Tag: D&D Encounters: Murder in Baldur’s Gate

We’ve reached the end of another season of D&D Encounters. Murder in Baldur’s Gate was a season unlike any we’d had thus far. It was a new kind of adventure and it introduced some significant changes to the way the D&D public play program works. Many long-time participants of D&D Encounters were upset that they now had to buy the adventure, but the quality of the product Wizards produced was substantive and quickly won over many of the naysayers.

There were plenty of good things about this season, but there were certainly areas for improvement. Today we’ll look at the season as a whole and go over the good and the bad. We welcome your feedback and want to know if you agree or disagree with our assessment. We also want to hear about anything we missed that you feel was important.

The party’s candidate for Duke, Carl the Half-elf Paladin, was invited to speak before the Parliament of Peers during last week’s session. While there he discovered evidence that someone was planning to blow up High Hall and all Members of Parliament with it. At the same time Ravengard had ordered mass executions of hundreds of criminal, many of whom did not deserve a death sentence if any punishment at all.

The PCs had to make hard choices about where to intervene, deciding in the end to split their efforts. Although the some PCs managed to save the Members of Parliament, High Hall was destroyed. The rest of the party successfully freed 300 “criminals” sentenced to death thereby stopping the pubic executions.

We had a packed house at Harry T North in Toronto. We had a table of seven and two tables of six. At my table were the following familiar faces: Carl the Half-Elf Paladin, Dwarf Fighter, Human Monk, Elf Mage, Human Cleric and Warforged Fighter.

Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Season 15 Week 12) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

During last week’s session Ravengard declared marshal law in Baldur’s Gate and the PCs learned that the Guild was smuggling weapons from Wyrm’s Rock and arming people in Outer City for “something big” that was going to happen in the next 24 hours. As the PCs were finishing their confrontation with their Guild contact they heard an explosion emanate from somewhere in Lower City.

We had a very full house at Harry Tarantula North in Toronto this week. I ran a table of six while the other two DMs each ran tables of seven. My table had the same six players I’ve had for the past few sessions. The party consisted of a Human Monk, Elf Mage, Human Cleric, Dwarf Fighter, Warforged Fighter, and Half-elf Paladin (Carl the would-be candidate for Duke).

Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Season 15 Week 11) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Following the massacre at the gates between Lower City and Upper City, the people of Baldur’s Gate took to the streets and a riot consumed the city. Fortunately the PCs were in the thick of things and were able to sway the masses with diplomacy. Under the powerful and charismatic influence of the Carl the Paladin and the rest of the party, the heroes brought out the best in the people of Baldur’s Gate and convinced them to stop the destruction and senseless violence. Once again the heroes were branded as heroes of the people.

This week at Harry Tarantula North in Toronto we ran two full tables of six. The DM for our third table knew he’d be absent this week and agreed to do a double session for his group next week. My table is finally getting some stability and we had the exact same party we had for the previous two sessions – Dwarf Fighter, Warforged Fighter, Human Cleric, Carl the Half-Elf Paladin, Elf Wizard, and Human Monk.

Actual Play Podcast at Harry T North (Season 15 Week 10) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

When last we saw our heroes they rescued a teenager from some kidnappers and bore witness to a massacre as hundreds of protestors were shot at by guards resulting in chaos and almost 200 deaths. The PCs helped with the aftermath, healing the wounded, but were angry and frustrated that they were unable to do more than watch as the terrible events unfolded before their eyes. They swore they’d do whatever it takes to ensure this kind of atrocity doesn’t happen again.

We actually ran this session last week at Harry Tarantula North in Toronto as part of a double session because many players were going to absent this week. I think that made a big difference to how things played out as the massacre from week 8 was still fresh in everyone’s mind and emotions were still running high.

None of the players left or changed tables between encounters so my party of six remained unchanged with the following PCs: Half-Elf Paladin (Carl McClure, candidate for Duke), Dwarf Fighter, Human Cleric, Elf Wizard, Human Monk, and Warforged Fighter.

Harry T North (Season 15 Week 9) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The latest law in Baldur’s Gate allowed dueling in the streets. In response, Ravengard enacted a law empowering the Flaming Fist soldiers to hold tribunals on the spot to better uphold the law, enact justice, and keep the city safe. Add to the mess a fire deliberately set in the warehouse district near the docks in Lower City and you get a pretty good idea of how things are spiraling out of control in Baldur’s Gate.

This week at Harry Tarantula North in Toronto we had 19 players and three DMs. I ran a table of six, all of whom had played with me during this season. However, one of the players decided to scrap his pre-gen and create his own character. The party ended up with the following PCs: Half-Elf Paladin (Carl McClure, candidate for Duke), Dwarf Fighter, Human Cleric, Elf Wizard, Human Monk, and Warforged Fighter.

Harry T North (Season 15 Week 8) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

During the last session the PCs witnessed tensions grow in Baldur’s gate as sumptuary laws were implemented and the Watch and Flaming Fist officers began enforcing it. The PCs got caught up in a street brawl between Flaming Fist officers and a mob of angry Lower City residents. The Fist prevailed and the PCs escorted most of the troublemakers to Wyrm’s Rock for processing.

A few PCs split from the group and met with Rilsa Rael, a member of the Guild working out of Little Calimshan. She provided a different perspective of the recent events happening in Baldur’s Gate and suggested the PCs stop working for the Flaming Fist. She went on to ask them (again) to help her and the Guild do what was best for Baldur’s Gate.

This week at Harry T North in Toronto we had another large turnout. In addition to our many regulars we had 2 brand new players join in the fun. For the first time this season we actually had four DMs ready to run tables.

Since this season began I’ve run massive groups each week (9 players twice and 8 players once). In order to try and fix this problem and speed up our sessions we recruited a fourth DM. Players at the first two tables (6 each) were all punctual so they started on time. That left two DMs and 6 players. Normally I’d just group these folks together and run a table of 7, but we were still expecting as many as 6 more players so we waited.

After about 10 minutes we decided to begin with both DMs running tables of 3. After all, none of the players had called, texted, emailed or Tweeted that they’d be absent, and I didn’t want to start with a table of 7 and have it balloon up to 9 or more. Of course no more players showed up so I ended up running a small group of 3: Half-Elf Paladin, Dwarf Fighter and Human Cleric. You know if we’d started with 7 everyone else would have shown up. Oh well.

Harry T North (Season 15 Week 4) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download