Session 4: After the Wave¶

Nicodranas survived the tsunami, but the city that woke the next morning was not the same one that had gone to sleep. Refugees poured in from the countryside, angry and grieving, and a single question hung over everything: why was the city spared when they were not?

The countryside had not been so lucky. Farms and villages along the coast were devastated, and survivors streamed through the gates carrying what little they had left. Their anger was sharp and specific -- if some force had shielded Nicodranas, why had it not shielded them? Tension crackled between the newcomers and the city-folk, some of whom muttered darkly that perhaps the outsiders simply had not been chosen.

The carnival became an unlikely refuge. Brun the Behemoth and the rest of the carnival troupe opened their grounds to the displaced, offering what shelter and food they could. Helga found herself drawn back to help.

Strange new devotions were taking root along the docks. Impromptu shrines to “sea gods” appeared overnight, fisherfolk leaving offerings and whispering that the sea itself had risen to protect the city. Shin, visibly marked as a priestess of Avandra, could barely walk the streets without being stopped for blessings by desperate strangers.

At the palace, the party met Reverend Seraphine Duroy, the palace chaplain -- a sharp-faced woman in black and silver vestments who pressed a handful of potions into Shin’s hands with quiet urgency. Captain Marius, still troubled by the state of the ancient waterworks beneath the city, formally commissioned the party to investigate the Sluiceweave. Whatever was wrong down there, he said, had been wrong for a long time, and the tsunami had only made it worse.

Ada found a quiet moment to reach out to her mentor, Onde Orsal, via a Sending spell. The reply was characteristically brief and only partially helpful.

As the day drew to a close, the party gathered their gear and descended into the Sluiceweave for the first time -- Helga in front with a light, the rest in a cautious line behind her. The tunnels were old, damp, and very dark, and something down there was waiting to be found.