Ocrad

Zuraists

This cabal is in control of most of the installations in the city that the other cabals do not control, from taverns to establishments with mostly a gang’s touch. They force the owners to pay for the right to have a business at all in the city. This is receiving strong criticism from the lord and the other cabals that are trying to eradicate such behavior with mild success. Toma Tomulescu is the head of the organization and makes sure that the work gets done.

Zugravescu

The cabal in charge of exploration and handling any adventurer that comes in the city, they take care of inns and taverns, some potions shops and smiths in the city. They have been talking with the lord to see if charging adventurers and explorers a fee for exploring the lands would be a good idea. Finally they maintain the billboards in all their establishments which contain requests from people from all walks of life in the city, ready to pay anyone that will fulfill them. Cosmin Ermer is the face of the cabal, insisting that they are more a company like the ones in Desislava, however that is obviously a lie for anyone that understands the difference in how things operate.

Zamfir

It is in charge of all magic item transactions of the city, including some potions and other minor trinkets. They count with libraries, one academy and several workshops, all working together to bring commodities for those that have the coin to pay for it. Everything they sell has a high price tag and generally is in low demand, so they don’t hold the most influence in the city, even if their banks do help them have a say in what happens in the region. Sipriam Hofer is the head of the Zamfir cabal and he rarely interacts with anyone other than the lord and richest nobles.

Ocrad was a fort city founded in the year 701 of the Astral Divergence by the king Tudor Tarniceriu, who started it on the very hills near what now is the border between Berusia and the Amunrei Expanse. The city was quite easy to defend and with time that made it grow considerably, like others in that era.   After centuries of war between the kingdoms in the area, Ocrad wasn’t in any particular position of advantage other than being one of the oldest survivors of the past millennia, still all of them were struggling just to survive. When in the 18th century Vasily of Dancya arrived at Ocrads' doors, they posed no threat to his armies. The siege was but a couple of weeks long and then the city surrendered because their food reserves were already thin.   After that not much happened to the city and its inhabitants while under Vasily’s rule. He recognized its deplorable state and promised to protect it, allowing the people to farm without worries once more. That would not last for long as the death of Vasily returned the status quo to the lands.   When Dimitry of Dancya started its conquest, the kingdoms in the area were already at war once more, and if that wasn’t enough, monsters of all kinds saw how weakened Ocrad was, so they wasted no time in attacking them too. When Dimitry finally reached the city, a century after it was lost to the death of his predecessor, the city had less than one thousand inhabitants, the buildings were dilapidated and the king was more than willing to surrender once more to a conqueror.   Ocrad proved hard to protect, it was already a perfect target for monsters as sections of the walls were destroyed in previous wars, it was on the edge of Berusia and it could not go on by itself. So it proved to be a liability. The city was maintained with the bare minimum required, as the position has proven to be quite useful, in the end it was the only kingdom still alive in the area for a reason. And so for a while things were starting to change for the better.   In 1938, almost 20 years after the city surrendered to the Dancyan rule for the second time, Dimitry’s reign came to an end, as the vampires took control of Berusia without any fight. Ocrad will not be spared of any of the atrocities that were widespread at the time other than its citizens trying to escape to Desislava if able.   In the year following after Desislava declared neutrality and was occupied by the Elderian forces, the vampires that escaped found Ocram to be their last secure bastion. A city that was more a farmer’s town with stone walls than a fortress at that point. Elderian forces spared nothing from the city, they beseiged and assaulted it with all the strength remaining for an army tired of war and that had been fighting for far too long. After the war ended, Ocrad was an uninhabited ruin. Centuries would pass before someone walked its streets once more.   Five hundred years later, explorers and adventurers started using the abandoned city as a place for spending nights and sometimes even days between adventures in relative security. Situated in the upper part of a plateau and devoid of food or even vegetation, no wild beast other than birds and maybe the occasional bat could be found. This kick started a weird phenomenon, traders saw that the groups of people that hung around the ruins were actually quite wealthy, so they started coming to it too to sell their wares.   Nomad traders became temporary outposts, which in turn became permanent places to sell to any visitors. With traders then came farmers, butchers, bakers and slowly a city was built. The houses were repaired and there is an initiative to repair the walls too, everything they were not able to rebuild was torn down to give space for new buildings. Today the city is quite populated and Viorica Vulpe, the lord, is very open to helping new people establish themselves in it. This influx of wealth and citizens made Ocrad quickly become one of the biggest cities in the region.   With deep caves and lustrous forest to explore near the city and a whole region on the eastern side, it is a famous meeting spot for adventurers. The city boasts with everything an adventurer might need, and in fact rumors are that the city itself is starting to regulate such business.

