Overlook
From DeadGoblins
[edit] Overlook
The city of Overlook stands on the eastern slopes of the Stonehome Mountains, a hoary range of crumbling peaks as old as the world. The city’s founding lies sometime far back in the mists of time, at a point after the dwarves in this region threw off the shackles of slavery and chased the giants and orcs west across the mountains at the end of the Age of Chains. Overlook, and the fastness of Bordrin’s Watch, were raised to safeguard the liberated dwarf peoples and to be the first line of defense should their ancient enemies forget their defeat and seek to enslave the dwarves once more.
Since its founding, Overlook has never come under attack, though Bordrin’s Watch has time and again, at least once every century. Overlook supplies the mountain pass with soldiers, supplies, and needed resources, ensuring the Watch is never without the goods they need to live up to their ancient responsibility. While doughty dwarf warriors hold the Watch, the city is far more cosmopolitan and includes peoples of nearly every race and culture known in this corner of the world. Dwarves are still the dominate group, but humans and halflings make up a close second, followed by dragonborn, tieflings, and smattering of eladrin and elves, and an assortment of other, less familiar, races.
Overlook is largely a trading center, and people on both sides of the mountain come to the city to exchange goods, rumors, and information. The city’s numerous markets and bustling streets makes it the ideal place to do business, thus characters in search of a particular tool or device are more likely to find it here than anywhere for miles around. Supplementing its trade is a robust mining industry. The mountains are rich in iron, silver, tin, and no few gemstones. Dwarf and human miners and prospectors set out from Overlook each day, some working in the blackness of the deep mines, while others scour the heights in search of treasures—some succeeding, others failing, and others still vanishing in the misty peaks never to be seen again.
Although the city depends on Bordrin’s Watch to endure most of the attacks from the west, the city is not without its own defenses. The dwarves erected steep walls to protect themselves, but as the city outgrew its original protections, the inhabitants raised more walls to encircle the growing population. So far, this has happened four times, giving the city four sets of walls, one inside of the other. The shantytown, the unofficial ninth district, grows beyond the eastern walls and it’s just a matter of time before the Council decides to raise another wall and add those squatters to the rest of the city.
Piercing each wall, on both the western side and the eastern side, is a large gate flanked by two square stone towers. Most times, the gates stand open, even in the dead of night, but when trouble looms, such as now, the gates are closed at dusk, and the inner gates—the ones leading into High Hall—might close even earlier.
[edit] Districts
[edit] Blister
“Looking for work? You ought to prick the blister an’ see what bubbles up . . .”
The Blister is a rough-and-tumble section of the city, populated by mercenaries, adventurers, and the usual sort of traveling folk with few roots. Characterized by a great number of winesinks, taverns, pleasure dens, gambling halls, and bordellos, Blister is not a place to get lost.
[edit] Boneyard
“Not much to do in the Boneyard aside from sicking up.” Occupying the southeast corner of Overlook, Boneyard has every distasteful business and venture, including everything from the city’s slaughterhouses, renderers, tanners, dyers, and even the city’s graveyards.
[edit] Elftown
“Don’t know why they still call it Elftown; can’t say as I’ve ever seen an elf there.” Elftown covers the northwestern corner of the inner city and takes its name from the one elf to live there some seventy years ago. The community consists of upscale and well-off entrepreneurs, merchants, bankers, lawyers, physicians, and other members of Overlook’s upper crust, and many folk elsewhere want to inhabit a small house on the edge of this fine quarter.
[edit] Forgeworks
“Let me tell you about this place I know. If you’re looking for armor, I can think of nowhere better to go.”
The Forgeworks, or just the Forge, is a middle-class district given over to successful artisans, tradesfolk, and other men and women who work hard and are successful in their professions. More than half of the buildings here are workshops with apartments overhead. Warehouses, businesses, stables, and other places of industry round out the rest. The Forgeworks stands in the Middle City, south of Tradetown.
[edit] High Hall
“The heart and soul of Overlook, son, High Hall is where the movers and shakers make all the decisions.”
