Beltaire
The ruins of Beltaire are a popular pilgrimage destination for the faithful of the Church of Holy Blood, for beneath the village lie catacombs that house the gilded and bejeweled skeletons of venerated saints.
• It is unknown who placed these skeletal remains within the subterranean crypts or who has taken pains to dress them in sumptuous religious vestments, but the Church’s adherents consider it an act of faith to anoint the saints’ bones with blessed oil.
• Oddly, the saintly corpses within the caverns are sometimes found to have changed posture or position—or to have moved to a different section of the catacombs entirely.
• The faithful regard these unexplained movements as miraculous, but there is a darker truth to the ambulatory dead of Beltaire; when the sun sets, the unquiet spirits of Beltaire’s former residents stalk the ruins in search of prey.
• A thriving market peddling fraudulent saintly relics, fake holy water, and other chicanery has taken root just outside the walls of the ruined village.
Bordel
Governed by a scheming brothel madame named Katarina Valdemar, Bordel is a community of swindlers who survive by providing services such as gambling, saloons, and prostitution to travelers in the Vespermark.
• The sins of Bordel drain the town’s visitors like parasites, draining their coin before sending them on their way, broken and humiliated by their vices.
• Katarina and her family run the town as if it were their personal barony; strangely, those who stand up to their despotism are often found badly mauled as if they had been attacked by wild animals.
• These killings are the work of the Valdemars—a family of bagheeta, werecats who turn into hybrids of man and black leopard when angered or aroused, hiding in plain sight as bawds and procurers in Bordel.