State of Baldur's Gate and Beyond - Act 3 (DM IC RP Only)

The "Year of the Dragon" Campaign

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DM Dialectic
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State of Baldur's Gate and Beyond - Act 3 (DM IC RP Only)

Unread post by DM Dialectic »

1352 Campaign, The Year of the Dragon - State of Baldur's Gate and Beyond

In walking about Baldur's Gate almost a year after the Siege of the undead Blight and its army, one would see massive signs of recovery, relief, and rebuilding. A visual tour of the city and speaking to folk in the various city districts would reveal the following specific observations and rumors as well as clear continuing themes for the now mostly completed Year of the Dragon, 1352 DR, throughout the Sword Coast, the Western Heartlands, and all of Western Faerun: recovery and repercussions in finale.

City Wide and Regionally

-Poverty, homelessness, and unemployment in Baldur's Gate have dropped significantly due to the economic demand created by construction work, charity efforts, church initiatives, and local guilds and academies offering vocational or academic training, but are still at worse levels than in past periods of city peacetime conditions, with much room for improvement in regards to the welfare of Baldurians remaining.

-All major repairs of the city and its environs post-siege have been completed, although the pace was slow due to lack of labor and materials at times outside of what the Grand Dukes and moderate adventurer efforts offered. Some minor damage and signs of the siege remain, however, and these may never actually go away permanently, whether a minor scar on a formerly damaged building or a memorium. In honor of the rebuilding, the new arena and carnival in the Northern Farmlands have been established by the Duchal government.

-Food supply and distribution in the city now stand at adequate levels for the winter season after much initiative taken by Baldurian adventurers and others such as the establishing of a permanent soup kitchen in the Harbor District as well as bulk food purchase deals.

-The local Baldurian economy is still in an overall weak period historically speaking and foreign trade activity with foreign polities lower versus historical norms as well, even as normalcy of routine has returned to the city post-siege. Trade figures with the major Lords’ Alliance maritime powers are not far from pre-siege levels, nor are they with Amn or Calimshan, although with Amn levels still remain far lower than before the Amn-Gate War without a new trade treaty or positive diplomatic arrangement between the formerly warring powers. Alternatively, trade dominated by land routes with the major western Faerunian trade cities still struggles comparatively as the land trade lanes to cities such as Elutrel, Iriaebor, and Scornubel are now wild, bandit-plagued, and unsafe compared to the months and years before the siege. Still, recent adventurer efforts to secure these routes have seen a downtick in damaged or destroyed caravans to or from the city compared to earlier in the year.

-Trade with the Zhentarim is still altogether banned in Baldur’s Gate, with any initiatives attempting to thaw this status quo yet to bear fruit, perhaps lacking passion, persistence, and strategic carefulness. However, some in diplomatic circles gossip that if a major diplomatic effort was made by Baldurian and Zhentarim representatives or proxies, now may be as good a time in years for the status quo to be altered.

-The Thayan Enclave in Baldur’s Gate, while in a rocky political period with the Grand Dukes of the city due to alleged illegal violence by the Red Wizards on Duchal land earlier in the year and other political conflicts, has still continued to see a significant uptake in trade activity with the city under commercial agreements with locals and the Grand Dukes related to golem labor rebuilding the city’s structures and resupplying nobles, mercenaries, and soldiers with consumable magical goods after they were depleted in the siege.

-Refugees from hamlets surrounding Baldur's Gate have either settled in the city or moved back home. With Kheldrivver reclaimed and in a state of rebuilding, many of its former residents returned to it from Baldur's Gate to help speed up the lengthy process. Refugees from Scornubel previously living in Elturel have finally returned to their city and are still busy with rebuilding it as well. With the refugees gone, Elturel can finally focus on restoring its own economy and trade without distraction. Elturel's Hellriders remain in deployment keeping eye on nearby trade routes and the Black Orc tribe of Uruk Lurra to the north near the Trielta Hills.

-The remaining Lords' Alliance soldiers within Baldur's Gate and that were previously camped out in the old Baldurian Northern Farmlands arena have finally gone home and many Baldurians are grateful that the "peaceful occupation" has come to an end.

-It is still said that the distraction of the Lords' Alliance and Baldur's Gate with the siege and major wars with undead, as well as with recovering from them, may still produce diplomatic opportunities for other regional political powers or already have. Unrelated or not, it is also said that unusual levels of interest in draconic goods or in dragons themselves has continued to emerge in recent months, with the Duchal Court of Baldur’s Gate even previously revealing that it has taken on a mysterious draconic lore expert named Velsaert as an advisor, although so far he has been little utilized as a resource.

