Riddleport…the City of Cyphers….also a haven for pirates, scoundrels, and vagabonds. Once a secret pirate haven, Riddleport has grown over the last three centuries into a port city in its own right. Though a frontier town as the northernmost outpost on the lonely strip known as the Lost Coast, it still remains true to its roots – you can get rich quick in Riddleport if you’ve got skill and a bit of luck, though for every Riddleport success story there are a dozen nameless bodies buried in potters’ fields or tossed to the hungry denizens of the sea.
Riddleport is located in a secluded, rocky harbor situated at the easternmost reaches of the Calphiak Mountains, where the meandering Velashu River meets the sea. Although the site was partially chosen for ease of defense, the original settlers picked the site as much for its singular Thassilonian monument: the mysterious and intriguing arch known as the Cyphergate.
The city proper is tucked in between two rocky ridges, the easternmost rising just over 300 feet in elevation and blocking the city from a tidal swamp of hillocks and mires that serves today as a dumping ground for refuse, derelict ships, bodies, and undesirables. The western ridge ascends swiftly into the Calphiak Mountains themselves. To the north, the Velashu River threads its way between these ridges, leading up into the Velashu Uplands. While roads from the east and north exist, they are not well-maintained – the most notable access to the city is its harbor. No one who sails into Riddleport by sea can avoid passing beneath the Cyphergate, which has brought an influx of scholars and experts who specialize in arcane study.
The city is currently ruled by the self-appointed Overlord, one former pirate captain named Gaston Cromarcky, the latest in a series of pirate lords, buccaneers and other unsavory sailors who had wrested control though bloody means. Cromarcky employs his own breed of enforces, called his Gendarmes (“gentlemen at arms”.) Traditionally, eight crime lords rule Riddleport under the Overlord, each with a small army of contacts, snitches, foot soldiers, fences, and favored lieutenants (called “capps”.)
Most of the buildings in the city are composed of wood - logs or planks - with multiple floors and steep, high-peaked roofs of wooden shingles. They are built in close quarters, and in some cases their wooden upper floors sag and lean together from the constantly sodden conditions. The major streets are cobbled, though the side streets tend to be relegated to muddy tracks that swiftly turn to stinking morasses of mud and filth int the moist weather.
Now, strange days are afoot in Riddleport as an inexplicable shadow hover in the sky over the city, attracting scholars and mystics to divine its meaning. Called "The blot" by most, its appearance doesn't deter the always enterprising citizens of Riddleport from attempting to turn a profit. So, now the buzz about the streets is a large local game tournament at the Gold Goblin Gambling Hall, where a man named Saul Vancaskerkin hopes that "Cheat the Devil and Take his Gold" is poised to bring the game hall back in business after a rumored decline.
