Download D&d 5.0 - Murder In Baldurs Gate.pdf,Murder in Baldurs Gate: Sundering Adventure 1 (D&D Adventure) epub pdf fb2
THE SUNDERING Murder in Baldur’s Gate is set during the time of the Sundering, a period of years after when many of the gods designate mortals to be their Chosen. These D&d - Murder In Baldurs blogger.com [2nvk19rlk]. AGE 12+ 4 MURDER IN BALDUR’S GATE CAMPAIGN GUIDE CREDITS Design Ed Greenwood, Matt Sernett, Alexander Winter, Download PDF - D&d - Murder In Baldurs blogger.com [2nvk19rlk]. This is a non-profit website to share the knowledge. To maintain this website, we need your help Murder in Baldurs Gate - Adventure Book Murder in Baldurs Gate - Adventure Book Click the start the download DOWNLOAD PDF Report this file Description Download Murder in DOWNLOAD PDF. Report this file. Description D&D Next Account Login. Register. Search. Search. About Us We believe everything in the internet must be free. So this tool was ... read more
Throughout the adventure, a monster name in bold indicates a monster that is available in the statis tics packet. In addition, the adventure usually does not specify the number of adversaries the heroes might face. This adventure calls for ability checks rather than skill checks. replace the ability checks with skill checks that are appropriate for the task being attempted. During the Sundering, gods that were thought lost or dead return, and age-old alliances and hierarchies of the deities are thrown into upheaval. Others play out in the Legacy of the Ciystal Shard adventure and the Sundering novel series, starting with R. the overgod, in punishment for their arrogance. Bhaal, the Lord of Murder and god of assassins, was himself murdered during this time. Yet he had foreseen his demise. In preparation, Bhaal took mortal form arLd coupled with many mortal creatures, spreading his divine essence ever thinner as each child was born.
After his death, the children of Bhaal—the so-called Bhaalspawn—grew up haunted by dreams of death and found themselves imbued with strange powers. One Bhaalspawn named Abdel Adrian resisted the murderous nature imparted to him by his father. When he grew to adulthood, he set out to right the wrongs com mitted by his siblings and those who sought to control the rebirth of Bhaal or tap that power. Adrian eventually settled down in the city, was inducted as a leader among its mercenary military, the Flaming Fist, and was elected a duke for life. Thanks to his divine heritage, Adrian has lived a long time, but so has his one remaining half-sibling, Viekang. Abdel believes that since he is the last Bhaalspawn alive to the best of his knowledge and Bhaal has not arisen, the god of murder is well and truly dead. STRUCTURE This adventure starts when Viekang and Adrian face off.
Afterward, three prominent locals one of whom might become the Chosen of Bhaal separately approach the characters. Sadly, there is no good guy among them. Whichever faction the charac ters associate with is just as violent and corrupt as any other one, as the players will learn in time. As the Dungeon Master, you determine how the events of a stage play out and whether it makes sense for the heroes to get involved. To keep the tension high, you might have the characters hear about two events of a stage in quick succession, so they have to run from one location to another without rest. If the story arcs become unwieldy, you could space out events over the course of a day or more, or have the heroes hear about certain events after they have occurred, preventing the characters from getting involved. At that point, the characters might attempt to kill one or more of the agents to solve the problem. If the characters kill all three antagonists, one of them becomes the Chosen of Bhaal.
GETTING AROUND The Gate is a crowded, bustling city, so moving within it is time-consuming. Walking across a district to the next takes 15 minutes under normal circum stances or 10 minutes if characters push. This is a slow pace, about one mile per hour. On any given day, thick crowds are full of street perform ers, sticky-fingered urchins, Flaming Fist and Watch patrols, sailors, and travelers and traders. Stacks of cargo clog up intersections, traffic jams halt passage, and steep and drizzle-slick roads put unlucky passersby on their backsides. But darkness, fog, and patrols might still slow them. Because of the crowds, the peddlers, the bureaucrats, the toll collectors, and the air of tension over the city, every action and transaction takes longer than it would in a less congested and perilous place. Capitalize on your opportunities to describe the tightly packed stalls of the Wide; the steep, narrow streets of Bloomridge; the teeming alleys of Blackgate; and the maze-like, walled environs of Little Calimshan.
The ele ments that characters do not take part in are as important to the story as the intrigues in which they become entangled. The adventurers should hear news about all events that happen in the city, even those in which they do not take an active hand. Attacks from razor-wielding maniacs and other unexpected sources make for exciting, unsettling news, regard less of their targets. Also keep in mind that word of mouth is rarely wholly accu rate. Have some fun with the news as it circles the city. But if they act, they might prevent a catastrophe and save lives. Each event in the adventure is connected to at least one of these individuals; a small portrait in the text of an event indi cates which one is directly associated with that event. The finale of the adventure is tied to whoever has the highest rank. This initial event takes place in the Wide. Moments later, the throng erupts in wild cheers as an older, surprisingly muscular man takes center stage.
The ovation continuesfor minutes unabated. The duke, smiling broadly, bows to the crowd and then ges tures for quiet. As he talks, you notice a disturbance to your right. Some one is pushing roughly toward the platform. A cloaked and hoodedfigure emerges from the crowd, scrambles onto the podium, and strides toward Adrian, short sword in hand. The other officials scatter, leaving Adrian alone on the podium with Viekang, the only other living Bhaal spawn. Watch guards move toward the stage, but the panicking crowd impedes their progress and prevents them from using their crossbows effectively. As mentioned earlier, the statistics for nonplayer characters and monsters in this adventure can be found online at DungeonsandDragons. To resolve matters quickly, roll a d6 for Adrian and a dlO for Viekang each round. When one of them rolls 2 or more higher than his opponent, the winner has struck a killing blow.
If the characters inter vene, assume Viekang and Abdel Adrian have half their hit points remaining. The victor morphs into the hulking, bloodsoaked, corpse-like form of the Bhaalspawn Slayer. Pandemonium and panic reign in the Wide as the adventurers fight the Bhaalspavn Slayer. The Bhaal spawn Slaver fights to the death. After the fiend has fallen, the Watch swiftly sets out to restore order. Thus, he cannot yet do more than subtly influence people who harbor murderous intentions. Bhaal swiftly fixates on the three antagonists and begins calculating ways to use them to whip the tendrils of fear drifting through the Gate into a tempest. If the adventurers ask about the transformation, most folk are ignorant. None of them suspect that Bhaal has returned. They assume that a ritual or something grander than the fight in the Wide would be necessary. If he is asked, Duke Silvershield does link the assassin to the mysterious cults he is concerned about and sug gests that the attacker might have been a deranged follower of the dead god Bhaal.
the other person is using hand signals common among underworld types. The figure is helping to straighten a toppled fruit stall. All three set out to recruit the characters. The first to reach out is Duke Torlin Silvershield. Among them is a young man, darkly hand some and graceful, who is dressed in a sumptuous robe. I ivill be there witilfour bells. The crowd parts as he approaches. Emblazoned on his tabard is a clenched gauntlet wreathed in fire—the symbol of the Flaming Fist. Duke Adrian had been our marshal. The Watch was responsiblefor his safety here and should have protected him.
We are indebted to you. You could be ofgreat service to our city. I hope you do not disprove my good appraisal ofyou. The whole party could meet two of the indi viduals, but they would have to cut one meeting short or keep one of their hosts waiting for an hour or more. Future opportunities to sit down with the agents can occur as the story unfolds. Characters might try to arrange a meeting on their own initiative, or you might decide the timing is right for an antagonist to extend another invitation. You or the players must set them in motion. The characters already know that Duke Adrian was a wildly popular figure.
As a duke on the Council of Four, he drew a lot of water in the Upper City. And his lowly beginnings and many charitable works earned him devotion among Outer City dwell ers and won him Guild support. Few recall that Adrian was a Bhaalspawn, and most who remember that fact wrongly believed that Adrian was the last of his kind. The next day, Duke Adrian will receive a somber state funeral. The funeral itself will be cause for some dissension, because the Flaming Fist and the people of the Lower City and the Outer City claim Abdel as their own. They want his burial and monument to be in the Outer City, where all can attend and thereafter visit. But because he was a duke, he is entitled to be placed in the mausoleum of the High Hall.
Folk from the Lower City and officers of the Flaming Fist grumble, but in the end, Abdel will repose in the High Hall. Select a character who is a thief or a rogue, if possible, and mention that If the heroes meet Imbralym Skoond at the Three Old Kegs, the wizard buys them several rounds of drinks and a delicious meal. He also discusses the criminals of the Guild. Skoond answers questions fully. In his answers, he always commends Silvershield and the patriars, vilifies the Guild, and guards his own secrets. Please follow me. Significantly, he nods to the guards as he walks past them unchallenged. Silvershield awaits the heroes in a meeting chamber. When the characters arrive, read: A human noble wearing a wooden cog, the holy symbol of Gond, stands in greeting. His black hair has grayed at the temples, and he keeps a well-trimmed salt-and-pepper beard. Would you carefor a beverage? VVho would dare to strike at such a venerated hero as Abdel Adrian but those who swearfralty to dark, evilforces?
Many have come to our city seeking refuge, and we have graciously opened our doors. But they brought with them a rotten seed—unholy beliefs andfoul gods. Their cancerousfingers reachfrom the gutters all the way to our most vaunted institutions. They manipu late our markets and shipping, worship unsavory deities, and have powerful cronies in the courts and even the Flaming Fist. Will you aid me? To move against them, I need proof I can provide you a writ ofsearch and sei zure as High Hall agents. I can reward you well with gold,! In return, Silvershield expects complete loyalty. Any missions Silvershield assigns the characters are likely to be directed against the Guild.
If the characters are in his service, Silvershield offers to pay their room and board at an inn of their choosing. He recommends the Helm and Cloak. He also offers them 10 gp apiece as a daily stipend. Silvershield has many closely guarded secrets. Tithe characters learn sensitive information about his plans and then stop working for him, Silvershield wants to know why, at the least. If he hears that the characters have agreed to work for Ulder Ravengard or Rilsa Rael, Silvershield tries to buy them back into his fold.
MEETING RILSA RAEL Before the characters can meet Rilsa Rae! Thangol is a male dwarf. His face is uncommonly gaunt for one of his race, giving him an unsettling, deathlike visage. Thangol operates the tax concession at the eastern gate between the Lower City and the Outer City, commonly called the Basilisk Gate because of the preponderance of statues erected around it. A tremen dous amount of goods passes through this gate every day, making it one of the most lucrative posts in Ba! When the characters leave the city for their rendez vous with Rae! All that foot traffic is jamming in a knot at the gate. Characters can hear a general hubbub of raised voices there.
