One thing I did notice was a seeming lack of bathrooms and toilets on any of the floorplans, narry even a guardarobe, suggesting either the usage of chamberpots or the usual oversight for such things in most RPG maps. :P
No major reason, and I'm sure I can say that Sharn does have such facilities without drawing comment from my players should it become required, but I was interested as to whether or not the setting as written was intended to have such amenities.
In my games there is a network of tubes that runs down the towers and into the Lower City, the Cogs, or below, but no one on the upper levels really cares where it goes.
And somewhere a Golgothan is forming.
I do believe plumbing is implied, as the intro adventure "The Forgotten Forge" takes place mostly in sewers beneath Sharn.
Yes, and there is a section in S:CoT that details the sewer system and its "inhabitants", but there could be a sewerage system that drains off all of the slops dumped on the roads through drains, rather than through any internal drains.
That said, the sewer section does include how workers use purification stones to clean the water, which does suggest that it gets reused. Although that could just be used to re-feed communal water pumps and wells.
In my games there is a network of tubes that runs down the towers and into the Lower City, the Cogs, or below, but no one on the upper levels really cares where it goes.
[slashdotter]
Well, let's hope that Ted ir'Stevens doesn't get it confused :D
[/slashdotter]
Seriously, though, if I had a game I think it'd be an interesting adventure hook for the Sharn Department of Public Works to have an ongoing project to map the sewers. The adventurers are hired to map out a particularly dangerous section. When complete, the whole thing will be modeled into a 3-D projection at City Hall.
[slashdotter]
Well, let's hope that Ted ir'Stevens doesn't get it confused :D
[/slashdotter]
Beat me to it. I was going to make a comment about it being a series of tubes. Or possibly pondering Sharn having Internet...
I think he said that Sharn doesn't have a system of plumbing as you'd see in the real world. Instead, the rich and powerful inhabitants of the upper wards have things like magical fountains powered by magic akin to flasks of endless water. Imagine places where these fountains are allowed to run over, flowing like waterfalls down the sides of certain towers. At the highest points of the city, this would be carefully plotted to carry water where it is most useful. The further down you go, the less maintained the water course is, the dirtier the water becomes, and eventually it just becomes natural drainage to the sewers. Along the way, various methods are used to draw water off to be used by the inhabitants of the local towers.
I imagine that the "purification stones" that have been mentioned are used simply because the water is unprotected for most of its journey. While it might be safe at first, who wants to drink from a free-flowing stream in a major city?
In one game we had a demi-plane called the Plane of Elemental Drinking Water. It functioned as a giant reservoir for a nearly-deceased race of Mist Elves, and the water elementals there have the power to slowly turn any impurity into fresh, clear drinking water. Perhaps the goblins discovered and linked into this plane as well. Any adventurers would need to watch their steps or risk drowning and being turned into drinking water.
In one game we had a demi-plane called the Plane of Elemental Drinking Water. It functioned as a giant reservoir for a nearly-deceased race of Mist Elves, and the water elementals there have the power to slowly turn any impurity into fresh, clear drinking water. Perhaps the goblins discovered and linked into this plane as well. Any adventurers would need to watch their steps or risk drowning and being turned into drinking water.
Water way to go! :D
I'll get my cloak...
In one game we had a demi-plane called the Plane of Elemental Drinking Water. It functioned as a giant reservoir for a nearly-deceased race of Mist Elves, and the water elementals there have the power to slowly turn any impurity into fresh, clear drinking water. Perhaps the goblins discovered and linked into this plane as well. Any adventurers would need to watch their steps or risk drowning and being turned into drinking water.
The Potable Plane of Plumbing Potential
I break it down into the three tiers of Sharn and how each handles the three types of water (clean , grey , and black ).
Upper Sharn:
Clean Water is produced from magical vessels integrated into the architecture (much like faucets).
Grey Water drains to the sewers, where the aforementioned cleansing stones clean the water, which is used to replenish wells.
Black Water is collected in personal receptacles (commodes) and drains to the sewers, where it eventually empties to the Dagger River. Some especially affluent denizens enjoy magical receptacles that destroy the waste entirely (similar to the old Bag of Devouring).
Middle Sharn:
Clean Water is produced from pumps that draw water from communal wells; however, unlike Lower Sharn, these pumps are integrated into the architecture of the dwellings (again, much like faucets) rather than being in a central location that one must walk to.
Grey Water drains to the sewers, where the aforementioned cleansing stones clean the water, which is used to replenish Middle Sharn wells.
Black Water is collected in personal receptacles (commodes) and drains to the sewers, where it eventually empties to the Dagger River. Less affluent inhabitants of Middle Sharn may not have access to a personal commode in their dwelling and must therefore use either chamber pots or communal latrines. Chamber pots are enchanted to reduce the smell and can be sealed to allow the pot to be transported to the nearest latrine for dumping.
Lower Sharn:
Clean Water is produced from centrally located pumps that draw water from communal wells. To get water, Lower Sharn inhabitants must walk to the pump and supply their own vessel to collect and carry the water they pump back to their dwelling.
Grey Water is collected in vessels that are often emptied into the streets. Gutters carry the grey water to drains that empty into the sewers, where the cleansing stones do their work and return the water to the Lower Sharn wells.
Black Water is collected in chamber pots or communal latrines. Chamber pots are not enchanted and although they are usually emptied into the latrines on a regular basis, some thoughtless folk often dump them into the gutters. :P
This is just off the top of my head, of course.
Cheers!
I imagine that each tower in Sharn has a water main of sorts that pumps water up to the top to be stored in a water tower, or feeds into private water lines and public fountains that can be found on many levels of the tower. Towers probably also have public latrines that feed into a central sewer line that goes back down the core of the tower.
Obviously, if the tower's water main breaks, the entire tower loses its water supply.
I looked at an essay on ancient Rome's water system to get some ideas, and I learned that people often stole water from the aqueducts and public lines for private use by siphoning it off with illegal pipes. Water officials had to keep busy to prevent this theft from shutting down the whole water supply. I can see this being a big problem in Sharn too.
For that matter, I can see a group of PCs playing the parts of the underpaid, overworked officers who keep the water flowing in Sharn.