Intro, Session 1 (11/25/12), Session 2 (12/2/12)
And so our story begins!
The year is 1484 DR. To copy over what we knew to start with:
Short version: The nation of Amn is
establishing itself as an empire, and has its eyes set on Baldur's gate. The
current conflict centers on a mysterious isle that has risen from the depths
near Baldur's Gate, as it is feared that whoever wins control of the isle wins
the war. Thus far, for better or worse, no one who has gone ashore on the isle has
returned alive. Baldur's gate issues a call for heroes to claim the island,
promising vast riches to whoever can tame the island. You heed the call.
Setting out from Baldur's gate, you sail to the mysterious Isle...
Long version: In the post-spell plague world, society clings to 'points of
light,' those major cities with large standing armies. National borders are
less enforced, and smaller villages are diminishing. It takes great courage to
leave a city's boundaries in this era of upheaval.
3 years before the start of the game, the Nation of Amn on the sword coast
declares its plans to change the world. The official proclamation talks of
lofty goals, from routing monsters to securing borders, from eliminating
bandits to establishing new cities and trade. Most other cities/nation ignore
this bizarre announcement, until Amn begins to act. In less than a year's time,
the armies of Amn reestablish the old borders. But they don't stop there; the
armies push out even farther, attacking the territories of Muranndin, mostly
controlled by Orcs and Ogres.
This begins what is known as the "Amn Expansion." In the following
years, armies that seem to have no end push at the borders in all directions.
To the south, Amn marches to the water, overrunning the lands of Tethyr, Velen,
and Calimshan. To the east, they push as far as the Snowflake Mountains. In the
west, battles continue to dominate the Moonshae Isles. And then there is the
north.
There, Amn forces the surrender of the Candlekeep, one of (if not THE) greatest
center of learning on the continent. They march towards Baldur's Gate, which
has one of the largest populations in the Forgotten Realms. Beyond Baldur's
gate lies Waterdeep, the city of splendors. It is no secret that Amn wishes to
add these two cities to its growing empire, but the advance slows as Baldur's
gate refuses to fall.
Amn falls back, hoping to create a blockade of the city. But the Baldur's gate
navy stays strong, and with support from Waterdeep, supplies continue to flow
into the city. The Amn ships, having a long way to travel to even reach
Baldur's gate and beyond, just can't keep up. And with no port of call for them
to resupply at, the Amn navy can't gain the upper hand. It becomes a stalemate.
3 months before the start of the game, this changes. Near the coast of Baldur's
gate, a mysterious Island has risen from the depths of the ocean overnight.
Those sailing close to it speak of verdant forests, steep cliffs on most sides
of the isle, and a sandy beach perfect for landing at on the isle's southern
face. The odder tales tell of a solitary tower near the center, looming over
the rest of the isle.
Regardless, the natural resources of the isle make it ideal for a port. And being
close to Baldur's gate, it has become a central point in the conflict between
Amn and the city. It is feared that if Amn gains control of the Island, they
can build a naval base to resupply, and wage war on the rest of the sword
coast. Both Baldur's gate and Amn send many ships to the isle, but none who go
ashore ever come back.
The rumors of the island spread. Those who sail past it claim many things of
the new isle. Some claim it is haunted, having seen phantoms around the tower
and hearing the cries of the damned from miles away. Others claim to have seen
ritual fires from atop the tower, with vivid description of demonic creatures
appearing out of thin air. Still others claim it is a remnant of returned
Abier, a fortress ruled by ancient dragons with human slaves galore. Still,
every telling of the tower has one common thread: any island with enough power
to rise from the depths of the ocean overnight is bound to be loaded with
treasures.
No one knows for sure, and that's where you step in. The city of Baldur's gate
sends out a call for heroes and adventurers, offering vast rewards to the party
who can tame this island. Specifically, the reward is listed as access to the
vaults of the lords of the city, where you can take whatever you can carry. And,
perhaps the most tempting of prizes, those who can tame the island will be
instated as the ruling class for the new city to be built there, with official
titles of nobility. No matter your motivation, you have decided to answer the
call, to aid Baldur's Gate in gaining control of the mysterious isle.
The curtain rose on a busy ship’s galley. Phoebe the centaur
and Willowbarrow the pixie were the first to strike up a conversation, which
quickly turned to maximizing their profit. The two ladies agreed that they
would be able to carry far more gold from the vaults and have a greater chance
of survival if they worked together. Meanwhile, a nearby shardmind named Ex
approached Daemos the tiefling and demanded to know whether he was “from the
dark”, which the latter denied. Phoebe and Willowbarrow proceeded to have an
informative discussion with Ex about the extent of dwarven stonecutting ability
and the way in which this relates to shardmind anatomy.
