2. Where the Deepwater City Meets the Gulf

High Docks occupies the portion of Windrider Freeport where the inner basin remains deep enough for large vessels to lie directly against permanent quay works. That physical fact governs almost everything built above it.

The drowned basin does not meet the city as a uniform edge. Some stretches fall away quickly beneath the water and can accept deep-draft hulls close to shore. Other stretches rise toward shallower margins better suited to small craft, low platforms, service boats, animal access, or the gradual transition into Low Docks. High Docks grew around the deepest practical frontage and pushed inland as the volume of cargo, passengers, records, and supporting businesses exceeded what could safely fit immediately beside the water.

High Docks follows approximately 2,900 feet of usable inner-harbor frontage, a little over half a mile when the curves of the quay are followed. From the water to the deepest parts of the Stores, the district extends roughly 700–1,100 feet inland. It is therefore better understood as a long working waterfront backed by several increasingly elevated bands than as a square neighborhood.

From the basin, the district rises in stages toward Registry Hill rather than climbing as one continuous slope. The lowest ground belongs to the Quays and associated waterfront courts. Behind them, the Check occupies a flatter working band where cargo and passengers can be processed without immediately confronting the steeper climb. The Stores spread across deeper inland terraces and lower rises, where warehouses and commercial buildings can gain more floor area without consuming the most valuable quay edge. Registry Rise then climbs out of this working basin toward higher civic ground.

The simplest way to read High Docks is:

INNER HARBOR
↓
THE QUAYS
ships, berths, mooring, cranes, gangways, water access
↓
THE CHECK
inspection, scales, seals, passenger processing, controlled waiting
↓
THE STORES
warehouses, factors, captains’ offices, food, lodging, commercial support
↓
LOWER CITY TERRACES
↓
REGISTRY HILL

That pattern is functional rather than perfectly geometric. High Docks is old enough that buildings overlap those bands. A warehouse may have a quay-facing annex. An inspection court may extend between two older structures. A factor may rent upper rooms above a storage building. A stair older than the present freight plan may survive beside a newer graded road. These irregularities make the district layered without making it incomprehensible.

District Scale and Elevation

For local navigation, the working deck of the Quay Front serves as the district’s relative elevation reference.

Area	Approximate Rise Above Quay Front
Quay working deck	0 ft
lower Check	+6 to +10 ft
upper Check	+10 to +16 ft
lower Stores	+15 to +25 ft
upper Stores	+25 to +40 ft
lower Registry Rise connection	+45 to +60 ft

That rise is spread across streets, short ramps, retaining walls, stairs, and stepped building foundations. It is not one sixty-foot climb. Handcarts can reach most of the Stores through graded freight routes. Heavy commercial carts generally do not continue onto the steeper Registry approaches.

Normal walking times assume an adult moving with purpose through ordinary traffic.

Route	Normal Walking Time
Water Gate → Central Quay Office	3–4 minutes
Central Quay Office → lower Registry Rise	about 5 minutes
Central Quay Office → Seven Knots Warehouse	4–5 minutes
Central Quay Office → Tidecloth House	8–10 minutes
Water Gate → Seven Knots Warehouse	6–7 minutes
Water Gate → Captains’ Offices	7–8 minutes
lower Registry Rise → Low Docks transition by Dockwalk	12–15 minutes
one end of High Docks frontage → the other	12–15 minutes
same route during a major cargo surge	18–25 minutes

A standard handcart or two-person porter team normally requires:

Freight Route	Normal Travel Time
central general berth → Seven Knots	6–8 minutes
central general berth → Tidecloth House	12–15 minutes
heavy-lift frontage → lower Yard Road	5–8 minutes
Check → Salt Road cart queues	8–12 minutes

These times do not include inspection, queueing, loading, or unloading. A blocked fire lane, active crane court, passenger surge, or badly placed freight cart can lengthen them considerably.

The scale means High Docks is compact enough for news to move quickly but too large for every response to be instantaneous. A Harbor Officer near the Central Quay Office can normally reach a central berth in a few minutes. An officer crossing the entire district may need ten minutes or more. The same scale should govern chases, messenger timing, cargo interception, and Watch response.

The Quay Front

The Quay Front is the district’s working edge against the inner harbor.

Large ships do not simply tie up wherever stone happens to meet water. The frontage is divided into 16 formally numbered deepwater berth positions whose usefulness depends on water depth, available maneuvering room, crane reach, quay strength, passenger access, and the routes leading inland.

Among those sixteen positions:

4 have direct access to the strongest heavy-lift crane positions;
5 provide the easiest passenger routes toward Water Gate and passenger processing;
3 can be cleared with sufficient separation for restricted, dangerous, frightened-live-animal, or otherwise difficult handling;
the remaining positions function primarily as general merchant berths.

Those categories overlap. A heavy-lift berth can also be suitable for restricted handling. A passenger-favored berth can still handle ordinary cargo when passenger traffic is light.

At ordinary commercial use, the Harbor Service tries to keep one berth available for damaged arrivals, emergency reassignment, or a vessel whose draft or condition proves materially different from what was declared. The reserve can be used during extreme congestion, but doing so leaves the entire frontage less resilient to accidents and delays.

The strongest berth positions serve vessels carrying heavy or awkward cargo. They have the broadest landing courts, the most direct access to reinforced cranes, and the easiest connection to Yard Road. Passenger-heavy berths lie closer to the route through the Check and away from the widest crane-swing areas. General merchant berths occupy the remaining deep frontage where ordinary large-vessel cargo can be handled without specialized isolation.

Restricted-handling positions are not separate quarantine docks. They are berth areas where difficult cargo can be given space without placing an ordinary passenger queue or food cart beside it.

Berth Numbers and Local Directions

Harbor Officers maintain formal berth numbers because assignments, fees, incident reports, and vessel records require precise identification.

Dockworkers rarely navigate by number alone.

They also use visible landmarks:

crane towers;
warehouse fronts;
carved quay marks;
painted bollards;
stair mouths;
large water stairs.

Directions such as:

“Berth Twelve, two cranes past Seven Knots.”

or:

“Heavy Front, Registry side of the water stairs.”

are normal.

The number matters to the Harbor Service. The landmark makes the location easy to find.

Quay Construction

The oldest quay sections were built in shorter segments and reinforced repeatedly. Newer work extends outward or ties older sections together into broader cargo fronts. Different construction periods remain visible in:

stone size;
timber facing;
drainage openings;
repair seams;
bollard placement.

The quay surface is kept comparatively open because empty working ground is useful.

Permanent stalls are prohibited inside crane swing areas and primary cargo lanes. Temporary vendors can operate only in designated margins where they do not obstruct lifts, mooring crews, rescue access, or freight transfer.

That pushes most durable commercial activity back into the Stores.

Mooring Infrastructure

Large mooring bollards and ring points are positioned according to the hull sizes normally received at each berth. Additional line points allow crews to adjust vessel position as cargo weight changes.

The water level changes enough that crews regularly adjust line tension, but not so dramatically that deepwater berths become unusable through half the day. Gangways are built or rigged to accommodate the ordinary range.

