Description
Albent Stadium. Athletic feats and prisoner blood sports are held here to amuse the
Vampire overlords.
Burning Towers. The city has at least two towers wrapped in perpetual deep orange flames. These towers were built over radiant wells that were tampered with, and lines of arcane power provide a constant fuel for the flames. Fire elementals sometimes dance in the flames, and some believe a shadow road to the
City of Brass once began in one of these towers.
City Hall. A fine, half-timbered building, this hall is the hub of commerce, industry, and plotting for the creatures that dare to visit the city. Its basement is the Ratskellar, the only tavern in town, and the fare is notoriously poor. The specialty is fried purpure, a sort of lilac-colored fish native to the city’s river.
Tanith Helicos maintains an audience chamber somewhere in the dungeons beneath the hall.
Dusk Guildhall. The vampires that often visit their umbral cousins founded a guild here, devoted to the spread of the city’s people and power. As a strange sort of explorer’s society, they exchange information and pursue targets among the darakhul, humans, and shadow fey. Most members are dhampir, vampires, vampire spawn, or shades. Some of the Dusk Guildhall members seek a close alliance with Soriglass.
Crimson Court Castle. This tall castle with its many gargoyles, bloodthirsty vines, and elaborate balconies is surrounded by chasms and home to the city's elite, the council of the
Crimson Court. Legends tell of an ancient artifact buried somewhere beneath the crimson court castle.
Dark River. This river of black shadow often pass for water, run swoft and cold—so cold that it counts as frigid water. Worse, the spirits of things that died in or near the water constitute a separate hazard. A creature that starts its turn in dark water must succeed on a DC 12 Strength saving throw or be grappled and pulled 5 feet deeper into the water by the hungry spirits. The grappled condition lasts until the start of the creature’s next turn. These ghosts long to drag every living thing they encounter into the inky depths, and even watercraft provide uncertain protection against these spirits.
A creature that drowns in dark water can’t be returned to life and as its soul is trapped by the dark water. A few creatures of the plane of shadow are naturally immune to the effects of dark water, including shadow goblins, vampires, and most fiends.
Cattle square. This section of the city is enclosed by towering, thick walls and serves as a grim holding pen for countless humans, fey, and other creatures. Their lives are short and bleak, as they are little more than livestock—prisoners of the Crimson Court’s vampires, kept alive solely to feed the thirst of intermediate and lesser vampires. On rare occasions, a humanoid who proves particularly strong, clever, or beautiful is selected for a more prestigious—if no less cruel—fate: to be sent to Albent Stadium, where they are forced to entertain the higher vampires in gladiatorial combat or macabre displays.
The living conditions in the Cattle Square are dire. Starvation is rampant, and desperation fuels a brutal cycle of crime and violence. Theft, assault, and even murder are common, as each individual claws for a chance to survive another day—or another month—without being drained dry.
To ensure a constant supply of new victims, the wells and food stores are laced with powerful aphrodisiacs and love philters, chemically coercing the prisoners into reproduction. In this way, the vampires maintain an unending cycle of fresh blood, born into captivity, raised in misery, and harvested like animals.
Society
Law
The city is home to many vampires, but a fragile order is maintained. The higher vampires and the Crimson Court Council enforce a semblance of society, restraining the lower vampires that roam the streets and preventing them from attacking every non-vampire citizen.
Demography
Undead shadows thrive in and around the city, drifting in the wake of vampires. For some reason, the shadows don’t attack the vampires, suggesting either some mastery the vampires hold over the shadows or at least a perceived kinship. Ghouls also make frequent trips to the city. Both of which are banned from the cattle quarter to protect the humanoids living there.
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