SKETCHES OF CALYX

 Here are 3 city districts from my in-progress City of Calyx setting for old school D&D.

Insula District

Residential district of of Calyx’s middle class. Multi-storied (1d6 stories) brick and stone insulas with clay shingles built up against the cliff face. Narrow streets and alleys run between them.
 

Features (roll 1 or more)

1. 1d6 Extra stories, rickety ladders reach to small precarious apartments high above
2. Unstable, the whole insula is reinforced with timbers to keep it from falling over
3. Decorative- painted with brightly colored patterns and botanical motifs
4. Ornamental- bas relief carvings and gargoyles adorn the exterior
5. Exterior walls covered in thick vines of dark green ivy and small purple flowers. Bees and hummingbirds drawn to the sweet blossoms.
6. Abandoned, and ramshackle. Floors have collapsed in on themselves. Thistle and sweetbrush grow rampantly within. Great sagging wasp nests.
7. Hundreds of clay and twig nests built along the eaves. Countless chattering iridescent grackles congregate upon the roof.
8. Apartments carved out of an outcrop of stone cliffside.
9. Under construction- new building being built or old one being repaired. Crew of laborers with several carts of bricks, mortar and timber
10. Over crowded. Each apartment is bursting to capacity with tenents. Clothes lines heavy with  fabrics sag between close buildings. Colorful rugs are draped from every balcony.
    

People of the Insula District

1. Merchant families
   
2. Skilled laborers
3. Low ranking city bureaucrats
4. City officials
5. Guards/ soldiers
   
6. Guild artists/ artisans
7. Minor philosophers/ poets
8.  Scholars

Bazaar District

Overlapping patchwork of colorful tents and canopies cover four city blocks. A maze of bustling activity, commerce, shops, food stalls, music, revelry and criminal enterprise. Just about anything can be found here for the right price: rich food, exotic regents, rare animals, weapons and equipment, all manner of services for hire (legal and illegal).

Tents of the Bazaar

1. Patchwork of faded fabric, sagging, propped up by spindly wooden sticks
2. Sturdy & large white and red striped rotunda, doors and windows
3. Animal skins, with bits of fur and flesh still attached. Smells of tannins and rot
4. Billowing red fabric. Multiple rooms separated by veils and beaded curtains
5. Vibrant blue, orange and yellow. Pit dug below, with a ladder leading to a stall. Workers dig even deeper as the vendor conducts business below.
6. Wooden platform 15 feet above accessible by ladder. A sign reads: “remove clothes before ascending”. Above, a tent of white and golden fabrics swish in the sun. Mirrors and dangling glass catch the sunlight.
7. Black tarps piled on top of each other, creating a cave like tunnel. Small corridors lead to various openings and stalls of ill repute.
8. Geometric patterned tapestries, opens into chamber thick with incense. Piles of thick rugs heaped on the ground. Sound is muffled.

Food of the Bazaar

1. Roasted white grubs on a skewer
2. Giant frogs smoked on a line over a fire pit
3. Bag o’ spicy locusts
4. Sorghum brick with solar escagraph
5. Honey millet stick with crunchy ants
6. Lizard jerky
7. Monkey meat pita with llama yogurt
8. Honey glazed dog leg
9. Pepper snake on a stick
10. Fried whole sparrow with sage
11. Boiled white tubers
12. Produce: figs, pomegranates, olives, dates, almonds, muskmelon, grapes
13. Sorghum beer: cloudy brown, earthy and sweet, highly alcoholic
14. Sorghum desserts and fried pastries
15. Jellied frog eggs on sorghum chips
    
16.  Honeycomb with live bees
17. Goat sausage boiled in blood
18. Almond paste biscuits (various erotic shapes)
    
19. Pomegranate liquor
20.  Pickled peacock eggs
    

Merchant stalls

1. Food stall merchant (roll on food table to determine which)
2. Animal handler drawing cages of exotic beasts to a menagerie tent,
3. Psychedelic dealer. Various substances in pots and jars within a locked box: diviners sage, scorpion venom, black tar incense, live blue centipedes, dream grass, worm powder, witch cactus,
4. Alchemical regents and magic items
5. Clay pots and vessels sold by women from the mud district
6. Ponchos & grass sombreros
7. Multicolored gems, geodes and stones
8. Haircuts, weaves and beard styling
9. Incense & exotic desert spices
10. Reader of palms & fortunes
    
11. Brass solar medallions, good luck charms, protective talismans
12. Massage/ Acupuncture therapy
13. Brothel. Lovely ladies and lads available for comfort and companionship.
14. Apiary. Bees cover the tent walls & fly out of an open roof flap. Wooden hives contain copious fresh honey.
15. Tea tent. A small iron stove with copper kettles filling the tent with billowing steam.
16. Greenhouse, woven white mesh. Humid. Tables of plants and blooming flowers. Bees
17. Art gallery. Paintings hung in carved frames.
18. Goldsmith and purveyor of fine jewels
19. Map merchant and scribe
    
