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Rise of the Abyss

Characters, places, people, loot, and everything that's happened so far — click anything for the full write-up.

Characters

The party — player characters and their write-ups.

Lia

A prophecy she never asked for, and the family who won't let her forget it.

Level 4 HumanFighter — Warrior of LegendMythic
Lux

A dragonet convinced he's an Ancient and Powerful Dragon Lord— and increasingly hard to argue with.

Level 5 Platinum DragonSorcerer — Draconic BloodlineMythic
Ottora

Witch on the outside, but so much more

Level 4 Goblinish(Anadi)Necromancer
Rowan Mercer

A reformed thief whose new god has never told him its name.

Level 3 KoboldDragonscaled KoboldCleric
Shim

Zellen's best (and only) acolyte

Level 4 KoboldSwashbucklerDraconic Acolyte Dedication
Vosk Hammerfist

He didn't ask for a revolution. He just kept standing until it was one.

Level 4 Dwarf GuardianArchetype: WrestlerRock Dwarf

Locations

Cities, ruins, taverns, and everywhere else the party has been.

The Abyssal Gorge

Three pages are named after it. None of them say what is down there.

Southern FrontierHeld by IronwatchLargely Undescribed
Bellhaven

Prosperous, well fed, and pleasantly unremarkable — which is exactly how it likes it.

Population ~12,000River TradeFarmland
Bellhaven University

Founded to make battle-mages for a war that stopped. It has been quietly becoming something else ever since.

Arcane CollegeFounded for IronwatchResearch Library
City of Xalthera

Ironhollow

Mining and forge city built into a mountain shoulder · Private-mine economy

Dwarven Ancestral HoldPopulation ~9000Mineing and Smithing
Ironwatch

The Deep City

An underground city far below the surface where Brenden claims to be taking the party.

Valecourt Manor

The Lord's Manor in Ironwatch — site of Adrian's betrothal ball and the ghoul ambush.

Veyrhold

The name on the maps, the academy and the noble houses — and a long way from anywhere the party has been.

Imperial CapitalHouse ValecourtHouse Montclair

NPCs

People the party has met, for good or otherwise.

Abadar

God of contracts, laws, and morality

Adrian Valecourt

Noble with a lot to prove, in the shadow of his father.

Heir to IronwatchBetrothed
Azaroth

A vampire confronted by the party; dominated by Vosk but resisted the effect.

Azeron Vale

A vampire who commands ghouls in armor, seeks an artifact from Nathara

The Coalbrook Concern

Not a villain. A balance sheet that keeps arriving in towns just after their worst year.

ConglomerateMining ConsortiumBuying Ironhollow
Lady Elara Montclair

Lord Garrick Valecourt

Male Drider

An unusual male drider guarding spider territory, now enraged by the party's presence and the blood-marked compass

Nathara

Drow warrior woman with platinum hair and a spear who leads a group in the Abyss; was tracking someone via brooch

Deceased
Nicholas Kozlov

Held the kitchen doorway alone against ghouls, and was still angrier about the mushrooms.

GrippliHead ChefValecourt Manor
The Abyssal Angler Fish

A gargantuan lure-bearing fish that walked the cave floor and ate the spiders' young — and it was only a baby.

The Finch-Masked Cultists

Hooded portal-channelers in articulate finch bird masks; their only defining feature.

The Raven

The Spider Matron of the Webs

The large spider who caught the party in her web and traded their freedom for a favour.

Thessarak

Items

Loot, relics, and the occasional cursed thing nobody will admit to picking up.

Blood-Marked Compass

A compass marked with blood by a mysterious woman, given to carry to the city with instructions not to let 'them' have an artifact.

Drow Spear with Runes

A magical spear with a glowing blue tip and ice-based runes, capable of entombing bodies in ice; used by the drow priestess in her ritual.

Glowing Bulb from the Cave Fish

An angular bulb from the creature's body that still glows; has natural magic aura and unclear purpose

The Artifact Orb

A rough, glowing, golf-ball-sized orb kept in a small box — the thing Azeron Vale killed for.

Storyline

The big threads — what's unresolved, what's closed, and what everyone is still arguing about.

Azeron Vale Will Return

The vampire fled as mist with a promise, and he knows exactly who is carrying the artifact now.

