Both the east and west gates have a Gateside Road. This narrow path, just large enough for two people to squeeze past each other, runs along the outside wall of the city, and the buildings that are closely pressed together and nearly leaning against the wall. This pathway is where various people and things from the Outlands scuttle off to once they sneak into Avalon, narrowly avoiding (or paying off?) the gate watch.
On these long, winding, and claustrophobia inducing paths are found a myriad of dangerous persons and creatures.
Why is this dangerous?
- Dopplegangers prowl the Gateside Road looking for victims
- Cannibals and ghouls hunker in the nooks and crevices of the pathway, snatching those who wander in on accident
- Ettercaps weave their funnel webs along sections of the Gateside Road and snap up the unfortunate
- Vampires are said to huddle in the shadows here
- Rumors tell of unquiet dead called Black Tom, Gateside Gerty, Scuttle, or other such names, which haunt the Gateside Road in some unfinished business or vengeance against the living
- Wererats use the Gateside Road as a regular travel corridor
- Uncovered sewer entrances are difficult to spot in the darkened path and such a drop can land the unfortunate into a nasty bit of filth, or perhaps the nest of a local otyugh.
Uses in your Game
- The PCs are hired to find a missing person who was last said to be seen going into the Gateside Road
- The guild of Vermin Catchers has been hired to investigate a part of the Gateside Road and exterminate whatever is found there. They subcontract to the PCs for extra muscle.
- A piece of information the PCs are looking for is said to be known by Gateside Gerty, a hungry spirit of ill repute.