High Hall, or the Old City, is where the city leaders convene to govern Overlook. Few folk still live in High Hall since nearly every inch of available space is given over to the various ministries making up the city’s government. Thus, aside from a few extremely wealthy folks, most people funnel out of High Hall at the end of the day to head home to Elftown, Stonehammer, or elsewhere.
[edit] Nine Bells
“Nine Bells, Nine Hells, all the same to me.” Nine Bells district takes its name for the nine temples found in the heart of the district. Since these temples cater to the sick and the poor, this district draws the hungry, the diseased, and the destitute to its streets.
[edit] Stonehammer
“There’s a different kind of stench in Stonehammer . . . it’s the stench of arrogance.” Stonehammer occupies the southern half of the inner city, and it wraps around High Hall up to the Dwarfroad. Like Elftown, Stonehammer is home to the wealthy citizens of Overlook, specifically the dwarves. Since this district is cleaner, safer, and more exclusive than other parts of the city, great deal of resentment exists toward the folks of Stonehammer from those of lower means and status.
[edit] Tradetown
“Have a care in Tradetown, son. You can go there with a full purse and come out with nothing more than a pail of beans.” Tradetown is a melting pot of all races, cultures, and occupations. In many ways, Tradetown is a lot like the Blister, but it has been established for longer and it has a mix of fabulous wealth and appalling poverty. Tradetown, as one might expect, is a commercial and retail district, where merchants, tradesfolk, and prospectors come to do business. Most middle-tier business-inclined people have homes here and gather in coffee houses, upscale bars, and bathhouses to do business. In stark contrast to the bustling commerce, Tradetown is also home to a powerful thieving guild named the Lost Ones. A clandestine organization, they have agreements with nearly all the major enterprises here, offering protection (or rather exemption) from thievery and the promise to leave their customers alone.
[edit] Shantytown
“You think Nine Bells is bad? Spend a night in the Shantytown.” Not a true district, Shantytown clings to the back of the city like festering boil. Shantytown is a wretched maze of tents, shacks, and rotting wooden buildings,and it is home to the poorest and most desperate of people that have nowhere else to go. Most of Shantytown’s people are refugees from other lands, victims of tragedy and circumstance, or exiles who keep a low profile so they can go about their wicked business without attracting attention. Thus, Shantytown’s people are beggars, destitute farmers, maimed adventurers, undead, necromancers, cultists, and worse, all thrown together in one of the most desperate spots in the region.
[edit] Local points of interest
[edit] 1 Dwarfroad
The old Dwarfroad emerges from the Elsir Vale and climbs the slopes of the Stonehome Mountains, moving through Overlook and ascending up to Bordrin’s Watch and down the other side into the badlands beyond. The old road is far older than Overlook, having been paved during the Age of Chains by dwarf slaves for their giant masters.
[edit] 2 The Gray Redoubt of Rufus Crumley
The so-called “gray redoubt” is a leaning tower of gray and black stone that has the dubious distinction of being the tallest structure in Shantytown. Speculated as being as old as the city, the tower has had many owners over the centuries, but is currently the home to one Rufus Crumley.
[edit] 3 Clean Sheets Inn
A sagging, rotting building leaning out over the old Dwarfroad, this inn hasn’t had clean sheets since it first opened for business a decade ago. What it does offer is shelter and a suspicious meal. Clean Sheets’ accommodations include a pair of private rooms, or a cot in a large common room in the attic. The main floor consists of a kitchen and dining hall where a patron can buy a burned or undercooked meal, tepid beer, and cloudy water for a reasonable price.
[edit] 4 Mountain’s Hearth Inn
Just inside the east gates and facing the old Dwarfroad is a three-story inn named the Mountain’s Hearth. Famed for its clean and neat accommodations, fine meals, and pleasant staff, the Hearth is one of the more popular stops in Overlook.
[edit] 5 Pig and Bucket
One of the Blister’s most famous dives, the Pig and Bucket is a one-story tavern squashed between two boarding houses of ill-repute. Most of the tavern consists of the beer hall, where booths line the walls, and row tables and benches fill the open area in the center. A wooden bar, replete with names and curses carved onto its urface, runs along the back wall, where a dozen casks hold a variety of beers.
