I just finished jotting quick notes on everyone, including myself (they are kinda through the lens of what Z thinks, so keep that it mind.) They were originally just for me, but I decided sharing is caring. 

I'm including the answer to the inevitable question "What era of Faerun are we in?" in the background and lore write-up I'm doing. I should have that posted today.

In short, yes, we're pre-spellplague. I don't assign a strict "current date" and I'm sure there will be some anachronisms in my Faerun setting vs canon, but they should be minor. Most of the important stuff will be custom crafted to our game and the Faerun story its self will inevitably evolve differently in our game than anything canon. 

But I'll have more on that, and a lot more, posted here presently.

Sounds good. You never know how players can screw up a campaign. I've seen it in mine, done it in others, and it gets really interesting when Friday night at a weekend LARP suddenly skews everything for the rest of the weekend. I'm also not worried about sticking strictly to the canon, but at least the info on the area gives us a good foundation that helped some with backstory, especially mine!

And I love the write up DungeonMaya. Oh and I'm sure they will buttheads. Not in a bad way, but one of those you are likable but I can't understand you at all kind of ways. ::chuckles:: I can see her talking back slowly with strong enunciation at times. I think the gnome will figure out fairly quickly what languages Portia knows. ;)

Also, no one is going to know about her family life other than she was orphaned young, only her mother came for help and she was raised at the temple. Her mom did not live in Beregost originally, but came to the temple because of its renown. She only knows what little others can tell her and it's been nearly 19 years since your mother died. The temple is her family now and she was young enough that she sees Malark as her father even if she definitely knows he is not. Her last name was made up by her mother and there's a good story to go with that, but there are elves out there with that surname. The temple made a worthy effort to find her biological father, but without much information, her mother never told of where she came from or where the time with the elf had occurred. As far as Portia knows there could have been some trice in the woods under the stars one night and mom wound up pregnant from it.

GENERAL NOTES

Some general points that will be relevant to the upcoming game:

• I'm fond of using Advantage to represent assistance on skill checks. As an example, rather than having everyone roll perception checks, I tend to identify the individual most likely to spot or listen (or smell or feel or...) a given thing and roll for them, using Advantage to represent the rest of the group's awareness as well. Often "most likely" has to do with their bonus to the Perception skill, but sometimes it's proximity to the thing in question, sensitivity to its nature, or other factors... I don't allow such assistance on individual tasks, such as listening at a door (unless it's large enough for multiple people to listen at once), picking a lock, etc... When it has to do with knowledge-based skills, such as History or Arcana or some uses of Nature, I allow assistance only if more than one individual in the group is proficient in that skill.
• While this is PbP, and by nature the pace of the game will be slower than real-time role-playing, thus players tend toward letting the DM take the lead on major story points, still, I like to stress that I run a very organic game. By that, I mean that, while I use a ridiculously large volume of notes and plans on events, locations, and opportunities for carnage... er... adventure... There's no set path, no predestination. For good or ill, the game will eventually follow the path set by the group's decisions and the history of Faerun will forever be marked by their presence, or at least the grease spot left behind by their untimely demise. (Joking. Kind of.)
• As a multi-decade veteran of every iteration of D&D that ever existed, I've developed a healthy respect for the power of playtesting. 5th Edition is an excellent ruleset and I respect the time and mastery WotC's invested in its creation and refinement. For that reason, I don't houserule much. I do tend to apply logic and situational awareness to the interpretation of rules, but in general I like to run things exactly as they were originally intended by the game's designers. Please, if I've missed something or am applying something incorrectly, feel free to link an article or forum discussion on rules application and I'll be more than happy to review it. While I'm a very story-oriented DM, and the rules definitely don't dominate the game, I do feel they're critical for keeping fairness and balance and making sure the numbers don't detract from the fun for all parties involved.

Okay, enough monologue, onto the fun bits...

