Waterdeep: Dragon Heist - Session XXXII

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Basics & Rundown
Out of Game Date played: 2020-07-12

Session Title:  Four Keys

In-game Date:   Mirtul 2 1583 DR

Location: Waterdeep

Player Characters: (Alphabetical order)
 * Choo-Cha (Cory)
 * Gooz (Aaron)
 * Järna (Claire)
 * Julian Bellafontaine (Matt)
 * Thola (Julianne)

Old Tower (Mirtul 2)
As the party arrives at Old Tower, to discover that the noble woman, Esvele Rosznar, is having a meeting about repairing the decrepit tower to bring it up to snuff after Thola send in an arcane eye to scope out the place. They attempt to bluff their way into a meeting by telling the guards they are late for the repairs meeting. When they enter the room Järna realizes that the noblewoman's eyes narrows when she sees the two (2) goblins but hides it well that the rest of the party does not see. The  Stone of Golorr  agrees with Järna's assessment, sharing that the Goblins were the ones that crippled Esvele. Esvele looks weathered and sickly, appearing much older that she is, she has to heavily lean on her cane due to an extreme limp.Julian tells Esvele that they are independent contractors willing to do the repairs for much less. The guild representatives at the meeting are utterly offended & Esvelecurtly asks that they wait in the foyer until her discussions with established & trusted guild representatives are finished.

After the meeting is concluded Esvele walks into the foyer to meet with the party dismissing the guards. The party asks if they can search the tower, Esvele says no as this is her property and why would they wish to search it int he first place. Julian & Thola ask if they have seen a vault in the property & Esvele, feigning ignorance, says she has not seen any sort of vault in this tower & that they must have the wrong place. Järna asks the Stone of Golorr if it is mistaken about the location & the Golorr answers that this is the place, that Esvele is just lying.

Gooz attempts intimidates Esvele into showing them where the Vault is she cracks, nearly falling over after stumbling back over her cane. She is willing to bring them on as business partners but wants an equal share as she has done a lot of the leg work. They agree & she brings them to the Tower's cellar that has a new oak reinforced door that leads into a room with a teleportation circle. She disappears & the rest of the party follow her through.

Beyond the teleportation circle lies a dusty staircase that descends 90 feet to a 20-foot-wide corridor. The hall extends another 90 feet to the vault doors. To one side of the vault doors, a natural fissure in the wall once served as a grick's lair, but Esvele killed the grick & left its corpse on the floor. A 20-foot-high, 20-foot-wide stone corridor ends before an adamantine double door bearing Dwarvish runes. The doors have neither handles nor hinges. The writing on them reads, “''THE FOUR KEYS. BRING THEM FORTH.''”

Esvele tells the party that she has determined what the keys are and she has already one of them: After discussing the keys Järna asks what Esvele 's problem is with goblins, she says she has nothing against goblins, but has a problem with Choo-Cha & Gooz. They delivered her, or rather her alternate persona the  Black Viper , poisons that were expertly disguised as potions three (3) months ago (Session XII) & she had only just barely recovered leaving her in this crippled state. She was planning a heist at the Cassalanter Villa, had it all planned out. Many of the keys into the vault were probably there as the  Cassalanters  were scouring the city for the Stone of Golorr & where known collectors of curios. She had already found the vault but needed the keys. On that fateful day on Nightal 20 when she picked up the [https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Potion%20of%20Mind%20Reading#:~:text=of%20Mind%20Reading-,Potion%20of%20Mind%20Reading,of%20pink%20floating%20in%20it. potions of mind reading] she needed to succeed, she unluckily drank them right before breaching the villa, she barely made it back to her own estate & was bedridden for the last two (2) months wasting the lead time she had. Choo-Cha tells her that she does not even remember that to pour salt on the wound. Esvele  resigned tells them that she will take her leave now & to contact her when they have the other 3 keys and are ready to enter the vault.
 * Severed Drow Hand
 * Bronze Dragon Scale
 * Beholder Eyestalk
 * Gift From Queen - Esvele received a gift from Laeral Silverhand & has this key and provides it to the party

Return to Old Xoblob Shop
Choo-Cha suggests going back to the purple freak shop in the Dock Ward they visited when they first helped  Volothamp , the Old Xoblob Shop. The party proceeds to the shop located on the corner of Zastrow Street & Fillet Lane. It is easy to locate as the shop stands out from others around it having a deep purple facade, & in its window hangs a stuffed beholder. Above the door hangs a sign whose elaborate letters spell out “ Old Xoblob Sho p.”

