WDDH #2: And Then There Was One
Welcome back to the tale of my group's adventure through Waterdeep: Dragon Heist! Naturally, this will contain spoilers, so if you hope to play this adventure without knowing what's coming, stop reading now. If you want to go back and read the first post in this series, you can do so HERE. Before we jump in, let's recap some characters. Also, be warned: there were character deaths in this session, so bail out if if you don't want to read about that. Here we go!
The Party:
Jabin Co Aldo — Tiefling aethermage noble (my character), one of the sons of Marco Volo.
Ion Marko — Half-orc bard entertainer, one of the sons of Marco Volo.
Scritch — Kenku monk urchin, long-time friend of Ion.
Agar — Human monk acolyte, one of the sons of Marco Volo (was unnamed in the first session).
Skystone Bloodlake — Tabaxi ranger guild artisan (jeweler), goes by "Sky" for short, friend and traveling companion of Agar.
The NPCs:
Marco Volo — Sent letters to Jabin, Ion, and Agar claiming to be their illegitimate father, but hasn't been seen in years.
Volothamp "Volo" Geddarm — Famed adventurer and author, hired the party to find his missing friend Flune Blagmar.
Flune Blagmar — Friend of Volo, went missing after drinking a few nights ago.
Renaer Neverember — Noble who was attacked along with Flune but doesn't know where he is now.
The Session:
After having rescued Neverember and learned of "yellow signs" in the sewers which might lead to where Flune was taken, the party retreated to a local tavern for a late drink so they could recover from their recent fight and discuss whether to hit the sewers immediately or wait until morning. Unfortunately, Agar got into a pissing match with a couple of bar patrons and — unable to let an insult slide — punched their lights out. The City Watch was called, and Agar was arrested.
On the bright side, that made the rest of the party's decision easier: they would wait until morning to see how the sentencing went, and then hit the sewers once that was resolved. While the morning's court proceedings were underway, Scritch went to find some loot that Agar had stashed the night before and transferred it to a slightly more secure location, Ion tried to make a case to the magistrate for lenient sentencing of Agar, and Jabin did some shopping for appropriate clothes and supplies for sewer adventuring. Sky waited outside the courthouse.
In the end, Agar was fined and made to pay reparations, leaving him 20 gold pieces poorer. The band of family and friends then headed down to the sewers. Something like a mini-beholder was encountered, then blasted to death by Jabin's panicked magic missile spell. Sleeping goblin guards were bypassed, and a duergar was found working with the same jerkface who picked a fight with the half-orc woman in the Yawning Portal the day before, trying to secure a door against what turned out to be some kind of ooze. Ion took a nasty hit from the duergar's pick, but otherwise the party fared well against all three creatures, and Ion patched his own wounds with magic.
At last, the party sneakily found a chamber where a robe-wearing half-orc man was beating (and magic-ing) Flune for information. Watching the scene unfold was a purple humanoid with tentacles on its face, stroking a four-legged brain like a Bond villain stroking a cat. None of our heroes knew what those creatures were and they had found their quarry, so they launched an ambush. The half-orc caster went down before he knew what was happening, and some of the quicker adventurers put a bit of hurt on the tentacle-faced overlord.
Then the mind flayer responded.
A wave of psychic energy filled the room, assaulting everyone's minds. Ion couldn't withstand it, and his brain popped like a pimple. Everyone else fell to the floor, unconscious. Over the next several seconds, Jabin and Sky stabilized. Scritch came near to death but then abruptly awoke, agonized but alive and conscious. Agar, however, slipped away, never to awaken again. The survivors awakened to see that the mind flayer had left. Fortunately, Flune survived, so the deaths were not in vain.
Jabin — now the sole surviving (known) son of Marco Volo — and the "orphaned" friends of his late half-brothers then brought Flune to the Yawning Portal where Volo was anxiously waiting. Unfortunately, Volo had lied about how much money he could pay, and instead offered the title deed to a certain "Trollskull Manor" which he claimed to have won from Jabin's father in a game of chance. Though Volo's shady payment for an ultimately fatal job certainly didn't earn him any excess of goodwill from the survivors, the title was nonetheless transferred.