Line Dolphins and their handlers use low working platforms set between some berth groups. These platforms sit below the main cargo edge so handlers can reach the water without interfering with large gangways or suspended loads.

Free dolphins also approach the frontage. Feeding them is discouraged around active berths because repeated feeding draws animals toward mooring lines, service boats, working dolphins, and heavy traffic.

Water Stairs and Rescue Ladders

High Docks has two different forms of water access.

Rescue ladders are frequent and narrow. They exist so someone in the water has a reachable way out.

Water stairs are larger engineered descents used where routine movement between quay and water is expected.

Water stairs support:

service boats;
swimmers;
animal handlers;
aquatic residents and visitors;
maintenance workers.

They are not distributed everywhere because every opening in the quay complicates cargo movement. They cluster where water access is useful enough to justify the lost frontage.

The formal aquatic-arrival facility, Water Gate, occupies one of the largest such low-water interfaces but remains separated from working-animal platforms and heavy freight.

Water Gate

Water Gate sits toward the passenger-facing side of the Quay Front, close enough to the Check that aquatic arrivals enter the same civic process as terrestrial passengers.

The facility consists of a broad stepped descent and submerged ledge protected from direct heavy-lift traffic. The outer portion remains deep enough for a swimmer to wait comfortably. The upper portion provides ramps and stairs onto the quay.

A roofed clerical platform overlooks the water-facing edge. Its work surfaces include recessed dry trays and raised writing boards so waterproof containers can be opened without placing papers directly on wet stone.

Low rails and mooring loops allow small service craft, floating baggage containers, and mobility supports to remain alongside without occupying the main ship berths.

Water Gate is not fenced off as a separate district within High Docks. Its distinction comes from design and procedure. A person arriving through the water approaches the same legal system through infrastructure suited to their movement.

Water Gate Staff

During the full working day, Water Gate normally has:

2 Harbor Service arrival clerks;
1 water-access attendant;
1 baggage and transfer hand;
access to an interpreter through Open Palm Interpreters.

A second water-access attendant is added during known passenger surges or when several aquatic-capable vessels are expected together.

The attendants are trained to assist swimmers who need support near the quay, handle floating baggage cases, keep small service craft away from the passenger ledge, and help partially aquatic or amphibious travelers use the ramp, submerged ledge, or stairs appropriate to their movement.

They are not healers, divers, or legal adjudicators.

Hours

Water Gate operates at full staffing from 06:00 to 22:00.

From 22:00 to 06:00, one Harbor Service arrival clerk and one water-access attendant provide reduced coverage when arrivals are expected or a vessel is already inside Windrider’s controlled approach.

An unexpected aquatic traveler arriving after full desk hours is not turned away merely because of the time. Night staff completes immediate identification and safety steps, then records anything requiring daytime Registry, advocate, interpreter, or specialist attention.

Fees

Ordinary arrival through Water Gate carries no separate passenger-entry fee.

Service	Price
ordinary Water Gate arrival	no separate charge
assisted baggage transfer from water to quay	1 sp per ordinary load
waterproof baggage holding, up to one day	2 sp per load
small service-craft tie-up, up to one hour	1 sp
after-dark baggage assistance	+1 sp per load

Water Gate can comfortably process roughly 20–30 individual arrivals per hour when papers are straightforward and baggage is limited. Document complexity, interpretation needs, and baggage transfer usually limit throughput more than the water itself.

Waiting Basin

A protected waiting basin beside the clerical platform lets aquatic travelers remain immersed while a short document problem is resolved.

The basin contains:

submerged resting ledges;
handholds;
low rails;
one sheltered section protected from ordinary service-craft wake.

Amphibious travelers can instead wait on the upper covered platform.

Someone whose issue will take hours rather than minutes is moved into a more appropriate waiting arrangement rather than being expected to remain indefinitely in the basin.

Storm Closure and Shelter Stair

Water Gate can close during dangerous harbor weather.

If closure lasts more than a brief interruption, aquatic arrivals are redirected to Shelter Stair, a protected service water stair on the lee side of the central quay frontage, approximately four minutes’ walk from the Central Quay Office.

Shelter Stair normally serves:

maintenance craft;
Harbor Service boats;
emergency water access.

It is not a second passenger district.

When Water Gate remains closed:

Harbor Service raises closure signals;
pilot boats and quay staff redirect aquatic arrivals;
two Water Gate staff relocate to Shelter Stair;
a portable clerical desk and shielded lamps are brought from the Central Quay Office;
passenger processing continues at reduced capacity.

Shelter Stair can process approximately 8–12 people per hour comfortably. Large aquatic groups may be held at a protected vessel or harbor waiting position until Water Gate reopens.

The closure slows formal aquatic arrival. It does not eliminate lawful aquatic access to Windrider.

Routine use of Water Gate or Shelter Stair requires no PF2e check.

Crane Courts

Each major crane requires more open ground than the visible machine suggests.

The space beneath and around the lift path is kept clear as a crane court. These courts connect ship, staging ground, and onward freight route.

Heavy-lift courts are broad enough for:

timber lengths;
machinery;
reinforced carts;
large cargo frames.

General crane courts handle:

cases;
barrels;
palletized or slung loads;
ordinary merchant cargo.

Each court is divided practically into:

landing space;
active staging;
clear movement lane.

Cargo cannot simply accumulate across all three.

The landing space must remain available for the next lift. The movement lane must remain open. Only the active staging portion can hold cargo awaiting immediate inspection or transfer.

Cargo Staging

Staging is temporary by design.

A cargo lot can remain in a staging court while:

its count is confirmed;
its receiving porter crew arrives;
a cart is brought forward;
an inspector completes a short check;
warehouse destination is confirmed.

Normal active staging is included for two hours after clearance into the staging area.

If released cargo remains because the merchant failed to arrange removal:

Additional Time	Charge
next 4-hour block	2 sp per standard load
second additional 4-hour block	4 sp per standard load

After eight additional hours, ordinary quay staging ends. Cargo must move to a warehouse, controlled holding, or back aboard where allowed.

The practical rule is:

active transfer
→ staging

waiting for later handling
→ warehouse or controlled holding

Harbor Officers and quay supervisors enforce that distinction because staging courts are part of the working berth rather than cheap storage.

The Windrider Harbor Service

The Windrider Harbor Service is the civil department responsible for practical administration of Windrider Freeport’s publicly controlled harbor infrastructure.

Its authority comes from Windrider’s harbor ordinances, berth regulations, cargo-handling rules, and the civic authority that maintains the freeport’s public waterfront.

It is not a military command and not a court.

Its purpose is to make it physically and administratively possible for ships, people, and cargo to move through the port.

Responsibilities

The Harbor Service owns or administers:

public berth assignment;
public quay use;
cargo staging rules;
Harbor Service inspections;
public scales and measures;
Harbor Service seals;
Water Gate;
Central Quay Office;
public High Docks work lighting;
public crane scheduling where Harbor Service cranes are used;
immediate operational shutdowns for harbor safety;
temporary harbor records.

