City of BardsIn the far north lies the ancient city of Bard’s Gate. Located on a strategic trade route, this city is famed far

and wide as a bastion of art and learning that welcomes bards, performers, writers, artists and creators of all sorts. Yet this citadel of enlightenment, deep in the wilds, is also

threatened by dark forces — the gnolls and orcs from the wilderness and cults of evil gods from within, for the very freedom that draws artists and musicians from across

the continent also allows evil to flourish in secret.

City of AdventureBard’s Gate is a fully-developed fantasy city that can be used in any cam-

paign. A wide range of businesses, churches, homes, shops, taverns, inns and other locations are described in detail, ready made for your campaign. Bard’s Gate is also filled with unique NPCs, from the most influential leader and wealthiest merchant to the lowliest pauper. Also included in this product are the adventures Slip Gallows Abbey and The Gnoll Fortress, where Bard’s

Gate-based PCs can find peril and — if they’re lucky — fortune. Whoever you may be, whether prince or beggar, if you are a seeker of adventure, Bard’s Gate welcomes you!

Requires the use of the Dungeons and Dragons® Player’s Handbook, published by Wizards of the Coast®. This product utilizes material from the v.3.5 revision.

Fantasy—Swords and SorcerySourcebook (City)Core D20 System

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N E C R O M A N C E R G A M E STHIRD EDITION RULES, FIRST EDITION FEEL

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Authors: Casey Christofferson, Clark Peterson, Shane Glodoski

With additional material by:Jeremiah Lasch, Dan Messinger, Brenden Simpson, Rachel

Tayler, Sharla Williams, Skeeter Greene, Scott Greene, Kevin Walker, Anthony Pryor, Kathy Christofferson, Greg Ragland, Pat Lawinger and with valuable contribution from the many members of the Necromancer Games Message Boards.

Developers: Clark Peterson, Bill Webb, Casey Christofferson

Producer:Clark Peterson

Editor:Anthony Pryor

Content Editor: Scott Greene and the Necromancer Games staff

Art Direction and design: Mike Chaney

Cover artist:Rick Sardinha

Interior Art: Jeremy McHugh, Eric Lofgren, Jeff Rebner, Alex Bradley,

& Mike Chaney

Playtesters: David Peterson, CJ Land, John Ackerman, Mike Weber, Chris-

topher Laurent, Nicolas Laurent, Timothy Laurent, Conrad Claus, Karl Harden, Dale Haines, John Murdock, Ian Thompson, Bill Webb, Angelina Mohr, Shane and Danielle Shirley, Clint Bennett

Special Thanks: To all the fans who have waited so long, to all the friends

who worked so hard, and all the family members that stuck with us through this great journey.

And to Casey in particular for helping realize my vision of this product. –Clark

Necromancer Games

Third Edition Rules,First Edition Feel

This product requires the use of the Dungeons and Dragons® Player’s Handbook, published by Wizards of the Coast®. This product utilizes updated material from the v.3.5 revision.

©2006 Necromancer Games, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Necromancer Games, Necromancer Games, Inc. and the Necro-mancer Games logo and Tome of Horrors are trademarks of Necromancer Games, Inc. All characters, names, places, items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Necromancer Games, Inc. “D20 System” and the D20 System logo are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used under the terms of the D20 Trademark License. Dungeons and Dragons® and Wizards of the Coast® are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, and are used in accordance with the Open Game License contained in the Legal Appendix. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned.

This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. Reader discretion is advised.