As they enter a cloud of lavender-scented purple smoke trails out of the shop's door as you peer inside. Every wall is painted purple, and every dusty knickknack on the shelves is dyed a deep violet. The hairless old gnome sitting cross-legged on the counter wears plum-colored robes. His cheeks are decorated with nine purple face-painted eyes. The deep gnome lowers a pipe and exhales a cloud of lavender smoke before raising a hand “''Hail & well met! Come browse the shelves of the most curious curio shop in the world''!”

They convince Xoblob to part ways with one of the stuffed beholders eyestalks for 500 GP after Gooz intimidated him. While Choo-Cha & Julian retrieve it Thola feels an overwhelming sense of that everyone is being watched. Thola realizes that the stuffed beholder is being used by someone to observe the party, they retrieve the eyestalk & cover it leaving quickly. As they leave they feel the overwhelming sense of being watched disappeared.

The "Severed Drow Hand" Problem
The party proceeds to the docks to scope out the Hellraiser & Heartbreaker, two ships that drow supposedly work on according to Julian's intel & Järna's intel through the Stone of Golorr. Gooz decides to retrieve the [https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Apparatus_of_Kwalish#:~:text=An%20apparatus%20of%20Kwalish%20was,%2C%20on%20water%2C%20and%20underwater. Apparatus of Kwalish] from the bottom of the Great Harbour.

As they scope it out they only see Nimblewrights and humans on board, Thola uses an Arcane eye to scope out the ships & gather some intel, she infiltrates it and realizes that they are all drow but something is disguising them.

The party decides to attempt to lure people off the ship, Julian attempts to perform a siren's song of sorts but botches it. Järna & Thola hire out two (2) Emerald Enclave agents to watch the ship to see if anyone comes off.

Zelifarn's Scale
Gooz pickup everyone with his submarine & proceeds to the ship wreck at the bottom of the Naval Harbour by the name of The Neverlust. As they approach the are greeted by a young bronze dragon named Zelifarn. Gooz asks for a scale for half of Gooz 's cut of what he gets when he opens the Vault of Dragons. Gooz parks the Apparatus at the bottom of the harbour again.

Problem's at the Hospice
Severed Drow Hand

They proceed to a a dock ward clinic where Julian attempts to disguise himself as a doctor named  Dr. Ho  who demands to speak to a doctor at the clinic. A few minutes later a woman named Hansy Vanaburn introduces herself & Julian proceeds to tell her that he needs drow hand to specifically solve for drow arthritis. Hansy tells him an elvish hand should do, Julian tells her that it is specific to drow which Hansy asks if this is some how racially motivated. Julian back peddles & asks if he could just get a drow hand for his research and he will make a sizable donation to the clinic. They refuse to give the money now promising it will come later. Hansy finds this very suspicious & refuse, especially when the rest of the party refuses to give their names.

Gooz steps in & tells her that he is in fact  Dr. Ho  but uses a human because most would not believe a goblin could be a doctor. Choo-Cha sneaks off to the morgue to try to find a severed drow hand. During this Gooz offers he a job to help the less fortunate, recruiting her to help at his & Choo-Cha's sanctuary outside the city & promises more funding for the Dock Ward clinic in the future to help the less fortunate races.

She agrees & give the party a severed drow hand from the morgue.

Back to the Sanctuary
They head back to the Sanctuary of Monstrous Creatures & find a few messages for them that need immediate attention.