Act 1 - The Vanthampur Investigations

← Act 0 - Prologue -- Act 1.5 - Intermission & The Road to Candlekeep →

Initial Investigations

Having agreed to become deputy Fists, the party was clued in by Zodge to the case at hand. Starting about ten days ago - the same day Elturel disappeared and refugees began arriving - someone began murdering refugees, and only refugees, in Baldur's Gate. Each of them was kidnapped, murdered, and then had infernal messages carved down their spine and three symbols branded at the base of their spine. The bodies were then dumped in Insight Park.

Six victims had been found so far:

• Edmao Eduarda
• Wemba Oshrat
• Madhuri Akhila
• Leiv Diomidis
• Aneta Diomidis
• Annika Silverleaf

Zodge gave the party a bag of gold to meet with an informant at the Elfsong Tavern who allegedly had a clue in the investigations, and sent them on their way. Grumph and Nephrite headed to the Elfsong Tavern to meet the informant (Tarina) while Solarys, Yelren, Bryzorwyn, and Flight Risk headed to Insight Park to investigate the scene of the crimes.

Elfsong Tavern

While at the Elfsong Tavern, Nephrite and Grumph heard the tail end of the titular elfsong - a disembodied, beautiful elven female voice mourning a lover lost at sea. After it ended, Alan Alyth, the owner, recognized them as Fists and asked them to help him solve a problem: he had a rather unusual customer in one of the suites upstairs who wanted no contact with anyone, but they were behind on their rent and also their room was starting to smell. Lending them the skeleton key, the two of them agreed to investigate.

Letting themselves into the room, they found it decorated with many undersea trinkets and treasures, especially art, and occupied by Oshalla, a sahuagin priestess who had fled after disagreement with her king over his plan to conquer the land. Realizing she was low on money but could still use magic to move around the city freely, they convinced her that she could easily sell art (which she did herself) to support herself, which was agreeable to her. They collected the current amount of rent and let Alyth know she would not be falling behind again.

As they waited, the elfsong sang a second time, the maximum amount of times it usually sang per night. Soon after, Tarina arrived, and the party provided her with her night's gambling money in exchange for a tip: she let them know that she had seen Dead Three cultist activity around the Poisoned Poseidon in the Brampton docks area. They then left to catch up with the rest of the party at Candulhollow's Mortuarium.

Insight Park

Meanwhile, Torimesh the druid was more than happy to show the rest of the group around the murder scenes at Insight Park. The first body was dumped by the Drawing Tree, which spontaneously showed the party a prophetic image when they arrived:

• A large sword held aloft by an angelic figure.
• The arms of the angelic figure are bound with chains.
• Below the figure is a large tablet or slab of some kind, cracking into two pieces while being consumed by flames.

After investigating the rest of the body dump sites, the party turned up two clues:

• Tanner's fluid on several of the sites, in a large enough quantity that it would have had to be from the bodies.
• A dropped set of entrance papers into Baldur's Gate. The kind you'd need to get inside as a refugee. However, as an expert forger, Flight Risk quickly pegged them as falsified papers.

Having gathered what they could from the park, they quickly moved to canvass the remaining friends or families of victims while they still had daylight to burn. Solarys left his owl familiar, Varen, here to watch for any suspicious activity and to return to him with it on spotting it.

Meeting The Victims' Friends and Families

The party followed up with the following:

• Madhuri Akhila's bunkmates, Sjang and Albaer. All three arrived on a boat coming from Elturel and had been living on the boat until they could find a place to live. They found more false papers, which some people confirmed came from Amrik Vanthampur, and also found that Madhuri's father was a Hellrider.
• Leiv and Aneta Diomidis were recognized by Yelren and Bryzorwyn as fellow Hellriders from a proud Hellrider family; it's said that there has always been a Diomidis in the Hellriders.
• Annika Silverleaf, who was a founding member of the Order of the Companion. Several refugees reported that despite a visible distaste for him, Annika was helping get them papers from Amrik Vanthampur.

