Syndra Silvane is ill. Gearing up. The Bath House.

23 Eleint, The Year of Twelve Warnings (1494 DR)
Baldur's Gate, the Sword Coast


The group has learned from Tarina about the followers of the Dead Three, had received their reward from Captain Zodge, and returned to spend the night back at Syndra Silvane's manor as they prepare to investigate the Bath House the next day.

It was a library unlike anything the adventurers had ever seen before.
The group had gathered for morningfeast in one of two dining rooms in the manor. After, Zhang Jun, the manor's only butler ushered them into the library and requested they wait there to receive a message from Syndra Silvane before leaving for the day.
The group was happy to spend the night on comfortable beds rather than stay at any one of the city's inns. Some were certainly better than others and costlier, but a bed in a manor was as comfortable as one could get short of being royalty.
The adventurers had survived a near-deadly fight with a gang of pirates last night. The pirates seemed intent on finding Tarina, or as the pirates' captain called her, Rhonda. A well-placed Grease spell cast by Nicaster at the top of the stairs slowed the pirates enough for the others to effectively attack with blades and arrows. The elven wizard even cast an illusion of a barrel to hide Tarina in during the fight.
Saer Justinian, however, found himself flanked by half the pirates and had nearly died from his wounds had it not been for Aeoland's healing spell.
When the fight was over, five pirates were dead. Captain Cadavrus of the pirate ship, Uncivil Serpent, left the tavern immediately after the last pirate was killed.
After the fight, Tarina told them everything she knew. “Several blocks northwest is a public bathhouse with a walled garden and frolicking nymphs carved into its front gates," she said. "Followers of the Dead Three have been seen coming and going from the bathhouse, and I’m told there’s a secret door inside that leads to a dungeon. That’s where the killers are hiding.”
With the knowledge provided by Tarina, the group went back to collect the money Captain Zodge promised each one of them. They then returned to the manor to rest and recover after deciding to visit the bath house the next day.


When asked whether Mistress Silvane would be meeting them this morning, Zhang Jun was quick to say that Silvane was not feeling well and would not be seeing anyone today.
Nicaster was disappointed to hear that.
Looking around, Syndra Silvane's book collection might easily surpass other libraries, except perhaps Candlekeep, which is known to contain the largest collection of books in all of the Forgotten Realms. However, the room was vast and seemed to take up the manor's entire two-story corner. Tall windows with glass panes reaching nearly twenty feet were set into the two external walls and faced the beautiful gardens that ran along the house’s sides.
Outside, the sky was gray. A steady rain had been falling since the group had finished morningfeast.
Below the windows were reading benches and stuffed chairs. Set into the center of the room and lining every available patch of wall that was not taken up by windows or doors were floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Every shelf was filled to overflowing with books and scrolls.
There must be thousands of them. No, more—ten thousand at least. Nicaster thought. He wondered if any of the books contained arcane spells he could copy. He made a mental note to ask Syndra Silvane someday.
“The central shelves are mostly books on various religions of the Realms, ancient ruins, rare creatures, and the like,” Aeolond said, gesturing. “Those along the back wall are myths and histories of places like Aglarond, Thay, and Halruaa dating back thousands of years. The opposite wall is full of handwritten accounts that, for the most part, seem to be recollections and anecdotes of dealings with journeys and quests. It appears that Syndra Sylvane had spent nearly her entire life traveling to record these testimonies. And at the back are several hundred journals accounting her daily life—her discoveries and defeats.”
Laythin ran his finger along a row of faded spines as he read the titles. “Water Nymph Lifecycle; Animal Skins and Their Magical Application; Dinosaurium: A Practical Guide to the Great Beasts of Chult… these don’t seem very interesting.”
"Here's something more interesting," Glindo said, pointing to a set of thinly bound books set behind a glass case that was set on the floor near the door. "These are chapbooks from Waterdeep. I recognize these. Feuds of the Founders: Old Quarrels and Disputes of Early Waterdeep; Hunting Haurauthadoar: The Slaying of a Great Green Dragon; Lord Malavar's Moustache: A Mirthful Mystery of Old Waterdeep; Moonfall: The Tragic Tale of a Dancer of Waterdeep; That Old Cask: A Drinker's Tales."
"I loved reading chapbooks when I was studying with my mentor," Nicaster said. He moved to stand next to Glindo and peered into the glass case. "Chapbooks are parchment pamphlets, often having only a dozen pages, but sometimes as many as thirty-six. Topics included religious tracts; political rants; smart-mouthed adventurer yarns; lurid romantic tales for hungry male readers; tear-reaping romances for female readers; a small number of useful "hard information" books on spells, herbs, and how-to-do tasks; and a very large number of quirky, opinionated tomes on a bewildering variety of topics."
"You like that stuff?" Glindo asked Nicaster. The halfling shrugged and sighed. "Your life must have been truly boring."
Nicaster smiled.
Zhang Jun returned with a message from Syndra Silvane and handed it to Nicaster.
Nicaster told the others that according to the message, Syndra Silvane has information that points to Duke Thalamra Vanthampur as a co-owner of the bathhouse, although it wasn't publicly known.
"Duke Vanthampur is one of the ruling dukes of Baldur's Gate," Glindo said. "She's responsible for maintaining the city's water utilities and sewer system."
"Who's the other owner?" Saer Justinian asked Nicaster. "Does the message say?"
Nicaster shook his head.
"Then let's go to the bathhouse," Laythin said. "But first, let's visit the armorer and weapons shops. We've got gold coins. We need to improve our gear before going to the bathhouse and facing cultists of the Dead Three."
Everyone agreed with Laythin.