It coordinates with but does not absorb:

Pilot Houses;
Tidegate Guards;
Lantern Watch;
Harbor Militia;
Registry Hill;
Blue Lantern Courts;
private warehouses;
private guards;
private factors.
Harbor Steward Helena Voss

The Harbor Service is led by Harbor Steward Helena Voss, a Maritheli tengu woman in her late fifties who has worked the Windrider harbor system for more than thirty years.

She began as a pilot-house runner, spent several years as a berth clerk, later served as a Harbor Officer, and eventually became the senior officer responsible for cross-district berth coordination before appointment as Harbor Steward.

Her office is in Windrider’s central civic harbor administration rather than High Docks itself. She visits High Docks, Low Docks, controlled harbor infrastructure, and Pilot Houses on a regular schedule.

Helena controls:

Harbor Service policy;
staffing;
fee schedules;
inter-district coordination;
review of non-emergency Harbor Service decisions.

She cannot reverse a court judgment, command the Lantern Watch, order Pilot Houses to certify an unsafe route, or convert an operational cargo hold into legal seizure without appropriate authority.

Helena lives with extended family on one of Windrider’s higher settled terraces. Her household has generations of maritime work behind it, but she is the first in her immediate family to spend most of her career in civic administration rather than aboard vessels.

Her public reputation is that she listens longer than captains expect and decides faster than clerks prefer.

Senior Harbor Officer Jessa Calder

Jessa Calder, a middle-aged Maritheli human, is the High Docks day-to-day operational lead.

Jessa began as a cargo tally clerk and moved into berth coordination after years of watching minor scheduling errors become harbor-wide problems.

She is known for remembering ships by what they need rather than how prestigious their captains believe them to be. She may identify an arriving vessel as “the southbound grain hull with the cracked port davit” while its owner is standing beside her.

Jessa can resolve routine berth conflicts, immediate staging disputes, staff allocation, safety closures, and day-to-day High Docks procedure.

She cannot rewrite Harbor Service fee policy or overturn a formal review by herself.

Jessa lives above a family-owned chandlery in Low Docks and walks Dockwalk to work before the main day shift. Her younger brother crews a harbor lighter, which makes her especially resistant to solutions that merely push a large vessel’s problem onto smaller craft.

Her strongest working relationships include:

Pilot House crews;
Ressa Larkin;
Seda Northhook;
Clara Vardon;
Edwin Corbin.
Staffing

Across Windrider, the Harbor Service maintains approximately 95 permanent workers.

Function	Workers
Harbor Officers and duty supervisors	26
berth, arrival, and records clerks	15
cargo inspectors	14
scale and measure staff	6
seal clerks	6
Water Gate and water-access staff	7
public crane schedulers/operators	6
lamp and quay-maintenance workers	8
runners and internal messengers	7

Not all ninety-five work in High Docks. High Docks receives the largest concentration because it handles the most formal large-vessel traffic.

The Harbor Service contracts specialist crane crews, cart teams, temporary labor, and skilled repair workers rather than permanently employing every profession that touches the waterfront.

Financing

Harbor Service revenue comes from:

berth charges;
cargo inspection fees;
public crane use;
certain after-hours services;
measurement and seal services;
civic harbor allocation.

Fees are paid into Windrider civic accounts. Individual Harbor Officers do not keep a percentage.

Records

The Harbor Service keeps three levels of records.

Immediate working records remain active while a vessel or transaction is in progress.

Short-term harbor records are retained for 30 days after departure or completion for billing correction, missing-property questions, staff review, and routine complaints.

Incident records involving accidents, formal seal replacements, major discrepancies, contested berth decisions, serious safety shutdowns, or similar matters are transmitted to Registry Hill. Harbor Service keeps a working copy for 90 days or until Registry receipt is confirmed, whichever is longer.

Registry Hill owns the retained civic record after transfer.

Complaint and Review

Immediate safety orders take effect immediately.

A captain cannot keep an unsafe crane operating merely by filing a complaint.

Non-emergency decisions follow:

Harbor Officer or clerk decision
→ duty supervisor review
→ Harbor Steward review if still contested
→ Registry or Court process if the dispute concerns legal rights rather than harbor administration

A formal Harbor Steward review costs 5 sp. The fee is returned if the Harbor Service materially reverses its own decision because of administrative error.

Institutional Boundaries
Harbor Service
→ public harbor operation

Pilot Houses
→ navigation expertise and pilotage

Tidegate Guards
→ controlled harbor movement infrastructure

Lantern Watch
→ civic enforcement

Harbor Militia
→ military-scale harbor defense

Registry Hill
→ lasting civic records

Blue Lantern Courts
→ adjudication
Central Quay Office

The Central Quay Office is the public face of the Harbor Service inside High Docks.

It stands between the principal general-merchant berths and the lower edge of the Check, where it can be reached from the waterfront, passenger processing, cargo inspection, and Registry Rise.

Its public ground floor contains:

berth desk;
public fee board;
vessel-arrival board;
incident-report counter;
messenger shelf;
waiting benches;
wall map of current berth assignments.

Rear rooms contain shift records, berth schedules, inspection coordination notes, Harbor Officer equipment, and emergency signaling gear.

A covered external platform faces the Quays so duty officers can respond without requiring every worker to enter the building.

During the main day period, the office normally has:

1 senior Harbor Officer;
2 berth clerks;
2 general Harbor Officers moving between office and Quays;
1 records clerk;
1 Registry runner.

The office is operational 24 hours a day.

Full clerical staffing normally runs 06:00–18:00. Evening and night staff maintain berth, incident, and emergency functions.

The office posts:

current berth assignments;
temporary berth closures;
crane shutdown notices;
standard Harbor Service fees;
dangerous-cargo handling restrictions;
major route closures;
significant weather notices.

It does not publicly post private cargo details, passenger records, or confidential legal holds.

Scheduled document runners go up Registry Rise several times during the working day, with additional urgent runs after significant incidents.

Standard High Docks Harbor Fees

Windrider uses a short public fee schedule.

Berth Charges
Vessel / Berth Use	Daily Charge
compact deepwater vessel occupying a short position	5 sp
standard merchant vessel	1 gp
large merchant or passenger vessel	2 gp
unusually large vessel requiring extended frontage	4 gp
heavy-lift berth differential	+5 sp/day
restricted-handling berth differential	+1 gp/day

A vessel pays one size-class charge plus any applicable infrastructure differential.

Berth Extension

If a vessel remains beyond its approved handling period through convenience or poor planning:

first authorized extra day: +50% of normal berth charge;
subsequent avoidable extension: double normal berth charge.

Weather, Harbor Service shutdown, legal hold, or another condition the captain did not cause can waive the surcharge.

Cargo Inspection

Routine manifest review is included in berth service.

Inspection	Price
ordinary selected cargo inspection	2 sp per inspected lot
complex inspection requiring extended staff time	5 sp per lot
ordinary passenger processing	no separate fee

A lot is a coherent declared shipment unit rather than every individual crate.

Public Crane Use
Crane Use	Price
ordinary public crane lift	3 sp
heavy-lift crane use	6 sp
unusually long crane booking, per hour	1 gp
night crane infrastructure surcharge	+5 sp per booked period

Crew labor is charged separately.

