Port Marlow

Population

1.2 million

Runs the streets

Red Lotus

Land prices

Standard

Special service

Marlow Docks

History

Port Marlow was a city before the Nation was a nation. Whalers built the first wharves, smugglers built the second, and the shipping companies built everything after that with money that came, one way or another, from the first two. The old brick counting houses on Lantern Quay still have iron shutters from the days when a customs man was something you paid off or drowned.

When the Concord divided the Nation in 1988, the harbor went to the Red Lotus, and nobody argued. The Lotus had run the night shift on the docks for two generations already. They never needed to own the port. They only needed to own the people who stamped the paperwork.

Marlow is also the seat of the Five-City Council and home to Mayor Evelyn Marsh, the most popular politician in the Nation. Her "Clean Streets, Open Lots" program runs the land sales that followed the Clearance. Marlow's council chamber is where the deeds get signed; Marlow's docks are where the money to buy them gets made.

And Marlow holds the best clue anyone has about the Chairman. At 4:50 on the morning after he vanished, Harbor Master Ingrid Holm logged a trawler called the Lady Esmeralda slipping out past the breakwater with no manifest and no lights. Holm hasn't said a word about it since. She has, however, bought a very nice new car.

Neighborhoods and landmarks

The Marlow Docks

The beating heart of the city: piers, container stacks and a gantry crane that never sleeps. Honest players can sign on for a shift hauling cargo, which pays 1.8× your hourly wage. Criminals can't get a union card here, so they do the other thing: run a smuggling job, collect a fat cut and hope harbor patrol doesn't board them on the way in.

Lantern Quay

The old waterfront, cobbled in blue-gray granite. Counting houses turned into bars, chandleries turned into lofts. The Red Lotus keeps an office above a noodle shop here with no sign on the door.

Cannery Row

Gravel lots and tin roofs where the fish markets cluster. A fish market in Marlow earns more than it would anywhere else, and the cold rooms out back have hidden more than mackerel.

Downtown and the harbor front

Like every city, Marlow's downtown survived the Clearance: The Golden Ace Casino takes the center block, flanked by Port Marlow PD Headquarters, St. Mercy Hospital, Port Marlow City Hall, the Port Marlow Savings & Trust, Liberty Park, the Iron Temple Gym, Pawn & Arms, Fuel-Up and FreshWay Grocery. Every service has a check-in activity worth coming back for.

Out past the breakwater

Beyond the edge of town the land turns to dunes and fishing junk. Up the coast, Lighthouse Point watches the smuggling route, and the keeper there sees everything that comes ashore at night.

Who runs it

Mother Lin Shui of the Red Lotus owns nothing on paper and everything in practice. Her people are patient: they don't rob a warehouse when they can rent it, and they don't fight the harbor patrol when they can feed it. The Lotus keeps its books in a cipher only three people can read, and two of those people are getting old.

On the other side of the ledger is the Mayor. Evelyn Marsh wants Marlow to be the clean city, the one the rest of the Nation copies. Whether she means it is the question every reporter in Marlow is afraid to ask.

Faces of Port Marlow

• Mayor Evelyn MarshChair of the CouncilClean streets, open lots, and no questions at the ribbon-cutting.
• Ingrid HolmHarbor MasterThe tide logs itself. I just write it down.
• Mother Lin ShuiHead of the Red LotusPaper burns. Debts float.

Life on each side

Criminals

Marlow is a smuggler's town. A smuggling run at the docks is one of the best single paydays in the game, but it raises your heat by two stars every time and harbor patrol sometimes boards you, costing you cash and health. Run a job, bank the take, then cool off before the cops come looking.

Police

Every smuggler who walks off those piers is walking around with heat. That makes the docks the best hunting ground in the Nation for an officer looking for probable cause. Park near downtown, watch the feed for smuggling news and make arrests while the stars are still bright.

Civilians

Dock work pays 1.8× your hourly wage against a grocery shift's 1.5×. They share one shift timer, so in Marlow, take the docks. Marlow's land is fairly priced, and warehouses and fish markets pay a harbor bonus. It's a steady, sensible city to build a first portfolio in.

Specialty buildings and perks

• Harbor trade: warehouses, fish markets and shipyards earn +25%, and hotels earn a little extra too.
• Only in Marlow: the Fish Market and the Shipyard. Hotels, banks and the towering Sky Tower can also go up here.
• Marlow Docks: smuggling runs for criminals, well-paid dock shifts for everyone else.
• Standard land: no discount, no premium. Downtown lots cost the most, edge lots are a bargain.
• A starting city: open from day one, and newcomers here pay nothing to bullies far above their level.

Tips for Port Marlow

• Your $25,000 starting cash covers two edge lots, a House and a Taco Stand or Food Cart here, all in your first ten minutes. Graduate to a warehouse or fish market once you can afford one. The harbor bonus is baked into the income when you build, and again each time you upgrade.
• Bank your cash before you head to the docks. Smuggling makes you a target for police, and a mugging takes cash on hand, never money in the bank.
• The Shipyard is a long-term project, but it's a Marlow exclusive with the harbor bonus on top. Save for it.
• Crews: the container job at the docks is a Marlow-only heist. A Lady Esmeralda manifest says container 7 is empty. It isn't. See the heists guide.
• Dock work, overtime and grocery shifts share one 30-minute shift timer. Civilians: the docks pay more than the grocery. Police: overtime (2×) still beats the docks (1.8×).
• Marlow sits on the western coast. Havenbrook ($54 by bus) and Ironbridge ($61) are the closest hops.

Getting here

Fares from Port Marlow, nearest first. The bus also costs 15 energy; a flight costs none. A Sports Car halves flights and a Private Jet makes them free.