#grumbar

The next two days saw the gang’s little home turned into a designer’s nightmare. With his axe still strapped to his back, Bonu came to and from at all hours to make deliveries and preparations. Having recruited Edwin to his mission, the two had become quickly acquainted with every florist and baker in town.

Grumbar and Keros kept out of the way, opting instead to simply watch the hurricane from a safe corner of the parlor.

“You gonna say anything about where you were?” Keros asked over a milky cup of tea as Bonu paraded through with what could only be described as an ungodly amount of flowers.

At his side, Grumbar sipped at his own tea. “Nope.”

While Bonu and Edwin came and went, wiping demon blood off his robes was about the extent of preparation that Grumbar went through.

On the agreed upon day of the affair, Keros was finally roped into assisting. He helped Bonu create his both tasteful and gaudy vision of flowers, ribbons, and cake in the small garden beside the City of the Dead. Arches and bouquets, Bonu had managed to turn the graveyard adjacent space into the couple’s perfect church.

This was, of course, all in the shadow of an actual church near the cemetery. A small wooden structure, the priest there had also been warned against wedding the two, but from the doorway he smiled at the little set up and arrival of the young lovers before heading back inside. ( Best to avoid the whole ‘speak now’ thing by not actually witnessing it at all. )

Ian and Lyra showed up at the garden together shortly before the appointed time. Lyra gasped softly at the decorations and readily passed a small pouch of silver dust towards Grumbar when she saw the old cleric.

Taking it from her, Grumbar gestured to the little makeshift altar Bonu and Edwin had put together. “The two of you, come here.” He set the dust down beside the few things he had brought with him — a stone bowl, a red silk string, an athame, and a matchbox — and then held out his hand for their vows.

After reading over the vows, he passed them back with a nod and cracked his fingers together before picking up the red string. “My god is a… god of oaths,” he explained. “There is only until death do you part with this ceremony. If your love is true, offer each other your ring fingers to tie this ribbon around and we will begin.”

Keros, Bonu, and Edwin stood as witnesses to the ceremony as Ian and Lyra readily tied the string to each other’s fingers, smiling softly at each other all the while. The string between them was coiled into the stone bowl and Grumbar emptied the powdered silver over it. “You will read your vows together and place them in the bowl when you finish.

Over the garden as the young lovers read their vows, there was a soft energy that hummed with the performance of the ceremony. Not an audible thing, not one easily picked up on, but there all the same as the last priest of Grumbar carried out these sacred rites.

The vows were set in the bowl together and Grumbar gestured for their tied fingers to be extended. With the athame, he pricked their fingers and let their blood drip over the vows before striking a match and setting the contents of the bowl aflame. As the flames burned crimson, Grumbar settled his hands on either side of the bowl. “With this, let your bond be as sturdy as stone. So mote it be.”

As he spoke, the fires licked up the ribbon before it broke, coiling up and burning slowly in the bowl. It left Lyra and Ian married, with rings of ribbon on their fingers, and an overwhelming joy.

Grumbar looked away from the newly weds, both to give them their peace as they stepped away from the altar and because he had the strange sense they were all being watched. He looked back towards the church, seeing nothing at first, but soon catching a glimpse of dark eyes from one of the shrubs. Before he could nudge one of the fighter types he lived with, a stone being rolled out, stopping right at Grumbar’s feet.

“Grumbar!” the stone creature said, voice gravelly and harsh.

“Who’s your friend?” Bonu asked, still wiping at the tears the ceremony had invoked.

The cleric looked down at it warily. “Not sure…”

In the rough, primordial Terran language, the creature introduced itself to Grumbar as an aspect of the divine Grumbar.

Keros, only familiar with primordial Aquan, leaned over towards Bonu and Edwin and whispered, “I think this is Grumbar’s son… But this accent is a little… drier than I’m used to.”

Grumbar, on the other hand, found he could understand the dialect quite clearly. “You’re a… guardian?” he asked, suddenly fluent in Terran.

“Yes, Grumbar.”

“Do you have a name?” He was met with silence and returned to Common. “So we’ll work on the name thing.” Grumbar looked back at the others. “I… guess we have a new… rock.”

“Your son is very cute, Grumbar,” Keros said.

“He’s not my son.”

The knee-high stone creature rolled itself up into a small boulder and began to roll around the four of them. They watched until the rock creature rolled itself out and sat down next to the cleric, watching and waiting. Grumbar nodded.

As Bonu and Keros were cleaning up breakfast the next morning, Grumbar returned at long last. Expecting the old cleric to possibly still be drunk from whatever bender he’d been on in the last week, they were both surprised to find him stone cold sober for the first time since they’d met him.

“Some things came up…” he explained quietly.

While Bonu was all for this change of heart, Keros seemed a little concerned about the strange behavior from their usually predictable friend. Regardless, they caught him up on their latest mission from Mara and the three set out to meet Edwin.

Down the road at the Grinning Lion, Edwin was greeting the day with a house ale and offered to buy a round for the three of them after introductions were made. With Grumbar passing down free alcohol, Keros knew something was up, but the cleric waved off any questions, insisting they should probably get to figuring out this cursed card thing.

Wandering the Trade Ward, they popped into some of the shops that the gang hadn’t hit up the day prior. Orsabba’s shop front was curious and welcoming, inviting people to spend their coin on all manner of magical baubles and goods. They let themselves in with a jingle of the bell and began to poke around the wares until a young man stepped out of the back.

Before he could introduce himself, Keros asked if he’d heard about the death of Valuth Myres and the man instantly paled. “Valuth was a good friend,” he explained. “I-I told him something wasn’t right about those cards.”

Introducing himself as Mateo Leeson, he explained he’d already spoken with the Watch. That wasn’t good enough for Edwin, however, who pushed the man up against a wall and encouraged him to tell him everything he knew about the matter.

Keros and Grumbar were quick to intervene while Bonu poked his nose into the back of the shop. Keros pulled Edwin back, warning the old timer against using force on innocent folks as Grumbar took over the interrogation.

Though Grumbar tried to play good cop, Edwin’s bad cop routine had definitely turned Mateo off. “Look,” he said warily. “Valuth was my friend. I don’t think he got those cards from any of the shops around here.”

He edged around them all to the counter and wrote out a list of all the reputable magic shops in the area, including a new shop that had been stealing business with incredibly low prices. “I don’t know anyone over there, but their prices are too low to be… reliably enchanted. If you can run whoever’s behind this out of business… I might be able to get you some deals with Orsabba.”

As Bonu ducked out from the back, where he definitely should not have been snooping and had definitely found nothing but in process enchantments, Keros distracted Mateo with a thanks and an apology. He slid him a gold piece and followed the rest of them out of the shop.

As they started to make their way towards the River Gate, Bonu started to get the sense someone was following them again. Every time he glanced back, a young man and young woman froze up a bit before eventually steeling themselves up and approaching the group directly.

“Sorry to interrupt, but are you a priest?” they asked Grumbar.

Ian Evry and Lyra Majarrah, as they quickly introduced themselves, were young and in love. Lyra’s family, however, was against the union and had enough money to ensure no church or temple in the city would wed them.

