The oldest district of Korvosa, it covers all of Endrin Isle, which rises from sea level along the southern shore on the Narrows of Saint Alika to a 200-foot-high escarpment on the seaward north side called Garrison Hill.

Once the heart of the city, Old Korvosa is now its ragged edge, a crowded maze of twisting streets and crumbling ruins inhabited by some of the poorest residents of the city. It was in Old Korvosa that the Shingles first originated and where it remains the strongest. The only wealthy family not to have fled the district is House Arkona, which continues to manage its affairs from behind the imposing black marble walls of its Palace. The young Lord Glorio Arkona has taken an interest in revitalizing the slums and now practically runs the district himself.

Old Korvosa and its inhabitants are presently under a strict quarantine imposed by Queen Ileosa Arabasti and enforced on land, sea and air by the Gray Maidens and Sable Company.

Notable Locations in Old Korvosa

• Eel’s End: Once a tangle of five ships permanently moored at a pier on the eastern tip of Old Korvosa, the vice den was shattered by the death of its patron Devargo Barvasi and the sinking of his palace, the eponymous Eel’s End.

• Exemplary Execrables: A notorious theater specializing in the gruesome and obscene, it also has an attached museum displaying exotic torture devices and other such “curiosities.”

• Orisini Academy: The fencing school operated by Vencarlo Orisini stands near the center of the district.

• Palace Arkona: The massive black marble palace of the Arkonas takes up almost a ward’s worth of space on the island, but few are allowed to pass through its gate who are not directly employed by the noble family.

• Sticky Mermaid: This unwholesome tavern served an unruly clientele made all the rougher by “fishjack,” a particularly potent spirit garnished with fermented eggs of Jeggare River salmon. It also acted as a meeting place for the Cerulean Society. The tavern was burned to the ground by looters after the Quarantine of Old Korvosa.

• Reefclaw Run Market: A fish market also known for selling shadier items, Ashla, Egan, and Zandu chased a would be assassin through here after the Queen’s botched coronation. A smuggler’s tunnel under the market leads to a hidden sea cave and a sunken Thassilonian teleport circle.

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