Eldwythe Sewers

Start-class article · First seen: s15 · Last seen: s16
Eldwythe Sewers
the sewers
Portrait of Eldwythe Sewers.
Location
StatusActive
First seens15
Last seens16

The Eldwythe Sewers are the multi-tunnel underground network beneath Eldwythe, used in sessions 15 and 16 as the party’s escape route from the Aurelian occupation. Phil Flowerforge led the surviving party in through a cellar door on the edge of the walls, not the town’s normal entrance [13], after his smoke-bomb rescue; he told them of his old stash and its Hat of Disguise, gave them his contact Hett Varn at the White Lantern Shrine, and left with Briochebane. The party then crawled the rest of the sewers themselves, fighting Kuo-toa in session 15, a needle blight and two rat swarms at the end of that session, fungal “servants” that rose from the water in session 16, and, in a sarcophagus chamber, two flameskulls and several ghouls, before slipping past the Aurelians holding the sewer mouth to a skiff at the outflow.

Overview

The Eldwythe Sewers are the multi-tunnel network beneath Eldwythe that served the party as its escape route from the Aurelian occupation in sessions 15 and 16: two sessions of damp brick, biogloom, a magical puzzle door and ambushes. Phil Flowerforge led the party in through a cellar door on the edge of the town’s walls [13]; it left through the outflow on a stolen skiff [14].

Geography and appearance

The tunnels are tight and low in places, forcing the taller party members to duck “hanging roots and broken stone”, with black water sliding past in a narrow channel and walls that “seem to sweat moisture” [15]. The smell is rot, river muck, mould and old waste [16]. Brick gives way to older stone further in, and a blue fungal glow lights much of it [17][18]. Terry’s Detect Magic read the spores as “biomagic” and not as magic [19].

Layout

  • The cellar door. Phil led the party to “a kind of cellar door, kind of on the edge of the walls”, not the town’s normal entrance, and down into the sewer water [20].
  • The first crate. Hugo found a chest in a cubby in the wall holding a healing potion and an antitoxin [21].
  • The channel junction. A junction of rusted wheel valves and broken gates spilling water “like glowing ribbons”, around a platform half collapsed into slick blue sludge [22]. The Kuo-toa came out of a side channel here [23].
  • The mossy side room. Old valve wheels under a mat of damp fungus, and a decomposed body with a pouch holding two healing potions, a crowbar, 15 feet of rope and seven gold [5].
  • The storage pocket. A low pocket of buckled brick, rotting shelves and floating crates, thick with blue glow. Needle blights and rat swarms fought here [24].
  • The second crate. Session 16 opens at a wet crate holding two healing potions, a greater healing potion, a smoke bomb, 50 feet of silk rope, a hooded lantern, a flask of oil and a little coin, and the Hat of Disguise, hidden until water hit it [25][26].
  • The fungal chamber. A big room whose ceiling hangs low, “draped in wet fungal curtains”, with skull-sized clusters breathing faint clouds and bodies lying in the water. They rose as fungal servants [18][27].
  • The seven-lock door. At the end of a tunnel, an iron-banded door “patched by practical hands”, its handle ringed by seven locks, each with a sliding catch and a line of writing in a different language. The combination was open, closed, open, closed, open, closed, closed [28][29].
  • The wall passage. Beyond the door a wall closed the tunnel and another cut Vasquez and Althea off from the rest. An inscription read “keep your eye on the wall”, and walking backwards into the wall passed straight through it [30][31].
  • The basin chamber. A room older than the sewers around it, with four wide stone drains carved with worn faces, a lantern on a dry ledge, and a stone basin overflowing with glowing roots that restrained Althea as she hopped it. A half-dead smuggler lay beyond [32].
  • The sarcophagus chamber. A narrow chamber of older stone with five stone sarcophagi and, on a low plinth, a small iron-bound chest [33]. Lifting its contents sprang the trap [34].
  • The outflow. The sewer ends at the water, where Aurelians had taken the end of the tunnel and a small skiff bobbed against the current [35].

Inhabitants

  • Kuo-toa, pale fish-folk with spears, nets and lightning-crackling bone whips, who surged out of the water [23][36].
  • Needle blights and two rat swarms in the storage pocket [37].
  • Fungal servants, large and small, risen from drowned bodies and powered down when the largest fell [27][38].
  • An injured smuggler, who had been “trying to sneak some goods past” [39]. He warned of something in the ceiling and vanished after Althea healed him [40][41].
  • Two flameskulls and several ghouls in the sarcophagus chamber [42][43].
  • An unseen thing that came “out of the dark” and killed Terry’s owl [44].

Government / control

No clear governing party. Phil’s stash, left from a job “back in the day” [45], suggests he and his old crew had used the tunnels. The Aurelians held only the outer mouth [35].

Notable features

  • Phil’s stash crates: healing potions, an antitoxin, a smoke bomb, and the Hat of Disguise [21][7].
  • The seven-lock puzzle door: a written combination, worked out by trial and error in about twenty minutes [46].
  • The wall passage: passable only by walking backwards [31].
  • The sarcophagus trap: a chest that wakes two flameskulls and several ghouls [47].
  • The biogloom cultivation: Hugo found a rare strain that someone could have cultivated across the whole cavern to sell [48]. He bottled seven samples and cut out an intact spore gland [49].