Teary eyed, Bonu was already on the side of the young lovers and insisting Grumbar should help. The cleric sighed and looked them over. “Are you serious about this?” They were. “Then I’ll do it, but only under a few conditions. First, is there a place that’s special to you?”

Ian and Lyra quickly decided on a park near the City of the Dead where they’d gone on walks together.

“Then we’ll hold the ceremony there in two days. You’ll provide me with powdered silver worth 25 gold for it and you’ll write your vows— and I mean really write them. If they’re bad you’re going to do it again, got it?”

Readily agreeing to it, they clasped his hand and thanked him profusely before running off to make their preparations.

Bonu watched them go with a smile and big plans already forming.

The rest of the trip down to River Gate was uneventful. They found the storefront to River Gate Goods dark and tucked away between two busier shops. A pull on the door found that it was open, but no clerk came to greet them.

Trusting that something wasn’t right, Grumbar cast Detect Evil and Good and caught a bright flash of something definitely evil from beneath the shop.

“See,” Keros said to Edwin, “this is when you can use force.” And then vaulted over the counter to reach the cellar door behind it.

While Keros and the others descended, Bonu quickly jogged back outside and found some young children playing with some sticks. “Hey, hey kids. There’s something real scary in this shop,” he said pointing at River Gate Goods. “Go find a guard, okay? Tell them: Bonu said to go get Kraag.”

Wide eyed, the kids just nodded at this large barbarian fellow and quickly ran off with their sticks. Deciding that was good enough, Bonu pulled his axe off his back and charged in after his friends.

That was when the screaming started.

Beneath the shabby magic shop, the usual storage cellar had been turned into altar space. Keros dropped to the ground and made room for the others coming down the ladder, his eyes focused on the grotesque demon sinking its claws into a cultist at the head of the room. “Think we found the source of that evil.”

While some of the cultists seemed thrilled to see this creature, others were hurriedly backing away as they realized their mistake.

Arrows knocked, axe drawn, knuckles cracked, and prayers at the ready, the party descended on the demon with the same approach they took to every fight: hurt it hard and fast before it can do the same. Those few cultists who seemed to welcome the demon were taken out of the fight with arrows and by the demon itself. Bonu and Edwin got to work, wailing on the thing with quick, critical hits.

Sensing something holy with Grumbar, who’d gotten a little to close to the thing, the demon attempted to make a terrible strike at him, but was ultimately slain, collapsing in an even more grotesque heap.

“Someone should start explaining what was going on down here,” Edwin suggested, cracking his bloodied knuckles again and looking at the remaining cultists. Keros drew another arrow and planted himself firmly between them and the exit.

One of the men stepped forward, wringing his hands nervously. “We just wanted to change things,” he said. “We’ve lost people and we’ve watched the nobles do nothing. We thought,” he glanced back at the demon and grimaced, “we thought we could summon an archfiend and make a deal, but, uh….”

“But you fucked up.” The cultist let out a startled half shriek as Edwin clamped a hand on his shoulder. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Dave…”

“Alright, Dave. Next time you want to change things, maybe don’t join a cult,” said Edwin. Bonu gestured to the cultist puddle beneath the demon and Dave paled further.

Above them, they could hear heavy footsteps coming into the shop. Keros leaned back towards the cellar door and a gave a little wave as a familiar half-orc appeared. “All clear! Mostly. It’s uh… little gross down here, but all clear!”

Kraag came down the ladder, followed by two more of the Watch as the others began investigating the shop proper. “Gods, what is that?” he asked looking at the mess of demon.

“It was supposed to be Mamnon, but uhm… we… messed up… something,” Dave said glancing back and forth between the remaining two cultists and their ruined altar. At the look from Kraag, Dave wisely shut up and began to examine the dirt under his feet.

“I’ll deal with you in a minute,” Kraag told him before returning his attention to the party wiping off various gross blood splatters from their persons. “Well, thanks for calling us this time. Got here as quick as we could, but glad to see you could handle it.” He squinted at the bloodied mess. “You’re sure it’s dead?”

“Pretty damn.”

Kraag looked over at the old monk and nodded. “Good, good. I hate demons.” With the Watch taking it from there, Kraag told them to head back to the Blackwoods and send his gratitude.

Mara was relieved to hear it was taken care of and paid not only her agents for their service, but offered payment to Edwin as well as a show of good faith. “I can’t promise my mother will want to hear you out, Mr. Thorne, but I will see what can be done. You’ve done us a favor here.”

Having done their good deed and seeing a job well done, Bonu invited Edwin back to their place for dinner and to begin the preparations for Lyra and Ian’s wedding. “They deserve the best. This is a true romance,” he explained, ushering everyone out of Mara’s study. “We’ll need flowers, decorations, a cake! I need at least a week Grumbar, is it too late to reschedule?”

“Yes.”

“Never mind, they’ve waited long enough anyhow and I’ve got the perfect buttercream recipe for this.”

Actually living in Waterdeep turned out to be not so different from simply renting a room in one of its many inns. They spent the next few days working with Mara to learn a little bit more about their position with the family. And Bonu, in high key decorator mode, put both Keros and Grumbar to work at odd and random times. But otherwise the party dynamic was much of what it had been before the offer.

That is, until Grumbar left the house muttering to himself one morning with barely a glance at the other two. A quick promise to return eventually was all they got before the cleric slammed the door behind him.

“Should we follow him?”

“It’s Grumbar, I’m sure he’s fine.” Probably.

A few days later and still no sign of Grumbar, they were called to meet Mara and found her rifling through paperwork in her study nervously. After asking after the cleric and getting shrugs from the archer and barbarian, she sighed and shook her head.

“I don’t know if he’d be of help here or not. There was a tragic accident in the Castle Ward three days ago. Valuth Myres perished in an explosion. He was found among the rubble of his home with an untouched deck of cards. A wizard with the Watch recently confirmed they’re cursed, but we haven’t a clue where he got them. Earlier that afternoon, Valuth been seen bragging about these supposedly ‘lucky’ cards at a tavern nearby, but that seems to be all we have.”

With orders to check in with Kraag at the Watch before the case ran too cold, they made a quick detour for Bonu to grab a small basket of pastries from their kitchen and headed off.

It was a quick trip across town to the Watch House and the guards seemed already accustomed to Bonu arriving unannounced with pastries. Bonu, to Keros’s amusement, already knew the path to Kraag’s office and knocked before just letting himself in.

Kraag, surrounded by a pile of paperwork, sighed when the door opened. “So Lord Blackwood sent you?” Kraag asked as Bonu offered him pastries. Despite looking beyond tired, the half-orc took one with a nod of thanks. “I’ve got people missing. Continued unrest. And now people dying.”

He went on to explain that, over the last couple of weeks, people had been turning up missing in the city. Until any evidence of them were found, the Watch was at a standstill there, but Myres’s death was raising other alarms.

“We’ve spoken with a friend of the victim, Mateo Leeson, but he doesn’t have any idea where Myres got these cards. We have a dozen magic shops in the city and it could be any of them. Could be an outside merchant. Could have been a gift. Nothing’s turned up yet and I’m run thin already,” he said with a gesture to the paperwork.

