The Sentinels of Memory are a minor faction in Ank'Harel that believes Cael Morrow is best left forgotten.
Description[]
The Sentinels are a small group of fanatics who believe the sunken city of Cael Morrow, which they dub an "Under-Temple", is a prison for some terror from the Calamity and that it must be kept sealed, and that the lack of historical records about the city is proof that it was deliberately hidden to prevent such a breakout.[5] Until the crisis around the Netherdeep comes to a head in 836 PD, their efforts to oppose the excavation of Cael Morrow had been mostly political, though some members have resorted to violence and the faction is willing to do whatever it takes. The Consortium of the Vermilion Dream spends a significant portion of its income and provides some agents to support the Sentinels' opposition to the Allegiance of Allsight, which has taken the lead in excavating the drowned city. While the Sentinels are grateful to the Consortium, they are also wary, suspecting (correctly) that the Consortium has ulterior motives.[6] All the known members of the organization have the title "Watcher".
History[]
For decades, the Allegiance of Allsight petitioned the leader of Ank'Harel, J'mon Sa Ord, for permission to excavate the submerged ruins beneath the city. An elven former cleric of Ioun, Trast, attracted a small but fanatical group of followers dedicated to stopping this excavation, and mostly used political means to stop the excavation. Watcher Trast purchased a run-down, leaning octagonal tower on the western edge in the city's Guided District to use as a home for his followers; the structure came to be called the Tower of Memory. Eventually, J'mon Sa Ord assented to the Allegiance's request, infuriating the Sentinels.[7]
The chasm in Ank'Harel's Sigil District leading down to the ruins of Cael Morrow was already open and an excavation was underway in 811 PD, when Vox Machina visited the city.[8]
At the time of the crisis around the Netherdeep in 836 PD, Watcher Trast still leads the organization, which has done little to renovate the Tower of Memory. The Sentinels had recently started accepting the support of the Consortium.[2] As of that time, Watcher Byron, who oversaw operations for the Sentinels, had lost patience with the faction's political strategy and had started plotting more aggressive actions to stymie the Allegiance; some of the Sentinels had a history of violence.[9]
One member of the Sentinels, Lymmle Wist, had months earlier managed to infiltrate the Allegiance by posing as a well-qualified professor of antiquities. She passed information to the Sentinels and to the Consortium as she rose through the ranks enough to assign missions to Allegiance agents, and the Consortium rewarded her with a Ring of Red Fury[3] that was stolen from an expedition as it returned to the surface, when Wist led two agents into a wrong turn where they were accosted by a ruffian and had their memories tampered with.[10]
If the player characters (PCs) in Call of the Netherdeep join the Allegiance, their first mission is being sent by Wist to the Suncut Bazaar to retrieve a ruidium-infused marble elephant figurine that had been stolen from the Allegiance; the figurine turns into a huge, rampaging construct.[11] Wist then plants rumors of a second entrance to Cael Morrow, leading the PCs into an ambush by invisible stalkers she has summoned. This starts to raise suspicions about who summoned the stalkers; one piece of evidence may come from Amkezne, a former student of Wist's at the Crystal Chateau. Wist then plants her Ring of Red Fury on Prolix Yusaf to frame him for the attack and make him appear to be the traitor,[3] but Prolix's friend, Bookkeeper Khime, has records that can help establish a pattern of missing items from expeditions led by Wist and lead to the two agents whose memories were altered. This, in turn, can lead to a deadly confrontation as Wist resists being apprehended.[10]
The Allegiance's Headmaster Cryon comes to believe the rift to the Netherdeep contains a source of power that can help destroy the Sentinels and the Consortium, and sends the PCs to investigate and confirm that ruidium can be found inside the Netherdeep.[12]
If the PCs instead join the Consortium of the Vermilion Dream, they may be sent to steal the figurine from the Allegiance, but the Sentinels of Memory have hired two assassins to retrieve the figurine for their own organization, and those assassins follow and attack the PCs. The Hands of Ord quickly intervene, and the assassins attempt to flee rather than face arrest.[13]
Known members[]
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Watcher Trast | NPC | Elf former cleric of Ioun who founded and commands the Sentinels[14] |
| Watcher Byron | NPC | Gnome overseer of operations[1] |
| Watcher Lymmle Wist | NPC | Human mage who infiltrated the Allegiance of Allsight[15] |
| Watcher Sylralei | NPC | Dwarf berserker[16] |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 88.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 84.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 98–99.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 83–84. See also p. 88.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 84. See also pp. 82, 88, and 100.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 83–84.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 82. See also pp. 84 and 88.
- ↑ See "A Traveler's Gamble" (1x66) from 3:01:54 through 3:08:10.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 88. See also p. 84.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 100–101.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 96–97.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 102.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 108.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 84. See also p. 88.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 98–101.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, p. 17.
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