Magnar
King of the Underworld
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
Friedrich Nietzsche
They came. Friedrich Nietzsche
A slow trickle at first, but then more, and more and more. Ragged and desperate, the trickle of refugees grew more and more, until that trickle became a flood. As the first of them entered the city gates, they carried with them tales that were so far-fetched as to be completely ridiculous. The Holy City of Elturel, for so long a shining bastion of goodness, had fallen. A city so pure that a second sun shone above it to bask the city in its holy radiance.
But as the refugee's came in ever greater numbers, it became harder and harder to discount the troubling stories that came with them. Elturel had not just fallen, it had been scoured entirely from the surface of Toril, and Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard had been lost. As hundreds of thousands of Elturan refugees spill into the city of Baldur's Gate, and the Flaming Fists struggle to maintain law and order, little does anyone realise that this is just the beginning of a far deeper and darker plot, one that stretches not just from the world of Toril but into the depths of Avernus itself.
Baldur's Gate, or as its known to its inhabitants, "The Gate" is the largest metropolis and city-state on the Sword Coast. It is also one with a storied history. In the year 1368 DR, Sarevok Anchev initiated a plot to poison and weaken iron shipments across the Sword Coast. It was the start of an elaborate plot with political ramifications that would shake the entirety of the region to its very core. It was also one that was designed to leave him as the sole Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate.
Yet there was a secret that Sarevok kept concealed with his co-conspirators inside the Iron Throne. He was the progeny of the god Bhaal, who foresaw his own demise during the Time of Troubles, and his true motivation was to cause enough instability and chaos in the region to become the new Lord of Murder.
Sarevok failed, and he was slain by Abdel Adrian, his own brother.
Over a hundred years have passed since those tumultuous events. Grand Duke Abdel Adrian is dead, having been slain ten years past. The city today is a veritable picture of chaos. The Flaming Fist, bereft of their commander, are struggling to keep the peace in a city divided by its residents and refugees from the lost city of Elturel. To make matters worse, cultists of the so-called "Dead Three", Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul, are sowing discord and chaos amongst an already divided city, threatening to turn the potentially combustible powder-keg into a full on explosion as the city implodes within itself. And as the streets become bathed in the blood of countless hundred of thousands of innocents, there are those in the upper echelons of the city who are determined to use the political instability as vehicle to seize power for themselves even as the city tears itself apart below them.
And this is just the beginning of the city's problems.
Where the city of Elturel once stood there is now nothing but a deep, scorched crater. Something dark and terrible has wiped the city from the surface of Faerun, and this is only the beginning. Soon, dark and hungry eyes will inevitably turn their gaze to the slowly dying city....
Into this politically charged cauldron of blood and chaos you will come, yet it will not be a simple task to save Baldur's Gate.
Are you prepared to descend into hell itself to save your home? Are you prepared to ask yourself the most difficult question of all?
Is it more important to save the lives of many, or the soul of one?