Blood Truffles

Found only in the rich hills of Emerdin Pac Napier, these truffles have a legacy in the Isles. They are poisonous if eaten, but master gnomish chefs can cook this poisonous fungus into a few different exotic delicacies. The most often-prepared recipe is a sweet syrup poured onto very bitter green salads. A skilled alchemist could probably team with a chef to use this syrup to distill an antidote to the poison that is made from the paste of these truffles. That poison, called Exquisite Kiss, is the only commonly known poison made from these truffles. The poison calls for three other ingredients, as detailed by Auge in his post 'poison components'.

Investors needed

Sky high orchestra seeking investors who value fine arts and new symphony.  Help lead us into a new age of culture.  It is high time Stormhaven took its rightful place as a major city and trade port of the world. If you have an interest in the fine arts and the financial means to make our dreams reality, contact Garendale Finch at Embassy Row, City State Romanium.

The party sees several flyers and hears several foam callers passing on this information when traveling Upside.

Tales from Twilight House

"Of course I listened to everything.  You don't think I'm going to leave an agreement like this unsupervised do you?" cackled the Derro.  His voice was so rarely used, it always sounded tentative, broken, unsure.  Anyone who made the mistake of thinking Uvrok was any of those adjectives was making such a gross miscalculation as to cost them their lives. 
"I no longer try to guess or understand you Uvrok, I do what I'm told." responded Kiara.  She was of course lying but hoped her deference to his councillor position would feed his ego and not his curiosity. 
"We just have to hope that your skill as a teacher allowed us to hide our lessons within their education.  After all we agreed to follow Nissian's plan to the letter but we didn't agree not to also teach them other things now did we?" Uvrok mumbled, pausing at incorrect points and stumbling over words. Annoyed with his own failings he quit talking and reverted to his normal means of communication. 
Kiara's inner thoughts were suddenly pierced by an overwhelming presence, despite this happening before Kiara still shivered whenever Uvrok spoke to her this way.
"We agreed to a financial arrangement with the Wishmaster, we didn't agree not to take on other clients." gone was the shaky unsure sound, now a deep timber reverberated in her mind as Uvrok continued on, "we need to maximize our profit with them while he is away."

The Derro turned away from Kiara towards the door and on cue it opened, a kobold messenger scuttled in and handed Uvrok a gemstone.  A look Kiara had not seen before on Uvrok's face, one of surprise appeared as he grasped the stone, ignoring her, he quickly left the chamber. 

Pondering the telepath's sudden exit, Kiara suddenly realized something that she felt stupid for not noticing before.  He couldn't enter the 1/2 dragon's minds.  It wasn't until that very moment that Kiara ever seriously contemplated betraying the old Derro.  Yet when she had her realization, it also made her realize just how uniquely positioned she was.  Kiara left the meeting chamber and headed into town to plan and arrange. 

Neighborhoods: The Rat's Nest

Home to the children of those merchant princes and guildsmen who found their fortune on the docks of the Driftdowns, the Rat’s Nest is bustling warrens of affluent ne’er do wells and jaded debutantes, amusing themselves with endless parties and inconsequential intrigues. On the whole the Rat’s Nest is an insular community, little concerned with the day to day business of Stormhaven. More than half of its residents are the grand or great-grandchildren of merchant traders. Removed by several generations from the need to work, they occupy their days attending or hosting lavish parties, gossiping, carousing, flirting, fighting and bedding in streets, taverns, and gardens. The rest are lower tier members of the guild hierarchy or wealthy independent merchants and Driftdown slumlords, who revel in the Rat’s Nest debauched lifestyle.



The city guard maintains a strong presence in the Rat’s Nest, though they ignore all but the most depraved acts of the dandies. The guards concentrate their efforts on the pickpockets, thugs and streetwalkers that swarm into the Nest each night. The guard operates here in roving patrols of eight and maintains a permanent watch station in the Nest’s center. The district’s name comes from both its meandering, narrow streets and the scorn the old noble families heap upon its residents; those who cal it home use the name with ironic pride.


The Rat’s Nest is dominated by blocks of two and three storey row-houses, extravagantly ornamented with gargoyles, stained glass window gardens, ornate carvings, banners and wrought-iron fences. The center of most row-house blocks is a shared open courtyard, usually taking the form of a manicured, decorative garden. In addition to the row-houses, there are numerous small taverns and villas scattered about, as well as several public carriage houses and shops. These are as ostentatiously decorated as the rest but more dilapidated, subjected as they are to the daily abuse of drunken, noble ruffians.


