Tarentum is a coastal port city on the Drakefire Peninsula. Its harbor supports substantial maritime traffic and a large trade in fresh seafood, imported goods, and luxuries. Smoke and industrial haze often hang over parts of the skyline, giving the city a more crowded and hard-used appearance than the cleaner districts of Arkrist.
Tarentum is also notorious for the trade in Starshine, commonly called Twinkle, an illicit drug associated with intense euphoria, altered perception, and unpredictable magical side effects. The drug trade reaches into fashionable establishments as well as ordinary street dealing, and corruption among local authorities makes enforcement inconsistent. Visitors looking for information can therefore find it unusually difficult to tell where legitimate nightlife ends and organized criminal business begins.
One of the best-known establishments associated with that wealthier side of the underworld is Maszyr’s Room, a private lounge run by Maszyr Maeafin. The countryside south of Tarentum is much less urbanized. The reclusive wizard Ut maintained a tower there, and a meteorite contaminated by energies associated with the Nascent Expanse fell within a half-day’s travel of his home during the Drakefire campaign.