Encounter with Driders

Half-spider, half-humanoid creatures emerging from the cavern ceiling as the party exits into the vast underground chamber.

Fallen Into the Abyss

Displaced over the gorge, the party fell for a very long time and landed in an enormous web in the dark.

Forbidden Cravings Curse

A curse inflicted during combat that consumes flesh—stage one has begun

Larger Creatures in the Abyss

The dead angler was only a juvenile; something larger laid the egg in this river.

preservation-by-the-drow-spear

A drow's spear has the power to freeze and preserve bodies, tied to spirit magic and last rites

Pursued by the First Blood Court

Nathara's group is being hunted by a dangerous faction in the Abyss

Spider Colony in the Gorge

A society of intelligent spiders dwelling in the Abyssal Gorge, some humanoid-shaped, willing to negotiate for corpses

The Abduction of Adrian Valecourt

The ball was a screen: someone came for the young lord specifically, and nearly got him.

The Artifact Azeron Vale Demands

A mysterious artifact that Nathara possesses, which Azeron Vale claims only he can properly manifest

The Artifact's Compulsive Pull

The magical orb compels those near it to touch and view it, marking them with a tattoo and creating a connection.

The Artifact's Tattoo Mark

Touching the glowing orb burned an archaic, off-center tattoo onto a party member's wrist, creating a connection through which they can draw power from the artifact.

The Artifact's Teleportation Ability

The artifact can recall itself across space instantaneously when called, defying containment attempts.

The Blobish Creature in the Deep

A blob-like creature in a cave below is eating the spider brood's young; the party agreed to deal with it in exchange for safe passage.

The Burning of the Adventurers' Building

Ironwatch's fixed point for all gates and teleportation was blown open — and then portals started opening everywhere.

The Delivery to the City

A mysterious woman gave the party a blood-marked compass to deliver to a city, with warning not to let someone have an artifact.

The Drider at the Glowing River

A male drider dropped from the cavern ceiling, enraged at the name of the composer, and brought a swarm down with him.

The Drow Priestess and Her Entourage

A drow priestess who served the Composer demanded their bodies be returned; the party has frozen her entourage and is carrying her corpse out of the Abyss.

The Drow's Rejection of Healing

When healed by divine magic, something in the drow conflicts with the spell, causing it to backfire or be rejected

The Egg in the Stream

The angler they killed hatched from an egg that floated in — which means something bigger laid it upstream.

The Finch-Masked Cultists

Bird-masked summoners opened two portals in a lord's house on the night his son was to be taken.

The Man Behind the Door

A kobold cleric lost his god, took a stranger's power to keep healing the sick, and still doesn't know whose it is.

The Moving Hill by the Shore

A small hill near the water's edge is subtly shifting—and when the party approached, a strange bioluminescent lure appeared that fascinated several party members.

The Orb and Its Bound

A golden orb in a small box compels those near it to touch it, marks them with a tattoo, and offers power at the cost of being drained.

The Raven

A raven-masked man who outclassed the party, carried an artifact-grade token, and dropped them into the Abyss rather than fight.

The Speaking Brooch and the Dead Scout

Lux answered a dead drow's communication brooch, and the voice on the other end arrived in seconds.

The Vampire's Drain

A powerful vampire uses a mysterious blood drain that takes a week to cure and requires a DC 20 medicine check and blood transfusion

The Wall's Broken Contract

Thirty thousand soldiers on the abyssal wall are not getting what they signed for, and Garrick is paying out of pocket.

Thessarak, the Coiled Prophet

A colossal serpent rose out of the Abyss preaching a lord's love to the sun-blessed surface.

Sessions

The session log — what actually happened at the table, in order.

The Orb and the Ice Tomb

A vampire lord's ambush costs the drow priestess her life — and leaves three of the party bound to a golden orb that will not let them go.

Session 3
The Spider's Bargain and the Angler in the Dark

Caught in the webs of an abyssal gorge, the party bargains with a spider brood, kills the thing eating their young, and meets the drow.

Session 2
The Betrothal Ball, and the Long Fall After

A servant girl, a tiny dragon, a sailor and a labour organiser walk into a noble's engagement party — and end up falling into the Abyss.

Session 1