Information
Ward Tier Fortified Deep-Water Harbor & Naval Construction Yard City / Location Caer Itom, Western Empire Controlling Power Cyclopean Vanguard & Free Slave Coalition Historical Master House Itomas & The Sovereign Imperial Navy Current Function Heavy War-Vessel Fabrication, Captured Fleet Refitting, Maritime Blockade Command
⚓ Overview: The Fallen Royal Shipyards
The Sovereign Dock Ward was once the crown jewel of Western Empire naval might—a gargantuan, granite-walled deep-water basin carved directly into the seaside bluffs of Caer Itom. Built across centuries of imperial supremacy, this fortified basin served as the private home anchorage for the gold-trimmed caracks of House Itomas, the imperial sovereign fleet, and the luxury pleasure barques of the Lion-Guarded Throne.
When Caer Itom was overrun in 702 IA, the dock ward became the scene of a desperate, bloody naval evacuation. While a handful of royal galleys managed to slip their moorings and flee east toward the Inland Sea and Ptolus, the vast majority of the imperial fleet, the sprawling drydocks, and the colossal naval storehouses fell intact into the hands of the Cyclopean Vanguard and the liberated slave battalions.
Today, the Sovereign Dock Ward has been thoroughly repurposed into an active Naval Construction Yard and Blockade Fleet Base. The aristocratic banners of House Itomas have been torn down and replaced with the spiked iron sigils of the Vanguard, and the steady rhythmic thump of cyclopean sledgehammers echoes across the water day and night.
🔨 Strategic Utility & Vanguard Operations
- Warship Fabrication & Armor-Plating: The Vanguard employs captured imperial shipwrights and enslaved overseers to refit standard merchant cogs and royal caracks into heavily armored assault rams. Timber harvested from northern forests is clad in hammered iron plating, transforming elegant imperial vessels into brutal, impenetrable floating fortresses.
- The Seaward Blockade: From the deep-water moorings of the Sovereign Dock Ward, Vanguard flotillas patrol the coastal approaches to Caer Itom, actively interdicting naval supply runs sent by loyalist factions from the Middle Kingdoms or privateers attempting to smuggle arms into the city’s insurgent Iron Hill Slums.
- Smuggling Tunnels & Subterranean Runoff: Beneath the stone slipways lie the ancient flood conduits and storm drains of Caer Itom. Displaced goblin and ratling scavengers frequently use these tide-submerged tunnels to smuggle weapons, dry provisions, and escaped loyalists past the cyclopean sentries patrolling the seawall.
🧭 Story Hooks & Infiltration Schemes
- The Sabotage Contract: Agents in exile working for Empress Lasha Itomas hire the party to infiltrate the Sovereign Dock Ward by diving beneath the seawalls during high tide and ignite an alchemical payload beneath the keel of the Vanguard’s flagship ironclad dreadnought before it launches.
- The Shipwright’s Extraction: An elderly master shipwright possessing the classified structural blueprints for imperial drydocks has sent a covert distress message from the timber yards. The party must smuggle the artisan and their family out through the storm runoff canals before the Vanguard realizes their value.
- The Corsair Ambush: A privateer barque carrying vital church relics rescued from Caer Itom’s cathedrals was captured by the Vanguard and remains moored at Slipway Nine. Holy Emperor Rehobath Ylestos’s agents in Ptolus will pay a king’s ransom to any delving squad capable of retaking the vessel and navigating it out to the open sea.