In the second session of Dungeons & Dialogue, a monthly RPG language exchange, violence erupts across Baldur’s Gate as the sky above is filled with an everlasting darkness. Six adventurers set out to preserve order in the streets when they stumble upon a conspiracy that threatens the entire city.
In the year 1484, Baldur’s Gate was plunged into perpetual night. In the month of Kythorn, dark clouds began to gather in the skies above the city, and day by day the sky grew darker, until a full tenday had passed. By then, the sun could no longer be seen. The shadow spread like a plague across the countryside. Strangely, the lands beyond were untouched by this supernatural gloom. Elturel in the neighboring state of Elturgard was as bright as ever, illuminated by the mysterious second sun known as the Companion which floated steadfastly above that city.
Unlike the holy and peaceful Elturel guarded by the followers of Torm, the benighted streets of Baldur’s Gate became even more rife with crime and violence. The Upper City where the nobles lived still enjoyed the light of magical streetlamps and other fabulous devices, but the Lower City was comparatively dark, and the Outer City even darker still. And those that breathed in the black and snowy ash that fell from the sky were filled with wrath. Whether it was an effect of that substance, or caused by their frustration at the inequity that was the status quo of their city, it was difficult to know.
In this dire time, many soldiers of the Flaming Fist mercenary company that had guarded the Lower City had left in pursuit of gold and glory in the wars that raged to the North. Though the Flaming Fists had long been charged with the defense of Baldur’s Gate, they were still mercenaries, and many of them had debts to pay and mouths to feed at home. Therefore, only a handful of adventurers remained who could be called upon to quell the riots that allegedly threatened the Basilisk Gate.
These adventurers were Celeste Galanodel, a highborn elf wizard who favored intellect over brawn, and wanted to prove herself a worthy challenger to the senior members of her noble family whom she considered her rivals; Grimm, a dwarf cleric and jeweler whose long hours of working while sitting had led to severe bouts of hemorrhoids; Heath Winters, a halfling monk, woodcutter, and local folk hero whose skill with an axe had brought him to the attention of Flaming Fist recruiters always on the lookout for strong soldiers; Tamaer, a half-elf bard entertainer, who had performed in every venue across Baldur’s Gate with her traveling musical troupe until a recent failed performance in the Upper City caused them to be separated while being chased by angry patrons; and Velan, a high elf fighter and eldritch knight, whose treatise on the art of arcane combat had earned renown among fellow sages of the martial arts.
They were called together by Dragu, a shield dwarf fighter and soldier of the Flaming Fist, who unlike other dwarves had suffered night blindness since childhood. Dragu had tasted the Fruit of Time; and he alone among the six adventurers had seen a world without Baldur’s Gate in an alternate timeline. But now he saw a still stranger reality, as the city skyline vanished from view for those whose eyes could not pierce the darkness.
The Basilisk Gate
The six heroes stood upon the ramparts of the city wall overlooking the Basilisk Gate which separated the Lower City from the Outer City. They looked on at the darkness that engulfed the neighborhood of Stonyeyes, populated by half-orc porters who toiled away day after day in Gray Harbor. Despite their labors, their neighborhood was left to fend for itself in the supernatural darkness and cold that enveloped the Outer City. The Upper City and even parts of the Lower City were still illuminated and warmed by magical enchantments and other devices. But the Outer City had no such recourse against the everlasting night. Even the mundane bonfires that people tried to light were smothered by the falling ash.
Therefore, the residents across the Outer City had gathered at the outermost walls of the Upper and Lower Cities, clamoring for succor in their time of need and beseeching the wealthy elites who had long exploited and benefited from their labor. But their cries went unheeded. To stem the mounting frustrations of the mob that was gathering outside the Basilisk Gate, Tamaer the Bard spoke to them of patience and reason.
“Give us two days, and we will bring you light!” she assured them, though she did not know how she would keep such a promise. Perhaps the crowd knew it to be an empty gesture, because the people’s angry voices did not die down.
“Okay, okay, give us just one day… We will find a way…” said the bard in a final effort to calm the people. But it only seemed to rile them up even more.
Soon, the members of the unruly crowd began to jostle each other. Some of them were still crying out words of protest in unison, but many of the frustrated residents came to blows with their neighbors, forgetting that their mutual adversary sat in the warm and brightly lit chambers beyond these stone walls.
Suddenly, a scream was heard from the back of the crowd.
Someone shouted, “Murder! Someone has been murdered!” Then the frustrated protest had indeed become a riot.
