This is the fortress town of “PlaneStep“, a town that has grown around the swirling magical vortex known as the “Drowning” .
The Drowning connects the material plane to other planes in unpredictable manner. Sometimes it brings otherworldly treasure, sometimes nightmarish danger hence the town and it citizens are always battle ready.
The strong city walls are designed as much to keep foes out, as they are to keep truly devastating dangers from spreading out.
Due to the always imminent risk of danger emerging from the Drowning, the town’s rich and important citizens live up the mountain sides on huge ledges known as the “Stairs of the Giant”. At the very top lives The Duchess of PlaneStep on the ledge know as “The Giant’s Tear”.