Harkon Lukas

M A P 3.9: K ARTAKASS

ous venues, such as the Harmonic Hall school of music and the acoustically complex Amphitheater of Harmonia, which projects whispers in some areas and silences screams in others. Artists vie for opportunities to present their work at the supremely popular Crystal Club, a members-only venue inside a cave that features a stage constructed from a massive natural geode. The club is known for its dramatic decor and overly critical clientele, and it's widely rumored that performers who fail to impress at the exclusive club go into exile. The bloodier truth reflects the fact that the club's membership is restricted to lycanthropes. This echoes the secret of Harmonia: its vaunted traditions, such as night performances, fur-trimmed clothing, and grisly woodcuts, are inexorably intertwined with bestial curses. M E D RIA

T h e fishing village o f Medria sits on t h e southern shore of Tragedy's Stage, a lake known for its notoriously choppy waters. The community's residents are uniquely inured tp apocalypse scenarios, since early morning sound blasts, wandering puppets, and lurid but heatless explosions regularly emanate from the studios of local dramatic effects artists and their apprentices. Magic and theatricality blur i n Medria, leaving the locals numb to both wonder and danger. SKALD

The largest community in Kartakass, Skald presents itself as a bustling hub of commerce and creativity that boasts the best of everything in the land. The lure of overnight celebrity, glowing marquees, and fawning crowds attracts the ambitious to Skald, aspiring to the fame of stars such as the renowned bard Akriel Lukas. Yet behind the facade of creativity and freethinking, business owners and aging celebrities prey on youth and creativity, while critics and struggling performers create a culture of desperate deceptions. Vice, criminality, dark bargains, and supernatural predators flourish in Skald, like a pack of wolves hiding behind glamorous masks. WILDERSUNG Woon

The straight-limbed trees that make up this wood bear bark that causes sounds to echo. Wildlife lurks restlessly in the Wildersung Wood , stalking travelers with unusual boldness. And each day at twilight, a sourceless chorus drifts through the trees. The voices always sing the opening verses of the same song, but fade before it ends. Legends warn that any who hear the song should raise their voices and join the chorus. Those who don't risk meeting a terrible fate-strangers or those who refuse to sing are regularly discovered with inexplicably broken necks.