So you took the pledge! Great, now you need to figure out which city your Vulgar Manse calls home. Luckily, the League of Dark Few has been designed to fit within most fantasy cities. This is where I would place it in some of gaming’s most popular ones.
Other things to consider in your setting:
- What is the League’s relationship like with rulers, guilds, and factions?
- If there is an undercity, does the Vulgar Manse’s lower level connect to it?
- Just how open a secret is the League of Dark Few amongst the city’s people?
While the League can operate 100% in the shadows, knowing how to handle these elements will deepen the players’ immersion in your world and help it feel alive. And, with the League of Dark Few Kickstarter campaign quickly surpassing its stretch goals, more tools to help you manage them are on the way! Including Akawatten, an all-new megacity (early-stage rendering below).
Punjar
The 4e city setting of Punjar is still a popular setting with die-hard DCC heads. Sometimes referred to as “Lahnkmar with the serial numbers filed off,” Punjar has the perfect tone for the League of Dark Few.
Punjar has two locations to consider placing the Vulgar manse:
A. New City, near Wall Street, offers a great location near the Bazaar of Gods, a good fit for the published material.
B. Devil’s Thumb, North of Fate’s Folly, allows access to the Nobles in the High and North Quarter, with the thrill of carousing in the thumb’s famous nightlife — an excellent cover for the Manse’s true purpose.
The City of Masks
Shadowdark’s newest city setting, Meridia, “The City of Masks.” A seaside city of 90,000 residents with seven unique districts.
High Harbor is my pick for the most fitting place for the Vulgar Manse, with its access to the nobility, ports, and Club Levantis. I would place it on the corner, two houses west of the Royal Jeweler.
The City State of the Invincible Overlord
The OSR city, what else do you need to know…
The Vulgar Manse placement that makes the most sense to me inside the City State is on Cross Road just below “Oarlock’s Up.” It is centrally located in the city and can benefit from blending in with the traffic and clientele of the inn next door.
The Free City of Greyhawk
For the Free City of Greyhawk, I am using the D&D 3.5 source materials due to the presence of Mike Schley’s great map.
For Greyhawk, I would place the Vulgar Manse in a slightly odd position, on Clerkburg’s border with the River and Foreign Quarters. While it would also be logical to place it in the Garden Quarter, the area feels too sparse to me to provide the cover of plain sight the League likes to employ. In Greyhawk, I would consider narrating the exterior of the Vulgar Manse as having an academic appearance to help it blend in with its surroundings. This placement also gives easy access to the merchant areas in the Artisan’s District and the famous Green Dragon Inn to the west.
Waterdeep
Waterdeep is so large that you really can’t go wrong placing the Vulgar Manse, so long as you avoid taking over a famous locale. The North ward has plenty of sizable nobles’ homes that make sense, but the quiet streets aren’t ideal. The Castle ward has access to the market, but the military’s presence there may be a problem. The Trades Ward, however, is busy, wealthy, and well-resourced, making it my preferred choice.
Neverwinter
Neverwinter, the city destroyed by the river of lava running under it, which gives it its namesake.
Depending on which sourcebook you are using, there is more than one interesting choice for placing the Vulgar Manse. Using the 4th edition source material, the River District makes for an exciting placement with beasts roaming the streets and a makeshift wall barring it off from the Blacklake district. This chaos could make for an action-packed campaign that unfolds as the city undergoes reconstruction. Otherwise, the Blacklake district, with its mansions, makes a great place for the Vulgar Manse to reside, possibly bordering the lake itself.
Baldur’s Gate
Maybe the most widely known D&D city of all time, I must have something to do with the work of the netherbrain.
While the Vulgar Manse would certainly feel at home amongst the mansions of Baldur Gate’s Upper City, the makeshift mansions owned by traders and jewelers in the Lower City’s Bloomridge neighborhood provide better cover and more access to trade. Making it my location of choice.
Other Cities
Luckily, the Vulgar Manse has been designed to fit into any mid-sized or larger city. It should reside on the corner of a prominent street. But even that isn’t an insurmountable task to work around. In smaller towns or hamlets, consider renaming the Vulgar Manse and referring to it as a satellite chapter of the League. Maybe the League’s office in that town has been established to manage a limited resource like mithril or to exert influence within a particular domain.
