Mulmaster/Sewers

The sewers of Mulmaster were a rather ramshackle sanitation system of pipes and tunnels beneath the city-state.

Structure
These sewers were quite extensive. They primarily consisted of repurposed cellars, haphazardly connected together by a network of pipes and tunnels. These tunnels generally followed the contours of the city streets above. They varied in height from, but were consistently wide with stone walkways on either side that were  wide. Between these walkways was a deep trench through which sewage flowed. In some areas, these walkways were connected by bridges of metal grating.

The network was regularly in a flooded state, with water reaching up to knee height or approximately. Its tunnels were also unlit, requiring a torch to traverse, and thick with the stench of decay.

Functionality
With the city-state of Mulmaster having been built within a depression formed by an arc of overbearing peaks, most of the sewer tunnels were at an incline that became less steep the closer they got to the harbor. Through this steep decline, refuse was gradually emptied into Mulmaster Bay.

Sewer Ecology
This sewer network had a reputation for monsters lairing within it, such as black puddings,  carrion crawlers, chuuls, lacedons, otyughs,  umber hulks, and yellow mold. But the creatures most commonly encountered were insects, rats, and giant rats. One could also find crustaceans in the areas closer to the harbor.

These sewers were a hotbed of diseases that one could be exposed to, often by falling into or walking through the sewage. The diseases commonly contracted within the sewers included blinding sickness, filth fever, the shakes, slimy doom, and sewer plague.

Surface Connections
The sewers could be entered by means of manhole covers or by removing grates, the cracks of which provided what little light there was to be found. These manholes were ascended and descended by means of steel ladders that were inset into the wall.
 * The Wave and Wink, a popular dancehall in the western part of Mulmaster, had an entrance into the sewers.

Groups of Interest
Since early in its history, the sewers had a reputation for being frequented as a hideout by criminals, a place to conduct business, and a means by which to travel throughout the city unseen. Because of this, they were regularly policed by the city-state's military.

The sewers did have dedicated workers with their own storage rooms in the network, though over time the number of men in this profession dwindled until they were far and far between by the late 14 century DR.

History
In 1372 DR, a woman named Lyetta escaped from her Zhentarim slaves into the sewers, evading all manner of beasts that later badly injured the Zhents that went in after her. She eventually entered a secret chamber where a displacer beast was lairing and climbed into a recess out of its reach.

By the late 15 century DR, many of the pipes and tunnels within this network were in a state of rusting and crumbling respectively.

In the, a pair of mated flumphs by the names of Laal and Xol entered the sewers from the Underdark by means of a fissure, trailing the activity of a band of troglodytes. They two eventually stumbled upon the activities of the Cult of the Crushing Wave within a tomb that predated both Mulmaster and its sewers. When Xol moved in for a closer look he was discovered by the cultists and killed with two shots from a crossbow, his body left to fall into the sewers.

Xol's corpse was carried along by the sewers' streams until it came to clog up the mouth of a discharge pipe, its tentacles becoming snagged on a piece of metal. When the corpse was discovered by a group of street urchins it was mistaken for a monster, inciting panic throughout the city's waterfront.

Audra Maskyr, a sergeant in the City Watch, proceeded to hire three groups to investigate reports of monsters within the sewers and eliminate any threats they come across. One was a rather inexperienced band of adventurers that hailed from Sembia, who were press ganged early in the morning into doing. The second was a gang of Zhentarim mercenaries. And the third was another band of adventurers. The first group, after hearing the disembodied voice of Laal (a failed attempt at telepathic communication) pleading for help, they became convinced that the sewers were haunted. Later on they encountered the second group of adventurers sent into the sewers, who they informed them of their ghostly encounter.

Around the same year a number of other debacles occurred within the sewers. A group of adventurers had to traverse them in order to put a stop to the Cult of the Black Earth and the earthquakes they were causing with their devastation orb. A storm caused by the Cult of the Howling Hatred brought such a degree of rain upon the area that the sewer system was overflooded, resulting in an otyugh fleeing from the sewers in a panic and attacking anyone around it. And a group of trolls smashed their way through the walls leading into the sewers, infesting them and becoming an obstacle for a group of adventurers that were sent down to uncover the lost Sword of Selfaril.

Notable Inhabitants

 * Grimnoth, a young adult black dragon that had made its lair within the Mulmaster sewers.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Mage in the Iron Mask
 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * Foulness Beneath Mulmaster • Mulmaster Undone • Cloaks and Shadows • The Sword of Selfaril
 * Eye of the Tempest
 * Eye of the Tempest