1. Locations

Sowshore

Vralkast in Sea of Sorrow

The docks of Vralkast lie within a sheltered bay on the shore of the Sea of Sorrow. The Sorrowshore (often called Sowshore for short) is a bustling center of trade and commerce, and supports much of the city's industry. The docks are home to the enormous Serpentkeel ships of The Krakeneers the smaller caravels used by the Everdelver's Guild of Underplunderers, and countless other ships from various groups across the sea. At any one time the district is full of drunken carousers, giant krakeneers and demiplane explorers hawking their wares and winding down.

The wharves and docks of Sowshore are generally carved backwards into the cliff-face, supported by frames of krakenbone and scrimscale. Between them, tight alleyways lead to the more disreputable parts of the city, places thick with smoke and the sounds of drunken merrymaking. The Fomor'ren cannot enter these places, and so those who slip through the cracks can end up here: the bottom of the city at the bottom of the world.

Notable Locations

  • The Arachnodore's Union
  • The Consortium of Cliffclingers
  • Grimmy's Wormshine, a tavern on the wharf. Infamously terrible, but the people love it for that.
  • The Inkmaven, one of the more popular ink houses in Sowshore, primarily serving The Krakeneers.
  • Far Comfort, something like a brothel but not limited to sexual gratification. The dopplers there will take on the form of the person you want to see most, provided you don't intend violence against them. Some come to spend the night. Others come to see faces of those they've lost, and sometimes to practice what they’ll say when those faces are seen again.
  • The Shrine of Spears, where Aralynn the Shrinemaiden mantains (and worships) the spears used by The Krakeneers

Disembarking

From 60. Hello Darkness My Old Friend

Disembarking from the boat, you've now found yourselves in Sowshore, the lowest above-water district in Vralkast. As described previously, there are a huge number of ships docked here, with an even larger variety in their design and visual style, and the docks span the length of the shoreline.

You're quite far from The Break now, the enormous sea wall that separates the harbour from the Sea of Sorrow, and the buildings constructed on its surface just appear like a mosaic of lights projected onto the wall. Near one of the gates is a collection of large ships, Serpentkeels, lashed together and just floating out there.

The sound of the sea is ever present, but you've all been on the water for several hours before now and gotten used to it. What's less usual is the lights beneath the water in the harbour, which you learned last session belong to Cartilay, another district of Vralkast. It seems the city extends beneath the water, as well as up the cliffs.

Sowshore has fully colonised the shore, and they've dug out the bottom of the cliff face to extend it deeper. There are buildings ascending the entire vertical surface of the cliff, districts stacked on top of each other and extending into the rock, with the homes of the giant Fomor'ren occupying the top of the cliff, their structures too enormous to be anywhere else. It's like a subterranean mirror of Sharn.

Sowshore, despite the overall strangeness of Vralkast, feels very much like a dockside town might on the surface. It's loud and populated, the highest concentration of people any of you have seen since entering the Demon Wastes, though the makeup of those people is rather alien. Wingwasher wasn't the only Siren either, though it seems that Vralkast is also home to the variety of harpy you're more familiar with, though they have features of sea-birds, and their voices add a pleasing vibe to the soundscape. For Runmae, as alien as it is, it reminds you strongly of your life before the Ghaash'kala. You're in a city again!

It has an interesting smell, a medley of various scents both pleasant and less so. There's distinct undertones of piss, but also a variety of much nicer smells that make your stomachs rumble.

March 28th, 2026