Tip of the Diceberg

Session 1: The Death of a Friend

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tagsdnd, session-summary, campaign

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Session 1: The Death of a Friend

Campaign date: early campaign, exact table date unknown
Source: DM notes forwarded 2026-07-08

Previously on…

This is the campaign’s opening session: the party had not yet become a party, Baldur’s Gate was still home ground, and the Death Curse was only a rumor carried by an old friend.

What happened

The campaign opened on a cold night at the Slaughtered Pig Tavern in Baldur’s Gate’s Redlight Entertainment district. Faf D’Gnarwol, Bonzo Nutley, Bodius Tea, and Isilrod Gurglestrom were strangers at the same dice table with two orcs, two dwarves, and another man.

The dice game collapsed into a tavern brawl after Bonzo quietly lifted 60 gp from the table. The orc twins, Took and Crunk, turned violent; Isilrod played a terrible rendition of “Amazing Grace”; Faf dropped Took; and a dark-cloaked stranger swept in to finish the orcs, amusing Muldrow, the bugbear barkeep.

The stranger was Throbbin Mistwillow, an old ally to each of the future party members. Throbbin brought them to the Mistwillow Brownstone, where they met Mr. Stephens, Throbbin’s butler. Stephens wore an algiz-rune marking necklace.

Throbbin explained that he suffered under the Death Curse, believed the source lay deep in the jungles of Chult, and had arranged passage south on the Brazen Pegasus with Captain Ortimay Swift and Syndra Sylvane.

Before the plan could begin, an arrow shot through the window and killed Throbbin. The arrow bore the same algiz rune as Mr. Stephens’s necklace.

The Baldurian Guard arrived almost immediately, as if forewarned. The party barricaded the door, broke a window, lit the brownstone on fire, and escaped into an alley as the house erupted behind them. A green salamander led them toward a sewer escape, and Bodius covered the manhole with fog.

In the sewers, the party met Balm Bitdoom, Maestro of the Sewer Tinkerer’s Society. He gave each of them a boon on the condition that they repay his kin if they reached Port Xibalba in Chult. They accepted, fought a rodent of unusual size on the way out, and emerged on Baldur’s Gate’s shore just before dawn.

What changed

  • Throbbin Mistwillow was murdered by an algiz-rune arrow.
  • The party became wanted suspects in Throbbin’s murder.
  • Mr. Stephens is now the first hard lead tying the algiz rune to the household betrayal.
  • Balm Bitdoom gave the party gifts and created the first sewer debt.
  • The campaign’s long-term direction became Chult and the Death Curse.

Open threads

  • Who fired the algiz-rune arrow?
  • Why did Mr. Stephens have a matching algiz-rune necklace?
  • How did the Baldurian Guard arrive so quickly?
  • What exactly did Balm Bitdoom give each party member, and what debt did the party accept?
  • Where in Chult is the source of the Death Curse?

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