Waterdeep: Dragon Heist - Session IV

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Next Session: Session V Haunting at Trollskull Manor

Basics & Rundown
Out of Game Date played: 2019-11-03

Session Title:  Xanathar's Compromise

In-game Date: Nightal 8 1582 DR

Location: Waterdeep

Player Characters in attendance:
 * Choo-Cha (Cory)
 * Gooz (Aaron)
 * Julian Bellafontaine (Matt)
 * Sowron Stormwind (Garrett)
 * Thola (Julianne)

The Meeting
As the players enter the other side of the portal it shuts behind them; all of them have an overwhelming sense that they are being watched. They find themselves in a lit room between two pillars. Behind them they see two hallways blocked by a brigade of dwarves. Forward,you observe a nightmarish creature (known to Thola & Sowron as a Mindflayer, native to the Underdark ) they saw minutes before. A large floating head with vicious mandibles & several stalks on eyes at their ends approaches through the hallway.

The entity introduces itself as a beholder by the name of Xanathar, he runs the Xanathar Thieves Guild here in Waterdeep. He humbly requests custody of Floon, as technically they have just stolen their prison. Thola comes forth to argue for the group & conveys she will only give up Floon without a fight if they assure their safety & the Floon is returned to them alive. Xanathar agrees with one other caveat, that the players work for him after they interrogate Floon. The party agrees & Floon is escorted with Xanathar& the Mindflayer. After an hour passes under guard from the dwarves Floon is returned to the players beat up by Xanathar who tells them the task they require of them.

The task is to infiltrate their rival gang, the Zhentarim & find the Stone of Golorr. He gives the party 1000 GP to purchase anything they need to infiltrate the gang. Afterwards the party was black-bagged & escorted out of the lair. Sowron attempted to use ink to mark the way out. He was caught by his dwarven guard, Shumptha-wen & his hands were bound until the entire party was released at 8 in the morning outside the Yawning Portal. They entered the Yawning Portal to deliver Floon to Volo & begin their night of debauchery. The latter happened before the former.

A Morning of unfettered Debauchery
After entering the Yawning Portal, Floon is overjoyed & joins Volo at his table. As their reunion Volo attempts to get the party's attention with no avail.

Gooz & Choo-Cha join a table to player five-finger-fillet while heavily drinking.

Julian asks the barkeep & owner, Durnan, if he could play a set. Durnan retorts that he could have at his last scheduled time last night, underlining his disdain of artists flaking out. He decides this is the line he wishes to draw & he needs to make an example of someone, why not Julian. Julian starts crying & making a scene making Durnan uncomfortable & backpedals. Says he can keep his room & board but must promise to play a weekly set. Julian agrees only if he can headline. They shake on it & Julian joins Volo at the table.

While this is happening Gooz & Choo-Cha join Volo who is frustrated by trying to wrangle Floon's saviours so early in the morning. Choo-Cha proceeds to start dancing on the table.

Thola & Sowron get a drink from the bar where Sowron confides to Thola that he is a virgin & wishes to rectify that. Thola agrees to wingman for him & they approach a table & ask to join. They decline as they are discussing their next moves for their adventures over breakfast. Sowron persists & asks a human woman named Ruqiah on a date. She agrees to go the following night if he & Thola leave them alone. They agree & join Volo at his table who is conspicuously attempting to get Choo-Cha down from the table.

Once the party convenes at Volo's table he thanks the party for saving his beloved friend Floon. He regrets to inform them that he does not have the 200 GP to award them for their rescue but has something he believes is much better. He has in his possession a mansion, & former tavern that he wishes to give the party in the reward's sted. It is the only thing he has that he could offer as a suitable reward, explaining it is worth a great deal more than the original reward he was offering & would make them all citizens of Waterdeep as the deed is for the mansion & the land. It is rumoured to have many dark secrets, a past full of baggage & it is haunted. This is why he bought the mansion at an auction years ago, for his upcoming book " A Guide to Spirits & Specters ".

The party becomes enraged, berating Volo to the point he leaves angry & alienated dropping the deed signed over to the party on the table before he leaves, visibly frustrated & taken aback. Volo luckily bought them rooms to rest in for the tenday & the party rests waking up an hour before sunset.