EVENTS & RUMORS

The year is approximately 1384 DR. Grand Duke Valarken and General Ikhal have recently failed in their plot to usurp leadership of Baldur's Gate. As a result, the Council of Four has been dissolved and the Flaming Fist have officially taken command of the city. This event, while likely to be a positive change in the long run, has sent ripples of turmoil through the Sword Coast region. As they shore up their position in the city, the Flaming Fist have less resources to patrol the furthest reaches of their realm, and many settlements (Beregost as an example) have suffered.  Nuisance monsters, mostly goblins and kobolds presumably from tribes dwelling in the Storm Peaks, have become bolder and bolder, striking in small groups at night to pilfer goods and coin and abscond with livestock from outlying farms and settlements.  The Flaming Fist have responded with an open bounty on such monsters, hoping to enlist the assistance of independent adventurers and brave locals until they've fully regained control of the region.

Major news from other parts of the Realms is dominated by events in Thay. The archlich Szass Tam, over the course of the last decade, has seized control of Thay and murdered most of the leadership of the Red Wizards, causing a schism that has broken the infamous organization apart into splinter cells and severed their loyalty with their country of origin. In recent months, the fallout of that event have become unsettlingly clear as pockets of Red Wizards establish footholds throughout the Realms. A popular rumor in Beregost says that Athkatla (capital of Amn, to the south) has become a refuge for displaced Red Wizards and the city will eventually become their new power center,  though the Flaming Fist and most local politicians downplay this tale as being unfounded. Other rumors wafting from the east speak of Red Wizards establishing a network of underground cults in and around Elturel (to the east  of Baldur's Gate) and of Red Wizard infiltration of Westgate (further east along the Sea of Fallen Stars).

PARTY BACKGROUND

Of course, each person's motivation for setting out on adventures is unique. Whatever your individual motivation, over the last several weeks, you've banded together organically with a loose alliance of similarly minded would-be-heroes, motivated in part by the Flaming Fists's open bounty announcement. The pickings haven't been as easy as expected, however, as the goblins and kobolds in question have proved to be sneaky and elusive, talented at avoiding conflict and picking targets with little or no defense. As a result, you've found yourselves spending rather than earning, and each day your purses have grown lighter.

After a long night and failed stakeout of a nearby cluster of farms, your weary band has settled into the Sharptooth Tavern (north of Beregost at the juncture with the path to Candlekeep) for a bite to eat, an ale or nine (for those who partake), and a bit of shut-eye. As you're eating and discussing plans for the next monster hunt, Gert, the grizzled innkeep with unkept fingernails and mousy brown hair streaked in white, approaches Portia with a request for help.

"I heard something strange in one of the back rooms, a boy whimpering for help," she whispers, her voice rattling in her chest like a bag of pebbles. "From the room that fellow rented."

She points to a golden-skinned genasi seated at the bar. His worn, patchwork leathers and the rapier hanging loosely at his waist, forged in a style consistent with the Cimarine Isles, mark him as a pirate.

"There'll be no bill if you check it out and report back. Careful, though, I saw he stowed a pack of guard dogs in there."

I took care of it.  Enjoy the game!  :)

Ishkar - "No Bill? Sure. Zina, how well can you distract dogs?"

Bullden being a member of the Flaming Fists wants to know if slavery is one of the tenants the group is against because this does not sound right.

In between mouthfuls of food/drink but before Gert walks away, Bullden says to Gert "I assume this aint normal behavior from yer patrons.  Can you tell us anything more about pirate goldy over there?".

As slavery is illegal in the city-state of Baldur's Gate, it is officially forbidden by the Flaming Fist. Fighting underground slave trade is a constant struggle throughout most of the Sword Coast. How an individual feels about the topic, morally, is up to the individual.

GERT: (shrugs) "Not for patrons who're welcome a second time. I hear his name's Baradwulf. Came in with a group of thugs some days ago, but he's the only one who's stuck around. I heard his friends say something about heading into the Gate (common nickname for Baldur's Gate) and meeting up with him later. I'd take him for a ne'er-do-well, if you asked me."

Pettilaen, with all of his might and strength, scoots the tallest stool he can find that isn't in use to the the table. Finally climbing up the stool to be with his newfound friends, he sighs when he realizes he forgot to grab his mug of ale. Looking back at the bar longingly, he hops down and orders a drink. As if the entire process was just as arduous as flaying the ears off of the few kobolds and goblins he's encountered, he mutters to himself as he returns to the group. Reunited, he takes a large swig, before almost choking. "Ale's ale, but this is nothing compared to the brookebrew my family is known for making! I tell ya, one of these days you guys gotta come to my family's house. The mead we make is sharper than a dagger and stronger than a giant!"

