1.5g Optional Nodes

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The bodies of both the Outer City Murder victims and the Lower City Murder victims are likely to be interred at either the Shrine of the Suffering or the Cliffside Cemetery. As such it is possible that your PCs may wish to venture to one or both of these locations.

Somewhat interestingly, the poorest people are buried inside the city walls in the Shrine of the Suffering, while those more affluent get a proper grave site outside the city in the Cliffside Cemetery south of Basilisk Gate. It’s an ironic note that the only time some of the poorest of the city will enter into the walls is in death.

Shrine of the Suffering

Simple shrine crowded by homeless, located in the Heapside district of Lower City. They congregate here all of the time, but large throngs gather around meal times.

Brother Hodges (LG male halfling priest of Ilmater) offers free meals and gate tokens to the destitute. Burials are carried out by lowering bodies into the sewers, where they are stripped by rats, then bringing up the bones to be interred in the crypts beneath the altar.

Body of Mien Kaas (Outer City Victim)

The second Hamhock Slaughterhouse victim.

Brother Hodges knew of the Kaas family – They were branded as traitors of Elturel about 50 years ago, but without proof were exiled instead. The family first lived inside Baldur’s Gate itself but struggled to find anyone to employ them and lost their home. After his wife committed suicide Mien Kass moved to slum in Stonyeyes. He had come to the Shrine of the Suffering occasionally asking for money and food.

Crawler Below

(Optional combat miniquest)

A carrion crawler has been lurking in the burial chamber of the sewer, Brother Hodges cannot afford to pay for it to be killed but would offer ongoing healing and assistance if it could be killed.

Dara in Worship

Dara, Ghorin and Clyde have been on pilgrimidge to the Shrine of the Suffering in Baldur’s Gate for a long time – before they even met the party. Elturel was just a stop along the way for them to reach this final destination.

Weirdly they are stated as coming to pay reverence to the Book of Exalted Deeds (in the Adventure League modules), despite the fact this incredibly powerful relic isn’t mentioned as being located there (in Descent into Avernus).

As such Dara may want to beeline straight for here once the Outer City murders are completed and the refugees have access to the Lower City. Or she may wish to try and get here prior to them being solved, perhaps offering a ‘way in’ for the PCs as well.

It’s worth foreshadowing Dara’s interest in this location now, as it will give a minor pay-off in the next series of articles on The Assault on Stormshore Warehouse.

Cliffside Cemetery

This crowded graveyard is located by the cliff edge south of the Tumbledown district in the Outer City, overlooking the Chionthar River. It is overseen by The Gravemakers.

It is a paid cemetery site:

• 1 gp for a simple marked grave.
• 70 gp interment in coffin placed in a mausoleum of the graveyard. A decent meal and a wake are held.

The Gravemakers are more than just grave diggers. They are devotees of Torm, who protect Tumbledown and the Cliffside Cemetery from both undead and graverobbers alike.

The leader of The Gravemakers is Leone Wen (LG female paladin of Torm knight) who is always looking for fresh recruits and obsessively guards the dead.

Body of Laurens Ullin (Outer City Victim)

The first Hamhock Slaughterhouse victim.

Laurens Ullin was an elven knight who worked as a Gravemaker after moving from Elturel last year. He had been honourably discharged from the Hellriders to look after his mother in Baldur’s Gate. His body is rat eaten but has the puncture wound and slashed wrists of the other victims. Laurens claimed he was being followed in the days before his death by figures in black robes.

Body of Edmao Eduarda (Lower City Victim)

The first victim of the Poisoned Poseidon cultists.

He was a native of Baldur’s Gate and at that time the Flaming Fist thought it a one off murder, so his body was released from Candulhallow’s Mortuarium to be interred here.

The burial was paid for by his elven wife Neske, who lives in Brampton, a district in the Lower City. Leone has an invoice with the address 12 Falconer Way on it. (This is just an address I have made up for Edmao, see Justin’s article for what’s at his house).

Grave Robbing

Grave robbery is something the Gravemakers must always contend with, however last tenday a black robed figure was chased multiple times after robbing graves.

Witnesses do not have an accurate description other than the man was older looking and had a long white unkempt beard. He stank of blood and death, like a slaughterhouse.

GM Info: Jaemus Exheltarion has been taking the bodies to create his Ram-headed Golem

The Outer City Murders Solved

Once the murders are solved, with the Hamhock Slaughterhouse cell either destroyed, brought to justice or otherwise removed, Flame Zodge will permit the PCs into the city and ask them to investigate the Lower City Murders.

However, that’s it for the articles Outer City Murders! Next up in the series we have the final events of Dara, Ghorin and Clyde in the Assault on Stormshore Warehouse.