Player Primer: Welcome to the Puddles
Absalom Campaign Lore
Welcome to Absalom, the City at the Center of the World. While grand palaces dominate the Ascendant Court and merchant fleets choke the harbor of the Foreign Quarter, your adventure begins in the city's dampest, most overlooked underbelly: The Puddles.
The Puddles District at a Glance
Originally a low-lying neighborhood, the Puddles was catastrophically flooded during a massive earthquake decades ago. Today, it is a semi-submerged slum where the tides dictate daily life. The wealthy and influential have long since abandoned it, leaving behind a maze of waterlogged ruins, sagging tenements, and improvised wooden boardwalks suspended over the brackish sludge.
- The Tides: At low tide, the district is a swampy mire of foul-smelling mud, trash, and exposed foundations. At high tide, the streets become navigable channels where locals traverse via flat-bottomed skiffs or wade chest-deep through the brine.
- The Law: The Grand Council largely ignores the Puddles. The traditional city watch rarely patrols here, leaving security in the hands of the underfunded Muckruckers—a local volunteer militia that operates out of a flooded fort known as the Sogg. Because official law enforcement is non-existent, criminal gangs like the Croakers wield immense influence.
- The People: The district is populated by the desperate, refugees, criminals on the lam, stubborn dockworkers, and a significant population of Gillmen (Lowls) who feel at home in the changing aquatic environment.
Character Hooks & Guidance
When preparing your character for this adventure, consider why you are sloshing through the wettest square mile in the Inner Sea:
- Local Resident: You live in the Puddles and have watched friends, neighbors, or colleagues vanish without an explanation. The Muckruckers won't help, so it's up to you.
- Pathfinder Agent: The Pathfinder Society has noted strange localized disruptions in the tides beneath the Isle of Kortos. You've been sent to investigate whether these anomalies are natural or magical.
- Mercenary or Investigator: A surface-world patron has paid you cold coin to track down a specific missing cargo shipment or missing relative last seen near the docks.
Keep your boots securely tied, watch your step on the mossy planks, and remember: in the Puddles, what sinks rarely stays down for long.