Zadash

Zadash is a large city south of Rexxentrum in the Dwendalian Empire and the largest in the Marrow Valley. The city is built around a trio of towers known collectively as the Tri-Spires. It was formerly the capital city of the Julous Dominion before being conquered and brought under the Empire rule.

City description
The architecture and buildings of Zadash are designed to "rise and to curve towards the streets". Particularly, the buildings flanking the street nearest to the gate are quite destitute, though the buildings began to graduate into a standard village feel further along the street.

The outer walls of Zadash are of thick basic stonework and masonry, 15 feet high, and loosly form a triangular-shaped perimeter outline around the city. The southern gate has a 15-foot-wide portcullis held by large chains. Crownsguards often flank each side of the entry gate, keeping a silent watch. Outside the southern walls are farming fields of various vegetables and crops. Closer to the walls the fields give way to ramshackle communities of tent cities and hovel towns.

The city has a number of interior walls connected with arches. The gaps formed by these arches are 15-20 feet in length and 40 feet wide, creating wide tunnels through them. These tunnels have buildings set into the walls on the edges. On top of these walls, horseless carts and carriages move throughout the city.

Points of interest

 * "A Basic Clothing Wares Company": Along the way to the Tri-Spires district, Caleb stops at what is described as "a basic clothing wares company" that sells clothing made for utility. The shop has pants, work shirts, gloves, and cloaks in the colors of either brown, black or grey. This shop does custom modification work to an existing article of clothing, though such work takes about a day's time to finish and costs around 2sp.
 * The Ossuary Gates: A vast multi-layered catacomb graveyard that is used by most of the higher-ranked families of the city.
 * The Raven's Den: A small shrine located in the center of the graveyard and dedicated to the The Matron of Ravens. The outside of the shrine is framed by an iron and obsidian archway of about 20 feet in height. On the top, it has a prominent statue of the Raven Queen wreathed by carved ravens in flight. This statue is made entirely of black obsidian except for her mask of white porcelain. At the base of the statue are several bowls for offerings.
 * Packwearer's Provisions: A smaller scale blacksmithy that deals mainly in smaller smithing wares, such as the forging of tools.
 * Wares & Ends: Suggested as a possible source for a flask.
 * Umber Dungeon: The jail of Zadash.

Pentamarket
The Pentamarket is located in the central western portion of Zadash, bisected by several busy streets, running through Zadash's center of merchant business. These streets carve a pentagonal shape that gives the district its name. A bazaar of carts and tents is opened up around the clock in the heart of the district, among many, accommodating barkers who peddle their wares to passersby.

The Pentamarket contains a variety of shops that don't have high value goods, as well as businesses such as small dumpling establishments, simple glassware shops, and a blacksmith shop that makes basic repairs. Carts filled with mulled wine and confections can also be found around the start of fall.


 * Hearth of the Allhammer: Located on the northern side of the Pentamarket, this shrine to the Allhammer is a slightly rusty iron structure with a domed top. Its interior has a large central forge and a heavy anvil with the symbol of the Allhammer on each of its sides, which is used for both ceremonial worship and the crafting of religious artifacts. Three individuals man the temple at any one time: two are keepers who watch outside of the entry arches leading into the temple, and the third is the temple's appointed herald. In 835 PD, the herald is a female dwarf with dark brown hair that trails off in three long braids past her midsection.
 * The Invulnerable Vagrant: A magical shop in that is run by Pumat Sol and his simulacra.
 * Lodge of the Eclipse: A tavern and inn where nighttime shows are performed on stage. The Mighty Nein and Veth Brenatto's family stayed at the Lodge in early Brussendar 836 PD.
 * Sparkhammer Smithing: Operated by Yannick Dumel and Jan, this smithy forges intricate items and has rows and racks of various pieces of armor and weapons on display on the inside.
 * Victory Pit: This Colosseum-like structure served as the staging ground for a fighting tournament during the Harvest Close Festival.
 * Candy Shop
 * Grace of the Wilds: Manned by Jasna Bree, a female human in her 50s with wild big black curly hair. It has a small tent attached to the rest of the shop. She sells materials for making two health potions for 50 gp, and she gives training in herbalism for 200 gp.
 * Suvo's Secrets: Sells items in an ominous large, very drab gray shop tent.

