The sewers of Selgaunt were a sanitation system of tunnels beneath the eponymous Sembian port city.[1][2]
Structure[]
The sewage throughout the system coursed northeast,[2] emptying out into Selgaunt Bay[2][3] through rusty grates beneath its wharves,[3] occasionally broken up by heaps of refuse where the sewage eddied and swirled around.[2] The sewers could be quite warm,[2] especially during the winter months.[4]
The ceilings of the tunnels were vaulted. In some areas they were high enough for a human to walk properly across its cobblestone walkways,[4] while in other parts of the sewers the ceiling was low, requiring humans and similarly tall creatures to crouch[5] or crawl to navigate through them[1][6] during periods of low tide.[5]
While some areas of the sewers sported ensconced lamps that let off an eerie green glow,[2][4] most were dark, requiring one to carry a source of light, such as a candle[7] or lantern.[8] The sewers were also permeated by a rank odor of waste, organic decay,[7] dung, and goldflow,[4] as was typical of sewer systems.[9]
Sewer Ecology[]
In addition to standard sewer wildlife such as rats and giant rats,[2][10] tales abounded in Selgaunt of dire creatures lurking within its sewers. These included such things as ghouls, flesh dissolving slimes, and algoids.[7]
Surface Connections[]
- An unnamed Harper safehouse in the city's Warehouse District.[8]
- The Hunting Gardens of the Hulorn were connected to the sewers,[1][6][11][12][8] by a fountain, the centerpiece of the gardens, separated by a grate that could be pushed up from below.[8] It was not uncommon for teenagers to sneak into the Hunting Gardens through the sewers, dared by their friends to bring back some rare flower or another as proof of their trespass.[6]
- The guildhouse of the Night Knives, formerly a trading office and storehouse for the Six Coins Trading Coster, had a concealed trapdoor in its lower level that granted the access to the city's old sewer system.[13]
- An alley off of Stevedore's Way had a secret entrance to the sewers in the form of a well with an affixed ladder and special lock mechanism that had been established by the Harpers. It was roughly a 80 feet (24 meters) descent from the well to the tunnels below.[5]
- In an alley off of Winding Way stood a dry common well, dug by the Night Knives, that provided access to the sewers 40 feet (12 meters) below. The area it dropped down into branched off into three directions and blocked off from the main tunnels.[7]
Groups of Interest[]
- The Harpers, like other covert organizations in Selgaunt, used the sewers to navigate the city beneath the notice of the Zhentarim.[5]
- The Night Knives, the local thieves' guild in the 14th century DR, had a number of entrances to the sewers and regularly patrolled their areas to keep them clear of unwanted intruders.[7]
- The Shadowblades, a group of Maskarran thieves, once operated in the sewers and maintained a shrine to Mask there until it was discovered by agents of the Zhentarim as they were making inroads into Selgaunt.[14]
Inhabitants[]
It was not uncommon to find Selgauntian beggars and destitute to take shelter in the warmth of the sewers, occasionally perishing therein and becoming food for the local rats.[2]
History[]
Despite the existence of the sewer system, Selgauntians continued to pour their waste out in chamberpots for collection by nightsoil wagons well into the late 14th century DR.[15]
Around Year of the Tankard, 1370 DR, thieves Erevis Cale and Jak Fleet fled down the secret entrance off of Stevedore's Way to escape from Zhent agents that were after them. Erevis was suspicious of Jak's knowledge of how to access the secret entrance, but before they could come to blows they ran into Jak's fellow agents and he was forced to reveal to Erevis that he was a member of the Harpers. The two friends managed to reconcile and continue their travel through the sewers.[5]
Larajin, a half-elf servant of the Uskevren family, often snuck into the Hunting Gardens of Hulorn whenever she needed to clear her head. But one night when she was planning to go, in the winter of 1370 DR, the dwarf Kremlar offered her thirty ravens if she could retrieve a rare flower by the name of Selune's Kisses. She would manage to access the Hunting Gardens with ease, but while there discovered an injured tressym and Andeth Ilchammar, the Hulorn of Selgaunt, whose body had been transformed by dark magics. Fearful of being caught, Larajin waited until he was out of sight before fleeing from the scene and vowing to return the next morning for the tressym.[8]
