029.

MORTLOCK V ANTHAMPURThe sounds of combat intensify as the

characters ap- proach this area. Describe the scene to the players as
follows:

Beyond the hall, a flooded chamber opens up with rough- hewn steps climbing to
the south, north, and northeast. The floor buckles up above the water line in the
middleof the room, forming a small island. Corpses and doused torches float in
the water around the island, atop which two men circle each other with weapons
bared. One of the men- a tall, unarmored brute with a greatclub and a scarred
face-towers above his opponent but is gravely wounded. The smaller figure is
muscular and bare- chested. He clutches a bloody dagger in one hand and a
torch in the other, and has no flesh covering his skull.

The man with the greatclub is twenty-nine-year-old Mortlock V anthampur

(see page 26 for his statblock), who has 30 hit points left. His opponent is
an uninjured death's head ofBhaal (see page 233 for his stat block) named
Vaaz. Four other Dead Three cultists lie dead in the water, their skulls caved
in by Mortlock.

Mortlock is tolerated by his mother, Duke Thalamra Vanthampur, and

despised by his older brothers, Thurst- well and Amrik, who view him as a
simpleton and an abomination. Half of Mortlock's face was scarred by fire
when he was a child, and his disfigurement gives him a fearsome
countenance. He was sent to the bathhouse dungeon by his mother to help
the followers of the Dead Three coordinate attacks against the city. When it
be- came clear that the Dead Three cultists could function without
Mortlock's support, Thurstwell and Amrik con- spired with several Bhaal
cultists to assassinate Mort- lock without their mother's knowledge.

Mortlock and Vaaz stop fighting when the characters arrive. Believing them
to be Mortlock's associates, Vaaz disengages from the fight on his next turn
and with- draws to area D33, where he makes his final stand. Vaaz takes his
torch with him. Rather than pursuing, Mort- lock tries to forge an alliance
with the characters. If they come to terms with Mortlock, he gives them the
follow- ing information in exchange for a promise of amnesty:

"I was betrayed. These assassins conspired with my brothers to kill me.
1fyou hadn't come along, I'd be dead. I owe you my life."

• "My family is paying the Dead Three cultists to mur- der people in the city.
Our goal is to prove that the Flaming Fist can't do its job. Once the city stops
pay- ing them, the Flaming Fist will have less of a reason to stay in Baldur's
Gate. With them gone, no one can stand in the way of my mother becoming
the city's