Session Four - Waterdhavian Knights

Waterdeep, Marpenoth 1st, the Year of the Cauldron, 4:55 PM

With Penny rushing to make her date with Harrold Farrier, it was left to the remaining Mystic Eyes and the Buckleswashers to plan their infiltration of the Steel Hands Warehouse and Storage. Strolling by the facility on Slop Street, Kaine and Bungobar Talltankard noted the high perimeter fence and the presence of a number of wary guards with crossbows walking the wall. The large stone and wood central warehouse was well fortified, though large exterior windows and skylights permitted a flood of natural lighting into the structure. Sending the halfling to get an accurate accounting of the number of exterior guards, Kaine noted the presence of a number of tall buildings on either side of the facility, perfect for sniper and watcher positioning, before heading back to the Muleskull Tavern to arrange a meeting with his slaver contacts.

At the 'Skull, Kaine, in the guise of "Mr. White", was informed that his contact was unavailable until after midnight, but with a bit of wrangling with the old barkeep, he was able to arrange to examine the merchandise around 10 bells. He withdrew back to the lair of the halflings.

In Swashbucklers' Rest, Nikki ventured out for an evening stroll, to "clear her head". Her steps would take her to Asmagh's Alley and a missive request for aid in the trials to come. Kaine's return coincided with the return of a pair of Buckleswashers carrying a good deal of the (probably already spoken for) wealth of the Hearth of Good Hope, the temple to Yondalla in the Warrens beneath Dock Ward. The cut emeralds represented an enormous investment in this venture by the clerics of the halfling goddess. After praying to the Morninglord, the halfling priestess Lyratha pronounced that "He" favored them, and they would succeed.

Meanwhile, Penny was meeting with her erstwhile paramour at The Leaping Fish in North Ward, indulging in a vigorous meal of cracked lobster. The two talked about inconsequential things until Penny mentioned going for a ride in her horseless carriage, at which point, they hurried off to go joy-riding.

Waterdeep, Marpenoth 1st, the Year of the Cauldron, 9:40 PM

With Nikki as a sniper in place above the nearby Bent Codpiece festhall and Syd and the remaining Buckleswashers encamped upon the roof shrouded in wards of invisibility, Kaine and the spell-guised gnome Carthax rattled into the warehouse complex conveyed by Jessup the barkeep. There, they encountered a scarred, bald mercenary named Fordril who appeared to be in charge of security for the facility. After Jessup withdrew, Fordril escorted "Mr. White" and Carthax-as-Mister Wink to the bargaining table set up in the center of the weapons warehouse. There, they encountered Ambrose Valciennes, the jeweler and lieutenant of Carmine Fortunato. Needless to say, the precise man was surprised to find both Kaine and his boss's bodyguard confronting him as the "other buyer."

A bit of deft bluffing and gamesmanship, as well as 100 golden danters worth of cut emeralds, convinced Mister Ambrose of the sincerity of their interest in the halfling slaves. He escorted the pair through a concealed door into a vaulted sub-level of the warehouse, but not before casually dismissing the spell disguise around Carthax. Downstairs, the two discovered not 32 halfling slaves, but dozens of Moonshae men, women, and children as well, destined for a "previous buyer". Also downstairs, they encountered a gravel-voiced scarred looking brute of a man, to whom Mister Ambrose seemed to defer in his dealings. They began the inspection and negotiation in earnest.

On the surface, Nikki utilized her mysterious powers, gaining the ability to penetrate the floors of the warehouse and perceive the "bones" of the negotiators downstairs. Only those same mysterious powers saved her from the sudden and violent arrival of the undead form of Lathan Carlysle, returned once again from the grave. Dodging his inital assault, she translocated to just inside the doors of the warehouse, prompting the mad killer to launch a ravening assault upon the guarded complex.

Meanwhile, as Penny and Harrold approached the Mystic Eyes offices, they were intercepted by a gang of pale, identical looking men in dark clothing led by a tall, thin man wearing a "comedy" mask. The man ordered them to "take the girl, kill the boy." As she summoned forth her clay servant, the men summoned forth shadow dogs to counter it, and the two used its distraction to flee the scene, with the now hideously duplicating men hot on their heels. Their path took them to the City Watch stationed around the City of the Dead. The strange "shadow men" simply overwhelmed the watch station and the two fled deeper into the cemetery. Running for the hoped-for safety of one of the extra-dimensional mausoleums, the pair plunged through a flickering portal and found themselves in worse trouble. They had arrived in Undermountain.

