Sewer Sleuthing

and

Justin as the DM

"**Sewer Sleuthing**" is the twenty-third episode of Rise of the Arcane, the third season of Tales From Del'nasra

Antyr, Lionel and Grin return from their brief sojourn into the Feywild domain known as The Dreaming with more information about the Grand Restoration and concealed truths.

## Episode Synopsis

#### **Previously on Tales from Del'nasra**

*"The ritual to send Antyr and you all to the distant past to take part in a trial for the Ley Guardians failed due to interference from some outside source and the voice of Guardian Peshan spoke out while the ritual was failing, and the place you had seen prior, the City of Embers erupting into chaos the streets packed with refugees as the sky outside the city exploded with color and a large, mint-green, glowing moon hung in the sky, vastly different than the moon you’re all used to.*

*There was a flash of light and an explosion sounded in the minds of Antyr, Lionel and Grin as the three of them were separated from the others and landed in a tall glade of mint-green grass surrounded by an autumnal forest with a tower on the horizon.*

*This place was quickly recognized as the Feywild by both Grin and Antyr and worried where the others ended up, the trio made their way towards the tower, with strange time skips making it appear like they teleported towards the treeline of the forest with no memories of the walk to reach it. After following an orange brick road through the forest the party met with a large grinning cat who appeared out of nothingness, slowly fading into existence. It introduced itself as Grimal and spoke in quite the mischievous manner and mentioned that the path ahead would open to a sound in thrice.*

*After meeting Grimal, the trio arrived at the tower and saw it to be surrounded by a moat of what appeared to be boiling hot chocolate. A collection box sat nearby demanding sweets and after paying the toll with a golden apple plucked earlier in the forest, the trio crossed the drawbridge and entered the tower after each of them knocked on the door once, confirming that the way would open to the sound in thrice.*

*Inside the tower was an immediate dead end filled with closet doors, and three doors manifested with the names of Antyr, Grin and Lionel. Each of these doors contained rooms seemingly garnered to the individual. Antyr’s room seemed to be lifted from some sort of studious chamber decorated with objects from the Astral Sea, Grin’s room appeared to be a grotesque looking kitchen with every implement made from skin, teeth and or bone while Lionel’s chamber seemed to reflect a child’s nursery overlooking a vineyard and a vast ocean. Keys were collected from these rooms and a new door was opened revealing a large, library-like chamber filled with cats and empty bookshelves including a well in the center of the room filled with mint-green water.*

*As the trio entered the chamber the room slowly manifested memories from their past, and each of the trio, curious what would occur, reached into the empty shelves and conjured books of their own memories up until this very point. Upon discovering this, a black cat walked over to the party and transformed into a beautiful, dark haired woman and introduced herself as Iggwilv, the Witch Queen. She explained that her mother attempted to bring the whole party here into the Dreaming (a domain of delight within the Feywild) to show them the secrets Guardian Peshan was keeping from them in regards to the Grand Restoration and the fey machinations occurring with the Umbral Court and other involved parties.*

*She reassured them that the others were rendered unconscious from the failed ritual, but were safe in the basement of Antyr’s tower. She said if they wished to see the truth they simply would need to drink from the well, and the trio obliged. Upon drinking from the well they woke up on the back of a gigantic whale-like beast with deep purple skin and spines the size of mountains growing out of its back. This beast was seemingly infinite in length and was seemingly being controlled by Duskreaper Aelinor using the original luminspire. This beast was flying through an explosion of colours and leylines, revealed to be the destruction of Del’nasra due to the leylines pulling the shattered black moon of Teine into the world and destroying it.*

*The surging leylines and raging magic in this explosion was seen to be reforming parts of Del’nasra, and this beast was consuming the raw, errant magic. As this beast flew through the exploding magic, the trio saw that various cities seemed to have survived the destruction and were encased in mint-green domes of magic, similar to the dome currently encasing the City of Embers and each city had multi-colored crystals embedded into their foundations. As they took this all in, the beast spawned three eggs out of its back which hatched and produced three-bipedal young that attacked and seemed to be able to consume magic.*

*The young were defeated and after this beast consumed all of the raging, flaring leyline manifestations a new moon seemed to form in the sky; a large, mint-green glowing moon and the vision ended. After discussions with Iggwilv and the projected consciousness of Baba Yaga from her luminspire, they explained that this beast was called Arcane’s Bane in the Common tongue and was created during an ancient civil war among the Seelie Court by the previous Summer Queen, Valestria. She unleashed the beast to consume the Feywild and the leylines to end the war for good after discovering her husband was a spy for the Unseelie Court, and he was called Vel’karis Vel’tarjin. As the war came to a close, Valestria was slain, bound to her Luminspire and a group of unnamed archfey sealed Arcane’s Bane somewhere in another plane of existence, its prison bound to the Leylines and to the leader of the Ley Guardians.*