Another adventurer named Morhan expressed his approval of Ex’s
quest to rid the world of “the dark” and revealed himself to be a minotaur
magically disguised as a human. Little Willowbarrow tried to talk to Daemos and
got swatted for her trouble, but she did manage to embarrass him by putting up
a magical shield that completely blocked his attack. The tiefling seemed to be
in no mood to cooperate, but Phoebe sweet-talked him into giving their
tentative alliance a chance. The centaur then had a chat with Brinna the
eladrin about some friends they might have in common while the pixie,
continuing to make friends, dropped a bedpan on someone’s head.
When the boat finally landed on the isle’s pristine beach,
the forty-some hopeful adventurers on board split up onto the many paths
stretching into the trees towards the distant tower. The new party stuck together
through their first decision point and all took the path that looked the least
traveled, the third from the left. It quickly became apparent that the paths
and the flora were not wild or haphazard, but very carefully cultivated and maintained,
probably by many hands. The place was quite beautiful and peaceful until the
sounds of battle broke the silence; over the trees, we spotted streaks of blue
flame shooting up towards the tower.
It was while we watched the ominous fires that the first
jaguar pounced, its mate closing in from the other side. The first cat was
quickly dispatched thanks to the team’s combined magic and power, though
Willowbarrow did get the chance to surprise everyone when she put up one of her
magical barriers to defend Daemos. The other surprise came from Phoebe, who,
reaching into her quiver, drew a magical rod and blasted the second cat,
revealing herself to be a warlock instead of a simple archer.
With the first cat lying dead, it was easy enough to knock
out and tie up the second one so Willowbarrow could use her ability to
communicate with animals to question it. Unfortunately, she never got the
chance to try, thanks to the ominous sounds of yet more giant cats heading our
way. We left the second cat tied to a tree and ran just as the body of the
first cat burst into blue flames that headed straight for the tower.
It wasn’t far to the tower and the massive clearing that
wrapped around the base. A dozen or so other adventurers had managed to reach
the clearing as well, including an eladrin named Immeral and a human who
Willowbarrow immediately recognized as “bedpan boy”. There was no visible
entrance to the tower. Morhan’s direct charge got us nowhere, nor did sending
Willowbarrow and Immeral’s book imp flying up to a window on the back of Phoebe’s
tawny frogmouth. Frustrated, Immeral flung his book imp towards an indentation
on the wall that hinted at a door, and a few lines of text appeared on the bare
stone:
To those who stand
outside this door
Congrats on making it past the shore
You survived the forest and our pets
But you haven’t won entry here just yet
If the way inside you wish to find
You must beat a challenge of the mind
Tell me: what does every man and woman have inside
But to find an expert you must search far and wide
Associated often with scholars and sages
But no book has this in its pages
Research and study will only get you so far
But the adventurer learns it with each new scar
We who live here within this tower
Devout ourselves to this ideal every hour
If you give no answer in a half hours time
Then your lives will be shorter than this rhyme.
So guess fast, but also guess true
As guessing wrong will dearly cost you
To pass this gate, play our game.
Speak aloud the answer’s name!
Someone suggested “wisdom”, but no one was willing to risk
the consequences of guessing wrong. The male party members teamed up to intimidate
Bedpan Joe into submission; once he was a gibbering wreck, Phoebe gently
convinced him that giving the tower the answer was the best way to avoid
trouble, and he complied. A doorway appeared, and we promptly sent him in
first.
The entryway was divided into three paths. We crept down the
left one first and discovered two suspicious heaps of treasure in the otherwise
empty room, one piled with gold and the other with precious jewels. Aiming to
get the most out of the convenient guinea pig, Phoebe told Bedpan Joe that he
could get first pick of the treasure as his reward for being so courageous, and
he happily took his share with no consequences, not even when he tried stepping
outside to see if it would disappear. Still, the rest of us couldn’t quite
bring ourselves to trust the unguarded piles, so we left the rest of the
treasure untouched for the moment and moved on to the right-hand path.
The sound of a roaring fire reached us well before we found
the room. Two girls who both looked young and human were kneeling before a huge
blue flame in another bare room. Willowbarrow, Daemos, and Phoebe approached
the girls when nothing happened and asked them who they were. The girls were
surprised but unconcerned to see visitors and explained that they had served in
the tower for quite a long time, though they couldn’t remember what they’d done
before that. They chatted with us quite happily and claimed that there were
dozens of other members of their order who did the cooking, cleaning, and
gardening on the island.
The girls shared a wealth of information with us quite
easily; we learned that the owner of this tower and the leader of the Order of
New Magic is a woman named Lady Margaret, but that we would not be able to make
her acquaintance until she finished her meeting with a powerful mage known only
as E. They told us that all of the creatures on the island, like the big cats,
were made of the same blue fire that burned in that very room, and, most
importantly, that this was all due to the magic of Mystra, the goddess whose
death sparked the spellplague that ravaged the world only a century ago. Who
are these harmless-looking girls and the woman who leads them? Has the murdered
goddess truly returned, and what might that mean for Faerun and the entire
world? Stay tuned to find out!