D&D 5E Murder in Baldur's Gate - how did it go?

[Charles Rampant]

If it's not too late, try some or all of these:

- Introduce a member of the Classic Cult (a local Thieves Guild squad w/ an undead 'tank/muscle') who thinks the Tiamat Cult is crazy. This is foreshadowing for later.

I really like this one, and might have it happen while the players are waiting in Baldur's Gate. That would nicely foreshadow Xonthal's Tower, which is, well, not that near Baldur's Gate - but it should be easy enough to suggest that the cultist was hoping to get a boat to Daggerford and then trek across the High Moor to reach it. The idea of a division in the cult is just an interesting thing to make use of, and seeding it now might give me more options later on. I'm not expecting the players to leave said Cultist alive once meeting him/her, though...

[edit]Actually, I might try adding this cultist to the caravan heading north, hoping to slip away from the mainstream cult's attention in the Greenfields, only for them to discover two or three days in that they've taken a seat between the fire and the frying pan...[/edit]

Several of us finally realized that the Cult plotline meant we would be leaving town shortly, so it became less important - unimportant in practice - to preserve the town in good shape.

The other issues do sound like a nightmare, but this one is probably the most pertinent. Big issue when you start feeling that the difficult situation you're in is just a distraction and choose to abandon it.

Dues for the Dead...

I didn't use this - Dues for the Dead seemed too long for what I was wanting, from the DMsGuild chat - but I took the basic 'undead mini-dungeon' idea and spun out my own effort, so thanks for the inspiration!

And then rush through it. Just use the best of the story beats. You have another campaign to run, after all.

I think that my current plan is to have Duke Abdel Adrian be the Baldur's Gate representative at the Council of Waterdeep; in other words, I'll entirely ignore the plotline of Murder, as it will not have happened yet. The benefit of this is that I can get the fun easter egg from the computer games now, and still use Murder at a later point - perhaps after I finish Rise of Tiamat - when the players might have more of a connection to the city than they would at this point.

Okay, spoiler warning ⚠ since it feels like reading about an entirely different scenario... I realize I need to speak openly and directly here.

I'm not sure why you're so desperate to correct everyone of a 'misunderstanding' that I'm not seeing in the discussion.

 

[CapnZapp]

I'm not sure why you're so desperate to correct everyone of a 'misunderstanding' that I'm not seeing in the discussion.

Could it be that you are underestimating the mismatch between what the adventure appears to offer, and what it actually does offer? (Even if you don't, I am not merely responding to you - there might be others curious about your suggestion with much less information about MiBG.)

I really didn't wish to discuss individual posts above, but I see no other way of explaining so here goes. Please understand that I don't want a quarrel with individual posters, I am merely posting these comments in order to enlighten Mr Rampant as to why I made my personal recommendations as to the thread's premise

The off-tone nature, namely the fact that for this adventure suddenly we stop talking about the Cult, and start worrying about Bhaal and politics.

The adventure doesn't worry about Bhaal. In fact, there is no investigation into who committed the intro murder at all. Injecting this adventure into a Dragon Cult hunt would make this mismatch doubly worse - the module's fundamental problem is ALREADY that players are very likely to pursue avenues which the module is nothing about.

We could not figure out what was happening or how to deal with it.

Not surprising since the module doesn't provide any hints or leads - it's not *about* what everybody naturally think it is about.

I would forget about Bhaal, and make it Dragon Cultists infect the guy with an evil Dragon spirit, that then transfers to someone else, and the party has to track down who.

Again, this advice sounds very much like it is based on the (fully understandable) assumption MiBG is an adventure about finding out who was behind the initial murder and the escalating chaos.

Hope that helps.

Otherwise I feel we should just agree to disagree. Or, at the very least, take the discussion to a more appropriate location:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?364254-Murder-in-Baldur-s-Gate-(spoilers!)

I have made my recommendation. I'm sure you can make it work anyway - my recommendation only means the module doesn't seem a good fit to your story, not that it can't be a good fit for that story.

I don't wish to derail your thread any further. Good luck with your campaign!

 

[pukunui]

I didn't use this - Dues for the Dead seemed too long for what I was wanting, from the DMsGuild chat - but I took the basic 'undead mini-dungeon' idea and spun out my own effort, so thanks for the inspiration!

No worries! Glad I could help in some way!

 

[Sadras]

Hey all,

I'm running Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and my party is currently chilling in Elturgard, about to get the boat to Baldur's Gate and wait for the caravan that will take them on the (wildly unpopular) Chapter 4. I'm planning on inserting Murder in Baldur's Gate in the gap, since they should have about a week and a half to kill in the city, and that will let me have a nice sidequest. In addition, it means that whatever happens as a result of the chaos, they'll get to see the aftermath of their work when the Baldur's Gate representative attends the Council of Waterdeep in Rise of Tiamat.

However, I also worry about a couple of things:

1) The length of the adventure. I read that stores ran it for ten games, which seems way beyond a 'side quest'. Though I believe that stores run games for 2 hours a session, so I'd get more done than that.

