A walled town in the valley, ruled by Baron Vargas Vallakovich. The road ends at a pair of iron gates, tall and plain and very well kept. Along either side of the approach, rows of pikes are planted in the earth, each topped with the head of a wolf, jaws frozen open, eyes long since gone. Guards in smiling armour man the gates.
The smiling-faced sun is everywhere: on the guards’ armour, and on the masks some townsfolk wear. In the town square stands a large stage, too high and shallow to be anything other than a repurposed gallows. From there the Baron hears petitions the way a king does, dismissing every complaint with blind optimism, missing pigs, a bakery without flour, stolen church property, and closing each one with “All will be well!” The crowd answers in kind, as though at a church gathering.
Morgantha said Arabelle was brought here, taken by Izek Strazni, and that the town militia had her last.
Places the party has visited in town:
- Blue Water Inn, run by the Martikovs
- Blinsky’s Toys, the toymaker’s shop
- The Merry Crust, Bozena’s bakery
- St. Andral’s Church, tended by Father Lucian
A sign in town details the methods of “discipline” used by the Order of Contentment: “Contentment”, “Amusement”, “Convalescence” and “Dischargement”. Some townsfolk wear strapped masks, called masks of contentment.
The town is said to be warded against vampires. According to Father Lucian, those wards depend on the bones of St. Andral, which have been stolen from the church’s crypt.