Ashward
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The Ashward is the labour district of Aurelia where the city’s dock workers and tanners live, and where Phil Flowerforge’s contact Hett Varn keeps a small safe house. Phil named the district while leading the party through the Eldwythe sewers in session 15 [1], describing it as “what can only be described as the side of Aurelia, where the normal dock workers and the tanners live.” The party has not visited the ward; their current arc has them sailing toward the White Lantern Shrine (a half-ruined waystation roughly half a day’s travel from Aurelia — direction not explicitly named on-screen, likely a coastal waystation on the freight road approaching the city) as their first introduction to the city.
Overview
The Ashward is the labour district of Aurelia — a quarter set aside for the dock workers and tanners who keep the city’s outer rings functional. It was named for the first time in session 15, when Phil Flowerforge led the survivors of the Aurelian chain-master ambush through the Eldwythe sewers and disclosed the existence of his contact Hett Varn: a red-headed dwarf with forehead goggles who keeps a small safe house in the Ashward and meets visitors at the White Lantern Shrine roughly half a day’s travel from Aurelia (direction not explicitly named on-screen — likely a coastal waystation on the freight road approaching the city) [3]. The code phrase is “Phil sent us.”
The ward sits within the geometry of Aurelia proper. Per the campaign’s working model of the city, Aurelia is built in concentric rings around Crownspire, with the outermost rings comprising gates, docks, labour quarters, and military roads. The Ashward is one of these outer-ring labour quarters; the world brief confirms travellers and pilgrims speak of the city’s order and cleanliness “with equal parts awe and caution,” which is presumably a different experience from the inside of a tannery.
Significance
The Ashward is the campaign’s first named non-Crownspire district of Aurelia and the most likely location of the party’s first on-foot operations inside the city. Hett Varn’s safe house is the planned arrival point. Whether the ward’s labour-district status makes it easier or harder to move tieflings, half-demon-elves, kobolds, and tortles through unobserved is the open question the party will have to answer once they make landfall.
Status as of session 16
Unvisited. The party is sailing toward the White Lantern Shrine (a half-ruined waystation roughly half a day’s travel from Aurelia — direction not explicitly named on-screen, likely a coastal waystation on the freight road approaching the city) and intends to be introduced to Hett Varn there before any direct entry into Aurelia’s wards.
See also
References
- ^ Session 15, line 660 — Phil names Hett Varn's safe house: 'Het Warn... has a safe house in Ashward'.
- ^ Session 15, line 693 — Phil's note for Hett Varn; meeting at the White Lantern Shrine confirmed.
- ^ Session 15, line 660-693 — Inline citation.