Innerstead Sprawl
The Innerstead Sprawl forms a central connecting ring around and through all the other areas of the city. The residents here are more middle-class, and the ring helps connect the various areas of the city together.
 * Apple Tree Tutor Village: Owned and provided by the Soltryce Academy, these three long buildings are where, for a moderate price, children and adults from non-wealthy backgrounds could come and receive basic lessons.
 * House of Beau and Yasha: Inhabited since Sydenstar 836 PD. Has a garden, kitchen, work out room, and Beau's office.
 * The Guided Hand Infirmary: A medical practice located in the Innerstead Sprawl of Zadash.
 * Valley Archive of the Cobalt Soul: Built off of the western edge of the Pentamarket, it is both an archive and a temple to the Knowing Mistress. This library is known to contain the rarer tomes and elaborate writing within the city. It is maintained by the Cobalt Soul.
 * Evening Nip: A bar and the secret headquarters of the criminal empire controlled by The Gentleman.
 * King's Hall: Acts as the central courthouse of Zadash. Located in the southeastern quadrant of the city, which is devoted to the Crownsguard Garrison.
 * Platinum House: A shrine to the Platinum Dragon.
 * Song and Supper Inn: Located on the west side of the Innerstead Sprawl, this inn is used as an alternate meeting place for The Knights of Requital ahead of their mission against Lord Sutan and High Richter Dayana Prucine. The interior of this inn is very lively, filled with loud conversation, singing, and music as three different bands cycle through on the main stage. A poor tavern when compared to the Leaky Tap, this inn has chipped and crinkled paint and a bit of a smell to it. Basic food and drink is found here. Clay Owens is the balding, portly, middle aged barkeep.
 * Steam's Respite: A reasonably priced bathhouse.

Outersteads
The East and West Outersteads are found on the outer cusps of the city, and extend through the city's slums and beyond to border the outside of the main wall.


 * The Leaky Tap: Moderately-sized tavern in the West Outersteads. It is owned by Lauren Schvine.

Tri-Spire
Located on the north side of the city, the Tri-Spire is the wealthiest district of Zadash, built on the ruins of the old Pious District after the fall of the Julous Dominion. The area gets its name from the three massive towers that loom high over the rest of the city: the Triumph Chime, the Zauberspire, and The Constellation Bridge. All different in design, these towers can be seen from some distance.

A round wall made of solid marble encases the interior of the district, though it seems more decorative than functional. Two portcullis entrances allow access to the Tri-Spire, one of which opens in the direction of the Pentamarket. These entryways, each guarded by two Crownsguard with spears and shields, seems to be enchanted to dispel illusions within a certain distance.

Ahead of the Harvest Close Festival in 835 PD, the area was decorated to reflect the autumn and coming festivities of the Pre-Harvest Close Gala. Flowers in bunches were affixed to the tops of lampposts, and additional streamers of bright reds, browns, and yellow-golds were placed around a central courtyard to replace the usual white silk banners.


 * Zauberspire: A cenral of the three towers that made of marble and ivory, with a glass cylindrical top floor that overlooks the entirety of the city, and displaying large blue banners along its sides.
 * Hall of Erudition: An archive and school of magic headed by Oremid Hass lying in the center of the spire.
 * Triumph Chime: A tower of historical importance and lavish interior. At one point the tower was an old seven-story temple to Avandra and belfry that has been completely hollowed out and repurposed and now looks like a glitzy casino filled with bars, gambling halls, inn rooms, a brothel, and other similar forms of entertainment. Each floor seems to be of slightly altered stone of different colors, which are covered on the outside in braided brightly-colored banners of silk.
 * Meal Hearth: A large bakery located directly to the right of Chastity's Nook. A spry, smiling young man in his late teens with a prickly chinstrap beard and very short, tattered brown hair waits on customers. The bakery sells bear claws and fresh baked bread.
 * Chastity's Nook: A book store containing an extensive collection of pulp fiction and trashy smut. It is located in the southern quarter of the Silken Terrace, and is run by Iva Deshin.
 * Pillow Trove: The biggest inn in Zadash. It serves an expensive clientele, along with diplomats and ambassadors that come to the city.

