The Drunken Rat Tavern stands across from the Ale Star Brothel on Main Street, directly overlooking the corner the road takes to head north and out of town. This location is a short stumble toward the center of the city and heavily trafficked.
The slightly shabby and rundown Tavern houses perhaps fifty patrons at the height of its night, just before midnight. Since Marn is very militaristic, the true late night patrons of the Drunken Rat are either quiet law-abiders or folks from out of town.
Made primarily from wood, the Drunken Rat is painted a faded green on the outside. There are two large windows in the front of the tavern, both to allow light in during the day and to allow the stink of ale, sweaty bodies, and heat out at night.
Along the north-west side of the building are rows of booths, and on the north-east is a stage. Various bards and actors play here to entertain the hard-working crowd. The bar, run by the bartender and his wife, is along the south-east wall, as are the storage areas. The waitresses enter and exit through a door on the north-east end of the bar, which leads to the kitchen. Lined up along the bar are several stools, often used by regular patrons. Between the bar and the booths at the back are arrayed several tables; round for parties consisting of eight to ten people, square for four to six, and smaller squares for couples out for a night on the town.
Decorations are sparse, although there are a few pictures spread on the walls. Mostly consisting of landmarks and notable buildings in Thar Shaddin, there are a few of worth. Most notably are a set of three pictures, one of a ship on the ocean at sunrise, one of the same ship in a storm, and one of the same ship again, heading into a sunset.
The center of operations for the Marn City Guard is a small stone fortress located at a junction between the downtown, residential, and historic districts near the center of Marn.
Officially named Fort Omenbryn after the first Captain of the Marn City Guard, it is usually just called The Headquarters. In many ways The Headquarters is the center of Marnian religious ideology, and is more important to the people than the temple. After all, if The Headquarters is destroyed, who will defend the temple?
The outside of the headquarters looks like a simple European style fortress with tall stone walls joining 4 towers in a square. Parapets along the tops of the walls and towers provide cover for exceptionally trained Marnian archers, usually of elven origin. The land around it has been cleared, although unlike many fortresses it is built as a part of the city, rather than behind a moat or atop a hill.
Inside, The Headquarters appears more like a church than a military operation. Marble floors, the smell of candles and incense, and massive religious tapestries are the first things to greet those who enter the antechamber. Weapons storage, an infirmary and prison cells can be found on the ground floor while barracks are found upstairs.
Extending Main Street north across the forty foot span of the Ofriyu Mar river is a centuries old stone bridge. Thirty feet wide, it allows horse-drawn carts to cross side by side.
The bridge, built long ago by a small army of dwarves, arches over the river with stone supports sunk deep into the river every ten feet. The stones themselves are five feet wide, five feet thick and ten feet high, and go down to a depth of twenty-five feet. How exactly this was done is still in question, but the answer that it was a gnomish device that allowed several men to go under the water for long periods of time is the most believable rumor.
As with much of the rest of the architecture through Marn and even Thar Shaddin itself, the bridge is mostly functional in looks. However, some decoration adorns the high stone railings on the edges and the stone archway through which each person must walk to get on or off either end of the bridge. Mostly worn with age and weather-high waters, most of the decorations are remnants of the dwarves who built the bridge, often done in spirals and gem-shaped patterns. The archway itself seems almost a tribute to every type of weapon imaginable, as is often the wont of dwarves.
The eastern edge of Marn is home to a prison for the mentally insane, separated from the city by a road and several hundred feet of clear ground. The ground nearby is trimmed grass and dirt, making it a no-man's land. Any escapee, a rare occurrence, is taken care of by bowmen on the walls (Marnian archers are often elven and an excellent shot).
The stone walls surrounding the asylum are about twenty feet high and encased in iron on the inside, making them nearly impervious to attack and impossible to climb. A set of gates at the entrance are thick oak enforced with iron, and can only be opened by a mechanism located in a heavily guarded gatehouse. The rear wall is almost directly against the river, with only eight feet between it and the riverbank.
The asylum itself is made of stone, and there are nearly no windows. In each cell is a tiny slit, not even large enough to allow a hand out. Windows are in common areas, and are reinforced with steel bars on the inside.
It is a common suspicion that the Judges use the asylum in order to be rid of people who have not broken any direct law, but who are causing trouble somehow. Rumor has it that these people are kept in the Asylum until they die or are forgotten about, in which case they are generally disposed of.
Located near the center of Marn is a massive and imposing white marble structure officially called Justice Hall and colloquially known as The Hall. Two stories of unadorned solid white stone and capped with a flawless dome, the building follows a machine aesthetic of simple geometry. There are no windows and no designs or markings on the stone, which has become matte over time and stained brownish-green in places where moss has attempted to grow.
The architecture is particularly unique; the dome, arches, and angles of the structure reflect byzantine origins, but the building's flawless and austere facade leave the end result sterile and modern. When juxtaposed with the rest of Marn's largely medieval European flavor, Justice Hall appears alien and out of place. This no doubt enhances the mixture of fear and awe felt by most citizens regarding the strange structure.
Inside, Justice hall remains equally modern and efficient in design, though only a handful of people including the city Battlemages and judges, are able to venture freely within its confines. Prisoners who have been held in its magically sealed cells speak of electric lighting, spotless white walls, numbered rooms, an open altar used for torture and a courtroom inscribed with runic circles that thrum with power. A magical entity known as The Porter maintains a magical barrier that seals the building from prying eyes and escape attempts.
The Power Plant is a towering structure on the far side of the Industrial District. Along the Western shore of the Ofriyu Mar, the Plant generates electricity by a turning a large wheel placed in the water. Gnomish technology allows the plant to generate electricity through much of Marn, although the river runs too slow in this area to supply light and power to the entire city. When it rains heavily, the wheel turns faster and thus supplies more energy, brightening areas that are normally dimly lit and coincidentally staving off the darkness that accompanies storm clouds.
The plant itself is a hundred feet high, much of it thickly built stone in order to hold the turning wheel securely. The wheel is approximately seventy-five feet high, and dips below the river banks to touch the water. Various mechanisms, all gnomish in origin, allow a technician to lift and lower the wheel in various seasons to keep the power supply continuous. During what passes as winter months in Thar Shaddin, the river can flow quite quickly, and on one occasion actually tore the wheel from the tower itself. The wheel lift and mechanisms were recently built to keep this from happening again.
Inside the plant's thick stone walls is a mass of whirring belts and hissing pipes that require constant maintenance to keep operational. The energy it produces is of notoriously poor quality, and can give electrical lights throughout the city a flickering quality ironically similar to that of candles.
The university complex in the residential district houses a vast library (of entirely legal books) and teaches subjects such as mathematics, philosophy, natural and social sciences, engineering, tactics, astronomy and religion. There are few citizens to fill the seats at the University, but those who do find a wealth of knowledge in a society that respects learning - provided that learning is conducted in a legal manner and does not dare venture too close to the magical arts. On the roof of one of the buildings is a massive telescope on a swiveling base roughly the size of a house.