Saltcrest

A major city on the Eastern coast of Teol. Current home to The Adventurer's Guild.

Despite the exotic novelty of Teol and its new inhabitants’ desire for a unique and utopian society, Saltcrest is facially just like any other port town. Some of the first major constructions were the miles upon miles of boardwalks, docks, wharfs, piers, and quays. Saltcrest has just about every kind of sailing infrastructure one could expect, and just about every kind of sailor. From simple laborers in loading and unloading to shipwrights, to powerful merchants, to royalty owning entire fleets, Saltcrest caters primarily to the entire gamut of sailors, ranging not only in wealth but in legitimacy, from chartered suppliers of the new settlement all the way down to the pirates who smuggle and steal and undercut them.

To house such a dramatic range of inhabitants, Saltcrest quickly stratified, separating the “Lowtown” beachlands and boardwalks of the average folks from the walled “Hightown,” situated ostentatiously on the highest inland hill and surrounding Lowtown like a crescent to terminate in a series of luxurious beachfront manors and private clubs down either edge of the shoreline. This division was unsurprising to most folks as it occurred, the striving poor with nothing to lose searched for a second chance in a new land while the rich demanded the luxury and bragging rights of being some of the first to inhabit this exciting new frontier.

Saltcrest’s urban environment is lively and crowded throughout, but with a different, pervasive feeling based on location. Down in Lowtown, raucous taverns spill noise and troublesome patrons out onto the oddly perfect grid of dirt streets en masse. Ramshackle boarding houses and a few cramped private residences crowd each block, maximizing space. What Lowtown lacks in funds, it made up for in city planning. As the first settlement on Teol, Saltcrest’s Lowtown was meticulously structured and ceaselessly lively, until it radiated outward. Saltcrest’s original defensive wall still stands, hemming Lowtown into the port as Hightown radiated outward. To that end, the first few official buildings, Town Hall, the Papermancers Office, and the Guard Barracks, all still sit within the heart of Lowtown. Valets often descend from their employers’ manors through the wall and into the rabble to accomplish the business of those folks rich enough to refuse being seen in the shabbier part of town. Although those in Lowtown may be poor, they are not necessarily unhappy. Having so few people in such a new location, no one is there without reason. Everyone has work, and everyone tends to be proud of it.

Outwards past the wall in every direction sits numerous proud manors, and a thriving merchant center filled with high class shops, inns, and churches populating Hightown. In order to encourage further settlement of rich citizens, Saltcrest’s government has refused to build an outer wall, making it dangerous for whichever lord happens to have the furthest manor from town, their lands being the first stop for any of Teol’s dangers heading towards the settlement. However, this advantageous setup works well for just about everyone, the town administration, which does not need to build and rebuild defenses, the guilds, who often come by lucrative bodyguard and defense Requisitions by the lords, and the lords themselves, who get to brag about their unobstructed views of the beauty and uniqueness of the frontier, and can well afford defenses.

## Geographical Physical Locations

* **The Boarded Mile** - Saltcrest’s series of boardwalks, docks, wharfs, piers, and quays runs for over a mile, far longer than is strictly necessary. However, the numerous ships and even more numerous taverns, brothels, and markets catering to the incoming and outgoing crowd makes this particular feature the most recognizable part of the settlement.

* **Crystvale** - Aside from the plains and hills outside of Saltcrest, the closest notable geographic feature is Crystvale, a large forest to the south boasting trees adorned with shimmering crystals. Not many have ventured out to see it aside from a few of the initial scouts, but rumors tell that, with the Requisition process beginning, guilds may be out there soon to deal with a strange and unique corrosion decaying some of the trees.
* **The Clamshell** - On the largest hill in Saltcrest, just beyond the initial wall of the city separating Lowtown from below it sits a famously tenacious hold. Built originally as a military fortification, as Hightown sprang up around the hill, the fortress’ great hall found use as a high class, and high price, inn. Soldiers and town guards still make their home in the barracks, but visitors and sensitive meetings regarding the fate of the settlement take place in the rather comfortable converted hall.
* **The Waterlogged Zigurat -** North along the coast and about a day’s travel away from Saltcrest sits a sandy inlet boasting an impressive ruin eaten away by the sea. A Firbolg scout who first found the ruin gave it the name, and said that it appeared sealed off with debris, although she sensed a magical presence within. Local lords and guilds have been clamoring to be the first to get to dig out the entrance and explore the relatively nearby ruin, and now that Requisitions are open, someone is sure to be granted the competitive contract.

## Organizations of Note

* **The Hand -** Pirates are not the full extent of Saltcrest’s criminal underworld. They rarely can be without someone to sell to, and the Hand tends to be the group to connect buyers. With so many people of so many different talents and so much business to be done, the Hand, Teol’s first and only organized crime family, has its fingers in every pie. From supplies to mercenaries to dealing in snuffroot, a new and unique drug with highly addictive properties, the Hand has formed an exceptionally lucrative black market, in addition to their successes in grabbing a piece of legitimate enterprises. No one knows who makes up the Hand, but just about everyone in Saltcrest knows that if they get desperate enough, the Hand can get them whatever they need.

* **The Silver Spoons**
* **Meera’s Silks** - One of the more specialized guilds licensed to take requisitions in Teol, Meera’s Silks is a guild of courtesan assassins, who unsurprisingly established their adventuring and brothel businesses in a city of sailors. Meera and her guild members make very good money and very good progress on settlements, both inside and out of Saltcrest.
* **The Black Death** - The Black Death is another licensed guild, but you probably wouldn’t understand them. The Black Death is super hardcore and scary. You can often find the guild’s members brooding on cliffs or rooftops, because they see this rotten criminal world for what it is, and they’re the only ones bad enough to stop it. The Black Death is coming for you, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
* **The Chain-Forgers** - A guild specializing in dealing with monsters, the Chain-Forgers keep their headquarters in Saltcrest, training their own beasts to assist them on Requisitions, often capturing or disposing of any creatures in the way of progress.

* **The Masters of Mystery** - A guild of mighty arcane powers and secrets, the Masters of Mystery can often be a bit hard to follow. The guild members tend to stay aloof, but their headquarters in Saltcrest’s hightown also functions as an extremely convenient shop for dealing in magic items, enchanting, and deciphering. They are none too shabby on requisitions either, being one of the largest and most renown guilds alongside the Steelsingers and the Adventurer’s Guild itself.