Undermountain - Recent history
In recent years, evil has been stirring in the Sword coast and rumors of terrors and tragedies in far off lands start to surface.
Phandelin: Pessius Anguish Arniera had fled Waterdeep after refusing to serve the selfish aims of a Blackstaff mage, bringing the charismatic but gruff Zanalor Liadon to a tavern in Neverwinter. They met Gydion Jo’Daelus and Froderick the Bronze, two stalwart servants of the light and took up work that would be only the first step in an epic journey. The Spear saved Phandelin, a hamlet hugging the northern span of the Sword Mountains, from the machinations of the Black Spider. Some arcane adversary had seized Wave Echo Cave, a lair dug into the same mountains that run all the way down to Waterdeep and the fabled Mount Waterdeep itself. The ultimate aims of the Black Spider remained a mystery but seemed focused on some ancient source of magic fueling a forge below the mountains. Many factions including the Emerald Enclave, the Harpers, the Lords’ Alliance and the Order of the Gauntlet slowly united in the common goal to unravel the mystery, while more nefarious guilds like the Zhentarim and Xanathar Guild seemed to step up their own activities.
Barovia: Fates then quickly forced them into Barovia to toil under the ever watchful dread lord of that realm. In this demiplane, time seemed to flow strangely and a fog shunted many of the divine powers and portents they had come to rely on. Souls were consumed in that plane, and no new soul had been born in centuries. Slowly the band came to learn that the devil Strahd was once a promising young general and scholor from a far off land that - shunted to this land - had fallen to evil, killing his brother Sergei and causing the death of the woman they both loved. In the centuries since, he had grown in power thanks to despicable deals made with the power of the Amber Temple. During their adventures, Pessius was overcome and the spirit she had imprisoned briefly took over. Cynder had been sought by the Blackstaff mage that betrayed her not long ago for the wild magic she was able to tap into. However, Zanalor soon struck a bargain with the Vistana gypsies and restored Pessius, but leaving some small channel open to the wild magic within. Strahd entreated Nuitt to take his place but, failing to close that black bargain, fought them. The Spear defeated Strahd, though not without sacrifice. When all seemed lost in the bowels of Strahd’s castle, some thin filament of fate managed to pierce the fog and save the young heroes from undeath.
Most returned to Faer’un, wiser and wealthier. Nuitt Sidenettle, having lost a young love Muriel, remained in Barovia and returned to his monastic traditions in an eternal vigil atop Mount Ghakis. Pessius resumed studies and service with the Blackstaff in Waterdeep, rising to a trusteed apprentice of Vahjra herself though many in the tower felt her unworthy due to her demonic heritage and the taint of wild magic. Zanalor stuck to her side, helping to raise the orphan Myrtle - now Galiana - to a young Queen’s Guard captain and staying somewhat out of trouble. Gwydion spent the year searching for his son in the criminal alleys of Waterdeep and Skullport with help from the Open Lords of Waterdeep. Froderick ministered to many in the same streets of that town.
Waterdeep: In the late Spring of DR 1492, evils that had simmered just under the surface in so many places seemed to erupt. Worshippers of the Dead Three revolted in Baldurs Gate, Avernus (the first layer of Hell) claimed the entire city of Elturel leaving only a crater, and the seas themselves seemed to roil with frightful creatures of legend. Malevolence spilled into the streets of Waterdeep. Devil-worshippers of Waterdeep including the Cassalanters became more brazen, seeking to strengthen themselves and their wicked patrons with sacrifices and pacts with unnamed denizens of the Underdark. A conflict between the Xanathar's Thieves' Guild and the Zhentarim escalated into a street war fueled not just by their own greed but a growing pressure from Undermountain and secretive forces in the city itself. The Wizard Manshoon**, long thought by the Blackstaff to have had his final clone destroyed by Halaster, was seen by some to have started something within Kolat tower and odd enclaves throughout the city. The Bregan D'aerthe under the drow Jarlaxle worked secretly to strongarm the Lords' Alliance and consolidate their shipping network and admit the port of Luskan (the Bregan D’aerthe stronghold) onto their council.