Thola searches the Yawning Portal for Volo at dinner time after their rest to learn more about the Mansion. She knows that their is a half-elf ghost that apparently was a barkeep at the former tavern in life but since then he has "haunted" the bar still longing for his former job.

Learnt that the previous owner's name was Gunok Longthorn, a dwarf that vanished nearly 25 years ago 1557 DR, he was spotted 10 years ago in Waterdeep but fled the city after being charged with "Abandonment of property leading to dungeonification."

There are also rumours of that children disappear in the vicinity of this house before the harvest festival but may be unrelated as children are at times kidnapped by the various crime organizations & it is more likely that the rumours are just that.

With that, the party proceeds to Trollskull Alley to scope out their mansion & check out the local merchants & shops.

Trollskull Alley
The party went into a shop named Steam and Steel run with Avi & Embric, two genasi (fire & water respectively). Sowron gave his Moonblade to be fixed for 400 GP & received an on loan silverered longsword. The other party members silvered their weapons as well.

The party them proceeded to The Book Wyrm's Treasure & met with Rishaal, a golden dragonborn who runs the shop. Choo-Cha bought a stationary kit & thola bought a smut novel about specters & ghosts.

As the party approaches the towering Trollskull Mansion along looks worn down & condemned. The building appears to be at least 2 stories with a tall turret protruding to at least 5 stories in the North-West corner of the Manor. The West side of the manor is covered in grimed pane glass extending to the second floor.

A small fence comes up to 3 feet delineating the property boundary. A metal gate, heavy & ornate, is still functional standing open. To the property. The manor appears to have been a tavern or inn at some point in history. A sign lopsided & hanging by one of it's two chains that has the title “Gunok’s” with a grinning Dwarvish face.

To the East there is a carriage entrance that stretches along the side of the house.

As they enter, the main hall is dusty & decaying, the bar’s upkeep has not been looked after for at least the last 20 years, cobwebs, rot spots are all present. Above an open ceiling revealing a rotunda hallway surrounding the tavern’s main hall. The namesake of the manor’s trophy still hangs in the Tavern’s main hall, a giant troll skull trophy prominently hanging over the bar, though now appearing slack jawed due to rot.

Through what relative silence there is in the house, from the winds howling outside the party hears a slow, subtle whimpering cry within the confines of the house.

As the entire party entire enters the mansion the doors shut & the whimpering stops to be replaced with an eerie silence, not even the city sounds of Waterdeep can be heard anymore.

Looking around what would have been the taproom & main hall is now littered with destroyed furniture. They can hear a slow dripping from nearly rotted through wine & beer barrels from behind the bar giving the room the putrid stench of vinegar, but there is something foul, the smell of rotting meat.

To the West & South-West there seems to be more seating, as well as more onto a courtyard patio to the South-West at a time. Between the two rooms a large & long dead firepit is visible throughout the entirety of the tavern.

To the East there is another shut door.

To the North there is a bar along with two doors behind it with tracks of small humanoids being dragged towards & through the door behind the bar. The party decides to investigate the trail of these track first.

They enter what appears to be a kitchen in pitch black. Upon entering the party's ears are assaulted as they hear crying coming from the North-East corner, buzzing of a vast number of flies &, what sounds like knives working through the darkness. The stench is as offensive as the sound. Smelling of decay & rot of spoiled meat & defecation that has been in the room for years.

As every person enters the sounds of the working knives stop, leaving the overwhelming sounds of flies. Suddenly, torches illuminate the reveal a goblin there are small humanoid bones strewn everywhere on the kitchens ground, flies swarm the kitchen as there are large chunks of meat on the various tables dripping with blood onto the floor. In the north-East corner at the epicenter of the crying a goblin is revealed, suddenly blinded by the torches, tearfully screams (in Goblin) “Help me”.

The light reveals a grotesque scene. The goblin is chained to a highchair looking as if it has been there for years, the clothes rotting off the goblin’s body, fresh blood running down it’s chin ready to be added to the already crusted dried blood running down it’s chest which is littered with festering sores.

Suddenly an untethered spoon filled with shredded flesh flies into the goblin’s mouth. Through the obscuring swarms of flies you can see various knives, pots & pans rising above the various tables pointed towards the party. A battle ensues causing as the party emerges victorious over this animated kitchen. They protect & the goblin who introduces himself as Gumplin through happy sobs.