Act 0 - Prologue
Session Zero
First before anything happened, each party member got a small briefing on the first mission, then each had their own special mini-prologue.
- Briefing: The Fields of the Dead
- Session 0 letters:
The Temple of the Broken Prince
The party had convened outside of the building that had appeared in Mallory Varsk's field; a round, mysterious structure with only one obvious entrance, no windows, and - inside - a sword resting in a slab of solid stone and a sealed door beyond. Investigating the area, finally Grumph drew the sword, which turned out to be a sentient magic sword named Vilus Incarnatus that spoke to him telepathically. Unfortunately, doing this also unsealed the temple, which was in various states of combat and slaughter.
With the aid of an imp named Malvidi, the party got the gist of what had happened. The building had been a temple to a demon called the Broken Prince. A warlock named Felkeen, in service to the devil Titivilus (an Archduke of Dis, the second layer of the Nine Hells) happened across it, and beseeched his patron for the ability to destroy the Broken Prince so that the demon would not gain a foothold on the Prime Material Plane and thus influence the Blood War in their favor. He was granted the sword, and proceeded to slaughter the Broken Prince - then, to keep him from reconstituting in the Abyss, the temple had been frozen in time and buried beneath the earth.
The party found their way to the Broken Prince's resting place, then used Vilus Incarnatus to close the portal; this broke the curse on it, but also drained it of quite a bit of its power. Malvidi dissipated back to the Nine Hells since his mission was complete and his master had been dead for centuries, and the party headed back to Elturel.
The Disappearance
As the party got within a few hours' ride of Elturel, they began hearing thunder from a clear blue sky. Reaching the top of a hill, they saw a concerning sight: the Companion was turning black, as though ink was being poured into it from above, and black lightning was either arching from the Companion to the ground, from the ground to the Companion, or both - it was hard to tell. Finally, as they went into another valley, there was a colossal clap of thunder, and upon reaching the next hill, they realized that the entire city of Elturel was gone, as if scooped from the ground in its entirety.
After questioning some refugees leaving the city (and hearing their story about being saved by a "tiny golden elephant"), they opted to make haste. Riding to the crater for initial investigations, they confirmed their initial suspicions were, unfortunately, correct. The city was gone, and it was not an illusion; the crater exposed openings into the tunnels and sewers underneath the building, but the entirety of the city was gone. They began making their way westward, eventually stopping for the evening at the Companion camp at Fort Morninglord.
Refugee Escort
The party met up with the refugees from the day before at Fort Morninglord:
Accompanying them along the road to Baldur's Gate over the course of the next nine days, where they were heading to seek shelter, they fought off a bandit attack, delivered Alyssa's baby (Lance Yelren Krol), and picked up three additional refugees - Bram Moll, Aldegonda Warmoth, and Katja Ribbens, who appeared to be a pair of Hellriders and a refugee they'd rescued. Unfortunately, a midnight ambush proved that these last three were actually Dead Three cultists, but that scuffle was quickly averted by the party.
Winding their way along the Chionthar River and up the road to Baldur's Gate through the Outer City, the party eventually came to a massive tent city that had formed outside the gates. In the face of the refugee waves, as well as events they weren't aware of yet, Baldur's Gate had closed its gates and people were being forced to wait outside to maybe someday get into the safety of the city.
Entering Baldur's Gate
Seeking a way to enter Baldur's Gate, the party were put in touch with one Flame Zodge, who was evidently the person to talk to if you needed things done. Assessing the party's strength, and having found his way to their caravan and heard their tales of combat, he made the party a deal: let him deputize them as Flaming Fist members to help him with an ongoing case that he didn't have the manpower for, and he would give the refugees that arrived with the party papers to enter the city and secure them lodging at the Elfsong Tavern on the Fist's dime.
Signing the deputization papers he had on him, the party all agreed. Zodge then cut a differently-shaped piece of paper from the corner of each paper - through the seal - and handed that back to the party, ensuring that the piece they held and their matching deputization papers would be the only ones that matched, then brought them and their caravan into the city, beginning the next arc of the story.
Download
You can download a blank copy of the party's deputization form in PDF format.
End of Act 0
Continue to Act 1 - The Vanthampur Investigations.