Amid this upheaval, the House Neverember sent agents to Waterdeep in hopes of finding the Dragon Vault rumored to hold the half a million gold dragons Dagult Neverember embezzled during his tenure as Open Lord. Four young adventurers that we now know as the Dungeon Delvers found themselves with a tavern and a long list of enemies. Ysarra Hotpotatos, a neophyte priestess of Valkur, was saved from a shipwreck and sent on a mission to find strength for her god against the evil tides that swell. Malsanos toiled in Trollskull Alley while a dwarf druid Sumfun followed a pull from his forests to the crowded city streets. Rhassbaradhon "Boo" Me'itner, failed applicant to Blackstaff and arcane tinkerer, joined them in games of chance but all were quickly pulled into a web more vast than they could fathom. They found the Dragonvault but also woke the ire of some of the hidden adversaries of Waterdeep, namely Jaraxle and Vajra Blackstaff herself. Malsanos went alone to confront Jaraxle, awakening a good number of daddy issues and shooting him before being killed by the Bregan D'aerthe but revived by Froderick. Separately, the Blackstaff Vajra had sealed a bargain with the dark to seize more power in exchange for surrendering some of Faer’un to a Marilith and those she served. Late in their travels Boo was taken by too sexy demons and was left in the foothills by the Delvers, but the party was then aided by an amical orc cook and a slinky blood hunter. The Delvers journeyed overseas, to islands, into the Shadowfell, and into the frozen north to meet Auril herself** who made promises of power in exchange for worship and duty. Resisting the goddess, the party discovered the demonic forces siphoning the eddies of power from the Sword Coast and stopped the Marilith from her ultimate aims. They are then tasked by the lords of Waterdeep to seek out and stop Xanathar and the flood of evils starting to spill up from undermountain.
**Auril was a member of the Deities of Fury, along with Malar, Umberlee, and Talos. Umberlee and Auril cooperated with some degree of confidence, while Malar and Auril despised each other. Malar is opposed to Nobanion and Evermeet both who fight the Furies. Auril tried freezing the north to stop Umberlee. She used the everlasting rime that she powered from ancient netherese city that fell - She was betrayed when Umberlee convinced the other Dieties to fight her and after the second sundering was weak. She needs the worship in the north, she needs the power of Ythryn but she needs to stop Umberlee ...
Saltmarsh: Tales of the Delvers and the vast riches quickly spread, most notably through a song penned by the bard Abejunio El Guapo who for several years has sailed the merchant coast with his young friend Jom. Recently they took work in the village of Saltmarsh near the Mere of Dead Men, just north of Thornhold and just west of Phandelin. Like most of the Sword Coast, Saltmarsh had seen an outbreak of crimes, murders and mysteries befall its people. Abe was soon joined by Ellie Han, a cleric that had suffered under a mysterious religious cult, as well as the traveling companions Adamas the Paladin and Lleysash the sorcerer. The paladin had come to help the young sorcerer flee from the village of Phandelin in the wake of unpleasant revalations and manifestations of his wild magic. They united in helping the town council stop several smaller incursions, but the broader brushstrokes of murder and darker prophesies pushed both time and tide towards a calamitous confrontation. The Wizlards, in seeking to help the lizardfolk and the people of Saltmarsh against an invasion from the Sauhaugin, learned that their own threads had been spun into the narrative by deliberate and deceitful hands. The paladin (now revealed as young Lilli), narrowly escaping the attention of the Delvers and their foes in creekbend, found herself the unwitting emissary for Xisar, the blue Kraken most had now thought only a legend. Xisar had sent Lilli to take charge of Lleyash, a young and unique sea elf with an uncanny aptitude for wild magic.
The Wizlards confronted the dread Kraken Xisar, ended the machinations of the scarlet brotherhood, and saved Saltmarsh from the Sauhaugin scourge but were not strong enough to ferret out the dim designs of the Talos infidels. Ellie Han, the young thief struggling with revenants and voices that filled her from a past life betrayed by a dark temple, reluctantly assumed her watch over evil tides swirling under the Sword Coast, watching Lleyash, Abe, and Lilli all scatter to the four winds.