Now, the Basilisk is overseeing an impromptu search for it. But maybe a word from the likes of you could speed things along and hasten these tired, poor folk home to their dinners. There, they see six Flaming Fist soldiers search ing pedestrians. Some pawed-over people are sent on their way, but anyone carrying a bag or a margin ally interesting item is led to a table beneath a striped canopy. More Flaming Fist mercenaries a lieutenant and several privates stand guard around the table, and Nant Thangol sits behind it. He examines the meager goods the guards place on the table when people are brought forward, scribbles notes in his ledger book, and declares fees ranging from a few copper pieces to a few silver pieces. The dwarf is arrogant and contemptuous toward the crowd. And a few of the Flam ing Fist soldiers appear uncomfortable about this detail. The guide uses furtive signals to instruct the heroes to follow, but not too closely. A rogue understands immediately. Any other adventurer must make a DC 10 Wisdom check to sense his intent.
The hooded figure leads them through the gate and up a set of stairs to the walkway built atop the walls that enclose Little Calimshan and divide it into smaller compounds. The agent produces a key, opens a door that spills warm light into the cool night, and motions the characters to enter first. When the heroes enter, read: Threeflickering oil lamps hang on copper chains. A central fire pit embraces a heap ofcoals. Multicolored rugs and cush ions blanket thefloor, surrounding thefire in the Calishite style. Heavy drapes obscure the walls and the ceiling, creating the impression ofbeing inside a tent. A seamedface peers atyoufrom beneath a turban.
The man, wrapped in an ornate, brocaded robe, sits beside a low table alongside thefire pit. He motionsfor you to sit and begins pouring tea. She oper ates Calim Jewel Emporium, a pawnshop, in the front room of the building they now occupy, she explains. In truth, the shop is a front for Guild business. Convey the following facts in your own words during the meeting. The Guild has been declared a criminal organization because it takes money from the wealthy to help and protect the poor. For example, the Calirn Jewel Emporium redis tributes wealth to the needy by overpaying for the trinkets and trash the poor bring in to sell, nearly going broke several times as a result. The Flaming Fist and the city do nothing for them but take their money in taxes and tolls.
The Outer City citizens are even locked out of the city in times of danger and must fend for themselves. You have to pay to get in, and you often have to pay to get out. In addition, toll and tax agents frequently demand bribes or confiscate alleged con traband, targeting folk from the Outer City because they know no one listens to their complaints. The poor of the Outer City are being kept poor. She hopes to carry on his work. She implies that no action will be taken against the dwarf unless they do something. This is untrue, though. I help the Guild give people hope. People show her a level of deference that far exceeds her station as a shop owner. The rooms are clean, and the characters can use them for as long as they work for Rael. They notice that the Calim Jewel Emporium does little pawnshop business.
As the Guild becomes more violent, characters who have cooperated with Rael might decide they would rather work for someone else or might balk at being involved in the unsavory activities the organization sponsors. The Guild kingpin argues that measured, judicious violence now could avert an open revolt by Outer City residents. By now the heroes either know too much about her operation and the Guild, or Rael suspects they do. Rael does her best to part on good terms. She wishes the characters happy, prosperous lives wherever their roads take them. As soon as the adventurers are out of earshot, she orders their assassination through whatever means you devise. MEETING RAVENGARD If the characters have not gone to meet Rael, use the Nant Thangol encounter see the previous page as a precursor to their meeting with Ravengard, since they would have to leave the city through the same gate.
He motions you over. Those slums and ghettos are breeding groundsfor a criminal cabal called the Guild. The Flaming Fist is charged with defrnding the Gate. It owns the Outer City. These monstersfind victims wherever the Fist is not. They grow bolder daily. They infest our politics and businesses. Yet a Guild assassin attacked him in broad daylight. I will crush themfor it. If they decline, Ravengard offers them quarters in the barracks for the night. Working for Ravengard Ravengard is not a zealot or a fascist— not yet, anyway. Ravengard resents the characters only if they leave his service on poor terms or have access to very sensi tive information.
He releases them from their Flaming Fist duties, provided they plan to leave town. The difficulty for the DM is that players can push events in any direction. In such a case, the most likely courses of action are described below, along with advice on how to handle them. The first time the heroes try this, it might work. And any of the three antagonists would jump to the obvious conclusion if new allies were seen consorting with the enemy. Kill One of Them: Once the characters identi1j an agent as a villain, the urge to kill that antagonist could be strong. Despite the rampant corruption in the city, the Flaming Fist and the Watch are effective police forces when they choose to be. Both have extensive networks of spies. The characters might become convinced that Torlin Silvershield and Ulder Ravengard are involved in dirty deal- ings.
But they are two of the most powerful people in the city, and killing either of them would unleash a firestorm of outrage among the thousands of their supporters among the Watch, the patriars, worshipers of Gond, the Flaming Fist, and the professional guilds, as well as the regular citizenry. Escaping from the city after committing such an act would be nearly impossible—if the killing could be carried out at all. The characters should realize that fact when they privately meet with either leader. Similarly, Rilsa Rael is a beloved figure in the Outer City, and thousands would mourn her passing. Given her occupa tion, though, most would assume that Guild rivals had killed her. Kill Them All: lIf the heroes assassinate one or two of the antagonists, they push the survivor or survivors closer to Bhaal.
If the adventurers assassinate all three, they dem onstrate great skill at murder—the exact qualification for becoming the Chosen of Bhaal. In that event, whichever character was the most prolific or effective killer becomes the Chosen of Bhaal. Her landlord, Entharl Danthelon, assures neighbors Brackrel is a harmless alchemist, and he sticks to that story if the characters ask. The young, dark-haired wizard has been known to speak out against the patriars from time to time. Char acters interviewing Brackrel notice pigment stains on her hands and face and that she smells of charcoal and essential salts, all signs pointing to alchemy. If the char acters demand to search her room, Brackrel refuses to let them in without a writ. Nothing in her apart ment links her to the Guild or anything evil. That said, strange alchemy items do fill her shelves.
If the characters take Brackrel into custody, she is released again in a few days. Target 2 is a middle-aged half-elf named Laraelra Thundreth. The mothballed ship is a festhall, tavern, and gambling house, but its chief service is providing a covert meeting spot for those who have illicit plans to discuss. Thundreth, who keeps her black hair in an intricate braid, is careful to observe the letter of the law, and she freely passes money under the table to ensure a smooth operation. Thundreth allows a search if a character presents the writ and makes a DC 10 Charisma check to persuade or intimidate him—a search that produces nothing incriminating. They all know the rules, too; no one pulls a weapon unless a character draws first.
While the characters are either negotiating with Thundreth or brawling with patrons, several Flam ing Fist mercenaries privates burst down the ladder and start turning the deck upside down. They pour out pitchers of ale, knock over games of chance, and try to herd patrons toward the exit, all while declaring the Low Lantern is being closed by order of the Flaming Fist and its proprietor, Thundreth, is under arrest. If the situation was not already an all-out, chair-throwing brawl, it becomes one now. Thundreth uses the chaos to flee. If characters move immediately, they can follow the proprietress to her cabin and see her lowering a rope ladder out the case ment to a dinghy. They can attempt to catch her or escape with her. At least the Guild is truthful about how it operates. If they persist, she jumps out the window to the dinghy and tries to escape. Target 3 is the patriar Norold Dlusker Campaign Guide, page He has a stall in the Wide near the Beloved Ranger, a place his status secures for him despite his downturn in fortune.
If the characters ques tion him, he sweats rivers of fear. But a search of his stall, his Lower City textile mill, and his Upper City home turns up nothing except a meager supply of bulk cloth. If a character thinks to ask Bailiff of the Wide Jedren Hiller for information, Hiller suggests they check the registry, a ledger he is responsible for that details all official transactions in the Wide. He offers to let the characters peruse it for a monitoring fee of 10 gp. He waives the fee if characters flash their searchand-seizure writ. If the characters ask Dlusker about Keene, he says only that she is his accountant.
Keeping the Writ If the characters are actively participating in this event, they have the writ that Duke Silvershield gave them. The heroes can hold onto the writ after this event. Tax Rebates Rael is targeting toll collectors. The Guild expects a 20 percent cut of the spoils, and Rael plans to take another 15 percent to cover her risk. The enterprising thief plans to hit Nant Thangol first, unless the characters choose a different target. Thangol habitually stays at his post until shortly before mid night. Then Flaming Fist soldiers and lamp lads escort him to his Lower City apartment next to the Blushing Mermaid. His route never varies. Rael knows it well, including the best place along it for an ambush. She cautions them not to kill anyone, explaining that many Lower City folk would delight in the Basilisk being robbed but would resort to mob justice if a Flam ing Fist soldier were killed. So be ready to improvise. Otherwise, the ambush occurs along a steep, narrow Lower City street.
Rael recommends that the characters split into two groups: one to halt the procession, and one to cut off its retreat. The to foot-wide street can easily be choked off. The caravan consists of Nant Thangol, two human bystanders carrying the locked cash box, two lamp lads also bystanders , and several Flaming Fist sol diers privates and lieutenants. Once the ambush is apparent, the panicked lamp lads drop their lanterns and scramble to safety leaving the area in darkness. Only the mercenaries fight. Than gol and the cash-box carriers cower. When only two Flaming Fist members remain on their feet, they lay down their weapons.
One minute 10 rounds after the fight starts, the heroes hear a lamp lad and a patrol consisting of a Flaming Fist lieutenant and several privates charg ing up the hill toward the fracas. They arrive 2 rounds later, and a new fight breaks out if the characters are still around. If the adventurers swipe the cash box and dash away, they escape easily If you want to play up the chase, use opposing ability checks. In the end, though, the soldiers have little chance of catching the charac ters in the dark, narrow, fog-shrouded streets. Back in Little Calimshan, Rael takes charge of the cash box. She thanks the characters and assures them their action ivill relieve much suffering and send the Basilisk a message to rein in his greed. If the heroes seem up for it, the Guild kingpin asks them to rob other toll and tax collectors in scenarios you devise.
The next day the city is abuzz about it. The bandits strike repeatedly in the following days and quickly gain reputations as heroes among the poor. Ravengard or Silvershield might ask the charac ters to catch the group of thieves human rogues and haifling rogues. In such a scenario, once half the gang is bested, the other half tries to escape. Closing the Vice Dens Ravengard wants two gambling dens shut down, the Oasis and the Low Lan tern. He requires the establishments be emptied and boarded up, writs of clo sure be posted outside their entrances, and their owners be brought to the Seatower of Balduran for questioning.
