Silverymoon: Catacombs and Sewers

[Rick7475]

Silverymoon is the GEM of the north. It is a clean city encased in high stone walls warded from evil. The ward is a giant bubble enclosing the entire city including high in the air and deep underground.

The Sewers:

The Silverymoon sewers have one purpose: to keep the city clean by avoiding poluting elsewhere. The high mages envisioned a way to do this using magic. The sewers themselves are small 2 foot wide by 1 foot high tunnels under the roads and major structures that channel refuse and sewage. However, the contents, unlike many cities of it's size, are not dumped into a river or lake. The mages of the city did not want to polute the waters and stare down from their lofty towers at brown bilge flowing through their city. So they created a clean alternative. All the sewage is collected in two large chambers underneath the city on each side of the river. Certain spellguards assigned clean-up duty monitor the chambers. When a chamber has reached a certain volume, the entire contents are teleported via a planar shift to the plane of fire, where they are consumed by a fire so hot the act is almost instantaneous. During heavy rain pours, there are several emergency channels, or floodways, that are opened to allow the water to flow from the sewer channels into the river. And, occasionally, the spellguards will cast 'create water' to produce a 'cleansing' flow through the sewer channels to clean them out.

The Catacombs

Underneath the city is buried the dead of Silverymoon. The High Mages and leaders of the city hundreds of years ago decided against a cemetary outside the city walls fearing descretion of their dead by invading forces. So they buried their dead in underground catacombs. These catacombs are generally accessable through various temples and civic buildings. Each registered religion in Silverymoon has an assigned area of the catacombs for their dead. The agreement for a religion, order, or wealthy enough family to have their dead buried in the catacombs stipulates that the sections contracted will be properly maintained and monitored. Priests, especially new acolytes, of various religions often patrol their assigned section of the catacombs for improper divine magic, robbers, or vermin. Often these priests and acolytes can be contracted to patrol other areas. For example, the Catacombs under Silverguard Fortress are patroled by priests of Helm, Tempus, Tyr and Torm.

The catacombs are divided into the north chambers (north of the river) and the south chambers (south of the river). Despite being under the city they are still protected by the city ward against evil. There exists, however, deep ancient tunnels that connect the two networks of catacombs underneath the river. These deeper tunnels are often dangerous and unstable, leaking water from the river and flooding often. Adventurers are warned to stay clear of them and many a foolhearty treasure seeker ignoring that advice has never been heard from again. At times patrols of good aligned priests have caught cults of evil worshipers practicing their arts in dug out chambers in the deep tunnels. Once they are discovered, however, they are quickly dealt with and the tunnels and chambers sealed.