Theft in Baldur’s Gate
The Valthampur family encapsulates everything that is wrong in Baldur’s Gate: Corrupt and proud of it, greedy, and a thirst for even more power.
Thalmara Valthampur sits on the Council of Four, who oversees everything that happens in Baldur’s gate. Her three odious sons, Thurstwell, Mortlock, and Amrik, are just as bad.
Brother Hodges, on the other hand, is the nicest halfling you are ever likely to meet. Brother Hodges is generous to a fault and runs the Shrine of the Suffering, a simple stone shrine to Ilmater. He does his best to help the oppressed in Baldur’s Gate.
Due to some especially devout and generous devotees of Ilmater, Brother Hodge was presented with some holy scripture that was widely believed to have come from the most sacred of Imalter’s text: The Tome of Torment. Things were looking up for Brother Hodge! Which such a holy relic in his possession devotees from all over Faerûn would visit, make a donation to his temple, and he could help even more of the downtrodden.
Life in the Lower City of Baldur’s City is never easy and almost impossible to get ahead.
Thalmara Valthampur could not stand that Brother Hodge had something so valuable and was using it to cure the peasants! What a waste! The peasants should help themselves, work hard, and ascend the social and political ladder just as she had.
Thalmara wanted the pages from the Tome of Torrent, so she sent a bunch of thugs to the Shrine of the Suffering, beat Brother Hodge to within an inch of his life, took the relic, and returned it to Thalmara.
She didn’t have any particular interest in the relic. She just couldn’t stand that someone else had something of value. So she stored it away in one of her warehouses.
Your party is determined to get it back from the Vanthampur’s and back in the hands of Brother Hodge!
—
News of this theft soon reached the ears of Samwell. He knew Brother Hodge personally and he could not abide by such an injustice to such a good and noble halfling.
Samwell did some investigation, befriended guards, greased some palms with gold and learnt where the holy texts were
He reached out to a few of the people he knew in the and the met in the Elf Song Tavern to hatch a plan.
The noble paladin Aetheus would cause a distraction using his magical abilities, Gwen and Samwell would keep a lookout, Garron would provide some muscle, and Borodir would try and pick the lock to the warehouse.
Borodir wasn’t confident of picking the lock, but he would do his best.
The night of the heist arrived.
Samwell and Gwen kept a watch either side of the warehouse, while Aetheus use a combination of prestidigitation, thaumaturgy, and thunderous strike to make it sound as if a battle was happening
“Quick guards! There is a noble in trouble!” yelled Atheus.
Driven by greed no doubt and in hope of some quick coin, the guards followed Atheus. Atheus proceeded to lead them on a wild goose chase through the city.
Now it was up to Boromir. He brought out his lock picks and tried to pick the lock. No luck! It just wouldn’t budge.
“Hurry up!” hissed Gwen. “Someone is coming”
“Screw this,” said Garron and charge straight at the door with his horns.
The door cracked just enough for Samwell to slip in. He located the appropriate box and was about to head out when he saw an imp-like creature watching him. There is not enough time to worry about the creature and he bolted out the door following his companions.
It seems as if they had got away with it!
Eventually, the whole party met back at the Shrine of the Suffering. Atheus was annoyed and wondered how he had got caught up in all of this but was glad that Brother Hodge would get the relic and begin his long journey to the House of the Broken God in Calimshan.
With a little help from Gwen, Brother Hodge cracked open the box.
“Blessed Ilmater,” began Brother Hodge. “What have you fools done?”
Everbody peered inside the box. Instead of there being some holy texts, there was the spyglass of Balduran himself!
“Oh no,” said Samwell. “This spyglass is priceless. Before long, the Valthampurs are going to know it is missing and come looking for it. And nothing short of Hell is going to stop them”.