The heroes were dumbfounded, but among them the wizard Celeste had grown impatient. While the others were pleading with the crowd, Celeste had been quietly observing them, trying to pick out any potential instigators that might be riling up the people. She found the culprit hidden amidst a throng of protestors. In her own effort to quell the riot, she cast a spell of sleep upon the instigator. Her target remained unaffected, but the nearest members of the crowd all crumpled to the ground in a catatonic slumber. And that was enough to provide a clear view of the villain.
He was a cloaked figure, wielding a bloody dagger and carrying an amulet with the emblem of a skull surrounded by many droplets of blood. It was the symbol of Bhaal, the God of Murder and one of the Dead Three Gods worshipped by killers and assassins. The heroes could not clearly see the person who had been stabbed by this worshipper of Bhaal, but the body had already been trampled by the mob. And now the startled Bhaalist appeared to be heading toward a manhole in an effort to escape into the sewers beneath the city.
Velan would not let that happen. The eldritch knight pointed toward the villain, and from her finger leapt forth a ray of frost that froze his leg, slowing him just enough to prevent his getaway. Then Grimm the mountain dwarf hurled his friend Heath the halfling in a practiced maneuver, allowing the monk to fall near enough to pummel the evildoer with the broad side of his axe and his fists. Still, the Bhaalist might have escaped had it not been for Tamaer who used her bardic magic to conjure a crown of madness upon his head, rousing his bloodlust which overcame his caution. The Bhaalist wheeled around and struggled with Heath, stabbing at the halfling with his vicious dagger. Seeing the danger that the killer posed, Celeste could not stand idly by. She cast a spell of web around him, which caught him by surprise, even as Heath the monk easily evaded the webs thanks to his small stature.
Heath was ready to deal the knockout blow, hoping to take the criminal alive, whem he was suddenly attacked from behind! A vicious axe flew at him from out of nowhere, slicing his cheek. It might have taken off his head were it not for his keen reflexes and martial training. When he looked behind him, Heath saw a gray-skinned dwarf with a pale white beard, wearing strange armor unlike anything he had ever seen. But atop the city wall, Dragu knew this foe instantly. This was a duergar of the Underdark, the ancient enemy of surface-dwelling dwarves. The gray dwarf had clearly been lying in wait, using an unnatural power of invisibility to hide himself from unwanted eyes.
Overcome by his wrath, Dragu leapt down from the city wall, heedless of pain and danger, and landed hard upon the ground. He charged at the duergar, wielding his battleaxe in two hands, and the duergar met him with his own cruel axe. Steel crashed upon steel as dwarf met duergar on this darkened battlefield, while the halfling and the Bhaalist struggled inside the wizard’s web. But the villains were outmatched and outnumbered by the heroes, and they were soon subdued.
Once the instigators were apprehended, the rest of the mob slowly quieted down and dispersed, at least for the time being. Yet the growing unrest promised to spread unless order could be restored. To learn all they could about this dangerous situation that threatened their city, the heroes took their captives to Velan’s private study in Tumbledown, near Cliffside Cemetery. The elf had acquired a small cabin there, due to the affordability of the land near the public funeral grounds.
Interrogation
Dragu bound the two captives with ropes. The duergar resisted and attempted to escape by using an unusual spell to vanish into the stone floor. The heroes were puzzled at first, but they soon discerned that the duergar was magically hidden inside the stone itself. Dragu tried to remove him by breaking the floor with his axe, but the sudden shock of being shunted out of the stone killed the duergar instantly.
The remaining captive proved to be more cooperative when he learned that these heroes were comrades of Tamaer. The renowned Tamaer herself! This follower of Bhaal was a fan of the bard. He had seen her performing at the Oasis Theater, putting on a wondrous show that had stolen the hearts of the audience. In exchange for an autograph, he began to tell Tamaer and the others a most bizarre tale.
The Cultists of Bhaal and the Followers of Bane, the god of tyranny, were at each other’s throats! Recently, the body of a Banite had been discovered, and the Cult of Bhaal was blamed for the deed. The body was marked with a tattoo of a black gauntlet. This was a traditional if archaic symbol of Bane, suggesting that the victim had been an elder member of the cult, possibly a high ranking officer. Long have the Cults of the Dead Three vied with one another for control of the darker elements of Baldurian society, but they had not fought with one another directly, until now.
