Tavern Tales and Rumours

[Dyslexic_Author]

-- Almost as fast as they went up they are torn down. If one were lucky they might get to see them around if she missed any but Ema is very good at finding things --

Edit: Baldur's Gate being a metropolis, It takes Ema the better part of a day to find them all. -Ronan

[Darkmystic]

Reports and rumours about kobolds has been increasing lately for those with wide and eager ears. People talk about scattered bands of kobold bandits and or about kobold burglars. Nothing is a threat to normal folk really then the irritation of losing their things. No (Baldurian) deaths has been reported or rumoured.

In completly unrelated news and rumours is that items and riches of worth are randomly disapearing across the Sword Coast. It can be as simply as a tool hammer just disapearing to the noble wife's diamond ring. Some are blaming the kobolds, others are saying that theres a master thief running wild or that the Shadowthieves of Amn are here to take all their things.

The most "fantastic" rumour is about a kobold being a master shadowthief that steals from the rich and gives to the poor.

[Lokan]

Innkeeps within the city of Baldur's Gate are warning adventurous types of a huge Iron construct loose in the city sewers. Yet city officials claim that this has yet to be confirmed.

[Lokan]

The GATE

Hero Revealed!

As promised, we will reveal the name of the hero that saved a pixie from the clutches of a monster!

We have reported earlier, the Bells gang has been using fey, of all things, as slaves. They hide in corners of the harbor and in the sewers. They ring small bells to signal their muggers, assassins, and thieves to their pray.

But one man took a stand where even our own crack members of the city watch had failed. Kaleb O'nasis, a hometown boy, boldly ventured into the gangsters den, defeated a group of newly hired thugs, and freed at least three pixies! Bravo, Mister O!

[Lokan]

The city watch, presumably feed up with lawlessness in the docks area, has finally gone on the offensive.

Workers can be seen repairing and fortifying the local entrance to the sewers.

One large patrol of City Watch guards can be seen making rounds in the docks area. This group harasses and interrogates anyone they see as suspicious.

Rumor circulates about two dead watchmen found poisoned near the sewer entrance.

[paazin]

The port is bustling with activity these past few days as the Flaming Fist expedition from Chult returns to the city of Baldurian with the famed hero Captain Bellan at is head, carrying spoils of war after a successful campaign against the barbaric tribal chiefs in the south.

Many of the Fist expedition can be seen with a swagger drinking in the local taverns and going on about their exploits in the battles of Koram or Quenxra against savage hordes of demi-human barbarians; or regaling those who listen about the stiflingly hot weather and inhospitable climate fighting against disease and the vicious fauna like the man-sized leeches or beasts that resemble giant lizards, as large as sailing ships; or tribes of hairless albino dwarves and savage reptile-people, residing in mysterious ruins and guarding treasures beyond imagining such as diamonds and rubies the size of fists; or exotic ziggurats as in the fabled city of Mezro, that glisten of solid gold.

It is said that Duke Eltan is most pleased Captain Bellan's success and he is expected to remain in the city for a time, with speculation rife on who will take his place as commander of Fort Beluarian.

[Sidhe]

A furious dwarven merchant was heard spouting off at the Elf Song about the Helm and Cloak being a hive of "bloody thieves and arse buggerers, if he'd ever seen one!" The rumours are taken with mirth as the angry dwarf rants about his room being broken into and his possessions stolen.

The Helm and Cloak's host denies that his most reputable establishment has ever housed thieves, stating that the dwarf apparently was the only "victim" and was quick to accept reimbursement in the form of fine ale kegs.

[Ronan]

Rumor has it the Bandit King struck again, attacking a caravan carrying fine silks on the Trade Way south of the Friendly Arm's. Everyone in the caravan is either slain or missing. Only a dead ogre with the Bandit King's mark was left as proof of what occurred.

Almost simultatniously, a rumor reaches the Gate of a similar attack north of Temus's Tears, also on the Trade way.

In the Blade and Stars, a half-elven Fist scout tells a troubling tale over some ales:

"I ne'er seen nothin' like it. Big bloo'y ogre tracks, clear as day, then jus' poof, gone. Like they jumped off tha road an' flew away. Ogres? Flyin'? The gods must fookin' hate us!