He offers a handful of mercenaries as backup. Vice Den 1: The Oasis is a dingy bungalow in Little Calimshan. Its proprietor, Ibiz, slathers his blotchy face in heavy, pale makeup. The effect is disturbing rather than pleasing to the eye. If you would please deliver this to your superior, I would be most grateful. Typically, Guild guards protect the premises. At this time, however, because Ibiz recently insulted Nine-Fin gers, the muscle and many regulars are staying away. Only a half-dozen old patrons puff listlessly at pipes as they sprawl on cushions beneath dingy curtains draped to hide the ceiling. Vice Den 2: The Low Lantern is another matter. When the chain is raised, nothing bigger than a rowboat can sail into or out of the harbor. Except for drills and maintenance checks, the chain has not been raised for decades.
The last time the chain was raised for defense was to protect against a veritable fleet of Calishite ships. Fishermen and merchants arrived in the evefling warning of a flotilla heading upriver, many of the ships flying Calishite flags. When the ships arrived just after sunset, the chain had been pulled up across the harbor, and ships full of Flaming Fist soldiers floated just beyond it with catapults and flaming arrows at the ready. The ships held no Calishite warriors,just refugees from the war. The Seatower is an impressive architectural work looming over the bay. A foot-long causeway connects the Seatower to shore. No gate or drawbridge along the span exists; its length alone is considered sufficient defense, since attackers would be exposed to archers and missile fire along their entire approach.
The Seatower houses about a hundred Flaming Fist soldiers on a rotating basis, billeting them in levels of the towers not given over to the prison and in the two buildings within the bailey. The underground rooms beneath the armory are a virtual museum of every conflict in which the Flaming Fist has engaged. Everything from elephant barding to snowshoes can be found somewhere in the depths of the armory, all of the items carefully cata logued and regularly maintained. A small section on the first floor is set aside as a gallery. There, the marshal frequently speaks with the officers of current events or plans campaigns.
In addition to meeting areas and private rooms, it holds a collection of books and scrolls in a library that the offi cers can use to study tactics, consult maps, and review contracts. None but the highest-ranking officers knows exactly where the door to the vault can be found and what the secret is to opening it. Three levels of dungeon extend beneath the Seatower. The uppermost dungeon level is divided into small cells that hold one to five prisoners each. The lower levels consist of two large cells apiece. Under normal conditions, no more than twenty-five prison ers are housed together in a large cell. If the situation calls for it, however, up to ten times that many can be crammed cheek by jowl into each of those chambers.
The tower affects nearly every aspect of district life. Many of its residents are Flaming Fist members who prefer the comfort of apartments or family homes ashore to the spartan barracks of the Seatower. The high population of soldiers in the Seatower district has inspired its thick concentration of taverns, festhalls, and gambling parlors. These businesses are clustered along the river, as far from the Old Wall and the trendy streets of Bloomridge as possible. Neither the Watch nor the Flaming Fist patrols these povertystricken districts. Thus, even though crime and open violence are commonplace in the Outer City, people are still able to do business. The Outer City sprawls without rhyme or reason, its muddy streets a tangle of shanties, forges, tanneries, dye works, slaughterhouses, stables, stockyards, paddocks, and dung heaps.
Its layout and architecture are a mess of unregulated construction and styles. Many buildings are made of wood or wattle. On any given day, a passerby could encounter packs of stray dogs, people hawking wares, stable hands fighting over potential customers, braying animals penned near the road, flocks of chickens and geese, beg gars raising their hands and mumbling in unknown tongues, and a riot of pungent scents. Patriars who need to run this gauntlet do so inside closed and curtained car riages filled with fresh-cut flowers or perfumed cushions. Other visitors carry a handkerchiefdipped in rosewater or a cut citrus fruit shipped in from Calimshan. Folk who live in the Outer City just get used to it. People live in shifts and sleep when they can, so their filthy sur roundings are always bustling. For instance, although Hulthar the swordmaker might be unavailable at a particular time of day or night, several of her competi tors will be open for business then.
The most successful tradespeople have Lower City shops to which they bring their goods; the rest end up selling their wares in the Wide. Despite the reduced costs of operating in the Outer City, merchants still take their best wares inside the walls, leaving the poorest districts to serve as mar ketplaces for substandard, defective, or stolen goods. The beasts most often seen in the city are cats, both domesticated and feral ones. This ban on large animals means that Outer City establishments are responsible for receiving caravans, unloading goods into xvarehouses for later portage into the city, and stabling horses and beasts of burden. In addition, flocks of sheep and goats and herds of horses, pigs. and cattle available for purchase are penned in paddocks along the Trade Way. This policy of noninvolvement has earned the city a not-quite-deserved reputation for tolerance and has made it a magnet for refugees looking to escape wars and other disasters.
In fact, the Calishite immigrant population has built a walled-in village in the tradi tional Calishite style. Baldurians took to calling it Little Calimshan, and the residents eventually adopted the name for themselves. Similar but smaller communities dot the Outer City, giving immigrants of different sorts pockets of their homeland in which to rest their heads and weary souls. Many Outer City businesses and residents pay pro tection money to the Guild. In return, these cooperative establishments and people are marked with a special sign as offlimits to would-be burglars or vandals, and the Guild makes an effort to hunt down anyone who flouts its decrees. Pleading ignorance earns offenders nothing. Tenements, taverns, and shops heap up on both sides of these stone spans. The fort leaves both drawbridges lowered until dusk, unless an enormous merchant ship in need of quick passage pays a hefty fee to have the northern drawbridge raised.
A stone-lined tunnel, replete with arrow-slits, port cullises. and murder holes, passes through the fort. Before travelers can enter it, they must pay a toll. Folk on foot pay 2 cp apiece, and people traveling with a cart or wagon pay 1 sp. For 1 gp, an individual can buy a writ of passage that allows an unlimited number of crossings for a month. To decrease the chance of fraud, both a court official and the purchaser must sign the document at the time of purchase so the writ holder can be identified. The scent of cinnamon and the sounds of exotic, reeded instruments often slip over its encircling walls and draw the curious toward adventure and mystery. Little Calimshan is an exception. Its brick-and-plaster. mm aret-topped walls, measuring 15 feet high and 3 to 5 feet thick at the ridge, clearly mark its extent.
People move along the wall tops as though they were streets, which they effectively have become. Little Calimshan is built in the Calishite style, meaning it is organized as a sabban district , com posed of multiple drudachs neighborhoods. Each drudach is walled off, creating compartmentalized hamlets within the district. From atop the walls, it is rel atively easy to spot an intended destination and choose a path to reach it. Calishite buildings and drudach walls are typically composed of plastercovered brick. Someone familiar with drudach architectural styles would know that Little Calimshan looks ramshackle when compared to Calimshan proper. Individual drudachs are fairly uniform in their contents, if not their layouts. Most contain at least one religious area, such as a shrine, temple. or other holy site; a place for refreshment, usually a well or fountain but sometimes a tavern, inn, or festhall; a bazaar or a tent market; a handful of service buildings.
Spending time as an amlakkhan has become a de facto path to Guild membership. The center of a drudach is either its most affluent site or an open courtyard featuring a well or tempo rary market. Finally, a drudach always contains the abode of its druzir, or leader. And the Calishites keep to themselves, treating their domain like a for tress and rarely entering the city proper. Hustled through the city and taxed for the privi lege of being kicked out in the middle of the night, the refugees found their way to the only place that wel comed them: a long-standing Calishite caravanserai on the outskirts of the city. With every last copper of the wealth the travelers had brought, they paid the inflated prices of the guilds to construct their homes, building up from the cara vanserai as has been Calishite custom for generations.
They reside behind the walls still, and few non-Calishites are welcome. The people of Little Calirnshan stand out amid other Baldurians because most continue to wear the fashions of the south regardless of the local weather. Speaking their own breathy tongue, Alzhedo, is a point of pride, although nearly all of them can communi cate in Common and Chondathan well enough to be understood. This commercial route started with the fortuitous sale of a few things the traders just happened to have, but now caravans are bringing such goods in as much bulk as they can manage. Such a structure sometimes pulls its neigh bors down with it. Anyone trapped inside a falling building cannot expect any aid. The Fist requires that all buildings on the bridge be constructed from light timber or wattle and daub, lest one of the spans collapses under the weight of the structures it holds.
However, the trade-off is that fire is a constant concern. The best time to make this passage is at night, when both drawbridges are raised, but ship captains in a hurry can request daytime passage. This special ser vice requires paying a fee to the Flaming Fist, which the mercenary company splits with the city. For captains seeking to meet a deadline for a high-capacity trade mission, the inconvenience is often worth it. Arrowslits dot its foot-thick granite walls, promising a stiff challenge to anyone foolhardy enough to assauh the structure from the water. The fortress occupies most of the islet, leaving only the narrowest shelf between its sheer walls and a plunge into the river below. spotting its tiny jetty, which is set below a long, steep, and exposed set of stairs, is a challenge at a distance. The tunnel dominates the forts first floor and is one long gauntlet of murder holes and arrow-slits.
Guests on their fi way to the second floor are warned to watch their step, lest they break an ankle stepping into a murder hole. This warning is just entertainment for bored guards; all the murder holes are kept covered under normal circumstances to prevent such accidents and to keep travelers from dropping trash through them. A shooting gallery encircles each level of barracks. Typ ically, between twenty-five and fifty mercenaries are present here. It holds L I. The dungeons have a holding area for prison ers that use wall-attached manacles. The only reason someone might be held in this location would be in the case of a riot or fire making travel across the bridge too dangerous.
Dis guised patriar sympathizers were captured as they tried to leave the city. The mist lingers until the sun rises high, keeping the Lower City shrouded long after the Upper City has cleared. First light finds the Upper City almost in silence. Only a few black-clad Watch patrols sidle along the streets, moving as soundlessly as drifting ghosts. Kitchens in the grand homes have been bustling through the night. Servants use hand pumps to draw water from cisterns in cellars and on roofs, heat it using coal or wood hauled in the previous day, and then pump the heated water into bath and kitchen basins. Downspouts and underground drainpipes, rarely large enough to be thought of as sewers, drain away used water. They hold their carts, covered trays, and cloak-bundled warm foods, and they wear carry sacks and folding stools slung on harnesses. These merchants and assistants have been awake for hours, preparing and loading their wares in the Lower City.
They stay gloomy until the sun climbs high enough to lance over the bluff and shine down into the steep-sided crescent of crammed-together, motley buildings that descend to the tall and narrow dockside warehouses, which the mists surrender last of all. As merchants set up their stalls in the Wide, ser vants of the wealthy mingle among them to purchase the choicest products and freshest food. These servants shop in the Wide throughout the morning. Their mas ters rise late and rarely emerge out of doors before highsun, when their working days begin—if they work, that is. Entrepreneurs among them wake early and dine on sideboard meals of hot, smoked flaked fish or eels and fresh-baked nut buns slathered in flavored butter. Then they set out to see to their investments and make deals, often in Lower City trad ing houses or small upscale taverns, where outsiders come to negotiate.
