Gargauth in the Shield of the Hidden Lord has the potential to be a persistent element that accompanies the PCs for the entire campaign… or he might be gone before they even realize what and who he is.
GARGAUTH: ROLEPLAYING TEMPLATE
NAME: Gargauth (Once-Treasurer of Hell, the Tenth Lord of the Nine, Lost Lord of the Pit, the Hidden Lord, the Outcast, the Lord Who Watches)
APPEARANCE: A shield of silvered, vanadium steel embellished with bronze decorations suggesting the horns, eyes, and fangs of a pit fiend.
QUOTE: “You have no idea the secrets which I could share with you! If you would only serve me!”
ROLEPLAYING:
- Wants nothing more than to be released from its prison.
- Craves power, with little care for what form it takes.
- Speaks in either a sibilant, seductive whisper or a baritone roar.
BACKGROUND: See “Lore of Gargauth” in Part 3B: Lore of the Vanthampur Investigations.
STAT BLOCK: See Descent Into Avernus, p. 225.
MEETING THE SHIELD OF THE HIDDEN LORD
When the PCs first find the Shield of the Hidden Lord, Gargauth will claim to be the Shield of Silvam and that the Vanthampurs stole him from the Hhune family.
The Shield of Silvam is one of the Kuldannorar artifacts once held by the Tethyrian royal line. A DC 16 Intelligence (History) check will reveal that the Shield of Silvam was created before the Eye Tyrant Wars, was lost during the Strohm Dynasty (between the 5th and 9th centuries), and briefly resurfaced in the 14th century before vanishing again.
A DC 18 check will recall that the chronicles record that it was a mithral shield with an inset “eye” of crystal (i.e., not at all what the Shield of the Hidden Lord looks like). If confronted with this fact, Gargauth will at least initially attempt to claim that the Shield of Silvam recovered in the 14th century was a forgery.
FREEING GARGAUTH
Gargauth’s overriding objective is to free himself from the shield, so let’s briefly discuss how he can do that.
First, he can fulfill the pact with Zariel by bringing thirteen cities to Hell. Having succeeded with Elturel (which may or may not be his first success), he’s now looking for the next viable target.
Second, the shield can be unmade in Bel’s Forge in Avernus. As it was originally created there, so can it be destroyed.
Third, Gargauth can be freed by Asmodeus or any Archduke or Archduchess of Hell who touches the shield and says his name.
Finally, Gargauth can be temporarily freed by casting dispel evil and good on the shield. Each casting has a 1% chance of freeing him for 1 minute. Using a higher level spell slot to cast the spell can either increase the percentage chance of him being freed (stepping 5%, 10%, 25%, 50% for each additional spell level), the duration of his release (stepping 10 minutes, 1 hour, 12 hours, 24 hours for each additional spell level), or a combination of both. (For example, a 9th level spell slot could have a 10% chance of releasing him for 1 hour. Or a 50% chance of releasing him for 1 minute.)
Note: This section explicitly supercedes the “Freeing Gargauth” section of Decent Into Avernus.
THE MANY AGENDAS OF GARGAUTH
Gargauth is an incredibly clever, incredibly perceptive, and incredibly persuasive devil who is keenly aware of how vulnerable he is while trapped within the Shield of the Hidden Lord. He will adapt to whatever situation he finds himself in. He will deceive freely. He will prey on trust, but not abuse or alienate it needlessly. To be most effective, he needs to be in the possession of someone who will do what he says; but what he needs to avoid at all costs is to be stuck in a position where he cannot influence anyone around him. He will endure a weak position and bide his time for an opportunity to turn it to his advantage, rather than losing his temper and burning his bridges.
Upon encountering (and most likely being acquired by) the PCs, his first agenda will probably be to get away from them. He’s been around the block enough to know that wandering heroes who go around trying to save the world are terrible candidates for helping him achieve his goals, and Baldur’s Gate is filled with far more promising prospects.
Thus, his first strategy of posing as the Shield of Silvam so that they’ll return him to his “rightful owner.”
If that fails, another plausible strategy Gargauth might employ is using his telepathy to “call for help” from anyone nearby who might be more receptive to him. You can use this to justify the “Knights of the Shield” encounter in Part 4A: The Road to Candlekeep, for example, by assuming that at some point while they were walking through Baldur’s Gate with the Shield of the Hidden Lord, the PCs happened to pass a member of the Hhune family and Gargauth telepathically contacted them. (You can easily imagine any number of similar hijinks.)
If there comes a point where Gargauth perceives the PCs as perhaps being in a serious position to save Elturel, then he would be highly motivated to stop them from doing that. (Sucking cities to Hell is not particularly easy, he needs thirteen of them, and he put in 50+ years on this one.) My guess is he’d go for subtle misdirection and disinformation here.
