Saint Germaine

Location: Map #1

Saint Germaine, the southern-most city of Drannor, that loose league of regional dukedoms, always gets a first look at southern goods headed north -- spices, alloys, wine & rum, fine leather, dried fruits, nuts, honey, wax, jewelry, olive oil, quality weapons and armor, grains, art, fine items of wood, musical instruments, ceramics, Elven artisan creations, and all manner of expensive Eastern goods (carpets, glasswork, exotic spices, gems).

As a place of riches in motion, property crime is rampant, and a battalion of freelance bodyguards switches sides constantly among the scores of merchants whose fortunes rise and fall like the sea.

The city resides along a shallow bay surrounded by low hills populated by family-owned farms and ranches.

An eight-foot wall surrounds the oldest part of the city, which contains Duke Ferdinand Magellan's small castle, numerous administrative buildings, barracks, and armoury, and a neighborhood of row houses owned by wealthier citizens and the amenities they require.

Within the wall, the streets are clean and orderly. Outside, less so, and the city sprawls for a mile in all directions but the sea.

Saint Germaine is patrolled by a modestly corrupt legion of black-cloaked guards. They're well equipped with broadswords or halberds, batons, and decent armor. Folks know they're not to be messed with, but that well-placed coin can buy their temporary absence.

The Thieves Guild is one of the most prominent non-governmental institutions in Saint Germaine -- society has simply accepted thievery, large and small, as a part of the culture of the city. Its leaders meet regularly with high-level officials to negotiate the return of precious cargo -- or transact other business.

To the south along the coast is a perilous 200-mile stretch of roadway called Gambler's Reach. It is the best overland route from the southern realms into Drannor, and yet plagued by marauding bandits, including orc raiders and worse. (Seafaring merchants deal with well-armed pirates, and debate continues about which is the more dangerous mode of transport.)

The great merchant road splits at Saint Germaine, with one branch following the coast north to Songvar and Saint Norbert, and the other carved northeast through Ravenwood to the grand city of Luxor.

To the south, Gambler's Reach.

Notable Locals

• Khazka lived and worked here a while, before joining the Infiltrators.

• The Ignoble Assets campaign began here.

• Lord Octavian Arminius, Supreme Magistrate.

• Duke Ferdinand Magellan.

• Bastian Brecht

Places

The Dungeon

Justice moves quickly only to the highest bidders in the city, and so you've tried to get comfortable in your new residence.

Which has been hard -- you've been caged in a cell so small you can nearly touch all the walls at once. A sliver of natural light comes in from a hand's-breadth slanted chute at ceiling height. The opening doubles as a drain for the street outside, and as the first rains of fall have blown in from the sea recently, you've come to understand that the torrents of stormwater that pour into your cage are the sole means by which your waste and that of your neighbors' is washed away -- except when a rat or other obstacle plugs the dungeon's drainpipes, and you all stand in cold, ankle-deep water for a few days.

Besides the spent grains from local breweries, your only other source of nutrament available has been the denizens of the dungeon -- cockroaches, rats, and large snails. You have each likely spent hours coaxing a snail to come close enough to grab, which feels ridiculous, but gnawing hunger is a powerful master.

The Docks

The twenty piers of Saint Germaine jut out into the shallow bay along a sturdy stone waterfront thoroughfare. Seals bark for scraps. Large ships anchor a few hundred yards offshore, and various small cargo vessels compete for the business of moving goods and people from the ships to the piers and vice versa.

The dock teems with commercial activity, people and horses and wagons and stacks of cargo being loaded and unloaded.

The One Legged Gull

The One Legged Gull is a tavern along the docks with an upstairs reading room and dozens of varieties of tea, that Mavis has discovered and fancies. There is no sign -- just a depiction of a one-legged gull above the door.