Baldur's Gate
Even the most hardened adventurers watch their steps in Baldur’s Gate, where lives hold prices in copper and greed proves deadlier than dragon fire. Baldur’s Gate has a reputation for being a rough place, where crime and opportunity walk hand in hand, and where anything can be bought, sold, or seized at swordpoint. If something can be given a price, it’s for sale somewhere in Baldur’s Gate. Drugs and poisons sit on shelves alongside tinctures and remedies. Trade goods from Chult, mechanical wonders from Neverwinter, tomes of magic from Calimshan, and the most believable counterfeits of each can all be found in the city’s stalls.
The Flaming Fist, a mercenary company paid for by the city, protects residents without the barest hint of civil delicacy. The Watch, the guardian force of the wealthy Upper City, exists only to serve the patriars — the city’s detached upper class. Meanwhile, crime flourishes under the control of the Guild, which oversees almost every organized criminal act, from dockside gambling rings to blackmail at patriar garden parties. Either under the Guild’s auspices or in defiance of them, those who cut purses or throats make a decent living in the city, their talents traded as briskly — and often just as openly — as those of any other professional.
For all its shadows and dark dealings, Baldur’s Gate is not without its lights. Some residents earnestly seek to make the city a safer place by banding together to make their own sort of imperfect but effective justice.
This chapter describes the independent city of Baldur’s Gate as things are in 1492 DR.
The original wall ringing the Upper City still stands, and a second defensive wall now rings the Lower City. The Outer City, a collection of hastily made structures and shantytowns, runs along the River Chionthar.
While the Outer City might seem the most lawless, every district of Baldur’s Gate has its own threats. In the Upper City, patriar families and government officials jostle to secure their positions. Many are not above using private agents to acquire blackmail material, sabotage public appearances, or even frame innocents to secure power. The victims of these plots, and officials who want a fair and honest legal system, must resort to hiring their own agents to unearth conspiracies, break out unfairly imprisoned citizens, and obtain evidence the Flaming Fist cannot.
The Upper City’s political intrigues and the Outer City’s violence spills over into the Lower City, the city’s middle ground. Rampant crime, class grudges, foreign threats, and economic pressures leave many Baldurians feeling trapped within their own homes. Flaming Fist patrols react to threats with indiscriminate violence, doing little to make citizens feel safer. As a result, in recent years many citizens have started banding together in crews. These counter-gangs align along professional or neighborhood affiliations, doing their best to protect their territories. While this has given some of the city’s people a way of feeling more in control of their lives, it’s also increased the number of armed citizens on the streets. Whether the Lower City is actually safer after the formation of crews remains an open question.
In the Outer City, all the world washes against the city’s gates. Here crime and poverty are contrasted by wonders from afar and the riches of cultures across Faerûn. The mix of wanderers and refugees remains in constant flux, with communities forming and disbanding on a monthly basis. None can possibly keep track of all the foreign traditions or the dangerous — sometimes outright evil — religious practices observed in the Outer City. As a result, Baldur’s Gate has widely adopted a “do no harm” policy when it comes to faiths and organizations operating in the city. Any group is welcome to operate openly so long as the city’s important citizens aren’t harmed.
Beyond all its dangers, Baldur’s Gate is an adventurer’s city, a place where a sword-for-hire can find a rich patron, join a secret guild, stalk killers for a bounty, or come to the aid of desperate citizens. Good-hearted champions fight against corruption and bring murderers to justice, while less moral mercenaries find a good price for their services. The city offers opportunities as well as the most reliable and ruthless market on the Sword Coast. Information, treasures, secrets, and souls can be bought or sold for the right price.
As a great hero of Baldur’s Gate once said, “Watch your step in the shadows. Watch your back in the light. Win a prize beyond your wildest dreams or disappear into forgotten history. Every day your life is on the line. Every day you could become a legend. Welcome to Baldur’s Gate.”