-The City Watch has noticed a small influx to their ranks with new recruits and volunteers coming mostly from among the refugees in the city of Baldur's Gate or youngsters coming of age. This very needed boost has allowed the City Watch to maintain regular patrols throughout the city without the formerly necessary support from the Flaming Fist Mercenary Company before the war, with the unique exception of the Harbor District. Law and order was never at a paragon state in the Harbor District even before the siege, as while the City Watch again patrols "regularly" in the Harbor District, outside of the heavily fortified areas of the Flaming Fist Headquarters and the Lords' Alliance mission, this still peculiarly means somewhat minimal and indifferent "regular" patrolling versus other areas of the city, despite the docks being such a high-traffic area. There are also still heavy rumors of smuggling attempts in this water-side district.

-The surge of Baldurian patriotism in Baldur’s Gate post-siege can still be noticed among the population as well as a deep appreciation for the Lords' Alliance, who is seen as having honored again in full in aid of the city's defense, but not all share this sentiment. Noting this all, and given its recent dismantling in the previous year, it seems doubtful that any violent or revolutionary resistance to the Dukes, such as a new Virtuous Soil movement, could result again any time soon, but as these feelings die down, perhaps more peaceful movements of resistance to Duchal rule may yet emerge.

-It is still generally accepted on the streets of Baldur’s Gate that undead have been eliminated from all quarters of Baldur's Gate since the siege and that enough medical and public health protections have been setup since the Plague of 1351 to make it seem doubtful to most that a new round of serious plague or undead threats could again threaten the city even after the chaos and damage of the siege. Still, this does not mean that more minor threats of disease or undead have not been warned of in the sewers below the city.

-The Flaming Fist having seen its worst depletion of military manpower since the Amn-Gate War, losing roughly a third of its active duty strength, has only partially recovered thus far. As such, it looks to continue to rebuild its ranks or otherwise outsource its security requirements as Baldur’s Gate's (and Grand Duke Eltan's) de facto military force to third party mercenary organizations. It also looks to limit foreign deployments outside of efforts that are clearly profitable or vital to Baldurian interests abroad and to commend effort of third party mercenaries to secure the trade lanes going to Baldur’s Gate or otherwise take up security endeavors in aid of the city. It is said that Grand Duke Belt is looking to work with non-Flaming Fist mercenaries for such missions and work. Further, after the thousands of civilians in Baldur’s Gate perished in the siege, with only a fraction able to be raised, Baldur’s Gate still struggles to more than somewhat repopulate after such a shock, but encourages foreigners willing to assimilate to its laws and values to immigrate further in an effort to rebalance its population and economy.

-It is said that in the power vacuum in the Western Heartlands after the siege and wars against the undead, the Zhentarim have seemingly begun to consolidate their position around Darkhold, forming a security cooperation agreement with the village of Corm Orp and eliminating local bandits as a threat to Zhentarim trade and security. Further, it is said that savage humanoids such as the Black Orcs of Uruk Lurra begin to raid the trade lanes between Soubar and Triel for reasons unclear, as well as gather orc pilgrims under the settlement banner and its chief Grimnail. Similarly, savage orcs in the Woods of Sharpteeth are said to squabble for leadership amongst their disparate tribes and occasionally raid civilized folk on the Trade Way. Tiny settlements such as Soubar have sometimes been a microcosm of such power vacuums, with various polities and mercenary companies vying for influence indirectly via proxy conflicts or economic measures out in the open without involving large numbers of soldiers.

-Nobles from Lantan are said to settle for a time in Baldur’s Gate in the temple of Gond and give out work assignments and missions to various Baldurian adventurers. There are forces seemingly arraigned against these Lantans and their Gondian faith, but for what purpose remains to be seen.

-After being deemed an absolute waste of time by Grand Duke Eltan for the City Watch and Flaming Fist to look into, Grand Duke Eltan asked what he termed “The People’s Duke”, Grand Duke Belt, to hire some adventurers to deal with a minor rat plague reported in the sewers. Grand Duke Belt allegedly was ecstatic, seeing what he termed as “expendable adventurers” as the perfect solution, exclaiming that “I used to be one, I would know! Expendable, yes! Just ask my past lady friends.” Later, it is said that some returning adventurers from the sewers in a Baldurian tavern recently spoke of Grand Duke Belt having had a past odd romantic encounter with someone that was allegedly a wererat, including fathering what are now adult wererat children with her. It is said that after Grand Duke Belt had a drink with these adventurers that he even uttered "she still looked good after all that".