Promising to do what they could to help, the two made their way out of the Watch, following a vague lead that could really take them anywhere in the city. Inevitably, they ended up at the Roaring Lamb for their usual lunch and greeted Nick with friendly conversation.

At one end of the bar an older human gentleman with long graying hair sat watching the tavern and making friendly conversation with any who seemed interested. Though there was a small keg at his hip, he kept pushing his glass back towards Nick for refills when his conversations lulled.

Plotting out their means of investigation at one of the tables, Keros and Bonu missed much of the altercation between the old timer and three younger men in the tavern. But as a fight began to break out, the two pushed aside their drinks and stood up to come to his, and the barkeeper’s, assistance.

Which, they would quickly see, was mostly unnecessary.

Though Bonu and Keros had meant to just scare the lads into backing off with a little show of force, the old timer held none of his punches and unleashed a quick flurry of blows in the face of the first thug to raise his fists. With him preoccupied, Keros rounded on the second and pulled an arrow from his hip. A flash of arcane energy flared at its head and he stabbed it into the attacking thug’s shoulder, causing him to go blind for a brief second and recoil from the fight.

Smarter than his fellows, the third simply turned tail and booked it. Bonu was quick on his feet, however, and chased after him, calling the guards as they sprinted down the main road. Keros, loathe to leave Bonu to his own devices, abandoned the old timer, who seemed just fine on his own with the two staggered thugs, and booked it after the barbarian with his net in hand.

After a brief tussle and ensuring the city guards had it from there, they took stock of the brief mess they’d made of the tavern. Before Nick could even raise a fuss over the broken glassware, the old timer slid him a couple of gold paired with a smile and an apology.

“You lads are spirited,” the old timer said, as Keros and Bonu each slid an additional gold to Nick’s recompense. “Name’s Edwin,” he said, inviting himself to their table.

Introducing themselves, they marveled at his fighting ability to which he laughed, taking a drink from a newly refreshed pint. “Just an old traveler. Nothing special. But I like the folk around here. There are enough bullies in the nobility, we don’t need to go fighting among each other on top of it.”

Against Keros’s better judgement, Bonu went onto say not all nobility was bad. The surviving Blackwoods were certainly trying.

Curious to hear those sort of sentiments, especially about the Blackwoods, Edwin reluctantly agreed. “But as long as its only them doing the ruling around here, nothing will change. That Sultlue was just on trial and nothing’s come of it.”

Taking a leap, Bonu suggested that if Edwin could help them out with a favor, maybe they could put him in touch with someone who had more power to change things than them. “We could put in a good word, but first we’re looking to figure out who killed this guy, Valuth. He sorta blew up. Kind of a pressing issue.”

Finding their investigation more interesting than a daytime bar crawl, Edwin agreed to help, especially if they could put him in touch with a lord. So they settled their tabs and headed out, with Edwin sipping at his flask as they left.

The couple of magic shops they stopped in were small and a bit skittish, having already had guards and concerned patrons poking in earlier in the day. They swore their products were up to code with the merchant guild’s magic division and that they’d never done business with Valuth Myres.

One shop they popped into was less of a magic shop and more of a general armor and weaponry shop with some magical wares within, but they stopped in out of curiosity. While there, Bonu commissioned a new set of armor and Keros impulse traded his silvered rapier for a finely crafted trident.

Duwain Bladesemer even agreed to give them a bit of a deal when Bonu yet again let slip they had connections to the Blackwoods. If they could forge an exclusive contract between House Bladesemer and House Blackwood for their armory supplies, Duwain promised Bonu even better deals in the future.

“That was productive,” Bonu said as they walked out, their purses much lighter.

Sipping from his flask, Edwin eyed the two of them. “Was it though?”

With night starting to roll in and being no closer to solving this than when they started, they split ways with Edwin for the evening. They would meet him at the Grinning Lion, the inn closer to Blackwood Manor, in the morning and try again tomorrow.

“I like him. He has a good heart,” Bonu said, leading the way home.

Keros agreed and looked up at the darkening sky. “But have you noticed everyone we work with is always drunk?”

Having left his fellows without much explanation, Grumbar found himself inexplicably drawn to the needle point tower that loomed in the heart of Waterdeep. While he had never intended to visit the Plinth, the strange dreams and troubled thoughts he had been having since he swore himself to the Blackwoods drew him closer.

A massive granite tower with spiraling balconies, the Plinth was a beacon for worshipers of the old gods whose practices were often forgotten and unwelcome. There was solidarity among the various priests, monks, and other followers within who came to remember they were not so alone. And as the last priest of Grumbar, Grumbar had planned to avoid this place with more care than he had avoided plagues in the past.

Finding himself there now, however, Grumbar’s feet brought him to a forgotten altar on the ground floor where darkness quickly overtook him. Instead of this tiny stone altar, he stood before a massive stone face, larger than any mountain and impossible to see in a single glance. Though the mouth of this face moved, its voice, rough like gravel, reverberated through his very being: 

“Hello, my child. You lost faith in me, but I do not hold it against you. I have been gone too long and too much has changed in my absence. But more change is yet to come. 

You have work to do. The land is in peril and the anima of this world is crying out. There is an evil clawing at the roots of the world, threatening to tear apart the very mountains themselves. Though you are a mere mortal, you are my only living follower in this land with even a glimmer of belief left in you. 

Yes, you have broken tenets. You have not preached in my name for over a decade. But none of that matters, because at your core, in your immovable bedrock, you were still true… just… waiting. We have both been… asleep. But even the land will shift and buckle if enough pressure is applied. Now… the earth quakes… and the world wakes. 

You have much work to do, my Chosen.” 

After Lord Sultlue’s arrest and the unfortunate incident regarding the Wooden Man and his employer, Lord Blackwood requested that Keros, Grumbar, and Bonu remain in Waterdeep for the time being. After reminding them that they owed her their freedom, the group readily agreed, even though Greyson and his dogs were long gone.

Though they occasionally received missives from the Blackwoods at the Roaring Lamb, where they decided to stay now that the family wasn’t footing their bill, they didn’t see much of them. Instead, they spent their days catching up on some of the highlights of Waterdeep that they had previously missed out on. Keros caught up on news at the Selune temple, Bonu made his acquaintance with just about everyone he met, and Grumbar continued to ignore his clerical duties and tour the city pubs between some quick for hire jobs the three of them took up.

Days later, they were summoned back to Blackwood Manor. This time, Lady Westra was no where to be seen, but Lady Mara was waiting outside with a carriage.

“The trial is today,” she said after polite greetings were exchanged, “for Lord Arboreus. I know he’s not the sweetest man, but he is innocent. I would like it if you accompanied me. It’s formality, really, the evidence I presented the Watch with is enough to clear him, but… You’ve seen how the people of the city feel about nobles of late. It’s best we go through with the trial as normal.”