The strife between Banites and Bhaalists escalated into violent conflicts that spilled onto the streets. The victim killed by the captured cultist in front of the Basilisk Gate was another Banite. Oddly enough, none of the known Bhaalists themselves claimed the original killing of the Banite elder that had sparked this feud. Yet none of them would say that the culprit was not one of their own. While it was surely in their nature to commit such a deed, it was not in their nature to foreswear it, unless the true killer was known.
Therefore, the violence between the sects continued in a cycle of retributions. While the Upper City was still guarded by the Watch, the Lower City and the Outer City fell victim to the mayhem in the absence of large numbers of the Flaming Fists to guard the streets.
Moreover, the Cult of Bhaal was not alone in its fight. At around the same time as the city fell into darkness, Duergar from the Underdark ascended to the surface, promising to help the followers of Bhaal in their crusade against the Banites and anyone else who stood in their way. The Bhaalists were not as well-connected or well-funded as the powerful and wealthy Banites, so they needed allies. Who were they to refuse help that came unlooked for in their hour of need?
Upon hearing this, Tamaer recalled the stories that she had heard of the Duergar, hiding from the sunlight in their subterranean realms but occasionally invading the surface world when the opportunity presented itself. What better chance to invade Baldur’s Gate than now, when the sun was blotted out by the clouds? However, it was too much of a coincidence that they would have known to emerge at this very hour to exploit the city’s sudden darkness.
The heroes began to wonder… Were these Duergars somehow connected to the darkened sky? If so, were they the instigators or mere participants of a larger conspiracy? Tamaer had also heard tales of Duergar mercenaries who sold their services to the highest bidder.
A clue to answer these questions appeared among the possessions of the dead Duergar in their midst.
The duergar had wielded a magical axe of returning, forged in the Underdark. This was not unexpected, but he also carried a bottle filled with an ever-swirling smoke. It was an eversmoking bottle, and its cork was marked with the emblem of a cog. This was the symbol of the Church of Gond, the god of invention.
Gond commanded a strong presence in Baldur’s Gate. His techsmiths were the purveyors of wondrous devices that lit the streets of the Upper City and facilitated commerce in Gray Harbor. Their mighty cranes loaded and unloaded the trade vessels that docked in the city’s commercial ports.
There were two major temples of Gond in the city. One was the Hall of Wonders, a museum of wondrous artifacts. The other was the High House of Wonders, a laboratory and workshop where magical items were manufactured to order.
The heroes suspected that the eversmoking bottled had come from the latter. Therefore, they tightened the knots that bound the cultist of Bhaal and headed toward the temple workshop in the Upper City.
To get there, they passed through Baldur’s Gate, the namesake of the city which separated the Upper and Lower Cities. Thanks to Celeste’s noble status and Tamaer’s Hat of Disguise, which allowed her to pose as a noble, the guards from the Watch waved them through the gate without so much as glancing at their papers, assuming that the rest of the party were servants of these two wealthy patriars.
The heroes looked behind them at many others who had been denied entry. The laws of the Upper City prohibited commoners from entering except during the hours of sunlight. Now that perpetual night had fallen upon the city, that prohibition lasted indefinitely.
High House of Gond
The party stood before the grand temple of Gond, whose walls were lined with stained glass windows depicting the marvelous creations blessed by the patron deity of invention. The temple itself was surrounded on all sides by tall pillars, and its main entrance was a pair of enormous bronze doors. When the heroes knocked upon the doors, they creaked open and revealed the face of a metal man. It was a magical automaton known as a Gondsman. Behind it was the techsmith that it was bound to. He was busy writing upon a scroll and paid no attention to the adventurers at the entrance.
The heroes tried to ask the techsmith about the potion and where it had come from, but he gave them no heed. Then they tried to ask the Gondsman, but it gave strange mechanical answers which sounded plausible enough until one pondered their meaning. It was almost as if the Gondsman had been trained upon the words of men without grasping their meaning. The techsmith behind him was no more helpful. When questioned once more, he merely asked the adventurers whether they found the Gondsman’s replies to be helpful or not, then wrote their responses on his scroll, as if that was the only thing that mattered.
But after numerous questions and unhelpful answers, the Gondsman let it slip that the potion may indeed have originated from the High House of Wonders, as part of a bulk order for a client. When the techsmith heard this, he appeared startled and immediately began to prompt the Gondsman to not give any more details. That is until Celeste threatened to have him punished for interfering with an official Flaming Fist investigation that was backed by her noble family.