It is implied by some that Grand Duke Belt’s family reunion was sadly short lived, however, and that his wererat kin and romantic partner may now all be dead after an adventurer apparently threw a grenade at them, causing an all-out brawl to the death. After the incident, Grand Duke Eltan, when leaving the Duchal Palace and asked about the rat incident, is said to have replied snidely that “he is very happy to hear that The People’s Duke is such a family man”. There are also recent more hushed rumors that Grand Duchess Liia Jannath has recently consulted with the Baldurian dragon sage known as Velsaert about a mysterious and sinister “Nemesis of the Gods” and artifacts its cult may be seeking, among other things.


((IMPORTANT OOC NOTES:

-All of the above information can be taken as IC public rumors or common knowledge IC.

-If we by chance missed a public mention of some RP you were involved with IC that you think should be mentioned publicly here IC, please PM the DM team with your suggestions.

-Please feel free to use this thread or the "Rumors" threads to RP in for 1352 metaplot RP.

-The 1351 metaplot was one of the most dynamic and player character choice affecting metaplots in the history of the BGTSCC server, so we are trying to build on this by continuing to have many opportunities for player character choice to affect the 1352 metaplot.

-Otherwise, we encourage all players hoping to get involved to send in player requests that are 1352 metaplot related for the DM team forum group in a private message for us to review. Guidelines on player request submissions are located here: http://bgtscc.net/viewtopic.php?p=613160#p613160. If you previously sent in a player request post-siege for the 1352 metaplot, please send it in again if you have not heard back from the DM team, as we may have missed it in the post-year administrative shuffle or at least need a reminder.

-We look forward to your RP in the continued metaplot year of 1352! Please send the DM team a private message if you have any metaplot related questions!))
DM Dialectic
Posts: 6235
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2014 2:21 pm

Re: State of Baldur's Gate and Beyond - Act 3 (DM IC RP Only

Unread post by DM Dialectic »

1352 Church of Tiamat Finale Rumors

Rumor spreads that the church of Tiamat has emerged from being a mere cult in the west since the Amn-Gate War period and Tiamat's resurrection thereabout in the Hall of Wonders incident in Baldur's Gate to being fully integrating with the church of the Nemesis of the Gods in the east. It is said that some ill-reputes recruited from the typical mercenary and adventurer market of Soubar helped to secure a portal opening to the east via Lyran's Hold in the Forest of Wyrms in the past ten day. It is also said that the portal then brought in a multitude of Church of Tiamat reinforcements from the east. It is also rumored that on a reported tip by enemies of Tiamat to the Lords' Alliance that the Hellriders of Elturel expeditiously rode into the Forest of Wyrms and raided Lyran's Hold to thwart the Tiamat devout, but found nothing but a closed portal and signs of many hastily moving humanoid and draconic footprints. The Hellriders are said to have then promptly destroyed the portal as those who would go to Lyran's Hold now will see the former portal there is broken and likely beyond repair. If the tip to the Hellriders had not gone through, however, it is likely that many more servants of the Nemesis from the east would have stepped through to reinforce the newly formed Church of Tiamat in the west.

In the meantime, it is also said that the Church has seemingly recruited its first new local devout servants in the west, some even willingly and without compulsion, though by what means they choose to serve the Nemesis of the Gods remains to be seen. It is also said that the Church recruits in a more secular fashion mercenaries and adventurers to aid with its security, diplomacy, devout numbers growth, general interests, and accumulation of magical items and items of draconic interest.

Not all news has been good for the new western church branch of Tiamat, however. It is also rumored that the Flaming Fist discovered the location of another portal to the east to be used by the church on an unnamed island in the Sea of Swords and requested an adventurer band via Captain Deudermont's Sea Sprite to aid Flaming Fist and Lords' Alliance naval forces in destroying and thwarting the attempt and the portal. In this case, the forces against Tiamat were victorious and the portal and all who entered from it were seemingly destroyed and smote upon the battlefield of the island. It is also said that perhaps these portal measures of the Church are out of desperation and failure rather than success, as they only seemed to come into fruition after those of Tiamat failed to obtain enough shards related to Tiamat for whatever ends they had aimed for in doing so.
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