In the afternoon, the late-rising patriars leave their homes to shop, make business deals, and inspect new wares or hear proposals. The leisurely lives of the wealthy take place in the eye of a storm. Around the patriars, servants bustle continually. By dawn, kitchen fires have been burning for hours. In the Lower City, shops and cafes open their doors for business while other Baldurians begin their daily routines. The city clogs with people climbing and descending the steep streets. In the harbor, the docks never sleep, but daylight brings with it increased ship traffic and movement of goods between ships, ware houses, shops, and the Wide. Just as merchants wait for dawn to enter the Wide, peddlers, travelers, and day laborers pack the north ern road outside Black Dragon Gate, awaiting entry into the Upper City. Most merchants traveling the Trade Way or the Coast Way use the city as the end point of their jour neys, unloading goods and picking up new cargo for their return treks.
They leave their horses or mules in Blackgate or the Outer City, have their goods hauled through town, and pick up new animals on the other side. By the time the land routes into the city are opened at dawn, business in the port has been roaring for hours. Patriars living their lives of leisure, however, do dine at midday, drinking cordials, or watered-down wine or fruit brandy, and nibbling on handtarts. These small pas tries have either sweet or savory fillings. Baldurians who have time to spare typically frequent cafes and relax with a cup of tea or coffee and a bit of sweet bread. City happenings reach a frantic peak just before dusk.
Bakers who first threw open their shutters to sell steaming pork buns or dusky rolls the latter are filled with chicken, turkey, or game bird, such as pigeon to fellow Lower City folk in the foredawn are preparing to close up shop. Their runners bring the last deliveries of rolls and loaves to cafes, inns, and taverns as bakers wrap up leftover merchandise to sell at discounted rates the next day. Patriars dine again near dusk. Then they either go out to feasts or revels or engage in leisure pursuits, such as reading, acting, listening to music, gaming, and wooing. If the latter, Watch soldiers later escort sober visitors home while drunken ones typi cally sleep over. Drunkenness and debauchery, considered scandalous at other times and occasions, are perfectly acceptable at such fetes.
In contrast, strict etiquette prevails at patriar feasts, which involve political conversations, business proposals, metaphysical discussions, and entertainments featuring bards, musicians, or actors. Sunset sees the closing of most shops. Stiff drinks, large bowls of hearty stew, bread and apples, and fried fish are staples in such establishments. Echoes of soft footfalls and the sharper, heavier sounds ofbarrels and crates being unloaded or doors slammed rebound eerily in the night. They seem to come from everywhere, including the barely seen night sky above, where a few bright stars wink through the mist. And always, the soft scurrying of countless rats can be heard. It gets quieter than by day and a trifle more private, in part because the bustle of shipping and shopping in the streets dies down, but primarily due to the fog.
Through this damp world of muffled smells and hampered vision, Baldurians move cautiously, often resorting to lanterns and traveling in groups. The Watch and the Flaming Fist patrol heavily, and many folk are out on the streets, some engaging in legitimate business and others in illicit pursuits. Some residents of strategically located buildings, such as those on sharp bends along the steepest Lower City streets, along narrow alleys, or near city gates, make a living from such fees. The betrayer instantly becomes ineli gible for guild or coster membership, unacceptable as a signatory to any contract, and unworthy of receiv ing hurl in the future. So, those who violate this code must leave no survivors and be seen by no one who can identify them.
Anyone seen wearing a mask who is not patron izing a festhall or attending an Upper City revel arouses instant suspicion. On a typical night, when the Lower City is shrouded in fog, the mists are lighter in the Outer City and lighter still in the Upper City, where moonlight makes the thin fog glow milky white, outlining the figures of moving or standing people within feet or more. Watch-escorted apprentice wizards make rounds to recast any failed or dispelled light spells. ensuring that the Upper City is always well lit and Watch patrols can see anyone they encounter out of doors.
Usually, locked chains control the angle of the booni. so the lamp can be lowered for refilling and raised to various heights to light specific spots. Most of the oil used in such lamps comes from fish or whales and is both smoky and reeking. The waters of the harbor and the river are apt to be as busy as the docks by night. Large shipping ves sels rarely arrive to moor in the hours after sunset, but rowboats take sailors to and from ships anchored in open water, and fishing vessels set out downriver in hopes of reaching the sea before dawn to make a good catch and return by dawn the following day.
It could be a tavern, an eatery, or a festhall. Such groups often engage in low-stakes gam bling over cards or dice. A lot of informal face-to-face business, whether outside the law or legal, goes on in these places. Day laborers dominate the traffic of the first half of any night when they visit such places to get their main meal of the day, indulge in gossip or flirtations, and look for someone to hire them for the day to follow. As the night wears on, lowlier Baldurians who rise in the evening to work the dark hours arrive for their break fast. The din of their indoor work can be heard for the latter half of every night in the Outer City, but laws limit noisy dark-hours labor in the Lower City and ban it altogether in the Upper City. Other individuals gather for meetings and meals throughout the night— hard drinkers, criminals of all sorts, the dejected, and anyone looking for a dry spot on a wet or cold night end up being the last patrons of any place of business still open in the hours between midnight and dawn.
Timid shop keepers and those who have the most valuable and vulnerable wares—notably jewelry, perishables, and weapons—close at sunset, typically clearing their shops aided by loaded crossbows or Flaming Fist assistance, if suspicious individuals seem unwilling to leave. They lock their doors, chain the handles of any double doors together, shoot bolts, and drop stout wooden or metal bars into place inside cradles, thus barring cross hinges and door frames as well as doors. Windows, which rarely contain glass except in the Upper City, are covered with stout, swinging shutters and then barred on the inside in the same way as the doors.
In the most dangerous areas of the Outer City, grates of welded bars are then affixed into place inside the windows. By evening, the Upper City is at its social height indoors. The streets are deserted except for frequent Watch patrols and the occasional patriar entourage trav eling from house to house with livened servants and a respectful Watch escort. Anyone who shouts while out in the Upper City at night is likely to be clubbed silent by the Watch for failing to pipe down when ordered to do so. Of course, if the boisterous one is a patriar, that worthy will be hustled indoors instead. This ability affords them the opportunity to rest for only a few hours at night and still get up in the predawn darkness to prepare for the next day.
Others retreat to their homes and apartments, often sleeping in crowded rooms occupied by an extended family, multiple fami lies, or multiple renters. Those who have no bed for the night will seek out any dry spot where Flaming Fist patrols are unlikely to notice them. As the night wears on, different Baldiirians rise in their separate but linked cycles of waking, working, playing, and resting, and the whole machine of a living city runs on for another day. It controls the mouth of the River Chionthar, which the heartland kingdoms of Cormyr and Sembia depend on to quickly and reli ably reach Waterdeep and Amn. Baldurians have done very well hosteling. resupplying, and taxing such trav elers and traders. Had any histories been written, they would have told of dastardly pirates, daring smugglers, and heroic farmers struggling to survive while fending off barbaric orcs and raiders. The great city that the Gate has become was made possible through the philan thropy of its namesake, Balduran.
When Balduran returned from Anchorome, he freely and equitably gave away his wealth, request ing only that a portion of it be used to construct a great wall to protect his hometown, then called Gray Harbor. the great explorer was not one to drop anchor for long, and he set sail on a second voyage to Anchorome from which he never returned. The hamlet of Gray Harbor swelled as people flocked to its safety. The harborage was good, and the site proved an excellent crossroads for trade between the North. South, and central Heartlands. Wealth flowed in with the people. New buildings were erected until the city spilled over its wall and spread down the steep, crescent-shaped hill toward the harbor below. Those left out side the wall, including sailors, peasants, and crafters, supported the growing city.
Tax Revolt As the influx of outsiders grew, Old Town began taxing all the goods and people that passed between the harbor and the town. The conflict played out in the court of war. Sailors, pirates, and hardy Heapsiders battled farmers and merchants. The latter group would have crumpled immediately if not for the wall, a fact that later led to the formation of the Watch. The first dukes became known as the Council of Four and served life time terms in which they discussed city affairs and made decisions jointly. When one died, a citywide vote elected a new duke.
Although the issue of taxation was put to rest for a while, the dukes came to see its necessity, especially when raids on the growing Heapside community necessitated the construction of additional protec tive walls. Fighters eagerly enlisted, expanding the fledg ling group to almost two thousand members. In one ofhis first acts as duke, Eltan quickly put Flaming Fist soldiers on police duty, making the unpatrolled Lower City his top priority. He used a portion of the taxes the dukes collected to pay the mercenaries. Other than tripling in size to its current member ship of nearly six thousand, the mercenary company has not changed much since its early years. The Lord of Murder is in darkness, but he waits only for two vic tims—the last victims—to reclaim his throne of blood. Bhaalspawn and the Iron Throne During the Time of Troubles, when Ao the overgod forced the gods to walk among their mortal fol lowers, Bhaal foresaw his own death.
So the god of assassins enacted a plan to escape his doom. After adopting mortal form, Bhaal mated with many females throughout Toni. The offspring were gifted with unusual powers and unnaturally long lives and were behaviorally inclined toward violence and murder. Such feelings xvere particularly strong when the spawn were around each other, as Bhaal had envisioned. Sarevok, the adopted son of an Iron Throne leader and one of the Bhaalspawn, took over the organization and sought to assassinate the dukes. Wars and other cataclys mic events left the city unscathed, and its reputation as a safe harbor in the storm of the times drew many to it. They succeeding in kill ing two dukes and nearly slew Grand Duke Dillard Portyr. But the Flaming Fist and the Watch banded together to save the young duke and drive Valarken and the surviving lycanthropes out of the city. Of course, until the new dukes were elected, the new Parliament of Peers would help carry the burden of decision-making and maintaining the rule of law.
The patriars also suggested to the young leader that he should serve in the role of grand duke, in effect relegating the other three dukes to advisory roles unless all of them united to oppose him. New dukes were chosen to once more fill out the Council of Four, but the Parliament of Peers has yet to relinquish its extraordinary powers. The last census indicated a staggering pop ulation, even without accounting for the people living in the outlying villages and miles of farmland that spread beyond the city. Many Baldurians make their liv ings as sailors; shipwrights; harborhands, who unload river boats and stow goods in sea galleons; merchants, who outfit trade vessels and their crews; bankers, who ftind trade missions; and accessory servicers, who supply the suppliers, including the farmers, woodcarv ers, coopers, brewers, millers, and smiths that are part of urban life.
