Mezro, the Lost City, was a holy city of Chult, founded by the god Ubtao and ruled by his Chosen, the barae. It was the largest city of Chult until it vanished in the Spellplague.1 The party heard it named as the refuge of the Hungerer and never went there.2
Description
Mezro stood on the River Olung, which bounded it on the south and west, with thick jungle to the east and north. The city was a circle, cut into four quarters by wide avenues that ran out from the Temple of Ubtao at its center: farms and groves in the southeast, a maze of one-story houses in the southwest, craftsmen, inns and the amphitheater in the northwest, and the library, the College of Wizards and the warriors’ training ground in the northeast. The temple was a golden-domed building of nine stories, raised by Ubtao himself, and the king’s audience hall was in it.1
About fifteen thousand people lived there in 1363 DR and more than twenty-eight thousand in 1372 DR. They were Human, of the Tabaxi people, and they worshipped Ubtao.1
Government
Mezro was a theocracy ruled by the seven barae, the Chosen of Ubtao, each of whom lived forever and held powers of his or her own from the god. At the end of the fourteenth century DR they were King Osaw I, Kwalu, Dhalmass Rayburton, Alisanda Rayburton, Mainu, Fipya and Ras Nsi, who had been exiled.1
History
Before the expedition
Ubtao founded Mezro in -2637 DR and raised its temple and amphitheater out of the jungle. In -137 DR, in the war between the Tabaxi and the Eshowe, the shadow creature Eshowdow nearly brought the city to ruin. About 863 DR a magical wall was built around it that made the whole city invisible and confused anyone who came near, and Mezro stayed hidden for nearly five hundred years, until its rulers lowered the wall in 1363 DR.1
In 1385 DR, when the Spellplague struck, the barae made a demiplane and moved the city and all its people into it, to save Mezro from destruction and from the ambitions of Ras Nsi. They left false ruins behind. To the rest of the world Mezro had been destroyed. By 1479 DR the ruins were overrun by undead and monsters, and late in the 1480s the Flaming Fist looted them and used them as a training ground. It was said that Mezro would not return while Ras Nsi lived.1
The expedition
On the thirtieth of Mirtul, 1492 DR, on its first day in Port Nyanzaru, the party heard a rumor that Mezro had not been destroyed and that its ruins were an illusion.3
At midnight on the thirtieth of Kythorn the party shattered the physical form of the Hungerer in the Aldani Shrine. As he died his voice whispered, “Mezro shall keep me safe… as it always has.”2 He withdrew to Mezro.4 The party carried his words to Zitembe of the Temple of Savras, who promised to research the lost city and its tie to him.5
On the twenty-second of Flamerule Tyde Caller of Sorceries’ Sundries advised the party to seek out Mezro for answers about the Death Curse.6 The party went to the gala of the twenty-third for the Eye of Ubtao, which it wanted for its search for Mezro, and lost the Eye at auction to Lady Nyrule.78
The party never went to Mezro.
Appendix
Notes
Behind the screen
The Description, the Government and the history before the expedition follow the published lore of the Forgotten Realms, as given on the Forgotten Realms Wiki. The campaign added only what the party heard of the city.
Appearances
Mentioned in Session 1, Session 17, Session 18, Session 19, Session 22, Session 23 and Session 24.