Eberron?

[AyuVince]

The city atop a volcano, with a slum-like maze of streets underneath it.. that's Sharn he's talking about, right? Is Gobwin Knob supposed to be a reminiscence to Sharn, the City of Towers?

[Silverlocke980]

That would be a little insane.... but fitting!

Probably an accidental reference, though.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Sharn's not in a volcano. It's built on a cliff (well, a series of bluffs with small valleys in between) overlooking a river valley. It's also quite cosmopolitan, full of an almost random profusion of vastly tall towers connected by walkways that make it much like the various "urban" planets in the Star Wars universe. Not nearly as military as Gobwin Knob appears to be.

It is full of Goblins, though.

[MolotovH]

Argh... I can't find my copy of Sharn: City of Towers at the moment, but I'm fairly certain that he's correct, or at least close. The canyons between the different plateaus of the city were carved by ancient volcanic activity, and there's definitely a caldera underneath, in the heart of the Cogs district.

[Starblade]

I have my copy here.

The map inside the front cover depicts that the city is built on several plateau's

A river surrounds at least two whole sides of the city. I dont know about a volcano but the map shows volcanic pools underneath the cogs as stated above.

[AyuVince]

The campaign setting says the city is built atop a dead volcano... dead or at least inactive ;)

[darkninjaoflight]

I'd say it's more a reference to the city of Cauldron from the Shackled City adventures. That, if I recall correctly, was on top of a dead volcano and had its share of tunnels underneath it.

[Josh Inno]

Er, no. Sharn is the city of towerS. We're talking made up of nothing but. It's like a chunk taken out of corruscant and devolved back to mideval times with magic added.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Huh. Well, I'm dumb. Still, if this is a reference, it doesn't beat "Two words: magic trains."

[Sage in the Playground]

Er, no. Sharn is the city of towerS. We're talking made up of nothing but. It's like a chunk taken out of corruscant and devolved back to mideval times with magic added.

That is quite possibly the geekiest metaphor EVER.

And a run-on sentence.

[factotum]

Wasn't there a city built into the side of a cliff with loads of passages underneath it in one of the Riftwar books? ISTR they filled the passages with something explosive and blew the whole place up when the invading army overwhelmed the defences.

Actually, just looked it up--the place was called Armengar. It certainly came to mind as soon as we saw Gobwin Knob for the first time.