Neptune

Neptune, also written Neptun, is a coastal city lying to the west of The Empire and one of the three largest cities of the Free Ports, alongside Pupa and Pruva.¹²

A free city

For decades Neptune has stood defiant against the Empire's rule, proudly resisting its authority. The law of the Empire holds no sway there, and the city has become a haven for outlaws and rogues and a refuge for anyone seeking to escape the Empire's watchful gaze. It is known for accepting everyone.³

Gangs and pirate lords

Gangs play a significant role in all the Free Port cities, and in Neptune above all: the weakness of central government lets them seize every opportunity that arises.¹

Neptune is ruled by street gangs and pirate lords. The pirate lords try to control the street gangs and are often behind their struggles for power. Seven pirate lords and their fleets currently rule all the cities of the Free Coast, and conflicts large and small between these groups are many. This constant shift of power is what keeps Neptune free: no one owns Neptune.⁴

Street fights and gang wars are a constant reality, and survival in the city depends on mastering the intricacies of its streets and understanding its ever-shifting balance of power.²

Every Neptunian knows that control of the sea goes hand in hand with dominance over the city. One of the pirate lords, a formidable ruler of Neptune, has recently become the owner of the second most powerful armada on the seas; the Brine Blades offended him without meaning to while searching for a sunken ship.⁵

Among the gangs of the city are the Hanged Devils. CHOMPS belonged to them as a young pirate on Neptune's salty streets, and Isabeau Blackthorn found refuge with them as a girl.⁶

The church of Aquaron

The free folk have a church of Aquaron independent of the High Church. It stands in Neptune, just ten steps from the salt water of the sea.¹

In the campaign Yeni Dünya ("New World"), a marble temple of the sea god stands at the harbour, a church with no ties to the Empire. One of its entrances opens on the harbour, its steps run straight down into the sea, and inside the salt water comes up to the ankle. It has a donation box made of coral, and its priests tend the sick.⁷⁸

Neptune and the sea

Neptune is known as a city of sailors. Revna Spearmaiden, whose people sail in a plainer fashion, adapted swiftly to the intricate maritime techniques she found there.⁹

The patrols of the high elves, the most prominent naval force on the seas, are the encounters Neptunian pirates fear most. Apart from the Empire, the nearest civilisation to Neptune is that of the Farr Islanders, who live on the Islands of Farr. Neptunian traders are prey for bandits as well: Sigusmund the Boar grew prosperous raiding both imperial and Neptunian traders.¹⁰

Imperial legions stand near the city, and Commander Gustavius aims to stop the Brine Blades from forging close ties with them.¹¹

History

A century ago the Northerner rebel Skolpa, called the White Horse, raised a great army to raid the Empire. It tore through the Western Provinces and raided Neptune, which for a short time became one of its military bases.¹²

People of Neptune

Several mercenaries known in Vansreik were born or raised in Neptune. Blaze, a tiefling, was born in its slums, as was Kerwyn, who made his name as a thief in the city of sailors while still very young. Jax grew up an orphan on its streets, and Isabeau Blackthorn began her life as an orphan in its alleys and back streets. Marisela Stormweaver, the illegitimate daughter of a pirate lord, is known as the Siren of Neptun; she became a woman of significant influence in the city and made her name there through mercenary contracts.¹³

Percival Mill is a renowned Neptunian vampire hunter, and Wanguff Volter spent a quarter of his life pirating and drinking in the taverns of Neptune before coming to Vansreik.¹⁴

Others came to the city from elsewhere. Seischa Grasheel went there knowing that it accepts everyone; Magnus Driftwood sought mercenary work there after leaving the legion; Ozzigus arrived carrying a grave debt owed to a noble of the Empire; and Ifanelle was waiting for her passage to Neptune when she met the Morenar in Vansreik. The Morenar have a presence in the city, where Blaze serves as second in command under Marcus. Pretty Face Randor can be found at the Mermaid Inn, an inn in Neptune.¹⁵

In Mürekkep ve Çelik

In the campaign Mürekkep ve Çelik ("Ink and Steel"), Castor Onerio passes through Neptune on his way back to the Archon, which cannot be reached by land. Carts and horses are left at the Archon's old depot in the city, and passage is taken by ship. While waiting at the harbour Castor stayed on the boulevard, where a gang called the Boulevard Killers demanded money from others but let the Archon's people be, its reputation keeping them away. A ship's captain recommended the Kraken, a shop selling sea gear protected by magic.^1617181920

Castor returned later, when the host of Skolpa was approaching the city. Ships were leaving, passage grew dear and the gangs looked to their own interests. The Sharks, who held the harbour district, had left the city, unwilling to fight Skolpa alongside the pirate lords close to them. It was rumoured that the Hanged Devils had told the governor, Bruce, an open supporter of the Empire, that they would fight; a legatus with half a legion was said to be stationed in the region. The Gentlemen seemed to have come to an understanding with the Empire, while a group called the Dead Rabbits was rousing the people so that no one would work for the Empire in the port. Crowds gathered to hear preaching before the temple of Aquaron.^{21222324252627}

At noon on one of those days, masked men bearing no gang's mark looted a church near the harbour of its gold and carried off several of its senior clergy as prisoners.²⁸²⁹

Spoiler: The imperial shipyardRevealSpoils: Mürekkep ve Çelik #14 · Say what you have read

Two weeks earlier the Empire had bought a shipyard in Neptune on the pretext of building a great ship; in truth a teleportation circle was being prepared there, so that prototypes could be brought through and carried on by land. Castor came to the city by teleportation to the Archon's old depot, where an officer of imperial intelligence who called himself Jonas Halber, and admitted at once that it was not his real name, met him over a map of the city.³⁰³¹³²

In Sürgün Günlükleri

In the campaign Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles"), the rebel Rainer Karga points to Neptune as an example of a place that is not part of the Empire, when the talk turns to whether another kind of order is possible.³³

In Yeni Dünya

The past of the physician Bruno Rossi, told in the campaign Yeni Dünya, takes him through Neptune before he sails for the New World. The city is not under the Empire's control but divided among great gangs. Its harbour is held by the Sharks, a pirate band with an interest in seafaring, who keep it relatively safe so that trade can go on; one barman paid them protection money and was truly protected in return. Convicts bound for the New World were held in a garrison a little north of the city.^3435363738

At the entrances to the jetties, clerks with ledgers sit in huts of reed and bamboo, watching cargo and travellers come and go, while ships are loaded, unloaded and repaired at the warehouses nearby. Among the warehouses stands the Fat Mermaid, an inn where sailors lodge, with six rooms in a wooden building in its back yard; by night women join in the drinking and music. Its barman, Milgram, said that before the New World was known, the city had been the last refuge of those running from their past, and that the Boulevard Killers and the Gentlemen had been at odds for some three months. Years later, sailors reported that the inn still stood and its barman, grown old, still worked there.^{3940414243444546}