Outer City

Neighborhoods

  Blackgate
The settlement beyond the Black Dragon Gate, this neighborhood serves those traveling to and from Baldur's Gate from Waterdeep along the Trade Way. A number of massive stables cater to travelers' mounts and a community of dwarven ironsmiths draw even those from within the walls of Baldur's Gate for their craftsmenship.   Little Calimshan
A distinct, walled community that guards itself fiercly from the influence of the city, its other neighbors, and particularly the influence of The Guild. Tensions remain high between the Calishite community and Baldur's Gate, going all the way back to the Calishite refugee's arrival generations ago. The walls themselves stand fifteen feet tall and five feet thick both around the community and wind through it, dividing Little Calimshan into multiple drudachs inhabited by a different tribe with its own suite of markets, inns, and sites of industry. The walls serve as both defensive measures, but also as elevated streets, allowing locals to move quickly and efficiently through the neighborhood. The markets of Little Calimshan offer a vast array of goods and services, second only to the Wide within Baldur's Gate, but only opens to outsiders for a few hours a day. While Little Calimshan presents a unified front to the rest of the Outer City and Baldur's Gate at large, the microcosm of a city to itself features many of the same pressures and problems. Income inequality and political differences between generations create division among their ranks and the tension has been steadily brewing alongside a gang war growing more violent in recent years.   Norchapel
The quietest neighborhood of the Outer City, Norchapel is home to those willing to pay higher than average protection fees to The Guild to ensure peace and tranquility and relative safety.   Rivington
Rivington is the first neighborhood welcoming travelers from the south. A self-contained village of fishers and river-powered mills. A local gang, the Rivington Rats, oversee the area as well as the smuggling activity that takes place thanks to the river access beyond the city walls.   Sow's Foot
Home to any and all considered outsiders by Baldur's Gate and even the Outer City, this neighborhood is filled with expatriates of dozens of regions, denizens of the Underdark, and species considered monstrous by some citizens. These disparate communities have banded together against the city that has rejected them. The streets are filled with the scent of exotic foods and the calls of strange animals.   Stonyeyes
Full of stockyards and stables, the neighborhood is named for the Basilisk Gate it extends just beyond. Many of the Outer City residents who work within Baldur's Gate call Stonyeyes home for easy access to the Lower City.   Tumbledown
Perpetually foggy and overlooking the river, this neighborhood is primarily known for hosting the Cliffside Cemetery.   Twin Songs
Along the northern banks of the Chionthar River, Twin Songs stands ready to welcome travelers from the south as they leave Wyrm's Crossing. Twin Songs is known most for playing home to a vast array of shrines and places of worship, including legal worship to fiends and notoriously evil deities.   Whitkeep
The free-spirited home of artists, Whitkeep takes its name from the white manor at the heart of the neighborhood that hosts an enclave of gnomes. Were it not for the stench of the tanneries also established in the neighborhood, it would likely be much more appealing to the trendy and creative individuals of the city. As such, it plays home to the protective and radical residents who wear its rough edges as a badge of honor.   Wyrm's Crossing
The massive pair of bridges crossing the Chionthar River meeting at the central Wyrm's Rock, each of which are girded by shops and residences along both edges of the walkway. Specializing in seedy dive bars and gambling halls where roudy or biligerant drunks are thrown directly into the river, Wrym's Crossing has a reputation even among the Outer City as being full of riffraff. Among those who fit the description is also a fiercly loyal and tenatious halfing community whose smaller residences are perfect for the precariously built structures of Wrym's Crossing.  