[edit] 6 Dungeoneer’s Survival Emporium
A narrow building, but deep, the Dungeoneer’s Survival Emporium is a general store specializing in common goods such as rope, packs, tents, and bedrolls—all available for reasonable prices.
[edit] 7 Tombs
Adventurers don’t have much reason to explore the Boneyard unless they’re in need of leathers, dyes, or a funeral service. In fact, the thing that brings most people to the Boneyard is the Tombs, Overlook’s old graveyard. As large above ground as it is below, Tombs contains the burial vaults for citizens dating back to the city’s founding.
[edit] 8 Dergan’s XXX Brewery
Dergan’s XXX Brewery is home of Dergan’s XXX Stout, a full-bodied black lager brewed using a recipe passed down through a dozen generations of dwarf brewmasters.
[edit] 9 Stonehome Treasures
Mikal Rensfield runs Stonehome Treasures, an unassuming shop specializing in selling goods produced in and around Overlook. Rensfield, an enterprising human merchant, solicits finished materials from artisans in the city and from the outlying villages and turns them around for a profit in the Forgeworks. His merchandise is an eclectic mix of mundane equipment, weapons, armor, and a smattering of magic items he has picked up for a steal from local explorers.
[edit] 10 Belden’s Rest
An adorable elderly couple runs Belden’s Rest. Rory Teng, human, and his wife Ruth, half-elf, have operated the inn since it was first built, and the inn has a reputation for its comfortable rooms, excellent food, and courteous staff. Prices are reasonable and the owners find new ways to surprise and please their guests during their stay. The inn consists of a lounge and restaurant on the main floor, with the upper two floors given over to private rooms. They’re best known for their pressed duck.
[edit] 11 The Salty Mug
This tavern nestles between the steep cliff that runs through the Tradetown and the middle wall, so the sun shines upon the building only in the middle of the day. The rest of time, shadows cloak the place, providing a fitting atmosphere for a haven of thieves and scum.
[edit] 12 Merty’s
This gaudy shop fronts the old Dwarfroad as it passes between Tradetown and Forgeworks. The place is painted in pastel colors and big glass windows in the front display adventurers battling with papier-mâché monsters.
[edit] 13 Shrine of Erathis
In the heart of Tradetown stands a small shrine dedicated to Erathis. Little more than a covered altar, littered with stubs of incense and scraps of paper containing prayers offered up by locals for good fortune, and a large idol of the goddess looking off to the horizon, people come here throughout the day or night. A gentle woman named Haelyn attends the shrine and accepts tithes from penitents and those seeking the deity’s blessings.
[edit] 14 Coxcomb Spirits
A proud rooster adorns a hanging sign above the entrance to Coxcomb Spirits. More restaurant than tavern, Coxcomb Spirits offers a fine selection of wines, beers, ales, and liquors to accompany the artful meals prepared by Chef Drebben. The place caters mostly to the city’s elite, and a nonpolitician might wait for months for reservations. Ironically, a ghost in its cellar haunts the Spirits. Drebben has contained the unruly and unwanted guest by arranging holy symbols around its lair, but he fears his solution is temporary at best. He’d hire someone to clear out the ghost, but fears it would be bad for business.
[edit] 15 Stone Anvil
Easily one of the largest buildings in Overlook, Stone Anvil is a grand cathedral dedicated to Moradin. The church’s foundation extends deep into the earth, where copyists work to transcribe the holy texts of Moradin, write holy books, and compile ritual books for the clergy. Some say these cavernous vaults hold far more than the legion of scribes and that ancient relics from the Age of Chains are buried in the deepest of vaults. Above, stone walls assembled from blocks of stone larger than many homes climb far above the bridges and buildings of Stonehammer. Its uppermost levels are studded with leaded windows that sparkle in the sun, each of which is shaped to resemble hammers. Doors to the worship hall rise 40 feet and require six dwarves to open or close them such is their great weight. The Stone Anvil is open to all who would pay homage to Moradin, but its placement in the city as well as an unwelcoming atmosphere results in its congregation being nearly all dwarves. The current high priest is Durkik Forgeheart, and he has served three decades.