Chuckling in his high-toned voice himself, he sees the more solemn faces and Gert standing over them. Quieting down and listening intently, he catches up on the proposition Gert has given the party. Narrowing his eyes, he glances over to the genasi. "You think the Flaming Fist would give us a silver piece if we collected that filth's ears too? He's worse than these ransacking goblins in my mind... You know, I was a bounty hunter once. Finest the Gate ever knew! I only stopped because... well, you know. With my height, it's hard to drag the bounties to the authorities! Ears on the other hand..." 

Taking another spoonful of his now cooled down soup to his mouth, Ishkar chuckles as his friends struggle to get comfortable. "Yeah, that was the reason." Taking a sip from his wine, Ishkar turns to the group and posts a question. "Pirates can be quite intimidating, but mister living coin might be hiding more than he shows. What say we go over and ask him a few questions first? It might not be a bad idea to just see if we can pick out a bit of information. Otherwise, we could just rush back into the room, but I think if he has guard dogs then we might face a problem." He stares over his shoulder at the golden genasi pirate. "However, dogs are not that bad, but he might be."

He flashes a look to Ishkar, noting the sarcasm. "It is! What would you know. You're too busy with your nose in some book, waving your hands fancifully, casting magic..." You note a bit of envy in his voice as he trails off.

At the mention of dogs, Pettilaen's eyes go wide for a brief second. "Yeah... dogs aren't bad! I bet they're friendly to a small gnome like me. See me more like a friend than a meal." He chuckles, with a slight tone of nervousness. "At least genasi don't eat people... right? If you want to go over and ask him some questions, be my guest. I'm staying here and finishes this concoction these humans call a proper brew."

Portia finds she may have been addressed, but her talkative friends jumped right in. She smiles reassuringly at the woman and nods. Unlike the rest, she doesn't look at the man in question. She had already noted him earlier due to his difference to the common clientele of the area. Once the others get jabbering on about what they should do, she gets the woman's attention again.

"Which room? I can at least walk by going up to mine after this good soup and see what I can determine for starters." Her voice is kept low as she speaks, barely loud enough for the woman to hear even though they are next to each other.

She continues to eat her soup without adding any comments to what the others are saying while waiting for the answer. There was no need to be hasty yet, but having grown up in the area, she knew people did not tend to approach anyone of her order without a real reason.

((You DM a lot like me then - love the storytelling and I'm finding that 5e rules work very well without much house rules. I've also done almost all iterations of D&D and slew of other tabletop games over the years since like 1980.))

OOC: With players being in different timezones and different schedules, it would make sense that the order we respond in doesn't necessarily reflect the order the events go in. I had assumed this when I posted, with my character coming in late to the conversation due to his short legs, and getting filled in.

Likewise, I had also assumed the atmosphere was quite loud, and he was far enough away to have not been able to hear our conversation. If that's not the case, I'll edit my post to reflect that, since it is something my character is smart enough to understand.

((I was assuming it was fairly loud myself, but she didn't want to talk any louder than she needed to for the woman to hear. It also felt better for the flow and for how my character is to just assume everything else had occurred, so she asked for the room information when it had not been given yet.  =D))

Zina was smart enough to bring her drink with her.

With her hands wrapped around the comically large mug, she leaned across the bar top toward Gert. "No Bill? Sure. Zina, how well can you distract dogs?" the tiefling said pointedly toward the pint-sized illusionist.

With a flick of her wrist, she produced a small glowing hand, with its fingers bent into a rude sign toward Ishkar. The minor illusion was purposefully translucent, and green in color. Zina liked the color green, it matched her eyes in a way that implied a signature. "Oh, I think I can manage," she said cheerfully with a wink, before waving her hand and dispelling the illusary hand.

"Pirates can be quite intimidating, but mister living coin might be hiding more than he shows. What say we go over and ask him a few questions first? It might not be a bad idea to just see if we can pick out a bit of information. Otherwise, we could just rush back into the room, but I think if he has guard dogs then we might face a problem."  Ishkar said, between mouthfuls of food and drink.

