![[CaleButterwickPathfinder-v1.webp]] # Cale Butterwick _Human Baker | [[Baldur's Gate]]_ ## Summary Reputedly the finest baker in the [[Lower City]]. Before Duke [[Thalamra Vanthampur]] poached him for her own kitchen, he baked at [[The Lucky Lumpkin]] under [[Rick]]'s parents Paul and Robin. [[Rick]] became convinced the "stolen baker" was the key to the whole Vanthampur conspiracy — a theory his companions never bought. %% ## Now Secretly the [[Guild]]'s source inside [[Vanthampur Manor]] — and *not* a cultist. Just the Lower City's best baker, poached by [[Thalamra Vanthampur|Thalamra]] for her kitchen, and coerced into informing by [[Nine-Fingers Keene]]: his girlfriend [[Nessa Tallow]] fell into debt with the [[Guild]], and Keene holds that marker over him — Cale feeds her the household's rhythms, or the Guild collects from the girl. Frightened and in over his head, he can get the party a door, a rota, or a distraction from the inside. He trained at [[The Lucky Lumpkin]] under [[Rick]]'s parents and greeted [[Rick]] as "Paul and Robin's boy" — which is exactly why [[Rick]]'s "Cale Butterwick Conspiracy" was closer to the truth than anyone believed. ## Appearance _Not yet seen on-screen by the full party._ Flour on the apron, a genuine smile, the easy warmth of a neighborhood baker. ## Personality Decent, frightened, and out of his depth — a working man who took a better job and found himself inside a nightmare. No zealotry, no guile; his cover is that he really is just a baker. What the Guild holds over him is the woman he loves — so he does what he's told and hates himself for it. ## Connections **[[Nine-Fingers Keene]]** — coerces him via his girlfriend's [[Guild]] debt; runs him as her source inside the manor. **[[Nessa Tallow]]** — his girlfriend; fell into debt with the [[Guild]], and Keene's leverage over Cale. **[[Thalamra Vanthampur]]** — poached him for her kitchen; his unwitting employer. **[[Rick]]** — fixated on him as the linchpin of the conspiracy — and, it turns out, not entirely wrong. **[[The Lucky Lumpkin]]** — trained and baked there under Paul and Robin before Thalamra took him. ## Background **The Kitchen:** When [[Rick]] asked [[Thalamra Vanthampur]] whether she liked lumpkins, she mentioned that Cale — the finest baker in the [[Lower City]] — now worked for her, seeding [[Rick]]'s "Cale Butterwick Conspiracy." **The Lucky Lumpkin:** Before the poaching, Cale worked the ovens at [[The Lucky Lumpkin]] for Paul and Robin, which is how he knows [[Rick]] on sight. A poached employee, not a stranger — the personal thread under Rick's obsession. **The Marker:** Cale's girlfriend [[Nessa Tallow]] ran up a debt she couldn't cover with the [[Guild]]. [[Nine-Fingers Keene]] bought the marker and never called it — she'd rather own a man inside a Duke's manor than collect a few coins. Cale informs to keep the Guild's hands off her. %%