Ravvh

Ravvh has a nasty reputation, in the bandit wars it was the site of the headquarters of the council of thieves and even now it is a place rivalled only by the slums or Fatlip in it danger. In the far west of Tohl, just west of Templeton and the scholar's district and east of Old Man's Crook and the walls, Ravvh is small but densely populous. Five major roads run through the region; Ravvh Loop, Crook Street and Tentmarket Street form the border of the district, with Avlorn's Way bisecting it, and Hook Street north of that. While there are plenty of nameless minor streets, most of Ravvh is navigated by narrow alleys, and the majority of homes open into covered alleys rather than streets. Even on the main roads businesses are ramshackle.

Region: Ralstaa, Tohl
Total Population: 19,300 approx.
Demographics:
Government:
Wealth:
Tech. Level: 6
Major Industry:
Major Religions:

The buildings of Ravvh are tightly packed, even for Tohl, but also poorly built, with many wooden upper stories accessible from the street by ladder or stairs joining to catwalk avenues swinging above thoroughfares hazardously. It is common enough for some of these rough extensions to collapse on themselves, and more than half the buildings in the district have severe leaks. Reclaimed materials, including those 'reclaimed' by the locals from collapsed buildings (often while the dust is still clearing), the hulls of decommissioned barges, overturned carts and even bandit war fortifications form streets and buildings perched atop the older stone structures that were once a district of lower class homes. Rumours of basements that join with one another via earthwork tunnels are relatively common here, and at least two have caved in in the past, blocking streets often for days.

There are a few notable presences in Ravvh. A small goblyn community is located in the south-eastern corner above Tentmarket Street. A Birdman Aerie has been built just north of Hook Street, but between substandard housing and the shocking treatment they suffer few families stay for long, those that do usually do so because they are outcast from their own people, and a lot of birdmen take advantage of their ability to fly to saftey to pursue a career in crime, some literally picking up and dropping the unwary before plundering their smashed bodies. Locals meanwhile think it great sport to throw rocks when the creatures fly low. Mostly controlled by Houses Rein, Voernal and infamous slum-princes House Deloene, and suffering from the attentions of the House Reine and Deloene house-gangs Ravvh is unlikely to improve its lot any time soon.

Locations of Interest


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1. Citizen's Militia Stronghold (unconfirmed)
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Ravvh Aerie
Tohls largest birdman Aerie is located in Ravvh between Hook Street and the Ravvh Loop. An enormous building cobbled together like a giant birdsnest, the Aerie towers above everything else in the western part of The City. A large broad platform sits on top of a tower of timber, mainly raw un-milled timber cut from the nearby Starwood. The structure mimics a tree, with a narrow trunk resting atop the roofs of the buildings around it, curving up to a broad platform at the top. Shafts lead into a sheltered are under the platform, but the vast majority of birdmen spend their time on the exposed top where they can feel the changes in the wind.

Birdmen live in a very communal manner, sharing everything that they have with the entire settlement, and as a result no one but a birdman is allowed within the Aerie, and few around can describe it except from it's haphazard looking underside. In reality the aerie is probably stronger than the buildings it leans on. Birdmen have little use for individual possessions, owning everything communally. They also have little use for gold, as they can freely move in and out of The City in the air, but they can usually move goods in and out of the city in trade for whatever goods they cannot make themselves, or to cover their rent.

The head of the aerie, an young birdman named Kaak-ra is an avowed ally and servant of Ander Deloene, the young warrior is aggressive, but not stupid, and has become as familiar with the ways of the city in which he was born and its hardships as any other local. People often take the broken Ralstaan that he can manage with his beak as a sign of animal stupidity, but Kaak-ra is quick to take advantage of this, and just as quick to anger when he isn't given the respect that the leader of a community is due.

Cripple Alley
Cripple Alley is actually an extensive series of alleyways and abandoned lower-floors that wends its way through north-eastern Ravvh and acts as home for the various crippled beggars of the district. Knee deep in mud, the alleys are filled with debris dragged here by the beggars for shelter and to sleep on. However the bands of street urchins are what really keep people out of the area. Their tiny hands will be in a man's pockets and purse before he even realizes it, and they are not above cutting a hamstring if an individual is too insistent that his goods be returned. The Baron is a veteran, and a soldier whose origins are a matter of legend, is the master of cripple alley and all it's denizens. A seemingly good-natured man, he is open to any who seek his advice, and seems to know everything that's going on in this end of The City.

The Sign of the Dead Cat (meadhall and inn)
The Sign of the Dead Cat replaces the cat on it's sign quite frequently, and it has been suggested that this is because the rats here have become so large and aggressive that cats really do no good. The dirtiest, cheapest and most unpleasant of the meadhalls in Ravvh, and it is generally the place where the district's beggars drag themselves from Cripple Alley to drink themselves into a stupor, before being dumped in the alley out back when their coins run out. A single level structure, with several cheap homes built on the upper level, accessible by a second story veranda that also acts as a shelter for the meadhall's store-front, the main taproom is split between a number of small rooms, making it an ideal place to have a private meeting, or lose someone who might be following, and the narrow alley out back, other than it's characteristic heap of drunken beggars, makes an excellent bolthole.

The proprietor Dannar keeps his mead and wine as cheap as he can, and as a result neither is ever the same from one night to the next. Large rats often drown in his kegs, drunk and happy, and some patrons have suggested that the house's specialty, the roast pheasant, is none other than these alcohol-soaked rats shaved and cooked. An accusation Dannar has never even bothered to directly deny. For security Danner does keep a small staff of bartenders who double as heavies, but generally the offer of a free drink will mobilize a crowd of frantic beggars against anyone he finds distasteful.

Waran, Alchemist and Chirurgeon
Waran Threpe is one of only a handful of professional alchemists in Ravvh, and his shop, Warran, Fine Alchemist, has become something of a local institution. located where one of the side streets off Avlorns Way branches into several winding alleys the shop is two levels, with the lower level occupied by Waran's workshop and shop, and the upper being his modest and badly cluttered living quarters, though a casual observer might mistake it for being all workshop. Waran is a strange man to say the least, he never married nor had children and lives alone amongst his work. Not as brilliant or inspired as those alchemists in the better districts, especially Brooke Moore, Waran is never the less devoted, body and soul, to his trade.

Visitors to the shop need to ring the bell on the counter for attention, and would-be thieves are well advised to not tamper with any of the various alchemical apparatus that cover nearly every surface for fear of the destruction knocking over the wrong potion may cause. Waran mainly trades in the common magic that is frowned upon by other alchemists, making most of his money on luck charms, love potions and occasional potions used to treat diseases and wounds, but he is in a district where such folk magic is in great demand, and a number of his customers swear by the potency of his potions and ministrations. Whispers of a draught that can render the imbiber transparent for a short period of time have surrounded Waran, but no customers who have ever had any success which such a potion have ever come forward, and it seems likely that this is the stuff of mere myth.

Watch Blockhouse
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Fire-Gutted Buildings
Perhaps a month ago this block of buildings along one of the avenues off Tentmarket Street was the victim of an extensive fire that destroyed a very visible portion of a city block and left perhaps up to a hundred dead or dying in their homes. The block is now a soaked black eyesore, soot bleeds off them into the muddy streets around, and the stench of death still lingers amongst the blackened husks and protruding timbers that remain here. A lot of local beggars have made their homes in the more sheltered parts of the ruin, and so have the survivors who have nowhere to go but the charred ruins of their home. Little lakes and sinkholes from the amount of water bucketed from the Silver River to put the block out cover the area, and a number of notorious drunks have fallen into these while staggering home and drowned, or been pulled spluttering and half alive into the streets by the locals, who more often than not rob them for the trouble.

Carn Silkpurse, Moneylender
Carn Silkpurse is easily amongst Ravvh's wealthiest residents, perhaps only rivaled by Ander Deloene. Not that there is a great deal of competition for the position in this part of The City. His business, on the lower floor of his home, is simply signed Carn Silkpurse, Moneylender, and is based entirely on the independent wealth of himself and and a body of undisclosed investors based out-of-district. Silkpurse maintains a large staff of clerks to manage the plethora of, often paltry, loans he has issued at any one time to the poor residents of Ravvh.

The building itself is rather incongruous in it's squalid surroundings. The stone is whitewashed with embellishments in carved timber around the doors and windows, and artfully carved doors and shutters, the windows are even fitted with glass. Inside the offices the place is farely austere as befits the nature of the clientele, who are usually filthy, and would only ruin fine furnishings, so long wooden benches, simple desks and reams of parchment are the decor of the place, with clerks being away in offices. The gold is kept in a stone lock room, the key for which is on Carn's person at all times, and clerks are only given a few coins to lend each day, with large requests having to go through Carn himself. Upstairs are the rooms occupied by Carn, his wife and his two sons, these suites are well appointed, with timber cladding and lots of storage and drapery, things that speak of wealth and comfort but certainly not opulence, but rather the frugality that one might expect from a money lender. Carn's one allowance is a love of glass, and he keeps a large display of glass cups, vases, glasses and apparatus on shelves around his home.

The Ravvh Baths
While public baths in the richer districts may be places of recreation or business the Ravvh Public Baths are a place of necessity and of rare luxury for the people of Ravvh. Not the state run baths of the scholars districts, these privately owned baths are in a building that may have once been a small temple. The roof is vaulted and domed at the rear, the walls are a whitewashed stone, and the baths themselves, split in two by a large partition, into a men's and women's bath house, the floors are dug out into tiered tiled pools, and attendants with oils and perfumes wait for customers. The price of entry is a silver dollar, but most people will only treat themselves once a month, so this not prohibitive, and means the baths are seldom crowded.

The Sign of the Broken Mug (meadhall)
The Sign of the Broken Mug is the roughest of Ravvh's big meadhalls, and serves as a base of operations for the House Deloene gangers in the district. The leader of the entire gang usually spends his days drinking here, administering the crews that walk the streets, brawling with other house gangs, and fueling grudges. The building sits on the southern end of Crook Street, street-front. Thanks to the occasional raids the proprietor Gunnar makes little effort to keep it in the best repair, and as a result shutters are boarded up, the door is clad in several places in bands of iron, tables and chairs have been repaired several times or else cobbled out of the remains of other tables and chairs, and bloodstains on the walls and ceilings remain only roughly scrubbed, however there is always fresh straw on the floor and a good fire in the hearth. The building is a three level structure, narrow at it's front but deep, and opens onto several alleyways for a swift escape from the militia or watch.

The mead here is reputed to be the best in Ravvh or the Crook, and this is probably what drew Highwind and his crew here. Not too sweet, thick, filling, and strong it is Gunnar's pride, and he guards the secret of it's recipe both jealously and savagely. He keeps a small staff of heavily set men to make sure that the gangers or their guests don't become too bold, but generally he makes sure that his patrons pay enough for his goods that if they want to break the furniture then that's not a problem.

Ander Deloene's Townhouse
Ander Deloene is the wealthiest of the local merchants, and rather than a shop he does the majority of his business from his home on Crook Street. Ander is the younger brother of Raenar Uth-Deloene, and aside from his own trade interests he is also here to oversee the Deloene interests in Ravvh. While he is certainly not locally well liked, Saeven Highwind and the local Deloene gangers hold the man in fanatical regard, and so he has little to fear from the locals save the odd harsh word when he is on the streets or at his windows.

The house is three levels, with offices and a receiving room on the lower floor where Deloene keeps his clerks busy, private quarters for Ander and his family on the top two floors, and a storage cellar under the house, accessible from a private alleyway at the rear of the building. Facing straight onto Crook Street into one pf the worst districts in Tohl, Ander doesn't pay a great deal of attention to the exterior of his home, and while the building is structurally in better repair and newer than the buildings around it, it is as dirty as those around it. Inside however the place is clad in polished timber and beautifully furnished in the latest fashion, with heavy drapery and fine fabrics, and shelves upon shelves of books and other signs of wealth and opulence.

The Sign of the Cat's Paw (meadhall)
The Sign of the Cat's Paw is a house of ill repute in the district of Ravvh in The City. Located at the end of a steep alleyway with many of the buildings on either side leaning on it, this sprawling single story building with two small loft spaces is in a state of disrepair, but it's regular clientèle don't seem to care. There are two large taprooms, one of which serves hearty but simple meals and the other hosts rowdy bouts of drinking by the locals of Ravvh. Behind the larger taproom is a parlor where for a coin a man can go and talk with the house's girls, and for another coin he might be able to retire with one to her cell for a few hours entertainment. There is even a "cheese store" through which clients desiring discretion can slip in and out of the parlor without passing the bustling taprooms.

The wine and food here are cheap, but plentiful and the girls welcoming and comely. The mead of the Cats Paw is unremarkable, and oversweet, and most come for the atmosphere more than the drink. The madame of the house, and proprietress Madrine keeps a small staff and has a heavy hand with the girls to keep them well in line, but she is well liked and can drink the majority of her patrons under the table with ease, and often does. She keeps a small staff of bawds as tenants to ensure a steady flow of new custom and her giant doorman Adrius is a half-Haedrasian of monstrous proportions who ensures that those who arrive at the door behave once they're inside.

Notable Groups and Individuals


Sigisman of Greyshore
The watch captain and chief magistrate of Ravvh is Sigisman of Greyshore, a Dunsain sailor who used to carry goods up and down the Silver River in his youth.

The Baron
The Baron is a either a retired watchman, the head of the bandit council, or the rightful heir to the High King's throne depending upon whom you ask. What is known is that this legless beggar controls a sizable network of orphan cut purses and informants from his skid board in Cripple Alley.

Ander Deloene
Ander Deloene, the younger brother of Raenar Uth-Deloene keeps a well guarded home here to keep a careful watch on his families assets in the district.

Saeven Highwind
Saeven Highwind, leader of the House Deloene gangers, can usually be found surrounded by his boys in the Sign of the Broken Mug, though he keeps some rather fine quarters in a sprawling building opposite made from several homes with doors smashed through their walls.