ASSASSIN’S ORDERS
Vaaz—
My brother Thurstwell and I are agreed. Mortlock is not only a liability to us, but a liability to you, taking credit for all of the good work that you and your Fists are doing for us.
Rid us of our troublesome brother and send his right ring finger to me at the Low Lantern as proof and I will see to it that you are raised above Flennis and Yignath in this affair. You will be the liaison between the Shield of the Hidden Lord and your fellow cultists. It will be your face that Gargauth sees. He will know that YOU are the one responsible for carrying out his will! Bane himself will know your name when Gargauth sings your praises unto him!
Act swift, with the strength of the fist and the finality of the knife, my friend!
Amrik of the House Vanthampur
MORTLOCK’S CORRESPONDENCE
My dearest Mortlock,
The temple is located beneath the Frolicking Nymph. In the north massage room, rotate the circular element in the stained glass window and the door will open. Vaaz, Flennis, and Yignath, along with their minions, should already be ensconced.
Flennis will be relatively easy to manage, but you may have some difficulty with the other two. Yignath is too ambitious. The trick will be keeping him reined in, otherwise he could easily compromise the bloodletting with some other foolhardy endeavor. Vaaz, on the other hand, is simply bull-headed. He’ll strain against the leash unless you pull it. So pull it hard.
You should not return to the manor until the work is done.
Mother
Mortlock,
I warned you to keep a leash on Yignath! What’s done is done, but I hope this will be the last bit of foolishness you’ll allow to happen.
The kidnapping of Satiir Thione-Hhune is particularly vexing, but perhaps we can turn it to our advantage as long as she’s not harmed. (Or, at least, not harmed until it’s useful for us to do so.) Take custody of her and transfer her to the manor as quickly as possible.
Thurstwell is also intrigued by the mask they found. Send it along with Satiir so that he can study it.
Thalamra
Mortlock,
That fool Portyr has emerged from his mansion. He’ll be giving a simpering speech in support of his misguided Confraternity of Refugee Relief at the Beloved Ranger. This is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. If we kill him now, it should disrupt his brat Liara’s attempts to steal the Flaming Fist from us.
I’m enclosing a packet of information for Vaaz, along with a very special weapon which has been prepared just for Portyr. Act quickly, my son!
Thalamra
DESIGN NOTE: If you can, add the date of the confraternity event (i.e., whatever today’s date is when the PCs raid the Dungeon of the Dead Three) to the second note.
MISSIVE OF THE HIDDEN LORD Ω
Flennis,
Know ye that these missives pass through holy hands directly from the Shield of the Hidden Lord, which speaks with the True Voice of Gargauth, Once Lord of Avernus and Treasurer of Hell, the Tenth Lord of the Nine, the Hidden Lord, the Lord Who Watches, and Legatus of the Dark Gods.
When the devils of Avernus brought down Elturel, the Grand Duke of Baldur’s Gate was claimed as a prize for Hell. So too shall you claim for Zariel the souls of those who once served Elturel. You can know this to be truth, for I hold here, at Vanthampur Manor, secure within its infernal puzzlebox, the pact with Zariel; the declaration of the powerful purpose to which we set our hands. Lay to rest your doubts.
-T.K.
MISSIVE OF THE HIDDEN LORD Ψ
Yignath,
Know ye that these missives are inscribed under the gaze of the Shield of the Hidden Lord, which speaks with the True Voice of Gargauth, the Tenth Lord of the Nine, the Lost Lord of the Pit, the Outcast, Daemon of Astaroth, and Legatus of the Dark Gods.
In completing this work, your reward shall be to rise to the rank of Black Gauntlet in the esteem of Bane. And when the Cult of Zariel claims the Flaming Fist, the Fist shall become the Left Hand and Bane’s Gauntlet shall become the Right Hand of the Council. The old temples shall be overthrown and their fanes given over to the black hand, the white skull, and the bloody tear.
-T.K.
MISSIVE OF THE HIDDEN LORD φ
Vaaz,
Know ye that these missives are inscribed by my hand at Vanthampur Manor, passing through holy hands directly from the Shield of the Hidden Lord, which speaks with the True Voice of Gargauth, Once Lord of Avernus and Treasurer of Hell, the Outcast, and Legatus of the Dark Gods.
Seek ye the blood of the holy orders of Elturgard. That is the commandment of this hour. Let the great work which was begun in the light of the Companion be completed here under the aegis of the Dark Gods.
Vanthampur shall remain within her manor for this time, for she has mighty work to do and must consult constantly with us in its pursuit. But just as she has given unto you the temple of your forefathers, so you shall obey the fruit of her loins. Her three sons speak with my voice and work to our common cause.
-T.K.
VAAZ’ CORRESPONDENCE
Vaaz,
Duke Portyr will be delivering a speech at the Beloved Ranger in the Wide during an event held by the Confraternity of Refugee Relief. Give the iron barb I have enclosed in this packet to your best assassin.
I know that you will serve me well in this.
Duke Thalamra Vanthampur
DESIGN NOTE: If you can, add the date of the confraternity event (i.e., whatever today’s date is when the PCs raid the Dungeon of the Dead Three) to this note.
I don’t see mention of some of these in the Revised Key. Can you list where they’re found on this page?
Many things in the Dungeon of the Dead Three, including many of these handouts, clearly state what the Shield of the Hidden Lord is and that it contains Gargauth who is liaising with these cultists and is a devil.
