Descent into Avernus

(Nancy Kaufman) #1
their community, the halfling cleric and his adult chil-

d ren Hansen and Sissa (both lawful good strongheart


halfiing a colytes) can inevitably be found here chatting


with the city's downtrodden, offering what healing and
alms they can.

The church's only source of non-donation income is


a twisting series of crypts that extends down from an


entrance behind the altar, at several points piercing the

city's sewers. For a small fee, anyone can have a corpse


brought down into the cramped tomb, where hordes of

sewer rats flood in to eat the flesh, leaving (mostly) clean


bones to be interred in the attached ossuary by llmater's


faithful. While a somewhat ignoble end, it's often the

only holy-ground burial the city's poor can afford, and


Brother Hodges does his best to bring quiet dignity to


the practice. However, a fertile carrion crawler has


recently slithered up from the sewers to feast on the


corpses in the tomb, leaving a trail of squirming young


wherever it passes. Brother Hodges is incensed by the


desecration, but doesn't dare face the beasts himself,


and the Flaming Fist has been slow to come to his aid.


Though the church can't pay, he would gratefully offer

free healing to anyone who dealt with the menace.


SMILIN' BOAR


With its downright ribald menu of salaciously renamed


breakfast foods, the Smilin' Boar was always intended


to cause a stir in well-to-do Bloomridge. Yet the current


buzz is more than owner Jentha Allinamuch, a chaotic


good female strongheart halfiing commoner, ever


intended. For the past six months, bodies have been

appearing in the alley just behind the halfiing's cafe.


More than a dozen have appeared so far, never with any


witnesses as to how they go there. The victims have


no apparent commonalities-being of all ages, races,


genders, and social classes, and having disappeared

from points all across the city-yet there's no question


in anyone's mind that the same killer is responsible, as


each is fou nd with curved slices across their wrists and


a heart-piercing wound. The whole district is astir over


the murders, but so far the Fist hasn't been able to turn


up any leads on what locals have fearfully dubbed the

Sickle Man. With business plummeting, Jent ha is as


eager as any grieving family to find answers, and would


happily pay independent investigators to help track

down the killer. In fact, the killer is not one person, but


a group of Dead Three cultists looking to spread fear in


the city (see "Hamhocks Slaughterhouse," page 197).

SORCEROUS SUNDRIES

A dome of stained glass roofs this tall, round shop, cast-


ing chaotic shafts of color down across several open-air


floors that rise upon wooden pillars, connected by stair-


cases and ladders. While the living quarters upstairs


teem with rare plants and bookcases, the bottom floor


acts as one of the most popular magic shops in the city.
Inside its delicate-looking but magically warded walls,


customers can buy and sell all manner of curios and


common magic items from the eccentric shopkeeper,


Rivalen Blackhand, a neutral male human mage with a


withered right hand.


Blackhand almost always has potions of healing avail-


able for sale. He also typically has up to 500 gp on hand


to buy items from those with interesting magical wa res,


though he's a savvy bargainer and rarely pays anything
close to full price.
Currently, the wizard finds himself in the grip of an
unusual protection racket. His supposed apprentice

Gilligunn, a neutral evil female rock gnome spy, is ac-


tually a Guild member. Whenever Blackhand makes a


sufficiently large transaction, Gilligunn secretly tracks

the customer, leading an appropriately sized group of


Guild toughs to ambush them days later, knowing they'll

be carrying either a large sum of money or a valuable


magic item they can sell back to Blackhand. Though the


shopkeeper isn't happy with the arrangement, the Guild
varies its patterns enough to keep suspicion away from

him, and he has to admit it's a better deal than paying


protection money himself.

WATER QUEEN'S HOUSE

The oldest temple in Baldur's Gate, the Water Queen's


House clings to its enormous pier like a monster of the

deep, its stone walls trailing over the side and descend-


ing down beneath the waves and river mud. At the pier's


tip, a huge fountain in the shape of a sinking ship sprays


water high, reminding faithful of the price of failing to

appease Umberlee.


The intimidating Allandra Grey, a chaotic evil female


human priest, leads the temple's score of waveservants,


most of them women widowed or orphaned by the sea.

Ordinary Baldurians rarely see the waveservants, and


never step inside the temple. When the faithful wish to


make offerings, they must ring a bell by the door. Two


waveservants (chaotic evil female human acolytes) an-


swer the door, one accepting the offering inside while


the other says a short prayer in the doorway. Once the


prayer is spoken and the donation collected, they step


back and close the door.
Though no outsiders know exactly how the tem-
ple's finances work, the dour waveservants buy little

in the markets save essentials. The rest of the tithes


are carried in solemn procession down crumbling,


moss-covered stairs that cling to the outside of the tem-


ple and descend into the murky water. The waveservants


disappear below the water for a few minutes, only to


return empty-handed. What happens to the treasures


is anyone's guess, with some suggesting they're hidden


in underwater vaults. Others believe the gifts are borne


away by Umberlee herself. In truth, the waveservants


leave the treasures at the bottom of the staircase, where


they are fetched within the hour by 2d6 sahuagin led by


a sahuagin priestess. The sahuagin make the long trip


from the Sea of Swords to obtain these treasures, and


in exchange, they refrain from attacking the city, its har-

bor, and ships heading out to sea.


If the waveservants wish harm to befall a ship or its


crew, they leave a clam with the treasure in the water.


When the clam is opened, it magically recites up to 25

words in Common. This information helps the sahuagin


identify the ship. The sahuagin priestess uses a tongues


spell to translate the clam's words, then executes an at-


tack on the ship during the next new moon.

BAI.DUR'S GATE GAZETTEER
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