Aurelian Occupation of Eldwythe

Stub-class article · First seen: s14 · Last seen: s16

The Aurelian Occupation of Eldwythe is the on-screen first appearance of Aurelian forces as hostile to the party. Returning from the Candy Cottage at nightfall on the last day of session 14, the party found Eldwythe under occupation: white-and-gold banners on the palisade, Pure Light-aligned soldiers in pale tabards searching every cart and shutter, and wanted posters of all five PCs hammered to the gate notice boards charging “unlawful possession and obstruction of divine inquiry” [1]. The occupation took the town in under a day. The party retreated to the woods, sneaked through the Eldwythe sewers in session 15 under Phil Flowerforge’s smoke-bomb cover, and were still occupying force-blocked from a return at the end of session 16.

Overview

The party returned from the Candy Cottage at nightfall on the last day of session 14 to find Eldwythe transformed. White and gold banners had been hung from the outside palisade where there had been none on departure [2]. Armoured soldiers in polished mail and pale tabards bearing the Aurelian sunburst were searching carts, opening shutters, and questioning travellers. Fresh notice boards beside the gate carried wanted posters with “crude likenesses, descriptions, warnings” for all five party members on the charge “unlawful possession and obstruction of divine inquiry”. The DM emphasised “this is not random inspection. They’re here for someone specific. They’re here for you.”

The occupation was complete in less than a day — the party had been gone for the cottage arc and returned to a city already pinned under Aurelian banners. Session 14 ended on the party retreating to a clearing outside the gate.

In session 15, Phil Flowerforge led the party to the Eldwythe sewers cellar entry under smoke-bomb cover, splitting off with Briochebane at the mid-point. Session 16 cleared the sewer crawl; the party exited through the outflow on a small skiff and chose to sail south toward the White Lantern Shrine rather than re-enter the occupied town.

Open questions

  • How do the Aurelians know the entire party? The wanted posters describe all five PCs including Vazquez, who used no magic in session 12. The descriptions read as witness-based, not arcane-detection-based [3], [4].
  • Who informed? Edith Applegarth’s storybook-revealed history of betrayal [5] is one open line of speculation; nothing has been confirmed.

Where this comes up

  • Tracked as an active quest in 08_quests/active.md.
  • Recap-listed as the new active thread in session 14 and as still-active in sessions 15 and 16.
  • The reason multiple other quests are blocked: returning Briochebane to Phil, reuniting the bubblegum halfling with Edith Applegarth, and the Brioche-retrieval reward all depend on Eldwythe being safe to enter again.

References

  1. ^ Session 14, line 1556-1561 — Banners on the palisade, wanted posters of all five PCs, "unlawful possession and obstruction of divine inquiry".
  2. ^ Session 14, line 1556 — Inline citation.
  3. ^ Session 14, line 1561 — Inline citation.
  4. ^ Session 14, line 1464 — Inline citation.
  5. ^ Session 13, line 1206 — Inline citation.
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