Here we go again.
We began this campaign just inside one of the gates of Baldur’s Gate, which is currently sealed to keep anyone from getting in or out due to a massive recent influx of refugees. The three new player characters happened to be nearby when a fight broke out between civilians and guards, only to be followed by a trio of Bhaal cultists attacking random folk. We individually stepped in to help out, swiftly defeated the cultists, and were subsequently deputised by a captain of the guard to become a new team tasked with rooting out and destroying the cult.
And thus, the new party was born. The first member is my new character, Orgonbrand, a naive and overly polite dragonborn cleric of Bahamut who, to give you an idea of his character, gave all his money away to refugees before the campaign even began. Then, we have Drowsufgib, a brash aasimar paladin of Helm whom, from this moment forward, will only ever be referred to as Gib. And finally, we have Sarek, a yuan-ti pureblood sorcerer who is a bit… odd. In the sense that he doesn’t seem to have emotions, only sees people as of use or not of use, and when told he has to wait eight hours until nightfall before he can pass through a gate, literally goes and stands in a nearby corner and waits for eight hours. This is going to be an interesting party, methinks.
Also, an interesting thing to note, we all happen to have chosen subclasses from the most recent bout of Unearthed Arcana articles (as of the time of writing). I am a Twilight Domain Cleric, Sarek is an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, and Gib intends to go with the Oath of Heroism (while also multiclassing into a Hexblade Warlock).
Our investigation first took us to the owner of the city newspaper, via a group of urchins who knew the various in’s and out’s of the city and whom Gib paid off for a good tip (since, it turns out, Sarek also has no money – interesting party indeed). The newsman told us of a string of murder victims being dumped behind a certain tavern, so we followed up on that and eventually got put onto the local corpse cart driver. He, after at first deflecting, put us onto a slaughterhouse in the outer city, outside the walls.
Using the badges we had received when we were deputised, we made our way through the gate that night and into the outer city, where we found the slaughterhouse. We spotted a hooded figure atop the roof, but otherwise it seemed quite empty, so we strode up and knocked on the door. I explained that we had been “-wink wink- sent by Randal -wink-” and the man who answered the door ducked back inside to “get ready”. A few moments later, we were set upon by a trio of hooded bandits.
Each of the bandits struck each of us once, but even those single hits brought us down to five hit points between us. We managed to kill two and knock the third out, but then the man from the roof attacked us. Because he could make two attacks and turn invisible, he managed to knock Gib out twice (after I healed him up the first time) while threatening that we should run before we finally took the hint. I carried Gib out of there and we made our escape, back into the city.
The next day, we returned to the slaughterhouse, but found it abandoned. We investigated and learned from the guards on the gate that four butchers had been let through the previous night, sometime after we were, and then we learned from the urchins that the cart had been dumped in the river and the men had disappeared. We also learned that the corpse cart driver had died of a ‘heart attack’. Without any more leads to go on, we went back to the newsman, who told us of a contact of his in the Guild (the major criminal organisation in the city). We figured following up on that was now our best hope at fighting the ‘butchers’.
The next day, we made our way back out of the city again and went to Little Calimshan, a micro-city outside the walls of Baldur’s Gate. Once we entered, we were beset by the owner of the local theatre, an incredibly ostentatious man who claimed we were exactly what he was looking for. Sarek didn’t bite, but I was intrigued so I followed him as he danced his way back to his theatre, and Gil tagged along.
Sarek went straight to the jewellery store owned by the newsman’s Guild contact, where he was told she would not be back until later that evening. Still with a good six or eight hours until they said she would be back, he simply sat on a couch and began to wait. They eventually offered him tea.
Meanwhile, Gil and I were done in makeup and put up on stage, where we and a third man, a wizard who only knew Prestidigitation and probably had an intelligence of about 6, went through a mock dungeon crawl in the first ever live theatrical dungeon crawl. It ended with us fighting a clockwork dragon operated by the owner, which we barely managed to defeat on account of it blasting us with electricity several times. But the crowd loved it.
After the performance, we were approached by the Guild contact, whom the theatre owner had promised to introduce us to in repayment for us performing for him. She, too, had seemingly enjoyed it. We explained that we had a third party member waiting at her shop – whom she already knew about – and as we began to make our way there, we ended the session.
So, no one died, which is always a bonus, although it did look hairy there for a minute. That fight with the hooded men came disturbingly down to the wire, but otherwise, it was a great first session. Massive props to my DM, because the whole theatre experience was super entertaining, easily the highlight of the session. And I’ve got a good feeling about the party, as well. Sarek’s antics, in particular, are very entertaining – when he’s not making people eyeballs explode – and it’s nice to play a character who is genuinely good for a change, not just begrudgingly good or ambivalent, like my last few characters have been. Not that those aren’t fun to play, it’s just, sometimes a change can be quite refreshing.
But yeah, I’m very keen on seeing where we go and what we get up to next. And if you’re like me, and likewise keen, tune in next week for our next batch of shenanigans in and around Baldur’s Gate.