*Iggwilv and Baba Yaga believed that Duskreaper Aelinor learned the truth of Arcane’s Bane and sought this luminspire to control the beast, and believes that he is seeking to end Guardian Peshan to open the beast’s prison; and assumed that this was the reason Peshan was so eager to get Antyr to join the order, to transition them into a position of power and make Antyr the key to Arcane Bane’s prison. It was with this that Iggwilv and Baba Yaga suggested the only way to survive this threat was to form a truce between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. The trio decided they needed more information in regards to what was going on, specifically with Guardian Peshan, and were instead sent back to the children’s hideout within the Port Creach sewers and not back to Guardian Peshan.*

*Upon returning they saw that Iggwilv had also returned the other members of the party to these sewers who slowly began to wake up after being knocked unconscious with no idea what had just transpired for the other three and that no time had passed since entering Antyr’s tower."*

#### The Episode

Antyr, Lionel and Grin return from their sojourn into the Dreaming, and see the rest of the Fonkey Casuals stirring to consciousness on the floor nearby. They've all been returned to the children's hideout in the sewers of Port Creach as they didn't wish to return to Guardian Peshan due to trust issues forming and some of Peshan's stories not lining up.

The trio explained all that they had encountered during their time in the Dreaming and the group decided now would be the best time to map out these tunnels and claim this hideout as their own for the time being to get around the city undetected as well as to plan and prepare for the masquerade in four days time. They discussed that they would head to the masquerade and that the plan would be to retrieve the stained glass sword which was currently in the Marquis possession.

While discussing their intent to map out these tunnels, the group agreed that luring out the beast the children feared that lived in these sewers would be a productive way to approach things and to ensure the sewer would be safe to traverse with the creature out of the way. So, without any time wasted the group began to remove the barricade put up by the children in-front of the large door leading into the tunnels and saw that it had opened on its own once the weight had been removed, showing extensive damage from the outside from something quite large attempting to break it down.

The tunnels were dark, unlit and coated in grime and a weird grey slime that seemed to react strangely to light. The floor of the tunnels were flooded with a few inches of stagnant water where the bodies of half devoured rats floated and large, elephant-like three toed footprints could be soon moving in either direction and were still quite fresh. The left path was taken and after a few moments a junction was reached where a flickering light could be seen coming from the right-most tunnel. Grin cast *Minor Illusion* to create the sound of a child skipping down one tunnel and as soon as this occurred, the party all heard the voice of a child shouting "Help me!" and strangely this voice didn't produce any sort of echo as it should have in these tunnels.

Deciding to follow the light source, the group began to make their way down this tunnel only to see a flickering source of light quickly dip out of sight down another tunnel as the voice continued to call out for help. Realizing this voice wasn't producing an echo, yet Grin's illusion did, Lionel reminded the party that Jorje mentioned that the creature was capable of projecting thoughts and images into the minds of others and this was mostly likely the creature attempting to lure them deeper into the tunnels. Continuing after the light, and around ten minutes of walking lead the party towards a small open chamber with natural daylight pouring in from the ceiling. The voice seemed to be calling out from this chamber. Hopper slowly approached with their Detect Magic up and as they approached they didn't detect anything magical, but saw a large pile of filth in one corner of the chamber filled with debris, waste, excrement and corpses of rats and other small animals. Sitting atop the pile was a flickering oil lantern that looked as though it had been previously discarded.

Antyr sent their *Unseen Servant* into the chamber to dig around the pile to no effect and began using *Mould Earth* to toss some of the filth around. After a few moments of doing this, a massive creature known as an otyugh burst forth from the refuse pile, surprising most of the party aside from Grin and Antyr. The lantern was the source of light they had been seeing and had somehow been fused into a sensory stalk on the top of the creature.

The battle with the Otyugh started out poorly for the party as most of them had been surprised with Doe being restrained in one of its tentacles and successfully bit into Doe while they were restrained dealing massive damage to them on a critical hit which was reflected back at the creature by Grin's *Rebuke the Violent.* Eventually, the other members of the party snapped out of their surprise and Hopper leapt over the creature shooting it in the top of its head with their force cannon, while Torger leapt towards it and began battering it with his glovels and some unarmed strikes and succeeding in stunning it.

The fight came to an end with Vonkar pummelling the otyguh to death with his fists after enlarging himself and to ensure the creature was dead, began swinging it around and bashing it off the walls of this sewer chamber. After the creature was defeated the party began scouring its lair for possible eggs or bodies they could return to possible families to be buried elsewhere. Three bodies of children were discovered and through Doe's *Speak with Dead* spell the children were revealed to be named Jonathan, Jacobi and Jomas. Jonathan didn't mind to be left in the sewers where his friends lived while Jacobi wished to be buried at sea in Drowned Maiden Reef with his parents with Jomas wishing to be buried somewhere in the Port Creach clock tower.

The two bodies wishing to be interred elsewhere were collected by the party and continuing to dig through the refuse, Antyr found a saddlebag with a few glass vials of gunpowder, ammunition and a blunderbuss inside with a note from Jorje saying to use this weapon if the beast was encountered. The contents of the bag were handed over to Hopper who was able to use such a weapon.