With some reluctance ( because he was not a sweet man and the party still thought he was creepy enough to not be trusted ), they agreed to it and joined Mara down to the Piergeiron’s Palace. A grand white stone structure at the foot of Mount Waterdeep, the palace was where the courts were held and where the Masked Lords, among others, would assemble to oversee the affairs of the city.

They followed Lady Mara inside and, alongside Captain Kraag who had arrived ahead of them, were directed by clerks within to the massive court chamber.

With striking statues and cathedral architecture, the room was vast and echoing. At a raised bench in the back of the chamber sat a woman who, at a distance, seemed younger than her long silver hair could lead some to believe. Open Lord Laeral Silverhand sat over the court with a number of masked individuals flanking her.

With a simple bow to the Open Lord and no acknowledgement to the other figures, Mara took a seat in one of the empty rows of seat. Being unfamiliar with the political etiquette of the city, Keros, Grumbar, and Bonu simply followed suit with Kraag at their heels.

Sitting alone in the center of the chamber was Lord Arboreus Sultlue. There was something of an audible, echoing groan from him when they entered.

“You think he’d be nicer to us considering,” Grumbar muttered under his breath.

Mara shook her head. “Grumbar…”

Despite the Lords overseeing the court, it was called to order by the two figures who entered the chamber and took their places below the bench. Blackrobes Kylynne and Claudius were orchestrating the trial. Blackrobe Kylynne, a tiefling, seemed interested in why the party would now speak on behalf of the man they had accused in the first place. Her partner, a human, seemed to be less interested and encouraged them to hurry up their case.

One at a time, they each presented their piece. Explaining how the evidence did, at first, lead to Sultlue — the wights, the snakes, the attempts on his house that seemed to fail — but that this was just part of something bigger.

They presented both Blackwood amulets and the dagger Keros had first taken from the Wooden Man along with the letter. The evidence didn’t point so cleanly back towards Arboreus with the rest of the puzzle pieces lined up.

“We assumed the Wooden Man was dead,” Grumbar explained, attempting to guide their ill-prepared testimony.

Bonu nodded. “We sorta last saw him in piec—” Grumbar elbowed him a bit and Bonu quickly corrected, “dead. We saw him very dead. No reason to think he might still be around. Or a suspect.”

“But since he tried to kill us — again — clearly we were wrong,” Keros added.

Mara backed their statements and Blackrobe Kylynne turned to focus on the accused for the first time. “Lord Sultlue, what do you have to say?”

He tore his attention away from the seated Lords and faced the Blackrobes with his chin high. “I have professed innocence from the beginning. There is nothing more to say on a crime I was victim to.”

“The Watch acted with the information we had in the effort to protect the city,” Kraag said, standing from his spot beside Bonu. “We stand with the actions taken and would do so again, however we are glad to see our actions were only precaution. We have already begun to look for the the Wooden Man and his alleged employer.”

The Blackrobes thanked them all and then began to converse between themselves as Kraag sat down. There was some minor eye rolling from them both at each other and when they turned back to the witnesses, Claudius was more annoyed than before.

“The charges against Lord Arboreus Sultlue of crimes against the nobility of Waterdeep will be dropped in light of the evidence brought before the court. Do the Lords disagree?” Kylynne did not look behind her and, for a moment, was met only with silence.

“The Lords are in agreement,” said the Open Lord, standing at her bench.

With the motion made to drop the charges, the court was dismissed and Lord Arboreus wasted no time in exiting the chamber.

As they filed outside, chatting a bit with Kraag about what was being done about Z ( or Zymun, as they guessed ), they were surprised to see Arboreus waiting for them. Perhaps expecting a small bit of gratitude from the man, they were somehow more surprised by his warning to stay away from him in the future.

“You think he’d be grateful,” Bonu said as Arboreus stormed off.

“You did sneak into his home and get him accused in the fist place,” Kraag pointed out.

Keros just gestured after him. “But still. Manners.”

Mara coughed slightly to grab their attention and smiled softly. “This was mostly formality, as I said, but thank you for coming. Mother is attending some business in the city, but if you could return to the manor sometime this evening, we have a proposition for you.”

Curious, they agreed and parted ways with Mara. Kraag also excused himself on account of “business” when Bonu offered to buy the man a drink if he joined them at the inn. With that plan shot down, Bonu quickly had another idea and looked up at the mountain that backed the palace. “Let’s go for a hike.”

Grumbar started towards what, he assumed, would be a path, but Bonu had other plans and quickly started to climb the rock face. “You have got to be kidding me…” he muttered to no one, as Keros was quick to follow the barbarian’s lead. He stood where he was for a long minute before giving in.

After a long day of more climbing than hiking, they reached the peak of Mount Waterdeep, the sun already beginning to dip. The three sat down heavily, some more out of breath than others, and looked out over the city. Waterdeep was beginning to light up with the coming dusk, but there were no torches or mobs in its streets tonight. The City of Splendors was just that, in part — a little — because of them.

“It’s beautiful,” said Bonu.

Keros nodded, looking out towards the coast. “It is.”

“We’re taking the fucking path down,” Gumbar grumbled.

Catching their breaths, they soon got back to their feet and followed Grumbar’s lead to the gently winding path down the mountain. The chatter was friendly and light with some well meant grumbling about bullheadedness along the way. They might not have meant to stay together as long as they had so far, but they worked surprisingly well as a team all the same.

On arriving at Blackwood Manor, they were brought to a grand study they’d not seen before where Lady Westra sat with her daughter at her side. She looked over the three of them coolly and then folded her hands on the desk. “Are you familiar with the Lord’s Alliance?”

Having only the vaguest idea of it, they said no.

“Waterdeep, Neverwinter, the major cities in these parts, we do not always agree with each other, but we can agree on a desire for peace from outside threats. There is an alliance among certain houses that look to uphold that peace and who employ certain agents to see it done. My daughter,” she said, looking at Mara, “believes you three can be… shaped into proper representatives of both House Blackwood and Waterdeep.”

“You do not have to agree,” Mara said, speaking up, “but in doing so you would be formally employed by our family. If you do not, we ask you keep this to yourselves. These are not offers made lightly or commonly.”

The three looked between each other before Keros raised a hand. “What does it entail?” He made a gesture to the tabards worn by the house guards. “Are we just guards?”

“When necessary,” Westra said. “Without divulging more, you would be our agents beyond Waterdeep when such representation or force is required. And you would answer to Mara.”

Keros, at least, seemed sold on that plan. He glanced at the others and back to the Blackwoods, then put his hand to his chest and bowed his head. “I accept.”

Bonu followed suit. Waterdeep ( and Kraag ), he said, seemed like it could use their help.

Grumbar was the only one hesitant on the matter with both the Blackwoods and his companions looking on expectantly. A pact, as formal as this one, was not something he’d made in awhile, he muttered under his breath. “But if we’re doing this… I also accept.”

Looking only a little bit like he’d been struck by something, Grumbar, alongside Keros and Bonu, watched Mara smile.

Lady Westra stood to make her exit. “Try to keep them in line.”

As Westra left, Mara picked up a key from the desk. “There is a house on the property that hasn’t been used in some time. It’s been recently aired and it’s yours, should you like it.” As they thanked her and took the key, Mara smiled. “Good. This will be something of a learning process for us all, but we’ll discuss the details tomorrow. I wish you all a good night.”