The influx of immigrants to the Gate has greatly augmented the traditional Baldurian lifestyle. Visitors can now hear traditional Halruaan drinking songs in the taverns, taste spicy Calimshan food at a fullbucket eatery, and purchase a water clock as good as any crafted in Neverwinter. At the same time, the rush of exciting, enjoy able new ideas has also brought with it cultures and practices that many Baldurians find distasteful or frightening. This reaction led to the founding of Little Calimshan, a neighborhood literally walled off from its neighbors. The Outer City also hosts the district of Twin Songs, a sprawl of tiny temples and shrines, where sites dedicated to dark entities such as Loviatar, Hoar, and Beshaba stand unchallenged. Meanwhile, the huge sprawl that is the Outer City, which includes the long string of settlements running north and south on the Trade Way, goes tinpoliced since the Parliament of Peers and the Council of Four will not provide the funds to expand either the Flaming Fist or the Watch.
Bolstered by new tactics, ideas, and victims on which to prey, the Guild now reaches its tendrils into every Gate enterprise, lowly and vaunted alike. The rich are tempted to sin, and the righteous dare not leave their homes for fear of robbery and harm. After no more than a tenday, during which candidates would make speeches on city streets and at various guildballs and manors, votes were tallied in polling stations. The four dukes, holding lifetime posts, would then debate proposed new laws, vote on them, and issue, or not, decrees based on majority opinion. Today, the government looks much different. Those in the Parliament of Peers would say it is more effec tive and efficient. Composed of the heirs of the first peers, Parliament meets most afternoons in the High Hall to oversee the business of governance and justice. Each member of the Council of Four has one vote. Duke Abdel Adrian, on the other hand, is a frequent dissenter. Various patriars and Upper City barristers also retain backup copies.
In practice, the legal code gives the most rights and protections to the patriars and Watch. All other citizens receive far less deference. Thus, any Fist soldier can be charged and arrested for civil crimes, such as breach of contract. Meanwhile, the code grants Watch and Flaming Fist sol diers the authority to mete out immediate punishment, up to and including execution, to criminals caught in the act. However, soldiers avoid doing so when patriars or politically connected individuals are the ones nabbed. Anyone caught in the commission ofa lesser crime can expect swift punish ment without a trial. Thievery or violence typically earns a public maiming, such as a whipping or the loss of a finger. Breach of contract earns forced labor, such as working as a rower or for a guild. Which duke or peer depends on the clout of the accused and his or her enemies. The accused can speak in his or her own defense or have someone else do so.
Although professional barristers operate in the city, only the wealthiest citizens can afford to hire them. defeated Sarevok. As such, he takes great pains with his appearance to present a proud example for others to follow. The duke fasts for long stretches and exercises daily, giving him a gaunt but fit phy sique. His black hair has grayed at the temples, and he wears a well-trimmed salt-and-pepper beard. The high artificer resides in the traditional Silvershield estate in the southwestern corner of the Manorborn district with Evelyn, his wife; their two daughters, Skie 11 and Alana; arid their son, Entar III. Torlin Silvershield believes that his nobility and birth right give him a divine obligation to rule with justice. So Silvershield never appears in public without displaying excellently crafted High House ofWonders items and jewelry.
Additionally, the Silvershield estate is adorned in fine art and technological marvels. He sees no hypocrisy in this outlook. To Silvershield, the ends always justify the means. He is fearless and clear-headed in a crisis, and he is always thinking at least three steps ahead. In recent months, Silvershield has grown increas ingly grim and unscrupulous in his scheming. He knows the Guild has wormed its way into every aspect of city life, arranging matters for its profit and daily convenience. Silvershield appreciates the Watch but resists turning its full force against the Guild, because he believes that doing so would only drive the Guild to strike at innocent civilians in retaliation.
Instead, he believes it is time to fight fire with fire. He is on the lookout for suitable adventurers to hire to battle the Guild. Such a group, provided with covert aid from the dukes and an understanding that, if necessary, the courts would find in their favor, could accomplish far more than the Watch or the Flaming Fist. Duke Belynne Stelmane Once a vigorous and formidable politician, Belynne Stelmane recently suffered a seizure and a long period of unconsciousness, after which she awoke a changed woman. Half of her handsome face is paralyzed now, and an uncertain gait and a constant tremor in her left arm have replaced her once legendary grace. Even though she continues to perform her ducal duties and jealously guards her privileges, her thinking seems slow, and her words come even more slowly. She has managed to hold onto that posi tion because, in the privacy of her home, she remains a skilled negotiator when it comes to commerce and continues to effectively influence city businesses and acquire more wealth and property.
The duke is conservative and unimaginative in all matters except for trade strategies and financial maneuvers. She has made few pronouncements or controversial court judgments since her illness. Due to her wealth and business connections, most Gate power players consider her a valuable ally or a pawn rather than a target. She is indeed a pawn. Since she awakened, her mind has been a constant battleground between her own psyche and the illithid—except when she conducts business on behalf of the Knights of the Shield. Nor has she found a way to break its grip on her sufficiently to signal for aid. She has learned that the more she attempts to exercise her will, the less capable she appears to others, a perception that ultimately threaten her status. So, behind her distant expression and stuttering words, the duke is ever watchful for something that might break the stalemate with the evil entity inside her.
Grand Duke Dillard Portyr Dillard Portyr is a short, portly man in his sixties. His once black hair is now gray and sparse, and he wears a shabby wig out of habit rather than vanity. A vet eran investor, shipping-fleet owner, and trader, Portyr recently pulled back from the business world follow ing a string of sour deals. Now he is using his time to enjoy the comforts that his wealth and title have pro vided him. Having outlived two wives and three sons, Duke Portyr now lives quietly in a relatively unassum ing manor in the Temples district that a handful of devoted servants maintain. In social situations, the grand duke is likable and enter taining, spending much of his energy to make sure others feel good and are having fun.
As a leader, Grand Duke Portyr is a weathercock, turning whichever way the wind blows. He is known for listening with concern, showing an earnest desire to help, making promises to look into things—and then doing nothing, if doing something would mean facing conflict. The wizard Gorion raised Adrian in Candlekeep, but Adrian, a child of Bhaal, was swept up in a series of deadly events orchestrated by his half-siblings, the Bhaalspawn. Afterward, Adrian fought countless battles against people seeking to use his Bhaalspawn blood for nefarious purposes. Following his adventuring days, Adrian lived for a time in contemplation in Candlekeep. Lower City citizens respected his courage and dashing ways, and Outer City residents loved him for his charitable works. He originally tried to turn down his ducal nomination, but public acclaim was too strong, and the military leader reluctantly accepted the post.
Adrian is more than a century old, and his divine heritage has kept him well preserved. He appears to be in his sixties, and his body retains the strength of youth. At nearly 7 feet in height, Adrian towers over most Baldurians. Black hair frames his unrelenting eyes and slightly wizened face. Unlike other dukes, he wears comfortable, plain garments and shuns jewelry. The only time he dresses as a state official is for parades. Adrian rarely speaks at council meetings. But when he does, his voice for moderation carries tremendous weight. He sometimes seems grim and lost in thoughts, perhaps of days past, but the Flaming Fist marshal and Council of Four duke is also known to break out in great guffaws when the occasion arises. OFFICERS OF THE CITY The Council of Four appoints deputies to oversee important city functions.
These five officers in turn employ all the civic bureaucrats, negotiate with the guilds for labor, and oversee the needs of the city. The current titles of these deputies, which speak to their responsibilities, are Harbormaster; High Constable and Master of Walls; Master of Drains and Underways; Master of Cobbles; and Purse Master. Shortly thereafter, at the next Council of Four meeting, Adrian recommended Namorran to fill the open position of harbormaster. He belongs to one of the poorest patriar fami lies and hopes to parlay a good record as master of cobbles into a Parliament of Peers seat. Purse Master Haxilion Trood Haxilion Trood is a world-weary, jaded, cynical, sarcastic-to-the-point-of-cruelty, sour-faced, and sourthinking man. He never forgets a face or a detail, and his reputation for rudeness is born from his blunt, hon est-to-the-core observations. The dukes unanimously appointed Trood as purse master. Purse Master Trood manages tax and toll collection and records; investment of city funds; and distribution of pay to all city offices and officials, including the Watch.
The purse master is also respon sible for ensuring that the Flaming Fist takes no more than its proper share of the taxes it collects. Unsurprisingly, the purse master wields incred ible power, is hated by many, and is under constant scrutiny for signs of graft and Guild influence. A dozen or so powerful Lower City representatives, including guild leaders and other wealthy individuals, are also peers. Only the least successful patriar families do not have at least one member among the peers. So far, parliamentary seats have been mostly hereditary. By unanimous decree, the peers have created and filled a few additional seats. City law does not address how to fill these seats, so the peers do as they like. Parliament officially meets every day. Attendance is not mandatory, though, so only about twenty or thirty peers show up unless a session is scheduled on important political or monetary concerns.
Although the Council of Four officially controls the city, the Par liament of Peers first discusses and then recommends a course of action for virtually every city decision. In other words, every topic from toll rates to Flaming Fist contracts is argued on the floor of the parliament chamber in the High Hall. Two important members of parliament who are not from patriar families are described here. Coran The elf-adventurer-turned-upstanding-citizen known as Coran, formerly a bold fighter and thief, currently occupies himself as a merchant and an information broker, and is well known as an infamous celebrity at patriar revels. Coran relishes being in the know and playing the sardonic, world-wise observer. He appears at all the choicest fetes with wineglass in hand and a dazzling young companion on his arm. He typically wears bright and gaudy garments, elegant jewelry, and exotic costumes.
Coran is now too old—or, more to the point, too closely monitored by the Watch and Fist—to take part in daring robberies, but he still craves excitement. Coran makes and takes bets on the outcomes of lawless activities, and he covertly invests in goods that he knows will experience nearterm shortages. These wagers and schemes provide him with the income to support his pampered lifestyle. The former adventurer enjoys playing puppet master just as much as, if not more than, he delighted in executing his own escapades. Now he serves as the witty voice of experience, dispensing advice and point ing the clueless toward clues, the stumped toward solutions, and the in-over-their-heads toward local experts. Coran always knows where someone can obtain a sleep poison, a love potion, an impersonator, or a kidnapper. What some call manipulation, he calls guidance. Everything he does is geared toward his own amusement and profit.