After-Hours Requested Service

Non-emergency Harbor Service work requiring additional staff after ordinary clerical hours carries a 5 sp surcharge unless another listed fee already includes the extra staffing.

There is no surcharge for Harbor Service emergency response or mandatory passenger processing caused by the harbor’s own arrival schedule.

Standard Harbor Work Cycle

High Docks operates continuously, but staffing and commercial expectations follow four recognizable periods.

04:00–06:00 — Pre-Dawn Setup
Lamp crews finish the night cycle, warehouses begin preparation, scales are checked, berth assignments are reviewed, food houses open, and early labor begins gathering.

06:00–14:00 — Day Shift
The busiest period for cargo inspection, warehouse intake, Registry running, passenger services, factors, and commercial offices.

14:00–22:00 — Evening Shift
Commercial activity remains substantial but gradually narrows. Passenger and berth operations continue fully.

22:00–06:00 — Night Duty
The harbor remains operational, but staffing concentrates on vessel arrival, safety, existing cargo operations, emergencies, and previously arranged work.

Individual businesses maintain their own hours inside this broader rhythm.

The Check

The Check begins immediately behind the Quay Front but is arranged as several parallel working lanes rather than one gate.

Its placement solves three problems.

First, cargo can leave the crane court without immediately entering the city.

Second, passengers can be processed close to the ship without crossing warehouse freight.

Third, any load that fails an initial check can be pulled aside without blocking the berth.

The Check includes:

manifest desks;
seal tables;
measurement stations;
cargo scales;
passenger desks;
fee windows;
short controlled waiting courts.

Every route through the Check leads toward one of three outcomes:

cleared
→ onward movement

temporarily unresolved
→ controlled waiting or specialist review

seriously restricted
→ controlled holding or transfer to the responsible authority
Inspection Lanes

Cargo inspection lanes are wide enough for handcarts and ordinary freight but intentionally narrower than the heavy quay courts.

A cargo lot arriving from the crane court is placed where inspectors can reach container faces, seals, labels, and visible contents where opened.

Unloading crews are expected to land cargo in coherent lots rather than creating a mixed pile and asking inspectors to sort it afterward.

Measurement Yard

The principal cargo scales and standard-measure equipment occupy a shared working yard within the Check.

The yard contains:

heavy platform scale;
secondary commercial platform scale;
smaller precision scale tables;
reference weights;
measuring rods;
standardized capacity vessels;
covered clerk stations.

The equipment belongs to the Harbor Service.

Private warehouse or merchant scales may also exist, but a formal dispute returns to recognized harbor standards.

Master of Measures Clara Vardon

Clara Vardon is a middle-aged Maritheli gnome who oversees the High Docks reference weights and calibration schedule.

She began as a warehouse tally worker before training in commercial measurement. Her reputation comes from treating measurement as a shared language rather than an opportunity to humiliate merchants.

Clara supervises four Harbor Service scale workers:

two assigned to the principal heavy platform scale;
one handling smaller precision measurements;
one rotating between calibration, records, and overflow.

When Clara is absent, senior scale worker Tomas Havel, a Maritheli human, can conduct ordinary reweighing and standard checks but cannot authorize replacement of a damaged master reference without Clara or the appropriate Harbor Service maintenance officer.

Clara’s day begins before the main cargo surge. She checks overnight damage reports, calibration tags, and disputed measurements awaiting review. During the busiest hours she moves among scale stations rather than remaining behind one desk.

Working scales are compared against the master references at the beginning of each ten-day work cycle, after repair, and whenever damage or a credible dispute raises doubt.

A routine reweighing costs 2 sp. If the Harbor Service measurement is found materially wrong, the fee is returned.

No appointment is required for ordinary reweighing.

Outside active duty, Clara may provide paid instruction in commercial measurement at 1 gp for a two-hour lesson when her schedule permits.

Clara lives on the lower Registry Hill terraces with her adult son, a bookbinder. She belongs to a small local gnome family community and participates in a household remembrance tradition centered on preserving the names and work of deceased relatives.

She has a long professional friendship with Seda Northhook, who knows when a disputed weight is worth challenging and when a client is simply unhappy with arithmetic. Oren Vale trusts Clara’s formal measurements while still using warehouse measures for routine internal handling.

For PCs, Clara is the person to seek when the question is:

“Was this actually measured correctly?”

not:

“Is this cargo genuine?”

Major Scale Failure

If the principal heavy scale fails, ordinary smaller lots use secondary equipment and large loads move to the secondary commercial platform scale where possible.

If both heavy-capable public scales are unavailable:

weight-dependent formal release pauses;
count-, length-, or volume-based cargo can continue where those measures are sufficient;
a merchant and receiving warehouse may agree to provisional private measurement for custody purposes.

Provisional private measurement is not a Harbor Service-certified weight.

No reweighing fee is charged when Harbor Service equipment caused the delay.

Seal Tables

Seal Tables stand near the Measurement Yard because broken seals, weight discrepancies, and inspection questions often overlap.

The Harbor Service employs a small cadre of seal clerks trained to recognize common Windrider harbor marks and maintain working inspection records.

They can verify:

whether a Windrider inspection seal is authentic;
whether its identifier matches the handling record;
whether a known commercial seal resembles the reference provided for it;
whether a seal is broken, altered, or replaced.

They cannot automatically authenticate every foreign guild, temple, workshop, or government mark in Thesalon.

Senior Seal Clerk Edwin Corbin

Edwin Corbin is an older Maritheli halfling who supervises five seal clerks rotating across the principal Seal Tables.

Two work the busiest daytime tables. One handles records and reference impressions. One rotates among secondary berth groups. One provides evening and night coverage.

Edwin spent much of his career in warehouse custody before moving into Harbor Service employment.

Routine Harbor Service seal checks tied to active inspection are included in the inspection process.

A private merchant requesting voluntary examination of an outside commercial seal pays 5 sp, provided adequate reference material exists.

Edwin can:

compare a seal to a known Harbor Service reference;
identify obvious alteration;
document breakage;
verify authorized replacement;
compare an outside commercial mark when sufficient reference material exists.

He cannot:

certify cargo contents;
establish ownership;
authenticate an unfamiliar temple or foreign state mark by intuition;
determine whether the person who applied a genuine seal acted lawfully.

Edwin is known for refusing to call a seal “proof.”

His preferred phrase is:

“It proves the seal was here.”

He belongs to an old Maritheli halfling household whose relatives work in warehousing, copying, and small-scale trade. His family maintains a practice of witnessing important agreements through agreed hand signs before committing them to writing.

Edwin has worked with Oren Vale since Oren was a tally clerk. He regularly refers foreign commercial marks to Eri Sunfold when the problem is partly linguistic and to Seda Northhook when the question concerns an unfamiliar merchant network.

Record Flow

The Check creates operational records required to move the current ship, person, or cargo through High Docks.

The division is:

High Docks Harbor Service
→ current berth and inspection operation

private warehouse or business
→ private custody and commercial records

Registry Hill
→ retained civic records where lasting preservation is required

A routine cargo release may never produce a major Registry filing.

A broken official seal, serious discrepancy, formal replacement, legal hold, vessel incident, or other significant event can.