As they left the manor, Keros twirled the key in his hand, brows raised. “We have a house.”

With the Watch working on returning the undead to their tombs and keeping an eye out for any further unrest — from corpses or commoners — the party made the trek back to Blackwood Manor. With the late hour upon them, they expected to simply pass a word of warning of the continued unrest and return to their lodgings for the evening.

They didn’t expect to see every window lit and for the increased activity of Blackwood guards on the grounds. “Did word of the uprising make it this far?” Keros asked, which only alarmed the guards more.

“Uprising? No. There was a break in this evening. What uprising? Is there an uprising?”

Only partially calming the guards, they bullied their way past them and into the house for answers. Kosef was in the main parlor, polishing up a crossbow. “Ah good, you came. Mara’s in the study upstairs with Westra. Everyone’s okay, but you’ll forgive the security increase,” he said, patting his crossbow. “Called for the Watch, but gods know where they are tonight.”

Taking his direction, they headed upstairs to find Mara alone in the study. She looked up when they knocked and entered.

Promising she was alright, she informed them her room had been broken into sometime between when she’d changed for bed and when she’d gone to say goodnight to Ander. When she’d come back, the window had been shattered and her room had been tossed.

“The only thing missing,” Mara said, “seems to be the amulet. The one you returned to me, Keros. I think I know why Bran wanted it. It was a gift to Urth, ages ago, and was rumored to bring longevity to its wearer. But that’s a story, of course. Urth was very old when he died, but hardly as old as an elf, like rumor claimed. Even so, the amulet would only attune to a Blackwood and, well, you know Bran was my half-brother…” She shook her head. “I still don’t really know his intentions with it. But I have even less of an idea of why someone else would steal it.”

Agreeding to keep an eye out for it, they proceeded to inform her of what had transpired earlier. Keros, speaking on behalf of the party, promised to spend the night on watch with the guards at the manor. Before the rest of the party could raise objection to this, Mara thanked them all for everything they continued to do for her family and excused herself to a guest room for the night.

After a quiet night and breakfast with the Blackwoods, the group promised they were hunting down a good lead and would update Mara and Westra when they had more. With that, they headed towards the City of the Dead.

Though the day guards at the cemetery’s north entrance warned them of increased activity of the dead within, they assured them it was nothing to worry about in the day. This didn’t really comfort them any. Grumbar asked the guards for any directions towards the Sultlue tombs, as they wished to pay some respects, and the guards directed them without much question.

After some searching, they found the tomb with a large snake and dagger crest over the door and the family name engraved across the top.

The mausoleum, surprisingly, was already open. And a quick investigation turned up that most of the nearby tombs were locked tight — either preventing desecration or keeping great-granddaddy inside. Tossing the Waterdeep laws out the window yet again, they started to poke around. While some — Greyson — were interested in pilfering old trinkets and the like, the others turned up an alarming amount of evidence that didn’t paint Lord Arboreus and his kin in the best light.

The Sultlue tomb was blood spattered in what appeared to be the work of many old ( and some recent ) ritual sacrifices. The snake iconography ran deep, all the way to a tomb of what appeared to be an ancient Sultlue ancestor who was, perhaps, not entirely human. And maybe a little more yuan-ti.

Settling on the fact that this decidedly raised Arboreus from ‘kind of shitty and arrogant’ to ‘possibly trying to kill his fellow lords,’ they decided to seek out Kraag. Dealing with the lord themselves was probably frowned on after Bran, they figured.

The hunt for Kraag ended up leading them straight to Lord Arboreus regardless. A second break in of a noble house in less than a day, the Watch was on scene and starting to look a little tense. Telling Kraag what they’d seen and insisting they hadn’t broken in because it was already open, the captain groaned into his hands.

“I can’t go arresting a lord because of something previously wanted criminals found in his family tomb. Everything you have? It’s circumstantial at best.”

The choice, then, was clear. “Let us inside. We’ll find proof.”

Kraag looked at Keros as though he’d grown a second head. Able to convince Kraag with the promise that if they were wrong they would let it go ( but if they were right, he could arrest the threat to the nobles ), Kraag swore to himself. “You have five minutes and I had no part in this,” he warned them.

He then called over to Lord Arboreus and asked him to take a walk with him through the garden so they could go over the details one more time. “You said the key to your family tomb was taken from your study?” they heard Kraag say as the two walked off.

Deciding that was a very convenient a thing to have stolen, they booked it inside when no one was looking.

Expecting to be greeted with something similar to the Blackwood Manor — ornate, imposing, reeking of old money — they were caught off by the glass enclosure that made up the center of the home. Within were lush, green jungle plants unlike any that grew around these parts. The green house stretched to the roof, with sunlight filtering down through the leaves.

With that being both neat and a little weird, they moved past it towards Arboreus’s more private chambers. Grumbar cast Detect Poisons and Disease as they moved upstairs and nudged them towards a locked door. Calling Greyson away from his “investigation” of some statuary, the dwarf opened the door for them with ease.

Now, while having a hobby is not unusual, the last time they’d discovered a noble hiding a chemist’s lab it hadn’t simply been for fun. All sorts of vials, liquids, and deadly plants decorated the lab. Most notably, there were tanks of various sizes housing some rather mean looking snakes too.

Grumbar’s spell illuminated an assortment of venom and poisons in the room.

“Oooohhh I don’t like him,” said Bonu.

They continued to snoop and found an open study that looked as tossed and ruined as Mara’s room had, as well as what seemed to be the master bedroom. They began to nudge things around, finally settling on a chest at the foot of the bed that was double locked. Keros pulled Greyson back in from whatever he was investigating in the hall and had him open the chest.

A quick rummage inside turned up two things hidden at the bottom: a key and the Blackwood amulet.

Keros went to grab them both, but Grumbar stopped him. “If we take it to Kraag, he’ll have to explain how we were in here.”

“So we just leave it here? This is proof he came after Lady Mara!”

“We tell Kraag and he finds it.”

They put everything back, though less hidden and without locking anything, and crept back outside unseen with Greyson leading the way. They were on the lawn before Kraag and Arboreus rounded the corner.

“What are they still doing here?” Arboreus asked.

“I’ll check,” the watch captain said. He gave the party a look that demanded answers when he rejoined them. “Well?”

Quickly, speaking over each other as they went, they told him about what they’d found inside: the poisons, the amulet, the key.

Kraag pinched at the bridge of his nose. Telling them he’d take it from here, he advised them to leave the rest of this to his team. He spoke with some of his men and headed back into the house with them and Arboreus to “look over the scene one more time.”

They didn’t leave. And as the minutes ticked by with no sign of Kraag and his men, Bonu began to grow agitated, fiddling more and more with his axe. “What if that snake’s done something to Kraag? We have to go in there!” Grumbar’s insistence that they wait only worked for so long.