The remaining party, now reaching second level, are likely heading home to take a day off.
And that's where the session left off! Can't wait to see what replacement characters show up, and what will happen with this ominous-sounding new abode. Until next time, take care of each other, okay?
The Party:
Jabin Co Aldo — Tiefling aethermage noble (my character), one of the sons of Marco Volo.
Ion Marko — Half-orc bard entertainer, one of the sons of Marco Volo.
Scritch — Kenku monk urchin, long-time friend of Ion.
Agar — Human monk acolyte, one of the sons of Marco Volo (was unnamed in the first session).
Skystone Bloodlake — Tabaxi ranger guild artisan (jeweler), goes by "Sky" for short, friend and traveling companion of Agar.
The NPCs:
Marco Volo — Sent letters to Jabin, Ion, and Agar claiming to be their illegitimate father, but hasn't been seen in years.
Volothamp "Volo" Geddarm — Famed adventurer and author, hired the party to find his missing friend Flune Blagmar.
Flune Blagmar — Friend of Volo, went missing after drinking a few nights ago.
Renaer Neverember — Noble who was attacked along with Flune but doesn't know where he is now.
The Session:
After having rescued Neverember and learned of "yellow signs" in the sewers which might lead to where Flune was taken, the party retreated to a local tavern for a late drink so they could recover from their recent fight and discuss whether to hit the sewers immediately or wait until morning. Unfortunately, Agar got into a pissing match with a couple of bar patrons and — unable to let an insult slide — punched their lights out. The City Watch was called, and Agar was arrested.
On the bright side, that made the rest of the party's decision easier: they would wait until morning to see how the sentencing went, and then hit the sewers once that was resolved. While the morning's court proceedings were underway, Scritch went to find some loot that Agar had stashed the night before and transferred it to a slightly more secure location, Ion tried to make a case to the magistrate for lenient sentencing of Agar, and Jabin did some shopping for appropriate clothes and supplies for sewer adventuring. Sky waited outside the courthouse.
In the end, Agar was fined and made to pay reparations, leaving him 20 gold pieces poorer. The band of family and friends then headed down to the sewers. Something like a mini-beholder was encountered, then blasted to death by Jabin's panicked magic missile spell. Sleeping goblin guards were bypassed, and a duergar was found working with the same jerkface who picked a fight with the half-orc woman in the Yawning Portal the day before, trying to secure a door against what turned out to be some kind of ooze. Ion took a nasty hit from the duergar's pick, but otherwise the party fared well against all three creatures, and Ion patched his own wounds with magic.
At last, the party sneakily found a chamber where a robe-wearing half-orc man was beating (and magic-ing) Flune for information. Watching the scene unfold was a purple humanoid with tentacles on its face, stroking a four-legged brain like a Bond villain stroking a cat. None of our heroes knew what those creatures were and they had found their quarry, so they launched an ambush. The half-orc caster went down before he knew what was happening, and some of the quicker adventurers put a bit of hurt on the tentacle-faced overlord.
Then the mind flayer responded.
A wave of psychic energy filled the room, assaulting everyone's minds. Ion couldn't withstand it, and his brain popped like a pimple. Everyone else fell to the floor, unconscious. Over the next several seconds, Jabin and Sky stabilized. Scritch came near to death but then abruptly awoke, agonized but alive and conscious. Agar, however, slipped away, never to awaken again. The survivors awakened to see that the mind flayer had left. Fortunately, Flune survived, so the deaths were not in vain.
Jabin — now the sole surviving (known) son of Marco Volo — and the "orphaned" friends of his late half-brothers then brought Flune to the Yawning Portal where Volo was anxiously waiting. Unfortunately, Volo had lied about how much money he could pay, and instead offered the title deed to a certain "Trollskull Manor" which he claimed to have won from Jabin's father in a game of chance. Though Volo's shady payment for an ultimately fatal job certainly didn't earn him any excess of goodwill from the survivors, the title was nonetheless transferred.
The remaining party, now reaching second level, are likely heading home to take a day off.
And that's where the session left off! Can't wait to see what replacement characters show up, and what will happen with this ominous-sounding new abode. Until next time, take care of each other, okay?
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