Imbralym Skoond This greedy, amoral, young wizard is graceful, charm ing, and darkly handsome. He was a dancing master in Athkatla until he discovered his aptitude for the magical arts and began dreaming about the immense wealth that a successful wizard could amass. With the first earnings he received from Silver shield, Imbralym bought the leaky, drafty Seskergates mansion in the Bloomridge district. Most reside in grand Upper City manors that their families have lived in for generations. All such homes have beautifully maintained facades, even if a floundering family must strip its insides bare. No one among the gossipy patriars is fooled, but they all believe that keeping up appearances is a civic duty. Virtually all patri ars are compulsive bettors. They wager on races, such as those featuring snakes or weasels; fighting, includ ing arm wrestling, full-body wrestling, and matches between animals; and duels. Two types of duels are legal, buff-pole and bluntsword contests.
In the former, youths joust without saddles or reins, using blunted and padded buff-poles. In the latter, adults use blunted swords to score hits against their opponents while dueling in a small, bare room or enclosure. The victor is the opponent who scores the most hits. The duel begins when an unlit lantern filled with fireflies is opened and ends when the last firefly exits the lantern. Below are descriptions of two patriar families from opposite ends of the Upper City social spectrum. He has ties to the peers, the Flaming Fist, and the Guild, but has the respect of none of them. Most patriars snub the Dlusker family because they were prominent support ers of Duke Valarken before the attempted coup. He is deeply in debt; his meager income derives from sheep folds beyond the city, a Lower City textile mill, and a handful of Outer City slaughterhouses.
But about fifty years ago, a rotting disease struck the trees. Wvllyck, then a young, talented alchemist, searched for a cure. He never found it, but the disease ran its course, and the orchards recovered. Fortuitously, during his research, Wyllyck discovered a wood-treatment method that safeguards timber from water better than any paint or polish. The Caldwells are well regarded citywide. Wyllyck and Abelea are proud of their charitable works and Lower City business investments. They donate gener ously to the High House of Wonders, the Watchful Shield, the Shrine of the Suffering, and the Church of Last Hope. In leisure times, he prefers to read in his study or discuss alchemy with colleagues at tables in the Wide. OTHER PATRIAR FAMILIES Below are the names of and a few details about many of the other patriar families in the city.
Belt owns horses for sale and exchange to travelers on the Trade Way. Bormul is related to the Bormul nobility in Amn and has interests in southern silver mines and vineyards. Durinbold is related to Waterdeep nobility and owns large sheep herds. Eltan has an ancestral link to the grand duke who formed the Flaming Fist but sold its interests in the mercenary company to pay debts. Guthmere owns butchery and tannery facilities. Hlath owns several cafes and is awash in gambling debts. Hullhollyn owns a merchant fleet and has a trade truce with the Irlentree family. Jannath owns tin and copper mines. Jhasso is part owner of the struggling Seven Suns Trading Coster, a long-standing trade organization.
Linnacker collects income from gem mines in Tethyr. Nurthammas invests in businesses involved in supplying ships for long voyages. Oathoon imports wine and spirits. Provoss is nearly destitute after losses to its cattle herds. Ravenshade trades in gems and jewelry. Redlocks has secretly financed piracy and smuggling for a long time. Rillyn invests shrewdly and frequently hires Guild legbreak ers to collect debts. Tillerturn is related to one of the first four grand dukes and owns and leases out many buildings in the city. Vammas controls the majority of trade from Chult. Vanthampur specializes in civic engineering under the pur view of family matriarch Thalamra Vanthampur, the master of drains and underways.
Whitburn owns the slate quarry east of the city. Most of the police work in the Lower City is con ducted by the Flaming Fist, and the Outer City is left to fend for itself. The Watch is limited to civil police work, which means it has no jurisdiction outside the city. In wartime, its soldiers are prohibited from fight ing outside the city and its immediate environs. At dusk, the Watch evicts everyone from the Upper City except its residents and their invitation-carrying guests and livened servants. Watch soldiers, many of whom are lifelong Upper City residents, pride them selves on recognizing every Upper City citizen on sight. They also know every detail of how true patriars talk and behave, so they can often identify nighttime interlopers by watching suspects for a few minutes, getting a good look at their faces and garb, and asking a few questions.
Its small, elite corps of knights responds quickly in times ofcrisis. The Watch has nine military ranks. In ascending authority, they are shield private , sarniar sergeant , vigilar lieutenant , sword captain , havilar major , commandal colonel , highsword major general , and oversar general. Six officers hold the rank of highsword, and two hold the rank of oversar. An oversar is always on duty and reports directly to the grand duke or the rest of the Council of Four if the grand duke is unavailable. A street patrol is composed of four to eight soldiers. Every Watch member carries a brass whistle with which to call for help if needed and the near est guard detachment is never very far away. In times ofcrisis, bells at the High Hall and the Citadel are rung simultaneously. If the pealing contin ues for more than fifteen minutes—the time it should take a force to assemble at the Citadel and march to..
The bells are rung only in emergencies that threaten the entire Upper City, such as an invading army, a city wide fire, or any scenario that threatens to overwhelm the soldiers on duty. The Citadel has its own water supply and is amply provi sioned to withstand a months-long siege. They are seldom used now, and only for the purpose of housing suspects awaiting trial in the High Hall or sequestering patriars or their servants when such imprisonment must remain quiet. All other prisoners are locked up in the Seatower of Balduran. Vigilar Lenta Moore Lenta Moore serves as a Watch vigilar.
She has a reputation as a deadly swordswoman who has killed in the line of duty. On her shift, she oversees the inspection of all handcarts and cargoes that pass into the city through the Black Dragon Gate. Utterly incorruptible, she arrests anyone, regardless of social status, who offers or accepts a bribe within her earshot. Duke Silvershield demoted her from the rank of sword after her harsh treatment of a young patriar in this regard. All four dukes can dismiss, recruit, promote, or demote Watch members. Nine-Fingers, the leader of the Guild, has on numerous occasions considered eliminating Vigilar Moore to make the Black Dragon Gate a friend lier place for Guild operations. The Flaming Fist has prospered as the guardians of the city. While the Watch polices the Upper City. the Flam ing Fist watches over the Lower City. Of that number, fewer than half are in the city at any time. The rest are stationed in fortifications elsewhere or are out on active campaign.
Many people believe this stance is a ridiculous fiction, pointing out that the highest-ranking Flaming Fist officer is usually also a duke on the Council of Four, and that patriars earn profits from their mercenary-contract investments. But most Baldurian commoners view the separation of army and government with pride, and much ceremony is made when the city renews its con tract with the Flaming Fist. Fortifications The Flaming Fist builds or acquires fortifications in the theaters of war in which its soldiers operate. After a conflict, unless long-term economic or political rea Sons exist to maintain such outposts, the Flaming Fist abandons them to local control once its mercenaries have fulfilled their contracts. This trading outpost in Chult has fallen twice to Chultan attacks, claiming numerous lives and loss of capital each time.
The great granite edifice of the Seatower stands atop a rocky islet in the harbor, and a causeway links it to the western shore. The Flaming Fist uses the Seatower as a bar racks, a naval base, a prison, and a fortress. The structure occupies the entire island, leaving nowhere for an enemy to gain a foothold on the rock. Being in charge of both fortifications means that the Flaming Fist can control river traffic beading in either direction. Thus far, the company has not used its position to tax ships on the Chionthar that bypass the city. Since virtually all ships make a stop in the city, such measures have been unnecessary.
Members Most Flaming Fist soldiers were raised in the Lower and Outer cities and were invited by a ranking offi cer to join the mercenary company. Others were once prisoners of war. The Flaming Fist holds no grudges, and defeated soldiers whose vanquished masters are unlikely to pay ransom for them often see the ben efit ofjoining the mercenaries. Beyond basic qualities of competence and physi cal hardiness, prospective Flaming Fist members must show a capacity for strong loyalty and stronger morals. Discipline is important in a field soldier, but training can instill that. Otherwise, race, gender, and age matter little.
Only six ranks are recognized, including fist private , gauntlet corporal , manip sergeant , flame lieuten ant , blaze major , and marshal general. Ranks often have an attached title that describes a duty, such as fist sapper. The Fist does not house most of its soldiers. The Seatower district has many inns that cater to the large number of Flaming Fist soldiers residing in the area. Blaze Ulder Ravengard Blaze Ulder Ravengard is the incarnation of milita rism. The only beauty he appreciates is precision, and the only quality he values is utility.
He believes that personal ornamentation other than military insignia is a waste. A meticulous man, he forgets nothing and forgives less. Ravengard has never married and has no interest in domestic matters. Everything abotit him is geared toward prac ticality. Someone might consider him handsome, if not for his constant scowl and many scars. They do respect his leadership, however, and pay for it with their obedience, which is exactly how Ravengard prefers things. Ravengard is the fourth son of a lowborn Lower City smith. His discipline and meticulous nature helped Raven gard prove himself in battle and when handling day-to-day details for Adrian. Naturally stolid and terse, Ravengard is slow to speak and make decisions in any arena except the battlefield.
Once he decides on a course of action, Ravengard is relentless in its pursuit. Therefore, he is determined to ground the Guild into dust. Ravengard believes that the criminal organization is waging a war against Baldurians, and he is determined to win it for them. Exchequer Favil Blanthe It would shock many Baldurians to learn that Favil Blanthe is a member of the Flaming Fist, mainly because he lacks the disciplined, law-and-order aura that defines most of the mercenaries. BlaHthe is a pudgy man in his sixties who is widely believed to be too fond of dwarven brews. Much about Blanthe remains secret. Then a disagreement put Lahar on the outs. Desperate to avoid a knife in the dark, he disappeared. No one suspected that Lahar had adopted a disguise, changed his name, and signed on with the Flaming Fist. No one in the Fist con nected the murders and disappearances to Blanthe, and at the end of this time no one in the Guild who had known Lahar remained alive.
Blanthe sees his escape from the Guild to a new life with the Fist as a sign. He worships Torm now and regrets having lived the life he left behind. He understands the frustration that drove him to the Guild and realizes that feeling is probably what sends many young folk into its grip today. Thus, he is one of only a few Fist officers who have any sympathy for Guild operatives. The metaphor is true in a larger sense as well. Thus, it serves the densely populated city by keeping illicit activities quiet. Governing the Guild The Guild is a syndicate of loose-knit groups under the authority of local kingpins.
A web of favors, duties, debts, intimidation, patronage, and gratitude hold the network together. The different gangs and kingpins compete, usually bloodlessly, for influence and terri tory. Nine-Fingers discourages arson, flagrant murder, and other indiscriminate actions that would anger or kill bystanders or upset the general populace. Even though the Guild has only a few players in its tipper echelons, operations in each district have a strict hierarchy. In ascending order of status, the ranks of the Guild include clients, assets, footpads, enforcers, opera tors, and kingpins. A foul-up at any level can lead to or death for the responsible party. Clients: People indebted to the Guild are termed clients. In the Upper and Lower cities, clients are typi cally folk whom the Guild is blackmailing or who owe money or favors to Guild members.
