1 The Vault

In the middle of the Warehouse District, sitting alone with no other buildings alongside, is a large stone warehouse that boasts better security and locks than anywhere else in Freeport outside the Sea Lord’s Palace. This is the Vault, the safest place in town to store just about anything, assuming you have the money to keep up your payments. Traders and merchants—not to mention pirates and thieves—store their most valuable merchandise here for safekeeping.

History
The Vault is one of the oldest buildings in the Warehouse District; it was built in the time of the first Sea Lord, when Freeport was even more lawless and thief-plagued than it is today. Financed by a consortium of merchants and traders, the Vault was built to be impregnable by the standards of the day. Two centuries later, the building has withstood every intrusion attempt—including a cannon barrage by one particularly determined group of pirates a few decades back.

Vault rates are calculated on a monthly basis and based on the size of the storage unit; the smallest units are well within the means of Freeport’s middle classes. The fee gets the renter a personal unit inside the massive building, to which only he and the management possess a key. At the Vault, having the key to a unit is considered to imply ownership of the unit; no questions are asked as long as the proper fees are paid. Renters are advised to keep a tight grip on their key. The only items forbidden to be stored in the Vault are obviously dangerous devices, such as explosives or demonic relics; anything else is permitted. Magically locked and warded units are also available at ten times the standard price. Samarka Joliet, the owner, casts and maintains the spells protecting these units. Arrangements to access a magically locked unit must be made a day in advance, so Joliet can be on hand personally to bypass the lock.

All storage units can be accessed freely from sunup to sundown. Getting access to the Vault’s storage units after dark is extremely difficult, not to mention dangerous. Every night Joliet locks the Vault down and protects it with a variety of spells and wards that can keep out, trap, or even kill intruders. The Vault also employs three hulking half-orc brothers as security guards. Barca, Sim, and Lug Gomark aren’t very bright, but they have a distinct talent for intimidating people—and for hurting people when intimidation fails to do the job.

Rental payments are due on the first day of every month. Standard Vault policy is to hold a client’s belongings for one month following delinquency; the nature of sea travel and trade makes it inevitable that some clients have difficulties getting back to Freeport in a timely fashion. As long as the account is brought up to date, Joliet is willing to be generous. However, if even a single extra day passes, a delinquent client’s goods end up at the Municipal Auction House and the Vault collects a share of the public auction price.

Description
The Vault is a sprawling two-story stone building that covers a full quarter of a city block, and is distinguished by the fact it has no windows on its exterior. The only external door is made from heavy stone reinforced with iron, and bears a number of extremely good locks. The interior of the building is a maze of corridors lined with vaults, ranging from tiny coffin-sized units up to rooms large enough to hold an entire mansion’s worth of belongings. All the walls are constructed of sturdy stone, ranging in thickness from one foot for interior walls to a rumored three feet for exterior ones. Some have joked the place could withstand an assault almost as well as the walls of the Old City.

Prominent NPCs
Samarka Joliet:The albino wizard Samarka Joliet has run this place for as long as anyone remembers—perhaps even back to the time of the first Sea Lord. Joliet, who wears his long white hair in a single braid down his back, has connections in all parts of the city. He doesn’t flaunt them, and likes to maintain a very low profile. The Harbormaster and Joliet know each other well, for instance, and have occasionally been seen together in the darker corners of Scurvytown.

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