Riddleport

Riddleport

Riddleport is the third-largest city in the Free cities. It is a haven for pirates and sea-faring brigands, Teeming with criminals and rogues of all kinds, Riddleport is full of potential danger and hard-to-avoid intrigue. Riddleport takes its name from a giant stone arch spanning the natural cove around which the city is built. It is covered on both sides with ancient Titanic runes, although their exact meaning is unknown.

Stats

Large City nonstandard (titular overlord with multiple crimelords)

AL CN

GP Limit 40,000 gp

Assets 26,600,000 gp

Demographics:

Population 13,300

Type mixed (77% human, 7% dwarf, 5% half-elf, 4% half-orc, 3% tiefling, 2% halfling, 1% gnome, 1% other)

Authority Figure:

Gaston Cromarcky, NE male human fighter 7/expert 5 (Overlord of Riddleport)

Riddleport at a Glance

Most of Riddleport's buildings are composed of wood-logs or planks-with multiple floors and steep, highpeaked roofs of wooden shingles. They are built in close quarters, and in some cases their wooden upper floors sag and lean together from the constantly sodden conditions. Stone fireplaces ward off the bitter winter cold and the chill that lingers in the fog-laden streets for much of the year, save for in high summer. During this two-month period, warmer air currents from the south bring a muggy, oppressive heat along with great black mosquitoes that breed in the nearby marshes. Many burn peat treated with incense in their hearths during these months to ward off the vermin with their thick smoke.

The major streets of Riddleport are cobbled, often becoming rain-slick cataracts during the wet seasons. Cobbles are often missing or crushed by the incessant traffic, leaving gaping holes and ruts in even the most well-tended thoroughfares. Side streets tend to be relegated to muddy tracks that are swift to turn into stinking morasses of sucking mud and filth. Riddleport doesn't have much of a sewage system, and relies mainly on gutters along street edges to carry refuse to the river and harbor. One feature unique to the major streets are the frequent oil lamps mounted on iron poles that provide beacons of light in the benighted mists. These are set in sturdy hurricane lamps and burn thick, rancid-smelling oil from barrel-shaped reservoirs at the lamppost base-a byproduct and innovation of the Gas Works. These wavering lights give off illumination equal to a torch in even the foulest weather but are not well-tended; just over a third of them are out on any given night, in need of repairs or refueling.

Slang

Many of Riddleport's citizens have their own slang and jargon that they use in mixed company to hold conversations in front of others while not revealing what they're actually talking about. Of course, in a city of thieves, the Thieves' Cant loses much of its use, and over the years, the Cant has devolved into a wide collection of regional slang words that most folk pepper liberally (and without thinking) into everyday speech. Listed below are several of the more common bits of Riddleport Slang.

Abbess: A priestess or whore

Bait: Bearded sea-folk

Capp: A trusted lieutenant or henchman

Cattle: A group of non-locals especially if flashing cash.

Cow: A non-local.

Church Work: Any lengthy job that is slow to finish or is otherwise drudgery

Dog Biter: A large rat, small child, kobold, goblin, halfling, or gnome.

Earth Bath: An unmarked grave

Easy Lad: A male prostitute

Fancyboy/Fancygirl: Relic researcher (sometimes an cyphermage )

Fish-fucker: A dwarf

Gendarme: A city guard

Hushman: A hired killer, generally one kept on semi-permanent retainer

Kiss: To stab someone-"Kissed the shank" is a phrase used to mean "Got murdered"

Laced Mutton: A prostitute (gender neutral)

Leaky: Someone who can't keep a secret ("Don't tell him about the heist-he's leaky!")

Lumber: A passenger on a ship (typically an unwanted or unwelcome passenger)

Pigeon: A person targeted by a criminal to be the victim of a crime, or a person that visits a prostitute

Pigmeat: A dead body, or someone who is about to become dead

Pump-Sucker: A dwarf (particularly one who works at the Gas Forges)

Quickwife: A female prostitute

Rathole: The mouth (especially a mouth that belongs to someone who is saying unwelcome things)

Rotgut: Liquor (particularly foul-tasting liquor)

Shank: A small knife that can be easily hidden on a person's body

Soaker: A follower of Wavefather

Soggy Plum: A drunk

Whisker: A were