In contrast, the entire Outer City depends heavily on the Guild as a governing force, since the area lacks formal law enforcement. An Outer City resident who has a com plaint against a neighbor—a charge of theft, fraud, or assault, for example—must confront that neighbor directly, because no police or courts are available to aid him or her. In that situation, if the accused is stron ger than the victim, the accused wins. And no one can prevent that neighbor from robbing, beating. or defrauding others at will. But instead of simply putting up with things, a victim can approach the local Guild kingpin and ask for assistance. If the kingpin chooses to intervene, the victim might receive some sort of compensation from the Guild to offset losses. More likely, the accused will be beaten, have fingers broken, or wake up chained to a millstone—all of which are designed to encourage the accused to make his or her own reparations. In exchange for this favor, the original victim—the client—now owes a favor to the kingpin, which the area crime boss can call in at any time.
The client might be required to cater a party, hide contraband or house a wanted criminal, give up part ownership of his or her business, or arrange for a family member to be wed to a Guild enforcer. This same structure of favors operates within the Guild, too. Members seldom work for pay. Most assets are informants, such as harborhands, beggars, festhall workers, and laborers, who are paid to keep their eyes and ears open and report anything that might interest their handlers. This group includes cor rupt city officials, Parliament of Peers members, and Flaming Fist and Watch soldiers. Assets are indispensable to the Guild, but they get little respect from inside the organization. The Guild prefers for outsiders to remain in the dark, because bulging purses easily sway their loyalty. Footpads: Cutpurses, con artists, alley thugs, book ies, and the like rank as footpads. But footpads serve an important purpose. Their constant thrum of low-level activity keeps the Flaming Fist and the Watch focused on petty street crime instead of on racketeering and smuggling, which are how the Guild makes its real profits.
Fist and Watch crackdowns cause high turnover among footpads, which serves to weed out the careless and the stupid. Operators: The Guild calls on its operators when it needs mastery or finesse. or when the Guild needs to negotiate with a shrewd merchant. Because of their intelligence and skills, operators usually fill vacancies caused by retiring or expired kingpins. More often than not, ambitious operators use assassinations or bloodless coups to hurry those above them into retirement. Kingpins compete with each other for prey and territory in subtle ways, avoiding bloodshed when possible. They work hard to always be in the know in their districts, and they succeed most of the time. Guildmaster: The guildmaster heads the cabal. He or she ties the kingpins together and addresses city wide problems.
Many Baldurians, including low-level Guild members, are not convinced that a guildmaster really exists. The kingpins know the truth, however. The figure known as Nine-Fingers is currently guildmaster because through favors per formed and owed, debts, and blackmail, she has personally broken and tamed most of the Parliament of Peers members, scores of Watch and Fist officers, and more merchants than all the kingpins combined. When she does, that kingpin owes her a favor, and the system continues. Shopkeepers who fork over this fee also purchase Guild-guaranteed protection. When someone claims to have had a bad tenday of profit, enforcers check in with their informants to con firm how many customers entered the place ofbusiness since their last visit.
Enforcers rarely make allowances for anyone. Holding out on the Guild might not cost in the short term, but it almost always turns out badly in the long run. The Outer City alone has nine districts, and each has a dozen or so collection points. Protection is a lucrative racket. Gambling: Contests and games of chance are ram pant in the Outer City, but making a decent profit off gambling in those districts requires grinding through thousands of low-coin bets. Races and boxing or wrestling matches are hugely popular, as are dice games, spin ning wheels, stick drops, card games, and guessing or bluffing games between professional teams. Near the pier, underwater ropes are hooked to the nets. Neither plain nor beautiful, Nine-Fingers is completely indistinctive. Her forgettable looks, far from being a drawback, were a great asset during her years as a thief Nine-Fingers has a knack for avoiding attention.
She drifts into and out of rooms, unregarded until she speaks. The guildmaster never forgets a face or a name, and she is a shrewd judge of people. Few people know her given name. When Astele Keene was five years old, a one-eyed elfkidnapped her, sliced offthe little finger of her left hand, and sent the digit to her parents along with an exorbitant ransom demand. Years later, when she was a rising Guild operator, she found her kidnap per in a pipe den, where he was feeding his sable Nine-Fingers Keene moonflower addiction. Nine-Fingers blinded his remaining eye and cut off all but the little fingers on both of his hands. She then bought the pipe den and instructed its proprietor to make sure the elf always has enough food, drink, and smoke to stay alive and maintain his addiction.
Nine-Fingers is now patient and calculating; the passion of her youth has faded. A meticulous planner, Nine-Fingers anticipates treachery. She pits trouble some Guild members against each other to blunt any internal threats while simultaneously discouraging open bloodshed. The six women—two wizards and four accomplished warrior-rogues—are utterly devoted to Nine-Fingers, and she lavishly rewards their loyalty. She prefers anonymity, so her bodyguards accompany her invisibly, sometimes in disguise and sometimes at a distance. When Nine-Fingers speaks with a kingpin, a patriar, or an underworld figure, she often appears to be alone, but she almost never is.
It polices its own activities to minimize interference from the Flaming Fist and the Watch, and Guild enforcers keep unsanctioned crime to a minimum. Nine-Fingers has invested her substantial wealth or the portion of it left over every month after she pays off politicians, patriars, judges, and officers in numerous legitimate businesses. In a city full of spies and informants, her intelligence network is unequaled. Nine-Fingers can guarantee a majority of votes in the Parliament of Peers on any subject, including the selection of a new duke. Her tools against the patriars include coercion, manipulation, graft, and the threat of exposing their secrets, both true and false. The last thing Nine-Fingers wants is open confrontation with the Fist or the patriars, which would mean blood in the streets.
Rilsa Rael When Rilsa Rael joined the Guild, she had nowhere else to turn. The Flaming Fist had hanged her father for harboring her uncle when the mercenaries were after him. Her loyalty, ruthlessness, and inventiveness in dis creetly solving problems fueled her rise. Rilsa RaeI Rael learned how to exploit others from Nine-Fingers, but she does not use intermediaries and scapegoats to insulate herself from her affairs as NineFingers does. Instead, she takes a personal hand in most matters. She even holds a public audience at her headquarters in the Calim Jewel Emporium to hear the complaints of Outer City residents.
She thinks the Flaming Fist is cruel and uncaring, and the patri ars are hypocritical and self-serving. The three-inch-long spike has a wide, square head, the gleam of which Fruward keeps hidden under a hand kerchief he wears beneath his battered hat. Fruward came by his strange injury due to a dis agreement with members of the Builders Guild. He was held down, ham mered in the head, splashed with ale, and then laid on his face among his tools so that his death could be called an accident. Later that night, the young Nine-Fingers entered the dry dock to hide from a pursuing Flaming Fist patrol that had spotted her climbing out of a window. She happened upon Fruward lying facedown and heard him struggling to breathe. She turned him over to find him miraculously alive despite the nail in his head—and then Fruward awoke while his head was cradled in her hands.
Disoriented but enraged, Fruward leaped forward, incoherently screaming accusations. A battle ensued, and Fruward escaped with his life only due to the aid of the one who would later become master of the Guild. But Nine-Fin gers helped him again. She set him up with a place to live and provided him what he needed to keep going until he came to terms with his new life—as a secret member of the Guild. The Nail is unflinchingly loyal to Nine-Fingers and carries out her commands without comment. He acts as a buffer for Nine-Fingers, arranging things when she would prefer that her name or the Guild not be directly involved. Few in the Guild recognize Fruward after meeting him unless he reveals the nail in his forehead to them.
Despite their close association for several years, Fruward and Nine-Fingers now rarely meet. Some of those shrines, such as the Watchful Shield, have stood for centuries, and others have arrived on the backs of refugees in recent years. Individuals looking for magical services, such as cures or potions, must visit one of the three power ful temple houses within the city. But for those who can pay only with prayer, the Twin Songs district hosts many priests who aspire to increase their followings so they might ascend to grander places of worship. Gond Duke Torlin Silvershield is high artificer of the High House of Wonders and leader of the Gondar. Even though Silvershield has his hand in everything, the temple verger, Andar Beech, manages its day-to-day affairs. When civil unrest disrupts work, Beech, Silvershield, and the rest of the Gondar step up. Beech is a devout servant of Gond who thinks that many Outer City residents reject the joyful yoke of labor in favor of sinful sloth.
The slender verger believes that many patriars are every bit as parasitic as the Guild, since they con tribute nothing while resting on the laurels of their assiduous ancestors. Its central marble statuary depicts the stern of a life-sized sailing ship, sculpted to appear as if the vessel is sinking. Water spews from holes in its hull, and other streams regularly lash its deck. Beyond the fountain, the temple crouches on the edge of the pier. Only the waveservants have seen these ancient tunnels. When someone rings the temple door bell, two waveservants answer. One takes any offering inside, while the other delivers a short prayer beside the supplicant. Then the remaining priestess goes inside and shuts the doors once again. Allandra Grey holds the title of Flood Tide in the temple, leading roughly a score of priestesses and following in the traditions of her mother and grand mother.
The temple gains most of its clergy from among widowed females whose husbands were lost at sea or young girls orphaned by water-related trag edies. This practice strikes some observers as odd, but the priestesses who can sympathize from simi lar experience are glad to take in, feed, and clothe individuals who are suddenly rendered homeless. Grey does not promote this traditional practice; nor does she seek to prevent it. When civil disorder or enemy attacks endanger Gray Harbor, Flood Tide Grey and her waveservants side with whichever faction promises to best protect sailors and anglers. Then they mobilize to save the lives of those folk, ignoring threats to ships and cargo.
Rather than participate, they impartially judge races, wrestling matches, cock fights, and other contests of chance and skill. The priests work in various gambling halls and gaming establishments and run contests at city festi vals. Boisterous to a fault, Thrune can be found wherever betting is fast and furious, egging on gamblers with shouts and hearty backslapping. Major Shrines The Upper and Lower cities both contain shrines to particular deities. Unlike the temples, the shrines are single-room buildings or open structures with out doors. Ilmater: The shrine to Ilmater, the god of mar tyrs and patient endurance, stands in a small, quiet square in Heapside. The Shrine of the Suffering is an unremarkable stone structure.
The structure stands on the entrance to a series of crypts. For a small donation, anyone can have a dead friend or loved one interred in the vaults, where corpses fester in the dark and feed the hundreds of sewer rats that enter through wall chinks. It might seem an ignoble end, but for many impoverished residents, the shrine offers the only kind of holy-ground burial they can afford. Even after ten years, Brother Hodges acutely feels the loss of his beloved wife, but he bears it well with the aid of his younglings, Hansen and Sissa, who are not yet old enough to marry.