It was almost highsun by the time they reached the bathhouse.
The group stood under a stone arch beneath a walkway to avoid getting soaked by the cold rain.
"What was the name of that dark drink we had for morningfeast?" Glindo asked everyone. "It was good and warmed me all over. And I'd swear it seemed to give me a boost of energy, even it was for but a little while."
"Zhang Jun said it was called coffee," Nicaster said. "He said it's a brewed beverage made from ground Kaeth beans. Apparently Syndra Silvane owns a warehouse full of it in Port Nyanzaru in Chult, a land covered in a jungle forest far south of here."
"I'd like to get my hands on those beans," the halfling added. "I think I could drink coffee every day."
Aeolond, the cleric, put his hand on Glindo's shoulder. "Save your money. That stuff will never become popular as a drink, trust me. Stick to wines and ales, my friend."
They stood within view of the bathhouse's front entrance. Nicaster had sent Orbin, his owl familiar, to perch on a rooftop across the street overlooking the bath house's inner courtyard. Nicaster looked through the eyes of his familiar and told everyone what he saw.
The group then talked amongst themselves about how best to enter the bathhouse without attracting undue attention.
Saer Justinian suddenly noticed a man dressed as an employee from the bathhouse exit the front gate. The human man, or woman for it was hard to tell, crossed the street to get a drink at a wayside tavern called Brews Brothers.
The others watched as the paladin started a conversation with the androgynous man who seemed to be flirting with Saer Justinian.
Moments later, Saer Justinian returned. He said the man, Jobaz, was a masseuse who had revealed that there exists a secret door in a massage room inside the bathhouse. Jobaz also revealed that Mortlock Vanthampur, one of Duke Thalamra Vanthampur's sons, runs the bathhouse. Jobaz thinks there's something "shady going on in the place" as he had put it. It seems he and other employees are told to leave the bathhouse just before midnight. However, Mortlock has often remained to lock up the place.
After hearing this, the group decided to make their way into the bathhouse. They considered posing as customers.
"Don't forget, we have badges given to us by Captain Zodge," Laythin reminded everybody. "We can say we're on official Flaming Fist business."
"We don't need no stinkin' badges," Glindo said, patting his sheathed rapier.
"Let's not kill or hurt anyone we don't have to," Saer Justinian said sternly.

Once inside the bathhouse, they found themselves in a large impressive chamber.
The walls of the twenty-foot-high pillared chamber were adorned with frescoes of bathing royalty. Natural light streamed through stained-glass windows, creating colorful patterns on the tiles of polished blue marble that covered the floor. Three shallow, sunken pools contained scintillating perfume-scented water. White marble benches bearing stacks of dry towels were situated near the pools, each of which came equipped with a pair of brass faucets.
Four customers, both men and women, all naked, sat in two of the three perfume-scented pools.
Glindo stripped and got into one of the pools while the other looked around. Nicaster walked over to a stand next to a potted plant in front of a pool occupied by a lone woman. He looked at her, smiled briefly, then quickly looked away after realizing he had been staring longer than he intended.
"If you have a canvas, you should paint a picture. It'll last longer," she said. She slowly turned around and rested her arms on the edge of the warm pool.
Nicaster took a quick furtive glance at the woman's backside then walked away towards a door the others were all going through.
By the time the wizard walked into the room, everyone was already making their way through a secret door across from where Nicaster entered.