[edit] 16 House of Sleep
The House of Sleep specializes in exemplary service and keeps out unwanted guests with its exorbitant prices. A great tower that stands seven stories tall and is pierced with so many arched windows, the building appears as if it has more glass than stone in its construction. The House offers private accommodations only; each suite of pleasant rooms includes a small kitchen, lounge, and bedroom, as well as the service of two servants who see to the guest’s every need.
[edit] 17 The Turned Spoon
The Turned Spoon is a quaint restaurant on the southern edge of Elftown. Founded by a cadre of halfling chefs from the riverlands to the south, they offer a large menu and a dizzying array of spirits. The restaurant is comfortable, with padded chairs and low tables. Deemed a romantic spot by the elite, and the epitome of excess by everyone else, the Turned Spoon offers large meals of unimpeachable quality.
[edit] 18 Elsir Consortium
Forty years ago, a group of merchants set aside their differences and combined their businesses to found the Elsir Consortium. Their unified front allowed them to expand their individual markets to nearly every community in the Elsir Vale until a decade later, and they have emerged as one of the most powerful commercial forces in the region.
[edit] 19 Polliver’s
Polliver’s is a small inn and club used by visiting officials and for local officials in need of clandestine meetings. A large building, four stories tall, it sits atop a tower near the eastern gate into the High Hall.
[edit] 20 Michael’s Blond
In stark contrast to Polliver’s and the other pricey establishments in High Hall and Stonehammer, Michael’s Blond is a down-to-earth tavern that specializes in serving the working class, offering honest fare, good brew, and a comfortable environment all for a modest fee.
[edit] 21 Caer Overlook (Government)
Rising above all the other districts and buildings in the city is Caer Overlook, a sprawling fortress of stone hauled out from the depths of the earth from the very mines the dwarves excavated during the dark days of their enslavement. The castle consists of eight round towers arranged in a star pattern surrounding a central keep capped with a domed roof. Hedging in all the towers and the keep is another stone wall, taller than the wall bounding the High Hall, and it raises 200-feet tall. Caer Overlook provides quarters for the elders as well as smaller apartments for the districts’ representatives and their families.
[edit] 22 Ministry of War
The Ministry of War is more compound than single structure, consisting of six buildings arranged inside a walled-in courtyard. Three buildings are barracks for the garrison that protects and patrols the city. The fourth serves as an armory and smithy, producing weapons, ammunition, and armor for recruits. The fifth building houses the officers quarters, while the sixth contains the officers of the War Minister.
[edit] 23 Cadrick’s Boarding House
When other districts provide lodgings, one might wonder why anyone would rent a room in the Nine Bells. There are few good reasons and those who do seek out a place to stay here are either too poor or too desperate to hunker down anywhere else, or, worse, need or have to keep a low profile. In any event, Cadrick’s Boarding House welcomes any and all inside its mildewed walls, offering dirt cheap rates that even include a loaf of bread (with crunchies!) and a pail of murky water.
[edit] 24 Divine Knot
The Divine Knot is the name given to the nine temples filling out the northwest corner of the Nine Bells district. Each temple is a grand house of worship designed to honor the gods, but is marred by the squalor and filth contaminating this district. For years, the priests worked to clean up their environs but frequent failures have chipped away at their resolve, leading a few of the temples to close their doors (specifically Ioun, Moradin, and Pelor). The rest—Avandra, Bahamut, Erathis, Kord, the Raven Queen, and, oddly, Zehir—remain, but with small clergies and smaller congregations.
[edit] 25 Pickled Imp
The Pickled Imp is an infamous tavern located just inside the Nine Bells. Taking its name from the large jar containing a dead imp suspended in brown fluid sitting proudly on the old wooden bar, the Pickled Imp is no place for the meek. Tucked away on a side street a few blocks away from the western gates, the Pickled Imp squats at the end of a foul alley, which is littered with slop tossed from the windows of tenements on all sides. The favored watering hole of beggars, storytellers, vagabonds, madmen, and shiftless folk, the Pickled Imp provides watery wine and a bitter yellow fluid that passes for beer. Fights are common, and in the cellar, the Imp’s patrons can watch kobolds fight brutal death matches.