The cobblestone streets of the Rat’s Nest are narrow and haphazardly traced, branching off into blind alleys and lopping back upon themselves without any semblance of logic. At some points, the streets are wide enough for two carriages to pass each other, but too narrow at others for even one. The streets have no formal names; residents give directions as a catalogue of landmarks and mansion names that mean little to non-residents. Stable boys, guards and lamplighters earn some pocket money by hiring themselves out as guides, charging a sliver a head. At night, the lamps dissipate into darkness every 30 feet. The Rat’s Nest is bordered to the east by VanFleet Manor, to the north by the Government District, to the south by Stairway Keep’s outer wall and to the west by the edges of the noble estates.

The Lifts

The Lifts are a true marvel of dwarven engineering, a conglomeration of chains, pulleys, levers, hooks, platforms and rope as thick as an ogre’s arm, winding up and around the pillar Olmak. There are fourteen independently operated lifts in continuous use, the smallest two the size of a tower shield and the largest capable of lifting an elephant, a feat already accomplished. The raising and lower of the platforms is accomplished completely by hand, a responsibility that falls to the members of the Lifters’ Guild. Lifter guildsmen work in teams of five to thirty five, heaving at great lengths of rope in time to rhythmic beat of drums. Crews are hired for their strength and endurance, with dwarves making up the largest percentage of membership, followed by orcs and half-orcs of great strength and stamina, plus a few ogres and even an unusually intelligent hill giant.

The cost for using the Lifts varies, based both on the size and delicacy of the cargo and the number of guildsmen required to lift it. The standard rate of measure is by the wagon load, charging a flat rate of one gold piece plus one silver per guildsman required for the lift. The guilders are savvy enough to know when magic has been used to lighten the load and charge full weight regardless. Lifts involving rare, delicate or unconventional cargoes are negotiated at the guild’s headquarters, a process sure to involve exorbitant rates. Smart merchants pay a few coins extra to prevent “accidents”, specifically those paid for by their rivals. The constant strain of raising and lowering cargo takes its toll on the Lifts, with snapping ropes, broken chains and mangled pulleys posing frequent problems. To facilitate delicate and dangerous repairs, the Lifters’ Guild retains the services of a dozen “free climb specialists”. The death rate of these specialist is high, claiming at least five lives a year but the generous wages keeps competition for the jobs fierce.

Neighborhoods: The Warehouse District

Day or night, the Warehouse District bustles with activity. Ox carts rattle non-stop between the lifts and the warehouses while guildsmen swarm like ants over mountains of barrels and crates. The barely controlled chaos of the district is rife with inter-guild conflict. Fist fights between rival guild groups are common, and sabotage or wholesale destruction of stored goods is not unheard of. To curb the violence the Staircase Guard maintains a very strong presence in the area, based in a permanent station at the Lifts where patrols of at least ten men wander the area.



The buildings of the Warehouse District come in all shapes and sizes, but are uniformly drab structures of stone and wood, weathered by centuries of constant use. Most include not only storage space but alls barracks for guildsmen and stables for oxen, horse, and heavy carts. The Lifts that dominate the northeast corner of the district are more impressive, but still designed for sturdiness and practicality rather than beauty. Greystone Keep borders the Warehouse District to the west, to the south is the Government District and to the east and north the edge of the Disk. The streets of the Warehouse District are unpaved, packed dirt roads marked with the deep wheel ruts and wide enough for two wagons to travel abreast. Oil lamps spaced evenly light the district well at night.


The Guilds and the VanFleet family divide between themselves the ownership of the more than sixty warehouses in the district. By law, guild-owned warehouses must pay a monthly fee to the city coffers equal to 2% of the total value of goods stored. Those who fail to do so for any reason are immediately stripped of the warehouse properties. The VanFleet’s warehouses are exempt from this tax. Guild warehouses take many forms, from groups of grain silos to enormous animal pens and airtight lockers for storing valuable spices.


Seafoam Company: A two-storey building of solid stone with arrow slits instead of windows, the Seafoam warehouse is more appropriately called a bunker as it contains all the wealth of the trading company. Al the doors, from the imposing front door to the most innocuous broom closet, are made of iron and closed by strong, complex locks. Every member of the staff carries a short sword, and sixteen dwarf guards patrol the warehouse in four, four man shifts, equipped with heavy crossbows, hand axes, and chainmail.


The Loyal Order of Herdsmen: The Herdsmen’s’ Guild maintains this enormous, covered pen, suitable for holding five-hundred head of cattle. Next to the pen is a large, wooden barn, stacked to the rafters with hay and oats. In the summer, the stench from the cattle pen is atrocious, capable of “driving an otyugh to drink”, in the words of many an ex-worker.


