Chapter 6: Baldur's Gate - Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerûn

Chapter 6: Baldur's Gate. Baldur's Gate is a bustling metropolis where money comes first and life is cheap. Cosmopolitan and crowded, the city draws innumerable visitors from across the Sword Coast. Baldur's Gate was founded many years ago by the hero Balduran, but it quickly outgrew its founder's vision as merchants, pirates, and laborers expanded the town into a city. The city flourished because Baldur's Gate is perfectly situated as a trade nexus. Major roads along the Sword Coast and beyond meet where the wide and deep Chionthar River allows seagoing vessels easy access to Gray Harbor. The city is deeply stratified, both physically and socially. Wealthy aristocrats of the Upper City, called patriars, stay within their ivy-shrouded manors. Working people in the Lower City drive trade from roads and harbors. Refugees and poor residents make what homes they can in the Outer City. Sturdy walls and gates divide these three districts. Baldur's Gate has seen its share of dangers in recent years. Cultists of sinister gods promote murder, tyranny, and necromancy in shadowy lanes and hidden rooms. A powerful thieves' guild, so ubiquitous as to be known only as the Guild, lines its pockets at the expense of the citizenry and visitors. Innocent-seeming citizens secretly worship fiends or are fiends in disguise. Cargo from across the world provides the city with wonders and wealth, but it also conceals curses from distant lands. Danger and opportunity aplenty wait in the bustling city, and people who are smart or lucky can make a reputation and a fortune. Karlach Cliffgate enjoys herself on the streets of Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate Campaigns Baldur's Gate encourages tales of urban intrigue, vengeful antiheroes, and stakes beyond life and death. The city's denizens are flawed, cynical, full of life, and vulnerable to sinister threats. Gritty Urban Fantasy Trade is the paramount purpose of this busy, bustling city. A staggering amount of wealth flows through Baldur's Gate,...