only a narrow alley separates the buildings. In the outer city slums, many roads are merely gravel-covered or raw dirt, though there are some stone-paved streets.
Buildings
Fountainport is a city of stone buildings and slate spires. Many in the Inner City may be three or four storeys tall, sometimes taller. Most are tightly packed townhouses built on stone ground levels, although the upper levels are often made from wood, and boast fine glass windows and sturdy chimneys. Dozens of smaller chapel domes and spires mark distinct boroughs in the city. In contrast, the outer city is mostly a ramshackle slum consisting of crumbling tenements, wattle and daub cottages, and fieldstone shacks. However, the northern estates and the sections along major roads boast fine construction similar to that of the inner city.
Drann River
The Drann River is roughly four hundred feet wide and flows southwest. The water is deep, slow-moving, and thoroughly contaminated. Four stone causeways span the water. Stone quays and piers surround the river within the Inner City.
Corrupted Water. The Drann River is Corrupted with purple Isana. Characters who end their turn in corrupted water must succeed on a DC 10 Charisma saving throw or gain one level of purple Isana corruption.
City Walls
Stone masonry walls forty feet high and five to ten feet thick separate the Inner City and the Outer City, with entrance via five gates. These fortifications present a major obstacle when exploring the city: the five city gates are occupied by faction forces or monsters, and hostile gargoyles attack any who scale the walls.
Walls. The stone masonry walls are forty feet high and ten feet thick with a machicolated battlement facing outward. Murder holes and overhanging artillery posts feature throughout, and areas of the wall near gates have wooden hoardings or shingled rooftops for additional defenses.
Towers. Sixty-foot-tall towers thirty feet in diameter are spaced throughout the wall. Some are topped with battlements, others have spired rooftops. Each tower is decorated with a majestic bronze dragon. The largest of these towers are built where the walls meet the Drann River.
Outside the walls
Black Ivory Inn
The Black Ivory Inn now stands as a charred ruin just beyond the city's walls, its skeletal remains a grim reminder of a devastating terrorist attack. The tragedy began when a fireball struck the building, obliterating the first floor in an instant. The force of the explosion caused the second floor to collapse, and flames rapidly consumed what remained. Despite the use of magic to extinguish the inferno, the damage was done. By the time the fire was quenched, the once-thriving inn had been reduced to a smoldering ruin.
Buckledown Row
Roughshod fences and makeshift barricades block off this muddy street of ramshackle taverns. Crudely made bridges stretch between the rooftops, and crooked street lamps glow brightly in the mists. Laughter, cheering, and a general uproar echo down the alleys from a motley assortment of thugs, ruffians, cutthroats, and scoundrels who drink, gamble, and traffic down the street. Keen-eyed sharpshooters look down from the lookout posts, and a pair of muscled bruisers stand watch outside the ramparts.
This infamous row of dive bars and dingy taverns lies on the southeastern outskirts of Fountainport. These are the choice watering holes for lower-class labourers, sweat-soaked craftspeople, and assorted scoundrels who inhabit the city. Flowing ale and gold tend to calm the most violent disputes, but for anything else the hidden fighting pit is the perfect place to settle feuds, make some bets, and lose a few teeth.
At any time, 21 (6d6) bandits stroll the streets, and 5 (2d4) scoundrels lurk upon the rooftops. A pair of bugbear veterans are posted at each entrance. They’ll drive off anyone who looks like an official, but they let anyone else through.
The area comport a number of bar, taverns and inn:
Old Mill
THe old Mill is a dilapidated windmill that rests atop a lonely hill northwest of Fountainport. Its stone base is covered in moss and ivy, and the wooden walls are riddled with holes. The entire structure creaks in the wind. The windmill blades spin softly in the breeze.
Inside the walls
The impressive city walls encircle Fountainport both north and south of the Drann River, impeding access to the Inner City except via five gatehouses.
Many baroque architectural flairs decorate the walls. The battlements feature leering demonic faces, claw-like spikes, draconic carvings, and dutiful winged gargoyles that hold up machicolations. Yet these grotesque statues are no mere ornamentation. These magical guardians can spring to life under the monarch’s will.
Gatehouses
There are five barbican-style gatehouses that lead into the city proper. Each is composed of two squat bastion towers sixty feet tall and forty feet in diameter. The towers flank a fifteen-foot-wide double portcullis gate.
Each gatehouse has four levels, each approximately fifteen feet high. Outer walls are four to five feet thick. The interior floors are wooden, but the central spiral stair is stone. The arrow slit windows are only a few inches wide, and they provide three-quarters cover from those outside and below (+5 AC). Regular oaken doors are bound with wrought-iron and feature heavy locks and crossbars.
Gate Passage. The gate tunnel is approximately fifteen feet wide, twenty five feet tall, and twenty five feet long. At each end are a wrought-iron portcullis and massive wooden doors bound with steel. The doors can be held shut via a massive bar that slides into place like a lever.
Tower Stairs. At the core of each tower is a stone spiral staircase. The staircase is five feet wide and has landings on each level.