Check out Necromancer Games online athttp://www.necromancergames.com

Visit the Sword and Sorcery Studio online athttp://www.swordsorcery.com

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PREFACE

Preface 3

Introduction 5

Chapter 1: Groups and Organizations 10

Chapter 2: Tent City 20

Chapter 3: Market District 28

Chapter 4: Guild District 38

Chapter 5: Old Temple District 43

Chapter 6: The Docks 51

Chapter 7: Canal District 54

Chapter 8: The Hill 59

Chapter 9: North Wall District 63

Chapter 10: Bridge District 66

Chapter 11: Keep Quarter 74

Chapter 12: Thieves’ Quarter 77

Chapter 13: Bard’s College 84

Chapter 14: East Docks 89

Chapter 15: Turlin’s Well 92

Chapter 16: Outer Quarter 103

Chapter 17: Stable Row 109

Chapter 18: Other Locations 111

Chapter 19: The Lyre Valley 115

Chapter 20: Slip Gallows Abbey 123

Chapter 21: Gnoll Fortress 133

Appendix A: Gods of Bard’s Gate 144

Appendix B: New Magic 159

Appendix C: NPCs of Bard’s Gate 163

Appendix D: Monsters 216

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barracks, the keep, etc), we detailed shops with unique or interesting wares, we detailed places with unusual NPCs that could provide story hooks and we detailed locations that would be of particular interest to adventurers even if relatively mundane (stables, taverns, and so on).

Magic and Power LevelBard’s Gate is a city of “medium fantasy.” It is not a

city where centaurs roam the streets, ogres and trolls run stores, orcs and faeries mingle with humans and ordinary shop owners possess powerful magic items. This is not to say Bard’s Gate does not contain the unusual or the fantastic — it does, simply not in every shop. Bard’s Gate, for your reference, has more in common with Lieber’s Lankhmar than it does with the Realms’ Waterdeep (high fantasy) or Tolkien’s Minas Tirith (low fantasy).

Most residents of Bard’s Gate are of the NPC classes (commoners, experts, warriors, etc) with a Profession skill reflecting their occupation and Skill Focus on their respective main skill. Most are no more than 5th level in their NPC class, with some exceptional few being as high as 9th level. A few residents have levels in a class from the PHB, those being mostly rogue, fighter, sorcerer or cleric levels. In general, those residents that do have such classes are no more than 3rd level in any PHB class, with several exceptional few being as high as 7th level. Keep these parameters in mind when you fill out the city as part of your campaign. Unless you intend the shop to be unique, do not make a common baker a 9th level wizard. Rather, he or she is most likely a 2nd level Commoner or Expert.

Of course, you are free to mold the city to the magic level of your campaign. If you wish a more high fantasy game, switch some of the shop keepers to ogres or goblins, give them several more PHB class levels and be more liberal in handing out random magic items. If you wish more low fantasy, change most shop keepers to human, take away powerful magic items and reduce the class levels of the main NPCs.

Welcome to Bard’s Gate, a city supplement for use in any fantasy campaign!

What Is In This BookThis book contains a description of Bard’s Gate

— its laws, politics, temples and cults, organiza-tions, shops, locations and personalities. This book does not attempt to detail every street, alley, inn, shop and NPC in Bard’s Gate. Instead, it provides a majority of the bones and a good bit of the meat and leaves the rest to be fleshed out by you and your players.

We took this course for a number of reasons. First, we wanted this city supplement to be detailed yet manageable. A book that describes every element down to the last detail would be cumbersome and would make it difficult for you, the DM, to really “get your hands around” the city. We wanted to give you the flavor of Bard’s Gate. Second, we wanted to make it flexible. We left room for you to drop your favorite inns and shops into Bard’s Gate. If we detailed every location, there would be no room for your creativity. Third, we wanted to make the city expandable so that you could tie products from other companies or other campaigns into Bard’s Gate. Fourth, we didn’t want to waste time on the common stuff. We presume that the many unnumbered locations are so common as to not need detail—the proverbial butchers, bakers and candlestickmakers, as well as simple taverns, fishmongers or craftsmen. Lastly, we wanted Bard’s Gate to grow through development over the inter-net. If you go to the Necromancer Games web site (www.necromancergames.com) or the fan site, you can find shops and NPCs posted by fans or created periodically by the writers here at Necromancer Games, making Bard’s Gate an ever changing and ever growing city.

Why did we detail the locations we did? Simple. We detailed locations that we deemed were essential to understanding or using Bard’s Gate (city watch,

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PREFACE

How To Use This BookSpend some time with the map itself. Get to know

Bard’s Gate and the various quarters that make it up. Then read about the physical features—the walls, the canals, the bridges and the island. Move on to the various organizations and main NPCs. Familiar-izing yourself with these things will help you to run adventures set in Bard’s Gate with consistency and a feeling of depth.

