Port Nyanzaru/Old City

The Old City of Port Nyanzaru was a run-down ward located on the outside of the settlement's outer walls. Unlike the slums of Malar's Throat or Tiryki Anchorage, it was rather safe from crime.
==Description==
The ward comprised three, crumbling and vine-covered ancient ziggurats that loomed over a haphazard sprawl of ramshackle huts and longhouses constructed with bamboo and thatch alongside the occasional tent. These shantytown homes and shops were even built up onto the stepped terraces of the ziggurats, and were full of bamboo signs advertising labor and crafts.
Those entering the Old City left the Merchants' Ward through a southwest-facing gate and followed a central roadway between the two larger ziggurats to behold Executioner's Run, a long, stone-lined pit flanked by the third, smaller ziggurat. The main road split to pass on either side of the Executioner's Run.
==Trade==
While both Malar's Throat and Tiryki Anchorage were better known for their black markets, it was also possible to find a black market buyer or seller in the Old City by asking the right questions to the right people. Such black market dealings were harshly punished by law.
==Government==
While the Old City was nominally controlled by the merchant princes of Port Nyanzaru proper, the district was actually run by a number of "beggar princes", so named in mockery of the high-and-mighty merchant princes. These criminal leaders had no formal authority, but held sway over local criminals and residents by means of financial debts, blackmail, calling in favors, and the use of enforcers. They operated in anonymity and their actual ranks changed repeatedly, but even so, they tended to be much more efficient leaders than the merchant princes.
As of the late 15 century DR, a Zhentarim spymaster named Pock-Marked Po had become one of the beggar princes.
==Defenses==
Because it lay outside of Port Nyanzaru's defensive walls, the people of the Old City relied on the volunteer Citizens' Brigade to keep them safe. In case of attack, a horn was sounded and bells were rung from the Beggars' Palaces to urge the inhabitants to flee to the safety of the walls or the ziggurats.
==Notable Locations==
===Buildings===
:;Beggars' Palaces: The ward's two larger ziggurats served as the headquarters of Old City's beggar princes.
:;The Holdup: A tavern that was popular among adventurers.
===Landmarks===
:;Executioner's Run: This stone-paved pit was used for capital punishment and entertainment. Criminals were thrown into the pit with dangerous beasts, such as panthers or velociraptors, and forced to run across its length to stay alive. Crowds gathered along the sides of the pit and gambled on the fate of those that were being punished.
:;Refuse Pit: A few otyughs at the bottom of this sinkhole, along with vermin and undead, consumed the garbage, rancid waste, and corpses that were dumped within.
==History==
None remembered the civilization that had built the ancient ziggurats that dominated the Old City. By the late 15 century DR, several dungeons had been discovered beneath the Old City, but the entrances were all closely guarded secrets.
During the events of the death curse, a strange series of disappearances struck the Old City in which people would hear the "Call of the Dead"—causing them to mumble to themselves about "Death" summoning them—before vanishing and sometimes reappearing as a zombie days later. These events led Alastar Bol, a representative of the Order of the Gauntlet in Port Nyanzaru, to send a priest named Derio to investigate.
Following the end of the death curse, undead began to proliferate in the refuse pit, and soon threatened the folk of the Old City. This was caused by a wight necromancer named Jaru Tasca, who plotted to use a piece of the Cyst—a powerful necromantic mass of flesh—to transform Port Nyanzaru's residents and adventurers into undead. Her minions would rise from the refuse pit to capture victims and return them to her secret base in the catacombs beneath the Old City.
==Inhabitants==
The Old City was home to many of Port Nyanzaru's laborers, struggling artisans and crafters, and other poorer citizens. Many of them dressed in old or weathered clothing. During the colonial rule of Amn over Port Nyanzaru, the Old City was among the districts where people had to live if they did not work for a major trading company.
===Notable Inhabitants===
* Favin Kreeger, a cowardly albino dwarf who was paid to hide bodies in the Refuse Pit during the late 15 century DR.
* Jaha Mubsie, an enforcer for the beggar prince Pock-Marked Po in the late 15 century DR. He had a flying monkey companion named Uku the Spider Boy.
* Miboro Yan, the much-beloved proprietor of the Holdup tavern in the late 15 century DR.
* Pock-Marked Po, the so-called "Hideous Prince" of the Old City who lived in a deceptively luxurious hut as of the late 15 century DR.
* Viplo, a halfling mage who lived adjacent to the southernmost ziggurat as of the late 15 century DR.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
===References===
===Connections===
Category:Districts
Category:Wards
Category:Locations in Port Nyanzaru
Category:Locations on the Bay of Chult
Category:Locations in Chult
Category:Locations on the Chultan Peninsula
Category:Locations in Southwest Faerûn
Category:Locations in Faerûn
Category:Locations on Toril