Deciding that Kraag was clearly in danger of Arboreus’s snake trickery, Bonu tried to storm the manor after him. Not as used to Bonu’s emotional outbursts, Greyson and the remaining guards looked on in fascination and horror as Keros threw a net on his companion and began to wrestle him to the ground. As he started to shout about a need for justice, Grumbar cast Silence over the three of them and shot the guards the most strained of thumbs up.

They bickered in pantomime until Kraag returned with Arboreus in tow. At which point, the Silence dropped and both Keros and Bonu scrambled back up to their feet.

Arboreus had never looked more indignant. With a guard on either side, he was being escorted away from his home with loud complaints that he’d never seen that amulet in his life, this was a misunderstanding, and that they would pay for this. Kraag, looking more tired than relieved to have all of this over, had the key and amulet in hand.

“You can tell Lord Blackwood and her family that Lord Sultlue is being questioned on his involvement in all of this. This is going to be messy as it is, I would appreciate it if they were the only ones you told.” He turned the amulet over to Keros. “I understand this is an old heirloom, nobles tend to not like those things being out of their own hands for too long. See they get it back.”

Thanking him and promising they would, the party returned to Blackwood Manor. Mara was thrilled to see them back, but she seemed to already know about Sultlue’s arrest. “Mother was called away for a meeting of the Ma- of the lords. Word of his arrest is already spreading,” she told them.

Mara gave a small smile to Grumbar, Bonu, and Keros as the amulet was once again returned to her hands. “I don’t think you’re mother’s favorite people yet, but she is thankful.” From the table beside her, she pulled four small pouches of gold to hand to each of them.

Greyson thanked her for the coin and gave the others a nod of ‘well, it’s been fun’ and whistled to his dogs. They scrambled to their feet and followed the dwarf to the door where a young boy stood, hand poised to knock. Arching a skeptical brow at the kid, they moved past each other and Greyson stepped outside.

“Lady Mara Blackwood?” the boy asked as he came inside. “I’ve a delivery for Lady Mara.”

Surprised, she beckoned him over and took the small, paper wrapped package. “Just a moment,” she told him and the others as she opened it.

Mara gasped as a second Blackwood amulet stared back at her. Shocked, she read the letter, in its neat and cramped cursive, aloud:

Mara, 

I believe this belongs to you. As I worried, there was little magic left within. You may have it back. However, I believe my associate, Daerin, still has some unfinished business with your three retainers. Thanks for all the help! 

Wishing you the best of luck!  Z 

“Darnell?” Bonu asked.

At which point, their attention shifted from Mara and the letter to the boy who was no longer a boy. In his place stood a pale, heavily scarred elf in black leathers: the Wooden Man, alive and in the flesh.

Using the element of surprise, he laughed and attacked Grumbar, coming at him with a poisoned dagger. When Grumbar tried to Hold Person him, as he had done the last time, the assassin shrugged it off with a mad grin. “That won’t work this time, Grumbar.”

Keros quickly moved between Daerin and a frozen Mara, arrows notched and ready as Bonu went into another rage. Unable to pin him down and simply wail on him, the fight was a little better matched, with the elf giving as good as he got. He even managed to cast Hold Person on Grumbar for a moment, though the concentration was quickly broken.

( In the fight, no one noticed the door open and close or the invisible dwarf thief who stood blocking the elf’s escape. )

Thinking they were finally wearing him down, Keros was startled by shattering glass. He thought, perhaps, one of his arrows had gone impossibly wide, but a shimmer of illusion magic showed the truth. The assassin they were fighting had, at some point, cast a double of himself and sneaked towards the window.

“Don’t think I’m through with you!” he shouted, vaulting out the window and vanishing.

They were left standing there wondering what just happened ( and Greyson slipped out unseen once more ).

Finding Lady Mara unresponsive through all of this, they caught sight of a strange sheen on the amulet and pried it from her hand with a cloth. She quickly shrugged out of what state she’d been in, wiping her hand quickly on her skirts. A contact poison of some kind, she had been unable to move shortly after picking up the amulet.

“If this is the real amulet,” she said, handling it through the cloth, “then… there’s been a mistake with Lord Sultlue, hasn’t there?”

“The Jardeth guards said a hired elf had gone rogue on them,” Bonu said as reality came crashing down.

Keros pulled out the twisted dagger, permanently coated in a dangerous sheen of poison, that he’d taken off the Wooden Man when they’d first encountered him. “Guys?”

Grumbar put a hand over his face and sighed. “We just helped Z and Daryl frame a lord.”

Summoned to Blackwood Manor early the next morning, the party found a frustrated Mara waiting for them. There had been another incident in the night, she told them, Lord Arboreus Sultlue was alright, thank the gods, and had managed to fend off the attacker.

“I’ve only just heard word of this, but please, look into it before things get anymore out of hand.”

So with the sun only just rising, the team made their way through the North Ward to Sultlue Manor. The property was teeming with the Watch, including Captain Agundar. Before they could ask after the lord’s whereabouts, he made himself known.

Young and arrogant, Lord Arboreus was not thrilled to have the city guards roaming about his property and was somehow less thrilled to see the adventurers than even Kraag. “I’m quite capable of handling things myself, clearly,” he said with a hand on his sword. “Tell that to the Blackwoods before they send their dogs.”

Mac and Gruff were rightly offended.

With some careful diplomacy, a feat lead by Grumbar, they were able to learn that Arboreus had been attacked with a dagger in the night, but had surprised the attacker with a blade of his own from beneath his pillow. Dressed all in black, the attacker had barely made a sound as they fled Arboreus and his guards.

Curious, they asked if the attacker had been an elf, but Arboreus seemed honest enough when he said he couldn’t tell.

“Whoever it was, they won’t be back, I can promise you that. I had my guards chase them down all the way to the South Ward, but the bastard found some hole to hide in.”

Wanting to be done with Arboreus as soon as possible, Greyson had his dogs sniff at a piece of cloth torn from the assailant. They then set off after Mac and Gruff towards the South Ward. More dumb floppy muscle than hunting dogs, however, neither really turned up much after even a few hours of wandering the streets. Needing to rethink their plans and fill their stomachs, they stepped into the Roaring Lamb, a nearby tavern.

With their entrance, some conversation hushed up in the corner, before picking up again with softer voices. The party eyed them, but grabbed a table of their own and put in orders for the lunch special and ales all around.

“Barging into my home, the nerve of those damn nobles,” one of the men could be heard grumbling, voice raising as he went. “Whatever that fucking Sultlue, or them Blackwoods think, he don’t own this city.”

The party made some not at all subtle gesturing to each other, nodding at the other table, and Keros and Grumbar turned to engage. Though the men there seemed wary of them, they were more so enraged with the arrogance of nobles. Sultlue’s men had done more than chase down the assailant. They’d turned over a number of homes in the South Ward to send a message, banging down the doors of innocent folk in search of a ghost.

“Watch ain’t doing shit about it either. I saw nothing. And even if I did? Wouldn’t tell them. Someone wants to go on killing them lords? That’s fine with me.” Having said their piece, the men tossed down some coins on the table and made their leave.

The bartender apologized for the commotion as he cleaned up, commenting that the party didn’t look to be from around here. Things had been tense in the city for a few weeks, if they couldn’t guess, and this was just one more spark in the fire.

