Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy E Grenemyer" data-source="post: 9453782" data-attributes="member: 12388">Ed Greenwood's latest Patreon lore drop, "Secrets of Saerloon," has some useful information that DMs looking to send characters from Cormyr to Sembia can take advantage of.I've taken some of that information and turned it into a Clack entry that I hope you find useful.I've also created a <a href="https://www.enworld.org/wiki/sembiasaerloon/" target="_blank">wiki page</a> here at EN World that includes information about Saerloon circa 1499 DR based on a pair of Ed's Patreon lore drops, and an entry for a Sembian noble family of Saerloon that Ed gave name to: the <a href="https://www.enworld.org/wiki/sembiaduthtan/" target="_blank">Duthtans</a>.---In Suzail and Marsember, Cormyrean nobles and monied merchants are paying to sail their business agents and factors to Saerloon as swift as a boat can carry them. The rush is owed to the construction of brand new, expensive, and quite luxurious clubs that require yearly fees (upwards of 150 gp) paid up front in exchange for a space capable of hosting guests or business meetings, or as a private place to rest away from the revelry and noise common to most inns in Saerloon.The clubs are not located in the tallhouses for which Saerloon is widely known, but in the downtown heart of the city, where grand mansions and opulence are the norm, and access to both Saerloon’s government and its many high end, service-oriented shops is assured.Cormyreans skeptical of this arrangement claim Sembian clubs have always been exclusive to its nobility, but these folk appear not to realize Saerloon’s rush to rebuild in the wake of Thultanthar’s demise has caused its investors to throw open their doors to anyone—even outlanders!—with coin enough to pay a simple fee.The most sought after clubs include the Crowing Cockatrice, Chanso’s, and Barleer’s. Wise Cormyrean fee-payers know these clubs have showered attention on them purposely, so that the spies of Saerloon’s Lord Governor can more easily keep watch over Cormyrean doings in the city.In Marsember, chat across the islands tells of a fourth club, Alamber’s Gate, that is hidden in the cellars beneath a “frontcloak” business consisting of a festhall known for its fine food as much as its pleasure jacks and lasses. To hear folk tell it, guests of the festhall—a place left unnamed, but described as standing in the shadow of the offices of the Sarcrescent (Saerloon’s ruling council of twelve merchants)—are presumed to merely be seeking pleasure and a good meal, but in truth may find many useful contacts and secret information, as well as a place to rest and conduct business in secret, down below in the club after paying a “disappearance fee” before descending a narrow stairwell and passing through a tall, arched entrance that is guarded at all times and can be sealed shut by means of a shining brass door that is rumored to be warded against spells and prying magics of all kinds.Guests of the Gate may stay as long as they like and have access to the same fine food as the festhall patrons upstairs. As one eager Marsemban dock worker told it, the disappearance fee covers the cost of a wizard sizing you up and then enchanting one of the pleasure jacks and lasses “to look just like you, partake of the festhall’s services in your place, and then walk out of the festhall as you, just like any other guest, so it seems you’ve come and gone with no one the wiser!”That same dockworker, Orl Thurlwind, claims dark elves and “tentacle-faced things” make rare appearances inside the Gate, and club members can purchase Underdark poisons from them or even arrange to have rivals kidnapped or murdered, with no bodies or evidence left behind.</blockquote>

Verification