Turnam

Turnam is a village in the south-west of the Manian Empire. Its headman is Lucius "Livy" Livius. Before the party arrived, it was home to retired centurion Caius "Bernard" Bernardus. The village inn is the Purple Vine.

## Recent History

Turnam was suffering a drought after an agent of the Aegiman Empire robbed the local river spirit. This led to crop failure and rapid desertification of the area. Bernard was using his personal fortune to supply food to the village via shipments from Mano, but once that ran out, he started braving some nearby ruins, looking for magic items to sell.

The party was hired in the city of Mano to bring a shipment of food and drinks to Turnam. After almost getting arrested by Livy for Devan drinking some of the wine, Bernard managed to smooth things over. The party decided to help Bernard in payment for him stopping them from getting in trouble. Bernard put the party up in his villa that night, taking them with him towards the nearby tunnel network the next morning.

He had the party go and clear out some goblin raiders while he went to loot the temple. The party went to the goblin lair, finding an ambush tunnel and using that to surprise the goblins. While most of the party fought against the other ambush group, Serra and Guthash fought against the main group, while Keeper healed people. They learned during the fight that the goblins were being led by Bigo, a Chosen of Alos. Around the time Bigo was killed, the final goblin of the ambushing party was recognised by Alos for his achievement of not being hit by many attacks of Devan, Spira and Taz. This goblin then became a new Chosen of Alos, taking the name Bigo II. He was soon dispatched by Spira. When the adventurers were congratulating each other, they noticed that Bigo II's corpse had vanished. They then cleared the goblin lair, finding some items Spira recognised as belonging to her religious organisation. She then realised that the ruins Bernard was raiding was an ancient temple of Aeterna. Despite Spira's protests, the party decided to leave Bernard to it and returned to Turnam.

The majority of the party spent the night getting drunk at the Purple Vine, before falling asleep. In the morning, they realised that Bernard hadn't returned. They made their way to the temple to look for Bernard. They found some unusual footprints and were attacked by a large clockwork monster. After defeating the monster, they found Bernard's damaged shield, and then returned to Turnam after clearing out the temple. In Turnam, they found that nobody could remember Bernard, and that instead the local hero was a bard called Burriena who just that day had gone to the ruined temple and been inducted into the Cult of Aeterna, becoming an anvilwrought time genasi high priestess of Aeterna, and leaving unnoticed while the party was inside. The clockwork monster the party fought was a security system Burriena had activated to deter intruders while she was away. Bernard's villa was now Burriena's villa, and Oog, who had stayed behind at the villa instead remembered staying behind at the Purple Vine, finding an entrance to Kelvyn's Tavern, getting drunk there, and then stumbling back to the Purple Vine. The village was celebrating that night, so most of the party got drunk again while Burriena danced to Aly's singing. While everyone was partying that evening, Burriena also hired a wizard and a rogue to accompany her on an adventure.

That evening, after most people had stumbled home and there were only three people besides the party in the inn, Spira sent out a call for a powerful chthonic entity to make a warlock pact with. The call was answered by Darmica. Amongst other things, Darmica give Spira a Fragment of Shadow, and Spira made an alliance between Aeterna and the Nictic Pantheon. Everyone else there pretended to be asleep or hid while Darmica was there, the dark magic radiating from her palpable even to those with no knowledge of magic. The next day, the party went to the river spirit, who told them what happened. The party then went away to kill the man who stole from the spirit, and to visit Burriena on the way.

While the party was away, the innkeeper, the inn's cleaner, and the drunk who was still at the inn went to Livy and explained what Spira had done. Livy then sent word to Mano that Spira the adventurer had summoned Darmica within his tavern. When the report reached Mano divinations were used, combined with local wizards being affected by Darmica's warping of magic on Erah, to quickly determine it to be true. A number of legionaries were then dispatched to Turnam to await the party's return. The party managed to end the drought and returned to Turnam for a reward. Livy had them come into his villa and enter a waiting room. After the party made themselves comfortable, the legionaries came in. Aly tried to make herself completely inconspicuous, while Guthash hid behind a cushion. They announced that they were there to arrest and execute Spira for crimes against existence. When some party members (notably Serra) made it clear that they would assist law enforcement if Spira resisted, Spira allowed them to behead her, becoming one with Aeterna upon her death. Livy complained about the stains on his carpet. The party then decided they wanted to make some distance between them and Mano due to Aly being a fugitive and Guthash breaking the law on a daily basis, so they left Turnam and started making their way to Vulcana.