Twilight House: This small, single storey warehouse is remarkable for only one thing- its guardians. Twin shadow mastiffs prowl the building’s dark interior, magically bound to remain within its walls and protect the valuable contents, which are rumoured to be gems and crystals of the very highest quality. The mastiffs are trained to kill intruders on sight but will not attack anyone wearing official guild markings.


VanFleet Warehouses: Recognizing the premium value of land near the Great Lifts, the VanFleet family moved to snap up as much as they could. Currently, they own just over half the warehouses in the district, renting them for hundred of gold pieces a month to those guilds and independent merchants not fortunate enough to possess their own. Most VanFleet warehouses hold the inventory of several companies at once to maximize profits. As an added service to their renters, members of the VanFleets’ private army are available for hire at the rate of 3gp a day, one going to the guard and two to the VanFleet family.


There are several small, established stores and pubs in the Warehouse District serving the needs of the guilds’ work crews.


The Broke Barrel: Built just yards from the Lifts, the Broken Barrel is a dingy, smoky tavern frequented by off-duty Lifter guildsmen. The ale served at the Barrel is among the strongest sold in Stormhaven, no doubt contributing to the chronic, vicious brawls the tavern is known for.


Captain’s Choice: sells bowls of steaming, thick beef stew for two coppers each and is frequented by the district’s guard patrols.


Tools: This simply named store does brisk business selling high quality tools to the various warehouse crews. The owner, Silus a dwarven male, wiles away the long hours watching and cataloguing the constant traffic riding the Lifts through a cheap spyglass.

The Round: A wheelmaker and wheel repair shop, it has been rumored to be in danger of going out of business by various guildsmen.  An old man named Rudabaker runs the store which is constantly busy.  On some days guildsmen get into a bidding competition to get Rudabaker to finish their wheel first.

Eagel Warehouse & Storage: This warehouse is the subject of constant rumors.  The owners are unknown and while work has been done on the building by a variety of craftsmen no one has seen or noticed any business going to or from the warehouse.  That is the way its been since the sign was put up over ten months ago.

Torngulf's Aleshop

The dwarf known only as Torngulf has been a resident of the Driftdowns for 20 years, or at least that's as long as his "aleshop" has been open. He occupies no set building, instead erecting a tent and creating a bar by placing wood planks over kegs. Every morning, he tears down the tent, loads up his wagon and moves to a new spot somewhere in the twisting lanes and alleys of the slums. Torngulf has even occupied vacant ships that have been moored to Driftdowns and has since become part of the neighborhood. Rumors abound that the surly dwarf hails from an ancient dwarven kingdom on the Great Continent, while others say that he's a fugitive from the Evening Isles. He's not known to have any political ties and as any good barman, usually remains neutral in most conversations. Torngulf has been known to use a club or cudgel to keep order in the shop and employs about 6 kolbolds and/or goblins, whom he harries like a slavemaster. It is unknown when he sleeps as his day is mostly spent tearing down, moving and then resetting the aleshop.

Poison Components

Blackwater: A naturally occurring toxin found in shallow pools of water near active volcanoes. A single vial of blackwater rapidly affects a 10-foot area of water. Any aquatic creature that breathes blackwater must hold its breath to resist its effects or begin to drown; each moment being harder to resist than the last. Blackwater also affects creatures that can breathe water due to a spell or effect, but it has no effect on creatures that can only breathe air. Blackwater also serves as a base liquid is some exotic poison mixtures.

Burning Dust: When used as a weapon, this white ashen dust hampers vision and breathing causing blindness and sickening effects. It is essentially the ashes left behind from searing breath weapon fires- presumably dragon breath but it doesn’t have to be. Creatures resistant to fire are also resistant to the dust’s blinding and chocking effects. Burning Dust is a commonly used ingredient when elemental fire is called for as a component in an elixir or extract.

Spellshield Spores: These spores are created when two or more magical or exotic flowers are brought into the same garden and allowed to grow. After one year, when springtime spores are released to fertilize the buds of the neighboring flowers, these special spores can be harvested to create an essence that grants some measure of resistance to spells and spell-like effects. However, if the garden soil is defiled, polluted or is unholy ground; the nectar that is produced will maximize the effects of any poison it is added to.

Staircase Keep

“Watch thy step citizen” a sign posted above the Stair Gate

Looming over the Grand Stair like an enormous bird of prey, the soaring walls and towers of Staircase Keep are a stern reminder to visitors from the Downs that Upside holds power over them.


