Lantern Wards

The Lantern Wards are the upper city of Argentum, a wealthy district of trade and old stone housing inside the Grand Canals, a heated aqueduct system that encircles the ward and supplies it with security, heat and water. Anyone in the city who wants to live in luxury lives here.¹

Description

The streets are laid cobblestone. The buildings are of stone and, while not uniform in style, more consistent than those of the outer city.¹

Four bridges cross the canal into the wards. One of them is Swordgate, on the north side.² Westgate is another, west of it.³ Crossing requires citizenship papers, which amount to a birth certificate, and the guards at the bridge check them as a matter of routine.¹ Papers are seldom checked on the way out, though they can be.³ It is harder to find a private corner here than in the outer city, since the buildings stand further apart.¹

Points of Interest

At the heart of the ward is the Plaza of the Ascendant and the Cathedral of the Silver Flame. In a plaza on the north side of the cathedral stands a silver or platinum dragon about forty feet long, which the party took to be Bahamut.¹ The headquarters of the Order of the Lantern stand nearby.¹ The Silver Archives, the city’s main library, stand beside the cathedral, with the Bureau of Infrastructure & Mapping among the archival buildings around them.¹ The Archives and the Bureau face each other across a street in the southeast corner of the ward.² North-northwest of the Bureau is the Hall of the Anvil, guildhall of the Vaultsmiths.¹ The Firestar Chariot is an inn popular with people with money.¹

History

Session 9

Luma crossed into the wards on the evening of 29 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, to report back to the Bureau.¹ The next morning the whole party crossed, with Hazel, who has no papers, riding in Luma’s hat as a rabbit. For some of them it was their first time in the wards.¹

Session 11

The party left the wards by Swordgate on 30 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, with Hazel hidden in Luma’s hat as a chipmunk, and crossed back the next morning with their papers checked again, to reach the Silver Archives.²

Session 13

The Syndicate route zigzags beneath most of the wards without passing under the moat, and about a mile below their center, beneath the chapel, crosses a stretch of pressure the party had never felt before.⁴ The streets were lit with candles for the Vigil of Remembrance when the party came up that evening.⁴

Session 14

Hazel crossed into the wards as a gerbil carried by Luma at midday on 1 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, to reach the Hall of the Anvil.³

References

Session 9 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹
Session 11 ↩ ↩² ↩³
Session 14 ↩ ↩² ↩³
Session 13 ↩ ↩²