RED-LIGHT

Social Class: Lower.

Power Center: Often—nonstandard (guild).

Buildings: Temple (Olidammara), average lodging (2%), poor lodging (17%), average food (5%), poor food (20%), poor trades (19%), poor services (35%; gambling halls, festhalls, pawn shops, brothels).

Description: Although the red-light district is named for the lanterns that identify brothels, it is a destination for all who seek gray-market, semilegal, and illegal services. Prostitution, illicit substances, gambling, dealers in stolen goods, and crooks-for-hire—all are found here. It is clearly a high-crime area, and nearly everyone is trying very hard to be noticed or not to be noticed, depending on what they’re buying or selling. The city guard patrols the district, but frequent bribes ensure it turns a blind eye to “dubious” goings-on so long as they don’t harm or inconvenience important people. Indeed, the guard makes a habit of harassing passersby, making visitors almost as wary of the soldiers as they are of local criminals.

Plot Hook: A succubus has joined the district’s prostitutes and is slowly building up a sizable force of besotted and charmed minions. The fiend’s motives are unclear, and tracking it down will be difficult, since its polymorph ability allows it to blend in with the other inhabitants of the district.