The techsmith could not withstand threats from a patriar. He confessed that the eversmoking bottle was part of a commission, which also included a custom device called an Eversmoking Brazier. This was a large brazier that could conjure endless plumes of dark clouds from the para-elemental dimensions of ash and smoke. Oddly, in addition to the order, the client had insisted on the presence of a priest of Torm to “bless” the brazier. The techsmiths normally had their own priests to bless their creations in the name of Gond, but they also did not question the desires of well-paying clients.
When the heroes asked where the brazier had been delivered to, the techsmith reluctantly pointed toward the sky through a clear portal above one of the stained glass windows. The heroes spotted what appeared to be a skyship hidden between the dark clouds. Only from this particular angle could the vessel be seen. The techsmith revealed that the brazier had been provided to the Cloud Brewery, a skyship that often hosted feasts and drinking parties for wealthy patrons high above the city. The techsmith that had installed it did not ask about its purpose, and would never have imagined that it might darken the skies over Baldur’s Gate for days on end. Such was the hubris of inventors who made things for their own sake, without being mindful of what they might be used for.
Now the heroes knew the cause of the darkness that enveloped their city. But how could they put an end to it? They pushed the techsmith to provide them with a means of aerial transportation, but the best that he could do was point them toward the Hall of Wonders where they might “borrow” a means of traveling into the sky.
Hall of Wonders
At the museum dedicated to Gond, the adventurers were greeted by a tiefling priest wearing the symbol of a cog. At least, they presumed that he was a priest, until he began to speak. He sounded more like a salesman working his way out of debt than a holy man.
“Welcome to the Hall of Wonders, my friends! Can I interest you in a grand tour of our exhibitions? We also have a lovely souvenir shop where you can purchase magical trinkets for all your friends and family.”
Dragu recognized the salesman priest. It was his old friend Astorius the warlock.
“Astorius! Is that you? What are you doing here?” Dragu asked.
“Dragu, my good friend! Alas, I signed yet another bad deal, and now here I am, working for the Temple of Gond. I’m contracted to be a tour guide and salesman for their mechanical menagerie.”
“I thought this was a museum…”
“Ah, but it is! And also a salesroom. Exhibitions don’t pay for themselves. Now, can I interest you in some souvenirs from our gift shop?”
The heroes revealed their true purpose to acquire a means to fly into the dark clouds. Astorius presented them with a small and dingy airship, held together by leather cords and glue. It was perhaps large enough for a dozen crew members. It was in a sorry state, but Astorius assured the party that it was skyworthy. He did not ask why they would want to go up there, only who would sign the contract to rent this contraption.
The tiefling pulled a long scroll from his robes. It did not look like any sort of contract the adventurers had ever seen. When fully unfurled, it was as tall as the person that held it. The fine print was so small that it could barely be discerned, and the parchment had a faint smell of brimstone.
Astorius assured the heroes not to worry about the standard legalese as he handed them a quill to sign one of their names. Tamaer stepped forward and signed her name upon the scroll without hesitation, and the deal was made.
When the party boarded their newly acquired vessel, Celeste manned the magical helm, and the heroes soon ascended into the darkened sky. As they climbed higher, the clouds around them thickened. Strangely, even as their nostrils were filled with ash, their hearts became filled with a growing wrath that they had not felt before. They were angry at the wrongs that had been visited upon their city. Yet it seemed to Grimm the cleric that this was not a natural emotion but was somehow connected to the unnatural clouds that surrounded them.
When the airship was completely enveloped in darkness, Grimm and Velan cast spells of light to illuminate their way. While the darkness was held at bay, the wrath that threatened to consume the heroes’ hearts also seemed to subside.
Cloud Brewery
It was not long before they penetrated the lower layers of clouds and drifted side-by-side with the Cloud Brewery. As the clouds parted, the heroes could see that the deck of the much larger skyship was covered with all manner of beer-brewing machinery. But at the center of the mechanisms, there was a singular device that was wholly out of place. It was an enormous black brazier that was spewing a constant stream of black smoke. This was the Eversmoking Brazier produced by the techsmiths of Gond!
When Celeste steered the airship closer to the Cloud Brewery, Dragu tied a rope around Heath’s waist and hurled the halfling onto the skyship. Heath vanished into the thick black smog and landed deftly upon the deck. He removed the rope and tied his end of the cord to what he thought was a metal pole or pipe among the brewing equipment, though he could not see it clearly through the smoke.
He was startled when the pole began to move! From the thick black smoke, there emerged a man-shaped figure made of metal, much like the Gondsman from the High House of Wonders, only much larger and more sinister-looking. It had a pair of flails ending in spiked iron balls where its hands should have been, and its face was a mask of malice. Under one of its arms, it held a techsmith in a vice grip, nearly strangling him.