#### After the Break

The bodies were brought back to the sewer hideout where Grin took Jacobi's body through the other tunnels and deposited their body in the reef. While doing this Grin could hear work going in the docks and about one-thousand feet away they could see a Port Creach naval ship investigating the wreckage of the Marquis' personal sloop that the party had dashed upon the rocks and shipwrecks lining the reef the night prior. The people on this ship seemed to be combing through the wreckage as if they were looking for something.

Grin returned to the party, and everyone took an hour break while Hopper worked on some enchantments to create a Forgery Kit. The party decided they would now map out the tunnels and split into two teams. One team would focus on the mapping of the tunnels, while the others found a way into Port Creach and gathered information on masquerade outfits and inquiring about invitations so Hopper could attempt to make some forged invitations for the party.

Grin, Torger and Vonkar took the previously explored area of the sewer while Antyr, Lionel, Doe and Hopper took the previously unexplored route. Team 1 consisting of the latter group of people eventually found themselves faced with a blockage of chemicals and sewer waste called a fatberg and bypassed it by moving through a smaller, sloped tunnel downwards. This eventually led into a large chamber filled with walkways and railings utilized by workers who would maintain the sewers. Arrows and locations were marked all over the walls, with this group deciding they'd break into the sewer through the brothel and headed in that direction.

Team 2 consisting of the other members of the team came to a large grate that seemed to flow into a large, underground cistern. Realizing they couldn't head that way they doubled back and returned to the chamber where they fought the otyugh. Grin flew up to the grate in the ceiling and peeked outside to see that they were looking at a sort of marketplace filled with shops and a very large tavern called the Salted Goat. The city was still under the effects of a storm, and the people Grin could see seemed quite unsavoury as they witnessed a man leaving the tavern only to get mugged moments later and a nearby guard do nothing. Looking around Grin also could see the city's outer gates a few blocks away and off in the distance up on a cliff-side was a large, pristine and beautiful mansion overlooking the ocean. This building was the most well kept and maintained building in the whole city. Grin flew back down, relayed the information and conjured an isometric view of what they had seen with Minor Illusion so Vonkar could produce the map.

This group then continued through the other tunnel that entered this chamber and came to the same fatberg blocking the tunnel, but from the opposite direction. Grin began to cut into the fatberg to gather materials for Antyr and could see flecks of a purple substance that seemed to react violently to being cut around. After succeeding on doing so, Grin recalled stories papa would tell him about a volatile substance called acrid that could cause massive, devastating explosions. This substance seemed to be pooling into this fatberg from smaller run-off pipes coming out of the walls.

Meanwhile, the other group unlocked a rusted door leading into what appeared to be a cavernous chamber at the bottom of some latrines. Looking up this was confirmed as eight toilets could be seen, leading into the brothel's bathroom. After casting Mystic Seal on the door to only Antyr in and out through the door they had just used, they began to clean the walls of this chamber to begin to climb upwards. However, as they were climbing someone had just sat down above and released a fresh payload of excrement. Not wanting to get splattered, Antyr hoisted Lionel up whom was in their backpack, with Lionel casting *Misty Step* to teleport away and splashing Antyr with the waste.

After cleaning themselves off, Hopper hopped up the rough, rocky walls of this latrine and climbed up into the brothel's bathroom just as an unsuspecting guest entered this precise toilet only to back away seeing someone crawl out of the toilet. Lionel followed next by being lifted up by Antyr's Mage Hand, with Antyr using Starlight Step to enter the bathroom with Doe preparing to climb their way up.

Exiting the stall, they could see this bathroom was in a state and a colourful powdery substance had been spread out on a nearby surface. Curious what the powder was, Antyr scooped some of it into a vial only to be attacked by a rugged, orc sailor claiming the substance was theirs before stabbing Antyr in the lower back. Antyr cast Arcane Jolt into the mind of this orc causing them to stumble backwards, bleeding from the nose before rushing at Antyr with their knife made from a broken glass bottle. Hopper disarmed the knife, and Antyr slammed the hilt of a dagger into the orc's temple knocking them unconscious. Their body was dragged into a nearby stall and propped up on a toilet, and Antyr adjusted their head as Hopper smeared some of the powder on their face and upon doing so the orc's body seemed to tense up as if in agony and rapidly aged into a husk, dying in the process.

As this occurred a sinister sounding voice spoke in Antyr's mind, saying only the world "Finally".

## Featured Characters

### Player Characters

* Antyr Xiloscient
* Doe
* Grin
* Hopper Thimblefoot
* Lionel
* Torger Otrson
* Vonkar Eldsaga

### New

* Jacobi (through Speak with Dead)
* Jomas (through Speak with Dead)
* Jonathan (through Speak with Dead)

### Mentioned

* Arcane's Bane
* The Archmaw
* Duskreaper Aelinor
* Graz'zt
* Iggwilv, the Witch Queen
* Jorje (previously spelled as George)
* Kena Peshan
* Marquis Torgol Marrshade
* Sir Arthur Wordweave