Session 4: Tracking the nimblewright Report

General Summary

After 10 days of relatively uneventful (and also unprofitable) running of the bar and somewhat profitable running of the morgue, a loud blast disrupted the lives of our adventurers. They stormed out to see a big crater-like burnt area near their house. This was a beginning of a much needed adventure, for sure! So they started to investigate the scene, question the eyewitnesses and deduced that 1) there was a big animated doll (a nimblewright) on the roofs who threw a fireball, 2) a gnome and a hooded humanoid were hit by the fireball, but the hooded guy managed to survive it, stole something from the dead gnome's pocket and run away. Cayra climbed up on the roof and found a piece of torn clothing where the nimblewright had been, which carried a symbol of the House of Inspired Hands. Others followed the blood trail of the hooded humanoid but lost it soon after he had bandaged himself. After regrouping, Cayra put on her disguise kit, and as they were discussing what to do next, 2 men knocked on the door of their house - one from city guard and other from the watchful order of mages. They were appointed to investigate the scene and asked for any information, some of which the adventurers kindly shared. The city guard also commanded to shut down all of their businesses, but disguised Cayra and Shump managed to convince them to leave the morgue open - after all, they might need it to store the dead bodies from the blast. After some bargaining a price was set and agreement was reached. Soon enough the bodies started to roll into the morgue, including the dead gnome who had something stolen from him. Kara searched through him and found he was connected to Renaer Neverember's family. As luck would have it, the adventurers heard a knocking on the door and it was Renaer himself, worried about the wellbeing of the adventurers, after having heard about the blast. The party also showed him the gnome and he explained that the gnome was his dad's loyal friend and the stolen item was probably the Stone of Color. The legend has it that the Stone of Color should lead to the big hidden treasure of the Neverember family. The adventurers then followed the next clue and went to the House of Inspired Hands to gather more information about nimblewrights. They told the priest they were looking to acquire one to add an outstanding attraction to their bar. The priest was more than happy to help and even leaded them to the upper floor where a nimblewright itself lived. However the nimblewright was in a sad mood and had locked himself in. After some convincing he agreed to open the door and via signing language and translating priest he told us his story. As he had been feeling lonely, he had built another nimblewright to be his companion. But his companion had run away a couple of days ago. He asked us to help him, find his companion and bring it back. He gave the adventurers a promise of reward and also a tool to help them find it - a nimblewright detector. The adventurers wandered back to their home, frequently checking if the detector would spin any faster to indicate any nimblewrights. And right near their home - it did! So they followed the trail and reached a house on the street nearby where the movement of the detector was the strongest. Cayra stealthily opened the gate and sneaked in together with Kara to scout the properties. Nearby under a tree, they saw a human with 2 dogs, doing something. They started to sneak back to the rest of the party to share the information, but managed to alert others to their presence. And in that moment the dogs and man turned into shadowy figures, ready to fight. The rest of the party ran to help and skillfully eliminated the shadows. They moved forward and found themselves in a separate building, a stable where a few horses lived and also where the man with dogs had probably been sleeping, judging by a few beds. Although not very useful in terms of information, the stable contained a plentyful treasure - several gold bars which Kara managed to find in a saddle bag. The party of adventurers then split up to investigate the main house: Tolm and Shump approached from the backway through the kitchen, while others approached from the front. Cayra tried to climb up to the balcony at first but it was realllly slippy. So Cayra, Kara and Kargath went for the front door. In the lobby they were immediately 'greeted' by a fight with 2 Zhentarim members. In the middle of fight also Tolm and Shump joined and the battle was over soon enough. When looking around the room, it was apparent a big fight had happened - there were dead bodies left and right. Cayra decided to head up from the narrow servants' stairs, while others started to climb up from the main stairs. On the second floor they saw a fight in progress, between 2 Gralhund guards and 3 Zhents. Kara lullabied 2 Zhents to sleep and others defeated the third. The guards thanked for the help and asked help opening a door next to one sleeping zhent. Whiich woke him up so he was put to permanent sleep. However Shump's plan was a little different - he decided to enter another door the guards had been obviously guarding before, disregarding any warnings they said. This started a fight with the guards where the adventurers emerged as winners. Finally they could enter the room, which was a master bedroom but no one was in there. Cayra found a locked chest which she tried to lockpick but to no avail. There was also another locked door with human talking noises coming behing it. Probably the family was hiding there but they did not want to come out of the room. Even after Kara so deceptively explained how their guards had died through the hands of the Zhents and how they were safe now. So the party went back to the door the guards had been trying to open and the half-orcs broke the door. As it turned out, it was the perfect timing - they found a hooded man with burn marks who had just managed to reach the owner of the house, Orond Gralhund. The adventurers fought the hooded man until he gave up and pleaded for his life. But unwilling to give out any information, Shump decided to send him to the afterlife. They also searched through his corpse, in the hope of finding the Stone of Color, but as Orond soon told them - the Stone was not in this building anymore. Thankful for his rescue, he explained that they had been working together with Zhentarim to find the treasure. However after finding the Stone of Color, they had a disagreement on how the treasure should be divided, so a fight broke out. Orond also told that his wife had given the Stone of Color to the Nimblewright who was instructed to hide the Stone in a safe place. Kara operated the Nimblewright detector and it was clear it had indeed left the building. Anxious to follow the nimblewright, and also unwilling to be caught by the soon to arrive city guards, the party left the Gralhund house. However - not without the uncooperating chest, which Cayra could not open on her second try either. As it was the middle of the night, the party decided to head back to home to recover from the fights. After spending some more time studing the chest, Cayra also finally managed to open it. At first it did not seem to contain anything of much interest - clothes and some more clothes. But in a secret division they found a talisman and actually interesting clothes, both of which belonged to a member of the Cult of Asmadeus.

Campaign

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

Protagonists