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lettersfrombel17 Tarsakh 1492 DR
Swamps near Moonhaven
My dear River,
I normally write these letters either at night, or early in the morning, if you are keeping track of the dates. I saw the owl bear cub we rescued hanging around our camp last night. I managed to give it some food before Astarion accidentally spooked it. Fair; he is a bigger predator than the cub is at the moment. I don’t think he’d push his luck attacking something most of the rest of the group finds cute. Quite the opposite: it would not surprise me if he was the sort to never show what he actually likes to other people unless it is what is expected. It was something I learned growing up, that I’m working on.
Astarion seems to be doing well. He and Wyll are metaphorically at each others’ throats, but it is to be expected. There are lines I would rather both would not cross, but I think letting them come to terms with the fact we are stuck together is probably for the best. I would like not having to keep track who I should separate when we split up.
In ‘adding people to Bel’s enemy list’, we ran into another monster hunter sent after our merry band. This one, sadly, was not amenable to a peaceful resolution where I explain that Astarion hasn’t killed anyone that didn’t start something with us. It did let Astarion know that he hadn’t slipped his leash as completely as we’d hoped. The man was sent by the vampire who turned Astarion, to bring him back to Baldur’s Gate in chains. Honestly, hearing that Astarion was to be captured was what let me make the call to kill the man. If you believe a vampire spawn is a threat — and at this point, I couldn't tell you that Astarion is harmless, only that he needs us enough that he's sticking to acceptable targets — then you kill them. At best, capture is a ‘I don’t care what happens as long as I get paid’ proposition.
I’ve done things generally viewed as immoral out of ‘I get paid to do this and don’t ask questions’. But I accept it means that people don’t try to appeal to my better nature; at best they might try to outbid my current employer, a thing we can not currently do.
I’m rationalizing, I know. I don’t want you to think ill of me. That matters. But those with me accepted my call, as Astarion has put his ass on the line for us, so we do the same for him. And, what he told me about his master… I’m not going to repeat the details even to you, dear River. Astarion was clear that he was telling me this because we needed to know who we were setting ourselves against and what the stakes were, and you do not. I will give you a name to avoid: Cazador Szass of Baldur’s Gate. We don’t have a plan on what to do about him, as Astarion made it clear he was out of our league. And, from our prior experience with a vampire, I agree. I suspect that I would be far less cordial if we ever meet our friend from Moonshae again, by the way… it is a lot easier to be polite to people when you consider them the lesser evils, and I am no longer certain of that.
We can only hope because the monster hunter was wandering around the local swamp looking for a hag for advice that his absence is dismissed as ‘something else killed him’. Gods know this world is full of things that could.
I want to get this whole ‘hag’ thing sorted as well. I don’t trust leaving that at my back, and she is a threat we might be able to deal with.
Your friend,
Bel
From the Player:
Swamps near Moonhaven
My dear River,
I normally write these letters either at night, or early in the morning, if you are keeping track of the dates. I saw the owl bear cub we rescued hanging around our camp last night. I managed to give it some food before Astarion accidentally spooked it. Fair; he is a bigger predator than the cub is at the moment. I don’t think he’d push his luck attacking something most of the rest of the group finds cute. Quite the opposite: it would not surprise me if he was the sort to never show what he actually likes to other people unless it is what is expected. It was something I learned growing up, that I’m working on.
Astarion seems to be doing well. He and Wyll are metaphorically at each others’ throats, but it is to be expected. There are lines I would rather both would not cross, but I think letting them come to terms with the fact we are stuck together is probably for the best. I would like not having to keep track who I should separate when we split up.
In ‘adding people to Bel’s enemy list’, we ran into another monster hunter sent after our merry band. This one, sadly, was not amenable to a peaceful resolution where I explain that Astarion hasn’t killed anyone that didn’t start something with us. It did let Astarion know that he hadn’t slipped his leash as completely as we’d hoped. The man was sent by the vampire who turned Astarion, to bring him back to Baldur’s Gate in chains. Honestly, hearing that Astarion was to be captured was what let me make the call to kill the man. If you believe a vampire spawn is a threat — and at this point, I couldn't tell you that Astarion is harmless, only that he needs us enough that he's sticking to acceptable targets — then you kill them. At best, capture is a ‘I don’t care what happens as long as I get paid’ proposition.