This seems to undermine the fact that Gargauth is going to try and claim to be an angel in the Shield of Silvam.
Is this intended? Are the players supposed to see through Gargauth’s lie with relative ease if they look at these letters?
Short version: Yes.
Long version: If you see more mileage in the “holy” shield misleading them, then Gargauth is clever enough to say, “Oh no, I’m not THAT shield.”
Hey, I notice your Assassins orders talk about Vaaz as a Bane-ite and talk about his Fists but he’s a Death’s Head which makes him a follower of a Bhaal.
@Chris
Pretty sure you’re right; it should be Bhaal not Bane.
Thank you for all your efforts! I am loving your remix to the campaign book that did feel a little flat and forced in places. Details are vague to give the community an opportunity to add it’s flare, I imagine.
I have a question: In Thalamra’s letter to Vaaz, it refers to the weapon to assassinate Portyr as, “a very special weapon which has been prepared just for Portyr.” I’m missing the detail that makes it special to assassinate Portyr with. Is there significance other than being a deadly weapon?
Again, thank you for all you do, and thanks for the community for pitching in when Justin isn’t able to immediately respond (understandably so)!
The infernal arrow required special preparation (and it was prepared in this case specifically to assassinate Portyr with it), but you’re correct that it’s not specifically keyed to Portyr.
It’s more akin to saying that they’ve got a bullet with his name on it.
Excellent! Thank you.
Hey Justin,
I absolutely love your work! From [xandering] dungeons to full remixes, it’s always very inspiring. These handouts are great as well, but there’s one thing I always find hard to justify: why would they keep the letters after reading them? For a super secret cult, it would be a lot better to shred the letters, burn the remains and put them in another dimension to be sure no one finds them.
I mean, I know it’s handy for the PC’s that they can still get information if they kill first and ask questions later, but I can never think of an in-world justification. If you have a good one, I would love to hear it! Or do you just handwave this for the sake of clues?
Thanks in advance!
@Yackl one thing I change is to have the names be slightly obscured, but not enough that other leads don’t make it obvious who is who. For example a letter from AV, when my players already know that refugees are being smuggled into the city by Amrik Vanthampur.
It means that someone stumbling upon the letters have no idea who AV might be, but anyone actively investigating would know. It’s a nice balance between burning letters and full names!
In some cases it’s carelessness. In others they hold onto incriminating evidence that can give them leverage over their fellow conspirators in the future. Sometimes they’re planning to destroy them, but just haven’t yet. Sometimes the notes have information that they need for the job, so they hold onto them until the job is done. Et cetera.
I’ll also mix in instances where there’s evidence of destruction. Sometimes this is structurally cosmetic (the only information to be gleaned is that the information has been destroyed). Sometimes this can be a consequence for the players’ actions, like in my Dragon Heist campaign where they knocked politely on someone’s door and then waited for them to open it while, inside, the bad guy was shuffling all of their papers into the fire. (One of the nice things about the Three Clue Rule is that you can destroy clues with a clear conscience when it’s appropriate.) Sometimes they’ll be able to pull a clue out of destruction (they burned the note, but this one enigmatic scrap remains!).
You can extend this logic beyond notes: Wouldn’t it make sense for the murderer to wear gloves or wipe away their prints? (Maybe they did and the clue is something else. Or they tried, but missed a partial. Or they’re dumb. Or they wanted to, but got interrupted.) Wouldn’t they have disabled the cameras? (Maybe they didn’t spot it. Maybe they DID hack the cameras and delete the footage, but left traces from their hack that can be tracked.) Et cetera.
The perfect crime (or conspiracy), of course, would have flawless operational security and leave no evidence. But that’s often not how it plays out in reality, and usually doesn’t make a great scenario in any case.
I agree completely with your last sentence, but leaving fingerprints or not spotting camera’s is something that can easily go wrong in the heat of the moment – whereas not destroying your missives or taking them with you always seemed a bit careless to me. Like “how is it possible this organization is not caught yet”-careless.
But thanks for the ideas, I especially like your idea of holding on to notes as leverage. This is certainly something I will implement! And bad guys trying to destroy the evidence when it seems they will get killed by the PC’s gives an immdiate extra objective to an encounter… (and might lead to the PC’s actually questioning them instead of slaying them)
Thanks a lot and I look forward to your remix of the messy fetch quest railroad!
MISSIVE OF THE HIDDEN LORD Ω states exactly what is in the infernal puzzlebox and where it is – could this perhaps be more vague?
The Missives of the Hidden Lord are *supposed* to be a clue pointing at Van Manor, so don’t obfuscate that part. (My players were certainly reluctant to break into a Duke’s home, so they needed a pretty explicit pointer that it was necessary.)
Is a “pact with Zariel” too explicit? — Maybe? When I created my handout I altered it to:
“Here, at Vanthampur Manor in Baldur’s Gate, secure within its infernal case, the words of Zariel, the declaration of the powerful purpose to which we set our hands…”
Re: Ω.
As Colin notes, the structural function is to point at Vanthampur Manor.
Although it does reveal that there’s a pact with Zariel in there, it doesn’t reveal the nature of the pact. It may seem obvious if you already know what’s happening, but: Pact with who? To do what? Signed when?
The big revelations are: With the leaders of Elturel. To provide the Companion in exchange for the whole city. 50 years ago!
Colin’s change of verbiage also works! Good stuff!