Beliard

Beliard is a market-moot for local cattle drovers. It surrounds the intersection of the dusty Dessarin Road and the Stone Trail.

Beliard is home to many cattle ranchers whose herds roam the hills around the village, particularly to the east. The community has a public well, as well as a pond where harnessed horses or oxen can be driven through the water to bathe them, drive off flies, and let them drink. It also boasts a tanner, a smith, some horse dealers and trainers who keep extensive stables, and an inn: the venerable, popular, and several-times-expanded Watchful Knight. The inn was named for an inoperative helmed horror that once stood in the common room. The creature mysteriously vanished years ago, and the inkeeper went missing shortly thereafter.

Suggested Encounter
Hill giants have attacked many of the cattle ranchers around Beliard. Every attack is the same: the giants ignore the ranchers and instead raid the animal pens, making off with pigs, sheep, chicken coops, and cattle. The ranch owners have owners have pooled their resources and posted "Adventurers Wanted!" signs that promise a payment of 500gp to anyone who finds out where the hill giants' lair is located. Characters who visit the Watchful Knight and question its patrons learn that most of the giants fled southward with their loot. Characters who explore the hills south of Beliard might find an old tower containing a female hill giant who recently lost her mate (Encounter: Old Tower)