Currently have 3 regular players. Seeking 2 more regulars. We use Discord voice for GM descriptions. Players may use Discord voice for reply, or type in Roll20. You must be able to at least listen in Discord. Character level is currently an average of Level 4. Contact me for details and for character generation. Game Background “Monsters, Vampires and Criminals, Oh My” Ruled by a loose confederation of merchants, organized crime and, nominally, The Oligarch, Cecilia is a place to make your fortune or lose your life. A rollicking, dangerous town, Cecilia is almost entirely commerce driven. Common sayings are, “It doesn’t matter what color your blood is, as long as it’s gold” and “It neither picks my pocket nor tears off my arm.” Consequently, vampires, werewolves and other monstrous races are common within the city, though still looked upon with suspicion, which can be allayed with generous outlays of gold. The Oligarch tolerates a certain amount of crime, as long as the Five Families pay their taxes. If there is going to be crime, it might as well be organized. Each of the five families has their areas of specialization and tolerates little to no independent criminal activity. (You haven’t lived until you’ve visited a Bedrock ‘family’ brothel.) The Unseen University is known far and wide for being a hub of arcane learning. The wizard faculty doesn’t pay city taxes, but it is understood they are responsible to handle any magical threats to the city or it’s commerce. Sometimes, however, they contract out work that has too much physical risk. Danger and Opportunity go together. The story to date: Our adventurers arrived by ship and checked in with the local adventurer’s guild. After a lengthy rescue mission that took them to a nearby xenophobic city, they found themselves fighting a manticore that appeared to disrupt the funeral of one of the wizards of the Unseen University. They further learned that the city has been recently plagued by magical appearances of monstrous creatures. You may be heading out to get a spot of lunch at the nearby street stall, only to hear a thunderous eldritch <crack>, and be faced with something that wants you for tea. These appearances have been getting more common. Taking a contract posted by the Merchant’s guild, our adventurers cleared a section of the city sewers, where some of the mysteriously appearing monsters had fled. They found a map that led them on a chase across the city to an underground lair beneath the City of the Dead, the burial ground for Cecilia. They unwisely disturbed Artor Morlin, a name spoken in hushed tones in Cecilia. He has been a presence in the city for just over 50 years, though expatriates from Waterdeep recognize the name from the histories of that city going back over 400 years. Rumored to be undead, this has proved no great hinderance in the city. Artor Morlin’s business is primarily import/export and transshipping. He has a network of merchant boats that either he owns, or contracts, the rumors are uncertain. It is further rumored that he has come into conflict with one of the 5 large criminal ‘families’ within Cecilia, finding their control of the docks and ‘protection fees’ to be excessive. Morlin agreed to spare our party’s lives in return for their efforts to uncover the source of the false maps that has been leading unwise adventurers to disturb his daytime rest. Following up on a possible contract, our party has visited the University, where they found that the dead wizard (see funeral above) was experimenting with primal Chaos Magic, the magic that existed even before the goddess Mystra created the Weave so that normal mortals could use magic more safely. They have further discovered that the dead wizard, Professor Shivar, had contracted with the Breaker Family (one of the Five Families controlling docks and shipping) to move certain ancient artifacts to/from far off lands. Our heroes have just investigated the dead professor’s magical laboratory where they have found some kind of portal. Notes from most recent session: After consulting with the wizards of the Unseen University, it was determined that the runes on the portal was some form of primitive elvish and it seemed to be connected to a location far to the southwest, somewhere in the southern ocean. Elwyn boldly dashed through the portal, followed by Delbert, but not before he dragged a hapless young wizard by the name of Manfred with him. Appearing in deep jungle, the frightened Manfred stayed close to the cleric Elwyn, being frightened of the physically aggressive warlock Delbert. Meanwhile, Suspira had been wandering the halls of Unseen University looking for something to eat. He entered a huge hall with books on all sides, where a large orange orangutan in a bathrobe offered him a banana. Perplexed, he went back to Professor Shivar’s laboratory where he found his friends had already entered the portal, but not before kidnapping one of the mages. He dashed through the portal and was transported to a jungle where he picked up the trail of his friends from the clumsily broken vegetation and loud complaints of Manfred. Searching for a vantage point to survey the area, the party found a large, magically enhanced tree with hollow inside just as Suspira caught up with the rest of the party. The party weathered an attack by three giant spiders and then climbed through the tree which showed clear signs of habitation in the past, down to stairs constructed through the tree leading upwards. Reaching the top, they were attacked by a Phase Spider, which they dispatched with alacrity, but not before it killed the hapless Manfred. Surveying their surroundings from a high vantage point, they discovered they were on an island and were able to ascertain the direction of a <crack> of magical energy that they have come to associate with the malfunctioning portal.