In Part 4C: At the Threshold of Hell, when Sylvira says she’d like to keep the Shield of the Hidden Lord to study it, Gargauth might have one of two reactions: If he thinks it will be easier to take advantage of Sylvira’s fascination with the Nine Hells and corrupt her, he’ll happily jump ship. If he’s already got a good thing going with one or more of the PCs, on the other hand, he may make some strong offers to convince them to keep him.
On the other hand, when Traxigor tells the PCs that they should drop the shield into the River Styx in order to destroy it, Gargauth is going to get real serious real quick. He might telepathically reach out to Sylvira and offer to help her in her research, potentially seeding a debate about whether the shield should stay or go. Alternatively (or if that fails), he’ll try to make himself appear as useful as he possibly can to the PCs. (First up: He knows Avernus and can serve as a valuable guide.)
Once they’re in Avernus, Gargauth is likely going to try to get them to take him to Bel’s forge and then manipulate them into destroying the shield (and freeing him). One tactic might be to telepathically convince someone the PCs are interacting with to tell them how the shield can be destroyed at Bel’s forge (while conveniently not mentioning that this will free Gargauth, not destroy him). Another might be to simply take the PCs to Bel’s forge while pretending to guide them somewhere else (and then hoping he can spin the situation accordingly).
If the PCs are intransigent, Gargauth will probably continue trying to arrange for his escape. (Signaling nearby devils and ruining PCs’ attempts to sneak through Elturel, for example.)
If pushed absolutely to the wall (i.e., they’re on the banks of the Styx and about to throw him in), Gargauth will be willing to negotiate his knowledge for how to save Elturel. He’ll be able to tell them that they have to destroy the contract, destroy the chains, and arrange for Elturel to return to the Material Plane (see Part 7). He can even offer up his own services (if they free him!) in destroying the chains.
INTO THE RIVER STYX
What actually happens if the PCs do throw the Shield of the Hidden Lord into the River Styx? (Which is, I think, the most likely outcome.)
Option #1: It’s destroyed. Trapped in the shield as he is, Gargauth is entirely an entity of nous (or mind). His memories are thus the entirety of what he is, and when the shield is dipped into the River Styx he is utterly destroyed. As Gargauth is the source of the shield’s powers, all that is left is a well-crafted, mundane shield.
Option #2: A tabula rasa spirit. Gargauth’s mind is wiped clean. What’s left inside the shield is an incredibly powerful pit fiend with no memories and no innate form. In a campaign about Hell, damnation, and redemption, this has the potential to become a powerful thematic opportunity: How is this essentially newborn entity possessed of tremendous power influenced by the PCs and their actions? Is this new entity saddled with Gargauth’s sins? As this entity’s personality develops, does that influence what powers the shield manifests? If the PCs lead this new entity down a path to goodness and then later free it from the shield, what actually appears? A reformed pit fiend? An angel? Something else?
Option #3: Punt it down the road. Traxigor emphasizes that the shield has to be immersed in the Styx for several days (or a week or a month or whatever). The only realistic option is to just toss it into the deepest part of the river and walk away.
I’m at least appreciative of the fact that DiA includes Gargauth instead of not using relevant existing Realms ideas at all, but it’s disappointing that he plays second fiddle to Zariel and everything else going on.
Losing the Knights of the Shield (the hinted at Hhune family) and their own plots and intrigues for the Sword Coast really downplays Gargauth’s potential, IMO.
Another interesting Knights of the Shield tidbit is that Duke Belynne Stelmane is a member. Her mind flayer seems to agree at least with her goals of enriching herself, and her stroke-like symptoms disappear when she’s doing Knights business. Murder in Baldur’s Gate mentions this but doesn’t mention Gargauth.
After some smooth talking during their first meeting with Blaze Portyr while reporting back about the Poisoned Poseidon, my players might meet the dukes. Duke Portyr will meet them at his manor and Thalamra in her office. If they push to meet Stelmane, I currently plan to play her as believing it to be the Shield of Silvam, though her involvement is unlikely to be mentioned. Of course, if the players take Gargauth, that becomes another potential enemy.
Of course, the players might raid the Frolicking Nymph before Liara can schedule a meeting for them, triggering Duke Portyr’s assassination. The cultists have the infrastructure to swap the murder operation to there easily after the Poseidon got wiped out, so the bodies will keep coming (likely dumped elsewhere because the Frolicking Nymph isn’t anywhere near Insight Park). I don’t know what’s going to happen a few days from now in Baldur’s Gate, and I’m really excited to find out.
I would probably go with option #2 for tossing the shield into the Styx, though as for specific details I would rule that he would not change much. After all, it’s still a pit fiend strongly bound to tyranny, and (AFAIK) all the Styx does is remove your memories. You would still have a bitch of a time changing his alignment (if it would be possible at all), his powers would likely be the same, etc.
If you did go with option #3 however, I wonder if you could ask some demons to make sure it stays immersed for the right amount of time. I mean, the demons would probably just kill them on sight, but… uh, yeah, nevermind, that wouldn’t work at all, at least without a dominate monster spell, which is way too high level for them.