Controlled Waiting Courts

Not every unresolved cargo needs to disappear into a locked warehouse immediately.

The Check contains several enclosed or closely supervised courts for short delays.

These are used when:

an interpreter is coming;
a factor is being summoned;
a seal comparison will be completed shortly;
a receiving cart has been delayed;
a minor discrepancy is being rechecked.

They are not suitable for overnight storage or serious hazardous material.

A load expected to remain unresolved beyond the active working period must move into bonded storage, merchant storage, specialized controlled holding, or another appropriate destination.

Open Palm Interpreters

Open Palm Interpreters occupies two connected ground-floor rooms between Water Gate’s landward approach and the passenger-facing side of the Stores.

Its placement allows Water Gate, passenger desks, captains, factors, and Registry-bound travelers to request an interpreter without sending a confused arrival deep into the city.

Ownership and Staffing

The business is owned by Eri Sunfold.

Open Palm maintains:

Eri;
4 full-time interpreters;
3 regularly contracted part-time interpreters;
a broader referral book of community speakers.

The permanent roster covers the languages most commonly encountered in formal Windrider arrivals, including Maritheli commercial speech and the principal trade languages regularly used by travelers from Caerlon, Suthrane, Veyrskold, and Ilyr.

Languages outside that roster are handled through community referrals rather than pretending every interpreter knows every language.

Open Palm also maintains familiarity with common maritime gesture and signed communication practices.

Hours and Prices

Open Palm operates 06:00–22:00 with on-call service from 22:00–06:00.

One interpreter remains Water Gate’s first-call contact during every full Water Gate shift.

Service	Price
brief spoken interpretation, up to 10 minutes	2 sp
one hour ordinary interpretation	8 sp
half-day	3 gp
full day	5 gp
ordinary written commercial translation, one page	5 sp
urgent night call	+1 gp
Water Gate interpretation required for civic processing	paid by Harbor Service

A traveler is not forced to pay merely because the Harbor Service needs an interpreter to conduct mandatory processing.

Eri Sunfold

Eri is a Maritheli wayang in early middle age.

They grew up in a mixed harbor household where relatives worked Registry copying, passenger services, and messenger work. Eri began informally translating shipping correspondence for family members before formal study turned the skill into a profession.

They live in Foreign Quarters with an older aunt and two younger relatives.

Their household maintains a family-remembrance practice connected to local Wayang traditions, but Eri is not a priest or religious authority.

Eri’s visible-hands rule during formal interpretation exists to reduce ambiguity from hidden counting, side gestures, and unsigned signals.

Their reputation comes more from willingness to say:

“There is no exact equivalent.”

than from pretending every phrase translates cleanly.

Eri maintains strong professional relationships with Adrian Varela, Seda Northhook, Water Gate clerks, and several Blue Lantern advocates.

They refuse to act simultaneously as interpreter, advocate, and witness in the same dispute when those roles would compromise one another.

The Stores

The Stores begins beyond the processing band, where cleared passengers and cargo enter the commercial district.

The transition is visible because streets become narrower, buildings taller, and permanent doors more frequent.

Quay frontage values reward open working ground.

The Stores rewards enclosed floor area.

Most buildings are two to four stories. Lower floors commonly hold cargo, offices, shops, and public business rooms. Upper floors hold additional storage, clerical rooms, rented offices, and limited residences.

The district is not densely residential, but it is not empty after work. Caretakers, owners, clerks, lodging staff, and some merchant households live above or behind their places of business.

Warehouse Rows

Warehouses cluster along streets wide enough for carts to turn and load without blocking through traffic.

Two broad patterns dominate.

Quayward warehouses sit close to the Check and favor rapid receipt from incoming ships.

Roadward warehouses sit deeper in the Stores and favor movement toward Salt Road or Yard Road.

A merchant storing goods for immediate reexport may prefer quayward access.

A merchant distributing goods through the city may prefer roadward storage.

Seven Knots Warehouse

Seven Knots occupies a quayward position behind the Check but outside the primary crane courts.

The building has three principal levels.

The ground floor contains:

public custody counter;
intake tables;
two loading halls;
guard room;
secured bonded rooms.

The second floor contains:

ordinary dry storage;
higher-value locked rooms;
warehouse offices.

The upper level holds lighter goods and several small employee rooms used by night caretakers.

Seven Knots can hold approximately 450 standard cargo loads at ordinary working density. A standard load is roughly the amount a typical two-person porter team can move on a heavy handcart in one trip.

The warehouse normally keeps no more than four-fifths of its theoretical capacity in use.

Seven Knots Rates
Service	Price
ordinary dry storage, per standard load per day	2 sp
bonded storage, per standard load per day	3 sp
locked high-value room, small lot per day	1 gp
after-hours intake	+5 sp per lot
authorized after-hours release	+1 gp
basic porter transfer within warehouse	included
special internal handling	quoted by difficulty

Seven Knots refuses live animals, unstable alchemical cargo, open food likely to attract pests, goods requiring active magical climate control, and cargo already under controlled legal or quarantine hold.

Hours

Staff preparation begins at 06:00.

Ordinary intake runs 08:00–18:00.

Routine release runs 09:00–18:00.

Night custody runs 18:00–08:00.

Overnight staffing includes two guards and one night caretaker.

After-hours release requires prior authorization or urgent Harbor Service, Registry, or Court instruction. Paying the surcharge alone does not create a right to midnight release.

Oren Vale

Oren Vale is a Maritheli orc in his early fifties and majority owner of Seven Knots Warehouse.

He purchased the controlling share from two retiring merchant families after more than twenty years as loader, tally clerk, floor chief, and manager.

Oren lives on the Registry-facing edge of the Stores with his husband, Jaro Vale, a retired ship cook who occasionally supplies preserved food to warehouse night crews.

Seven Knots employs:

Oren;
2 senior intake clerks;
3 tally clerks;
10 regular floor and loading workers;
4 rotating guards;
2 night caretakers.

Oren attends a maritime remembrance observance at Shrine Row on the anniversary of a warehouse fire that killed two workers before he became manager. The memory informs his refusal to treat fire rules as negotiable.

His strongest professional relationships are with Seda Northhook, Clara Vardon, Edwin Corbin, Ressa Larkin, and Registry Hill commercial-record clerks.

Tidecloth House

Tidecloth House occupies a roadward warehouse near Salt Road and provides the principal contrast to Seven Knots.

It specializes in fast-turnover dry cargo:

sailcloth;
ordinary textiles;
packed clothing;
rope fiber;
paper goods;
dry food packaging;
other moisture-sensitive but nonhazardous merchandise.

The building is taller and lighter than Seven Knots. Broad shuttered upper floors allow air circulation while deep roof overhangs and raised storage platforms keep rain and street runoff away from goods.

Tidecloth House holds approximately 700 standard cargo loads, but most lots remain only a few days.

Tidecloth House Rates
Service	Price
ordinary dry storage, per standard load per day	1 sp
priority same-day intake/release	+2 sp per load
locked merchant cage, small lot per day	5 sp
standing night-access agreement	2 gp/week

Tidecloth House refuses dangerous alchemical cargo, wet hides, live animals, bulk oils, heavily disputed goods, and anything requiring bonded custody.

