Gloom Falls on Baldur's Gate

**Gloom Falls on Baldur's Gate** was a 12-part campaign that ran in the second quarter of 2021. It was DMed by Chris Hislop.

## Player characters

* Trix, played by Emma Rose
* Silver Raven Maledatta, played by Evey Larham
* Aldryn Wheelwright, played by David Shears
* Persephone Yrremont, played by Rebecca Hare
* Ashra "Ash" Beckett, played by George Lockett

## Plot

The adventure began at the Bormul House, where a party is in full swing to celebrate Alastair Bormul, the house's scion. In attendance are Persephone Yrremont and Ashra Beckett, now a couple and recently returned from the Icewind Dale, and on the hunt for Percy's mysterious monastic assassin order, the Pitch; vampire hunter Trix and vampire Silver Maledatta, who are here to assassinate Silver's vampire sibling Larouche Maledatta; and Aldryn Wheelwright, returned from the High Moor, trying to rid Baldur's Gate of the Church of Mask.

The party soon realise that all of their goals align, with various signs pointing to the Church of Mask and the Pitch being brought together by Larouche for something called "The Gloom". Heading beneath Bormul House, the group fight off vampires, Mask priests and Pitch monks, including a now vampiric Thareval Ravenshade, to interrupt a ritual and face off against Larouche for the first time, who summons a strange shadowy hound that allows them to escape. The party agree to check in with their contacts and get more information, then head to Silver's father, Manzorious Maledatta, who rules their vampire clan and might have something to say about Larouche's plans.

Aldryn meets with Sister Buttons, the local head of the church of Tymora, which he has now joined, but she offers little help. He also convenes with The Lady's Favoured, a group he has formed specifically for the fighting of Mask, where he informs his second, Calastar, of their plans. Trix and Silver join him to meet with Arodene, head of the Bloomridge Dandies (who both Trix and Aldryn are in a relationship with, separately), who offers to look into everything using their Guild contacts. In the meantime, Ashra and Percy's relationship is tested by a meeting with Ayla, a ranking member of the Pitch who Percy used to be close with. Ayla reveals that the Gloom will stop death, which is why the Pitch support it - hinting that the have been given their shadow powers as some sort of appeasement of a greater evil. Percy asks Ayla to help them, but she refuses.

Together, the group all head to Jubilant's Night Bar, catching brief glimpses of Trai(ning Dummy) and Bartosz Penterton in the crowd, before heading beneath to the Maledatta stronghold. The deserted stronghold turns out to be a trap, with Manzorious staked to death by Larouche and the Gloom ritual already completed. The party get their first view of the Gloom - a portal being torn into the Negative Energy Plane, which releases a xeg-yi, a powerful negative energy elemental. The party defeat it and find a scroll of *clone*, which Ashra is very excited about.

Realising that they are being watched and that no one/nowhere is safe, the party head for a safe haven - Hissing Stones, famously impartial in all Baldur's Gate politicking. They all rest, and Trix attempts to contact a presence T felt in the Negative Energy Plane - who reveals that they are the arbiters of death, and want to destroy all life on the Material Plane. Aldryn's scrying reveals that the Pitch are attacking the graveyard in Tumbledown, presumably to enact another Gloom ritual, and the party decide to head there. In the meantime, Trix communes with T's patron, the Cat Lord, who reminds them that they specifically want T to hunt vampires.

The party head for Tumbledown, where Arodene introduces them to the local Guild leader, Leone Wen, who Trix instantly takes a shine to. The Gravemakers have repelled the Pitch and found tunnels from the graveyard to the Pitch's monastery nearby, which Percy is aware of - and they hatch a plan to sneak in while the Gravemakers and Arodene assault the monastery full-force. Inside, the party find Ayla, who offers to help, and confront high-ranking Pitch members, who are being supported by Thareval Ravenshade. Ayla turns on the party, and they defeat them all before heading to the crypts below, where Sister Orianna, the leader of the Pitch, has already enacted a Gloom ritual.

Defeating Orianna, a xeg-yi spills from her body, leaving Percy to believe that one lives inside her and gives her the shadow powers she's been using. A bright light fills the room as a similar being, a xag-ya, tries to enter the space as well. Percy makes a split-second decision and thrusts her hands into the Positive Energy Plane - and at the same time, a strange dwarf appears, and uses a key to close both portals. This dwarf, who calls themselves the Gatecrasher, invites the party into an extra-dimensional space with a strong steampunk/gaslamp vibe, and informs the party that the Gloom is happening - portals to the Negative Energy Plane are opening all over Baldur's Gate, and it will soon spread to the rest of Faerun. They give Ashra a Silver Key, which will allow her to close portals, and work out that closing the main portal, in Baldur's Gate's High Hall, should stop the Gloom. In the meantime, Percy has become the host to a juvenile xag-ya, and her power set has changed entirely.

Arriving at the High Hall, the party see the chaos being wrought on Baldur's Gate, and charge inside through a battle between shadows and the Flaming Fist/Watch, dealing with more vampires on the way. Inside, they find the leader of the Church of Mask enacting a ritual to use the Gloom to return Mask to life from the Negative Energy Plane, which they stop. The leader of the Church of Mask is revealed to be the leader of the Guild, Nine-Fingers Keene, and Arodene (who was kidnapped) joins the fight.

However, Larouche had been planning for this moment, and steps into the portal into the Negative Energy Plane - and soon giant shadowy versions of themselves are joining the assault on Baldur's Gate. The party take out one, but Trix falls, only to have one of T's nine lives granted by the Cat Lord removed - it turns out T has died a few times, most notably at the hands of a vampire called "Blondie". However, they are too late to save Silver, who also perishes. They realise that they will need to head into the Negative Energy Plane to stop Larouche, and do so.

