Duskvol - Blades in the Dark

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Hoxley

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The Dimmer Sisters (+1)

The Gray Cloaks (-2)

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1. Lightning Tower: Marvels of electroplasmic engineering, requiring constant attention from the powerful Sparkwrights guild. This series of towers ring the city are over each over 400 feet tall and help to keep the ravenous spirits of the deathlands out of the city.2. Barrow Bridge: One of several residential bridges in the city. The bridge is lined with homes, shops, and merchant stalls.3. Overseer’s Office: This is the local office of the Ministry of Provisions, keeping a keen eye on the nearby farms.4. The Black Tree: A local pub frequented by the farmers.5. Radiant Energy Farm: The wondrous power of radiant energy allows crops to grow in the darkness of Duskwall. Life in the city depends upon these farms, so their delicate radiant lamps and irrigation systems are watched constantly by specially appointed deputies of the Watch and Overseers of the Ministry of Provisions.6. Barrowcleft Market: This open-air marketplace provides a place for the farms to sell fresh produce and goods made from their crops. Other related vendors have also sprung up here, including brewers and distillers, weavers, dyers, and goat breeders.

Notable Locations

Barrowcleft is the home to the laborers and Overseers of the Ministry of Provisions who tend to the radiant energy farms of Doskvol. It is a dusty, rural district, with simple wooden buildings of only one or two stories and wide dirt roads to accommodate large cargo wagons. The farmers of Barrowcleft are organized into tight-knit family-based clans that are proud of their vital role in the city’s welfare and hold themselves apart from the “city folk.”

Notable Factions

* The Ministry of Provisions: The regulatory commission that maintains the farms that provide the majority of Doskvol’s food supply.* The Brigade: The fire-fighters of the city. Alternately beloved for their life-saving heroism, or reviled for their looting and extortion rackets.* The Grinders: A gang of former dockers and leviathan blood refinery workers, brought in to fight fires while the Brigade was on strike.

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1. Bowmore Bridge: This massive structure of bright white stone and shimmering metal-work is said to be the largest bridge in the Imperium. Luxury apartments and shops perch all along its length from Brightstone to Whitecrown.2. The Silver Market: A curated open-air emporium overlooking the North Hook channel. Named for its original use as the pimary marketplace for silver traders, it’s now host to luxury goods vendors of all sorts.3. The Sanctorium: The chief cathedral dedicated to the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh. It’s a towering edifice of buttresses and spires, originally commissioned by the Emperor during his last visit to Doskvol nearly 500 years ago.4. Unity Park: A grand park, fountain, and roundabout featuring an enormous monument commemorating Imperial victory in the Unity War (or the War for Skovlan Independence, depending on who you talk to).5. The Sextant: More a wine tasting club than a tavern, they strive to cater to those of a refined palate.6. The Centurnalia Club: A very exclusive gentleman’s club. Membership is strictly by invitation only.

Notable Locations

Brightstone is home to many of the wealthiest and most influential citizens of Doskvol. Its streets are broad and paved, under bright electric lights; its canals are sparkling and clean, with perfumed water; its houses are all of fine, pale marble blocks, rich timbers, and intricate ironworks. There are cultivated parks fed by radiant-energy; lavish restaurants and cafes; jewelers, tailors, and other luxury shops. Street-side vendors are forbidden here, resulting in a serene, spacious atmosphere, punctuated by the occasional carriage or marching Bluecoat patrol.

Notable Factions

* The Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh: The closest thing to a “state religion,” which honors the physical and abhors the corrupted spirit world.* The Sparkwrights: The engineers who maintain the lightning barriers. Also pioneers of new technology, often indulging in dangerous research.* The Reconciled: An association of spirits who have managed to keep themselves from going feral with the passage of time.

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1. Bellweather Crematorium: The towering smokestacks are visible from just about anywhere in the city. Whenever someone dies, the giant belltolls, and the deathseeker crows fly out and circle in the sky over the body. Then come the masked men with their carts, and the remains are collected and incinerated, hopefully before a ghost can arise and start wreaking havoc. 2. Charhollow Market: A public market fills the open square here in the shadow of the crematorium, offering fair prices to the local community. 3. Longdale: Only the poorest of the poor would live so close to the Crematorium, or those who have no other options. 4. The Fountain of the Weeping Lady: This elaborate fountain is topped by a statue of Lady Devera, the first Governor of Doskvol. Nearly 8oo years later, she is known as the Weeping Lady, the central figure around which a notable charity organization has grown. 5. Kellen's: One of the oldest pubs in the city, with a dizzying selection of Skovlander ales and whiskeys. 6. Quin’s: High stakes card games. Former proprietor Albin Quinn’s three sons ensure everything stays above board.