Candulhollow Mortuarium

Since several of the bodies had been moved here, this was the final investigative stop for the day. The party turned up more fake papers among the personal effects of the refugees, as well as tanner's fluid on the bodies. As they were preparing to leave for the evening, Solarys received a telepathic message from Varen: cultists had been seen dumping another body in Insight Park, then heading back to the Poisoned Poseidon. After a quick stop in to talk to Zodge to brief them on what they knew, they split into two groups again: Bryzorwyn, Nephrite, and Flight Risk headed to stake out the Poseidon, while Solarys, Yelren, and Grumph went to the Low Lantern, where Amrik Vanthampur holds court.

The Low Lantern

After being angrily squawked at by some crows and securing a drink from the proprietor, the Captain, the Low Lantern team went downstairs to observe Amrik. He seemed to be busy with some paperwork and was only lightly guarded - by a rogue who was pretending to be dozing, as well as, in the shadows behind the couch from which eh was working, a spined devil. Having seen that the Vanthampurs are at the very least in league with devils but not wishing to make a move yet due to political ramifications, the group reunited for a daring midnight raid on the Poseidon.

The Poisoned Poseidon

Under cover of a Grumph-provided fog cloud, most of the party headed straight up the gangway into the Poisoned Poseidon; Flight Risk opted to climb up the front with his claws, while Nephrite jumped onboard from a nearby roof. Clearing the place out, they killed the Dead Three murder squad, interrogated some ordinary tannery workers, and found Remigio's correspondence when they took out of the Master of Souls who ran the place. Unfortunately another victim was already receiving the carving treatment, but hadn't yet been branded. Still, having emptied out the weapon the cult was using to actually perform the murders as well as found some cult accomplices, when they reported in the next day Zodge - and new ally Liara Portyr - agreed this was good progress, and encouraged the party to check into their other lead: a cultist lair under the Frolicking Nymph bathhouse.

Dungeon of the Dead Three

Briefly, the party discussed using disguises to just walk right into the Frolicking Nymph, but eventually decided that the better way in was civil engineering. Using the office of the current Master of Drains and Underways, they managed to find a walled-off tunnel leading into the Dungeon of the Dead Three; Grumph and Nephrite rammed their way into it.

Early on, they found someone had been doing some divination with human entrails -- aren't cultists charming? -- and found six eerie-sounding prophecies...

• When the box is opened in the house of Alaundo, the path forward shall be revealed.
• One of four shall be damned to Hell. One of four shall be struck by a thunderbolt. One of four shall rise.
• The great Sun shall be blackened and the devil legions of Avernus shall conquer Elturel.
• Conflict shall come to the Great Cities of Waterdeep, Athkatla(?), and Iriaebor.
• Volcanic fire shall tremble the peaks of Orsraun.
• The West shall speak the Tears of Selûne, and they shall weep upon the Inner Sea.

Three Dead Three leaders were in residence, working with Mortlock Vanthampur:

• Flennis, Master of Souls (who had a mysterious missive);
• Yignath, the Iron Consul (who also missive of his own);
• and Vaaz, Death's Head of Bhaal (was carrying a letter and some orders to kill Mortlock).

A variety of other traps and dangers awaited, including exploding gas-filled zombies and a number of cultists, who the party mostly cleared out. In the end they saved Mortlock from Vaaz, pumping him for information and some letters.

They also found a number of treasures, including - strangely enough - some that seemed to belong to the Cult of the Dragon.

The most important information, however, was that Thalamra Vanthampur had sent something to an assassin to be used on Duke Portyr at his speech at the Beloved Ranged in the Wide, in favor of a Confraternity for Refugee Relief. Seeing an opportunity to consolidate power and hopefully keep Liara Portyr from becoming Marshal, she clearly was aiming to outright kill him. Tying up Mortlock and leaving him behind the Myrkul door in the Dungeon of the Dead Three, the party moved as fast as they could...

