At one time Old City was the entirety of the city of Greyhawk. Although the walled-off district is today a crumbling collection of leaning tenements and makeshift hovels, one can still detect a trace of greatness in the structures. Many of these ancient buildings, though now in advanced decay, once housed nobles and government structures critical to the city’s survival. An ancient bathhouse along the Processional bears monolithic sculptures from an earlier time of prosperity, while the infamous Thieves’ Guild dwells in the moldering ruins of Greyhawk’s Old City Hall. South of the Black Gate, the city’s main avenue is a littered, ill-maintained mess filled with potholes and refuse. Old City is home to the working poor and criminals with few options. The whole place breeds corruption and desperation. To venture here is to put one’s purse and life at risk.

The danger is much worse at night, when the district’s unlit streets swarm with trouble-seeking young gangs, bands of thieves, and beggars engaged in nefarious business. The City Watch operates on the assumption that anyone on the streets of Old City at night is a criminal. The Watch seldom ventures into the district and almost never patrols, leaving the desperate folk of the Slum and Thieves’ Quarters to maintain their own sort of law enforcement. The Thieves’ Guild and the Beggar’s Union represent the most significant order here, and those expecting to make a mark on this district will need to deal with them.

Jason Bulmahn, James Jacobs, Erik Mona. Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk. 2007

Greyhawk