Shacktown

Across the backwater of Barge End sprawls an unsightly collection of shanties, huts, tents, and other miserable housing. Shacktown is the slum of Greyhawk City, too miserable even to be granted a place in the Old City.

Shacktown, as a rule, is inhabited by the rejects of the lowest levels of Greyhawk society. A few families live here, but most of the inhabitants are alone. Often these unfortunates are hiding from enemies the city but are too frightened of the outside world to flee far from their home.

Notable locations in Shacktown:

Perhaps 500 souls live in Shack Town, though the number declines in winter. There are no business establishments here, and only one shrine: a small place kept by a devoted follower of St. Cuthbert. This priest, Father Nicholi Nortoi (N male human Cleric of St. Cuthbert L3), and a few devoted followers give what comfort they can to the residents of Shack Town.

While he cannot alleviate all of the suffering here, at least he prevents the outbreak of dread diseases such as the plague, and keeps the few children in Shack Town from starving.

The collection of shanties is squeezed into a narrow and marshy stretch of land. The river crowds it, and even fills the muddy streets of Shacktown during rainy springs, washing many of the crude structures away. Away from the river, the town presses against the steep bluff leading upward to North Hill Park.

A sturdy wooden dock, called simply the Shacktown Pier, stands at the waterfront of the squalid community. Shacktown’s most magnificent edifices, many of them actually possessing four walls, stand (or lean) in a row behind the pier. The rest of the town straggles away along the riverbank.

Access to Shacktown from the city of Greyhawk is gained via boat from the wharf, except when Barge End is crowded with 30 or more barges. In the latter circumstance, there are enough barges to bridge the open water, and a comer of the barge-raft anchors at Shacktown Pier. Those on agreeable terms with the Rhennee can step across the barges from wharf to Shacktown. Otherwise, boaters are always waiting about, willing to ferry characters across for a few coppers.

Shacktown is considered beneath the notice of even these guilds. Only in extreme circumstances will the Thieves’ Guild, for example, seek an enemy among the shanties. Normally, the fact that the miserable scum has been driven to take refuge in Shacktown is considered humiliation enough. Of course, if that enemy should return to the Free City and be recognized, the chase is on again.

Douglas Niles. Greyhawk Adventures, Gem of the Flanaess 1989

North Hills of Greyhawk
Gem of the Flanaess