The Old City is one of three slums located outside Port Nyanzaru’s main walls to the southwest. It serves as a crowded residential district for lower-class laborers and struggling artisans who cannot afford housing within the city’s protective walls.
Physical Description
Three ancient, vine-covered ziggurats tower over the district, creating a distinctive skyline. The area presents a stark juxtaposition of architecture: ancient, decaying (but still occupied) stone structures stand alongside flimsy new huts and longhouses built from bamboo and thatch. The entire district carries the weight of its history, with remnants of older, pyramidal construction still visible throughout.
Social Structure
Despite its appearance and location, the Old City is not a slum or thieves’ haven—most residents are honest working-class citizens. The district operates under an informal governance system of “beggar princes,” a mocking parallel to the merchant princes who rule the city proper. These beggar princes wield no official authority but control complex networks of debts, favors, incriminating information, and loyal muscle, allowing them to accomplish tasks with remarkable efficiency that sometimes rivals the merchant princes themselves. Unlike the hereditary merchant princes, the identities and even the number of beggar princes changes continually.
Notable Locations
Beggars’ Palaces
The two largest ziggurats in the Old City, their terraces are packed with shops and tenements made of bamboo in wild profusion. The upper levels are cleaner and less crowded than street level, connected by a narrow wooden bridge that passes above the noise and press of the streets below.
Executioner’s Run
A rectangular, stone-lined pit (15 feet deep, 50 feet wide, and 200 feet long) that serves as the district’s primary entertainment venue. Originally built by Amnian residents as a ball game arena, it now hosts brutal spectacles where convicted criminals must run a gauntlet of hungry beasts—velociraptors, panthers, juvenile allosauruses—to win their freedom. Criminals who reach the far end alive can climb knotted ropes to freedom and popular acclaim.
Spectators from all levels of Port Nyanzaru society line the walls to watch and bet on outcomes: which criminals will survive, how far they’ll get, how many kills each animal will score. Some Chultans have become celebrities by surviving multiple runs, with rumors suggesting some commit crimes specifically to gain entry to the pit. Animals occasionally escape into the crowd, creating opportunities for bystanders to become heroes and earn favor with the merchant princes.
Vulnerabilities
About half of Port Nyanzaru’s population lives outside the main walls, constantly exposed to attacks by carnivores or undead. A volunteer citizens’ brigade watches for approaching danger, sounding warning horns when threats appear. When the alarm sounds, residents scramble for safety in the Market Ward or Merchants’ Ward until the all clear is given.
Black Market
The Old City serves as one of three districts (along with Malar’s Throat and Tiryki Anchorage) where characters can contact black marketeers. This requires half a day and a successful DC 15 Charisma (Deception) check to ask the right questions of the right people. Black market prices are steep: multiply normal item prices by 1d4 + 2 (or more for large quantities), as the merchant princes crack down harshly on competitors.