The next night she returned with Talbot Uskevren, who had insisted upon accompanying her after hearing her recount.[8] However, the two never made it to the Hunting Gardens of Hulorn that night, as stumbled upon a swarm of rats[8] that had been transformed by the Hulorn's foul magics. Their bodies sported a menagerie of different mutations,[8][16] from beaks, serpent tongues, human-like hands,[8] hooves, feathered wings, horns, and even a tiny human head in one case.[8][16] The two ran feverishly through the dark sewage as the ravenous swarm pursued them, grasping at them, gnawing at their clothes. With luck, the two managed to escape from the depths.[8]
A year later around Deepwinter, Erevis Cale came across a pile of rotting corpses at the base of the ladder leading up into the Night Knives guildhouse. Numbering around fifteen to twenty, the entangled mass of corpses were being feasted upon by giant rats. It took Cale little time to recognize the corpses as all members of the Night Knives,[10] murdered by the demons that had taken over the thieves' guild.[17]
By Uktar 11, in the Year of Lightning Storms, 1374 DR, unrest across Sembia left the possibility of a civil war looming as a certainty over the new Hulorn of Selgaunt, Thamalon Uskevren II.[18] Wanting to prepare his city against the army of Countess Mirabeta Selkirk, Thamalon had engineers supervise wide-scale renovations of the city's defenses, which included securing Selgaunt's sewer grates.[19]
Appendix[]
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Appearances[]
Novels & Short Stories
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood (1990). Forgotten Realms Adventures. (TSR, Inc), p. 104. ISBN 0-8803-8828-5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Dave Gross (February 2003). “Haunted: A Tale of Sembia”. In Jesse Decker ed. Dragon #304 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 69.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dave Gross (November 2001). Black Wolf. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 21, p. 300. ISBN 0-7869-1901-9.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Dave Gross (February 2008). Lord of Stormweather. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 3, p. 22. ISBN 0-7869-4786-1.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Various (February 2007). The Halls of Stormweather. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 6, p. ?. ISBN 0-7869-4244-4.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Dave Gross (February 2008). Lord of Stormweather. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 7, p. 58. ISBN 0-7869-4786-1.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Paul S. Kemp (November 2000). Shadow's Witness. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 6, p. 143. ISBN 0-7869-1677-X.
- ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 Various (February 2007). The Halls of Stormweather. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 7, p. ?. ISBN 0-7869-4244-4.
- ↑ Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins, James Wyatt (December 2014). Dungeon Master's Guide 5th edition. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 112. ISBN 978-0-7869-6562-5.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Paul S. Kemp (November 2000). Shadow's Witness. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 6, p. 144. ISBN 0-7869-1677-X.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (May 1985). “Pages from the Mages IV”. In Kim Mohan ed. Dragon #97 (TSR, Inc.), p. 32.
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb (August 1987). “DM's Sourcebook of the Realms”. In Karen S. Martin ed. Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (TSR, Inc.), p. 74. ISBN 0-88038-472-7.
- ↑ Paul S. Kemp (November 2000). Shadow's Witness. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 1, pp. 17–18. ISBN 0-7869-1677-X.
- ↑ Paul S. Kemp (November 2000). “Rogues Gallery: The Heroes of Shadow's Witness”. In Dave Gross ed. Dragon #277 (Wizards of the Coast), p. 103.
- ↑ Dave Gross (February 2003). “Haunted: A Tale of Sembia”. In Jesse Decker ed. Dragon #304 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), p. 70.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lisa Smedman (June 2002). Heirs of Prophecy. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 1, p. ?. ISBN 0-7869-2737-2.
- ↑ Paul S. Kemp (November 2000). Shadow's Witness. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 75. ISBN 0-7869-1677-X.
- ↑ Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 156–157. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ Paul S. Kemp (August 2007). Shadowstorm. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 3, p. ?. ISBN 978-0-7869-4304-3.