Bonu took the lull in business to spark up a casual conversation about the city with the bartender — Nick, as he found out — while the others ate. Nick was sympathetic to the commoners, but didn’t seem quite as likely to aid murderers as the others. As their meal wound down, Grumbar slid a few gold across the table. “If a stranger wanted to learn some things about all of this, where might they look?”

Nick eyed them for a moment and then slid the gold off the counter. “Caravan Court. Might wanna look around dusk there tonight.”

With that in mind, the party thanked him for the meal and drinks and spent the rest of the day canvasing Caravan Court in preparation for what they might find there.

Not wanting to raise suspicions, they waited until dusk had settled to approach the court. By day, it was a gathering space for travel caravans and mercenaries seeking hire. By night, it was usually empty. But a large crowd, armed with torches and the like, had already congregated by time they arrived. Among them were folk they’d met weeks ago in the Copper District.

“They look cheerful,” Greyson muttered, eyeing the improvised weapons.

But their attention was quickly drawn to a young man atop an overturned cart. He was slight of build, dressed in black, and wore a tattered cloak. He would be easily overlooked if not for the inciting speech he was giving to his rapt audience:

“... you toil every day to scrape by. Your friends and family have died for this city. And the Blackwoods lied to you! They claimed to be helping, when it was Bran Blackwood who unleashed the plague upon you in the first place! 

I had friends here in the Copper District, struck down by illness and famine, and they were turned into undead abominations. The rumors are true! I have seen it with my own eyes! Instead of having graves dug for them, their bodies were made to dig a tunnel. Just so Bran could chase faerie tales... 

Will you stand idly by and wait for perhaps another noble house to play with your lives? Will you watch as they steal your mothers, fathers, children, siblings? Or would you rather send a message?

Stand with me and we can avenge our loved ones. Stand with me and we can show we will not be toyed with. Stand with me. TONIGHT, WE WILL STRIKE BACK AND TAKE THE WAR TO THEM! TONIGHT, WE BEGIN THE COPPER REBELLION!”

The crowd erupted into cheers, chanting the name “Zymun” as they stared up at the young man — hardly more than a teen — who had made them a mob.

Realizing nothing about this could go well, the group tried first to get a hold of this Zymun. Unfortunately, he vanished into the gathered crowd, with the aid of a walking stick despite his young age, almost as soon as he’d finished speaking. And with shouts across the court, they watched as the mob quickly started off, taking their rebellion to the nobles in the north.

There was a collectively muttered “shit” and the party started to move.

Bonu, Keros, Grumbar, and Greyson followed them along side streets, hoping they could get ahead of the mob. If they couldn’t stop the crowd, they would likely be torn asunder by the better armed, better trained guards of the city. The people were angry, and rightfully so, but this was not the answer, just another spark for the fire.

Catching a pair of guards along the way, they quickly told them — shouted at them, really — what was happening. They didn’t hang around to see if action was taken, however, still hoping to cut the mob off.

Able to move through the empty streets at full speed, they began to cover more ground. As they neared the City of the Dead, the torch light to their left was matched by torch light up ahead: Captain Kraag Agundar and his men had received word of the unrest.

They’d come to a large square where the Watch had hastily come together to form a wall between the North Ward and the mob. Warnings to turn back or surrender were issued, but the mob was enraged and inspirited. They only yelled louder and raised their torches and weapons higher.

And that was when things went from bad to worse.

Amidst the chaos, Grumbar caught movement coming from the City of the Dead to the east: led by two wights, a group of undead were creeping towards the commotion.

Bonu shouted towards Kraag across the way and aggressively gestured to the undead approaching before going into a rage. Kraag swore and began to start trying to divvy the attentions of his men between both threats, but a surge of water irrupted between the guards and the mob, separating them. There were startled cries from both sides and Keros, focusing on keeping the Water Wall up, turned to the commoners to shout, “You really might want to leave now!”

Noticing the undead already beginning to clash with guards and better armed adventurers, the mob hastily thought better of their mission and took his advice.

The fight was a little messy, but despite a few scares ( and Greyson hanging back from most of the fighting entirely ) they were able to clean up the undead with the help of the guards. One guard was not so lucky as the rest, however, and when the last of the undead were struck down, his comrades went to his aid.

Kraag, who had torn through the wights with gladiatorial ferocity, wiped his blades off as he approached the team. “Thanks for the heads up,” he said, sounding more sincere with them than he had since they’d met. “We’re sending someone down to check the gates to the City of the Dead. There are guards to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen. You wanna explain what the hell else was going on here?”

They told him that the mob had been incited by someone and Kraag’s attention sharpened. “The Revolutionary? Zymun, you said? You saw him?” Explaining that they had, but that they hadn’t spoken with him, Kraag swore again. “Ever since the plague, this guy’s been stirring up trouble. But no one is giving him up, we get whispers about this guy. Not fucking surprised he had something to do with this.”

Asking them to keep an eye out for him ( if they were already going to be nosing around for the Blackwoods ), Kraag turned to look down at the corpses in the square. “Gonna have to get these guys back to their tombs,” he muttered, walking off to delegate that unfortunate task elsewhere.

Greyson was already picking through the bodies by time Kraag had turned around. On one of the wights, he held up a strip of rotted fabric with a house crest still emblazoned on it. “Isn’t this the mark of the charmer we met this morning?”

The snake and the sword crest he tore off was indeed the mark of House Sultlue. And on deeper inspection, all of the undead appeared to be from noble houses, though Sultlues were the only wights in the lot.

“Didn’t the undertaker mention snake poison?” Keros piped up.

“And Arboreus is the only one who survived,” Bonu added.

They looked from each other to the undead with a snake coat of arms. Greyson snorted. “Who wants to bet on that coincidence?”

Having parted ways with Audulio, the party made their way towards Yartar. The river city was a hub for travelers and information and the party decided to see what ventures they might come across there. A venture, however, was already waiting for them. A courier quickly caught them at the gates with a letter. “Thought you might be the ones,” he said, passing the envelope to Keros. “Not a whole lot of tritons ’round these parts.”

With the letter addressed to the three of them, they crowded around Keros as he broke the wax seal with a familiar tree crest. The letter, in neat script, read:

I hope this finds you in time.

There have been some deaths in the city in the weeks since you’ve left and I grow increasingly worried. An attempt was made on the life of someone in House Blackwood, thankfully we are alright. I know it is much to ask, but you uncovered Bran’s treachery and I can think of no one else to turn to. I have managed to arrange your pardons if you return to Waterdeep, I only hope you do so.

Yours sincerely, Lady Mara Blackwood

Though the concern of this being a ploy for their arrest came up, Keros whole-heartedly trusted that Lady Mara sincerely needed their help. She had, after all, allowed them to escape the first time. So, with some mutterings from their cleric, the party left Yartar almost as soon as they’d arrived and pushed on back towards Waterdeep.

In under a tenday, they found themselves back at Waterdeep’s North Gates. The other travelers filing into the gates were chatty, talking of tensions in the city, crime spikes, and strikes in the Copper District. Hardly encouraged about their return, even with the letter they carried, they attempted to pass the guards with their heads down.

