Descent into Avernus

(Jeff_L) #1

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One of the neighborhood's more outspoken critics of
the Gate's government. Pernilla "Prole" Cabrenock, a

chaotic neutral female rock gnome bandit captain, has


teamed up with an oddball inventor and arcanist named


Ardryn Deagle, a chaotic good male rock gnome mage.


Rumors spread by Prole herself s uggest that they've
almost completed a magical invention that will "finally

strip away the bonds of capital and free the people


to flourish," but security around the project has been
unusually tight, keeping even many members of the

commune in the dark. While most people assume this is


merely some strange new critique of the city's patriars,


both the Guild and the Flaming Fist would dearly love


to infiltrate the revolutionaries' project and make sure it


doesn't pose a threat to the status quo.


WYRM^1 S CROSSING

This neighborhood is actually two enormous bridges,


each spannfog half the Chionthar River and meeting at


Wyrm's Rock, a tall, rocky isle t in the center. While the
Flaming Fist maintains a fortress on the island to tax

travelers along the Coast Way and control city access in


times of trouble, the bridges themselves are fair game


for squatters. Ramshackle wooden tenements, taverns,

and shops crowd both sides of the arched stone spans,


leaning out over the narrow road between them. Even


more cling to the sides of the bridges, anchored to each

other or cantilevered over the water. The tendency of


these latter structures to occasionally drop into the


rushing river, pulling their neighbors down with them,

is not enough to deter residents who hope to be the first


to sell to travelers on their way into the city, or the last to
pick their pockets on the way out.

BA LOU R'S CATE GAZETTEER

Eve n among members of the Oute r City, residents of

Wyrm's Crossing have a reputation as rakes and riffraff,


and the neighborhood specializes in seedy dive bars and


gambling halls where belligerent drunks can be ejected


directly out over the river. At the same time. it also has


a l a rge and tight-knit strongheart halfling community.

whose low-ceilinged tenements and lighter weight are


pe rfect for the neighborhood's precarious architec-
tural s tyle.
While the Crossing is renowned for c heats and crim-
inals, the residents stick together, and a local crew

called the Crossers ensures that all predatory practices


are applied primarily to travelers, and never to fellow


bridge-dwellers. For those who cons is tently refuse

to play well with their neighbors, the ans wer is often


Sweetjen's Spices, a precarious bridge-s ide shop whose


halfling proprietor quietly sells some of the most potent


drugs and untraceable poisons in the city.


WYRM^1 S ROCK


This formidable fortress rises from the center of the

rive r on an algae-slick islet, its sheer walls nearly impos-


s ible to scale. Built by the Flaming Fist on a rock once


said to have housed a bronze dragon, the fortress is
the first checkpoint at which Baldur's Gate taxes north-

bound travelers. Anyone seeking to cross the river via


the fortress's two massive bridges must pay the 5 cp toll


and pass through the fortress via a long central tunnel


riddled with arrow slits and murder holes. Between


twenty-five and fifty Flaming Fist s oldie rs staff the


c heckpoint. which operates only during the day. After

dark, the drawbridges on either side of the keep are


raised, halting all traffic and forcing latecomers to take

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