Notable Locations

Charhollow is home to the bulk of the workforce of the city—servants, dockers, sailors, stockyard and eelery workers, cabbies, and so on. It's cheap, noisy,cramped, and sweltering from cookfires and hissing steam-pipes, but there's a familial camaraderie among its residents that you won't find anywhere else. The people of Charhollow are a true community, brought together by circumstance, but bound by ties of mutual support and care in stark contrastto the cutthroat ruthlessness that constitutes business as usual in the rest of the city.

Notable Factions

* The Vultures: An up and coming gang of vicious thugs. * The Lost: A group of street-toughs and ex-soldiers dedicated to protecting the downtrodden and the hopeless. * The Ink Rakes: The journalists, muckrakers, and newspaper publishers of Doskvol. Willing to do whatever it takes to sell a story.

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1. Charter Wall: Along the ruins of the old walls is a sprawling artist’s colony.2. Clerk Street: The main avenue of the district is lined with imposing governmental structures of all sorts, all tucked behind high iron fences, patrolled by a mix of Bluecoats on the sidewalks and mounted Imperial cavalry on the grounds.3. Heartbreaker Square: This open plaza in front of the Office of the High Court contains a very well used set of gallows.4. Jayan Park: The great alchemist for whom this park is named contrived to formulate soil and seeds that could produce real, growing trees, without sunlight or radiant energy.5. Charterhall University: A dozen buildings have been converted into classrooms and dormitories for the students of this modest-seeming but nevertheless prestigious institution. The school's massive Sparkwright Tower, where experts of spark-craft are trained, looms huge over the district.6. The Old Rasp: A tavern frequented by the small army of civil servants employed by the City Council, as well as students of the University.

Notable Locations

Charterhall is the site of the first major construction in the city, in the days before the cataclysm. The old wall upon which was built the first lightning barrier in the Empire still stands in partial ruin around the district. The area is now home to the civic offices of the government including the courts, licensing and taxation offices, banks, and records archives. City officials and students at Charterhall University live here, along with the captains of Imperial industry who prefer to reside within sight of their fortunes.

Notable Factions

* The Ministry of Preservation: The governmental body of the Imperium that oversees all transportation between cities and the disbursement of food and other vital resources.* The Leviathan Hunters: The daring crews that grapple with titanic demons of the Void Sea to drain their blood for processing into electroplasm.* The Foundation: The ancient order of architects and builders. Many of their enemies have disappeared behind the brick and mortar of Doskvol.

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1. Coalridge Mine: The site of the first permanent settlement at the river delta. The mine still operates over 1000 years later, though demand for coal has dropped sharply as the Imperium adopts electroplasmic power more and more widely.2. The Six Arms: A public house named for the six lines which used to converge at the Old Rail Yard out front.3. Brickston: The mostly densely packed residential area in Duskwall.4. The Ironworks: A sprawling collection of massive industrial workhouses.5. Ironhook Prison: A towering metal fortress, where the worst (or most unlucky) criminals are incarcerated.6. Gaddoc Rail Station: Electro-rail trains from across the Imperium arrive here daily with goods and passengers.

Notable Locations

Coalridge is home to most of the machinists, industrial laborers and factories of the city. It’s cramped, soot-choked, and loud—spewing dense clouds of black smoke, showers of sparks and burning cinders. The old elevated train lines that once hauled coal now carry heavy equipment and raw materials toand from Gaddoc Station, though many of the ancient tracks and cars have been abandoned to squatters who've converted them into makeshift homes.

Notable Factions

* The Billhooks: A tough gang of thugs wielding hatchets and meat hooks.* Skovlander Refugees: Desperate survivors of the Unity War, now stuck here in Akoros.* Ulf Ironborn: A brutal Skovlander, newly arrived in Doskvol, fighting everyone for turf..

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1. Crow's Nest: An ancient tower from before the cataclysm that has been a ritual sanctum, an astronomer's laboratory, and a Bluecoat watch post - before its current role as the headquarters of the district's chief gang, the Crows.2. Tangletown: Hundreds of years ago, one of the massive leviathan hunter ships was partially sunk in the river. Since then, it's collected an attendant flotilla of tiny watercraft, all lashed together into a floating neighborhood. Tangletown is considered neutral ground among the street gangs of Crow's Foot, and no violence is allowed there.3. Strathmill House: The lost children and unwanted orphans of Crow's Foot inevitably pass through the halls of Strathmill House. Some are cared for and trained for jobs at the docks or the workhouses of Coalridge. Others are quietly instructed in the arts of the lookouts and runners used by the gangs of the district - all for a small fee to Strathmill House, of course.4. Red Sash Sword Academy: This large mansion has been converted into a training school for the Falling Star style of Iruvian sword play. The Red Sashes, an Iruvian gang who run several luxury drug dens in the district, claim it as their HQ and cover operation for their illicit operations.