Silken Terrace
The Silken Terrace is a district within the Tri-Spire where the elite of Zadash live and work, which attracts most of the city's commerce. Only those of a "very specific visual presentation and purpose" are allowed entry into this area. Seemingly magically engineered to be picture perfect, beautiful courtyard parks of grasses, trees and butterfly-filled bushes grace the interior of this district. Statuesque structures decorate a beautifully laid cobblestone road that is broken up by small patches of small fenced-in shrubbery and flower bushes. On the corners of the roads stand tall lanterns containing very faint ever-burning flames, between which are long, white, silken banners. The homesteads are of different styles of construction from all across this continent and beyond.

Gilded Willows
The Gilded Willows are the tree-dappled residential area of the city, it is broken up into several parts. It has a very natural, almost picturesque beauty to it.


 * The Constellation Bridge: One of the three towers of the Tri-Spire.
 * High-Richter Dayana Prucine's Estate: Built right on the outskirts the Gilded Willows (in 835 PD).
 * Skyscape Park
 * Sutan residence

Signet Wall
The Signet Wall encloses the eastern end of Zadash. Those seeking good pay and adventurous living as soldiers of the Righteous Brand can join up at the Marrow Keep, after speaking with Leopold Wanstiker.
 * Marrow Keep: The primary base of the Righteous Brand.
 * The Shrine of the Dawn: A small temple to the Dawnfather.

Sewers
The sewers are a system of tunnels beneath Zadash, frequently used by criminal elements of the city to avoid suspicion while moving around. One of the entrances to the sewer is at the corner of Ruen Road and Dewmist. Another entrance (Money Pot) is in the Tri-Spires district in a dark alleyway 25 feet off a cobblestone road with fine buildings across the way.

Demographics
Size-wise, Zadash is comparable to the metropolis of Port Damali, though where Zadash is tall, Port Damali is more spread out.

Most of the populace around Zadash consists of humans, with the occasional halfling, tiefling and dwarf. At least one firbolg, Pumat Sol, resides in the city.

Once the capital of the Julous Dominion and now the largest city in the Marrow Valley, Zadash has a population of 89,210 as of the year 835 PD. The racial breakdown of the city is 70% humans, 11% halflings, 9% dwarves, and 10% other races.

Factions

 * The Knights of Requital: A group of around twenty civilians focused on overthrowing the corrupt administration in Zadash. In 835 PD their goal was reached, when Dolan Thrym became the High-Richter of Zadash.
 * The Gentleman's Troupe: A sect of the Myriad run by a crime boss Ophelia Mardoon who has succeeded the Gentleman at some point after 836 PD.

Background
Zadash was first mentioned in the recorded history in around 435 PD and afterward became the capital of the Julous Dominion. In the aftermath of the Marrow War with the Dwendalian Empire, the city was incorporated under Dwendalian rule. Zadash was the last Dominion stronghold to fall, which occurred in 545 PD. Instead of forcing Julous citizens to completely assimilate, the Dwendalians instead merged their own rules, laws, and customs with those of the people already in Zadash and adjusted as they saw fit.

The Mighty Nein were directed to The Invulnerable Vagrant by a local guide named Ulysses Stanneras to acquire magical items. Upon arrival, Caleb, Nott, Fjord, and Jester met Enchanter Pumat Sol, who ran the shop with three magically-manifested duplicates. The Pumat Sol staffing the counter told Caleb that his establishment required a certain level of cleanliness and, with a wave of his hand, removed all the filth that covered Caleb and his clothes.