Hours

The warehouse opens at 06:30.

New intake closes at 16:00.

Routine release continues until 18:00.

Regular clients with a standing night-access agreement can arrange pre-authorized release until midnight.

After close, two guards and one resident caretaker remain.

Sabine Moreau

Tidecloth House is owned and managed by Sabine Moreau, a Maritheli human woman in her sixties whose family has operated textile storage and freight businesses in Windrider for three generations.

Sabine’s expertise is throughput.

She knows which loads need upper dry storage, which can move directly toward Salt Road, and which merchant is about to occupy three floors with cargo that should have been sold before it arrived.

She employs:

3 clerks;
14 regular warehouse workers;
2 moisture inspectors;
3 guards;
a rotating pool of hired porters.

Sabine lives in Foreign Quarters with her daughter’s household rather than above the warehouse.

She has a long-standing professional rivalry with Oren Vale.

Sabine thinks Oren charges people to worry slowly.

Oren thinks Sabine survives by refusing every cargo complicated enough to become interesting.

Both are largely correct.

Northhook Factors

Northhook Factors is a six-person commercial factor office in the Stores between Seven Knots and the principal Salt Road freight connection.

Northhook sells coordination rather than ownership.

The office exists for captains and merchants who need someone to align berth timing, warehouse space, carts, crane crews, interpreters, Registry filings, Repair Yard appointments, and provisioning contacts.

Staff

Northhook employs:

Seda Northhook;
2 factor-clerks;
1 cargo runner;
1 account clerk;
1 scheduling clerk.

For major arrivals, additional runners are hired temporarily.

Hours and Fees

Northhook operates 06:00–20:00.

Service	Price
brief logistics consultation	2 sp
simple local arrangement involving one provider	5 sp
multi-provider local coordination	1 gp
full large-vessel arrival coordination	2 gp plus provider costs
continuing cargo agency	2% of handled cargo value, minimum 2 gp

Northhook will not actively coordinate more than four major vessel arrivals or roughly ten smaller commercial matters at one time.

Seda Northhook

Seda Northhook is a Maritheli tengu woman in her early forties.

Her surname is professional rather than hereditary. She adopted it after years of being known as “Seda at North Hook Desk,” the rented counter from which she built her business.

She spent her twenties as a ship-agent clerk and later worked for a merchant concern before establishing Northhook Factors.

Seda lives near Saltmarket with her partner, a sailcloth buyer.

She begins most working days at the Central Quay Office arrival board before returning to her own office and then moving among warehouses, clients, freight queues, and service providers.

Her strength is recognizing which problems need to be solved in what order.

She cannot certify cargo, command Harbor Officers, force a warehouse to accept goods, guarantee a berth, or override a crane master’s safety refusal.

Her strongest recurring relationship is with Oren Vale.

The Four-Pull Crew

The Four-Pull Crew is a licensed private heavy-lift crew authorized to operate Harbor Service heavy cranes in High Docks.

The Harbor Service owns the major quay cranes.

Four-Pull owns specialist slings, spreader frames, padding, rigging tools, and personal safety equipment.

Crew Structure

The crew normally fields 9 workers:

Ressa Larkin — Crane Master;
1 senior Signal Hand;
3 Rigging Hands;
3 Landing Hands;
1 relief hand.

The crew name comes from four mandatory confirmations before an unfamiliar load leaves the ship:

1. declared load understood
2. rigging checked
3. landing ground cleared
4. Signal Hand gives final release
Hours and Rates

Scheduled work normally runs 06:00–20:00.

Service	Price
routine specialist lift	8 sp
fragile or awkward lift	1 gp 5 sp
oversized or complex lift	3 gp minimum
emergency night call	+1 gp
half-day dedicated crew booking	5 gp

These charges do not include Harbor Service crane-use fees.

Ressa Larkin

Ressa Larkin is a Maritheli strix woman in her late forties.

She grew up in a Windrider Strix household whose members worked across roof maintenance, sail work, clerical service, and harbor trades.

Ressa began as a landing hand after leaving sailcloth work and spent more than twenty years learning rigging, load behavior, crane operation, and crew signaling.

Around cranes she keeps her wings secured beneath a fitted work harness and coat so loose feathers or wing movement cannot enter rigging.

Her expertise includes:

heavy timber;
machinery;
large optical cases;
unstable weight distribution.

She will not authenticate cargo, lift a load whose weight she considers dangerously uncertain, allow a client to bypass the Signal Hand, or perform a commercial heavy lift with improvised rigging when appropriate equipment exists.

Ressa lives on one of Windrider’s upper residential terraces with her adult sister and nephew.

Her professional relationships include Jessa Calder, Seda Northhook, Oren Vale, and Repair Yard riggers.

Her reputation is reliability rather than speed.

“Berth time costs coin. A crushed hand costs more.”

Captains’ Offices

The rentable shore offices collectively known as the Captains’ Offices occupy two adjoining three-story buildings near the inland, uphill side of the Stores.

They are owned and operated directly by Adrian Varela.

The two buildings contain:

18 half-day or day rooms;
6 larger week-rental offices;
8 permanent commercial suites leased to regular shipping agents.

A typical rentable office contains:

desk;
four to six chairs;
lockable document cabinet;
wall board for cargo or crew notes;
messenger call point.
Rental	Price
half-day office	5 sp
full day	8 sp
week	4 gp
lockable document cabinet	+1 sp/day
lost-key/security replacement	5 sp

The booking desk operates 06:00–22:00.

Registered renters can access their rooms at night through the night watch.

Adrian Varela

Adrian Varela is a middle-aged Maritheli vishkanya and owner-operator of the Captains’ Offices.

Adrian was raised in a Windrider household of clerks, ship agents, and medical workers whose professions crossed the waterfront without defining the family as one occupational caste.

They began as a junior shipping-agent clerk, became a senior accounts and scheduling clerk, and eventually purchased the smaller of the two buildings now used for the Captains’ Offices. Eight years later they acquired the adjoining building using accumulated rental income and a conventional commercial loan that has since been repaid.

Adrian lives in the manager’s apartment on the top floor.

Their younger sister, Mera Varela, works as a shipboard healer and spends long periods away from Windrider.

Adrian supervises:

2 day clerks;
2 cleaners;
2 night watch staff.

Their professional relationships include Eri Sunfold, Seda Northhook, Gull & Ledger runners, and Registry Hill copyists.

Adrian is known among regular captains for keeping a temporary office temporary. A prosperous client cannot quietly convert a day room into an unregistered warehouse, lodging house, or permanent agent suite.

They refuse dangerous cargo, sleeping groups exceeding room safety, and “private meetings” that require staff to ignore obvious violence.

Property left after rental expiry is recorded and held for thirty days. Valuable abandoned property then moves into formal commercial custody rather than becoming the owner’s property automatically.

Registry Rise

Registry Rise begins at the inland, uphill side of the Stores and climbs toward Registry Hill.

Its lower portion is broad enough for dense foot traffic, handcarts, and accessible grades.

