District Map

The Obelisk's Delay

The oldest and best-known bar in Irontown, where the district's busy folk spend what little free time they have. The drink flows and the food is hearty, kept so by the elven owner Roland Hearthfire, who keeps the peace among the often-contentious crews buying and selling goods - and is regarded as Irontown's de facto "Mayor."

The Antiquarian Eye

As much private lounge as shop, the Eye is where discerning buyers find the strangest items to reach Asylum. It's tended by the elf Althaea Greymoon - curiously, a proud citizen of Zhangrym. Entry requires a membership fee, and even then it isn't guaranteed; but for those who meet Althaea's exacting standards, wonders from every corner of Aevum await.

The Merchant's Guild

Dour and functional - a three-story brick block with a single double-door - where Maester Brahm balances the scales of commerce. Every business pays a semi-annual fee for the protection of its interests, and Brahm serves as the island's arbiter of trade disputes: famously fair, and famously indifferent to wealth.

Sturm and Drang, Metalsmiths

For arms and armor, no one in Asylum compares to the dragonborn brothers Sturm (red) and Drang (brass). Their innate resilience to fire lets them work at the forge's full heat, and they command a justly high price - Sturm focused on weapons, the quieter Drang on armor.

The Ironwurks

A blackened blemish on an otherwise prosperous Irontown - the massive, abandoned factory where Obelisk ore was once smelted. Every attempt to repurpose it fails, burns, or vanishes overnight, and only the poorest wretches, with nowhere else to go, shelter here. Local legend says the demonic blood worked into Cold Iron over the years has seeped into the very stones; to venture inside is to take your life in your hands.

The Miner's Guild

Founded by the City Fathers to administer the Obelisk gold rush, the Miner's Guild endures in diminished form now that Cold Iron no longer flows. Under Gregor Ironsinger it serves as a mercantile for the precious metals, gems, and base ores mined out of Tenebris. It bristles against the Merchant's Guild - which now manages it - but Asylum's trade is far too vast for either to handle alone.

Crossroads

The best-known inn in Irontown, built where three roads meet, drawing merchants, day-laborers, entertainers, and sellswords with its lively music and hearty smells. Owned by the famously lucky gnome musician Gimble Boddynock, whose success seems almost accidental - he simply books the musicians he thinks have talent, and prosperity follows as if by magic.

The Storm Wrack

Only a fool prays to Tempestas expecting an answer; at best the Stormlord is appeased, and the Final Division staved off another day. So Adir Kerriway - the Grinning Bastard - built this place to honor the storm another way: an arena of noise, thunder, and might where the strong test themselves in brutal mock combat. The fights are rarely fatal, never gentle, and open to any who would try - but it is no place for the faint of heart.

The House of Justice

A dour, triangular building at the corner of Liar's Path and Honest Lane, with an entrance on each face: the courts, where the City Fathers dispense judgment (if not always justice); the headquarters of the Blue Cloaks, the city watch; and the Hall of Mercy, Asylum's prison. The Blue Cloaks answer here to First Sword Boravik SturnFirst Sword Boravik SturnCommander of the Blue Cloaks, whose office sits between the watch barracks and the courts. Money and influence sway sentences here as surely as the law.

Arcanist's Academy

An ivy-covered, walled brick mansion, once a private home and now Asylum's school of magic. Its eccentric headmaster, Dean Argus Fiendsbane, teaches by deeply unconventional methods - yet wide-eyed apprentices emerge years later as competent wizards.

The Privateer's Guild

Neutral ground where a sailor of either flag may meet without bloodshed; the first rule of membership is no violence on guild grounds. The peace is kept by Head Bosun Clayton Greer, who flies the colors of both Elenethil and Zhangrym at once, and whose feel for political deep water has kept the whole profession alive.

Embassy of Zhangrym

The embassy of Zhangrym (the old Southern Federation): blocky, solid, and unmistakable in purpose, ringed by clockwork-precise guards and tight controls. Its dwarves and humans are taciturn and plain - all but Ambassador Merris Goldweaver, the rare dwarf who genuinely enjoys company, forever hosting parties and galas. Like her mother before her, she is a shrewd negotiator, a loyal friend, and one who never forgets a slight.

The Two-Headed Coin

The premier tavern for diplomats and travelers of both powers, its sign a slowly rotating gold coin - an elven face on one side, a dwarven on the other. Owned by the refined gnome Lady Daphne Wendelbright, who whisks each guest to a private room and personalized service. Many a deal has been struck here, with Daphne as the catalyst.

Embassy of Elenethil

The embassy of Elenethil (the old Northern States) looks less like a building than a vibrant forest park - until you notice the spidery bridges between the trees and the halls grown into the living wood. Here the elves, Khoravar, and humans of Elenethil plan their strategy for the new world, guided by the ever-patient Ambassador Jiran Wintersbloom - Celulinde, the SpringseekerCelulinde, the SpringseekerAmbassador of Elenethil - who moves his pieces from on high with a vision others cannot fathom.

Garret's Fine Accoutrements

The shop of Garret Slimfinger - halfling tailor, fashion icon, and entrepreneur - who clothes the diplomats that call the Quarter home. He has an uncanny sense of what others need, and for those who can pay, a brisk trade in garments enchanted less for protection than for social advantage.

The Gate of Champions

Highside's only public entrance through its high stone wall, manned at all hours by the Gold Hands. Originally a private guard force serving Duke Wylander and his interests alone, they have evolved into personal bodyguards for the rich and powerful of Asylum more broadly. They admit no one without invitation and keep the district's peace.

