South Marrow district, by Kai (200 xp)

The Free City, South Marrow District, Mbityi borough.  Bounded on the west by the inner harbor, on the south by industrial fields, on the east by Nanpu borough, and on the north by the Copper Quarter.  Brick paved streets and houses of beam and plaster, or stone, or thatch.  Relatively sparse for the free city; the buildings aren't so high, or so close together.  There are open spaces with abandoned buildings or abandoned construction projects.  You can see the sun most times of day.  Most of the people in this quarter are adventurers coming in for supplies or past adventurers who have abandoned the life and set up shop.  Mari decided to settle here because most of her favorite crew is here, and it's an established destination for those who need maps, instruments, travel spells, travel supplies, and the like.  She and Kaziim live in a boat on the harbor.  It's a smallish boat, by Mari's standards; it has a private cabin for Kaziim and two berths, one which serves as Mari's storeroom and bed chamber and the other as a mapmaker's studio.  The piers are made of stout logs tarred, lashed together, and floating on the water.  On hot days the piers stick to your shoes.  Kaziim helped her paint maps on the sails and hull, so the entire ship is a larger-than-average map.  It makes it easy to find.

There are no governmental heads of the borough.  All the residents meet monthly to talk about problems and vote how to solve them; anyone who doesn't attend is under no obligation to abide by the decisions of the group, but the group is also under no obligation to make sure their decisions benefit those members.  This is why there's that big unpaved patch in front of Zeb Gasket's hostelry.  Zeb started coming to meetings again right after the rest of the road was paved, but he never got around to paving his stretch.  That said, there are some members whose opinions carry a lot of weight in the neightborhood.  Among them are:
    * Gris Dentsdeschiens, an orc infantry captain who lead a regiment in the uprising,
    * Crackle Fitzpatrick, a gnome tinker who everyone goes to with anything that needs to be fixed, and
    * Lyialliou Iyitts, tall, beautiful, softly glowing, runs the healer's house.

The borough pays protection to the Rattling Bones.  Everyone scrapes together what they can spare; on a good month someone may put in more, on a bad month, less.  The Rattling Bones took the borough from the Daikyojin a couple years back, with the help of some of the neighbors.  The Rattling Bones started in Nanpu borough, so they're almost locals, and they like to get drunk and swap stories in the Fishwife's Grin.  The Daikyojin kept themselves seperate from the neighbors, and were strict about the monthly tithe and violent when it wasn't complete.  The Rattling Bones can usually be depended upon only to attack outsiders.  Kaziim has a low-level membership in their ranks.  They approached him about being a sort of pet encyclopedia/ spy/ getaway man when he started to apprentice with Gwyrridon, and the neighbors were enthusiastic about the idea, on the grounds that Kaziim would be a calming influence on them.  Kaziim gave up his active membership when he went to University, but he's still sworn to help a Bone in need, he keeps abreast of their activities, and he goes to meetings every month or so.

Mari's favorite places are:
    * the Fishwife's Grin, where she goes to drink with her crew.  This tavern is low and dark; it's made of tarred beams, and its foundations were cursed, so it's slowly sinking.  When the front doorstep sinks more than an easy jump below street level, they build another storey on and move the front door to it.
    * the back room of Enpu the trader's shop, where all the local merchants go to haggle over new maps and sextants and pieces of exotic esoterica.  Enpu's place is built of wooden beams with dyed canvas hung on them.  After hours he runs games of chance.  In certain back rooms, access to which are gained only through secrets and passwords and luck, he holds games of chance for those pieces of esoterica that are beyond price, or which, for whatever reason, may not be sold or traded.
    * behind La Moloque's nursery, at the edge of the industrial fields, where she can see the waving sea on one side and the tides of grasses on the other.
Kaziim's favorite places are:
    * the book store
    * Gwyrridon's house
    * Cousin Kutoh's dry goods store.  When Kaziim was a kid, Cousin Kutoh would tell him stories of eir childhood in Asko, teach him Atraask, and comp him treats in exchange for help around the store.  Cousin Kutoh's store has the biggest selection in the district.  From fireworks to fresh eggs, soap to nails, Kutoh has a little of everything.  Kaziim liked to look through the aisles and ask Cousin Kutoh about things.
    * The top of the Needle.  The Needle was built by a a small goblin horde a couple decades before Kaziim and Mari moved in.  By the time they got there, the horde had moved on, but they had left their dwelling.  It's about seven stories tall and made of what looks like a combination of tar and melted pewter.  After the horde moved out, other people moved in, and it's become a sort of combination indoor mall and apartment building.  Kaziim likes to climb the outside up to the top, where he can see almost the whole borough and all the people in it doing things that otherwise might be secret.  He has a knack for blending in and sitting lightly.