Farther uphill, heavier freight peels away and the route divides into stairs and graded terraces.

Document runners use the steepest shortcuts.

Passengers and people carrying baggage generally take the longer grade.

Directional plaques mark major junctions because High Docks produces too many unfamiliar arrivals to rely entirely on local memory.

Salt Road

Salt Road leaves the Stores through the broad commercial side of High Docks.

Its lower section contains cart queues, public water points, warehouse loading fronts, and freight businesses.

Carts waiting for a warehouse or merchant do not line up inside the Check. They queue along designated Salt Road holding lanes and are called forward when a load is ready.

This prevents cart congestion from feeding backward into inspection.

Yard Road

Yard Road begins near the heavy-lift frontage and bends around principal passenger routes before continuing toward the Repair Yards.

The road is wider at turns than Salt Road because its traffic includes long spars, ship timber, oversized mechanisms, and repair carts.

Several corner buildings have clipped or recessed lower fronts to preserve turning space for long loads.

The road surface is maintained more heavily than neighboring streets because repeated heavy carts damage paving quickly.

Dockwalk

Dockwalk remains the most continuous pedestrian route along the waterfront.

It passes behind or around crane courts rather than through them.

Where a heavy-lift area interrupts the direct shoreline, Dockwalk shifts inland through a clearly marked bypass before returning toward the water.

Moving toward Low Docks:

berth depth decreases;
large cranes become fewer;
small craft become denser;
fish handling increases;
formal inspection thins;
waterfront commerce becomes more immediate and less warehouse-dominated.
Fire Lanes

High Docks’ warehouse blocks are broken by lanes deliberately kept wider than ordinary alleys.

These fire lanes also serve as emergency access, cargo separation, drainage corridors, and temporary assembly space.

Permanent storage is prohibited there.

During ordinary operation, carts may cross them but cannot be left standing.

Warehouses storing oil, rope, sailcloth, paper, or other readily combustible goods maintain their own first-response equipment.

Open cooking fires are pushed toward designated service courts or masonry-separated kitchens rather than allowed against warehouse walls.

Drainage

The district slopes naturally toward the harbor, but untreated runoff cannot simply carry everything into the inner basin.

Street drains lead through settling grates and collection channels where solid waste, packing material, broken shell, and rope fragments can be removed before water reaches the harbor.

Sweep Crabs inhabit many wetter lower channels and consume part of the organic material that escapes collection.

Workers leave established colonies undisturbed unless they obstruct a grate or enter a building.

The animals help.

They do not replace sanitation workers.

Windrider Civic Sanitation Service

The Windrider Civic Sanitation Service is the freeport’s citywide public sanitation department.

It maintains:

public privies;
ordinary waste collection;
drain clearing;
market and street refuse removal;
sealed human-waste transport;
nonhazardous public cleanup.

It does not police people, inspect cargo, adjudicate ownership, or handle dangerous alchemical material as ordinary refuse.

Sanitation Warden Esther Mallory

The Service is led by Sanitation Warden Esther Mallory, a Maritheli ratfolk woman in her early fifties.

She worked first in Saltmarket waste collection, then in drain maintenance, and later supervised two district depots before becoming Warden.

Her work has made her deeply familiar with the difference between waste, recoverable material, abandoned property, and dangerous material someone hopes to disguise as refuse.

Esther lives with two siblings and several younger relatives in a mixed household near Saltmarket.

She works primarily from the central sanitation office but visits High Docks weekly and the Civic Reclaim Yards several times each ten-day cycle.

Financing

Basic public sanitation is supported by civic revenue and a simple commercial sanitation assessment.

Business Type	Typical Monthly Assessment
small office or shop	5 sp
food house or small workshop	1 gp
ordinary warehouse or lodging house	2 gp
high-volume processor or large food business	4 gp or more by assessed use

Extraordinary nonhazardous cleanup is charged separately.

Hazardous chemical or magical waste is not covered by the ordinary assessment.

Records and Complaints

District depots retain collection schedules, missed-service records, unusual refuse reports, commercial assessment records, and major cleanup entries.

Routine route sheets are retained for 30 days.

A missed collection is first handled by the district supervisor. Repeated failure can be appealed to the Sanitation Warden.

Public Privies

High Docks maintains several public privy blocks in the Stores and near the Check, positioned away from potable-water facilities and food businesses.

The service is free for basic use.

Waste is collected in sealed containers rather than discharged directly into the harbor.

The busiest Check-side facilities are cleaned:

before morning arrivals;
around midday;
late afternoon;
once during the night shift.

Closed stalls are marked immediately. If an entire block closes, boards point toward the nearest functioning facility.

High Docks Sanitation Supervisor Martin Doran

Martin Doran, a Maritheli kobold man in his forties, supervises the High Docks sanitation crews.

He lives with his spouse and two younger relatives near the Low Docks side of Windrider, close enough to reach the depot before pre-dawn crews leave.

His workday normally begins at 04:30.

He reviews missed routes, damaged containers, blocked drains, and night cleanup reports.

Martin oversees:

3 privy-cleaning teams;
2 drain crews;
4 collection carts during the main day;
1 reduced evening collection crew.

He has good working relationships with Oren Vale and Sabine Moreau because both understand that bad waste handling attracts pests, fire, and blocked carts.

Martin’s authority ends at ordinary sanitation.

If a spill may be poisonous, alchemical, magical, or otherwise dangerous, he orders his crews back and reports it to the responsible authority.

Dockworkers generally regard him as strict but fair. His reputation comes from treating sanitation labor as skilled city work rather than punishment for people unable to find another job.

Commercial extraordinary cleanup begins at 5 sp for a small nonhazardous cleanup.

Civic Reclaim Yards

The Civic Reclaim Yards are the fixed processing destination for most Windrider civic waste.

Geographic Parent
Thesalon
→ Marithel
→ Windrider Gulf
→ Freewind Island
→ Windrider Freeport
→ Civic Reclaim Yards

The Reclaim Yards are not part of High Docks.

They occupy Windrider’s landward municipal service edge beyond the continuous dense commercial terraces, where there is enough ground for sorting and treatment without placing those processes beside potable-water cisterns, major food markets, or passenger waterfronts.

Sanitation carts reach the Yards by Reclaim Road, which branches from the broader inland freight network after commercial traffic has dispersed from the central waterfront.

The site occupies roughly seven acres divided into:

receiving court;
reusable-material sorting sheds;
timber and rope reclamation area;
sealed organic-processing beds;
human-waste treatment beds;
ash and inert-material court;
runoff settling basins;
cart wash area;
sanitation depot.

Sound timber, rope, uncontaminated metal, and clean packing material are sorted for resale or municipal reuse.

Ordinary food and plant waste suitable for processing is composted separately.

Human waste is treated in lined beds with absorbent dry material and sanitation ash or lime before any resulting material can be used further.

Clean ash, broken ceramic, stone fragments, and similar inert material can be reused as controlled fill.

The Yards sit below no major potable-water catchment. Drainage reaches settling basins before continuing into lower channels.

Approximately 24 permanent workers staff the site.

Public access is limited to the receiving counter, scrap sale, legal disposal inquiries, and property reclamation. Visitors do not wander unattended through treatment beds or sorting sheds.