Next, familiarize yourself some of the “big” locations in the city—the ones where your players will most likely go: the main taverns or inns and the several city plazas. Then peruse the remaining locations. Use them to help you tell stories set in the city or to come up with plot ideas. Don’t feel overwhelmed with the level of detail we have provided.

Let your players guide you. They will undoubtedly seek out certain shops or persons—armorers, weaponsmiths, healers or possibly unsavory types such as a rogue for a sensitive job of their own devising. While you can cer-tainly create a simple armorer, rope maker, swordsmith,

healer or thug, this supplement provides a numerous unique examples of nearly every conceivable shop or location. If they are hungry, don’t just charge them a gold piece and say they had a meal, send them to the Paasha’s Pillow! If they have a hangover from a hard night of carousing at the Felled Ogre, don’t just say they sleep it off—send them for a jar of Mar’s green!

A Note about Secrets: You will observe that a number of shops or NPCs have secrets. Lasker the pie maker is a foul murderer and Poldo the maker of inks and dyes is also a forger. Don’t immediately reveal these secrets. Allow your players to innocently eat some of Lasker’s pies and maybe even befriend him. Will they spring to his defense when, years later, they find a link to him as the murderer that is plaguing the city? Or perhaps you can have your player’s mages purchase ink from Poldo. Imagine their surprise, many sessions later, when the merchant they bribe to lead them to someone to forge a document takes them to Poldo—the man they have been innocently buying inks from for years!

Most importantly, put your campaign themes into Bard’s Gate and make it your own.

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AlignmentBard’s Gate is a tolerant city and most citizens vary

from neutral to Chaotic Good. The city harbors many different races and beliefs, allowing most citizens to do as they please, but also allowing much evil to exist undetected. This is not to say that the city’s inhabit-ants are tolerant of evil; quite the contrary. Living under the constant threat of invasion from the orcs and gnolls of the north makes the average Bard’s Gate citizen even more determined that good triumph, but their “live and let live” philosophy also gives evil the opportunity to hide itself successfully.

AssetsDue to its important trade location, Bard’s Gate is highly

prosperous. There is also a huge number of skilled crafts-men in the city, and many outstanding goods are available. Nearly any masterwork item can be purchased here. The only limit on magic items that can be purchased is a practi-cal one: there are few spellcasters over 10th level and thus items requiring higher-level magic are quite rare.

History and OverviewBecause of its strategic position on the only eas-

ily-bridged area on the Stoneheart River, the city

Established many years ago as a bard’s outpost and way station for travelers between the inner Forest Kingdoms and the port city of Reme, Bard’s Gate has grown into an important crossroads for trade and travel. The city’s banner depicts a silver lyre above a stone gatehouse on a green field.

Bard’s Gate is currently an independent city, allied to the nearby Grand Duchy for mutual defense and prosperity. The Grand Duke’s troops help defend the city against the evil creatures from the Stoneheart Mountains to the north. A liberal and tolerant city, Bard’s Gate welcomes all races.

City ProfilePopulation

Bard’s Gate’s population averages 20,000 in winter, and up to 35,000 in the summer when merchant caravans, adventurers, travelers and mercenaries visit the city; over the entire year its average population is about 25,000.

Bard’s Gate boasts a higher population than normal of elves and half-elves, possibly due to its focus on the arts. Normally a race in search of a home, many half-elves find things quite to their liking in this tolerant city. The city, as with most cities, is dominated by humans, however.

Bard’s Gate (Large City or Metropolis)

Conventional, Nonstandard and Magical; AL CG; 80,000 gp limit; Assets 10,000,000 gp; Population 25,000; Integrated (human 39%, halfling 8%, elf 12%, dwarf 12%, gnome 5%, half-elf 20%, half-orc 3%, other 1%).

Authority Figures: Cylyria, NG female half-elf Brd10 (elected High Burgess), Imril, (Captain of the Lyreguard); Jared Strann, (High Priest of Oghma); Duloth (head of the Wheelwright’s Guild and the Black Market).

Important Characters: Bofred, (priest of Thyr); Barahil the Faithful, (priest of Muir); Lauriann Danyr (head of Bard’s College); Andrigor, (diviner and member of the Fellowship of Note); Noria Verilath etc. See NPC appendix for further details on important persons of Bard’s Gate.

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