Notable Locations

Crow's Foot is a crossroads, merging many qualities of its neighboring districts: the illicit vices of Silkshore, the labor and trade of the Docks, the poverty of Charhollow, and the classic architecture of Charterhall. The district is a patchwork, both held together and threatened to be torn apart by the menagerie of competing street gangs and Bluecoat squads that claim every avenue and corner as territory in an endless turf war.

Notable Factions

* The Crows: An old gang with new leadership. Known for running illegal games of chance and extortion rackets.* The Red Sashes: Originally an Iruvian school of swordsmanship, expanded into criminal endeavors.* The Lampblacks: The former lamp-lighter guild, turned to crime when their services were replaced by electric lights.

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1. The Broken Anchor: A tavern on the waterfront, and second home to many a working stiff.2. The North Hook Company: This grand, old-fashioned estate house is headquarters for one of the oldest surviving shipping and navalexploration enterprises in the Imperium. Owned by The Hive.3. Doskvol Tariff and Excise Office: Official records of everything that comes in and out of the city via ship are kept here. Of course, there is the occasional item that isn’t documented, so officially they never existed.4. Saltford’s: A squat stone building which houses one of the more notorious private banks in Doskvol.5. The Strangford Trading Company: A well established shipping concern, bankrolled by one of Doskvol's founding families.6. The Pint & Hound: A bare-knuckle boxing venue. The proprietors have encouraged factions to resolve disputes here before resorting to violence in the streets.

Notable Locations

The Docks of Doskvol are ancient, going back to the days before the cataclysm, when the area was just a small settlement trading with the Skov kingdomto the northwest. Today, some commerce has shifted to the new electro-rail lines of the Imperium, but the docks are still bustling with cargo haulers,fishing boats, and the prestigious Leviathan Hunter ships which provide the raw material that keeps the city running. Of course, all manner of othergoods are transported through here as well.

Notable Factions

* The Gray Cloaks: A crew of former Bluecoats turned to crime after being framed and expelled from the City Watch.* The Fog Hounds: A crew of rough smugglers who unofficially work for Lord Strangford.* The Dockers: The hard-bitten laborers who work the docks.

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1. Ironhook Prison: A towering metal fortress, where the worst (or most unlucky) criminals are incarcerated. The poorest are forced to work at Dunvil Labor Camp. The most well-connected prisoners manage a comfortable stay, and may even continue to run their criminal enterprises from behind bars.2. Dunvil Labor Camp: Poor prisoners who can't afford to bribe the staff at Ironhook spend most of their days toiling at Dunvil Labor Camp, loading precious ores onto barges for the rail station and breaking the larger rocks hauled from the Mire.3. Dunslough Ghetto: The most destitute of the city end up in Dunslough, working the Mire for a pittance just to buy their daily bread. the city counts the space as "runoff" for the prison grounds, and it does nothing to maintain it.4. The Mire: A massive mud-quarry pit, the Mire is the site of the impact of an ancient celestial body, which left behind a variety of precious ores and jewels embedded in the earth.

Notable Locations

Dunslough is a ghetto for the destitute poor of the city, as well as the site of Ironhook Prison and its labor camp. Originally, the ghetto was a neighborhood for families of prisoners, but over the years, extreme poverty and neglect have worn it down into a sodden ruin. A vicious cycle plays out here: crim driven by desperation, then arrest, incarceration, and release back to Dunslough - giving Ironhook and endless supply of laborers to exploit.

Notable Factions

* Ironhook Prison: Where many scoundrels spend the bulk of their lives. Several criminal organizations are run by convicts inside its walls.* The Lost: A group of street-toughs and ex-soldiers dedicated to protecting the downtrodden and the hopeless.*Deathlands Scavengers: Convicts from Ironhook and desperate freelancers who roam the wasteland beyond the lightning barriers.

