04 - 05 - Repairing the Trollskull Manor
General Summary
The group decides to fix not only the manor itself but also reopen the tavern and even name it "The Floating Mug", hoping that the ghost that inhabits the taproom can be convinced to work a bartender.
Short on money for renovations, they put theirs skills to work, helping with renovations, bargaining for better prices or entertaining the workers, but it still is not enough.
Over the next five days they receive messages from several different organisations wanting to recruit them. They answer the call to meet all of them, and decide to join a few that seem to best align with their own interests.
The first to reach out was the Blackstaff who offers Xantina and Ulbur to join Grey Hands. Their first mission is to gather information from a monk living in a mountain cave. After a long and strenuous climb that leaves Ulbur completely exhausted they reach the cave. The monk gives them a very cryptic message to deliver to the Blackstaff who seems to be content with the way they handled the job.
Meanwhile a mysterious snake delivers a message to Taya. The invitation comes from the leader of Zhentarim guild, at least one half of it, and also leads to an explanation on the latest violent war between the other half of Zhentarim guild and Xanatar guild. Taya goes for a nightly investigation mission into missing dock workers and uncovers a vengeful drow on a murder spree. With superior stealth and intimidating moves she apprehends the drow and convinces him to move the city for good, earning respect and some gold from the Zhentarim.
They are also approached by a Lords Alliance representative, but deem their offer not in alignment with their interests.
And finally a mysterious paper bird arrives with an invitation to opera, requiring dressing up in formal attire.
While the adventurers are preparing for the opera, a worker from Dungsweepers’ Guild arrives and asks for help. A monster has appeared in the area dungsweepers are working, but the City Watch is too busy to deal with it. Adventurers decide to take a look at this problem, since the opera is later in the evening. They find a carrion crawler that is slowly digesting the chained skeletal arms of long deceased corpse. After dealing with the monster and waiting for StoryTeller to overcome his poison-induced paralysis, they find the rest of the corpse in a shallow grave in the backyard of a long uninhabited mansion. After finding out that a mysterious figure paid the Dungkeepers guild workers to clean the abandoned property, they decide to keep an eye on it and convince the workers to notify them of any notable or suspicious findings. The whole investigation leaves them with more questions than answers, but also with some valuables that help to pay for repairing the mansion.
After taking a bath and donning on their new fancy clothes adventurers go to the opera and meet a former adventurer and current politician, named Mirt the Merciless or the Old Wolf, who tells them about the Harpers and is interested in recruiting them. Their first mission is to find a talking horse named Maxeene and resend him whatever information she has gathered.
The next tendays pass without notable events. The tavern is open and while does not produce profit, business also is not going badly.
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