Sanitation Disruption

The High Docks sanitation depot contains a sealed reserve court capable of holding approximately one normal day of district-collected privy waste and organic refuse.

If collection to the Reclaim Yards cannot resume within one day:

reserve court fills
→ lowest-priority public privies begin closing
→ remaining facilities receive increased cleaning
→ commercial extraordinary collection is suspended

Martin Doran can order individual public privies closed when containers reach safe capacity or collection cannot be guaranteed.

If disruption approaches two full days, Esther Mallory takes direct control of emergency sanitation planning.

Protected Night Lighting

Night work uses shielded lantern fixtures positioned to illuminate:

gangways;
crane courts;
Check workstations;
major intersections;
Water Gate;
Harbor Service entrances.

Public work lighting is maintained by a Harbor Service lamp crew.

The crew consists of:

1 lamp foreman;
6 lamp workers divided across two shifts.

The system uses ordinary civic lamp oil rather than specialist beacon or signal oil.

Before dusk, the evening crew checks Quay lamps, lights Check workstations, verifies route lamps, and reports damaged fixtures.

At dawn, lamps not required for interior or poor-weather use are extinguished and inspected.

Fixtures facing the harbor use directional hoods so working light does not wash across navigational sight lines.

Lamp Foreman Elias Keane

Elias Keane is a Maritheli halfling man in his thirties and foreman of the Harbor Service evening lamp crew.

He lives with his widowed sister and her two children in rented rooms above a Low Docks rope-repair shop.

Elias worked aboard merchant ships for more than a decade before a night-loading accident damaged vision in one eye.

After recovery he moved into harbor maintenance.

His experience aboard ships gives him strong working relationships with Pilot House crews, Harbor Officers, and night crane workers.

Elias reports for work at 13:30.

Before the evening shift begins he reviews failed fixtures, weather, night crane bookings, and expected passenger arrivals.

Regular workers regard him as conservative about glare but reliable about providing light where he has promised it.

He cannot authorize an unsafe operation merely because portable lamps are available.

Large Lighting Failure

The Central Quay Office holds 24 portable shielded work lamps with stands and spare fuel.

A normal hazardous work zone requires approximately 4–6 lamps to restore restricted operation.

Priority during widespread failure is:

active passenger gangways that cannot immediately be cleared;
Water Gate or Shelter Stair if receiving people;
emergency medical or rescue work;
dangerous cargo already in active handling;
essential berth movement.

Ordinary cargo crane operations stop unless enough temporary lighting remains after higher priorities are met.

The Return Mark

High Docks does not contain a major temple because Shrine Row already serves as Windrider’s concentrated maritime religious district.

It does contain a heavily used occupational shrine known as the Return Mark.

The Return Mark is set into a protected wall between the passenger-facing Quays and the lower approach toward the Stores.

It consists of:

a weathered stone niche;
shallow offering shelf;
bronze marker shaped for hands wet with seawater;
drainage channel so poured water does not collect in the niche.

The shrine is associated locally with Thalara and with the maritime recognition that departure, storm, safe return, and survival are never entirely separate concerns.

The site does not promise safe voyages.

Workers and sailors use it as acknowledgment of risk rather than a bargain for immunity.

Before departure, a sailor or dockworker may touch seawater to the bronze mark and say the name of a ship, person, or destination.

After returning, the same person may repeat the gesture with harbor water and leave a shell, a short piece of clean cord, a small coin, or a written name.

Crane crews preparing an unusually dangerous lift sometimes touch a length of intended rigging to the mark before beginning work.

This is religious custom, not a substitute for inspecting the rigging.

Stewardship and the Return Fund

The Return Mark is maintained under the public care of the Temple of Thalara through Shrine Row lay attendants.

It does not maintain its own treasury.

Coins move into a Temple-held maritime aid account known as the Return Fund.

The visiting attendant:

removes spoiled offerings;
records written names left for remembrance;
empties the locked coin box in the presence of a second witness;
seals collected coin in a marked pouch.

The Temple maintains a Return Ledger recording date, amount received, names or marks of the counting witnesses, and distributions from the fund.

Anonymous worshippers are not recorded individually.

Use of the Return Fund
Aid	Typical Maximum
immediate meal, transport, or emergency supplies	5 sp
short-term injured-worker household aid	3 gp
burial contribution	5 gp
immediate family aid after confirmed harbor death or disappearance	5 gp

A person can request aid through a Return Mark lay attendant or the Temple of Thalara’s Shrine Row alms desk.

Useful confirmation can include a Harbor Service incident record, employer statement, witness, or known ship record.

The fund does not require the injured or dead person to have worshipped Thalara.

It does not pay commercial cargo losses, compensate merchants for delayed berths, replace wages indefinitely, or buy religious conversion.

PF2e Use of Section 2 Services

Routine professional services in High Docks generally do not require checks.

No check is normally needed to:

use Water Gate;
request a berth explanation;
rent a Captains’ Office;
rent ordinary warehouse space;
request reweighing;
request routine seal verification;
use public sanitation;
report a failed harbor lamp;
hire an available interpreter;
hire an available factor;
arrange an ordinary crane service.

If the service exists, capacity is available, and the character pays the listed cost where applicable, the service works.

Checks matter when the outcome is uncertain and failure has a consequence.

Mercantile Lore is useful for warehouse practice, custody, commercial procedure, storage terms, unusual fees, and release documents.

Sailing Lore is useful for berth suitability, mooring practice, vessel constraints, and ship-to-quay operational questions.

Crafting is useful when PCs personally inspect or work with rigging, crane equipment, damaged containers, or structural cargo supports.

Society can help identify which institution owns a procedure or how civic and commercial systems interact.

Perception can reveal visible container damage, altered seals, misplaced cargo, inconsistent marks, or signs of tampering.

Thievery applies to physical locks, seals, and deliberate tampering where those are genuinely the subject of the task.

Relevant Lore skills can address specialist claims that Harbor Service workers are not qualified to make.

Use PF2e Remaster DC guidance based on the actual task.

Routine commerce is not secretly a skill challenge.

A check is appropriate when:

the result is genuinely uncertain
+
failure matters
+
the character is doing something beyond ordinary automatic service

Characters seeking temporary work in High Docks can use Earn Income with an appropriate skill when work is available. The task level should follow the actual job rather than one district-wide number.

What the District Looks Like from the Water

A ship entering the inner basin sees High Docks as layers.

At water level are dark quay walls broken by ladders, water stairs, handler platforms, Water Gate, and Shelter Stair.

Above them stand cranes, gangways, and open courts needed to work them.

Behind the cranes sit the lower roofs and workstations of the Check.

Beyond those rise warehouse fronts, upper storage floors, Captains’ Offices, the Central Quay Office, and the first terraces of the city.

Registry Hill stands higher behind the entire district.

At dusk, shielded harbor lamps pick out gangways, crane courts, Water Gate, and major junctions without washing the basin in uncontrolled glare.

The geography makes the organization of Windrider visible before a passenger has stepped ashore:

water and ships below, processing behind them, commerce above that, records higher still.