Chapter 3: The Underbridge Cult: Difference between revisions

'''''Read Aloud:''''' ''The City-State of Bridgemoor holds a vital geographical and diplomatic position. As the whole city-state is an enormous bridge that straddles the Great Chasm, Bridgemoor serves as an easy trade route between the nations east and west of the Chasm, most immediately between Kendaria and Nalathesh. Bridgemoor’s trade economy has a mighty reputation. As it takes a full day of travel to cross the bridge, journeymen and merchants will often give business to at least a couple inns when passing through town, and many will spend their coin in the markets and bazaars for which Bridgemoor is famous. Its university also draws established scholars and prospective academics alike.''

After the first battle with the cultists, the heroes will probably interrogate the cultists to learn more. Regardless of whether they procure more information through interrogation or through asking around the city, they learn that the cultists have a lair in the Underbirdge, the network of sewers and massive storage cellars beneath Bridgemoor’s city streets. Accessing their lair requires a magical key that only cultists of high enough status possess, but one such cult leader is planning an attack on the Temple of Vigil.

Inside the vast dungeon that is the Underbridge, the heroes must deal with typical sewage denizens such as rats and swarming bugs. When they finally reach the cultists’ main lair, they find that the cultists have just completed a dastardly ritual to summon a fiend from Melaneth, one of the regions of Inferno. They briefly witness Aradin the Witchblade, the leader of the Underbridge Cult. Aradin takes his leave, leaving the heroes to square off against the cultists and their summoned fiend.

During the coming investigation, the heroes might take it upon themselves to pose as cultists and infiltrate the Underbridge Cult. Doing so is both difficult and dangerous. If the adventurers speak with Magellus Black or Lauby, either NPC will advise them against this course of action, or at minimum will impart upon the heroes just how dangerous this could be.

|Learn one additional fact about the cultists (rolling twice on the table and rerolling duplicate results).

|The cultists do not fight exclusively with small blades, but they do coat their small blades in numbing poison that render their enemies ineffective.

Each prologue adventure to this campaign includes a chance (albeit a small one) for heroes to stumble into possession of a strange medallion. Each of these medallions are described as being made of gold, with a skull and scythe on one side and an indecipherable glyph on the other.

In addition to the above information, the barkeep explains that their friend, a merchant named Lauby, was targeted directly by the cultists. Their friend is a member of the Temple of Vigil, which is how they know that the cultists have had clashes there. One of the most influential people at the Temple of Vigil is Ser Kellion Blacksky, Commander of the Bridge Knights.

If one of the heroes is a member of the Order of the Darkscourge, then the Order will give the party an additional healing potion (even if they rolled lower than an 18) because the hero is from their order. One of the Legends of MythCraft, Chauncey, is from this order.

'''''Read Aloud:''''' ''The first thing that hits you is the stench. Rotting crap is not a pleasant odor even in isolation, and when overlaid with rancid urine, molding meat, and rotten eggs, the foul smell is something you almost feel on your skin. Breathing through your nose is enough to make your eyes water, and breathing through your mouth conjures up images of the plague.''

'''''Read Aloud:''''' ''Skittering noises are ubiquitous in the sewers, but they still make you jump and flinch when you hear them. It’s hard to identify what is a new noise and what is an echo, and determining where the noises come from is a difficult task.''

'''''Read Aloud:''''' ''The fiendblood smiles down on the carnage. “Know that you were slain by disciples of Aradin the Witchblade!” he bellows. Then, almost nonchalantly, he turns and strides through a shadowed hallway at the back of the podium.''

'''''Read Aloud:''''' ''You climb over the podium and follow the tunnel, which remains flat for a time before becoming a steep, downward-spiraling staircase. It descends for a considerable time before simply opening up into empty air. Far below, you can see the faint, diffuse glint of the Chasm River. In the warm night, a thin mist blankets the river, twinkling in the light of the stars and the five moons. You are literally under the bridge. It seems that the cult leader - who you recall had wings - simply dropped out of this bolt hole and flew away.''