The techsmith rasped in a hoarse, choking voice, “My Gondsman is out of control… It knows not what it is doing… Help me… please…”
The Gondsman took notice of Heath and spoke in a mechanical voice, “INTRUDER ALERT… ENGAGING INTRUDER…”
With its free arm, the Gondsman swung its iron flail at Heath, catching him off guard. The halfling monk was wounded. The sound of metal crashing against flesh and bone drew the heroes’ attention. Celeste, analyzing the odds of Heath’s survival, teleported herself onto the skyship and left Tamaer to man the helm. She estimated that the captured techsmith was likely linked to the Gondsman, and therefore cast a spell of sleep upon him, hoping to neutralize both the Gondsman and its operator. But she realized her miscalculation when the techsmith alone fell into a deep slumber, while the Gondsman remained active. Her further calculations were cut short as she was knocked unconscious and flung overboard by the Gondsman’s metal flail. Luckily, she was caught by the heroes aboard the deck of the small airship, and Grimm the cleric swiftly revived her.
Together the heroes, all but Tamaer, leapt across the darkened sky, some landing narrowly upon the deck of the Cloud Brewery. Together, they faced the Gondsman with their axes and spells. Not a few were grievously wounded, and some were knocked back onto their wobbly airship, which Tamaer struggled to control. But they staunched their wounds and leapt back onto the skyship to face the mechanical menace. Yet try as they might, its iron plates withstood their blows, even as it wore down their defenses with its tireless attacks.
In the midst of the melee, the sleeping techsmith was briefly roused. He rasped in a weary voice, “You must kill me. It is the only way… to stop it…”
His voice was full of terror and regret, but there was also a hint of resignation, as though the techsmith recognized that his obsession with his own creation had blinded him to its dangers and ultimately led him to this terrible fate.
Reluctantly, Heath put the techsmith out of his misery in an act of mercy. Then at last, the Gondsman powered down and moved no more. Grimm and Celeste went to the helm of the skyship, where they found the captain, who was a beardless dwarf. He appeared to have been possessed by a magical charm. Together, the cleric and wizard broke the spell that had brought a madness over him. And at last, Dragu brought his axe down upon the Eversmoking Brazier, and Velan completed its destruction with a spell of shatter, bringing an end to the stream of smoke that had darkened the skies.
The heroes aboard the skyship felt the anger slowly vanish from their hearts. For the clouds that had flowed out of the magical brazier were not mere smoke and ash from para-elemental planes, but the wrathful darkness from the pits of the Abyss! In time, the heroes would learn that the mysterious priest who had “blessed” the brazier had in fact cursed it with a fiendish enchantment, turning it into a gateway to the Lower Planes. Who knew what manner of evils had flowed out of that device and invaded the shadows of Baldur’s Gate? And what purpose was served by this act of terror upon the city?
The Aftermath
When he had come to his senses, the captain of the Cloud Brewery revealed that he was Bor Mithrilhammer, a friend of Dragu. He had invited a musical troupe to perform aboard his ship, and as part of their performance, they had brought a techsmith of Gond to install the Eversmoking Brazier, claiming it was a theatrical prop. He guessed that one of the performers had magically charmed him. He sorely regretted the role that he had unwittingly played in their conspiracy, if only due to the damage caused to his brewery in the effort to destroy the brazier.
Little by little, the black clouds over the city began to dissipate in the coming days and weeks, but many questions remained. The airship borrowed from the Hall of Wonders was nowhere to be seen, and Tamaer had vanished along with it. As sunlight began to pierce the fading darkness, the remaining five heroes each returned to their lives, some enjoying the privileges of the Upper City behind its high walls, while others served among the thin ranks of the Flaming Fists still struggling to restore order in the rest of Baldur’s Gate.
They did not know what had become of Tamaer the bard. She alone among them suspected the truth, that agents of Elturel had conspired against Baldur’s Gate for reasons of their own. Furthermore, she now believed that her former friends from her musical troupe had abandoned her and were somehow involved in Elturel’s conspiracy. These insights were granted to her by the fiendish contract made with the tiefling in the Hall of Wonders, and now they led her down a different path from that of her Flaming Fist companions. Perhaps as a consequence of the deal she had signed, the supernatural wrath that had departed from the others still festered inside Tamaer’s heart. She would seek out those who had betrayed her and give them what they deserve.