Specularum NPCs and Places
by Ville LähdeI am using a system of narrative points that each player can use to create NPCs and places into the city. Each player has one point per one adventure, so locales and people are cropping up. I'll send updates when I can, take up whatever you want. I won't be able to give details to many of them, as they are supposed to gain flesh through the creativity of the players.
But already we grew fond of the pawnbroker Jerzy, a refugee from Halag, who has a semi-legal pawnshop in the Foreign Quarter. One can buy weapons and armour from him, no questions asked, although the selection is limited. Jerzy has sympathies for other refugees and the Traladaran resistance, and might give them discount, but he will never give anything free. Every transaction has to get him something.
One of the PCs is a prostitute, and her player created a sort of a safehouse for all working girls and boys in the Nest and Old Quarter area. They call it "the Salon", but many other people call it "the Fishbarrel". Another locale that was created impromptu in the Nest was a freehouse, a sanctuary for people who want to stay hidden and answer no questions. The management of the house has loose deals with the local gangs, Veiled Society and Kingdom of thieves, as everyone needs such a place. But they are not incorruptible, so if someone pays enough, they can turn a blind eye, especially if the person in hiding has no good contacts.
In South End we have created a local Veiled Society ringleader (or starosta, as in Giampaolo's article) Stavros, a Traladaran man who works from a local Traladaran restaurant "Borsch". Even though he is an elder member, he often takes part in street action. Starosta is a stern man who will kill anyone who offends the Society, but sometimes he may change the sentence into a service, if there are mitigating circumstances. In some cases he has even been known to give some rewards for people who perform well in such missions where the wage was supposed to be sparing their life. Stavros has an uneasy truce with the district guard captain Porius. Porius is a political animal who cares most of all for appearances and the facade of order. If need be, he will arrest an innocent man if he cannot find the real culprit, but he would do this to safeguard his own position, rarely for a price. Porius is also well known by the local prostitutes as a good customer who does not care about some scars, and never causes them himself.