The Negative Energy Plane tries to suck the life out of them - but Percy's xag-ya protects the party as they find Larouche, absorbing Mask's godhood and the souls of the dead from the assault on Baldur's Gate to become a god. Manzorious' soul, which is still in Larouche, uses the last of his power to return Silver to her body, and she uses one of her phantom rogue abilities to capture his as well. Together, the party take down Larouche, and Silver finally stakes them. They return to Baldur's Gate, and Ashra uses the key to close the portal - and the Gloom is stopped.

Silver asks Ashra to use the *clone* scroll to make Manzorious a new body - and Ashra reveals that she was hoping to use it on herself, having been implanted with a magical doomsday device by the Arcane Brotherhood. Percy feels betrayed by Ashra keeping this from her, and Ashra apologises - and proposes, which Percy accepts. Arodene takes over as the head of the Guild, but Aldryn's friend Calastar has been killed in the assault, and refuses to return to life, thanking Aldryn for making him a better person. Aldryn enacts a complicated plan, involving killing the man who inducted him into the Church of Mask and blaming the Church of Mask for it, thus starting a holy war - and offers to Tymora to take his life if he has done wrong, which she does not.

Trix and Silver head off to track down Blondie, the vampire who killed T, while Ashra uses the scroll to try and clone Manzorious - but fails an all-important skill-check to do so. Ashra and Percy promise to help Silver bring her father back, and might look to the Arcane Brotherhood for answers...

## Twitch Clip Archive

* The Final Roll of the Game
* Saved (?) By Aldryn's Rougish Nature
* Peace! Aldryn Has Left the Building
* Perse Has So Little Blood She Forgets Her Own Name
* Perse is an Odd Mix
* Infinite Recursion Whispers
* Ashra Utlising Understatement
* Love's Betrayal Hits Hardest
* Ashra Disintegrates a God!
* Magic The Gathering: Roll Together Edition
* It is Official - LeDouche
* LaRouche, You are the Weakest Link, Goodbye!
* "We're Coming to Get You, Silver"
* Stepping Into Darkness
* Silver's Final Insult
* Trix Dies... Silver Dies... No Trix Does (You're My Person)
* One Final Stinging Insult
* It's a Kind of Magic
* Final Words are Exchanged
* Rebecca is... Rebecca
* Final Words?
* D&D Beyond Meme on a T-Shirt
* A Really Important Story Moment... For the Rabbit
* Mega-Larouche Appears!
* It WAS an Elaborate Double-Bluff
* Aldryn Comes Back to You Now, at the Turn of the Tide...
* Re-Spelling, Even Renaming Murder
* Aldryn Celebrates His Prime Cut by Inflicting Mental Pain
* Aldryn Grilling the Party with Puns
* The party of the first part, heretofore known as the party of the third part, shall take the damage
* Ashra Being Dice-Meta
* Tymora Redeems Aldryn (and Another Sub-Class Change?!)
* Percy Meets a Xag-Ya (and Bigs Up Silver)
* "This World Just... Breaks... Everybody"
* Perse Melts the Internet
* Rebecca Gets a New Character Goal
* Perse is not Milk, thankfully (a monk walking on the roof would be dope though)
* Love and Marriage, Go Together Like Trauma and Grief
* Pure conjecture, theoretically speaking, asking for a friend, if someone was irrationally impulsive?
* Introducing... a Random Dwarf?
* George is Very Enthusiastic for Next Week
* You KIlled My Mother!
* Confused? Punch a Vampire!
* David Puts Tactics in the Box
* Chris Announces the End
* Rebecca's Veracity is Showing
* When the DM's Trying to End the Session but Players Want to PUN
* Rebecca Makes Chris Cry!
* When You Didn't Mean to Summon a Spectre
* Trix, Silver and Percy Break it Down (Entropy is a Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar)
* Trix Says No
* All is better in the morning, maybe?
* They've barely exchanged rings, and they're already going to bed fighting
* Dilute the what now (or The Revenge of Southern Cooking)
* T is Trixy with the party
* A face so horrified it almost breaks invisibility
* Vowing revenge against the LeDouche Steakhouse
* Who replaced George's dice whilst everyone was looking?
* Chris Nearly Kills Two Players
* Trix punches S\*\*\*\* as T normally does, and hopes that it dies
* Rebecca is stunned by Perse's aging
* Friends will be friends
* George declares the party's doom
* It's bad, worse than crayon bad
* The #TeamSausageRoll book club, complete with choclatey snacks
* Why Dhampyrs are not much fun at parties
* Seriously, Aldryn gets serious about how serious this is
* Out of context this is even more horrendous than it actually was
* Annoying a vampire
* Just being there
* Roleplayers will roleplay
* Silver Tounged Against the Dead
* We're now in Baldur's Gate 2 - Extra Vampires!
* Consent is important
* Aldryn is here for it
* Nothing is faster...
* Ashra impresses everyone with Ashra's poise and style
* There is NO save from Whales
* George curses Chris
* T Dusting Vampire Spawn
* Silver grows impatient to join the fight
* George is discovered In Flagrante Delecto
* The GLOOOOOOOM
* T and Perse together
* How old is Silver?
* A Whose Who of the Party
* Silver plays it cool
* Consider this party crashed
* Hand-to-hand combat of a kind
* Rocky Jockey, What?

## Media

A typical scene from Gloom Falls on Baldur's Gate.The title card to Gloom Falls on Baldur's Gate.Gloom Falls on Baldur's Gate - IntroThe title sequence for Gloom Falls on Baldur's Gate.