Avlis Campaign 3: Chapter 1

[Orleron]

This campaign is being DM'ed by Vanoviel. All subsequent entries from Avlis Campaign 3 are from him. This campaign will be interesting. It takes place 500 years after current server time. At a server time rate of 2 minutes RL = 1 in game hour, our servers would have to be up for 16 RL years to approach this event.

Vanoviel is long dead since the end of the Second Fairy War. Elysia is still up and running, and though the surrounding countryside may have seen quite a few disturbances over the years it is still largely unchanged from Vanoviel's time. Buildings have come and gone, and sections of the city walls have been built and rebuilt, but all in all it has not been fundamentally altered over the liftetime of an elf. Granted, some of the national geography has changed slightly, like the appearance of the bustling city-state of Blandenberg which is not far away.

In this campaign, I am a player (Koriel Kray) rather than a DM. Though I don't know the outcome of the campaign, I have given Vanoviel some freedoms and directions and it will be great to see where it all leads. So without further ado, here comes Avlis Campaign 3!



Hello, Intrepid Readers. Our story is set in the fair city of Elysia on the banks of Lake Eridanus. The scene is joined as our six heroes have independent encounters with a band of rogues. The scenario is the same each time; the hero is new to Elysia and is walking the streets of the warehouse district. The hero is bumped into by a “child” and soon each hero realizes they’ve been pickpocketed. Each of the heroes set off in chase of the “child”. The chases lead each hero through the alleys of the warehouse district and when they finally caught the “child” thief, they were greeted with a slash of a dagger from the “child” which was actually a Halfling. The original thief was joined by two compatriots and things looked bleak for each hero. Each of our six adventurers handled the situation in a different way. The burly human fighter, Lucius, barreled his way through the lead Halfling. The pomfy psionicist, Devon Byrne, spider climbed a nearby building and started firing away with his crossbow. Elrik, the monk, stood and fought even with the stench of last night’s drinking on him. The serene and even handed cleric, Koriel Kray of Mikon healed his wound and attempted to talk his way out of the situation. The half-elven bard, Lorelian, climbed the building and fled across to find a Champion to report the crime. The woods-loving elf maiden, Idril Numenesse, drew her sword and engaged. In each situation, the Halflings turned out to be an illusion and each hero was greeted by an elderly nearly bald, blind elf who stated that he was impressed with their ability and requested they join him at the Shining Light Inn the following night. The heroes all agreed.
The heroes all took the rooms arranged by the mysterious stranger and were summoned to a back room the next evening. The stranger introduced himself as Nohik and asked if anyone had noticed anything odd happen in the city. The heroes mentioned that the Champions of O’ma seemed uninterested in policing the city and that crime was increasing. Nohik proposed that the group help him discover what is happening in the city. He thought it best that it not be he who made the inquiries as he is known by too many in the city even though he has been away for a long time searching for an old companion. Nohik left the adventurers to decide after conjuring a shimmering door of light through which he left. After a time Nohik returned and was informed by the adventurers that they would help discover what troubled the city. Nohik thought the best course of action was to see Sarmon, head of the Champions at the Council Chambers. He explained to the party as he handed them a blank writ that they would need the signatures of three council members before they could gain entry to Champions Keep and the Council Chambers. He also informed them that the dockmaster is always a council member.
The heroes returned to their rooms and meet the next morning to find the dockmaster. After a few inquires they found him and requested his signature for their writ. Instead of his usual request for a hot meal, he asked them to investigate the recent series of disappearances including most recently a young girl from the Parks District that had been happening since an aboleth was slain in the lake. The party questioned the dockmaster and discovered that all of the disappearances happened near sewer grates. The heroes went to the location of the most recent abduction and found the grate barred from the inside and requiring a special tool to open it from the surface. Befuddled the party returned to the docks, at which point the cleric dove into the clear blue waters of the lake and returned saying the party should proceed to the sewers north of the city. When asked how he knew this he stated that his people were in tune with nature and that the water tasted funny in that direction.
The heroes headed for Dwarfgate and followed the wall around the sewer outflow pipe, where they discovered that the bars over the entrance had been bent allowing for a humanoid to enter. The heroes entered the sewers and were assailed with the odor of decaying waste and other assorted foulness. Much to their delight the sewage was only ankle deep, which kept it below the boots of all the adventurers except Elrik who was barefooted. He simply took along pull from the bota bag he never seemed to be without and he then seemed unaffected by the sewage creeping up between his toes. The party continued up the sewers when someone felt something touch their leg, it turns out the party was not alone and soon found themselves in battle with an enormous snake. The battle was bravely joined by all except Devon who climbed the wall for safety. After the battle the party continued further into the sewers. Another few hundred yards in the floor disappeared from beneath our heroes’ feet. The quickest of the group avoided the fall, but the unlikely found themselves falling into a deep pool of filth. The party quickly learned to avoid the cisterns that were located every hundred yards in the sewers. The group was so focused on the location of the cisterns that they failed to notice the set of eyes just above the surface of the water approaching them. Elrik felt a terrible pain in his leg and the next thing the party knew he was being dragged under water in the death roll of the attacking crocodile. The party fought valiantly and managed to defeat the croc and prevent the death of Elrik. Further along the group trudged and upon turning one fateful corner they came face to face with some odd fish humanoids. The party slew the “merman” aside from one they tried to interrogate. Koriel cast a spell and communicated with the beast. It turns out the creatures were fleeing from their master, the aboleth. They were using the kidnapped people for food. This sickened the party and they proceeded with all haste deeper into the sewers. The stumbled upon the skums’ lair and defeated the last of the creatures and saved the kidnapped girl. They returned the girl to her mother, but it turns out the girl’s father had gone looking for her in the sewers. The party returned and found his hand and the girl confirmed that her father had indeed been eaten. The party returned to the docks where they got the first of their three signatures. The dockmaster sent them to the Forge District to find Troka Ashbeard, another councilmember, to get his signature.