If I have this straight:
* Gargauth infiltrated the Knights of the Shield in the 14th century, by posing the Shield of Silvam. He corrupted an “inner cabal”, likely including Duke Inselm Hhune of Kamlann Duchy in Amn. Duke Inselm secretly bought an estate in Baldur’s Gate that became the HQ of the Knights.
* At some point prior to 1444, one of this inner cabal (a member of the Hhune family) took the shield to Elturel.
* There, Gargauth began influencing the Cult of the Companion, apparently with the approval (explicit or implicit?) of Zariel herself
* At some point, the Cult of the Companion took possession of the Shield away from the Knights of the Shield, and it became the cult’s “prized artifact.” This change in possession may have happened when the Shield was taken to Elturel, or at some later point.
I am unclear if, in the Remix, the Knights of the Shield know what has happened to the shield in the meantime. They don’t seem to be allied with the Cult of Zariel. They are motivated to retrieve the Shield if they discover the PCs have it. It seems like they would also be motivated to recover it if they discover Kreeg and/or Duke Thalamra have it, but it’s not really clear.
As described in Part 3A, it seems that the Realms just has a confused tangle of existing lore about the Shield, and the Knights have been included because they’re part of it. But like the Cultists of Tiamat, I don’t really see a lot they add to this campaign, other than confusion. (The combat encounter on the road to Candlekeep is the only time they actively do anything, and that can be easily replaced by any surviving element of the cults of the Companion, the Dead Three, or Zariel in Baldur’s Gate. Even Satiir can still be fully used. Either she’s heard old family stories about shit they got up to back in the day, or Gargauth just has a nice telepathic chat to offer her Grand Cosmic Power or whatever.)
On a related note, Gargauth talking telepathically with NPCs under the PCs’ noses is interesting, but seems unfair if they have no way to find out about it or stop it. Any suggestions? My first thought is to let the Shield’s eyes glow quietly when it’s happening — but is that enough? I suppose after “talking” to him a while, they’ll catch on about what glowy eyes mean, but if they can’t shut him up they’ll have no good way to keep from being betrayed at every turn. “Signaling nearby devils and ruining PCs’ attempts to sneak through Elturel” may be incredibly frustrating for players if they don’t know it’s happening and/or have no way to stop it.
I suppose the alternate way to cut down on that shit would be to give Gargauth more reason to be afraid of random devils than of the PCs. But if he’s too afraid of them, he’ll resist being taken to Avernus at all.
The other issue that came up in Adam Koebel’s roll20 livestream of running the campaign is that by the book, telepathy communicates between only two characters at a time, and it kind of sucks to have conversations with only one player allowed to participate. Making the telepathy audible to all nearby solves that problem, and would shut down all the secret betrayal options, but does it take away too much? being able to have private conversations with your magical artifact is kind of traditional.
Having some way as the wielder of the Shield to discipline the “voice” that “speaks through it” might be good? It’s a classic plot element to have fights for control in this kind of situation, after all.
How do you think you guys will handle it?
What could be the negative consequences of releaging Gargauth of the Shield? I mean, he could be a great ally against Zariel, and in that case, probably he will try to take the place of Lord of Avernus, but the only consequee for the players would they want to kill them and I fell that anticlimatic if he kill them.
Wouldn’t Gargauth want to avoid Bel’s forge entirely? Bel, upon seeing a rival in such a weakened state would surely immediately destroy or enslave him – and Gargauth would know this. I wonder if Gargauth would know another way of being released, perhaps using the adamantine rods in a different way, or assuring his safety via a contract with the PCs? If Bel tries to capture or kill him then their souls are forfeit, so if Bel wants to use the PCs he will have to leave Gargauth alone.
@Colin R
I was going to roleplay this very directly, since the players are being searched for they can overhear the people contacted talking about a voice in their heads and a brief description of the players (especially from the POV of Garguath, so if he called the halfling PC puny, have the description they overhear be puny)
Similarly if they are trying to sneak by enemies and they can be seen as they sneak by them, have the enemies literally pull the old school video game mechanic of turning right around and looking right in the direction of the PCs. EVEN better if they are invisible, play out that moment when Snape suspected an invisible entity when Harry first used the invisibility cloak and push it. Roleplay the other enemies as thinking the one contacted is indeed crazy grasping at air talking about voices LOL
@Justin Alexander:
WOW the redemption arc for a blank slated possibly good aligned pit fiend is too much to pass up. Im gonna push hard hard hard for the styx option. Maybe even make Garguath crack a bit more about being an evil entity and the players could see it as a reverse macguffin to drop the shield in the river. Really great idea.
I am prepping my first Session for the campaign and one of my players plays a warlock, fiend patron. I wanted to give the Evil being a better chance in my group so i made her patron Gargauth. The player knows a bit about the campaign beforehand and this is also explained by this. her character is Gagauths Plan B to get freed in Avernus and overthrow Zariel. I am excited to see what happends.