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1. Dundridge & Sons: Considered by many to be the foremost tailor in Duskwall.2. Dimmer Manor: An old Severosi villa with exotic gardens. The word is that anyone who goes in never comes out again.3. The Veil: A luxurious social club known for its confidentiality and permissive policies regarding guests of arcane or unusual origins.4. The Night Market: The exotic open-air marketplace for which the District is named. It’s said that you can find nearly anything for sale here, if you know where to look.5. The Harping Monkey: A tavern known for its “secret” menu of alchemical concoctions.6. Vreen’s Hound Races: The racing of specially bred hounds is currently in vogue among Doskvol's upper crust. Run by Master Vreen, a con man from the Dagger Isles.

Notable Locations

Nightmarket is a district dominated by commerce, Situated near Gaddoc Rail Station, Nightmarket receives the bulk of saleable goods from the cargotrains that travel across the Imperium, bringing the exotic and rare to Duskwall. The citizens that call Nightmarket home constitute a new class of "elites"—wealthy people who are not of noble descent but nevertheless claim land, status, and power without titles. The district has been taken over by new construction, introducing lavish private townhouses with all of the modern advances for the elites that can afford them.

Notable Factions

* The Dimmer Sisters: Housebound recluses with an occult reputation. They have hidden agents all over the city.* The Path of Echoes: A mystery cult that borders on open rebellion against spirit laws.* Deathland Scavengers: Desperate freelancers who roam the wasteland beyond the lightning barriers. Many are former convicts from Ironhook.

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1. The Ease: The north part of the district is more easily navigated by gondola than by coach, and the dozens of entryways into the canals are flanked by shops and brothels advertising their wares with colored electric lights and flying banners.2. The Hooded Fox: A public house noted for its selection of locally brewed beers from radiant farms.3. The Spark Grounds: Beneath the crackling flares of a lightning tower, this open field draws crowds to watch the death-defying stunts of acrobats and circus performers, including the notorious “spark flyers.”4. Fogcrest: A high, peaked hilltop crowded with rowhouses jammed within the maze of narrow stairways that constitute its “streets.”5. Ojak’s: A rooftop market run by a the eponymous Ojak, a Tycherosi merchant who deals in arcane artifacts.6. Ankhayat Park: This extravagantly landscaped space is the largest open area in the city, hosting many public festivals and events throughout the year.

Notable Locations

Criss-crossed by dozens of narrow canals, Silkshore is a district best navigated by gondola, as most visitors to this “red lamp district” do. The brothels,vice dens, food stalls, and exotic shops all perch at the waterside, ready to satisfy the appetites of their clientele, no questions asked. Silkshore is a place of public indulgence and private indelicacy, catering to every pleasure maginable—as well as some that strain the bounds of fantasy.

Notable Factions

* Consulate Offices: The official offices of the emissaries from Iruvia, Severos, Skovlan, and the Dagger Isles.* The Hive: A guild of merchants who secretly trade in contraband. Named for their symbol, a golden bee.* The Wraiths: A mysterious crew of masked thieves and spies.

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1. Rowan House: One of the last of the original six towers, this antique building resembles an ancient castle from history books, complete with moat, draw-bridge, and arrow-slit windows. The powerful Rowan family rarely ventures beyond the security of its thick stone walls.2. Mistshore Park: This dark and overgrown space overlooks the eastern branch of the river Dosk and the deathlands beyond. In old folk ballads, young lovers who could not be together would commit suicide in this park. Whatever the truth of it, the park is certainly haunted now.3. The Row: A strip of fancy shops and boutiques.4. Arms of the Weeping Lady: This grand building, formerly an opera house, is now a soup-kitchen and bunkhouse for the destitute, run by the charity of the Weeping Lady. Locals use this landmark as the demarcation between the districts of Charterhall and Six Towers.5. The Golden Plum: An upscale restaurant, catering to a very select clientele.6. Scurlock Manor: The Scurlock family came to Duskwall centuries ago and was once a great force in the city, before some curse or calamity befell their line.

Notable Locations

This formerly prestigious district has faded over the centuries into a pale shadow of what it once was. The eponymous Six Towers were originally the grand residences of Doskvol's first noble families. All but two (Bowmore House and Rowan House) have been sold off and converted into cheap apartments or fallen into ruin and abandoned. The district has an empty, haunted feel, with many sprawling old buildings dark without power, broad stone streets cracked and buckled, and the fires of squatters crackling from overgrown lots.

Notable Factions

* Lord Scurlock: An ancient noble, said to be immortal, like the Emperor. Possibly a vampire. Obsessed with arcane secrets.* The Circle of the Flame: A secret society of antiquarians and scholars; cover for extortion, graft, vice, and murder.* The Unseen: An insidious criminal enterprise with secret membership. Thought to pull the strings of the entire underworld.