The Treasury House

Highside's bank in all but name, where the rich keep their wealth behind defenses both physical and magical, insured against loss. Run by the tiefling Kairon Trueheart - disliked for his heritage and his steep fees, but undeniably effective; would-be thieves end as statues in his garden. Despite his great age he remains the picture of health, which some credit to his rumored dealings with demons, and others to his long, happy marriage to the medusa Karisa.

Lady Carlotta's Auction House

Where the idle rich spend fortunes on art and curiosities at glittering galas full of gossip. Lady Carlotta served that need for years; today her daughter, Lady Vandra DrossLady Vandra DrossAuctioneer of Highside, carries on the lucrative trade - frequently hiring able-bodied adventurers to retrieve treasures for the block, and paying handsomely for the risk.

Rose's Bloom

An elegant salon and the center of refinement in Highside: poetry readings, wine tastings, art - and the quiet meetings where the district's powerful settle what matters. Since Lady Aladrea Wylander was killed by demons and replaced by the Cambion Ophirah, the Wylander family runs it through Sir Jarvis Forsythe, a retired adventurer turned philosopher, chiefly preoccupied with what it means for mortals to become gods - and how the old world endures past the Final Division.

Prince Wylander's Castle

The seat of the richest and most powerful man on Asylum: Prince Jesper Wylander, built on the township's highest point. Nobles of Elenethil, the Wylanders were among the first to see Asylum's value and built much of its infrastructure. Jesper himself is young, idealistic, and hopelessly naive - sent here both because he has almost no real claim to Elenethil's throne, and because his family hoped a rougher posting than pampered Thalorien might do him good.

The Bazaar of Wonders

The island's only dedicated magic-item shop, its wares displayed in glass cases for the discerning and deep-pocketed. Founder Balthazar Gorski, now in his 90s, has handed daily affairs to his granddaughter Katya, though he still watches what the shop chooses to stock. The Gorskis famously supplied the Seal-Bearers themselves - and are not shy about using that pedigree to drive their prices up.

The Gearspeaker Manor

Everyone knows Gearspeaker Anton Verkel ascended fifty years ago to take up the mantle of Nequitia. In life he was Zhangrym's man on the ground - adventurer first, liar and thief second, minor noble last - who saw Asylum as the place to build his fortune and legacy, and did. Today his manor is a meeting place for visitors from Zhangrym and a temple to Nequitia, kept by Gearspeaker Orek Steeljaw, a dwarven priest who leans on the god's gentler guise as diplomat and storyteller rather than outright deception.

The High Garden

A place of quiet reflection and soothing scenery where the bluebloods mingle, hold weddings, and conduct official gatherings. Its rolling hills and trees offer discreet corners for amorous couples - though the regular patrols of the Gold Hands discourage anyone from overstaying their welcome.

The Wata Wa Nusu Reservation

Before the Obelisk. Before Tenebris. Before even the pirates who inhabited Asylum’s shores. This island was home to the Wata Wa Nusu - a tribe of feral halflings who once roamed all throughout the island. As more and more settlers arrived over the generations, they were driven further into the volcanic hills surrounding the city, until the hills became all they had left. The settlement that remains is fiercely protected. Unlike their more civilized cousins, the Wata Wa Nusu are quite savage by outside standards - rumored to practice ritual cannibalism and fiercely hostile to trespassers. People rarely travel into the hills because of them, and those who do go armed. Their oral tradition holds deep and ancient knowledge about this island and the edge of the world itself, knowledge that scholars are only now beginning to take seriously.

The Lookout

Before the city of Asylum existed, before any of the civilized races arrived, the Wata Wa Nusu prayed at the Lookout - a ring of standing stones on the island’s highest promontory, with a clear sightline to every horizon. Scholars and sailors both used it as a navigation point. Then came the Night of Fire. The demons that erupted from the Lookout during that catastrophe toppled every standing stone and tore a cavernous hole directly in the center of the site. The pit descends deep into the island’s volcanic rock and is now filled with dark water from below. What feeds that water - what lies at the bottom of it - is a question no one has yet answered, and few are eager to ask in person.

Sailor’s Folly

The reefs of Asylum’s bay are treacherous, and the safe passage to the island’s harbor was not widely known until well into the city’s history. Because of this, many ships were wrecked and abandoned in the middle of the bay over the years - some lost to the reefs, some lost to storms, some lost to the privateering wars between North and South that made these waters lethal. The hulks accumulated. Over time the mass of wrecked ships took on a life of its own. Plants, birds, and animals colonized the old hulks; now the whole tangle is covered in green. Locals call it Sailor’s Folly, though it is not technically an island at all.

The harder thing to explain, and the reason serious sailors give it a wide berth, is the lagoon at its heart. A permanent whirlpool turns there, and it does not pull ships in: it pushes them out. Hulls have been disgorged from that water bearing the colors of ports half the world away - Tenebran cogs, Zhangrym dredgers, two-masted runners of a build no Asylum yard has laid down in living memory, and on rare occasions vessels whose logs (when their logs survive) record voyages that ended in seas no chart of the Mare Revelatum can account for. Sailor’s Folly is therefore not the local graveyard the name implies. It is a junction of a kind no harbourmaster will commit to paper, and whatever the lagoon is connected to, it is not adjacent. Scholars have theories; the Wata Wa Nusu, when asked, smile and decline to be drawn.

Because it lies outside the city’s territorial waters, and thus outside the reach of Asylum’s laws, it has become a favored location for duels, surreptitious meetings, and business dealings that cannot be conducted in the open. The Blue Cloaks and the Gold Hands both decline to patrol it.