Corremel, The City of Lanterns

Prominent Locations

Horn Gate Inn:
Many mortal visitors to the city find this lively tavern, blaring with music and conversation, to be their best first stop. Located on the northern edge of town, this large horn-colored mansion is bedecked with numerous gables and turrets and has a slate grey roof. The exterior of the stone building holds numerous balconies with detailed balustrades, while the inside features hand-carved trim, detailed hardwood floors, a hand-carved wood staircase, and massive stained-glass windows. Each bedroom has a stone fireplace and small-but-comfortable bunks or a bed large enough for two. The entertaining hall is an expansive room with a worn, wooden floor and numerous wooden tables and chairs.

The music inside the Horn Gate Inn varies from night to night, but it is always merry. Playing for the inn’s patrons is an honor only granted to the most talented of musicians. Locals often visit the inn to dance a jig with their friends and visitors alike. Unlike most establishments in this realm, the Horn Gate Inn deals in the currency most common in the mortal realm, and its owners accept coins or other goods in exchange for lodging. Food, also available for purchase with coin, is typical of the mortal realm and free of the Shadow Realm’s corruption.

Prominent Locations:

The Sheltered Market
This massive, ancient, obsidian building is surrounded on all sides by fluted columns which support a gently-sloped roof. Inside the Sheltered Market, friezes depicting diplomatic scenes of the shadow fey interacting with other species decorate the walls and ceiling. The Sheltered Market is where most of the goods  that make their way into Corremel are bought and sold.

Unlike the market stalls in other parts of the city, the Sheltered Market is almost staid. Spaces are leased in uniform-sized lots with more prosperous merchants tending to lease several adjacent lots to display their wares. Mistress Twylla Yoop, the
current manager of the Sheltered Market, runs it with greedy efficiency, levying fines and penalties against any creature who disobeys the edicts clearly posted around the market. When disputes arise between merchants or consumers, she rules in favor of whomever pays her the largest bribe, and she often levies a steep tariff on the loser of the dispute for wasting her valuable time.

Those who cannot pay the fines assessed against them at the Sheltered Market are held for humiliation at Scourge Circle. Detainment usually lasts 1 day for every 50 gp in value which cannot be paid, though punishments last less or more time at Twylla’s discretion. She is said to be more lenient toward musicians and much harsher toward kobolds and goblins.


OOC Notes:
In theory, a consumer can find nearly any non-artifact item at the Sheltered Market, though availability and price varies.

• A consumer can find any mundane, non-consumable item in 1d3 hours. A successful DC 10 Charisma (Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion) check reduces this to 1 hour.
• A consumer can find an exotic item or an uncommon magical item with 1d6 hours of talking and searching and a successful DC 20 Charisma (Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion) or Intelligence (Investigation) check.
• A consumer can find a rare magical item with 4d6 hours of talking and searching and a successful DC 25 Charisma (Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion) or Intelligence (Investigation) check. Vendors selling these items rarely accept coin for them.
• Very rare or especially unique magical items might or might not be at the Sheltered Market, at the GM’s discretion, and a consumer looking for such an item usually must endure a dangerous task in exchange.
  

Symbol: A white bridge above a golden lantern on a blue field.

Ruler: Hander Svenk, the Black Prince

The Law in Corremel
There are a few laws all visitors to the city should be aware of.
1. To speak ill of the Queen of Night and Magic or the Black Prince is treason.
2. Vandalizing an image of any member of the Court is grounds for permanent expulsion from the city.
3. Damaging another’s reputation will be punished as severely as if the offender had harmed the victim’s body, possibly moreso.
4. The offender doesn’t have the right to representation. Guilt or innocence can be determined in the offender’s absence.
5. Ignorance is no excuse for acting ignorant.
6. The Black Prince has the final word and is exempt from all laws.

Prominent Locations

The Tumbles
The Tumbles. The exteriors of the buildings in the Tumbles are crumbling or rotten, and some homes are missing large portions of their structure. While the buildings remain standing, pieces of houses have been known to shift and fall on the unsuspecting passerby. People who live in this area of the city are generally more desperate, and most residents of Corremel avoid the area as much as possible.

Invisible portals to other planes form in this area of the city as an instability in the fabric of the Shadow Realm around the Tumbles increasingly worsens. These portals are short-lived, eventually collapsing in on themselves and tearing small portions of the nearby area away with them. Those adventurous or desperate enough to brave the area wander aimlessly among its buildings, looking for an escape to somewhere else. A few enterprising locals sometimes hire their services out as guides of the area. A small shrine to Loki resides in the Tumbles, though residents say it can only be found by those who aren’t looking for it.