Avernian Civil War

## Background

Following Karakas' betrayal of Cardinal Ventros, her failed attempt to seize the office of pope, and her subsequent unmasking as a Thryxi, the political situation in Avernus quickly devolved into widespread unrest.

In the Labor Quarter, Uther Uthersson and his toady Cyrimon began raising an army of scum and criminals, essentially taking control of half the city. Uther encouraged and exploited anti-tiefling animosity among his followers, inciting an ongoing pogrom Labor caste tieflings who had nothing to do with Karakas or the Thryxi.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Karakas and her followers were fighting their own battle against traditionalists led by Bishop Zarai, and were unable to pay any attention to the open rebellion brewing throughout the city. With a holy war on one side and a peasant uprising on the other, the smith, soldier, and noble castes closed their district altogether and waited for a savior.

Unfortunately for them, they got their wish.

## Don't Make Me Come Over There

Goaded into action by dispatches from Kayla, Morxes closed his bar in Little Dis and traveled to Avernus to *fix* things. He secured the assistance of the Outcaste by informing them that he was going to take the office of Cardinal by any means necessary, but if they accompanied and assisted him, the resultant body count would significantly lessened.

They agreed.

Arriving at Avernus, Morxes and the Outcaste discovered that the Procurement Office of Phlegethos had sent two of its senior officers to provide humanitarian aid -- and also to smuggle as many Labor caste and Uncaste out of the city as possible. Tieflings among these refugees later formed the core of Lamb's new mining initiative.

The also found a Smith caste wizard named Kragmaul, who belonged to an organization known as the Vigil. The Vigil monitors threats arising from the catacombs beneath Avernus, and had evidence of something dangerous arising from below. Normally this would be reported to and handled by the Priest caste, but the situation has made that impossible. Kragmaul had come to the Docks and the Labor Quarter looking for assistance, but had not found any and needed to return to the rest of the Vigil to see if anything could be done.

Dismissing outright the possibility of negotiation with Uther, Morxes and the Outcaste decided that their best chance for ending the conflict was to travel directly to the Abbey District. With Kragmaul in tow, they set off eastward through the catacombs.

## Holy Kobold and the Temple of Calibration

In the catacombs, Kragmaul's dire warning seemed to be coming true. Large, dangerous undead were everywhere, and forced the Outcaste to reroute several times. Eventually, they met a strange celestial kobold that gave their name as Receipt-of-Guilt Scissor-Knot That Goes By Quietly. Reciept was the custodian of an underground shrine to Mystra, and was tasked with finding mortals to recalibrate the universal energy balance when needed — and apparently the recent destruction of an ancient dwarven skeleton-king had released a significant amount of negative energy into the world.

Inside the temple, the Outcaste discovered a vast machinery which had been built using a forgotten branch of artifice that ran on strange principles, analogous to the difference between wizardry and sorcery. Alone among their number, Keen was able to understand the counterintuitive workings of the machine. Balance was restored, but the vortex of celestial energies turned Keen from an ordinary goblin into an owl-like creature.

Furthermore, use of the strange machine caused sections of the city to rise and fall. The Abbey, which had once been the highest section of the plateau, was now the lowest. Similarly, the entire Labor Quarter had risen and was higher than the Upper City, which housed the noble, soldier, and smith castes.