Ashward
| Ashward | |||||||||
| the Ashward | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
| Location | |||||||||
| |||||||||
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 it in session 15 while leading the party through the Eldwythe sewers [4][1], and in session 18 an Aurelian patrol told the party that registering at the gate should get them “inside the Ashwards” [3]. The party has never seen it.
Overview
The Ashward is a quarter of Aurelia, described in play as the side of the city “where the normal dock workers and the tanners live” [4]. It exists in the campaign only as a name. Phil Flowerforge, voiced by the DM, gave it as the district of his contact Hett Varn’s safe house [4][1], and an Aurelian patrol told the party that registering at the gate should get them “inside the Ashwards” [3]. The party has never seen it.
Geography and appearance
Phil’s account is the only description: a district on “the side of Aurelia, where the normal dock workers and the tanners live, where you won’t be as bothered as if you were to be anywhere in Aurelia” [4]. Nothing about its streets or buildings has been shown.
Inhabitants
Dock workers and tanners [4]. Hett Varn, Phil’s contact, keeps a small safe house here. Phil described him as a dwarf with red hair who usually wears goggles on his forehead and is “kind of a tinkerer”, and said he tends to stop by the White Lantern Shrine on the freight road [2][5].
Notable features
Hett Varn’s safe house. Phil offered it as a refuge in a ward “where you won’t be as bothered” as anywhere else in Aurelia [4]. He warned, though, that he could do nothing about the party’s magic, which would be “severely limited” in Aurelia, and that “your friend with the horns is going to have a bad time” [4].
History in the campaign
Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins
Main article: Session 15
In the sewers beneath Eldwythe, Phil Flowerforge offered a contact for Aurelia: Hett Varn, who “has a small safe house” in the district of dock workers and tanners [4]. When Caelumn asked for the contact’s name again, Phil spelled it out and named the place: “a safe house in Ashward” [1]. His note for Hett told the party to meet him at the White Lantern instead, a half-ruined wayshrine on the freight road a few miles from Aurelia’s outer approaches [2].
Session 18: The Wyrm Falls, the Catfish Escapes, and Mike Dies on the Road
Main article: Session 18
Walking inland from the beach, the party met an Aurelian patrol. Its leader told them to register at the gate for travelling documents, and that calling themselves “outside travelers looking to bask in the glory” should “be enough to at least get you inside the Ashwards” [3]. The party never got that far: the patrol killed Mike on the road [6].
Status
As of session 23. Unvisited. The party never reached the White Lantern Shrine, where Phil told them to meet Hett Varn [2], and after Mike’s death it abandoned its quest in Aurelia “for now” [7].
See also
References
- ^ Session 15, line 660: Phil names Hett Varn's safe house: 'Hett Varn... has a safe house in Ashward'.
- ^ Session 15, line 693: Phil's note for Hett Varn; meeting at the White Lantern Shrine confirmed.
- ^ Session 18, line 2012: Aurelian patrol leader: registering at the gate 'should be enough to at least get you inside the Ashwards'.
- ^ Session 15, line 655: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 15, line 695: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 18, line 2276: Inline citation.
- ^ Session 19, line 229: Inline citation.