Waterdeep, Marpenoth 1st, the Year of the Cauldron, 11:06 PM

In the slave pens, resounding booms above heralded the arrival of Lathan Carlysle in the warehouse upstairs. Apparently deciding to opt for the better part of valor, Ambrose and the scarred brute grabbed the emerald case and retreated into the sewer system as the exposed gateway began flickering to life, presumably to admit the "previous buyer". Kaine ran upstairs to engage the mad killer and his flying heads, calling in the halfling cavalry to spring ALL the slaves. Trading a few shots with Carlysle, and calling down a few blessings from the Morninglord on Kaine, the Buckleswashers headed downstairs to relieve Carthax who was occupying Ambrose's guards.

In the upper warehouse, Kaine and Syd engaged Carlysle, trapping him behind walls of ice while Nikki stuck to the upper gantries, sniping at the swooping flaming skulls. As chaos reigned above, below the halflings looked at each other in dread as the mysterious gateway finally opened itself.

Meanwhile, in Undermountain, Penny was able to master her fear long enough to perceive something that had been hovering around her consciousness. She seemed to "know", intrinsically, a path through the dreaded dungeon to the nearest gateway, located in a blasted chamber draped with runes etched in Loross, the tongue of High Netheril. In that chamber, she discovered a party of the wicked dark elves opening a spellspun door into a chamber in which the Buckleswashers battled contingents of Ambrose's guards. Attempting to "master" the knowledge coursing through her brain and soul, she shifted the portal, from the dark elves door to a nearby wall, fleeing with Harrold into her new gateway into the midst of the anarchy at the Steel Hands Warehouse. She joined the halflings in battling Ambrose's guards and summoned again her clay golem to guard the gateway.

Above, the reserve of Ambrose's mercenaries were thwarted in a counter-attack against the chaos inside by the arrival of a shadowed group of extremely skilled swordspersons who swiftly put them to route. The blazes begun by the flaming skulls had started to completely engulf the wooden roof of the structure as together, Kaine and Nikki finally beat down the resilient undead body of Carlysle. Wielding the power of his ancient blade, Kaine siphoned off the soul of the Dark Sun mohrg, sending it into the Ethereal Plane, causing the failure of his phylactery to retrieve it.

Downstairs, Penny and the Buckleswashers were battling a rising tide of flying spell-hurling drow guardsmen who burned the artificers clay servant into the ground before turning their attentions onto the softer targets. As the slaves fled into the sewer system along the route taken by Ambrose, Penny vented her rage upon the dark elves blasting them into the walls and the gate with telekinetic force. Kaine, calling upon his own dark heritage, brought the spellspun door's frame down upon itself with a burst of infernal strength, before the watching red eyes of a cruelly beautiful dark elven woman on the other side.

As the horns of the Watch sounded above and the warehouse's timbers caught full blaze, the Mystic Eyes, the Buckleswashers, and over a hundred human and halfling slaves fled through the sewer tunnels to the docks, to the waiting fishing trawler, the Sea Spray, captained by Joele Fairweather, a fisherman who owed Kaine and Syd a favor or three. They piloted the 'Spray down the coast, to the small village of Gull's Call near the banks of the Delimbiyr River where they unloaded both the grateful ex-slaves and the Buckleswashers. The smiling Swashbucklers gladly handed over the logbooks that had started the whole mess before departing.

Returning by morning to the city, the party discovered that the door of their office was blown outward, the work of the late Lathan Carlysle materializing from his phylactery, the unholy symbol of the Dark Sun which was left upon the desk in the front room. The wards had discharged and the symbol was missing. Setting Syd and Penny to repair the damage to the office, Kaine took Nikki back to the Jade Dancer where he had the logbooks copied by Cathalishaera and bid farewell to the entertainers. Then he set out to try and set things right with Mister Ambrose at his shop in Castle Ward.

At Valciennes' Finest Cuts on Soothsayer's Way, Kaine encountered neither Carmine Fortunato or Ambrose Valciennes, but their mutual boss, Elaith Craulnober, "the Serpent" of Waterdeep. The cultured moon elf extracted information about the disaster at the Steel Hands warehouse, delivering him the logbooks which told the tale of perfidy by the now vanished Carmine Fortunato and his associates. In return, Craulnober paid the balance of the bill in full using jewelry and gems taken from Valciennes (likely now his own) shop, as well as 10 gold pieces extra for the information and an offer of finding some work for him to do, should he wish. Politely deferring, Kaine hastened out of the shop with his and the Yondallan's money and declared the case closed.