History in the campaign

Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins

Main article: Session 15

After about an hour’s run from the Aurelian patrol, Phil led the party to a cellar door on the edge of Eldwythe’s walls and down into the sewers [50][20]. He told them of his brigand past, gave them Hett Varn and the White Lantern as the contact to find in Aurelia, and left them [51]. The party found a crate in a cubby [21], fought Kuo-toa at the channel junction [52], looted a corpse in a mossy side room [5], and ended the session against needle blights and rat swarms in a storage pocket [53].

Session 16: Through the Sewers, Onto the Skiff

Main article: Session 16

A second crate gave up the Hat of Disguise [26]. Fungal servants rose from a flooded chamber and stunned much of the party before Terry and Althea put them down [54]. Hugo sampled the biogloom [55], broke the seven-lock door by trial and error [56], and the party passed the wall by walking backwards [31]. Something unseen killed Terry’s owl [44]. In the sarcophagus chamber a trapped chest woke two flameskulls and several ghouls, who brought Caelumn, Althea and Terry down before Hugo and Vasquez destroyed the skulls [57]. The party then slipped past the Aurelians at the outflow to a skiff [58].

Status

As of session 23. Not revisited since session 16. Whatever killed Earthwing remains unidentified. The smuggler’s hidden stash, “down the south and to the west” with gold, rope, rations, biogloom toxins and healing potions, is unrecovered [59], and the biogloom cultivation presumably continues.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 15, line 446-573: Smoke-bomb rescue; egg stolen; Phil leads the party in through a cellar door on the edge of the walls.
  2. ^ Session 15, line 590-700: Phil's stash and the contact at the White Lantern Shrine.
  3. ^ Session 15, line 740-750: A crate wedged into the wall holds a healing potion and an antitoxin.
  4. ^ Session 15, line 814-1313: The channel junction; Kuo-toa combat.
  5. ^ Session 15, line 1508-1522: Mossy side room; a corpse's pouch with two healing potions, a crowbar, rope and 7gp.
  6. ^ Session 15, line 1590-2027: The storage pocket; needle blight and two rat swarms; the fight ends the session.
  7. ^ Session 16, line 18-67: The second stash crate; the Hat of Disguise revealed by water.
  8. ^ Session 16, line 286-790: The fungal chamber; the servants rise and power down; biogloom samples and a spore gland.
  9. ^ Session 16, line 819-995: The seven-lock door.
  10. ^ Session 16, line 1038-1224: "keep your eye on the wall"; Earthwing killed; the injured smuggler in the basin chamber; the wall passed walking backwards.
  11. ^ Session 16, line 1240-1556: The sarcophagus chamber; chest, trap and the flameskull fight.
  12. ^ Session 16, line 1592-1626: Group stealth past the Aurelians at the mouth; the skiff.
  13. ^ Session 15, line 573: Inline citation.
  14. ^ Session 16, line 1603-1607: Inline citation.
  15. ^ Session 15, line 582-584: Inline citation.
  16. ^ Session 15, line 584: Inline citation.
  17. ^ Session 15, line 1592: Inline citation.
  18. ^ Session 16, line 286: Inline citation.
  19. ^ Session 16, line 169: Inline citation.
  20. ^ Session 15, line 573-582: Inline citation.
  21. ^ Session 15, line 734-750: Inline citation.
  22. ^ Session 15, line 814: Inline citation.
  23. ^ Session 15, line 825-827: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 15, line 1592-1640: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 16, line 18-20: Inline citation.
  26. ^ Session 16, line 58-67: Inline citation.
  27. ^ Session 16, line 355-359: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 16, line 819: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 16, line 995-1000: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 16, line 1016-1038: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 16, line 1221-1224: Inline citation.
  32. ^ Session 16, line 1130-1140: Inline citation.
  33. ^ Session 16, line 1240: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 16, line 1270-1272: Inline citation.
  35. ^ Session 16, line 1603: Inline citation.
  36. ^ Session 15, line 858: Inline citation.
  37. ^ Session 15, line 1606-1640: Inline citation.
  38. ^ Session 16, line 716: Inline citation.
  39. ^ Session 16, line 1144: Inline citation.
  40. ^ Session 16, line 1144-1160: Inline citation.
  41. ^ Session 16, line 1169-1171: Inline citation.
  42. ^ Session 16, line 1355: Inline citation.
  43. ^ Session 16, line 1463: Inline citation.
  44. ^ Session 16, line 1068-1070: Inline citation.
  45. ^ Session 15, line 693: Inline citation.
  46. ^ Session 16, line 962-1000: Inline citation.
  47. ^ Session 16, line 1270-1277: Inline citation.
  48. ^ Session 16, line 769: Inline citation.
  49. ^ Session 16, line 770-792: Inline citation.
  50. ^ Session 15, line 545: Inline citation.
  51. ^ Session 15, line 586-700: Inline citation.
  52. ^ Session 15, line 825-1313: Inline citation.
  53. ^ Session 15, line 1592-2027: Inline citation.
  54. ^ Session 16, line 355-716: Inline citation.
  55. ^ Session 16, line 769-792: Inline citation.
  56. ^ Session 16, line 995: Inline citation.
  57. ^ Session 16, line 1270-1544: Inline citation.
  58. ^ Session 16, line 1592-1607: Inline citation.
  59. ^ Session 16, line 1160: Inline citation.