History
As the city swelled, questions of law and taxation arose. The community’s eldest families — largely those wealthy enough to afford homes within the city walls — came to be known as patriars and grew wary of the influx of strangers settling beyond their walls. The creation of various additional taxes on trade and travel led to violence breaking out between the Upper City — behind the original walls of Gray Harbor — and the Lower City, built on the slopes leading down to the Chionthar River. Patriar houses were ransacked, family heirlooms were lost forever, and heirs were kidnapped, never to be seen again. Gold flowed like blood as families and guilds hired mercenaries to protect them. Only the election of a new group of rulers — known as the dukes and, collectively, as the Council of Four — put the matter to rest. These elected rulers have been a part of the city’s governance ever since. Another pillar of order in Baldur’s Gate formed when the adventurer Eltan, a noted warrior raised in the area, returned home from exploits abroad. Seeing the chaos that had splintered his beloved city, Eltan united the city’s independent mercenary companies under a single banner, that of the Flaming Fist. Eltan used the mercenaries to quash what pockets of disorder he found, punishing lawbreakers for their crimes. Though plenty of theft, blackmail, and assassination continued behind closed doors, the founding of the Flaming Fist marked a new chapter in the city’s story.Baldurs Gate Today
Neighbors, Rivals and Allies
Other cities and nations keep a watchful eye on Baldur’s Gate, which is growing in wealth, power, and influence. Baldur’s Gate trades with the coastal cities of Waterdeep and Neverwinter to the north while contending with the aggressive mercantile nation of Amn to the south. Amn seeks to dominate trade on the Sea of Swords and views Baldur’s Gate as a growing threat. Baldur’s Gate joined the Lords’ Alliance, a coalition of independent cities that includes Neverwinter and Waterdeep, largely because of disputes with Amn. Should Amn decide to attack Baldur’s Gate, the city can count on the other members of the Lords’ Alliance to come to its defense. This arrangement infuriates Amn, which is not prepared to test the alliance’s resolve. To the east, the nations of Elturgard and Cormyr view Baldur’s Gate as a lawless cesspool that might have to be dealt with someday. These nations especially frown on the city’s broad religious tolerance.Candlekeep
To enter the great library of Candlekeep, one must furnish the library’s monks with a book not already contained in the library’s archives. Travelers on the way to Candlekeep often stop in Baldur’s Gate, anticipating that they can find such a book in the city’s markets. As such, Baldur’s Gate does a small but bustling trade in rare books. Several merchants have a known policy of buying valuable books without question, selling them at a high markup. Travelers seeking a specific book also hire mercenaries or adventurers to venture into dungeons or ruins and bring back the prize. If information can’t be found in the whisper-markets of Baldur’s Gate, then Candlekeep becomes a logical next stop. Adventurers are sometimes hired to guard a desperate traveler on the road south, or to guard the outrageously rare tomes scholars might carry to gain admission. The Guild knows the signs of a traveler headed for Candlekeep, and often dispatches robbers to steal books and resell them to the merchants of the city.Elturel
Prior to the events described in this adventure, the holy city of Elturel — the capital of Elturgard — sat upriver on the Chionthar. Whereas Baldur’s Gate is a cutthroat city policed by mercenaries, Elturel was a lawful city of pious folk watched over by knights of Helm, Torm, Tyr, and Lathander. The two cities couldn’t be less alike. Whenever Baldur’s Gate has tried to seize too much territory in Elturgard’s eyes, Elturel has responded by imposing a heavy tax on shipments headed downriver. This sort of economic brinkmanship coupled with radically different religious viewpoints has created bad blood between the two cities, though neither city has been eager to test the military might of the other.Port Nyanzaru
Baldur’s Gate serves as one of the main ports from which ships depart for Chult, a peninsula far to the south. Port Nyanzaru, located on the northern coast of Chult, enjoys a respectful and mutually beneficial trade relationship with Baldur’s Gate, and both cities are united in their dislike for the nation of Amn. Outside of Port Nyanzaru, Baldur’s Gate maintains its own holdings in Chult. Fort Beluarian serves as a beachhead for the interests of the city, the Flaming Fist, and numerous patriar families in Chult. This small military hub oversees much of the exploration (and exploitation) in regions of Chult claimed by Baldur’s Gate. It also serves as a departure point for smuggling the region’s treasures back the Sword Coast, as well as other ventures the Baldurians would prefer the native Chultans don’t learn about. As a result, rarities from the depths of Chult, seen nowhere else on the Sword Coast, regularly trickle into the port and market stalls of Baldur’s Gate. The sea routes between Baldur’s Gate and Chult are far from safe. Pirates, Amnian privateers, and sea monsters are common in these waters.Founding of Baldur's Gate
Centuries ago, the hero Balduran spent years questing in lands across the Sea of Swords and beyond. When finally he returned to his village of Gray Harbor, he brought fantastic wealth with him, much of which he gifted to friends and family. These boons greatly improved Gray Harbor’s fortunes, launching businesses, expanding its docks, and seeing the creation of a defensive wall around the town. In honor of their heroic patron, the citizens came to call one of their new wall’s passages Baldur’s Gate. Within a generation, though, the gate became synonymous with the community, and the settlement known as Baldur’s Gate began appearing on maps of the Sword Coast. The city’s surprising growth attracted all manner of people. Peasants affected by raiding and war, farmers rendered penniless by famine and drought, pirates seeking a neutral port — all types saw a chance to put their mark on the rapidly growing community.BALDUR’S GATE AND ITS COAT OF ARMS
Population: 125,000 (predominantly humans)Government: Plutocracy, helmed by the Council of Four and Parliament of Peers
Defense: Flaming Fist mercenaries, the Watch
Commerce: Dyes, fish, imports from Chult, mercenaries, nautical supplies
Organizations: The Guild, neighborhood crews, trade guilds
Religions: Gond, Tymora, Umberlee, any other law-abiding faith, cults of the Dead Three The Baldur’s Gate coat of arms represents the city’s role as a hub for river and ocean trade as well as nodding toward its namesake, the explorer Balduran. The symbol originated as a pirate emblem, though, and its components hold a double meaning today. Originally, the alternating bands of water beneath the ship indicated the turbulent dangers of the sea, but also the rich rewards it can bring. The crimson flags of the ship referenced the brutal life of a pirate, blood spilled on the deck or in the water. The crisscrossing ropes and canted sail symbolized the web of secrets and intrigue that mark a pirate captain’s life. Today, some optimistic souls try to recast the seal, claiming its calm waters represent the city’s desire to remain a peaceful power and the clear skies symbolize a prosperous future. But those who know the city’s history see the cunning and violence underpinning the emblem. For many, the contradictory interpretations make the city’s coat of arms all the more fitting.
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