That went about as well as expected.

Pulled aside from the rest of the travelers moving in and out of the city, Keros quickly pulled out Mara’s letter in their defense. The City Watch, however, insisted on escorting them down to the Watch House where they could take it up with the captain. They considered breaking from the guards, but ultimately decided against it and allowed themselves to be led off. Though Bonu and Keros tried to strike up conversation and win favors, their attempts fizzled pretty quickly.

Let into the Watch House, they were ushered into a corner of the building definitely more suited for criminal folks awaiting bail than friendly chats with the local watch captain. Already making himself quite at home there was a dwarvish looking fellow and two dogs roughly as big as himself.

Greyson, as the dwarf introduced himself, was vaguely familiar with this post, though friendly was not really the word he’d choose to describe his relationship with the watchmen here. Still, he waved once when a guard looked over at the motley crew and returned to petting the nearest drooling mastiff: Mac or Gruff, the party couldn’t really tell which was which.

After some small talk and some side eyeing of the dwarf in their company, a half-orc in uniform approached them. Stern and tired, Captain Kraag Agundar was almost less enthused about having the party in his company than they were on being escorted to him. “If Lord Blackwood hadn’t already sent word, I’d have you lot in manacles for the shit you pulled.”

Kraag then walked over to a desk and pulled out several leaflets of paper and aggressively insisted the lot of them, Greyson included, take it and take it to heart. ‘The Laws of Waterdeep’ was emblazoned across the top of the parchment. Keros whistled a bit at the realization of just how many laws they’d tossed to the wayside last time.

“In our defense,” Bonu said, “the guys we killed killed way more people than us.” Kraag was not amused. Greyson simply fed the paper to one of his dogs when no one was looking.

Another watchman hurried in and announced the arrival of Lady Westra and Lady Mara Blackwood moments before the women appeared. Westra, as dignified and cold as ever, didn’t look too pleased to be there, certainly not for the men who had killed her eldest son. Mara, on the other hand, seemed relieved.

Agreeing to take them under her charge — with the threat that a fate worse than prison would await them if they crossed her family again — Lady Westra swept out of the post as quick as she’d come. “Mother is worried,” Mara explained. “Please, there are carriages waiting. I will explain when we have some privacy.”

On their way out, Kraag issued one last warning against breaking the city laws. “I have enough problems right now without you lot.”

Keros promised their best behavior. Again, Kraag was unimpressed. Though Bonu seemed convinced he would come around.

With Greyson assumed to be part of their troupe by the Blackwoods, the dwarf came along with only the barest of invites to do so. Mara and Westra rode off in a carriage ahead of them and the four men and two dogs clambered into a second carriage.

Blackwood Manor was as imposing as they’d left it and the party quickly followed the two nobles inside. Greyson, at least, seemed more interested in the ornamentation of the manor than their reason for being there. Excusing herself from their company, only explaining she had business elsewhere in the city, Westra left Mara and one of their guards to deal with their guests.

Mara hurriedly explained that a string of deaths among the nobles of Waterdeep were beginning to raise some alarm. Although one of the deaths was still being spoken of as a tragic accident, the death that occurred just last night and the attempt on her own house — a poisoned dish that never made it to the table — made Mara believe there was something else to it.

“I, for one, will sleep better knowing someone is looking for the truth. And with the situation in the South Ward what it is now, well, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone came after our house again.”

“Is there anything you all have in common? A reason why someone might target these houses in particular?” Grumbar asked.

Mara grew visibly tense. “Waterdeep is ruled by the Open Lord and a secret council, the Masked Lords. There are rumors — just rumors — of which houses are part of this council and if you believe those rumors…” She waved her hand in gesture and said no more.

Promising to be the eyes and ears of the Blackwoods in the city, they agreed to look into the deaths. Mara promised a tab would be opened in her name at a nearby inn for them and Grumbar quickly led the charge there. “He’s very eager to plan things,” Keros tried to explain while he and Bonu waited for a written list of the families they should speak to before chasing after the rest of the team.

Grumbar and Greyson were already well into their drinks at the Grinning Lion when Bonu and Keros joined the table. Between them, Keros slapped down the list of nobles that had recently passed under odd circumstances:

Lord Ulb Jardeth, died in his bed almost a month ago.

Lord Ulmassus Phull, broke his neck in a fall little over a tenday ago.

Lord Dulbrawan Anteos II, died in his bed just last night.

Deciding to work their way across the city and visit each grieving family, the group grabbed some lunch at the inn and headed out.

Lord Anteos III was a grieving, frazzled young man when they arrived at the estate. With the very recent loss of his father, he didn’t want to speak more than absolutely necessary. He told them there was no way anyone could have gotten into the room. His father and mother locked the door from within and there was only a window with no way to climb the manor wall without a guard noticing. It had to be an unfortunate accident.

When Grumbar asked if there was anything strange about the body, Lord Anteos grew wary. “Well, there was a mark on his neck that mother found…” Either upset or concerned by this, he excused himself shortly after and they were encouraged to be on their way.

Across town, Lady Jardeth refused to take their company at all. They managed to speak with her house guards and questioned after any strange goings-on prior to the lord’s death. Though they’d noticed nothing unusual, nor had they seen anyone on the estate that night, they did mention that one of the house guards had gone missing. “An elf of some kind,” said one of the guards. “He kept to himself a lot. The lady had hired him maybe a month ago, if that.”

Taking note, the party thanked them for their cooperation and the guards looked the other way just long enough for Bonu to pick a flower from the garden before they left.

Lord Phull was only slightly more accommodating than the others. Though he kept them waiting — and Greyson got a little handsy with some of the less noticeable valuables around the study they waited in — he answered their questions easily. He didn’t believe his father’s death was anything more than it seemed — an accident.

“It’s tragic, of course it is, my father was a good man. Very well liked by the merchants here. But he was older now and it was very dark. He fell, that’s that. Do me a favor, while you’re about, tell that to the damn undertaker. I’d like to bury my father soon.”

Getting only slightly lost on their way to the undertaker’s, they found the man elbow deep in fluids they didn’t really want to question. When they mentioned their position with the Blackwoods, the man made a noise of understanding and ushered them in. His building was lit by arcane means and still managed to be dark and cold, though the cold he asked them to forgive, bodies and all.

“That boy,” he huffed, at the mention of Lord Phull, “should listen to me lest he end up like his father. Fall— A FALL.” He yanked back the sheet on the body of Lord Ulmassus Phull and tipped back the man’s head. Beneath the bruising of his broken neck, there was a faint dark and gangrenous webbing around a pinprick mark. “Does that look like a fall to you? Can’t be certain what kind, but from the reactions? I’d say it’s snake venom.”

Having passed on the lord’s message and thanking him for his time, the group quickly made their way out into the fresh evening air of the Sea Ward. With night fast approaching, they decided to check in with the Blackwoods and pick up in the morning.

“So, Lady Mara was right,” Keros said, as they made their way back.

“Sure. Someone’s killing nobles,” Grumbar agreed, “and it’s not us.”