Outer Walls and First Gate: The outer walls of the keep are 50 feet high and 20 feet thick, build from granite blocks reinforced with wooden timbers. Built directly against the edge of the World Disk, the walls run alongside it for hundred of yards in each direction, then angle sharply back to meet behind the keep, forming a roughly diamond shape. Slender and circular guard towers 60 feet tall are build into the walls every hundred yards, each topped with a ballista and manned by a Staircase Guard detachment. There are four gates set into the outer wall. Three of them are spaced euidistnat from one another to the rear of the fortress, just large enough for a cart to pass through. The fourth, known as First Gate, is a much larger arch fully 25 feet at its apex and twice that in width. Twin guard towers studded with murder holes flank First Gate. Iron portcullises on each side of the wall can be dropped in times of need, but neither has been used in living memory. First Gate is guarded at all times by two Staircase Guard detachments, supported by a skirmisher and a member of the Spellwatch.

The Inner Keep: The keep is a marvel of architectural design, built with an eye for beauty as much as functionality. The main body of the fortress is built in a triangle shape, with the point towards the Grand Stair, splitting it like a wedge. The inner keep contains barracks for the rank and file of the Staircase Guard, plus kitchens, larders, several armories, offices, meeting halls and a large cathedral dedicated to the gods of protection and war. The walls are 75 feet high and fully 25 feet thick. Internal doors are stronger than normal but kept unlocked, with the exception of armory doors.

Tower of Beasts and the War Tower: These twin square towers are 75 feet high, separated from the inner keep by the Grand Stair. To allow easy passage between the towers and keep, two sets of reinforced, covered bridges run between them at a height of 25 feet. To the west is the War Tower, with officers’ quarters, and living space and research laboratories for the Spellwatch. An entire floor is set aside for Guard Captain Magdalena Ronoff. The interior of the War Tower is lavishly decorated with tapestries and flowering plants, giving it a comfortable homey feeling sadly lacking in most castles. Inner doors are kept locked and, in the case of laboratory doors, protected by alarm spells, some uniquely created for the War Tower.

The eastern tower is the Tower of Beasts, home to the keep’s few horses and its famous griffons. The horse stables occupy the lowest level of the tower with stalls for a dozen chargers. It includes tack rooms for saddles, leather barding and bails of hay, plus living quarters for the Keep’s stablemaster and his assistants. Directly above the stables are the spacious living quarters of the five-member griffon guard, as well as their flamboyant leader, the elf warrior Hanan Al’ Sharif. Above the griffon guard is the griffon rookery, a single, spacious room occupying the entirety of the tower’s upper half. The rookery is an ideal playing ground for the griffons, filled with platforms and beams for climbing, and the magical beasts are allowed the run of it.

The Grand Stair

The Grand Stair is an enormous stone staircase that begins at Copper Gate and runs for thousands of steps up the pillar Dastos in a loose spiral, passing through the gates of Staircase Keep to end at the courtyard nicknamed Flotsam Harbour. The Grand Stair is the only means of pedestrian access between Upside and the Driftdowns. For most of its length, the Stair is 10 feet wide, its steps an uncannily regular 1 foot high and deep. As the Grand Stair tops Dastos, however, it flares out to 50 feet in width, maintaining that size until it passes through First Gate and is split into two sets of steps, each 25 feet wide, that run between the inner keep and its two towers. The Grand Stair is open to all from sunrise to sunset and during that time it bustles with guildsmen, porters, messengers, and merchants. At sunset, the Copper Gate and Staircase Keep are sealed and only those bearing watermarks are allowed to pass. Those without are trapped on the Stair until morning.



A trip up the immense Grand Stair should, by all rights, be a grueling physical effort taking hours to accomplish, but a subtle dimensional enchantment laid down by the city’s enigmatic architects makes the journey simpler. Travelers walking up the stair at a normal, unhurried pace cover distance as if moving at a hustle (X2 move), and if they do increase their speed to a hustle, they travel as if they were running (x4move, but this effect is imperceptible to the traveler. People attempting to run up the stair or using boots of striding and springing or similar magic do not benefit from the stair’s magic.


Despite the presence of helpful magic, many find a trip up the Grand Stair a daunting prospect, among them the elderly, the diabled and heavily laden food cart merchants bound for the Rat’s Nest and Government District. Several unique entrepreneurs have profited immensely by serving their needs, among them:


Hogar Spittleback, an orc who for 1 gold piece per trip, ferries travelers up the Stair on a rickety sedan chair converted into a backpack.


Xerxes, a gnome, whose permanently enlraged giant lizard pads up and down the steps carrying barrels and boxes on his back


Liesle a human female, who is said to work for the Sevens smuggling cargo and even people into Upside. She is said to work for the half elven woman Lyri Farsil.