When Caleb and Jester first attempted to enter the Tri-Spires through the gate at the Pentamarket, one of these guards named Reeve escorted Jester into the Tri-Spire. After another guard came to replace the one that left, Caleb attempted to have Frumpkin enter the district as well. One of these guards, trying to keep what seemed like a stray cat out of this elite district, kicked Frumpkin to death. Caleb, frustrated in his attempt to enter the first gate in disguise, tried a secondary gate with no luck.

While the party admired the Archive of the Cobalt Soul, Nott noticed a stoic, well-dressed human patron leaving the Archive. Taking Mollymauk's advice to only rob people who look "grumpy," Nott followed this woman as she made her way through the city and attempted to rob her using Mage Hand.

The Mighty Nein delved into the sewers of Zadash in search of a mysterious beast that had been terrorizing the Crownsguard at its lair. According to a job posting on the Taskboard, a creature was holed up in a sewer nexus right on where the Innerstead Sprawl meets with the outer wall of the Tri-Spires. The flow of sewage had been backing up and strange noises from cleaners had been heard. A few Crownsguard had gone to investigate the disturbance and found a masses of small congealed nests of sewage slime and webbing.

Individuals had been going missing, including two of the three parties that had previously attempted this task. Of the parties of Crownsguard that went down to investigate, only a guard named Cloen had returned. The job specifics were to find what was creating the disturbances, kill it, and to back with proof of the kill it. The reward for doing so was 700 gold pieces.

During a heist, Ulog killed himself and High-Richter Dayana Prucine with a fireball. Shortly afterwards, two drow spies from Xhorhas blew up part of the Zauberspire. Though one of them was swiftly killed, the other escaped into the sewers with a strange dodecahedron.

The Nein captured the drow spy, who introduced himself as Thuron, and magically interrogated him. He told them the importance of the Luxon Beacon in his society, and the Nein eventually agreed to let him take it back to the Dynasty. However, moments later, Thuron was caught and killed by the Crownsguard. The party stole the Beacon back from the guards, and began making plans to leave the city. Beau and Fjord went to speak with Horris and Dolan Thryme, and arranged for Horris to leave. Meanwhile, the rest of the party returned to the Leaky Tap, Nott and Caleb taking the beacon down into the basement, and Jester succesfully persuading Claudia Sheed to give her a safe to keep it in.

The next morning, Fjord and Horris attempted to leave the city, but the guards were interrogating everyone who tried to leave. They decided to try to find another way out. Later that day the party went to the Evening Nip to meet The Gentleman, where they encountered a tabaxi woman who recognised Molly as "Lucien".

When Jester scrys on Yasha, she sees her crying amid signs of a slaughter and multiple bloody blue-and-grey-clad bodies in what appears to be the Cobalt Soul in Zadash, along with the Laughing Hand and Obann in disguise.

Upon witnessing Obann, Yasha and the Laughing Hand attack the Zadash Cobalt Soul through Scrying, the Mighty Nein spend the next two weeks traveling from Nicodranas to Zadash. When they arrive, they see the city continues to have the increased military presence the party observed when they left just as war was declared. They head immediately to the Valley Archive. Zeenoth is convinced to allow the party to use the Cobalt Soul's teleportation circles, being told they are in pursuit of the creatures that attacked the Soul a few weeks earlier. The Valley Archive has circles leading to Rexxentrum, Port Damali, the Cobalt Reserve in Tal'Dorei, and Vasselheim.

The Mighty Nein return to Zadash from Nicodranas via the Cobalt Soul teleportation circle, and meet with Dairon and Oremid Hass separately to inform them both of the Angel of Irons cult. The party then goes to the Invulnerable Vagrant, where Caduceus is attacked by an unknown assailant.

Trivia

 * The carrying of open alcoholic beverages is legal in the streets of Zadash.
 * After the escapades in the Platinum House there were town criers talking about "Terrible vandalism! Platinum Dragon nearly ruined by upstarts and secret cabal of anti-religious hate!"