"If we go over and ask the gold man questions, he's going to suspect tha' we're the ones rummaging 'round," Zina countered, making a mental note to move the bard down a notch in her mental rankings of the intelligence of her party members. "Besides, I'd rather face a handful of guard dogs than a pirate genasi." The gnome was well aware of their limitations, and wanted to make up for said limitations by really thinking through.

"Which room? I can at least walk by going up to mine after this good soup and see what I can determine for starters,"  Portia, seemingly the most levelheaded at this point asked. Z liked this plan.

"And do you know how many dogs there may be?" Zina asked Gert. She glanced over at the golden skinned man again, wondering if she could glean anything else from his appearance. "Or anything else you may have noticed about him when he came in. I like to know what I'm getting myself into."

((OOC: we should find a place for the side chatter.))

Ishkar is completely unfazed by any insults or rude remarks to him as he knows he has been through worse than mild insults. Leaning forward on the table Ishkar quiets his speech "This pirate would likely come running if the dogs were to be heard and guard dogs are not quiet. I thought that at least one of us would distract him and possibly keep him at bay in case anything goes wrong. This might buy the rest of us some time to look around." Thinking to himself that the little gnomes might be entertaining as distractions he brushes this off as it would take too many party members away from the job. "If not a distraction, one of us could at least watch out, maybe Pettilaen, from here and if he were to follow when we go back, they could follow him and stop him from escaping.

OOC: DM, How powerful and skilled does this genasi look? Ishkar has been observing him for the past minute and is trying to size him up. Just reiterate the details we can tell about him.

(PS to everyone: Ishkar has a sort of mild Arabian accent.)

Bullden finishes his drink and drags his hand down his beard a few times just to somewhat clean of the meal's left overs and talks to group in hushed tones.

"Here's me idea.  Gert gets golden boy hammered with some harder then normal libations.  Ishkar your the pretty face of the group, go over there while he's drink'n and get him to talk.  Maybe sing'em a sweet pirate ditty to help loosen his lips.  If we get nothing, hopefully golden boy will be too drunk to have to worry about then we check out his room."

Bullden asks Gert, "do you have an extra key to the room in case we have to do this the hard way?".

Pettilaen couldnt help but suppress a smirk after seeing Zina's cleverly orchestrated obscene gesture. I wish my life turned out as fortunate as her's did, with studying magic. Snapping to attention from a daydream at his name's mention, he chuckles to himself. "There is no better people in all of the Sword Coast to turn to distractions than gnomes! That, and pranks." He takes the viol from off his back, and procures a small bow for the viol from seemingly nowhere. "I'll get some music going, and maybe spice it up a bit with an illusion or two, just to wow the crowd. That should be enough to draw his focus towards me, right?" Hearing Bullden's remarks, he nods in approval. "That's a good plan. But nothing every goes according to plan. Let's just see where this all takes us, and try and avoid killing anyone."

Almost as if impatient, Pettilaen hops off of the stool, and starts dragging it towards a spot that would pull the genasi's attention away from the direction of his room.

OOC: I can set up a Discord room for side-chatter until the DM gets his website thing put up.

Ishkar notices the little gnome with his instrument and loudly announces to the tavern "Hey Pettilaen, how about you and I try our hands at a duet. We both have Viols and we both can play. What say you?" Ishkar pulls his Viol from his back as well as hops up with his little gnome friend. He plays a few beginning notes. Ishkar is a little excited as he hasn't had a chance to perform a duet since he left his band a while back. He however has realized that he has got ahead of himself and is risking the turn down of embracement. Getting closer to his buddy he whispers "We can back each other up as Gert gets his drinks going. I say we might just provide that window of opportunity."

OOC: That Discord would be helpful. With all this information running amuck we might need someplace to chat about the more abstract and out of character things.

"Whatever happened to thinking things through?" Kook muttered sullenly into her ale, mourning the death of proper planning. Still, if she squinted hard enough, she could pretend that there was some semblance of a plan. It was better than that time they had tried to kill those goblins. 

She lent her talents with a minor illusion of some pretty flashing lights behind the two instrumentalists, and turned back towards Gert to see if they could find anything else out.