Page 152 - Eberron -Rising from the Last War_Neat

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S H A R N , C I TY F T O W R S
O
E
' '
VE BEEN HERE A WEEK, AND IT S STILL HARD Sham stands above the Dagger River and its eastern
not to f e el overwhelmed by the city. The towers tributary, the Hilt. It's an important port for anyone deal­
ing with Aerenal, Xen'drik, or Sarlona. Mountains line
I the shores of the Dagger, and Sham can't spread out. So
rise up until they disappear into the clouds. Lights
gleam in a thousand windows. Slrycoaches work
The city is primarily made up of these quarters:
their way through the maze o f bridges connecting the tow­ instead it has grown ever upward.
ers, and up above I can see the burning ring o f an elemen­ • Central Plateau
tal airship. • Dura
Menthis Plateau
Distracted by the sights in the slry, I nearry walk into a
• Northedge
war o rged as it brushes past me. It's m y first time seeing • Tavick's Landing
f
one, but then there are so many thing s I've never seen in
At the hub of each of these quarters is a cluster of
this place. Over there, a tattooed elf haggles with a masked enormous core towers. A web of bridges and platforms
ha I.fling, arguing about the price o f lizard meat. Beyond connects many of these vast spires, and smaller turrets
sprout from the edges of the core towers. The district of
them, a gargoyle watches from a high perch. I gather m y
Skyway floats above the highest towers, while the tun­
senses and keep moving. nels of the Cogs stretch out below the lower city.
It's not until I reach the lift that I realize the warforged In between those extremes, each of the quarters is
stole rrry purse. divided into an upper ward, a middle ward, and a lower
ward. Each ward is made up of a number of districts, so
-A newcomer to the big city
that the location of a place in Sham can be expressed
with a combination of a ward name and a district name.
All the major themes of Eberron are manifest in the More information about each of the wards and the dis­
great city of Sham. It's a place of magic, with sky­ tricts in them appears later in this chapter.
coaches circling mile-high towers and mystic forges toil­
ing endlessly in the bowels. It's a place of adventure and AFTERMA H OF W A R
T
intrigue. A fallen angel is gathering minions in the ruins
below the city. A gang war is gaining strength in Calles­ Far from the front lines, Sham never fell under siege
tan. The corpse of a murdered aristocrat has just been during the Last War. Regardless, the war's impacts af­
discovered in a floating mansion. A Cannith artificer is fected the city's citizens and continue to even today.
experimenting with a planar gateway-and something is PHYSICAL DAMAGE
about to go terribly wrong. All of these adventures and a Although Sham was never subjected to a sustained
hundred more are waiting in the City of Towers. assault, it didn't avoid damage. On many occasions,
This chapter details the city for players and DMs alike. commandos and saboteurs launched significant attacks
The DM can find additional information about the city in inside Sham. The most infamous of these was the
chapter 4.
Aundairian attack that brought down the floating Glass
THE S H A P E O F S H A R N Tower, devastating the district now known as Fallen. In
any of the lower or middle wards, you might encounter
i
Sham s the largest city n Khorvaire, with a population evidence of the conflict in the form of a shattered bridge,
i
of half a million people. Humans make up about a third a building collapsed by an arcane explosion, or an area
of that number, and dwarves are a sixth of it; the rest is some say is haunted because of the large number of peo­
a blend of every race found across Khorvaire. Halflings, ple killed there during the war.
elves, and gnomes all have a significant presence in the
city, but even kalashtar and changelings have communi­ PSYCHOLOGICAL SCARS
ties in Sham. Beyond the permanent population, tens of There are places in the city that house people who suf­
thousands of people pass through Sham every day. Ref­ fered because of the actions of other nations. For exam­
ugees from the war still find their way to the city, along ple, many of the residents of Dura hold all Aundairians
with tourists, spies, merchants, and folk hoping to find responsible for the destruction of Fallen. In another
their fortune in the grandest city in Eberron. district, folk could hate the Karrns for an undead attack
that occurred during the war, and a different group

C H APTER 3 I SHARN, C I TY OF TOWERS