Moments later, the group found themselves standing at the bottom of a set of stone steps leading into a large room flooded with filthy foul-smelling sewage water. Saer Justinian was in the front of the group. He held a lit torch he pulled off a sconce just inside the secret doorway.
"How did we manage to get past the employees?" Nicaster asked from the rear of the group.
"Saer Justinian flashed his badge and that's all it took," Glindo said.
"It seems we did need these stinkin' badges after all," Laythin quipped.
"And stinkin' is exactly what they're going to be," Glindo said, pinching his nostrils. "And the rest of us too! I'm not going in that water. It looks questionable to me."
Nicaster offered to send Orbin to fly ahead. Nicaster said he'll be able to see through the familiar's eyes and tell everyone what he was seeing.
Everyone agreed with Nicaster's plan.
A short time later, Orbin returned to perch on Nicaster's shoulder. The wizard said there were flooded corridors leading away from the room before them. One corridor eventually led to a short flight of steps leading up to a dry passageway. The other flooded corridor led to a small room where Nicaster said he spotted a secret door along the room's back wall.
The group carefully waded into the murky water and made their way to the room with the secret door. Laythin offered to carry Glindo on his shoulders. The halfling offered to carry the lit torch.
Saer Justinian, an aasimar, drew upon his celestial heritage to manifest a halo of golden light above his head for illumination. Aasimars were human-based planetouched, native outsiders that had in their blood some good, otherworldly characteristics. They were often, but not always, descended from celestials and other creatures of pure goodly nature.
The limestone ceilings and walls were braced with wooden beams spaced intermittently throughout the rooms and passages. It was hard to tell how old this part of the sewer was if it was actually part of the city's sewer system at all.
Sewage water came up to almost their waist as the group pressed on. it slowed down their movement. Glindo was thankful he didn't have to walk or, more accurately, swim through the muck.
Gods only know what kind of disease I would catch if any of that fetid water got inside my mouth. Glindo thought.
A short passageway beyond the secret door they found led to another room.
Saer Justinian had led the group since they left the staircase. He had borrowed Nicaster's longbow, unstrung it, and used it to prod the floor beneath the murky water. He was concerned about stepping into an open pit that would have been impossible to see before it was too late.
After a few steps, the paladin raised his gauntleted fist and stopped the group.
Ahead, floating face-down in the middle of the flooded room was the bloated corpse of a shirtless male human. Saer Justinian carefully inspected the corpse and concluded that the man had been stabbed in the back once and had been dead for possibly two days. There was nothing to indicate who the man was or why he would have been left in the room.
The group moved on.
Three wooden beams braced the ceiling of yet another flooded chamber. Nicaster sent Orbin to scout ahead.
Looking through Orbin's eyes, Nicaster saw that the chamber featured a stone altar covered with entrails in the northeast corner. Hanging on the wall above the altar was a three-foot-tall steel mask cast in the form of a frowning human skull. The words “Present your work to the Lord of Murder” were scrawled in blood on the wall underneath behind the altar.
While the group searched the chamber, Saer Justinian carefully waded towards a narrow passage where a tapestry was hanging against a wall. The tapestry was five feet wide and seven feet tall. It depicted a grisly scene of four faceless figures ripping apart a fifth figure, who was screaming. The tapestry looked as though it could be blocking the passageway behind it or covering a secret door.
Saer Justinian gently pushed away one edge of the tapestry to see what was behind it.
Suddenly the paladin started gagging and coughing. His eyes stung and began to water. His vision was blurred but he thought he saw small specks of light yellow spores floating in the air all around him.
He quickly stepped back away from the tapestry. "Everyone, stay back!" Saer Justinian warned out loud. "There's deadly spores on this tapestry!"
Aeolond moved to see if Saer Justinian was alright. He said he was able to close his mouth and move back fast enough to avoid most of the spores that were even now beginning to float down into the water.
"I say we burn the tapestry," Glindo suggested.
Saer Justinian looked to the halfling then looked at the entire room with the altar with its entrails, hanging iron skull, and bloody message on the wall.
He was struck with an idea.

Minutes later, the group stopped and looked at the work they had done. Following the paladin's lead, they had desecrated the entire room, ridding it of any sign of its unholy nature or use.
A soft gentle breeze moved through the room. The cool breeze carried with it the sweet smell of a lush garden of spring flowers.
No one except Aeolond the cleric of the elven god Corellon Larethian and Saer Justinian, a paladin of the Red Knight understood what they were experiencing.
But all felt the effect.
They felt energized like they had been given a divine boost of energy. They all felt like they could push farther into the dark and dismal dungeon and put a stop to the unholy cultists of the Dead Three.
With renewed vigor, they moved on deeper into the unknown, ready to meet whatever lay ahead.
"I feel like I had just drunk a tankard full of coffee," Glindo said, smiling.

Session played on February 12, 2021