Baelgrum

From Deez Nuts' Sword Coast Campaign
Revision as of 18:42, 15 September 2026 by Wvaske (talk | contribs) (Current-truth cleanup (issue #2): convert short-form (S NN) session citations to numbered references)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Baelgrum

Dwarf cult-hunter; divine spellcaster

Baelgrum is a dwarf from Goldenfields who joined Deez Nuts in Session 50 under extraordinary circumstances: his was the substitute soul that Lady Calera bound into the party when she could not retrieve Alexios from the Hells. He is the character now played by Richard. As of Session 53 he is a sworn member of the Dawnbringers militant order.

Background

Baelgrum was a farmer of Goldenfields until a dragon attack burned a grain store with his brother inside it. He spent the three years that followed hunting the Cult of the Dragon in vengeance, until he was ambushed and killed. His soul lingered in the Hells, where Lady Calera — unable to reclaim Alexios, whose cries of "smite me!" repelled her — seized upon Baelgrum as a willing substitute and bound him into Deez Nuts in Alexios's place under the Compact. He arrived mid-battle against Arauthator with no ceremony and an easy grin: "Dragon fight! I think I like you people already."

Standing among the burned homesteads on the Elturel road in Session 52, he gave his clearest statement of that origin yet. A red dragon and cultists had done "this exact thing" to his own home: "This is how I lost… chunk of my family, this is why I'm doing what I'm doing, so this is particularly personal." He stood "off to the side clenching my fist in anger" while the villagers stonewalled the party — and then spent his Tempered Soul on the persuasion check that finally broke their silence.

In Session 53 that history became a faith with a home: telling the Dawnbringer Banneret of Goldenfields, the revelation, and the years of "smiting the Dragon Cult in [Lathander's] name," he accepted her offer on one condition — "Do it. As long as Squire Rogar can come."

Abilities

Baelgrum fights as a divine spellcaster, opening the rematch against Arauthator with a Guiding Bolt in the party's killing volley. Stepping into Alexios's place, he took up that paladin's pact item — The Apostate's Rosary (holding Ray of Sickness, Hold Person, and Bestow Curse) — and, like the rest of the reforged company, chose a fiendish pact feat and received the Tempered Soul feat, along with the Monster Harvester benefit. (His patron deity in mechanical terms is still being settled — but as of S53 his faith is unambiguously Lathander's.)

His infernal pact feat was detailed at the table in Session 51: he adds his Charisma modifier (+9) to Wisdom saving throws — but on a failed Wisdom save, the afflicting force can command him to move or to cast a spell. As he put it after volunteering to open Halvard's cursed chest and squeaking past the DC: "this shop does seem to be in fireball range, so I'm glad we passed."

His Tempered Soul Aspect crystallized in Session 52 as protection and healing; in S53 the DM defined its domain precisely: rolls where he takes, redirects, or discharges harm — interposing, shielding, warding. Spirit Guardians is squarely inside it; a Fireball is not.

He owns a pair of jaunty boots (bonus-action teleportation) — and in S53 discovered their true calling: teleporting into the middle of a skeleton pack while Spirit Guardians is running. He is still workshopping a name for the combo.

Session 51 — The Curse-Breaker of Luskan (2026-06-28)

Baelgrum was the engine of the red-coin cure: he personally performed all three Remove Curses that freed Luskan's corrupted key figures —

  • Halvard Greyskein — a clap on the shoulder mid-conversation, freeing two lost weeks and a 3,000-coin hoard;
  • the dockmaster Bargan Thrust — delivered by touch mid-handshake after winning initiative (spell attack 28), so powerful a cleansing that Bargan uniquely kept his memories of the coins' call;
  • Zelene — a feint ("hold out your hands… they're pretty precious") that landed the cure instead of the coins, freeing the Arcane Brotherhood's ranking mage and, ultimately, the city.

He also contributed Burning Hands to the forge test that established the cumulative-3rd-level-magical-fire cure, stood in the vault for the final melt, riding out the largest psychic pulse clean, and good-naturedly bankrolled the party's bridge tolls throughout the corrupted city. His benediction on the dockmaster's pledge to Ship Kurth: "Spread the word of these nuts, indeed."

Session 52 — Personal Vengeance on the Elturel Road (2026-07-12)

The burned homesteads outside Elturel hit Baelgrum harder than anyone (see Background), and The Turnip Wagon Ambush that followed gave him his signature combat moment: a 4th-level Command — "Halt" — at DC 21, boosted by his new Aspect d6, that halted Garrick, Vex and Keith Sorrowmere all at once and broke the hit squad's opening.

He also demonstrated that he now kills deliberately to prevent resurrection: "I identified that he was a caster, and I went for his head." The result was that Revivify was simply not an option on Keith Sorrowmere.

Twice in the fight he burned a reaction on Warding Flare to protect Shade — "Not my wizard." — spending both reactions on her in a single round. A bond is visibly forming between the dwarf and the tiefling.

Session 53 — The Dawnbringer of Nuts Deep (2026-08-09)

In the Battle of Nuts Deep he was everywhere:

  • Misty Step into a 4th-level Fireball on the undead horde — the spend that occasioned the new Tempered Soul ruling (save-DC boosts touch one creature only; his d4+1 hit the dragonborn alone).
  • Command: "Halt" — after confirming at the table that a blue dragon wyrmling is intelligent enough to understand speech — with his Aspect d6 (DC 19). The wyrmling failed, could not act, and dropped out of the sky onto the wall, where Gootcha finished it. His stated intent, pure Aspect: "I'm trying to protect Gootcha and Will."
  • Spirit Guardians (3rd level) blanked a climbing skeleton archer's mind mid-climb — "he just lets go and falls to his death" — and then the jaunty-boots delivery: a bonus-action teleport into the five freshly-hatched skeletons at the catapult. All five failed and died at once. Carl was extremely relieved.

Afterward he was formally recruited into the Dawnbringers (with Rogar), interrogated the Banneret for the histories of the Companion and the Hellriders, and filed the obvious away: "So we have a mysterious glowing ball and a demonic incursion all in the same area. That's interesting." He is now level 9, with a 5th-level spell slot.

Relationships

Appearances

References

  1. ↑ Session 52.
  2. ↑ Session 51.
Retrieved from "https://wiki.deeznuts.wiki/index.php?title=Baelgrum&oldid=2336"