Taverns, inns and bars

• The armed lobster: Works mostly as a bar or tavern, but has some rooms on the upper floor if people decide to stay there. Famous for their nice drinks, strong alcohol and occasional brawl, it is a classic spot for adventurers to stop by. The owner is generally referred to as Jokun, and has two halflings named Trako and Treba that work as the bartenders.
• Ye olde library inn: This inn is controlled by the Zamfir cabal and boasts a huge library that guests can use at their leisure. Mages of all kinds can purchase scrolls for their adventure or even rent spell-books for copying spells to theirs, even if the service is still quite steep. An old elf named Fogloom is the one that writes down the guests before they check in, collects the money for staying and tells new people the rules to use the library. In the library a very burly orc named Rocamo dressed in a suit explains the use of the library and collects the money from people that want its services.
• The coconut peanut bar: Despite its name, it is mostly an inn that serves warm meals, healing services and even buffing spells from some of the local spellcasters, anyone can pay for their services before going off to attend to their businesses. A human name Trical is the one in charge for serving the meals and charging for services, Berta is the cook and she makes an amazing stew, Kleran is a human wizard that casts buffing spells for those that pay, like mage armor and finally Yokoldo is the cleric that is in charge of the other type of buffing spells.
• The lonely garden: Ran by a dwarf named Traian, this inn has a huge stable kept in perfect state by a gnome mage named Vali. Them and their servants are all about giving mounts and pets the best of attention, a deserved treat for loyal creatures that follow their masters faithfully. The rooms for normal folk are also quite nice and so is the food, but the establishment offers little in the sense of alcohol or the like.

The Lord’s Keep

Here, the lord Viorica Vulpe spends her nights and generally deals with all diplomatic problems regarding the lords of berusia, cabals, and Berusia in general. The keep has been fully repaired, it has a small barracks where the lord's personal army resides, a really good inn and bar that the lord uses only for important guests and close allies and the main city’s granary that contains the food reserves for a whole year.

Broken Walls

The sections with the old, broken walls in the city are constantly being repaired, this process started not long ago as there was no need before. However in the last year the city has been attacked at night by creatures and going after them has proven quite difficult, this makes it so that the walls need constant guards at night and protection for the workers until they are restored to what they were before. This can prove quite difficult as some sections are damaged beyond repair and it's impossible to tell unless the whole wall is torn down.

Underground Sewers

The underground part of the city is fully functional and has even been remodeled to work as a base for the Zuraist cabal. It is very dangerous to go inside as the place itself is like a labyrinth, one that is constantly being patrolled and guarded. There is a central room in the sewers that the Zuraists use as a base, it has all commodities necessary to live and is extremely hard to access if you are not working for them.

Zamfir Manor

Here resides the most important people that decide everything regarding the Zamfir cabal and what it does in the city. The manor is huge and full of servants, all ready to welcome adventurers and nobles with enough money to participate in the auctions that are conducted inside. Normally these auctions are for magical items and the like, but from time to time other things can be sold, including noble titles, houses and even land.

Zugravescu manor

This is more a huge tower than an actual house, it is used as headquarters for all the bureaucratic problems that come with managing the main businesses of the area. The manor itself is unremarkable apart from the tower itself, even though no one has seen the very top rooms in it other than Zugravescu leaders. Some say that those rooms were built to show that the cabal is more important than the lord, but they know little as the Zugravescu cabal and the lord work together constantly.

The Caves

Near Ocrad there is a huge cavern complex that a multitude of creatures has used as home for centuries now. It is a good place for exploration and adventuring for those that dare do so. The city itself does not bar the entrance so anyone can access it, but sleeping outside the walls (those that are still standing) is always a bad idea and veteran adventurers know as much.

The Dark Forest

The forest near the city is very thick and mostly untamed, as forest creatures constantly attack lumberjacks that try to take down any of the huge trees that form it. Some wood has been able to be gathered, but the more you penetrate the forest, the more dangerous and strong the creatures become. The end of the forest is where the mountains begin, this is a harsh change as the forest stops at the feet of a huge crag that is taller than the tallest of trees. Explorations that have started from that side of the forest generally never return.