20. Tattoo & piercing parlor

People of the Bazaar

1. Twin women in peacock feather dresses stand on stilts, juggling knives and flaming torches. Trained monkeys pick pockets during their performance.
2. Grass elves (black sombreros, multicolored ponchos) transporting giant insect nymphs tied down to a wagon. Insects are docile and drugged with Diviner’s Sage.
3. Red wizards haggling and threatening a vendor for regents
4. Drunk youth brawling and expelling vomiting in the street
5. Ascetic street preachers in loincloths painted bodies with arcane symbols ranting about “the Singing Presence” and “the Father of a Thousand Forms”.
6. Wide eyed, naive and inhumanly beautiful humanoids with exotic skin colors (blue, red, purple, green) follow in the company of a Red Wizard (beings grown from the vivimancer's vats in the Arcane College).
7. Vestal virgins from the Shrine of the Moons wearing silvery togas,veils and long braided hair. Processing silently to the temple of Utu for daily homage and back. Carrying silver sickles.
8. 1d4 adventurers fresh from the Rift. (1. Carrying a dead companion 2. Raving psychotically about the Elder Gods or the Great Old Ones 3. Partying ferociously in the back of a wagon 4. Selling a cache of rift artifacts/ Monster parts/ Foraged psychedelics/ Geodes)
9. Street artists involved in a performance
10. Teenagers hallucinating wildly. Pockets are full of various psychedelic herbs.
    
11. Philosophers arguing over esoteric metaphysics.
    
12. Gladiators covered in scars, followed by throngs of adoring fans.
    

Domus District

Gated wealthy neighborhood of beautiful villas behind a high stone wall. Troops of chattering monkeys roost in the olive and almond trees that grow here. They are notorious for stealing baubles and coins and hide them among the branches. Children will often sneak into the district just to steal anything of value from the treetop roosts.

Structures

1. Stone manor faced with high fluted columns & ornate pediment.
2. Two story villa. Stucco & red clay shingles. Inner courtyard with flowering redbud and yellow ginkgo trees..
3. Shrine to a minor god of fertility or love. Lovers cavorting in the bushes.
4. Private well, solar motifs. Servants drawing buckets for their lords & ladies.
5. Herb garden, overgrown with flowering sage, rhubarb, rhododendron and sweet brush. Birds, rabbits, and red fox nest here.
6. Large pavilion with a stage and long stone bleachers.
7. Glass enclosed greenhouse filled with blooming flowers. Buzzing with bees.
   
8. A walled park of fig, olive & pomegranate trees. Gazebo, benches & statuary
9. Bath House with veined columns and voluptuous nude statuary.
10. Menagerie filled with exotic birds, monkeys, reptiles & occasional monster
    

People of Domus District

1. Wealthy merchants in opulent robes and jewelry
2. Sorghum field owners
3. High ranking officers
4. Noble families
5. Slave dealers
6. Bankers/ financiers
7. Chief architects & engineers
8. City politicians & council members
9. Lawyers & judges
10. Celebrated philosophers/ artists/ poets

Spire District

Upon the crown of Calyx rests the opulent Spire District, the seat of Calyx government, wealth and temporal power. The complex is composed of great palaces, towers, and barracks built out of cut stone.

Structures

1. Folly of delicate arches and tracing above hidden gardens and grottoes
2. Ring of fluted columns enclose a (1d6) tiered fountains. Statues of nudes women and children frolicking in the water.
3. A mahogany door opens out of an ivy covered wall into a long banquet hall. 2 in 6 chance of a great feast taking place.
4. Double white doors with ornate tracery open to a grand ballroom. Balconies above the open floor are festooned with bouquets and imperial banners. Prince Mitra throws a ball almost every evening, and the royal servants scramble with the preparations during the day. Sometimes the Calyx Quartet can be heard practicing their waltzes during the day.
5. Shrines to a goddess of beauty/ wealth/ pleasure
6. Bathouses carved into the ground. Natural hot springs feed luxurious tiled basins. Nude nobility cavorting.
   
7. Gallery of plundered artifacts, and relics from a previous age.
8. Menagerie. Exotic animals and monsters in golden cages. Many are intelligent and will bargain for release.
   
9. Hedge maze, filled with marble statues. The nobilty often escape here to conduct private business both carnal and criminal. 
10. Vast ornamental garden. Manicured walkways, grottoes, and carp pools. Exotic plants, flowers, and fruit laden trees. Peacock roosts.