Chapter 4: Consequences

Up until recently, Elturel was a city on a hill. It stood overlooking the River Chionthar, constantly illuminated by the Companion. A major location along the trade route through the Western Heartlands, Elturel and its environs for many miles around were a safe haven for visitors and citizens alike. Much of this safety came from the efforts of the Hellriders, whose cavalry patrolled the roads that lead into Elturgard, as well as the paths along the river.

In the city’s center, directly beneath the Companion, was a cliff-sided tor that held aloft the High Hall. This castle, whose walls surrounded the summit of the mount, was home to the High Observer, and to a great deal of the bureaucracy of Elturgard. A stream ran out of the center of the castle, spawned by the powerful springs in its cellars. It flowed north across the tor’s top and then down one of its cliffs in a series of waterfalls called the Maidens’ Leap. By canal it formed a moat for the eastern Dock District, before it joined the Chionthar. Along the stream across the tor lay the long, narrow garden, an open place of flowers, wooded paths, and arched bridges.

Elturel has now been pulled into Avernus, hovering hundreds of feet over the River Styx, slowly being pulled down by gargantuan chains. The Companion no longer provides any illumination, but instead is a 400-foot diameter black orb, with lightning occasionally arcing from it to the city. The eastern side of the city, across the old canal, has mostly broken off the rest of the city and is crumbling.