Presmarivale

Presmarivale

Type	Town
Location	Alest, Northwest Osugbo

"A small town, on the Northwest Coast of Osugbo--renowned for its connection to the University of Xyrneiros. From a distance, it presents itself like so many other small towns all over the world: safe, decent, innocent. Get closer, though, and you start seeing the shadows underneath. The name of this town is Presmarivale"

- Forscythe Pendleton the second, renowned travel writer.

About

Presmarivale is a small town built up around the northwest coast of Osugbo, along an inclining cliffside. Named for an important figure in the conflict between Glendoveer and Champerty, the town primarily sprung up in the early PR era around the University of Xyrneiros. Lower regions of Presmarivale contain many of the buildings related to the University of Xyrneiros, while portions of the town up the cliffside contain the residential, tourist, and luxury districts. The town has two main ports, one near the causeway to the University of Xyrneiros used to transport tourists and visitors by sea, the other further up the coast, used primarily for shipping.

Districts

Student District:

A good deal of the town’s real estate is dedicated to student housing, however. As the University expanded on its island, it quickly became obvious that there was not enough room on the island to support additional student housing while maintaining the historic buildings and character of the island. Accordingly, many residences for first and second year students were constructed on the mainland, with specially-installed teleportation circles to port them directly to the university out of convenience. Ironically, these new construction dormitories became coveted among the student body for the teleportation circles’ ability to reduce time spent getting to class outside during the harsh winters. Additionally, because the buildings were on the mainland, student parties are often less supervised by faculty.

Notable Locations:

• The Library: dive bar frequented by students.
• The Honeybee: bar and eatery frequented by students.
• Xyrneiros’ Arcanum: Mainland. Campus bookstore, mainland branch.
• Barn-Burners': A dancehall run by the Fire-Genasi, Sizzle. A local favorite to dance to up-tempo music and touring acts popular among the younger generations. The “one club in town” per-se.
• Morning Glow Meadery: A popular Meadery which serves as the source of casks and bottles for many of the University’s parties.
• Seven Kitsune Sisters: Restaurant and Bar owned by a family from Ravel bringing family recipes to Presmarivale.
• Page-Turners: one of the only dedicated fiction bookshops in Presmarivale, this store sees frequent patronage from students and tourists alike due to its proximity to the Residential district.
• Iris Books: A used-book and gift shop originally started by an out-of-town half-elf named Tobias Gillmore, obsessed with unproven legends of the Order of the Dreaming Eyne. Popular among students and more frugal tourists for its shelves upon shelves of used, low-quality printings of books, and displays of merchandise sporting the Order of the Dreaming Eyne logo. Gillmore’s bestselling products are miniature wall-tapestries and tunics with slogans such as “I saw the Dreaming Eye at Iris Books!” “EYE know what’s REALLY happening in Presmarivale,” and the ever-popular “EYE want to believe.” Gilmore himself will happily talk to interested customers in hushed tones about his theory that the Order of the Dreaming Eye are an organization bent on concealing the truth about Quelmar—that the plane is actually a spherical planet orbiting a larger celestial body. The store has endured for years, despite being both a fire and tourist trap.

Luxury District:

Due to the University's prestige, the town has a higher-end sector of luxury inns, restaurants, and magic item vendors designed to attract the eye of visiting academics and rich alumni alike. Many of these establishments are either themed around spellcasting and magic, or the seacoast—the two biggest tourist draws of the town. Presmarivale is also known for its boutique bookshops which run up and down much of the town’s high street. While most of the stores directly on the strip are geared towards visitors to the town with over-embellished printings of popular titles and a shop to sell the university’s press books, there are several used and rare bookstores off down alleys and in the residential district which are patronized primarily by students and professors.

Notable Locations:

• Clifftop Books: high-end bookseller.
• The Owl’s Perch: Bespoke supper club, which occasionally hosts higher-end musical acts which pass through town. The families of richer prospective students are often encouraged to grab dinner here (on the University’s dime, of course).
• The Gnoshery: Gourmet gnome-cuisine with an attached bar, off-limits to undergraduate students. Notable for its unique runes of illusion dispelling hidden in its doorways to dispel any magical attempts by students attempting to sneak in. Ironically, unsuccessfully attempting to do so has long been a rite of passage among the College of Illusions.
• Seacliff Gallery: High end art dealership with a focus on oil paintings. A popular, but rare product are magical paintings which allow the viewer to step into an illusory replication of the depicted location.
• Clifftop Hotel: A large, multi-story, hunting-lodge-style luxury hotel for the university’s richer guests. The premier lodging in Presmarivale, it is renowned for its continental breakfasts and dinners held in the famous “Northwest Room,” a room with high, vaulted wooded ceilings, and floor-to ceiling windows overlooking the sea and University.