I’ve done things generally viewed as immoral out of ‘I get paid to do this and don’t ask questions’. But I accept it means that people don’t try to appeal to my better nature; at best they might try to outbid my current employer, a thing we can not currently do.
I’m rationalizing, I know. I don’t want you to think ill of me. That matters. But those with me accepted my call, as Astarion has put his ass on the line for us, so we do the same for him. And, what he told me about his master… I’m not going to repeat the details even to you, dear River. Astarion was clear that he was telling me this because we needed to know who we were setting ourselves against and what the stakes were, and you do not. I will give you a name to avoid: Cazador Szass of Baldur’s Gate. We don’t have a plan on what to do about him, as Astarion made it clear he was out of our league. And, from our prior experience with a vampire, I agree. I suspect that I would be far less cordial if we ever meet our friend from Moonshae again, by the way… it is a lot easier to be polite to people when you consider them the lesser evils, and I am no longer certain of that.
We can only hope because the monster hunter was wandering around the local swamp looking for a hag for advice that his absence is dismissed as ‘something else killed him’. Gods know this world is full of things that could.
I want to get this whole ‘hag’ thing sorted as well. I don’t trust leaving that at my back, and she is a threat we might be able to deal with.
Your friend,
Bel
From the Player:
Honestly, Bel likes Wyll, but how annoyed he is depends on how much Astarion told the entire group rather than just Bel about Cazador. Believing 'Astarion would totally go for an innocent humanoid if he didn't need us, so I'm reminding him he's stuck with animals as long as he needs us more than we need him' is minor assholishness. Knowing Astarion's backstory elevates it to major assholishness, and would cause the 'people who make deals with devils can't throw stones, especially if Mizora could do something to you like what was done to Astarion -- compel certain actions, but without changing your underlying personality'. Bel suspects that Mizora wants Wyll to come to heel without magical coercion, so he can't say that she couldn't do just that, only that she hasn't.
(If Wyll doesn't know the details, because Astarion figured telling one person was enough and Bel could run interference, Bel would give the 'stop giving him shit over things like 'not eating humans' that we want him to do' lecture.)
Bel knows people will judge him for siding with a vampire spawn over a self-proclaimed human monster hunter, perhaps all the more because Bel assumes he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt a surface elf or human would. Hence a pre-emptive defense.
In the tabletop game I took Bel from, a vampire who occasionally passed through the town until the bodies started piling up was an ally, under the reasonable belief that a monster wants to protect his own feeding grounds, and extra murders attract monster-hunters. He first dropped by while the group was camping while clearing a house of a mimic infestation, but he approached Bel and River while Bel was deciding 'getting drunk and hooking up with someone' was best coping material for 'two of our teenagers were kidnapped by the murderer'. Meanwhile, Bel was heavily flirting with a man who turned out to be the vampire's thrall or spawn or something, who was willing to go back to Bel's room if he wasn't needed by his master.
This did lead to a drunk Bel coming back to the rest of the party and proclaiming that the damned vampire cock-blocked him, before River could share what they actually learned.
After meeting Astarion, Bel would be far less gracious about that. (When Bel learns how Cazador used Astarion as a lure, he's going have his blood run cold and be grateful that either this other vampire did his own legwork for dinner dates, or Bel was considered more of use investigating the murders... especially as the murderer was also in that bar picking out its next victim. There Bel was safe, because the murderer had already pissed off Bel enough that any attempt to pick him up would be a 'are you fucking kidding me!?' in response.)
But, yes, Bel knows their best hope is that either Cazador writes off this one monster hunter as 'well, shit happens in the wilds, and it doesn't mean Astarion killed him' or sticks to more proxies because he doesn't want to leave the comfort of a major city.