The community treasures all three. Whenever discord takes over the streets, Brother Hodges does his best to help anyone in need. If cir cumstances in the Outer City worsen, the priest petitions the dukes, the peers, and the Flaming Fist to be merciful in their judgments and actions. An arch of rose-hued stone, it stands on a plinth several steps above the street. By long tradition, no structures are built east of the shrine, so nothing but the city wall and the fog stands between the Rose Portal and the first rays of the rising sun. Like the High House of Wonders and the Hall of Wonders, its pavilion is made of white marble, but its arched roof is a vibrant red outlined in gold leaf.
A wide reflecting pool rests in a deep basin under its roof, and a podium for speeches projects slightly into the water. Loremaster Most High Brevek Faenor, a man in his late forties, officially oversees the shrine. For some time now, he has been lax in his duties, allowing use of the shrine to secular performers and anyone who has news to spread. Oghma is the god of knowledge, inspi ration, and ideas, and the shrine was built to be a place to share such things. Mean while, Faenor keeps his ear to the ground as he awaits another chance to gain the highest seat in the High House of Wonders. Helm: In the past, Watch members, Flaming Fist soldiers, bodyguards, caravan guards, and anyone who felt the weight of a duty to protect people or things often frequented the Watchful Shield, a shrine to Helm.
Since the death of the God of Guardians, however, the small chapel and its porch-like, watch-post wings have stood empty as a form of monument to a god who died doing his duty. Rumors persist that ghosts guard the shrine at night, but the Upper City youths who visit the Watchful Shield in search of adventure typically find an angry Watch soldier instead. In a graffiti-scrawled dead end that never sees full sun, the destitute take solace in the shadow of a wall on which the black disc of Shar is inscribed. A small oak, one of only a handful of trees in the Lower City, struggles skyward from a crack in a low wall; on Greengrass and Highharvestide, folk string it with bread and fruit for birds in honor of Silvanus. The gauntlets of Torm and Helm are carved above each door in the towers of the city walls.
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Represented by Hasbro Europe, 2 Roundwood Aye, Stockley Park, Usbridge, Middlesex, U 1AZ, UK. Printed in the USA. The city gained its current name centuries ago when the great explorer Balduran returned from his journey to the other side of Evermeet, the homeland of the elves, where he searched for the fabled isles ofAnchorome. He spread around wild stories of his adventures as well as huge amounts of wealth, some of which he spent to have a wall constructed around his oft-raided hometown. Balduran left again for Ancho rome and never returned. r tax goods coming to market. They fought, overthrew the enriched traders and herders, and seized control of the city. It burst its original hounds, consum ing Gray Harbor as it grew up and down the bluffs. People and businesses blocked from residing within the walls huddle against them or sprawl along outly ing roads. What once was two communities now feels like three: the privileged Upper City, the hardworking Lower Cit and the lawless Outer City.
Living alongside them in more humble, but nevertheless beautiful and well maintained, houses is an upper class of fmilies that boast proud histories as stewards of the patriars tailors, jewelers, head butlers, master chefs, lead gardeners, and the like and as members of the Watch, a civil police force independent of the Flaming Fist that protects the Upper City. The old road vanishes in the Fields of the Dead, separating into various trails taken by traders and travelers depending on the season and reports of bandits. When travelers come within sight of Dragonspear Castle, it resumes a more regular course. Its narrow, cobbled streets give way to flights of stone steps in particularly steep locations.
Sailing to the city in a seagoing caravel takes about a day. It houses the dirti est and smelliest trades. BLUFFS 5—. Nearly sheer cliffs border the River Chionthar for leagues east and west of the city. Most Gate roofs are made from gray slate that comes from a Fields of the Dead quarry. S -;— —5—.. Its buildings shutters and doors bear vibrant colors and are smartly main tained. Its streets are wide, and its terrain is nearly flat. At night, the magic lamps that hang from ornate arms extending streetward from most buildings keep its avenues well lit. Rain runs off raised roads into drains, rather than pooling or flowing down streets, and sewers carry away waste.
often coming from a proud line of retainers to the nobility; a Watch member, often also a hereditary post; or an affluent business owner. Upper City establishments serve the patriars and other wealthy customers almost exclusively. This part of the city has few inns and no public taverns. Patri ars do their drinking at home, in private clubs, or on overnight soirees into the Lower City. Few doors in the Upper City are open at night, and the streets are devoid of activity except for Watch patrols. Six gates pierce it. The Black Dragon Gate pro tects the northern entrance into the city and is named for the black dragon head a victo rious knight displayed there.
It is still the only gate in the wall segment separating the Upper and Lower cities through which normal traffic and trade is permitted. By law, all buying and selling in the city not completed in a licensed and taxed establishment must be done in the Wide. Sellers at the daily market set up their tables, accoutrements, and wares just after dawn. At dusk, the Watch clears the streets of visitors and vendors. Decorum and order hold sway; street music and noisy activities are prohibited. This rule does not per tain on days when the dukes declare that the Wide be used for civic purposes and traditional market holidays, such as Highharvestide. Most nights, the Wide is an empty space whose perimeter and only that much is illuminated by light from the buildings that ring it.
A patriar sometimes schedules the space for an evening social event, such as a concert, a grand ball, or a wedding. Since then, alterations to let in more natural light and make the space a more com fortable place from which to govern have weakened its status as a fortress. The High Hall is used for pro fessional guild meetings, civic events, court trials, tax counting, real-estate and law record-keeping, and any thing to do with governance, including meetings of the Parliament of Peers and the Council of Four. The long-held tradition of the whole citizenry voting dukes to the four lifetime posts ended after an elect to attempted coup.
Today, a parliament of representatives chosen from among the patriars and the most wealthy and influential Lower City residents elects new dukes. The citadel has only a few jail cells, which the Watch uses to temporarily hold those awaiting a trial in the High Hall or a trans fer to the prison in the Seatower of Balduran. The Upper City is the exclusive domain of the Watch; the Flaming Fist has no jurisdiction here. Watch members all live in the Upper City, and most belong to families that have a proud tra dition of loyalty to the patriars. At night, the Watch evicts everyone from the Upper City except for residents and their guests. All Watch members know every patriar by sight.
Anyone else is detained and politely at first questioned. Passes that the Watch supplies are collected and changed often to foil counterfeiters. Baldurians of all sorts give honor to Gond, and the temple complex to the god oflabor and inventions is the grandest of them all. Hundreds ofrail carts and seventy-six worker-powered, wheeled cranes aid movement ofgoods in the port, and dry docks outfitted with hoists and pumps of Gond dot the quays. The High House ofWonders is a vast structure that serves as the official temple and workshops of Gond. They largely consider themselves the rightful rulers and owners of the Upper City, that being the old city—the true city. Most members of the Parliament of Peers and their families live here.
It boasts ornamental and kitchen gardens as well as a small orchard. In its heyday, it was an ugly, powerful, and functional fortification. Its years as a defensive structure ended long ago, though. Since then, so many modifications have been made to the building in the interest of comfort and beauty that the lines of the original fort are hard to see. The basic structure remains, however. The building encloses a central courtyard, which was once a bailey. Graceful windows now pierce the heavy walls, and soaring spires and leering gargoyles stand in place of the original battlements. The four dukes have sumptu ous offices and private meeting rooms in their own wing. The Parliament of Peers has a dozen small meet ing rooms and one large chamber for whole-body deliberations. Those seats are almost always filled when parliament is in session; on rare occasion, though, parliament clears the house for closed-door debate over matters considered too sensitive or inflam matory for spectators.
The High Hall also contains court chambers where the dukes sit in judgment individually, seldom as a group over accused criminals. The dukes often assign this duty to proxy judges on a rotating basis. Serving as a judge is not light duty. Aside from the aforementioned governmental offices, the High Hall is a place that Baldurians can enjoy. It includes a feasting hall that is used for both public and private banquets and a wing of meeting rooms that are available to everyone on a first-come, first-served basis. The courtyard contains a small public garden that features walkways and benches. Theoretically, anyone is welcome here. In practice, though, hardly anyone except for patriars uses the space. The High Hall houses several small libraries tucked in and about the structure on different levels and in different vings. Laws, contracts, architectural plans, court proceedings, government appointments, accounting documents, tax rolls, census information, land grants, guild charters, and other documents are packed into rows upon rows of shelves and tall scroll cases.
In theory, the libraries are divided by topic of inquiry, but in actuality only the librarians devotees of Oghma who volunteer their time can make much sense of them. In addition to being a place of civic activity, the High Hall also serves as a kind of secular temple. The items inside are things he supposedly owned: a bat tered helmet, tattered pieces of a cloak, a longsword in a cracked leather sheath, a steel shield, and, oddly, a butter knife. Lesser heroes recline in marble upon beds of stone or sit enthroned, bronze upon bronze. gazing toward some unseen horizon with reso lute nobility, their bones dry as twigs in the caskets beneath them.
All dukes have the right to be buried in the mauso leum, and most of those who are entombed on the site lie under the floor, so that anyone who w-alks through the room is stepping over graves. Some graves have collapsed into the dungeons below, a fact detectable from above by the hollow boom of foot steps on particular flagstones. Below-ground catch basins collect rainwater that runs off its roof. Unlike the High Hall above them, they have seen little renovation and no beautification since they were excavated. Under vaulted ceilings supported by thick pillars lie dozens of brick-lined chambers linked by winding, rock-cut passages into a labyrinth that few dare to traverse. A handful of chambers nearest the stairs have been converted into jail cells, but they are seldom used.
Murder In Baldur's Gate - Adventure.pdf,
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It houses the dirti est and smelliest trades. Since the building does not appear to be dangerous as long as no one goes inside it, the dukes have not pressed the issue. Thangol is a male dwarf. The policy is costing people at all levels of soci ety. But for the time being, he chooses not to challenge the Watch on its home turf.
The other two are caught up in the power struggle but are more or less sound of mind. Her body is found in an alley behind Sorcerous Sundries. Their presence, both on and off duty, deters bold crimes. At this time, however, because Ibiz recently insulted Nine-Fin gers, the muscle and many regulars are staying away. This outcome would anger Silvershield and wrongly implicate the nobles in the defacement of the other statues rather than finger an angry populace, which is what Rael wants. The duke murder in baldurs gate pdf download for long stretches and exercises daily, giving him a gaunt but fit phy sique. Jhasso is part owner of the struggling Seven Suns Trading Coster, a long-standing trade organization.
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