The Styes

The Styes
Tags	Locations, Location, ToTB, Kaern
Contained By	Kraftaverkaborg
Contains	Harid, Thornwell's Tower, Sliris, Rashlen, Trigger

This is the Styes, the decaying remains of a once-notable port district. Under bent gables, the carcasses of its houses lean against each other — languid, broken, and awaiting the peace of collapse. Door frames sag, dislocated from sod walls heavy with mildew, while splintering timbers support rotting boardwalks like broken limbs, disappearing into the thick, rancid water of the harbor below. In numerous places, sections of the boardwalks have fallen away completely, leaving broad holes that expose polluted water.

Environment & Terrain

1. Harbor Master

These two stone buildings on a small island in the Merchants’ Quarter are the base of operations for Harbor Master Tak Merakin (NE female half-orc [bandit captain](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/bandit-captain)) and her constables (twelve NE human [thugs](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/thug)). Tak is profoundly lazy, and as long as merchants and fishers pay their dues without complaining, she doesn’t interfere with business on the water. She reacts only to obvious threats such as fires, riots, and storms — and even then, she displays an infuriating lethargy.

2. Frother’s Lamp

This decommissioned stone lighthouse was once a proud beacon welcoming ships, but it functions now as nothing more than a sad Flotsam landmark. When the last caretaker died in a loud argument at a nearby tavern, no one took up her mantle, and the light has fallen into disrepair. After a few more decades of slowly sinking into the soggy seabed, it might end up consumed by shanties and other buildings built atop its corpse.

3. Marketplace

This large, open space serves as the primary market for the Styes. The area is always crowded, but the goods for sale here are of low quality and dubious origin.

4. District Garrison

This three-story stone building houses the district’s militia (some two hundred LE [guards](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/guard), ten [bandit captains](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/bandit-captain), and one [veteran](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/veteran)) in crowded conditions more like a prison than a barracks. A handful of the guards are honest, but they are the exceptions. Most of the militia members are youths who needed a job, and whose ambition was satisfied by becoming paid thugs. The guards’ patrol routes are determined entirely by who pays the largest fees for protection. The gallows in front of the garrison seldom lies unused for more than a few days.

5. Council Hall

This once-elegant structure is the traditional seat of the council in the Styes, which is a part of the larger city government in name only. Today, the four councillors who run the district spend most of their time in their own homes and businesses. A small staff of clerks works here, and the councillors hold town meetings in the hall once or twice a month, but most of this structure’s other rooms have sat unused for decades.

6. Refrum’s Workshop

This modest wood and brick building along the edge of the Alchemists’ Quarter is the home of Master Refrum (LG male human [priest](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/priest)). Refrum has much to say to the characters, as discussed previously in “[Adventure Hooks](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/gos/the-styes#AdventureHooks)” and below in “[Murder Mystery](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/gos/the-styes#Part2MurderMystery).”

7. Dory’s Warehouse

This is the home and business of one of the Styes’ councillors, the sinister [Mr. Dory](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/mr-dory) (see [appendix C](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/gos/monsters-and-npcs)). This location is detailed fully in part 3, “[Hemlock Pit](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/gos/the-styes#Part3HemlockPit).”

8. Rashlen Manor

One of many run-down manors in the High Quarter, this building is home to Rashlen (NE male elf [assassin](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/assassin)), one of the Styes’ councillors. The manse is said to be guarded by golems and similarly horrible creatures.

9. Thornwell Tower

The tallest structure in the Styes, Thornwell Tower is a pinnacle of black and red marble surrounded by a stone wall. Councillor Thornwell (LE female human [mage](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/mage)) dwells here. Locals whisper that the tower is haunted by devils and contains a portal to the Nine Hells.

10. Mortuary

The lack of a strong religious presence in the Styes means that the task of dealing with the dead falls to the mortuary. This large building is surrounded by a disused graveyard, but the district’s dead have long been universally cremated. Those who operate the mortuary are rumored to be thieves, undead, or wererats. The truth is a combination of all three. The master of this morbid structure is Sliris (NE female [wererat](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/wererat)), a devious and secretive member of the council.

11. Hopene’er Asylum

This enormous building (detailed in the following section, “Murder Mystery”) is the last remnant of a more optimistic time, when the desperate and doomed of the Styes were cared for and watched over.

History

Once, the Styes was a marvelous port district. Its magnificent buildings crowned an artificial island that was the centerpiece of a broad bay, held aloft on great oak pilings. Those huge beams supported great facades of marble grandeur, connected by boardwalks that thronged with richly clothed merchants, exotic travelers, and the passing palanquins of nobility. Known as the Island of Pleasures, the site was a destination for rich and decadent folk up and down the coast.

Time can be cruel, however. Warfare, corruption, famine, and natural disaster ruined many who loved the Island of Pleasures, and as their resources dwindled, so did this once-magnificent district. But even as fortune turned and the region rebuilt from devastation, the Island of Pleasures became an unneeded luxury. New people called the district home: poor, desperate folk crowded beneath fallen gables in hovels tattooed by mildew and damp rot. On their heels came folk whose trade was scorned elsewhere. Alchemists fouled the air and water with poisonous concoctions from failed experiments. Sweat-shop manufactories set up in the Styes and all but enslaved their desperate workers. Tanners and millers and dyers and butchers invaded the district, scraping every penny out of their businesses with no concern over the impact their toxic operations had on their neighbors or the environment. The district bears little evidence of its former glory as it daily sinks deeper into the muck.

Politics

The current population of the Styes is a little under twelve thousand residents, but they’re packed into an area that might house half that number in a more prosperous settlement. Four-fifths of the district’s residents are human, with the remainder split between gnomes, dwarves, halflings, half-orcs, half-elves, and a smattering of other humanoids.

The Styes is ruled by a group of four corrupt officials called “the council.” The four councillors are Mr. Dory ([Mr. Dory](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/mr-dory)) (see [appendix C](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/gos/monsters-and-npcs)), [[NOTION_PAGE:"Rashlen"]] (NE male elf [assassin](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/assassin)), [[NOTION_PAGE:"Sliris"]] (NE female [wererat](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/wererat)), and Elizabeth Thornwell (LE female human [mage](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/mage); also see “[Thornwell’s Offer](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/gos/the-styes#ThornwellsOffer),” above). The district is policed by a poorly trained militia consisting of some two hundred [guards](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/guard) (LE humans) led by ten officers (LE human [bandit captains](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/bandit-captain)) and one commander (LE human [veteran](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/veteran)). The militia patrols in groups of at least ten, for their own protection more than anything. Larger groups of twenty or more usually include an officer.

Unless you used Thornwell as a hook, the only councillor who takes an active role in this adventure is [Mr. Dory](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/mr-dory). Anyone who talks of Dory describes him as a longtime resident of the Styes and a wealthy warehouse owner, and mentions the tragic skin condition that requires the councillor to take regular immersion in water for relief.

The rest of the councillors are occupied with other concerns. If one of their fellow councillors is slain, however, or the balance of power in the Styes is seriously upset, the surviving councillors will almost certainly make sure that the characters responsible don’t get to walk away from the district. The timing and details of their revenge are left up to you.