Worldofbaalos

The Market is tall drum shaped stone bastion squatting by the harbor. On closer inspection you see it comprises a concentric wall of dark stone around the inner drum tower. This is surmounted by a huge beacon that is lit as a pharos for the galleys. The tower stands many levels high and dwarfs the warehouses and taverns closeby. It is also as deep as it is tall, its lower galleries and vaults are the Pits in which slaves are held and prepared for sale. There are chambers for shackling, branding and breaking slaves. It is said the pens can take several thousands of slaves and there is an army of overseers, appraisers and auction masters to process the flesh. And for them there is another ring of tradespeople from the leather makers who supply strands for the knotted lashes to the metal workers and meal merchants who supply fodder. And for these there is another army of slaves who work the mills, forges and furnaces. Gallo and his nephew saw little o...

Although retired, Gallo still knew how to fit out a galley for a voyage. Looking down the oar deck, he noted too many narrow backs of runaways or thieves spared the cross but sentenced to pull a galley oar. A few broader tanned backs of field slaves were dotted almost rows of slaves who pulled on the oars at the drumbeat of the oar master. A liberal use of the lash helped keep the slower slaves match the pace of the stronger wenches, the extra exertion glossing their naked hides with oily sweat. "You need new flesh", Gallo shouted to his nephew who owned the galley Hispe. The young man nodded. Hispe was a day from port so a new stock of slaves would need to wait. Until then these  galley slaves would have to do, even if it meant flaying their backs to make today's run. Free flesh from the Inquisitors was something no galley owner could turn down. But a captain soon despaired of having too many runaway household slaves pulling their oars, making their whip...

Where is Baalos? Across the wine dark seas, bordered by mountains and desert plains and rich estuary lands. A land ruled harshly and founded on slavery and war. Slaves are invariably female. Bred or seized into bondage. Kept naked except for house hold slaves who might don loincloths or rags Marked with the brands of their masters and mistresses, slaves toil in the bedchambers, kitchens, fields, mines and galleys of  Baalos. There is no finer land.