[Zelknolf]

The chatter about Baldur's Gate is especially loud and energetic, speaking of ogres swooping in by magic to butcher the people outside East Gate, where they'd gathered to see a man presenting the slain bandit king. Theories abound as to how and why the ogres arrived as they did, and most seem that they require a few drinks to make sense, though they all end with the ogres decidedly slain by the combined forces of numerous passerbys and the guard.



Shortly after the ruckus from the attacks is settled, Persephone and Aelynthi are seen making their way slowly through the city's districts, navigating by a list in hand, giving bad news and sympathy to grieving families after the attacks, offering them coin to offset the fallen's final expenses, and seeming steadily more tired and ragged as the day carries on.

[Ronan]

The Seluntes, the men of Sword's Edge and many of the Flaming Fist have a difficult time buying their own drinks over the next tenday. Word spreads quick about an attack at East Gate, some sort of portal opening up and ogres pouring out. They were put down by the combined forces of the Flaming Fist, Sword's Edge and the Selunites Persephone and Aelynthi. All agree that without the aid of any of the above groups, many more would have died.

One Fist Sergeant at the Blade and Stars tells his tale over whiskey:

So this masked feller's standin' up on a'few barrels, some poor sod's head in his hands. Screamin' that its the Bandit King. Must'a convinced the local guard of it, as they didn't hassle him none. Anyway, he's clearly waitin' for a crowd ta form - which it does. Good number of folk have plenty reasons ta hate that Bandit King.

When enough folk get there, he holds the head up high so all can see, and yells again that he's killed the Bandit King. The scum shouts "the king is dead, long live the king", then does somethin', not sure what - some folk say he shoved somethin' inta tha ground. Anyway, the area all 'round him starts to glow, and him and his boys, they jump inta the glow an' disappear. Then ogres, huge-arse ogres start comin' out! They just start choppin' folk up. Aye we jump inta the frey, but hells there weren't enough of us. Thank Tempus Sword's Edge an' Persephone were there, or I'd be dead now, 'long with a bunch more common folk.

[Brokenbone]

At least a couple more significant caravans within the last month seem to have fallen prey to either the self-styled "Bandit King", or someone happily applying the mark of that scoundrel's outfit in an effort to misdirect local merchant concerns and mercenary outfits large and small.

Rhaggot of the Sword's Edge has recently indulged in blood-soaked pillow talk with a coinlass of the Red Sheaf, describing nasty battlefield-like wrecks around the Uldoon Crossroads, and more recently a few leagues south of there not far from the Abbey of Highsong. It is unclear if tales of death and pillage better endeared the harlot to the rough-handed grasping of the orcblood axeman, numbed and pliant as she was by strong drink and hefty coin, the pair's typical aphrodisiac of choice.

[danielmn]

Hours after the toasting to the life of one Jacho, a Baldurian Merchant Guard, within the Blade and Stars, the man himself is seen walking toward the city, battered and bloody, with a Lady in Purple and a Small Adept Tracker ( who appeared to be dragging a massive bundle behind him) at his side. Whispers circulate of Jacho's prowess in battle, as it is said he bested an ogre within the Cloakwood.

[Ronan]

The barkeep at the Blushing Mermaid is seen talking to a group of on-duty Watch, who are clearly nervous at being in such an establishment:

"Yup, some folk noticed some blood on the floor. Didn't see where it come from. Then I remembered some dolt opened the front door a while back and didn't come in . . . so I got to thinkin' it was some vanished feller bleedin' all over me floors. Jus' like we 'eard happened to that feller Persephone killed.

"So I take a look upstairs . . . sure 'nough there was a dead feller in the first room on the right. Then I look in the common room, an' see a window open with a fuckin' rope hangin' down. No sign o' no killer. I go ta fetch ye folk 'cause I don't want nuthin' t'do with crazy Selunites.

*when the barkeep is done, a woman speaks up*

"I saw 'm! I saw that bugger! He had a mask, an' black clothes, like a killer in the night! Jumped out'a window, a little halfling!"

[Ronan]

Cries of "Witch! Warlock!" could be heard from people running out of the Lucky Sword last night. Shortly thereafter, several watch members entered the building, later exiting with a large, filled sack.

The Watch refuse to comment on what happened, though patrons say a halfling disappeared into thin air, causing cries of panic. The watch evidently knocked him out and hauled him away.

A few loiterers report seeing another small shape lurking about in the shadows. They whisper of another halfling warlock come to seek revenge, but the watch dismisses these claims as dogs or rats.

[Sidhe]