Session 2: The Uncivil Serpent

General Summary

Being manacled to a dank, cold wall in a Flaming Fist cell is not ideal.
The heroes (and the gnome, Cladamdass) find themselves each chained in their own, personal cell, being beaten by Captain Darmin Zodge and his Sergeant, Oliver Smithson. The Sergeant plays good cop, trying to get the men to admit that they blew up the Low Hall, and killed Liliana Zodge. The Captain takes his grief for his wife out through inflicting pain.
After several days in the cells, Falco Zodge arrives to see his would-be assassins. After introductions, he offers the group a deal: He needs ambitious types like them to help him with a little problem in the harbor. If they agree to help him, he will have the good Captain spare their lives.
The Uncivil Serpent, a pirate ship notorious along the Sword Coast between Baldur's Gate and the Chultan jungles, has attacked a merchant vessel and stolen Zodge's property. He says he was importing food and supplies for some of his tenants in the Little Calimshan neighborhood of the Outer City. He wants his goods back from the pirates, and luckily they have made port at Baldur's Gate's east docks, near the Brampton neighborhood. Falco asks the group to get his cargo back from the pirates, and to scuttle their ship in retribution for his troubles. They agree.
Before leaving the Flaming Fist guardhouse, Captain Darmin Zodge questions them about his wife's death. Logic has overtaken his grief, and he is satisfied that the group was not targeting his beloved Liliana. He has his own mission for the group. The city is in chaos. His men are struggling to keep the peace as refugees from the city of Elturel have swamped the Outer City. Apparently their city has been destroyed in some sort of magical event, and they seek safety and shelter in Baldur's Gate. Rumors are flying in the city, and everyone from rich patriars to the lowest dockhands are convinced that whatever destroyed Elturel will next happen to Baldur's Gate. The Flaming Fist are at their breaking point.
If that wasn't enough, murder has come to the city's streets. Captain Zodge tells the heros that cultists of the Dead Three (the gods Bane, Myrkul, and Bhaal) are taking advantage of the panic to further their vicious adgenda, whatever that may be. He needs information to counter this threat. He tells the group to find an informant, one "Tarina" at the Elfsong Tavern in Eastway. She has worked with him before and might know more about the cultists activity. He gives the group a Flaming Fist medallion to clear any obstacles with Fist patrols, and promises 200 gold coins if they help him.
The group heads to the east docks and locates the Uncivil Serpent. Along the way they encounter a knight on horseback being surrounded by a Flaming Fist patrol and a crowd of interested onlookers. The Fist are trying to enforce a local law against livestock in the city, and trying to confiscate the knight's horse. The group intervenes to help the knight, who they learn is a Hellrider from Elturgard named Elias Garm. The Hellrider confirms the rumored destruction of Elturel, and leaves the group with his thanks.
After spending the day drinking tea and watching the Uncivil Serpent from the safe confines of Jopalin's teahouse, three things are clear: the pirates are refusing to allow Baldurian dock workers onto their ship, Jopaln's special blend tea is damn good, and there is a great, hairy monster on board the Uncivil Serpent! The group is undeterred.
By cover of night and fog, the party silently rows out and boards the Uncivil Serpent, narrowly missing a gang of pirates on their way into the city. They overhear the pirates discussing their aims. They too are looking for Tarina, who they intend to kill for her traitorous ways. Once the pirates leave, the heroes explore the ship.
Several things happen in quick succession: First, they find no evidence of trade goods on the ship. Rather, the hold is filled with hammocks holding sleeping mercenaries. Next, the main ship's cabin holds documents written in the pidgeon language used by Baldur's Gate's infamous Guild (who run the underworld in the city), along with a dead body - apparently the recently deceased pirate captain. Finally, the monster is an axe-weilding behemoth that doesn't like being woken from a sleep! The half-man bull attacks on deck as the ship burns from Huru's firebombs. While fighting the monstrous first mate, the group hears the panicking "cargo" of men trying to escape the fire and smoke in the hold. They speak in another language and do their best to flee the ship.
The man-bull is defeated, the party escape into the city with their documents, and the Uncivil Serpent turns into a mighty, flaming pyre of death before burning to the waterline.
The session ends in Aimir's tenement room, as Belynor and Aimir rummage through stolen ship supplies and Huru deciphers the documents liberated from the pirate ship. The documents prove the Falco Zodge hired the pirates to bring a company of Calishite mercenaries into Baldur's Gate, to cause unrest and drive up anti-immigrant sentiment amongst the locals.

Rewards Granted

Liberated from the Uncivil Serpent:

• A crate of nails.
• A crate of ship repair tools.
• Hull-patching lumber.
• Incriminating documents.

Campaign

Into Avernus

Protagonists

Report Date

20 Apr 2020