2) The off-tone nature, namely the fact that for this adventure suddenly we stop talking about the Cult, and start worrying about Bhaal and politics. This isn't a problem, per se - I believe that D&D benefits from a varied tone throughout the campaign - but it is a concern in combination with number 1.

So, I wanted to ask the forum - have you run this adventure? How did it go? Have you any advise for inserting it into Hoard?

Many thanks!

Hi -
So I ran it and yes it is not just a side quest, not if you fully run it - which I did, it was easily 6-8 full sessions and playtime was stretched over a month to make more sense of it.

The adventure works well if you can mingle the Hoard/Cult/Harper stuff in the background and you allow the PCs to do some great networking in the city as you said for RoT. I ran it so the BG Harper-chapterhouse was stretched thin between Cult and Bhaal, with Duke Silvershield interfering with the Harpers' activities - even arresting a few on BS charges to hamper the PCs and their friends.
It makes more sense to have Baldur's Gate concerned with itself (Flaming Fist included) and not being able to handle/investigate the Cult operations allowing the Cult to carry on pillaging the countryside without regard. I also had the Cult of Bhaal show up in BG and confuse matters.

I back-dropped chapters 4&5 of Hoard and allowed the information to trickle down to the PCs through Harper agents who called on the PCs assistance to help the lizardmen led by Snapjaw, who was willing to create an alliance with the PCs vs Bullywogs & Cultists of the Mere of the Dead.
At this point the Harpers, headed by Leosin returned to a calmer Baldurs Gates (post Bhaal) to create the official group for RoT.

There are some great online ideas for BG and how to deal with Bhaal, whose curse gets passed on through murder and thus is tricky to defeat. Private Message me if you want further ideas or links.

Also to let you know I'm not playing Hoard or played MiBG at the official levels. PCs were level 8-9.

I say run it. It is a really good adventure.

 

[Tormyr]

Again, this doesn't help the half of the readership on mobile!

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

But it does help the half using a browser, such as the poster asking the question, as well as those of us on mobile who do not use the app and use the desktop version of the site because we don't find the mobile site to work well. That being said, something needs to be fixed so one solution works on all platforms.

As for the whether to use MiBG, I would not do it as a side quest in Tyranny of Dragons. However, there are numerous vignettes from MiBG that could be incorporated by altering the antagonist.

Spoiler

[sblock]
The roof tiles, gunpowder plot, and other scenarios that directly target the PCs or citizens could work by making the antagonists dragon cult members.
The kidnapping, statue defacement, and other less directed sidequests would work more as local flavor.
However, I would not include the main plot of MiBG at all.
[/sblock]

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Again, this advice sounds very much like it is based on the (fully understandable) assumption MiBG is an adventure about finding out who was behind the initial murder and the escalating chaos.

Not arguing, because it's no big deal, but I have run MiBG twice, and while you are certainly right that the adventure doesn't allow you to really "solve" the issue at hand, it is generally something the players TRY to do while everything else happens.

Saying "the players have to figure out who" is short-hand for what actually occurs.

I think you've jumped to conclusions about what others know about the adventure. (Again, not trying to be antagonistic) It's the reason you've been asked why you are harping on it. No one is trying to pick a fight.

Sent from my LG-D852 using EN World mobile app

 

[pukunui]

As for the whether to use MiBG, I would not do it as a side quest in Tyranny of Dragons. However, there are numerous vignettes from MiBG that could be incorporated by altering the antagonist.

My PCs were in Baldur's Gate for Midsummer. I decided the city would hold a festival in the Wide that day, and the PCs went along to check it out. I used some of the extra details and optional events from the launch weekend module to flesh it out a bit. For example, a noble challenged one of the PCs to a duel after accusing them of treading on their fine silk cloak. During the duel, some pickpockets take advantage of the distraction to steal from onlookers. The PCs spotted them and chased after them. After handing the pickpockets over to the guards, they were somewhat taken aback when the guards cut off a hand from each of the thieves and then ejected them from the Upper City.

 

[Sadras]

MiBG is fairly easy to integrate with Hoard

Because of the initial setup to MiBG, the PCs are recognised wherever they go, making tracking/following the Cult extremely difficult. The Harpers could easily tell the PCs to hangback temporarily until their popularity simmers down.

By assisting Rilsa Rael and The Guild PCs could find out about 'secret deals/negotiations' made between the Cultists and The Guild and perhaps find out who represents the Cult within BG, maybe even in Waterdeep, and may plan to 'remove' him/them.

By assisting Ravengard and the Flaming Fist the PCs could be privy to the reports from the countryside pillaging, perhaps a Cultist was caught by the Flaming Fist and they could participate in the interrogation.

By assisting Silvershield they might catch Skoond making an illicit purchase from the Cult's spoils or find out that a certain Thay Wizard is staying over in Seskergates.

 

[commandercrud]

We ran Murder in Baldurs Gate exactly as the OP wants, as an interlude, each chapter being just one day. It went great and was a horribly frantic time. They couldn't wait to get out of town when it was over.

 

[Jesse Booth]

Do you have any of your notes for these sessions and how many sessions did it take? 3 3hr sessions or 1 or 2 6 hour sessions?