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1. Lord Governor's Stronghold: The Emporer originally commissioned this stronghold as a garrison for the Imperial Military stationed at North Hook prior to the invasion of Skovlan. It now houses the Lord Governor, their family, and governmental aides as well.2. Doskvol Academy: Hailed as one of the finer institutions of learning in the Empire, the school is most well-known as the instructional facility for the leviathan hunter captains and their senior officers. Training cruises for new recruits are conducted year-round to replace the poor souls lost in the hunts.3. Master Warden's Estate: This gigantic, fortified manor is home to the Commander of the Spirit Wardens and is their primary training facility. It's said that some spirits are not destroyed at Bellweather - but are brought here instead for some unknown purpose.4. North Hook Lighthouse: This ancient structure has been converted into an electro-plasmic apparatus capable of providing a navigation beacon for hundreds of miles into the darkness of the Void Sea around Duskvol

Notable Locations

Whitecrown sits atop a grand peak on the island across North Hook Channel from the city proper. From its lofty heights, the Lord Governor's stronghold oversees all, flanked by the grand estates of the most powerful nobility and the extravagantly appointed campus of Doskvol Academy. Whitecrown is a rich and rarefied world unto itself - most citizens live out their entire lives in the city without ever once crossing the bridge to the glittering spires of wealth and power here.

Notable Factions

* Imperial Military: The armed forces of the Imperium stationed in Duskvol. Garrisons are posted at Gaddoc Rail Station, aboard the naval destroyer Paragon, and at the Lord Governor's stronghold.* Spirit Wardens: The bronze-masked hunters who destroy rogue spirits. Also run Bellweather Crematorium to properly dispose of corpses.* Duskvol Academy: Institution, separate from all governmnetal bodies, tasked with educating captains of the Leviathon hunting ships.

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Crow's Foot

Lair

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Crow's Foot

Lair

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A thousand years ago, this was a land of beauty and magic. Then came the cataclysm that blotted out the sun and ripped open the gates to the land of the dead. The city of Duskvol is a metropolis of tenements and factories, surrounded by crackling lightning towers fueled by the marvelous substance, electroplasm.Outside the city is a wasteland full of vengeful spirits, inside is a wretched hive of scum and villany, intrigue and corruption. Life is cheap in a city ruled by death. The sun is gone, the only thing that shines in Duskvol are the Blades in the Dark!

Duskvol:

A towering metal fortress, where the worst (or most unlucky) criminals are incarcerated. Many are forced into labor in the southern fields and pit-mines of Dunslough. the condemned are sent to scavenge in the deathlands.

Ironhook Prison:

A once wealthy area, ravaged by plague then abandoned to the deathlands when the second lightning barrier was built. Contains many lost treasures for the foolhardy to seek out.

The Lost District:

During the cataclysm, the oceans turned to black ink. Tiny ponts of light, arrayed like constellations of stars, can be seen far below the surface. Only the bravest or most desperate of captains dare to sail beyond sight of land, into a sea as black and dark as the sky above. The vengeful ghosts that plague the land tend to shun the open ocean, but there are more terrible things prowling the deeps.

The Void Sea:

A thousand years ago, this was a land of beauty and magic. Then came the cataclysm that blotted out the sun and ripped open the gates to the land of the dead. The city of Duskvol is a metropolis of tenements and factories, surrounded by crackling lightning towers fueled by the marvelous substance, electroplasm.Outside the city is a wasteland full of vengeful spirits, inside is a wretched hive of scum and villany, intrigue and corruption. Life is cheap in a city ruled by death. The sun is gone, the only thing that shines in Duskvol are the Blades in the Dark!

Duskvol

Before the deluge of the second century, the Dosk River delta was only a shallow bog surrounding a coal mining settlement. Ships used the Old North Port to dock and re-supply before crossing the open sea to Skovlan. The obsolete port was abandoned to the deathlands when the second lightning barrier was built.

Old North Port:

Beyond the lightning barriers, the world is a wasteland of petrified trees, ash, and choking clouds of miasma. Restless ghosts ceaselessly search for the faintest spark of life essence upon which to prey.

The Deathlands

Electro-rail trains from across the Imperium arrive here daily with goods and passengers.

Gaddoc Rail Station:

About half of Duskvol's food needs are met by imports; the other half is gathered locally from eel farms, mushroom caverns, and crops nurtured by wondrous radiant energy lamps.

Eeleries & Farms: