Silvermere Slums

Centuries of decline and neglect have left the southernmost district of Silvermere in significant disrepair. The district was constructed as an open trade zone to be partially accessible and not quite as well fortified as the central core of the city, but maintaining this partially open section of the city required additional guards positions that were eventually culled from the declining budgets. Where the open bazaar once stood and where the fortified walls stand today, a makeshift barrier has been erected where just two guards per shift can limit and control the flow of shady characters. Since the slums still lie within the city’s official protectorate, however, no fees are charged for those who are moving between these sections of the town.

The residents

Within the slums, several groups of settlers have made homes. The first are lifelong, multi-generational residents of the city who have fallen on hard times – without a family endowment to fall back on. The next largest group of residents are recent immigrants to the city – mostly from the surrounding farms and smaller towns in the region. Many come looking for jobs, but few find it and are soon left struggling for sustenance.

Among the impoverished residents of the slums, opportunists and criminals also lurk. A small but active thieve’s guild provides some semblance of order, and treasures looted from the noble families of Silvermere are often liquidated for the benefit of the slum’s poorest and most vulnerable members.

Hucksters and religious charlatans have been known to plague the local populace by offering false hopes and fanciful solutions. Some cult-like sects have preyed upon the desperation of residents to grim ends.

Notable Locations within the Slums

• Slum Square – at the center of the district where the main roads intersect was once the heart of the trade in Silvermere. Today, a single dingy shop remains open here and largely deals in weapons and other implements of self-defense. Next door, a run-down temple inhabited by a shadowy healer provides healing rites for those who may not otherwise afford care.
• Black House – in the eastern part of the slums sits an ominous house that has been painted pitch black. None are ever seen entering or leaving the house, but strange lights and sounds can be heard from its interior at night.
• Orc Fortress – in the southwest part of the slums, a tribal leader from a once-nomadic orc clan has set up residence and built a new clan from the fiercest thugs and brawlers of Silvermere’s slum.
• Slum Sewers – The sewers are an important mode of transportation for those who wish to access the city proper without encountering any guards. While the ambiance is distinctly lacking, the tunnels provide direct access to any part of Silvermere – and to several destinations just outside of it. In addition to avoiding the scrutiny of the city’s security forces, it provides a means of dodging the toll at the town gates.
• Ancient Mansion – Just west of the slum entrance is an ancient mansion crumbling from neglect. Residents avoid it as it was once home to a paranoid wizard who placed curses and traps on the home. Although long since deceased, his powerful magic and even more potent paranoia continues to haunt the home.

Rumors and tales

Word around town is that the grungy shopkeeper has connections to mercenaries from Rhuduar. For the right price, protection can be arranged.

Few trust the shadowy healer, yet many rely on his lifesaving services. While he never charges a farthing from customers, those who have been revived feel as though they forever have something missing. What it is, no one can say. The whispered stories suggest that this mysterious healer is harvesting life force and has ties to the inhabitants of the blackened house.

The Orc Chief Gr’nat rules harshly over his new, domesticated tribe, but rumors say he has retained strong ties to other orc clans as well as the goblins who are frequently encountered in Darkwood Forest.

Tall tales are also shared of valuable magical artifacts littering the grounds of the Haunted Mansion, but few who explore here have returned with anything worth much.

Travel Advisory

The Silvermere guard recommends that the slums be avoided when possible, but if travel is absolutely necessary that visitors should exercise the highest levels of caution. Reports of theft and assault are common, but guards lack the manpower to fully investigate these common crimes. Those who suffer loss of property or life often have little recourse but to seek their own revenge or scurry back to the more… “comfortable” parts of town.