The Portyr Assassination

... but to no avail. As Dillard Portyr climbed the steps of the Beloved Ranger and began delivering his speech, a red arrow streaked out of the crowd, striking him in the chest. He stumbled once, twice, clutched the wound - and then literally exploded, sending the gore-showered crowd into a panic, which was only exacerbated when a small group of imps and nupperibos appeared from the corpse and began causing havoc.

Grumph, Solarys, and Nephrite moved to clean up the devils; while it was fairly effortless, Nephrite suffered from blowback from her sword in the form of minor self-damage as it reminded her it says made to slay demons (its mortal enemies) rather than devils (its own kind) and would not suffer such a use for long if it continued. Grumph also managed to use his soothing nature to put the crowd at ease and stop any potential fear-based riots, possibly saving Alyssa and Lance yet again, since they were in attendance.

Meanwhile, Yelren, Bryzorwyn, and Flight Risk -- after someone managed to spot four shifty-looking Fists of Bane loitering near an entrance to the Undercellar, the den of iniquity underneath The Wide -- swiftly pursued the cultists (and their invisible assassin friend), including Flight Risk managing to use catlike reflexes to land in front of the group, trapping them mostly on the stairs where the party swiftly rendered them dead.

Upon returning to the High Hall and updating Flame Zodge on the news, then in turn carrying that news to Marshal Portyr, the party was given one simple request from Liara: while the Fist would naturally disavow their actions, in return for a hefty reward and safe passage from town until the political uproar dies down, she wants the Vanthampur family wiped out.

Vanthampur Manor

After another friendly, but less useful, visit to Milo Honeywell's office, the party did some surveillance of the Manor (as well as the Low Lantern, where Amrik was absent but Varen got menaced by some crows) and did some preparatory shopping before resting for the evening and arising extremely early to do their work. Entering through the stables at the back corner of the property, the party swiftly dispatched the outdoor guards and framed a horse for their actions before surveilling, and then entering, the mostly-sleeping property (only the cook, and the family's pet tressym, could be seen stirring in the kitchen).

Unfortunately, their cover was blown almost as soon as they entered the second floor and discovered extremely observant guards outside each room. They were swiftly wiped out, as was Thurstwell Vanthampur, who was seemingly the only one in his bedroom even at 5 in the morning; the party recovered the mask that matched the crown from the Dungeon of the Dead Three, as well as an infernal puzzlebox, some mysterious but magical pan pipes, and a fair amount of currency.

After fending off an attack from a helmed horror, freeing two prisoners on the top floor (including one of Milo's employees!), sweeping the rest of the house, and cowing the servants into finding a new job, the party continued on into the basement, where they almost immediately had to fend off a surprise attack by three spined devils.

Beneath Vanthampur Manor

For the first time since their inception, the party decided to try... stealth. Ambushing two guards patrolling outside, they quickly gathered disguises for most of their party -- full length black robes and gold face masks, along with incense burners for disguising the smells of the private sewer system that doubled as a dungeon underneath the Vanthampur Manor, helped most of the party pass themselves off as cultists in order to move around undeterred.

After cleaning up the cultists on patrol, the party proceeded to ambush and then interrupt six more leaving a worship service, followed by the bearded devil running the service and none other than Thalamra Vanthampur herself, followed shortly after by finding and executing Thavius Kreeg, and then freeing a couple prisoners -- including Falaster Fisk, who was working for a professor out of Candlekeep, Sylvira Savikas, who had heard rumblings of cult activity in Baldur's Gate and sent Fisk to look into it, as Savikas' specialty is in study of the Nine Hells; and Satiir Thione-Hhune, an elderly aristocratic lady who had the unfortunate luck of being home along at the time the Shield of the Hidden Lord was pilfered from the Hhune family..

Only one target still eluded them -- Amrik Vanthampur. A short survey and tailing later, Amrik was found to have a private apartment not far from the Low Lantern; clearly packing his goods to get out of town, he was set upon, ambushed, and defenestrated. The party returned to Liara Portyr to let her know of their success, and she gave them several parting gifts and bid them farewell.

← Act 0 - Prologue -- Act 1.5 - Intermission & The Road to Candlekeep →