Ground Level. The gatehouse can be entered from a barred doorway at a landing atop a ten foot high sloping stairway on one of the bastion towers. The base level of the left tower is not accessible from the outside. These chambers are typically used as sleeping quarters or a gaol.
Winch Level. It takes a team of operators to raise or lower the gate, requiring four successful DC 12 Strength checks, but the winch can be released to cause the gate to slam shut immediately.
Battlement Level. Accessed via doors. A creature taking a firing position behind the battlements has three-quarters cover from attackers below the walls (+5 AC).
Tower Battlements. Accessed via hatches. Ballista, catapults, or cannons were often deployed here.
Market Square Plaza
The market square is the largest open courtyard in the city.
The square consists of two plazas, separated by a cluster of banks, vaults, guildhalls, and businesses. High town houses with storefronts surround the square. Scattered across the plaza are Fountainport’s central open air market: rows of stalls, canvas tents, pavilions, baskets, crates, wagons, barrels, wheelbarrows, and carts creating a busy display of the marketplace. The distant sounds of a lullaby, chimes, and faraway bells fills the air.
Fountainport Guildhall
Tthe administrative hub for trade and industry in Fountainport, this larger open hall is a gathering place for the city guild leaders and merchants, and contains offices, vaults, and a large auditorium that served as council chambers for the guild.
The Cosmological Clocktower is built on the Market Square Plaza at the heart of Fountainport.
Along the northwest side of the city rests the Chapel of Valhir. The bricks composing the circular chapel form a large domed roof. Inside the chapel walls, a lighted stone brazier stands upon a tiered marble dais. A beautiful mosaic on the floor depict a hunting scene. Several platforms hold statues of lycanthrope.
Slaughterhouse Square
Slaughterstone Square is a large octagonal plaza paved with broad flagstones with a squat, bowl-shaped granite fountain thirty feet wide and five feet tall at its centre. The tightly-packed surrounding townhouses rise up three storeys to high-steepled rooftops with wrought-iron cresting. Many feature narrow balconies and tall dour-looking windows on their front facades overlooking the square.
The building composition resembles stern faces held in silent judgement, as if all who look upon them are found wanting.
Magistrate’s Court
The largest building in Slaughterstone Square is a somber and formal-looking manor house three storeys tall that takes up the entire block. Pointed windows line each floor. Broad stone steps lead up to the double doors entrance, above which hang banners bearing the crest of the city itself.
This building serve as both a courthouse and offices for the civilian functionaries such as the Lord Mayor and the city council. Many public records are housed in the archives here.
Old Town Citern
Beneath Slaughterstone Square is a large underground reservoir filled with the waterlogged debris and trash. As a result, the macabre chamber has become the favoured scavenging ground for a group of aquatic ooze and corpse feeding monsters.
This subterranean water reservoir is an eighty-foot-tall cylinder with a domed ceiling made from watertight concrete and flagstones. At the top is a five-foot-wide opening that leads to the receptacle fountain in Slaughterstone Square. A narrow five-foot-wide stone walkway is built twenty feet above the cylinder’s base and rings a thirty-foot-diameter basin.
Basin
The reservoir below is almost full, the water line is only two feet below the edge of the walkway. The basin floor is filled with dozens of waterlogged trash. 12 Caustic slimes pick over the trash.
Aqueduct Passage
Water is siphoned from the basin into this underground aqueduct; the middle of the ten foot diameter opening is roughly in line with the walkway. A barred grate can be removed with a DC 15 Strength check. Beyond is a barrel-shaped passage flooded to the hip. After it travels two hundred feet, there is a break in the ceiling that opens to the Bathhouse (below).
Sewer Canal
The slippery steps descend this wide stairway to the sewer system at large. A battered and broken gate once kept it closed.
Slaughterstone Stair
This narrow spiral staircase ascends sixty feet to the surface, and ends at a small landing with a short ladder leading to a heavy wrought-iron drainage cover three feet wide. Opening the cover from below requires an action and a DC 15 Strength check. It opens to Slaughterstone Square.
Smuggler’s Tunnel
This wide spiral staircase ascends twenty feet then ends at a small landing leading to a roughly hewn arched tunnel four feet wide and eight feet tall. The passage snakes and twists for some distance before connecting to the basement of the Black Ivory Inn.
Underground Lake
This massive cavern is awash in ocatrine light, illuminated by hundreds of tiny
Purple Isana crystals embedded in the cavern walls, a token of the past ocrruption that spread through
Pandaros. Water flows from cracks between hanging stalactites, filling the large underground lake with dark water that shimmers and reflects the Isana’s sickly light. The air is heavy with moisture, and mucus-like slime washes up on the bank, thick globs of scum cling to the stones. The smallest sound echoes through the chamber with an eerie reverb.
The underground lake begins shallow but quickly reaches a depth of thirty feet. The stalactite-covered cavern ceiling is only fifteen feet above the surface.
Below the water’s surface is a wide underground river that connects to the Drann River.
Bathhouse
This partially-buried rectangular chamber appears to be a bathhouse of the sort built in ancient antiquity. A pillared aisle borders a central pool set with a fine circular fountain decorated with statues of nymphs basking around a statue of
Jan'ahrem in her elven form.