Sesson XP: 5,320 each.

Steel Hands Warehouse - Upper Level

Crates From Mirabar

• (3) Hardened Mirabaran steel halberds (+25% ArP/-25% PhysRes) (salvage/resale - 5 sp each; 1500 cp total).
• Assorted daggers, small shields, maces, and military picks valued at 55 sp, 56 cp in resale or salvage.

Unlabed Crate

• A heavy but medium sized crate containing a large amount of shredded wood packing material and three small stone gargoyle-like statues. These are completed guardgoyle constructs blazoned on the bottom of their feet by the geared wheel of Gond. Guardgoyles are Rank I golems; Small creatures with the abilites of Poison, Shriek, and Alarm. They are valued at 1 gp each on the common market.
  • Poison: Guardgoyles have hollow fangs and an accessible poison reserve capable of holding 6 doses of any poison effective on contact or injury.
  • Shriek: A Guardgoyle can emit an ear-piercing shriek in a medium range cone. Any creature within the area is deafened (Fort ends) and takes light sonic damage.
  • Alarm: If an item or location guarded by a guardgoyle is disturbed in any way, the person who gave the creature its charge receives a mental alarm from the guardgoyle. The range of this ability is 1-mile. The master notes a single mental "ping" that awakens him from normal sleep but does not otherwise disturb concentration.

Long, Thin Ironbound Chest

• This reinforce iron strong-chest appears to be a blade-box, hidden in the foreman's office of the warehouse beneath a floorboard. The chest and lock are both of good quality and are worth 1 gp together. A silk-wrapped sword is cushioned in piles of shaved wood packing material.
  • Spellshatter Blade: This balanced (+10% parry/+10% haste) rapier of blue steel is inscribed with faint Thorassin runes of Art-grounding and spell-drinking. It has the property of spellshattering and spelldrinking.
    • Spellshatter:On strike, this blade can reduce any latent or granted magic resistance of any type by 10% for three rounds (stackable).
    • Spelldrinking:1/day, this weapon can drain a struck foe of one beneficial magical effect and transfer it to the weilder.

Small iron strongbox

This iron chest is about the size of a breadbox. The chest and lock are both of superior quality, valued together at 2 gp. This chest was found together with the blade-box in the hidden storage space in the foreman's office.

• 7 golden dragons, 5 silver trade bars valued at 10 silver apiece, and a pouch containing three Amnian currency pearls valued at 2 gp each.

• The blackened bones and ashes of the remains of Lathan Carlysle can be rendered by a skilled enchanter into 5 gp, 5 sp, 76 cp worth of enchantment materials and by a skilled alchemist into 4 gp, 8 sp, 92 cp of alchemical materials.

Steel Hands Warehouse - Lower Level

• (5) Drow-crafted spiked chains, each of them balanced (+10% Parry/+10% haste).
• (5) Drow-crafted silken vestments (flowing black and deep-violet robes marked with a network of fine silver thread spiderwebbing on the sleeves, in the center of each web is a small embossed spider trapped in a cut gem of amber). Each amber spider (5) is actually a ''Thief's Amber (+1 Dexterity and +1 Intelligence, +5 Haste).
• Collectively a pouch of shaped obsidian shards that appear to be a form of currency. The obsidian alone is worth 6.3 gp.
• A smooth-crafted silver ring embossed on the inside with flowing drow script. It is a ring of feather fall and bestows the reserve spell of the same name on its wearer constantly (2.2 gp).
• A thin golden ring set with a small emerald chip. This is a ring of poison detection'', the emerald will glow when in proximity to any poisonous creature or poisoned food, water, weaponry, etc.

Elaith's Payment

In addition to the balance of the money owed to the Hearth of Warm Hands (the Temple to Yondalla in the Warrens), there was a dividend of 22 gp worth of shaped jewelry (rings, necklaces, and hair coifs, etc.)

Also:

• (1) uncut talasite (G2)
• (2) uncut lapis lazuli (B2)
• (1) uncut azurite (A2)
• (2) uncut obsidian (B1)
• (1) uncut white pearl (W1)
• (1) uncut amethyst (V3)