Tradesport

Tradesport was a walled island – a fortress-turned city in the cold waters of the Sea of Endless Darkness in the area of Underdark beneath the Vast.
==Description==
Tradesport was a city of several districts, multiple docks, two harbors, and channels that cut through the settlement. Under Mistress's rule, Tradesport had canals constructed throughout the island to allow aboleths free movement through the city. Some even claimed that there were tunnels and caverns underneath Tradesport filled with aboleths and their treasures.
The city's two harbors were sprinkled with a variety of ships from across the Sea of Endless Darkness, including illithid vessels. Each of the harbors' gates opened into large octagonal courtyards illuminated by oil lamps. They were surrounded by two and three-storied buildings, warehouses, and living quarters. The courtyards were separated from the rest of Tradesport by iron portcullis gates that opened into an underground passage that led the guests from the courtyards into the city.
The illithid complex bordered the human Waukeenar district, the location of the Maelstrom casino.
==Government==
As of the 14 century DR, Tradesport was a capitalist dictatorship with the absolute governing power being in the hands of Mistress Kristen of Sigil. Her every word was the law, and it was enforced by her own mercenaries' guild. Criminals were sent to the city arena.
==Trade==
Tradesport was famed for its brothels – the best in all of Underdark. Slavery was the town's biggest source of revenue. The city's commerce was run by several powerful Trading Houses. The city's duergar produced strong quality weapons, exported across the Underdark. In the late 14 century DR, the Church of Malphagor established a hold in Tradesport and built a fruitful undead servant trade relations with Thay.
==Religion==
The drow inhabitants of Tradesport venerated Vhaeraun, while humans followed Waukeen. The Mulhorandi worshippers of Set were left in the times of antiquity. The latest deity to gain worship in Tradesport was Malphagor, whose veneration came from some of the Trading Houses using undead laborers and a subsequent undead invasion, quelled by the newly arrived priests of Malphagor.
==History==
Tradesport's history began when the Mulhorandi pantheon began its expansion onto Toril. One god from the pantheon – Set set his sight on the Underdark. His servants built a keep on an island in the Sea of Endless Darkness. Eventually, Set's fortress was abandoned, with only undead guardians walking its halls for many centuries.
Sometime circa the , the long-abandoned fortress was discovered by a drow merchant from Nykhandthandar, giving the dark elf shelter during a kuo-toa chase. Upon the merchant's return to Nykhandthandar, the keep's location was sold to the Cult of Vhaeraun. Vhaeraunan clerics used their divine magics to remove all of the ancient undead guardians and claimed the walled island as their own secret outpost.
For the fifty years that followed, the Cult of Vhaeraun remained in power, and the keep was expanded and built out to be used as the church's base, allowing the Vhaeraunan to carry out raids and attacks on all the areas of Underdark that touched the Sea of Endless Darkness. The drow created a treaty with an aboleth that dwelt in the sea, providing it with slaves as it refrained from attacking the cult's ships. Another alliance was stuck with mercantile-oriented surfacer merchants-worshippers of Waukeen, who supplied the fortress with food and materials.
With the fortress's cult growing in size, its presence became known to the Lolthite clergy Nykhandthandar, who found the cult to be an affront to the Spider Queen and set out to have it destroyed. Each of Nykhandthandar's drow Houses was allowed to bid on the attack and pillaging rights, and after a fierce bidding war, the First House emerged victorious. However, the Cult of Vhaeraun had its spies in Nykhandthandar, and they were warned of the attack. The cult ran, having no chance of standing against the forces of the First House. As a last hoorah, the cultist decided to have "one more big blowout, one more big night on the town" before abandoning the island. They partied and gambled in Sigil, a planar metropolis of the Lady of Pain. Some of the cultists spilled their sorrows while frolicking in one of Sigil's brothels – Mistress Kristen's. The Mistress offered her help in protecting the cultists, but her services were not cheap. Vhaeraunans accepted.
Nykhandthandar's siege of the fortress island lasted for the next nine years, ending one day shy of the anniversary. The siege ended with the Firth House's destruction at the hands of the city's other seven drow houses. The Council of Eight directed the drow to destroy the First House for the shame it brought to Nykhandthandar through a nine-year failure of a war. Vhaeraunan island was decreed off-limits to all drow. This decade-long conflict landed the island into the hands of Mistress Kristen, the island fortress town she called Tradesport.
By the late 14 century DR, Mistress' Tradesport was open to all visitors as long as they had gold to pay the entrance fee. Sometime shortly before the late 14 century DR, Tradesport faced an undead incursion. Several of the city's Trading Houses used undead workers, who rebelled when an ancient hidden crypt, part of the ancient temple of Set, opened, spilling its undead guardians into Tradesport. The unquiet dead began slaughtering everyone in their way and only with the arrival of Malphagor's priests the undead were pacified and forced under the priests' control. The clergy of Malphagor demanded a section of the city to be given to them as payment. Since then, Malphagor's followers had been an integral part of the city's commerce, trading in the undead servants.
The undead incursion left a portion of the city in ruin, freeing space for another Trading House to be established, but as of the , there were no proposals submitted for Mistress' consideration.
==Inhabitants==
Drow were the largest racial group of Tradesport, and they provided a large number of drow slaves to Tradesport's commerce. This large number of drow slaves was mostly comprised of males of Nykhandthandar, who were swindled by corrupt merchants promising to smuggle the males out of the dangerous Lolthite city.
The second biggest group were humans who had their own district, mainly run by the followers of Waukeen, who offered various services to the rest of Tradesport.
The third in number were the duergar. Most crafting in Tradesport was done by its grey dwarves, who also created the city's enchanted forges that needed no fuel to run. Duergar had a tumultuous history with the city's drow, yet whatever conflicts sparked, all were dealt with swiftly by Mistress Kristen's mercenaries and battles to the death in the arena, ending any further open hostilities.
Other creatures that inhabited Tradesport included illithids and aboleths, as well as an occasional halfling.
Many of Tradesport's living inhabitants opposed the presence of Malphagor's clergy and their undead servants, but Mistress Kristen did not seem to care.
==Notable Inhabitants==
*Captain Scorn, the captain of the Sea Talon ship that traversed the Sea of Endless Darkness in the late 14 century DR.
*Jonrath Gladesburn, a human merchant guard and an avid House Roy'al gambler in the late 14 century DR.
*Tuckerspoon Tallbladder, a rotund hin merchant with a stand that sold a variety of exotic spices in the late 14 century DR.
==Appendix==
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Fortresses
Category:Islands
Category:Cities
Category:Locations on the Dragon Reach
Category:Locations in the Vast
Category:Locations in the Underdark
Category:Locations in Faerûn
Category:Locations in Interior Faerûn
Category:Locations on Toril
Category:Settite locations
Category:Maskarran locations
Category:Drow locations
Category:Waukeenar locations
Category:Duergar locations
Category:Dictatorships
Category:Imports food and drink
Category:Imports slaves
Category:Exports weapons
Category:Exports slaves
Category:Year of Manuscripts