Thunder Run
Overview
Located downstream to the West of Cinderton, Thunder Run is a small, wealthy city perched on a tall cliff bordering the high plains of Cinderton Vale and the lower jungles of Thunder Vale. It sits on a broad pass in a line of mountains running to the North and South. The Cinderton river pools in a broad lake on its East side, before flowing through a large, intricate series of locks, dams, and waterfalls before plunging over two hundred feet down to the jungle vales below. Barges and riverboats of all sizes ply trade up and down the river on the ingeniously engineered locks and cranes, bringing grain and meat from the breadbasket of Cinderton and returning up the locks with exotic produce, medicines, and gold.
Visitors to the city have multiple options to traverse the cliffs. Domesticated dinosaurs power rope-and-pulley elevators for both people and cargo, while larger barges take the Locks, a series of steep water-filled steps that allow them to continue up or down river without unloading their goods. Airship and flying mount services may be purchased by the wealthy. Poorer natives typically navigate the convoluted series of staircases and ladders to make their way up or down, though this vertical maze, constantly slick with the spray of the waterfalls, remains dangerous to traverse for visitors.
Upper City
The Upper City includes extensive lakeside docks for both commerce and recreation, with magic used to clean the river water of Cinderton’s refuse before it enters the lake. It also boasts majestic views of the waterfalls and the jungle vale beyond, making it a common tourist destination. This area includes temples, counting houses, guild halls, theaters, restaurants, resorts, and residences for the wealthy, many of which stand empty until their owners take a vacation. Majestic buildings made with polished marble and granite quarried from the nearby mountains line clean, smooth-cobbled streets where carriages and rickshaws pulled by axebeaks and smaller dinosaur species clatter the wealthy to and from their meetings, meals, and diversions. The population of the Upper City is the most cosmopolitan of the Mistvales, with humans, elves, dwarves, and red dragonborn all coexisting peacefully, so long as they can afford to live there. Most commonly, they make their money as merchants, engineers for the locks, or in the most time-honored way of inheriting it. From here, the Mayor, elected by the Guildmasters’ Board, sees to it that the City continues to keep the Run’s flow going, whether in goods, gold, or the river itself.
Lower City
The much warmer and more humid Lower City carved itself out of the jungles of Thunder Vale. Mist from the waterfalls keeps the Lower City air damp and thick; the wood and dirt buildings require constant maintenance and replacement to keep up with the moisture and rot. While merchants and traders continuously travel up and down river, and guides bring wealthy tourists down from the Upper City for expeditions and safaris into the jungle, most of the permanent population of the Lower City are red and green dragonborn, working to load and unload river craft to support trade up and down the waterfall. While they possess nowhere near the wealth of the Upper City, residents here manage a comfortable life, albeit through hard work and extensive knowledge of how to navigate and live off the jungle.
The Cling
Bordered as it is by a lake next to the Upper City and the jungle next to the Lower, space in Thunder Run remains at a premium, with the best Upper City real estate claimed and expensive, even as many luxurious vacation homes sit empty for most of the year. Over the centuries, those that worked in the Upper City’s extensive luxury service industry quickly found themselves priced out of the market, with the commute up from the Lower City slow and still not exactly cheap, if not outright dangerous. Thus, they gave birth to the Cling, an extensive, intricate series of haphazard cliff dwellings, either carved into the bedrock or clinging to the side of it, with narrow walkways and ladders of stone, wood, and rope connecting everything around, along, and behind the waterfalls. Potential buyers often can find easily obtainable real estate, particularly in the “washed out” market, where the previous dwellers are assumed to have died falling from the treacherous climb. Common residents here include dock laborers, servants, service industry workers, entertainers, and the otherwise destitute.