#City23 Update - End of January: Nottingham and Cape Crescent

Imported from Tubmlr, crossposted to Cohost

I've written about my #City23 projects here and on Cohost. You can check out my last post.

I took a weeklong break due to a death in the family, so this is the my end-of-January post.

Nottingham

My previous posts introduced the Three-Foxes Inn, which I later decided was near the Bar Gate and Chapel Bar area. The gate heads toward Derby and the forests and hills to the Northwest. The Three Foxes is owned by Madame Jarry and two of her three sons. I added an alewife who makes the inn's brews, couple of other residents: Colman who murders strangers in order sustain his wife's life, Ruhl the Baker who does favors for the sheriff in order to protect his daughter (a sheriff's hostage), and the informal mendicants Earnmund and Mindred, clairvoyants and necromancers who exchange prophecies for money and live on the estate of a local priory.

I started last week by adding a Gruffin's Candle Shop to the Chapel Bar area, adding three NPCs who work there: - Gruffin of Clun, sometimes called "Old Clun," the owner, an apparently immortal wax magician who makes candles, spell candles, and magical waxen masks and figures. - Vel, his oldest apprentice, a young man who rarely speaks, but can be heard singing at night as he practices his magic. - Yvaine, his younger apprentice, an escaped aristocrat who disdains the notion of gender and has a talent for burglary.

I've also gone back to the Three Foxes and added a few details: - A random list of customers, including a shy trans tough, an outgoing trans harper, a prostitute, a farmer who's having prophetic dreams, a former Templar, and a German scholar-turned-Nottingham-pastrymaker. - An aristocrat living secretly as Azela's apprentice alewife.

Finally, I've added Godfrey Draper (secretly an agent of the sheriff): a brutish lout of a guard who's playing the fool to lure people into becoming careless about their support of their forest outlaw heroes.

Cape Crescent

This week in Cape Crescent, I've focused on the Lunar Lounge, a queer nightclub near the shore, popular with locals and tourists alike. - Drag Duo and owners Trent Keith (Pearl Dyver in drag) and Sylvia Herrera (Manor Bourne in drag) are also member of a local wolf pack who are concerned about the designer drugs that the Ghost Bay Foundation seems to be introducing to the town's nightlife. - Immortal bartender Griffin Declan who shifts his identity (and sometimes his face) every decades or two. - Go-go dancer Chance Reyes who has an innate (and unwanted) talent for necromancy. - Barback Kevin Phillips, who ran away from home and found a strange book that contains the spirit of Tarlton Caine's own runaway claivoyant son (who doesn't want his dad). - Several customers you might meet on the dance floor, including Dr. Jenna Caine (Tarlton Caine's oldest child and mentee), an out-of-work actor, a new resident who caught their ex-husband cheating and came to Cape Crescent for a new life, a Ghost Bay Foundation tech writer, the managing editor of the local paper, and a drug-dealer.

Reading

This week I also started working my way through some classic city-focused adventures and supplements from games of yore. Right now, it's Flying Buffalo's CityBook I: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker.

Coming Up

In Nottingham, I think it's time to shift and get into the sprawl of Nottingham Castle. Over in Cape Crescent, I'll figure out whether the best thing to start next is exploring Tarlton Caine's organization or the Ghost Bay Foundation's off-shore HQ.