Session Three - Waterdhavian Knights

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

With both Kaine and Nikki both still asleep and Syd on an errand to find the creator of the enchantment on the Symbol of the Dark Sun, Penny hopped onto her bicycle to see if she could find any leads on the builder of the grapple line they found in Ruid's Stroll earlier that morning. She took in the sights of the early fall morning as she made her way across the bustling city to the House of Inspired Hands in Sea Ward.

At the temple's South Gate, she identified herself to the Gondsman gate guardian and was allowed entry to the temple complex. She made her way across the courtyard to the Craftworks building and to the tinkering space assigned to Durpin Stonefire and Tellgor Cogswrench. She discovered the partners in the midst of an experiment designing air tanks for extended sheep dipping, a technology that Tellgor seemed to refuse to believe could actually be useful for more human-shaped clientèle. Durpin's examination of the marked grapple line was interrupted by Tellgor snatching the item away and hiding with it, eventually communicating his fear that Penny (or her boss) was going beat up a friend of his, Carthax Nayusiyim, the creator of the piece.

After promising not to hurt him, he finally wrote down Nayusiyim's address, 222 Nethpranter's Street, at the intersection with Quill Alley in Trades Ward. The trio were then interrupted by the appearance of Edwin Cormaeril, a minor noble's son and member of the Automationist movement. He presented Durpin and Tellgor with a writ explaining that their project was being de-funded and the workspace allocated for the Automationists expansion. After a few threats and bluster, and a well-placed foot by Penny, the sheep-dipping duo vowed to take the fight for their space all the way to the office of the High Seeker herself. While she was leaving the temple, Penny had a disconcerting encounter across the courtyard with the leader of the Automationists, Beltran Hobarth, known as the "Ironmind."

In the meanwhile, Nikki roused herself and headed out into the city to see if she could pick up any leads on the "pack of street urchins" who supposedly mugged Lathan Carlysle in Ruid's Stroll. To that end, she walked down to the Caravan Court in South Ward, the southern terminus of Ruid's Stroll. She ducked into a local shop, Bellmer's Protective Pavise, to avoid the stares of the local mercenaries-for-hire and asked about street children. The owner, Bellmer, was solicitous and sent her along to The House of Light, the guildhouse of the Guild of Chandlers & Lamplighters, informing her that many of the city's less fortunate children find straight and narrow work with the lamplighters.

Unsure whether this was a solid lead, she backtracked her steps to Asmagh's Alley in Castle Ward to check on her dead-drop beneath a marked paving stone here. She found a sheet of paper which explained, in Harper code, "Stay close to Kaine, protect yourself. Will investigate and contact you soon."

Purchasing some fresh flowers from a vendor on the High Road, she met up with Penny coming back from the temple of Gond and together they resolved to wake up Kaine.

Syd joined the two girls as they were waking up Kaine, in time to report that he had no real luck with discerning the enchantment on the Symbol of the Dark Sun since the enchantment had been dissolved. Kaine let them know that he had disenchanted the item in his quest for more knowledge about the Cyricists who may have created it, and together the agency headed south to find out more about this Carthax.

Along the way, Penny demonstrated her new boots equipped with extending hard wooden wheels allowing her to "skate" across non-cobbled surfaces. Her antics on Sammarin's Street near the City of the Dead drew the attention of a small crowd of picnic goers led by a handsome nobleman, Danilo Thann, who exchanged calling cards with her.

Eventually, the party arrived at "The Wonderful World of Tinkered Goods Custom Designed for the Common Person", the home and business of Carthax Nayusiyim. Inside, they exchanged words with an elderly near-sighted hard-of-hearing gnome who identified himself as Carthax the Elder. Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of, apparently, Elminster Aumar, the Sage of Shadowdale. The wary party interrogated the archwizard at some length before they noticed they were being spied upon. They had stumbled into the "Swashbucklers' Rest", the lair of The Steadfast Order of Shortfellow Swashbucklers adventuring company. "Elminster" was apparently their quarry, Carthax Nayusiyim, a talented illusionist forest gnome and a dead-ringer for a miniature Sage of Shadowdale.

Penny soon discovered that she recognized among their number the little girl that had sold her a flower brooch early yesterday morning. The Buckleswashers had apparently been tracking them through the brooch ever since they had met with Carmine Fortunato. The Buckleswashers, through their leader Bungobar Talltankard, admitted to killing Lathan Carlysle in Ruid's Stroll. They also admitted to having the books sought by Fortunato, as they were trying to use them to find out where a shipment of halfling and human slave were being held. The slaves had apparently been taken from a raid upon the Moonshaes and were being held somewhere in the city to await their sale.

The Mystic Eyes, having been swayed by the plight of the Small Folk, resolved to try to help them recover their kin with the least amount of repercussion falling on them or their own family and friends by way of their employer, Carmine Fortunato. As Syd and Penny studied the twin logbooks with Carthax and Lyratha Talltankard, Kaine set out for the Muleskull Tavern to see if he could make contact with a slaver ring. A few silver coins to the barkeep, "Ole Jessup", and passing some sort of magical test of "authenticity", got him in contact with a shadowy agent in the near deserted taproom. The gray-skinned agent informed him that they did have a "fresh" shipment of "long-term help" available for purchase, small, but highly skilled folk of pure heart and untainted virtue. The shipment of 32 was available for purchase in bulk at the rate of 85 golden danters, but the sale was dependent on a quick decision, as the shipment would be off the table after that night. Thanking the agent on behalf of his employer, "Mister Radoff", Kaine promised a quick decision on the purchase and took a circuitous route back to the Buckleswashers.

The other Eyes, in the meantime, had discerned several things. The first was that the two logbooks were identical except for a single key point. Once a month, a shipment of salted veal from Amn is logged in one book under "Spoilage", and in the other, doesn't appear at all. It appears that Mister Fortunato had his bookkeeper, Lathan, cooking the logbooks of this particular warehouse, perhaps in an effort to conceal the slaving activities from his own employer. Penny, working together with Bungobar and Syd, produced a solid piece of detective work in figuring out which warehouse in the city these books belonged to. They discovered Carlysle's meticulous record keeping of his routine lunch, written in shorthand, a curried halibut wrap which he spent 6 nibs on every day of work at the exact same time. The halflings, and Nikki, knew that the best curried halibut wrap in Dock Ward was served at The Hanged Man, for exactly 6 copper nibs. Going from there, Bungobar knew that there was a nearby warehouse, the Steel Hands Warehouse and Storage facility, whose secure and walled complex would be nearly perfect for holding prisoners without any witnesses.

Putting it all together, Kaine hatched a daring plan to liberate the halflings before they were sold into slavery and possible spare all their hides from retribution by Fortunato and his men. This planning was all interrupted by Penny rushing out the door to catch up with her date with watch officer Farrier...