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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jayoungr" data-source="post: 9472790" data-attributes="member: 6702445">Things I've Changed: Chapter 1My players are currently in the High Hall of Elturel in chapter 2. I thought I'd make a post about things I've changed. Some of these were my own idea and some I got from suggestions I found online or in supplements.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Most of my PCs are native to Baldur's Gate and have no particular reason to care about the fate of Elturel, despite me urging the players to give their characters some ties to Elturel, such as friends or relatives living there, back during character creation. (At least I talked them out of giving me a bugbear and a fairy for PCs, as both were proposed.) To give them some more skin in the game. I added a second puzzle box to the Vanthampur Villa: Thavius Kreeg had his own, and Thurstwell was trying to open his mother's. The second puzzle box contained a contract between Zariel and Duke Thalamra Vanthampur which promised that Duke Vanthampur would enjoy fifty years of life and power, after which Baldur's Gate would also be dragged into Hell.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This meant that when the PCs killed Duke Vanthampur in the dungeon under the villa, it didn't take. Her body disappeared, and she came back the next day with some devilish enforcers backing her up. The PCs learned of this when Liara Portyr (who was friendly with the group) showed up at a PC's house early the next morning saying the Duke Vanthampur had issued orders for their arrest. Liara said, "I just came to tell you it's a shame you had already fled by the time I arrived." They took the hint and left town immediately, calling on one of the PCs' connections with the fishermen's guild to smuggle them out by boat. Later, they had to avoid some checkpoints along the road to Candlekeep. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This also got me out of the problem of the players wanting Thavius Kreeg to open the puzzle boxes, by the way: they had been planning on having him do that later in the day. Plus, he would only have been able to open his own puzzle box, not Thalamra's.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In Candlekeep, Sylvira opened both puzzle boxes. She explained that in order to terminate the contracts, the PCs would have to destroy both copies of each one--not only the ones in the boxes, but also Zariel's copies, which would be in Avernus. If this could be done, Baldur's Gate would be saved from Thalamra Vanthampur's fifty-year reign of terror, and Elturel might even be restored if the PCs were quick enough.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Following the suggestion in the <a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/295015/Baldurs-Gate-Descent-into-Avernus-Complete-DMs-Bundle-maps-guides-cheatsheets-and-more" target="_blank">Complete DM's Bundle,</a> I'm cutting out Lulu. The group has a low cuteness tolerance, and we also have 7 PCs plus Reya Mantlemorn. We don't need yet another NPC slowing things down. I'm replacing Lulu with a shard of Zariel's sword that has some of her memories imprinted in it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">To avoid the awkwardness of Traxigor just abandoning the PCs, I had him open a portal for them instead of casting plane shift. He took them to the place in Idyllglen where the original portal was located, because there was already a connection between that place and Avernus. Then he reopened the portal and the PCs stepped through.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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