Notable Locations

 

Government & Civic

  Balduran Looks Out to Sea
This statue resembling Balduran but twice, appeared in Tumbledown shortly after Balduran's final disappearance. While residents initially thought it a tribute to the great man, they soon realized that once a year, it would magically shift its pose, though it always gazed westward. Accounts of those who have followed the gaze suggest that it leads one towards Balduran's Tomb, but no one has been able to verify these records.   Riverveins
A maze of meandering tunnels carved by the River Chionthar where it meets the rising Dusthawk Hill that has become a source of mystery and legend for locals. Many tunnels are submerged, but as the river's height has shifted over generations, some stretches of tunnel now remain dry or only half-flooded making them ideal hideouts for fugitives and tales of stolen treasures lost to the darkness and waves.   Wyrm's Rock
Constructed by the Flaming Fist many years ago, this formidable fortress is the first checkpoint at which the city taxes northbound travelers with a 5 copper toll during the day. After dark, the drawbridge on either side of Wrym's Rock are raised, preventing all traffic. Much of the Wrym's Crossing inns cater to latecomers who have to wait until morning to reach the city proper.  

Merchants & Business

  Cliffside Cemetary
With only the wealthiest of patriars being able to afford burial within the city walls in church or family crypts, the rest of the city finds themselves searching for space beyond Baldur's Gate. The largest of the scattering of cemetaries, Cliffside Cemetary dominates the Tumbledown neighborhood and employs many locals as gravediggers, stonemasons, morticians, and professional mourners. Years ago, the graveyard was a family estate left empty after a business rival murdered an entire family in their beds. With no inheritor and no interest in the estate due to its dark legacy, the city transformed it into a cemetary now watched over by the Gravemakers crew, guarding both the dead from graverobbers as well as the Outer City from undead, a perpetual threat.   Danthelon's Dancing Axe
The go-to shop for anything an adventurer might be looking for from mundane equipment to fine weaponry and even mobile monster cages, this storefront is run by Enthral Danthelon who claims to have been an adventurer himself. The shop is guarded by the titular magical flying axe and customers are regularly treated to the winding tale behind Danthelon's receiving of the axe from an elven princess he saved in his youth. Danthelon is also happy to pass along rumors and gossip of work for adventurers to paying customers as well.   Garynmor Stables and Menagerie
Given that mounts and beasts of burden aren't allowed with city walls, the Outer City is nearly overrun with stables of all qualities from muddy pens to barns nicer than most inns. Of these, Garynmor is the largest, operating locations in Stonyeyes and Blackgate, allowing travelers to leave their horse on one side and pick it up on the other. They also rent horses to residents in need of transportation. Even so, their locations are best known for their menageries - a presentation of animals both mundane and mysterious from Ubis Garynmor's years as a world traveler.   Hamhocks Slaugterhouse
The largest slaughterhouse in Baldur's Gate, located in the Stonyeyes neighborhood. The slaughterhouse has always maintained an uneasy relationship with its neighbors, as other herders claim the constant smell of blood makes their animals uneasy.   Oasis Theater
Visited by Outer City locals and the most high-profile patriars alike, the Oasis Theater is some of the most reknown and exciting entertainment anywhere in Baldur's Gate. Theater owner and direct Jonas Goodnight has earned the reputation for producing some of the most outrageous and masterfully crafted shows in living memory. Not only do they incorporate everything from live monsters to powerful illusion magic, but break any and all taboos, satirizing any and all, including the dukes and prominent leaders of the Guild. The fact that performances regularly go awry with monsters getting loose or broken equipment sending acrobats plummetting into the audience only adds to the excitement for many attendees.  

Temples and Shrines

  Church of Last Hope
Located in the Twin Songs, this combined chapel and aslyum offers sanctuary to the depressed and mentally ill. The attendenats ascribe to no particular faith, but extol the values of many faiths that offer peace. The church makes rooms available for rent and guests are often paid for by family members or concerned friends. Guests are then invited, often unexpectedly, by Mother Aramina, who oversees the church.  

Taverns & Inns

  Whitkeep Hostel
A spark of light and levity amidst the dour reputation of Baldur's Gate, the white-walled manor house is home to an all-gnome artist's commune and serves as a central gathering point for the city's radicals and political revolutionaries as well as artists and dreamers. Only gnomes are welcome to rent rooms, but any and all are welcome to gather and speak their mind.