The Hive

The Hive is a part of the Ossuary below Ortuxl that lies facing the cliff-side. Erosion cause part of the city and the tunnels below to collapse into the sea, exposing two floors of the tunnels to the outside. In relation to the top side, the two layers lie below the basements of the town above. The main access is through a precarious set of stairs and rope bridges suspended from the cliff-side, but many secret passages from the basements of the city lead into the upper Ossuary.

The main area of the Hive is on the upper floor, where a large underground room forms a sort of town square exposed to the sea surrounded by a rats' nest of smaller tunnels and rooms that still benefit from the fresh sea air. This is the Upper Hive and holds the homes of a fluctuation population of 50-100 masterless men and women that all work in the city above, doing various jobs not regulated by a clan.

The floor below that is called the Under Hive. The collapse of the sea wall opened a number of holes into the ossuary tunnels, but there are fewer natural rooms, and fewer working Ghost Lamps, making it less pleasant to live in. As a result, it is mostly occupied by the people who prefer privacy, such as unlicensed wizards and gangs of thieves.

Life in the Under Hive is less regulated and policed than in the city above, but by unspoken convention, everyone still turns in for the night or returns to their homes when the bone-chilling screams of the curfew whistles sound above.