Residential District:

Some alumni of the University settle down in town after graduation—either finding administrative or teaching roles within the University, or starting local businesses to capitalize on the tourism economy. Two of the most popular of these are the Northwest Inn, a cheap lodging and greasy spoon restaurant beloved by campus, and Mage’s Rest, a coffee shop perfect for meeting with friends, working on a new book, or nursing a hangover on a Sunday morning. Residential housing for townsfolk spans the length of the town up the coast, but is generally on the side of the mainland away from the sea.

Notable Locations:

• Mage’s Rest: Student-friendly cafe and bookshop. A popular local haunt.
• The Northwest Inn: popular local inn and restaurant
• Iron-arm’s emporium: local blacksmith forge and shop, places an emphasis on selling non-enchanted weapons to the college. An art-supply store for enchanters, almost. Second generation Dwarven shop run by Jeremiah Iron-Arm.
• Claffton’s: town bakery famous for its sticky buns.
• Sea-breeze Creamery: farm store for the dairy farm at the edge of town. Famous in town and the region for its selling of ice cream, made possible both by recipes brought from Amusa, and the creation of magical refrigeration chambers and storehouses through the use of enchanted rooms and sigils.
• Fereder’s Textiles: local clothing store and tailor. Outlet for imported textiles brought from elsewhere in Osugbo and from Amusa. Specializes in wizard robes. Owned by the Fereder Family.
• Tanners’ Tanners: Leatherworking shop owned by the Tanners family who specialize in dyeing leather and hat-making.
• Horton’s resale: Seller of used clothing, furniture, and trinkets popular among the town.
• Veritie’s Qualitie Bookeselleres: Stuffy, upscale bookstore. An overpriced tourist trap frequented by those fancying themselves intellectuals. Derided by the more artistic students of the University as a place for only the most pretentious of academics. A local favorite of Professor Quimbleton Fiddleford.

The Wharf District:

Of course, with such a large concentration of money—both from the university and from visiting patrons/mages, there is an undercurrent to the city. Enter the Wharf district. Originally a series of storehouses built into the naturally occurring caverns and cliffside rock along the town, the wharf district started as a mundane hub of commerce with the occasional outpost for shipping companies. However, with increased traffic to the town, and a rapid expansion of the storehouses built into the caverns and cliffside, the Wharf District became an excellent place to purchase a secluded storage space for a reasonable price, no questions asked.

Accordingly, in addition to smuggling operations, the Wharf District began to attract students of the university whose experiments with the arcane blurred the lines of sensibility and morality. Corpse-stitchers, pact-summoners, dragon-cults, and many more have reserved spaces in the Wharf caverns or inlet warehouses for varying lengths of time. Wharf management tend not to ask too many questions when payments have gone delinquent for several months and they need to clean out a storehouse. Questions like “what does this summoning circle do?” “whose bodies are these”? or “what the hell is that thing?” are often ones best left unasked for security’s sake. Incidentally, many abjuration and battlemages with shaky moral compasses frequently find themselves employed as Wharf security after graduation from the University.

Most people in town recognize the Wharf as a necessary evil—an allowed undercurrent which supports both the more extravagant tastes of visitors and more esoteric inclinations of the university—but do not engage with it much further than the seaside bar “The Wharf Rat,” a seedy yet popular establishment which attracts some of the edgier artistic and musical acts which pass through town or spring up around the University.

Notable Locations:

• The Wharf Rat: Popular local tavern, frequently hosts concerts/shows on Saturday nights. Also operates as a concierge to arrange connections with smugglers, warehouse owners, or fences. Has a backroom for Wharf V.I.P.s to keep their dealings away from the prying eyes of the public.
• Wharfside Gallery: a refurbished warehouse run by local artists. A frequent site of experimental gallery showings, undergraduate art shows, and any work deemed too weird or extreme to show in the more tourist-friendly galleries higher up on the cliff.
• Amusa Southbound Company: an import company primarily doing business with, and importing goods from Galik for the college, whose warehouses are largely above board, and lend an air of legitimacy to the district.
• Tommy Doogie’s Shipping Co: Run by enigmatic halfling “merchant” Tommy Doogie, this shipping company serves as an importer both of the consumer goods which buoy the tourist economy, and the more illicit goods which fund the black market.
• Dockside Warehouse Co: a “real estate” business venture started by an enterprising dropout of the university, who would buy excess warehouse space from the other shipping companies in the area, and lease them out without questions asked for “self storage.” There are rumors that the company has been illegally expanding its warehouse square footage by mining deeper into the cliffside, but nothing has been explicitly confirmed, and few in town really care enough to ask.
• Seaglass and Driftwood: A shop operating out of the furthest northern niche of the docks, ostensibly selling spell and potion components, as well as a collection of pipes, but with a robust backroom for more illicit tomes and ingredients, including supplies for corpse-stitching and demon-contact.
• Far Point Lighthouse: the one building claimed by the Wharf above the cliff line, the Far Point lighthouse sits at the far north edge of town to help guide in ships. For ease of access, a dumbwaiter was carved out of the caverns and cliffs many years ago.