Bas-relief carvings along the walls depict primordial scenes of storms, shipwrecks, and vengeful aquatic monsters. At one end of the pool is a semicircular alcove. Opposite the pool is a wide arched canal from which water flows into the chamber. The air is cold and damp, and the sound of running water echoes through the chamber. A vault ceiling stand above the bathhouse.
Queen's Garden
The labyrinthian footpaths of Queen’s Park saunter by baroque-style flower beds in geometrical layouts, down winding paths through forested groves, and over ornamented bridges that cross artificial streams and ponds. The lawns and plazas are decorated with triumphal arches, marble fountains, statuary gardens, and hedge mazes.
Lilly Pond. This small artificial pond is surrounded by prismatic cherry blossom trees. Blooming from the water are several large lily flowers with brightly scintillating pink-purple petals. They emit a sweet strange smell and a melodic arcane hum.
Rose Theatre
The Rose Theatre is a ring-shaped three-storey wooden playhouse with the central auditorium open to the sky.
Playhouse
The playhouse is a circular open air auditorium with a rectangular stage. Most performances were held here during daylight hours to use natural lighting.
The Stage. This large rectangular wooden platform is built at the north end of the auditorium, connected to the backstage house by exits leading into the wings. Two large wooden pillars support an overhanging rooftop that extends from the backstage house.
Balcony Galleries. These wooden and pillared galleries are set with several raked rows of wooden benches, separated by evenly-spaced aisles. At the centre is a special box seat for the wealthiest patrons, and many disintegrating cushions, pamphlets, bits of old food and pitchers are left behind.
Auditorium. This gravel-filled courtyard has no seating: commonfolk stood here to watch performances instead. It is open to the air above.
Backstage
The backstage house is a rectangular construction built into the overall circular shape of the entire theatre that contains the storage and administrative offices of the theatre.
The Wings. Mouldering red curtains are hung over the doorways leading into this narrow carpeted hallway. During performances actors made their entrances and exits via this corridor; it connects the stage to the green rooms backstage. There are many shelves holding old props, several cracked mirrors, and old lamps back here. Actors have left behind notes, love-letters, and graffiti.
Green Room. Actors waiting for their cue rested here during a performance, and socialized here between performances. Bottles of wine, flower bouquets, fluttering pages from play scripts, and notebooks filled with poems, sonnets and bawdy drawings are scattered about.
Wardrobes. Contains an array of costumes. Many appear fantastically decorated, but even casual inspection reveals the gemstones and gold trim are glass beads and painted fakery.
Dressing Room. Actors donned their costumes and makeup in these rooms. Several mirrors and drawers of powder, wigs, and makeup are here.
Offices. The writers and managers used these rooms. Writing desks, playbills, and records of the ticket sales can be found here. A lockbox holds the funds, totalling 1,000 gp.
Muremia ambassy
A forbiddance spell wards the ambassy; creatures can’t teleport into the area.
This large building was built by the Loxodon of Muremia to serve as their ambassy within Bloomfur. It is a relatively recent construction, only completed a little over a century ago to replace a large chapel that was torn down during the expansion of the city walls. Long before, the site was home to several crypts and crematory gardens.
Ambassy Plaza
Broad cobblestone streets wrap around an immense baroque building in this august square. The structure dominates the plaza, completely dwarfing the nearby buildings. Broad steps lead up to the columned entrance portico where a massive rose window rests above three sets of golden double doors embossed with loxodon visages.
Ambassy Interior
The Ambassy houses a vast interior space. an upper floor extend the building an is accessed by a set of double stairs leading directly to the ambassadors desk and appartement. Colossal marble columns line ground floor and support the high vaulted ceiling.
Basement Passages. Two arched doorways with oak doors open to staircases that descend down into the ambassy basement. Both doors are brightly illuminated by beams of light created by the reflecting mirrors in the dome above.
Ambassy basement
Beneath the ambassy dome lies an ancient burial crypt. The crypt has been rearranged as a set of cells used by the ambassdors and his agent against threat to Muremia or Bloomfur.
Castle Scaledrake
Castle Scaledrake is a sprawling palatial fortress built upon a two-hundred-foot-tall stepped plateau surrounded by rocky cliffs. The castle grounds are separated into two baileys by an internal dividing wall: the Lower Bailey contains administrative buildings, a military barracks, and servants quarters. The Upper Bailey grounds are elevated thirty feet above the Lower Bailey, feature the castle gardens, a chapel, and access to the royal palace of Castle Scaledrake. The palace itself perches atop the highest rocky pinnacle approximately two hundred fifty feet above the city proper, its imposing silhouette visible everywhere in the city below.
Society
Law
The city boasts a military forces. Use the Guard Arrival Times table to determine how long it takes for guards to arrive at a location after a crime or similar incident is reported.
History
A mistborn terrorist, a creation of a beholder whose haze started to spread through Pandaros before he was stopped by advneturers, blew up the Black Ivory Inn outside the city walls in a terrorist attack with a fireball.
Comments
Author's Notes
Inspired by Drakkenheim from Dungeons of Drakkenheim